Just 3 weeks til our new album is released in the U.S., and some exciting things are happening over here in Gato Loco land.

How Low Can You Go? Gato Loco De Bajo is getting some low-end love on a New York City institution. Jon Schaeffer’s “New Sounds” radio show, on WNYC, will be featuring some of our music. You can check it out HERE. We will now also be streaming the entire 2008 album, “Malditos Besos” for a limited time. We’ll be playing this saturday, May 28th, at our favorite spot in town, Barbes.

Farewell To Normal Scene — It’s official, our US album release party is being held on June 18th, at Littlefield. Joining us will be some of our favorite bands, New Beard, Yula & The Extended Family, plus many special guests, free food, the works. Check it out HERE.

Other festivals — we’ll be playing at 2 other great festivals in the New York region. The Music Frees All Festival, on June 2nd, and then a trip up-state for the 2nd annual Beacon Riverfest on June 25th. Join us for a day in the sun along the historic and beautiful Hudson River!!!

There are a few other special announcements, which we’ll be unveiling over the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned!

5-weeks to go to the album is officially out in the US. What a great week it’s been here in NYC. The spring weather is finally here after what’s seemed like the longest winter in recent memory.

We found a review of our show in Paris 2 months ago, that somehow we had skipped over. Getting unsolicited reviews and articles is an interesting experience — it’s always fascinating to see what other folks get out of our music, and this review was more of a surprise than usual! Extremely positive though it was, it went into depth about the relationship with Krazy Kat, the cartoon strip. Though it’s something of a distant inspiration, and a convoluted mascot at best, George Herriman’s art shares some rather deep similarities to our music and our ethos. I won’t get into those details right now, but perhaps soon I’ll share my extended thoughts on that.

On a similar note, our friend Daniel Gerstle over at HELO magazine is working on a full-on documentary on the band. It’s almost done, and Clifton, Joe & Stefan finished up one last round of interviews this morning. Very excited!

One of the real pleasures of living in New York is that pretty much every group throughout the world at some point comes through the city to perform/make a pilgrimage to what seems like the live capital of the world. This week was no exception, with Los Muñequitos de Matanzas performing 3 sold-out nights at Symphony Space. It had been a decade since this legendary cuban flame-bearing group of traditional rumbas and afro-cuban music had been here, and they brought every bit of deep, thick, complex afro-cuban performance that I was expecting. With only drums, vocals, and dancers, the performance was BIG — overwhelming the senses for a packed room of New Yorkers? WOW! The rhythms and vocal parts were miles deep, and combined with an almost 3-ring circus of graceful, forceful, and agressively beautiful dancing, was truly transcendental.

A few other notes — I recently discovered an incredible composer/arranger/clarinetist, Lucho Bermudez. Very interesting and beautiful arrangements and compositions. Definitely worth checking out. Also, Rich clued me in to a posting from one of the band’s favorite composers here in NYC, JG Thirlwell. Known for his compositions for the cartoon The Venture Brothers, as well as his long standing bands Foetus and Steroid Maximus, here is a GREAT collection of videos from his live show in Prospect Park last year. This was happening while we were in Bordeaux — otherwise we would have all been there at the show checking out this madness!

We’re doin’ a little countdown — I’ll be posting every tuesday, leading up to the US release of our new album, on Winter & Winter Records — June 14th. It’s being distributed by the lovely people at Allegro Music, out of Portland, OR. They’ve been very nice to deal with so far, and hopefully we can get some more thorough US touring underway this summer!

We’ve posted more links more concise links to videos from our recent show in Paris this last March.

This last week has been a busy one for the Gatos, in many contrasting and complimentary forms. Last friday, Jackie Coleman & Ric Becker premiered an excellent new group that they are co-leading. Playing all new compositions of theirs, the music was a cross-section of grooves, with strong horn melodies and stabs overtop and throughout. They’re still looking for a name for the band, so if you have any suggestions, let us know! Meanwhile, across town Joe Exley was playing at the 10-year anniversary for Anti-Social Music, a great new-music group that many of us Gatos have been involved with at various points in time. They fuse new-music classical styles with a sorta rough-and-tumble punk vibe. Always fun, and great folks.

The following night (saturday), Tin Pan played at a lovely new spot, The Way Station, out in the increasingly gentrified Prospect Heights. It’s a very nice new spot, loosely based on the Barbes aesthetic, and I look forward to playing there again. After the gig, Jesse and I raced back to manhattan to play a late-night set with Benjamin Ickies’ Ambitious Orchestra, an orchestra that plays rock music….. or a rock band that plays classical instruments? anyway, Stefan was playing English Horn, Clifton was playing French Horn, Joe was on tuba, and Kevin Garcia was on the drums….. it was a fun and DIFFERENT set of music, albeit even more crowded on the stage than usual.

And thanks to all the friends and fans that came out to our show Sunday night! After such a busy week for the band, it was refreshing and relaxing to play our music…. everyone was extremely comfortable and having a great time. a very special night! Thanks to Daniel Gerstle, of Helo Magazine, who videotaped the whole performance, so we look forward to seeing pieces of that online in the coming weeks. And of course, Jackie’s incredible band, The Chase Experiment, for opening up the evening. Always great to hear them!!!

One more great piece of news — if you’re in New York City, go to the Strand bookstore (on 13th street & Broadway). Back about 20 feet, next to the “sell your books” table, there is a beautiful set of Krazy Kat cartoons, that have recently been released. 4 books in the set, at a mere $8 a piece!!!!!! They comprise the complete full-color sunday supplements of the legendary cartoon, spanning from 1933-1944 (when Herriman passed away, and thus the strip ended). This is the first time that these beautiful strips have been made available in such a collection — the breath-takingly gorgeous coloring of Herriman was, alas, only awarded the full glory in 2 magazines (1 in Chicago, and 1 in NYC), and many of the original prints had been lost. Fortunately, an animation collector had painstakingly saved ALL of these cartoons in his collection, and they were able to compile them into this beautiful series. This is worth every penny. Highly recommended from all of us here at Gato Loco central.

Our friend Alex Lozupone, an avid music fan and documenter of the new york “scene” was at our last show at Rockwood Music Hall recently. He videotaped the performance and then posted a few of the videos. Thanks Alex!

It’s always great to see fan footage posted online — but then Alex sent me an email with a very exciting little nugget of youtube-ness. In the below links, start playing “Cat On The Town”. At exactly 45 seconds in, begin playing “Mourning of Ginger”. The 2 videos seamlessly interloc, Pink Floyd/Wizard Of Oz style. Pretty awesome!!!!

You have written truth,
you friends of the “shadows”,
yet be not harsh with “Krazy”
he is but a shadow himself,
caught in the web of The Mortal Skein.
We call him “Cat.”
We call him “Crazy”.
Yet is he neither.
At some time will he ride away to you,
people of the twilight.
His password will be the echoes of a vesper bell,
his coach, a Zephyr from the west.
Forgive him for you will understand him no better
than we who linger on this side of the pale.

-George Herriman, June 17th, 1917

Well, so much for a constant presence on the blog. We had very sporadic internet access once we actually hit the road. And the reality is, when I did have internet access, I was usually too exhausted, or didn’t have 5 minutes free, to actually sit down at a computer past filtering through dozens of emails.

But — what a RIDE! Our first night we performed in the gorgeous Bimhuis (pronounced “Bim House”). A gorgeous room that overlooked downtown Amsterdam with beautiful, large windows. The space was acoustically great, and was videotaped/broadcast by VPRO Jazz, throughout all of Holland. The show was preceded by the humorous Albert Van Veenendaal, who, backstage, told us of an amazing project he’s working on. Jazz Trio + Elephant. I hope he makes this group a reality, as I will DEFINTELY go see that show!!! He also played a very fascinating and beautiful set on prepared piano.

The next morning we were in a van by 9am, headed to Paris, desperate to make our 5pm sound-check. On paper, we were going to be fine, but I was terrified of the infamous Parisian traffic. Luckily, everything ran smoothly, and we made it to the club by 4pm, walking in to a flurry of opening-night Festival activity. We had met the director of Banlieues Bleues, Xavier, a year and a half previously, while doing a De Bajo gig at Tutuma Social Club, in NYC. He loved the group, and brought the 11-piece Coconino to his club in Paris last July — on the night of the final game of the World Cup. Low attendance at that gig was an understatement, but he loved the group so much that he brought us back for the gala opening-night of his late-winter festival — quite an honor!

Entering the beautiful L’Espace 1789, there was a huge film crew for Arte Live, a great PBS-type organization that broadcast our show through all of France & Germany. They were incredibly professional, nice, and easy to work with. It was the kind of film crew in which, during the show, you never really realized there were 3 guys with giant cameras wandering around the stage. Their job was to be ghost-like — to be invisible, while still capturing the live energy and on-stage joy — and WHAT a success! We’ll be posting videos from this show shortly.

Clifton and I also had a short but enjoyable interview before the show with French jazz radio entrepeneur Alex Dutilh. The show was incredibly fun, and afterwards we hung with alot of friends. Many of the folks we met down in Bordeaux last summer were there, and it was great to see them. We also saw some friends from NYC — Chad Parks, an early fan of the group who has recently relocated to Paris; our buddy Alex “Frenchie” Auffrey, who took the cover photo for the first Coconino album; and Saskia Gruyaert, who had filmed a bunch of our shows while she was living in NYC last year. It was also great to meet Nicolas Ragonneau and Djouls in person — thanks guys for all the help!

The next morning we bustled out of Paris at 10am. It was too bad not getting to spend ANY time properly in Paris — drive into town, sound check, run around dealing with details, play show, talk to friends and fans, go to sleep, wake up, jump in van. Oh well. Arriving in Rotterdam at around 4pm, we got to a beautiful building — the World Music & Dance Center. The show was certainly the wildest of the trip — everyone, from the downbeat, was dancing and flailing, and just having a great time. It was refreshing to see such an animated and engaging audience.

After the show, we hung out with the crowd for a few hours, meeting dozens of extraordinarily interesting and excited people. Clifton, ever the sniffer of the after-party, said he wanted to find “an after-hours bar that has great scotch, is open all night, and plays 70s funk on vinyl”. 20 minutes later we were deep in the heart of the Rotterdam underground, at a bar that was slinging really good scotches, blasting The Meters (on Vinyl), and was packed til 6am or so. At one point, (around 4:30am I think) an obscure instrumental Kool & The Gang track faded seamlessly into the bass&drums intro to “Mourning of Ginger”. It was truly a surreal experience, and it was great to hear the song in such a magical environment, with everyone in the bar dancing and swaying. It held it’s own, too, I must say, which was an extremely relieving experience! (side note: nobody in the band prompted this; someone who had been to our show slipped him the cd, unbeknownst to us). The album will have a Vinyl release soon, as well, and I can’t wait for all-vinyl DJs to start spinning it!

Travelling back to Amsterdam, we all craved one last good meal and a bout with our old friend, “Tangerine Dream”. The return home was fraught with the inevitable tuba crisis, when the British Airways baggage people wouldn’t let the cargo case on the airline without a $150 “overage” charge (despite the fact that we’d flown with that exact case on 6 previous BA flights). Their “policy manual” was outdated (2009), and they had no internet access anywhere (?!?!?!). When we tried to pay with cash, they couldn’t accept THAT, because it was “too dangerous” to have cash in the airport. Despite it being the safest place in the world, with armed guards and security EVERYWHERE. Other than that (and the food on the plane), the ride home was smooth and easy.

Well, it’s been longer than I intended since I last updated the blog. I want to thank EVERYONE that came out to the incredible CD release party at Joe’s Pub. We had a blast. For an idea of the night, there’s a lovely blog of the evening.

I’m sitting here in a hotel room in Amsterdam, officially on Day 2 of our 2nd European tour. Day 1 went very smoothly. This can be stressful and sometimes disastrous when travelling with alot of musicians and their instruments. But everyone loaded their horns and cymbals into the overheads just fine…. and the Tuba, for the first time in Gato Loco touring history, made it to its final destination on the flight that it was intended to do so. (I know…. lose a giant tuba flight-case en route? it’s happened to us MULTIPLE times!)

Once in our hotel, we were faced with the uncomfortable situation of jet-lagged musicians. It was 8am, (2am NYC time). We decided to wander the streets looking for a good, big, hot breakfast. We wound up wandering through old Amsterdam for nearly 5 hours. We never found that mythical breakfast.

Amsterdam is a beautiful old town. The inner city is laid out along waterway canals, and the old buildings (many of them are 400 years old or more!) are elegant and tilting. Throughout the day, everyone splintered off into sections, some taking naps to combat the jet lag, others wandering through the city aimlessly til late at night. 4 of us went to the Concertgebouw, one of the most famous concert halls in the world. We heard a favorite of mine, Charles Ives’ “The Uanswered Question”, followed by a beautifully orchestrated piece by Hanz Werner Henze, that really showed off both the orchestra and the magestry of a good-sounding room. Every note, every attack, was perfectly blended, sonicly distinct, and round. It was a real pleasure.

At the Concertgebow, Amsterdam

We are extremely excited for tonight’s performance. The Bimhuis is a GORGEOUS room, and we look forward to making full use of the space. The event will also be recorded and broadcast on VPRO Jazz, and it will be streamed live, as well as being archived on the website for a month or so. Our set will include music from both our first disc, “Coconino”, and our newest album out on Winter & Winter records, self-titled “Gato Loco”.

The other night I went to a pannel discussion/opening at the Solomon Contemporary, for a new show, “112 Greene Street : A Nexus of Ideas”. The show was put up in response to a competing exhibition revolving around the same concept, at the David Zwirner gallery, just down the street.

These 2 shows are focused around a building, located at 112 green street, that, in the early 70s, functioned as an artist-curated performance and art gallery/space/building, that fueled an incredible degree of freedom and experimentation. The space is now famous for the long list of figures that involved themselves within these walls, including Gordon Matta-Clarke, Richard Serra, Richard Nonas, Tina Girouard, Dickie Landry, Dennis Oppenheim, Suzanne Harris, Laurie Anderson, and hundreds of others.

The event began with saxophonist/photographer Dickie Landry entering the packed room from the outside hallway, playing his solo saxophone in a dramatic fashion, almost as a prayer among friends. The room was filled with aging artists, 60 and above, most of whom were active participants in its hayday, and a smattering of younger folks excited to get a glimpse of its historical energy and excitement.

The discussion was led by Alana Heiss,, with 8 or so of the artists sitting on a sculpture-stairway, along with a video monitor of the hilarious co-founder Jeffrey Lew while on Skype from Florida (who was smoking a joint throughout the entire discussion).

The discussion was extremely lively, with no sense of the occasional nostalgia/remember-the-good-old-days that these events can sometimes turn into. It was filled more with entertaining stories, and quite a bit of simply trying to remember events, and putting the pieces together.

What was most striking about the memories of the NYC art world 40 years ago (!!!) was the local, small-town environment of it all. Allana drew a map on a piece of paper, with the lofts of where everyone involved in the space lived. It was a tiny neighborhood of artists that functioned under the age-old boundaries for a village — anywhere you could hear the church bell.

The city is no longer able to support young artists in that kind of organically communal way — we are spread out across the entire city, from washington heights to alphabet city to park slope to bushwick to greenpoint to astoria — and beyond. Within each of these neighborhoods, there IS a sense of communal creativity, and local energy…. but all artists must now traverse hour-long commutes regularly. The good side of this is that, despite the increasingly inhospitable financial burdens of the city, it has not squelched the city’s newest crop of young creative minds…. it has merely given them new obstacles to surmount.

The other night I went to the cd release party for Zongo Junction, the newest in a slew of young afrobeat bands. Their friends Ikebe Shakedown opened for them, and both bands sounded excellent, getting people up and dancing in no time. The horn sections were powerful, stacked deep with solid soloists, nice arrangements, and a focused, unified voices emerging from the large horn frontline. And both bands were backed by equally unified rhythm sections, creating their hocketed beats in a fun and natural vibe.

It occurred to me how often you see new large ensembles in New York City these days — it seems every day, a new group of 9 or more musicians is popping up (Gato Loco not excluded!) I was speaking with my friend Ron Anderson the other day, a great musician who has been slugging it out in the city since the 80s, and he mentioned that there are more great musicians in the city since….. well, perhaps ever.

And they all want gigs.

So, despite worsening financial odds, but out of an abundance of overqualified musicians, large ensembles with great players are put together — because all these musicians want to PLAY! And who can blame them? In the old days of big-bands, musicians would learn and thrive, blending and shaping a unified sound amongst 15 or 20 of their peers. It’s a powerful effect, both for the musician and the audience.

Last night we played a really fun show at the Bowery Poetry Club. We shared the stage, for the second time, with up-and-coming afro-beat band EMEFE. The first time we played with them, I wasn’t able to catch their set. But this time I was there the whole time.

I often question the “recent” Afro-Beat revival. I can’t help but link it to the revivalist fads of Ska and Big-band swing in the 90s — nothing more than a passing fad, rekindling a nostalgic vibe from a long-gone era. One of my band-mates walked in the room, turned to me, saying, “Whoah! I feel like I’m back at No Moore, circa 1999!” And then it hit me. This “fad” has been a constant presence among young, serious New York City musicians for well over a decade now.

EMEFE is one of the newest groups to bust on the scene. Led by a young drummer, Miles Arntzen, the group had some really nice arrangements and tunes, and great energy and joy emanated from the stage. It definitely brought me back to the days at No Moore and Wetlands, when it felt like such a new and strange thing to witness in Giuliani-era New York City. But the scene has come a long way since then. The younger generation, having been exposed to so many of these groups over the last decade, is much more mature and sophisticated. Afro-Beat does not mean replicating Fela’s music to a tee. Instead they were able to bring their own flavor, sound, and ideas to a music that is now a genre less tied to its founder, and more to a sound that welcomes ingenuity and personality. And they were having FUN doing it, too.

check them out, http://emefe.bandcamp.com/