Back in NYC since yesterday night. I’d like to talk a little bit about my time away in England and Germany, especially about the Heavenly gig… but I think that will have to happen next week. I’m unpacking and fixing the apartment today. And I’m a bit tired too. But I still wanted to get the blog updated…
Not as old as many bands I feature, but already more than 10 years old. The Massachusetts project Caténine was a nice surprise to me when they appeared.
This solo project by Dylan Connor sounded great. It was clearly influenced by The Field Mice, The Wake and New Order and released a bunch of songs between 2012 and 2014. These days he has another project called Deep Water.
Caténine would have fit nicely in my label I think. The music was ace. I discovered them thanks to the split 7″ with Funeral Advantage that Disposable America (DA007) released in 2013.
The 7″ was released in 2 colors, “milk” and “lavender”. 100 copies for each color. Each band contributed two songs. Caténine on the A side had “You Never Remember” and “Adoration” while Funeral Advantage from Boston had “A Large Place” and “Weightless”. The songs were mastered by Matt Roy and the art and layout was created by Marcus Guttenplan.
There was a cassette version of this tape, 51 copies I believe, where each band had a third song. Cat´énine had “I Don’t Want to Get Over You”, a cover of The Magnetic Fields while Funeral Advantage covered “Don’t Worry Baby” by The Beach Boys.
Before this release, in 2012, the band had released a self-titled EP on Don’t Go Outside (DGO-001) which I think was their own label. This was a cassette only release that had the same songs on the A and B side. These songs were “Wonder”, “Let Me In”, “Felt”, “In the Village” and “Disintegrate”. On “In the Village” the bass was played by Brian Bartus from Monde UFO. 100 copies were made of this tape. Mastered by Matt Roy.
In 2013 Caténine contributed the song “In Your Ruin” to February Records as a digital single. This song was recorded at The Dye House in Indian Orchard, Massachusetts. The drums were played by Casey Parson and were recorded and mixed with the assistance of John Panagotopulos.
There’s one more song by the band. That was “I Thought You Were”. This was included in the digital compilation “And Flowers and Bees” released by Disposable America in 2014. The song was recorded again in Indian Orchard and was mixed by Matt Roy. The additional vocals were by Brian McKenna.
The good news here is that you can listen to all the songs, but The Magnetic Fields cover, on Bandcamp. Also there’s a Soundcloud.
I look for more info and I find some interviews with Dylan. When asked where does the bands name comes from he says that it comes from the flower name “cat o’nine tails” but he didn’t like how that looked so he made it Caténine.
It seems after the demise of Caténine he moved to Los Angeles. But then he returned to New England. Upon his return is that he started Deep Water.
And that’s all I could find really. A great sounding band but for some reason it didn’t get the amount of attention it deserved. But as you know, it is never too late to discover great music!
I do have questions though… if Caténine played live much? If he did, did he have a live band? Was there any other releases planned? Are there more songs? Would be great to find out.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
