PLEASE COME BACK | Secretly Canadian
By WILL SPITZ | February 7, 2006
.jpg "CATFISH HEAVEN? What the musical lovechild of Sam Cooke and Janis Joplin may have sounded like.")
Ever wonder what it would sound like if the hypothetical lovechild of Sam Cooke and Janis Joplin wrote and sang a souped-up 21st-century version of his daddy’s “Bring It On Home to Me”? “Please Come Back,” which opens Catfish Haven’s new six-song EP (unless you count the six-second intro track), is the heart-breakin’, booty-shakin’answer. Armed with nothing more than an acoustic guitar, bass, and drums, the Chicago three-piece, who are named for the Missouri trailer park in which singer/guitarist/songwriter George Hunter grew up, borrow elements from music that was made before they were born — old R&B, soul, blues — and spice it up with punk-rock vim. The album’s highlight, “Still Hungover,” builds from plaintive acoustic strumming to jaunty 6/8 bounce, and when Hunter instructs his crack rhythm section to “take it home, Chicago,” they do just that, kicking into all-out barnburner mode. The next minute and a half is like the climaxes of “Freebird” and “Born To Run” combined, with tenor sax adding to the harmonic tension and Hunter wailing, “Ain’t gonna slow this freight train down.” He probably couldn’t if he wanted to.
Catfish Haven + Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin + The Receiver | Great Scott, 1222 Comm Ave, Allston | Feb 13 | 617.734.4502
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, Entertainment, Music, Pop and Rock Music, Janis Joplin, Soul Music, Sam Cooke, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, George Hunter, Less
