The Cat Alley

The Cat Empire does Rove

In case you missed, No Longer There debuted at number 12 this week on the ARIA charts. The boys also played Rove last Sunday... here's the clip of their performance...

No Longer There

I know you’d like to hear a song
Cause everything’s alright
The temperature is warm
The fire horses sleep
So gently comes a night
You close your eyes and stare
The ground they’re on is bare
But once it was as deep
As wildest giants dreams
It’s no longer there
And all of our desires
They mirror skies with flames
And smoke out heaven’s halls
And who was that you called
They're no longer there

Here it goes again
Here it goes again
Here it goes again

What would you leave behind when all your fields are dead?
When your territories are dried out and your cities drowned and swept
What would you leave behind when those who bear your name are born in that place that you wrecked?
What would you leave behind when you're no longer there?

Would you sail to distant shores?
And hide within the hills
And softly close your doors
Pretend the world is safe
Wait for heaven’s call
Or would you turn and face the seas
And come beside your cave
There’s chance but if you dare
The swiftest on his steeds
Before it’s no longer there

Here it goes again
Here it goes agaaain
Here it goes aga-ain!

What would you leave behind when all your fields are dead?
When your territories are dried out and your cities drowned and swept
What would you leave behind when those who bear your name are born in that place that you wrecked?
What would you leave behind when you're no longer there?

To now to respect
It’s really just the same
Everything between
It means we have to change
‘Cause well I won’t forget
The world begins to fade
And all the shapes and shades
That made the colours seem
When it suddenly turned grey
That they're no longer there

Side to Side

We got soul
Soul soul soul tonight
We got soul
Shake and we provide
1,2,3,4
So step from side to side now
Honey’s move your hips from left to right now
Fellas got to get loose to keep it tight now
Well alright well alright

We got soul
Soul soul soul tonight now
We got soul
Shake and we provide
1,2,3,4
So step from side to side now
Honey’s move your hips from left to right now
Fellas got to get loose to keep it tight now
Oh alright now

We got soul
Soul soul soul tonight
We got soul
Shake and we provide

So step from side to side now
Honey’s move your hips from left to right
Fellas got to get loose to keep it tight
Well alright well alright well alright

Motion

Set in motion my imagination’s miles
A million lights expose those magic cities on the Nile and my
Young trials lead me sailing down this stream
Of hidden songs and steam and my
- Piano it floats and echoes
A moonbeam through the kite she sent
Read ‘Is your wooden boat in sight?’
And while I replied ‘it’s not’
It was in fact not far from right outside
I would surprise her wake her up and rise her
Go swimming in the night’s horizon then dry her
Offer the familiar passage of my outstretched hand

‘Say when you staying home’ she said
‘Why not come on my boat instead?’
‘Cos I’m tired of all your currents and your tides
Your moods creating whirlpools
And you’re in love with the ride and I
Want - some - peace and quiet!’

So we fought a while caught our breath a while
I told her how the purple flowers glow along the river side
She told me all she wanted was me home with some time
I showed her how the sky was only water inclined
I told her all about the huts the kind of music we played
She reminded me that ‘Flashes pass a house is well made’
I told her about the spot where all the ocean’s collide
She said that ‘You could have that with me every night’ and so
Set in motion my imagination’s miles
A million lights expose those magic cities on the Nile and my
Young trials leads me sailing down this stream of hidden songs and steam and my
- Piano it floats and echoes

‘So when you coming home’ she said
‘Why not come on my boat instead?’
‘Cos I’m tired of all your currents and your tides
Your moods creating whirlpools
And you’re in love with the ride and I

Waltz

Was going to write a song at a time
When my life and my moods were in order and fine
But the hour was late and my room was a state
And I realized that song I would never create
And so this is a song I discovered instead
The song about living before we are dead
And by living I don’t mean perfection like gold
Cos living my friends is the sweet unresolved

LA LA LA LA LA LA LA
LEAN OVER YOUR BALCONIES AND DON’T RUN INSIDE
LOOK AFTER YOUR WORLD AND SHE MIGHT TREAT YOU RIGHT
LET RANDOM-THINGS-PROVIDE-IMAGINATION SOMETIMES OH

I’ve seen people trying to package their love
Like a dove in the kitchen with a note that says
Make sure you scrub well and plan and prepare everything
Affection as clean as a triangle ting
But love it or not love’s as mad as they come
Oh it’s sly and it’s wise and it’s wonderfully dumb
And while some might still say ‘No it’s pure like one’
My love it is wild and not mild and on the run

An Austrian waltz is a very strange thing
When it’s played in the midst of the Melbourne music boxing ring
And who said that culture can’t grow from a whim
My god there is strength when a cat learns to swim
‘And what is a king’ he screamed at the wind
A king is decisive without and within
They can’t make me stumble they don’t hit my chin
They told me I mumbled so I decided to sing

I’d never be too old or bitter and thin
Was born with a smile and I’d die with a grin
And I dive in the ocean when the sky tumbles in
And I’d rise when I find a way to make her shining
And I know the trick that the gods love to play
You say you want one thing they take it away
But action I’ve found is a seven letter word
Pretend you want a shoebox
And find you’ve found the world

Luck Song

So by now you have seen me
By now I have seen you
Would you would you would you
Move with me

Looked through a looking glass
and what did I see?
I saw one thousand cameras shooting
and a giant TV
and a mass of people sitting watching
watching that big screen
when around them was a fire burning
that they couldn’t see
they couldn’t breathe but kept watching
and thought things they would be fine
believed that the screen
would be screening for all of time
conceived the idea they were
behind the screen divine
but when it came to living
were what petrol is to wine

Hear through some speakers sounding
what did I hear?
I hear some plastic singer singing
plastic lyrics in my ear
and a mass of empty hands clapping
with an empty cheer
when in the distance was some soul music
that they couldn’t hear
neared the speaker with the plastic song
and tried their best to move
cleared a floor and tried to shake it
but they couldn’t find their groove
they feared to recognise that what they heard
was music abused
and when it came to dancing
their bodies refuse

So by now you have seen me
By now I have seen you
Would you would you would you
Move with me

Know Your Name

Know your name
And sing it loud
Know your na-a-a-a-ame
Though I’m saying this again
Know your name
And sing it loud

Though I listen when you talk to me
Your eyes, they seem cold
And I wish I might remind you of the time
When they held the sky
On and on the song seems to find you alone

When it rains
I hear that sound
When it ra-a-a-a-ains
All that pain
Washing down
When it rains
I hear that sound

Though I listen when you talk to me
Your eyes, they seem cold
And I wish I might remind you of the time
When they held the sky
Why’d your spirit cry? My oh my
You should have seen you in your prime.

Down at the 303

I want some culture
Never mind the cheese
Just want to hear music
And originality

I want some culture
Never mind the TV
Just want to hear music
Down at the 303

This is a rhyme about how good music can be
How mean are its bass lines its melodies and beats
Now it’s good to have positivity
But you also must be able to crush adversaries because
We have terrorists in the music industry
Yes terrorists trying to define what music be
We are modern medicine men - cure all ills with ill beats
But some people are making music sick
And stealing all the chi
You know who you are and yes judge not lest ye
Be judged I agree in front of my plasma screen but
While you’re making a concert of convicts who
Stumbled through the contest I’m taking the
Concept of convex and putting it in a concave context
And if you were Rocksteady, Bebop and Shredder
I’d be Krang… doing that evil shit better
Music is for living yes music is essential
Music should take risks and be experimental

Anymore

I would not tell you how I feel
Anymore because I’ve seen
How men find offence in reason
I save my heart for my family
My soul for work
My mind in moving
Through the world

Although my young ideal is gone
My embrace not so blind
And my trust is never certain
I try to find what’s among us
Not to unite but to realise that
To waste’s defeat

And when uncertainty reveals
When the consequences ark
And the act seems in the balance
Music is born from an instinct
And that is my truth
In the moment that I
Need it most

No Longer There

First single from "So Many Nights". Available September 10th, 2007.

Cover Art

Tracklisting

1. No Longer There (Radio Edit)
2. Africa Luck Song
3. Won't Be Afraid
4. No Longer There (Andy Bionic and Norman Pow! Remix)

So Many Nights

Their 3rd official album released September 22nd 2007.

Cover Art

Tracklisting

1. SO MANY NIGHTS
2. PANAMA
3. FISHIES
4. THE DARKNESS
5. NO LONGER THERE
6. LONELY MOON
7. SUNNY MOON
8. SO LONG
9. NO MOUNTAIN
10. STRONG COFFEE
11. TIL THE OCEAN TAKES US ALL
12. VOODOO COWBOY
13. RADIO SONG
14. WON'T BE AFRAID

Bonus iTunes track is 'Rhyme and Reason' from earlier album, 'The Sun'.

Thanks to Mike K for the tracklisting.

Thanks to Zazzy for bonus track information.

Cities: The Cat Empire Project

A limited release album in April 2006.

Cover Art

Tracklisting

1. Cities– 3:23
2. Boogaloo – 3:30
3. Siente – 2:43
4. Motion – 3:43
5. Song for the Day– 3:47
6. Know Your Name – 3:21
7. Song for Elias – 4:32
8. Jungle (instrumental) – 2:12
9. Down at the 303 – 2:40
10. Side to Side – 3:53
11. Waltz – 4:24
12. Luck Song – 3:30
13. Anymore – 3:52
14. Miss Soul - 4:35 (iTunes only)

Prince of Wales, Melbourne, VIC

Prince of Wales, Melbourne, VIC

Discussion on this gig can be viewed here.

Set List included:

FISHIES
THE DARKNESS
RADIO SONG
SO MANY NIGHTS
NO LONGER THERE
TILL THE OCEAN TAKES US ALL

CAR SONG
SLY
POCKET
TWO SHOES

HOW TO EXPLAIN?
THE RHYTHM
CHARIOT
HELLO
WINE SONG
THE CROWD
ALA WALLEE

Prince of Wales, Melbourne, VIC