Vivian Wang*
If you grew up wherever throughout the New York TV viewing radius within the Eighties, you most likely keep in mind the commercials promoting the Poconos’ “beautiful Mount Airy Lodge.” Fantastic Cat positive do.
The band’s new video for “All My Fault” is wealthy in shameless cheese — and gloriously enjoyable. Structured round a video-dating-for-singles conceit in Pennsylvania’s mountain playground, the clip casts all 4 members of Fantastic Cat — Anthony D’Amato, Don DiLego, Brian Dunne, and Mike Montali — as hapless dudes on the lookout for a connection. It doesn’t go properly.
But that’s what makes the band of songwriters, lead singers, and multi-instrumentalists such a breath of contemporary air. While they take their music critically, every thing else is an ego balloon able to be popped. Even how they announce their new album, Now That’s What I Call Fantastic Cat, is honest recreation. In an off-kilter press launch, they describe themselves as such: “Think CSNY if none of them were famous, or The Traveling Wilburys if none of them were famous, or the Eagles if they really didn’t get along.” Hey, if the cat masks matches…
While the band’s final album, The Very Best of Fantastic Cat, was primarily a set of solo songs written and recorded by every member, Now That’s What I Call Fantastic Cat is a bunch effort. Last summer season, the musicians decamped to DiLego’s Velvet Elk Studio — within the Poconos — to write down and report 11 new tracks. First launch “All My Fault,” with shades of the Clash’s “Train in Vain,” is a blast of power-pop jangle.
Now That’s What I Call Fantastic Cat will likely be launched June 7 on Missing Piece Records. The band will hit the highway for headlining dates and in assist of Low Cut Connie, beginning March 28 in Denver.
Fantastic Cat Tour Dates:
March 28 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater *
March 30 – Boise, ID @ Treefort Music Hall *
April 1 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The State Room *
April 3 – Prosser, WA @ Brewminatti ^
April 4 – Seattle, WA @ Tractor Tavern *
April 5 – White Rock, BC @ Blue Frog Studios ^
April 6 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom *
April 7 – Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theater *
April 10 – Livermore, CA @ Almost Famous ^
April 11 – Healdsburg, CA @ Little Saint *
April 13 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore *
April 14 – Hollywood, CA @ The Troubadour *
April 15 – San Diego, CA @ The Casbah *
April 18 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Rhythm Room ^
April 20 – Dallas, TX @ The Kessler Theater *
April 21 – Houston, TX @ The Heights Theater *
April 23 – Austin, TX @ Antone’s *
April 24 – Austin, TX @ Antone’s *
April 27 – Lowell, MA @ The Town & The City Festival
May 2 – Atlanta, GA @ The Garden Club *
May 24 – Boulder, CO @ Roots Music Project ^
May 25 – Colorado Springs, CO @ Meadowgrass
May 26 – Denver, CO @ Globe Hall ^
June 7 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Made ^
June 8 – Amagansett, NY @ Stephen Talkhouse ^
June 12 – Hershey, PA @ Englewood ^
June 13 – Hagerstown, MD @ Hub City Vinyl ^
June 14 – Charlottesville, VA @ The Southern ^
June 15 – Asheville, NC @ Pisgah Brewing Co ^
June 16 – Decatur, GA @ Eddie’s Attic ^
June 18 – Elkton, MD @ Elkton Music Hall ^
June 19 – Wayne, PA @ 118 North ^
June 20 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair ^
June 21 – Greenfield, MA @ Green River Festival
June 27 – Pawtucket, RI @ The Met ^
June 28 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground ^
June 29 – Katonah, NY @ American Roots Music Festival
June 27-29 – Sisters, OR @ Sisters Folk Festival
^ Headline
* w/ Low Cut Connie
