THE KATIES

Press (a collection of news and articles from days of yore)

http://nashville.citysearch.com/feature/24587/ (Small Citysearch blurb)

http://desert.net/ww/07-12-99/nash_music-local_view.html (Katies on Elektra article)

http://www.cmj.com/articles/display_article.php?id=26336 (CMJ Review)

http://www.ink19.com/... (Online Review)

http://www.hardrock.com/... (Review of The Katies when they opened for Lynyrd Skynyrd at the Hard Rock)

http://www.worcesterphoenix.com/... (Online Review)

Below you will find some archived articles:

From pigpublications.com (great article):

We were lucky enough to have an interview with The Katies when they played here in town, and although a tragedy destroyed the official tapes, we are bringing you the content. The PiG staff apologizes in advance for any misrepresentations of opinions or statements from the good old boys.

We arrived at the Fat Kat Lounge early, which seemed to be a good thing, as it was situated in the part of town that isn’t terribly safe after dark. Scoping out the place, we noticed a van parked directly in front of the venue. Moments later, a man with a Breakfast With Girls tee on his back came out of the back, loading and unloading equipment. This man admitted to us that he was Niell, from Spongebath, and went into the van to get the guys out for the interview. A few minutes later, out tumbled Gary <“GAAARYY!"> . Now, Gary looks like the sort of man that you do not want to rumble with in a dark alley, which happened to be just where we were. Quaking in my boots for a few seconds, he alleviated my fears by offering me a light for the cigarette that I had been pitifully trying to ignite. Jason and Joshua, obviously brothers, followed out of the van, and all five of us made our way into the club to get the interview on a roll.

The Katies have been touring recently to promote their first album, doing a lot of small shows and heading back to the home front as frequently as possible. Gary is a husband and a father now, and so he misses home more and more each day that he is away. Touring, however, allows all of them to get together onstage and do what they love – rock. These guys honestly love to perform, regardless of whether they are in a garage or in front of tons of people. They have toured with several bands lately, and not all of them had the same joie-de-vivre that The Katies do. Although they refused to knock anyone in particular, we do know that they have toured with The Verve Pipe, Filter, Marvelous 3, My Friend Steve (although they got kicked from that tour for being too loud) and Fountains of Wayne.

Speaking up for the first time, Jason mentioned that they feel that they have finished paying their dues to the world, and are finally getting something back. Days were spent waiting tables at the Cracker Barrel and watching kids at the YMCA, and now they are making enough money to support themselves while doing what they love, and few of us out here in the real world could ask for more. Jason also verified to us that he believes that The Katies is the best band that he will ever have the chance to be involved with. An energy that few groups have is the prized possession of The Katies, as well it should be. Being a three-piece on the road constantly can be hard, but they keep the karma on the upside by cracking jokes on each other and being able to laugh at themselves – a lesson that many of us need to learn.

About the recording processes for this album, and recording in general, they had much to say. A Murfreesboro eccentric by the name of Brian Carter recorded a non-album that is referred to as the “Carter sessions”. Apparently, Carter is a local genius (Murfreesboro seems to be full of those) that loves to play with his ‘toys.’ At the time of recording, he had purchased multitudes of new pieces of equipment, and the recording process went very slowly as he tried to learn the ways of the electronics. Although The Katies have not released the Carter sessions as an official album, rumors circulate that Spongebath may be doing just that in the not too distant future. This, along with “Volume Two,” comprises the lost Katies tracks that are oft mentioned in the Tennessee inner circles. Volume Two consists of songs that were overplayed during live shows yet would never make it to a real album. Seventeen songs were actually recorded for their self-titled album, although not all of the made the cut. Hairclip, one of the greatest Katies songs ever, was among the original lineup but somehow never made it to the album. They said that this was due to their persistence in getting it to sound JUST RIGHT, combined with frustration when that didn’t actually happen.

These good old boys are often mistaken for a Christian band, due to their frequent reference to the higher power commonly known as god. When confronted on the issue, they say that they are Christian MEN, not a Christian band. They write songs about whatever is on their mind, whether it be Jesus, their wives/girlfriends or driving and marijuana. As far as they are concerned, most Christian music, by artists on Christian labels, isn’t real music. They think that music is written to express every emotion and limiting the realm of the lyrics detracts from the real purpose of the art. On a side note, Gary sure says fuck a lot for a Christian.

Being in Murfreesboro seems to lead people to joining the MTSU recording program and then dropping out after they realize it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. The band comments that sure, there are tons of dropouts and fast food workers in the town, but at least they are happy dropouts and fast food workers. The town grows full of eccentrics and musicians, and appears to be the perfect place for an upstart label like Spongebath. Everyone in the city is in a band or two, and they have all done a cover of “Hey Lou,” a song originally by Sam formally of FL OZ. The Features (another Spongebath band) have the song on their album, Self does a cover of it at most of their concerts and Gary has the words tattooed around his left bicep. “Hey Lou” seems to be the cities anthem, and well it should be, as it is one of the best songs to come out of any city in years.

The Katies single, Noggin’ Pounding, is yet another example of how talented these guys are. It is about Gary struggling to get his now-wife to fall in love with he. He said all of the wrong things, did all of the wrong things, and still was never quite a stalker. The song can be found in mp3 format at Spongebath’s official site.

Moving on from relationships with women to relationships with recording companies and labels, their memories go from bitter-sweet to just plain bitter. It seems that the boys have had their share of bad experiences with the suits in charge, and have grown through them to decide to just do whatever makes them feel the best. They cunningly play off this bad taste in their mouths by saying that “…jobs are jobs and everyone has problems with their bosses.”

On the closing note, The Katies commented on the comparisons that have been between themselves and legends such as Nirvana, Led Zeppelin and The Beatles. While the comparisons flattered them, they said that they were in no way fair. They mentioned aspirations to sound like a “bad warm up version” of one of the bands listed above, but specifically asked us not to quote them saying that… hee hee hee.

Their final thoughts before the concert were something along these lines: If music is in you blood, let it out and whatever you do, have fun. They then proceeded to get a little something to eat before they hit the stage to open for The Verve Pipe.

An hour later, Chad Jasmine were just finishing their set and the guys were about to set up for their own set. A few minutes of muddling around onstage with wires here and there and they were ready to go. Unfortunately, the show was riddled with technical difficulties, from a mic that shocked anyone who touched it to a broken kick pedal, and had to be cut a little short. While The Katies didn’t play a great live show here in town, they still managed to leave quite an impression on the minds of the PiG staff.

From nashvillerage.com:

The Katies The Katies have long been known as one of the 'Boro and Nashville's hardest-working, hardest-rocking bands. For cliché devotees, they put the power back in "power pop." But, more importantly, they were part of a small group of bands to put the balls back in local rock 'n' roll.
Two years and countless gigs after the release of their self-titled debut, The Katies have decided that they have rocked Middle Tennessee as much as it is able, or willing, to be rocked. Thus, at the urging of friend and former label owner Matt Mahaffey, they're making a group exodus to sunny Los Angeles.

"Nashville has been so good to us, especially places like the Exit/In," singer and guitarist Jason Moore tells The Rage. "We feel like L.A. has more to offer for what we want to do and we think we're up to the challenge to go out and give it a shot."

The group hopes to make the move in early October and to begin building a new following. "We haven't played the west coast much," says Moore. "Right now we're just happy to take some time and do that and explore some new label opportunities and spend some time in the sun."

- Clay Steakley The Katies play their "Farewell to Nashville" show at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 21 at Exit/In, 2208 Elliston Place. Celebrity and Elaine open. Admission is $7. Call 321-4400 for more information.

From The Tennessean:

Perhaps The Katies' self-titled debut album should be plastered with a warning sticker. No, not the typical Parental Advisory Explicit Content" warning. Rather, the album by the Murfreesboro trio that'll play The Exit/In Monday perhaps should sport a "Warning 'J' word enclosed!" advisory. That's "J" word as in "Jesus." After all, as U2's Bono once famously observed, spirituality is more taboo in rock `n' roll than sadomasochism. "Oh, it is, man," agrees Katies singer-guitarist Jason Moore. "That's the weirdest thing to me, because music to me is the most spiritual thing. That's the whole gig of it. It makes you happy. It can move you. It's powerful. So to make it that you can't sing about God, that's crazy." And so it is that The Katies' debut, due in record stores Tuesday, includes such songs as Jesus Pick ("a conversation between me and God," Moore says), and Shisiedo (key lyric: "You look like Jesus, and you talk like Jesus, and you dress like Jesus, so you must be Jesus"). But don't get the idea that The Katies are a Christian rock band. Such a notion will likely be dispelled by one listen to Noggin' Poundin', their slamming, erotically charged debut single about a stupefying babe. Then there's the album track She's My Marijuana, which takes that supreme iconic moment of teen romance, the kiss in a car, and gives it fresh energy. "I'm not preaching about anything, any kind of doctrine," Moore says. "I'm a humanist who feels like, `Yeah, I'm a creature and I can look up and say there's something amazing about life.' And I'm going to write about it. I'm just a dude, man, who's trying to figure it out."

The Katies deliver these tales of girls and God over music that sounds like a Gen-X version of Cheap Trick. Released on a co-label deal between the Murfreesboro-based Spongebath Records and the major-label Elektra Records, the album features melodic power pop and poppy alternative rock. It's all propelled by the sweet, clear vocals and semi-ragged guitar of Moore, the bass of Gary Welch, and the drumming of Josh Moore, Jason's brother. The band will showcase the album when it plays the free gig at 10 p.m. Monday at The Exit/In. Also on the bill is Self, the Murfreesboro band whose new album, Breakfast With Girls, will be released Tuesday under a co-label deal between Spongebath and DreamWorks Records. As for mixing tales of girls and God, Jason Moore says, "It's got to be a balance. It's the human experience you're writing about. That's just my life. I'm a married dude. I'm in love with my wife. So there are love songs. I think about spiritual stuff. I write about that. I write about my life." Bassist-singer Welch says he agrees totally with Moore. Nevermind that images of God don't exactly come to mind when one spies Welch's biceps. It's there that the snarling faces of Angus and Malcolm Young, those bruise brothers of the heavy metal band AC/DC, are tattooed with a surprising Michelangelo-type artiness. It's those skin portraits of the brothers Young that serve as a reminder of another side of The Katies.

While their album is a polished (but not slick) affair, their live shows are another matter. Onstage, their rock becomes more raw, ragged and frenzied, with some of the fury of Led Zeppelin and the punkish sneer of Nirvana rearing their ugly heads. "You want to make a record to sound good," Welch says. "I think making a record just to make it raw is stupid, and people who go that deep into thought about it need to hang it up. That's really a silly way to think about it. "But it's not like the record is all that different. The record is still all plugged in. There are no loops or samples. I'm not downing that, so please don't print it like I am. God forbid these fucking electroids out here should think I am."

Hearing Welch talk, it's easy to see the complementary chemistry at work in The Katies: Jason the quick-to-laugh frontman with the boyish charm, Welch the good-natured yet cantankerous, opinionated bassist, and Josh the shy, taciturn drummer. The band formed in Murfreesboro almost three years ago, after Knoxville native Jason had dropped out of the recording industry program at Middle Tennessee State University, and Slidell, La., native Welch had dropped out of the music program at Belmont University in Nashville. The band lineup was completed after Josh graduated from high school and joined his brother and Welch in Murfreesboro. They first signed to the Murfreesboro-based Spongebath Records, with the Elektra co-label deal coming after the band had already recorded the debut album. "It seemed like everything I was told in those (MTSU) classes about `this is the way the music industry is,' was pretty much the opposite of what the music industry really is," Jason says. When talk turns to the pressure of major-label expectations and of how a rock band has never exploded onto the national scene from Nashville, Jason shrugs. With part swagger and part nonchalance, he says, "Who cares, man? We're not from Nashville." "We're from Murfreesboro; has there ever been a band to explode from there?" Welch asks rhetorically. "So we have even less of a chance there. But it doesn't matter. We got lucky. We got a record deal. Most bands don't. So we're going to ride it out. But it's not like we started a band to get a record deal. We started playing in a band because we thought it would kick ass to be in a band. We're in it to win it. We want to do well and play big huge rock shows. But if it doesn't do well, we're still going to play."

Here's another little blurb we ran about the Katies: Katies get a boost, right off stage In what can only be viewed as a fortunate, career-boosting event, the Murfreesboro rock band The Katies were kicked off their recent tour after only two dates. Matt Meeks of Spongebath Records, the Murfreesboro label that released The Katies' debut album in a co-deal with Elektra Records, says the band was a little too boisterous for the tour. Indeed. Consider that the headline band on the tour, My Friend Steve, is a Matchbox 20 clone. In other words, the Steve boys play tame Gen-X granola rock. As for The Katies, their sterling self-titled album is packed with cool Gen-X alterna-pop and power pop. As delicious as the album is, it's in concert that The Katies go berserk. The time yours truly witnessed the trio, they played like Tasmanian devils that had been sprayed by napalm. We're talking alterna-pop juiced by punkish grunge frenzy and Led Zeppelinish thump. So you can see why the sedate My Friend Steve didn't want to make friends with The Katies. As we used to say back in the '60s, it sounds like The Katies "blew them off the stage." "The management of My Friend Steve told The Katies they move around too much on stage," said a disbelieving, and smiling, Meeks.