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Rocky Ponds & Rough Waters

September 5, 2011 – 11:05 pm

We couldn’t be more excited about this!

KB and I lived in the same dorm hall at UMBC and he introduced himself after hearing I was a Matt Pond PA fan. Shortly into the semester I started playing with Patty our Cellist, and eventually we added KB on bass. Basically we’ve been waiting to play this show since we started making music together…almost 8 YEARS AGO!

We’ve seen members come and go, and have had the pleasure to share the stage and studio with other friends. Our latest line-up has been the tightest and one of the most enjoyable ensembles we’ve had, combining musicians from an assortment of genres and backgrounds. So it goes, over time some musicians yearn to fill a creative hole that projects they’re currently involved with just aren’t filling. Our good friend and talented drummer, Austin Stahl has been writing and recording his own music for almost a decade and wants to focus more energy on that.

It is a bittersweet goodbye for us. Austin has been an integral part of the band for almost 2 years now, making our older songs sound great, and our new songs sound even better. All of us also love Austin’s solo work, so the idea of him working on new material is something the band eagerly awaits. Needless to say, finding someone to fill his rather large shoes will be no easy task. So the show at the Ottobar September 21st will be even more special, this will be Austin’s last show with us, as well as our last show for a while, as we take time to regroup.

 
 
 
 
 
 

If there could be anymore reason to attend this show, both Matt Pond & Rocky Votolato have solo releases as well as a joint 7 inch that you should check out, and get yourself ready for a night of incredible music.

Don’t forget to RSVP:
MATT POND PA, ROCKY VOTOLATO & A CAT CALLED CRICKET at the Ottobar – 9/21/11

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Before Summer Ends

August 10, 2011 – 8:36 am

We don’t mean to be a bummer, but it’s true! Summer is close to being done. So before it’s time to be back to the grind, back to school, or back to whatever keeps you from enjoying the season, come out for our last couple shows of the summer!

August 20th at The Golden West Cafe, we’ve got a kind of reunion show going on. Many years ago, before Austin was in the band, and before Amy came and went, we played a show with our collective bands; Private Eleanor and InEveryRoom. We also had the pleasure of sharing that wonderful night with Homemade Knives from Richmond Virginia. So, on the night of the 20th we shall have Amy performing her solo project Awkward Read, Alex performing with Patty & Andrew Histand on Cellos, and Homemade Knives bring their haunting indie-folk back to Baltimore, with fellow Richmonder Jonathan Vassar also performing. A really great night of music you won’t want to miss! RSVP HERE.

We had a blast at last year’s BiMA Fest. The only problem was we opened first among half a dozen incredibly awesome bands, and everyone showed up after we’d already played. So we asked the organizers if we could play later…so now we’re playing last among half a dozen incredibly awesome bands. Be careful what you wish for!?! Anyways we are excited to be a part of the Baltimore Independent Music & Arts Festival. We’re playing at Cyclops Books on the corner of Maryland & North Ave, basically in the center of the whole festival. You can waste your money paying individual cover charges at all the venues participating, or you can play it smart and buy either a VIP All Access Pass, or 1-Day All Access Passes, depending on how awesome and engulfed by the festival you want to be!

I know there are going to be some killer performances going on all week, including our friends E. Joseph, Mittenfields, The Bellevederes, Bobby E. Lee & The Sympathizers, Forks of Ivy, Gary B. & The Notions, June Star, The Matrimonials, Red Sammy, Victoria Vox and soooo much more!

We might also be unveiling our first You Inspire Us-cover song at the BiMA Fest show. If you’re not familiar, this is a concept we just started. We ask our friends and fans to send us ideas for a song they’d like to hear us cover. We pick one each month, record it with a little Cricket twist and share with you guys. So come out August 26th to Cyclops Books, possibly catch our new cover, and send us your idea for a future song!

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You Inspire Us

July 1, 2011 – 9:54 am

It’s been a busy summer. Austin left over a week ago for tour with his other band Small Sur, I’ve been playing a lot of solo shows as well as some shows with good friends Dan Cohan (of The Water & The Manly Deeds) and Andrew Histand (of We Used To Be Family). You might remember them from our Mobtown Microshow, and they both helped us out with our CD release show last year. On top of all that, I just moved and it’s been a quite a task unpacking and getting settled in.

Yesterday day marked the last of the unpacking for me! I have the entire basement (except for the space the washer & dryer take up) of our town house, as musical space! That means writing, playing, practicing and of course….recording space!!! To test out the space, make sure all my home recording stuff is working properly, and to have some fun, I would like you guys to help inspire us! EMAIL US a song you’d like us to cover and record. Each month we’ll pick our favorite, try and put our own little spin on it, and post it for you and everyone to enjoy!

So, send us an email including:
Artist:
Album: (it can be off an EP or single)
Song Title:
Your Name:
City you currently live in:
What this song means to you:
Your Favorite A Cat Called Cricket Song:

We look forward to your inspiration, and getting in the recording mood!

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Shows, Shows Everywhere!

May 17, 2011 – 12:51 pm

Summer is sneaking up on us, and we’ve got a lot of excellent shows lined up already. First off, we’ve got a killer line up at the Metro Gallery May 28th.

We’re really excited about this show, because joining us are our friends in House & Home, and The Herd of Main Street. Also, the incredible indie-folk 3 piece from New York, The End of America will be rounding out the bill.

June 5th we will be participating in the first ever Sweet Tea Pumpkin Pie Music Festival, which originally started off as a website kick off party for the new music site Sweet Tea Pumpkin Pie, is now a 2 day festival at 5 venues with almost 150 bands playing! Check out this Facebook Event for set times and details!

Alex also has a few solo shows coming up, playing a benefit for the Iraqi Student Project. They are a Baltimore-based nonprofit organization whose goal is to bring qualified war-displaced Iraqis to study without cost at U.S. colleges and universities so they can return and help rebuild Iraq. Last but definitely not least, Alex was asked by local songwriter Adam Trice to play his band Red Sammy‘s CD release show. Adam has organized a very cool kind of round robin performance night, featuring local writers reading passages, and local songwriters playing their versions of “A Cheaper Kind of Love Song” (the title of Red Sammy’s new record!). The show is June 12th at Metro Gallery, get your tickets HERE.

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Spring Into Action

February 25, 2011 – 9:52 pm

We’ve been laying a little dormant this winter. We had some shows fall through, which was unfortunate, but it kept us practicing. Our show in Philly last week felt really good. We had a lot of fun, messed with a couple of new & old songs to kind of give them some new life.

We are excited to take these upbeat versions to the streets, and we’ve got some exciting shows coming up, some full band and some more stripped down. Our first local show of the year will be at the Hexagon March 10th with Minimus the Poet, The Sneaks & Kill You In The Face.

Minimus the Poet bring a great blend of pop and folk and one of my favorite things about them is watching frontman Aaron Wold play guitar and theremin at the same time…that’s right, the SAME TIME! The Sneaks are two guys one doing bass and vocals, and the other messes with drum machines and other effects; really fun electro-pop stuff. Philly band, Kill You In The Face are a super tight pop-rock outfit, who will be bringing their energetic style of indie to the Hexagon stage.

The next day on March 11th, I will be performing solo at UMBC’s Flat Tuesdays stage in the Commons. I believe it’s a free show, but check out the website for more details. I’ll be performing another stripped down show March 25th at The Light Gallery in Baltimore, with Vince Scheuerman of Army of Me & River James, and Mihaly from Provo Utah. This space looks really cool, and all the artists sound really awesome. Check out the Facebook Event for more details.

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Philly Rocks!

February 20, 2011 – 6:41 pm

We had a killer time in Philly Friday night! Our good friend Josh Craft launched his website for Cloud Entertainment and had us up to celebrate. Cloud Entertainment is Josh’s booking and promotions agency that he runs to help bands in the Philadelphia area put together and promote great music. We played the Millcreek Tavern, this huge bar/restaurant with a few different levels and bars, a nice sized stage with lights, subs and sound guy!!!

Josh put together a great lineup including his latest project, Best Westerns, as well as the Josh & Pete Band, and one of our favorite Philly bands Lion Versus! Lion Versus has finished up a new EP, and will be releasing it this April. Check out their website for a taste of their new album!

Old friend Blake Larson, who is a recent transfer from Baltimore, came out to the show and snapped some awesome photos of us. We had a rocking good time, and Blake totally captured all the fun we were having. Check out his website, and if you are a band, artist or someone in need of some head-shots or whatever, I say you hit him up; he’s a good dude, with a great talent!

We’ve got some great shows coming up this year, and we’re working on a lot of new songs to record this year. We like to try them out at shows, so be sure to come out and catch some new tunes.

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2640 Space

December 10, 2010 – 6:36 pm

It wasn’t too long ago we released our new EP When Leaves Fall, and had our release party at the beautiful 2640 Space in Charles Village, Baltimore. We had an amazing time sharing the stage with locals Silent Whys and our new friends from New Jersey Communipaw, and enough can’t be said about the spectacular performances by Dan Cohan of The Water, and Ruby Fulton & Andrew Histand from We Used To Be Family that really made the night special. You should really check out all of these incredibly talented artists and acts.

For those of you who couldn’t make it to the release party, you can pick up a copy of the new EP at our newly created Bandcamp site, where you can sample the music, download high quality audio files, or request a hard copy. Also be sure to check out some of the amazing photos from the release show that our friend Al Heishman took. He really did a great job of capturing the beautiful surroundings of the old church.

Andrew Sargus Klein of local online publication Splice Today came out to both the Microshow and Release Party, and really captured the spirit of both events and our music in an extremely nice review.

A Cat Called Cricket evokes that wonderful sense of small-timore, of a community of people happy to experience art and music together day after day, show after show. The band’s set ended as it began: a pocket of harmony, if not groove, an emotive crescendo with stringed instruments and a whispered landing.

Read the full review HERE.

Thanks to everyone that came out, played and helped put the show together, and thanks to everyone who listens and supports what we do. There’s no point in playing if you’re not listening!

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Microshow

October 27, 2010 – 1:33 am

I feel like we might be spoiling you guys (like a kid with separated parents who gets 2 Christmases) with all the new music and recordings we’ve been making available this past month! We’ve got even more presents for you; our recordings from the Mobtown Studios’ Microshow.

Mobtown has made the entire show available to download for free! Go to their Microshows Page, check out our performance and some of the other great shows put on by some of Baltimore’s finest. Also check out some great photos taken by Baltimore’s photographer-around-town Tedd Henn.

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When Leaves Fall

October 21, 2010 – 2:25 pm

“The road seems much longer, and more winding than I remember”

…a verse from our new EP sums up the whole experience pretty well for us. The time, energy and emotion that has gone into writing, recording and releasing these songs has been quite a journey. We’re thrilled to finally have something to share with you all!

We’ll have these available at all of our shows. For those who can’t make it out to see us, you can easily pop on over to the Beechfields Record Label website and pick one up. We are also including a free download with 5 other songs we recorded while working on this EP. You can hear some favorite songs of ours and a remix of When Leaves Fall, by our good friend Thomas Hallett!

Stay tuned, we’ve got more to come! Including our Interview at WGMU, more pictures and recordings from our Mobtown Microshow, and from our CD release show at 2640.

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The Biggest Little Microshow

October 19, 2010 – 9:55 am

Mobtown Studios has become like a home away from home for some of us. Mat & Emily have built a super efficient, flexible and cozy environment over there and their involvement with the Baltimore music scene has really been great. A perfect example is the Microshow series they’ve been running for almost 2 years now. We were so excited when they asked us to take part in October’s Microshow. Usually when a band enters Mobtown they strip things down a lot to fit the smaller intimate environment of the studio, but we decided to strip it down, and build things up in an epic fashion.

We asked our friends Ruby Fulton & Andrew Histand from local instrumental-rock band We Used to be Family, as well as Dan Cohan from Baltimore’s favorite folk buskers The Manly Deeds and rock-duo The Water to join us on a few songs. When we first started setting up, it seemed like a spatial nightmare; rarely does Mobtown see 7 musicians in their live room during normal business hours, add 20 or so audience members and the word intimate starts to seem like an understatement. But once we started playing, all the issues of comfortability went right out the window!

The beautiful sounds of bowed instruments, plucked strings and tapped percussion bounced off the close walls and filled us all with a warm and upbeat feeling. It took us back to our early days of playing friends’ and strangers’ houses; the excitement and nervousness of playing to a small handful of listeners sitting right in front of you.

It was really a treat for us and we hope that the new arrangements and line up were a treat for those who joined us. Enjoy some photos taken by the ever-talented Emily Cartlidge and stay tuned for the recordings from the Microshow that should be available for free soon!

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