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"The best time to listen to Catherine?" ponders drummer Kerry Brown.
"That'd be between 2:30 and 4:30 in the morning, when you're slightly high, intoxicated and looking to get laid. If you can make it through to 4:30 you WILL get laid...even if it's only by yourself!"
Kerrang! is downing margueritas with cool Chicago quintet Catherine in Amsterdam, Europe's capital of hedonism and debauchery. Catherine like a bit of that. Their brilliant new album 'Hot Saki and Bedtime Stories' was originally to be titled 'Hot Saki and Cocaine'. The last time vocalist/guitarist Mark Rew went on a tequila binge, he ended up being spanked in a bondage jacket. Don't ask...
Catherine began life seven years
ago in Chicago as a guitar, bass and drum machine goth-rock band devoid
of any of the current members. Then Mark and Kerry joined, steering
the group into classic rock waters previously inhabited by their childhood
heroes the Beatles, Black Sabbath and The Sweet. Today the quintet
(completed by Kerry's
hilariously entertaining brother
Keith on bass, effervescent ex-Urge Overkill man Fever on guitar and stand-up
percussionist Gussy) can be most likened to a glam-pop Smashing Pumpkins.
"I don't see it myself," shrugs Kerry, "but it's a compliment to be compared to a great band. I wonder if they'd say that if they weren't aware of our connections..."
Kerry is married to Pumpkins bassist D'Arcy (who duets on the delicious 'Four Leaf Clover' from 'Hot Saki...'), while the band's 1993 album 'Sleepy' was produced by Pumpkins mainman Billy Corgan. But Catherine are no pale imitations of Corgan's crew, the band's day-glo amalgam of driving guitars, stomping rhythms, dreamy psychedelia and bubble-gum pop melodies bearing out their motto 'Pop Paradise Through Sonic Adventure'.
"I see no reason why we can't be one of the biggest rock bands around," smiles Mark.
Only a fool would disagree.