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THE BIG CATS



Last Updated: 10/18/2008

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Status: Single
City: LITTLE ROCK
State: Arkansas
Country: US
Signup Date: 4/12/2006

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Tuesday, July 10, 2007 
Many salutes to everyone who came out or helped with last month's NE shows. Like...

DC, Richard's Cousin Bob & M. Sollars - From german etchings to fine scotch & pink lox, you guys made our DC stay a very, very fun first. Most memorable line overheard: "I forgot my bag" - J. White. 20 minutes later..."Have you guys seen my jacket?" - J. White.

Brooklyn & The Junkyard - Some scampering for mics, but it all worked out didn't? With a large LR contingent to boot! Thanks Dan Zanes for the PA, Matsioni for the junkyard, the taco truck for the al pastor! Most memorable line: "Keep it down, Tom Keifer and Nelly are asleep inside" - B. Taggart.

NYC, Catherine + Joe, Katz - A pastrami and kosher dills helped to raise the dead. Thanks Katz! A wedding day story that included rings being handed out by a robot always helps as well! Major thanks to Joe for the pen light and taking a look around the block for the telecaster. Quite embarassingly, but thankfully, it was back at Richards place the entire time. Most memorable line: "That over there is the line for the weiners" - C. Brooks.

All the best,
The BC
9:40 PM 
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Thursday, May 10, 2007 
The Northeast dates for next week are finally solid. Here's the haps...

June 14 - Washington, DC @ Black Cat
June 15 - Brooklyn, NY @ Visions 11
June 16 - New York, NY @ Cake Shop

Hope to see you!
Burt
8:03 PM 
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Sunday, February 18, 2007 
SHE'S GOT SKILLZ

i like the sales when i'm wanted and wrecked and in the market to buy
a telephone with eyes, a heart that sings when she speaks
it's a passing thought, i'm passing through, but i figured i'll indulge the want
more and more i say it's love, and less and less luck

she's got skills that i never could figure, but something i know as defined
maybe a church key smile, for an aluminum heart
i've been well taught, still come unglued, and all I know is what i want
more and more i say it's love, and less and less luck

her's was the voice that used to comfort, me at the end of each day
but there's a choice, that sometimes needs to be made
it's a passing thought, i'm passing through, so i figure i'll indulge the want
more and more i say it's love, and less and less luck

LITTLE WINDOWS

pregnant with an idea
and it's on full display
dispatch babies colored grey

little windows shining brighter
can't do anything to stop 'em
what would it prove anyway

got good reasoned caution
'cause someone is watching
i can come clean and nothing happens
the feeling is daunting
i can see a heart beating
i could come clean and nothing would happen

sure somethings come discounted
but this one's all together
different from about anything

little windows shining brighter
and no one would dare dull them
i don't think you could anyways

MINOR DECAY

i tried to fall in love
with everyone a calico indifference
and look where it got me, a wife that wants me
and somethings that i just don't mention

there's geese in the pond
right down from our home
some minor decay and some news
fare-thee-well friends
we don't see anymore
some minor decay and some news

i won't try to be numb
with everything just try to uncover
so it's over and done with the titles
placated, frustrated, and unholy

there's geese in the pond
right down from our home
some minor decay and some news
fare-thee-well friends
we don't see anymore
some minor decay and some news

WOODLAWN BELLS

i'm counting on you to show the way, cause
chances like this don't come along everyday
it's true i was feeling a little frayed, but things
would have gone down no matter what you might say
it would still be strange

some girls talk about finding a man
who can walk around the wind while holding her hand
and i can

it's happened more and more these days
the feeling shifts and the moon looks away
so when the tides turn for us someday
i hope and pray that you won't be afraid
cause we're better off this way

some girls talk about finding a man
who can walk around the wind while holding her hand and I can't

AS I WISH

if this finds you alone then it won't be for long
cause ones like you don't just lie around
you might be on the phone making plans to go out
in the event that yer not can i come round

it's the trip to the coast that turned it like this
not on it's head but more on it's ass
needn't i try & impress & come away with less
suppose i'd take all shook down with a kiss

and so it goes
it's whose guess?, i know
it's either too weak or too strong
and neither lasts as long
as i wish
as i wish

and so it goes
it's whose guess?, i know
it's either too weak or too strong
and neither lasts as long
as i wish

and so it goes
it's whose guess, who knows
it's neither here nor there
does anybody care (as much)

as i wish
as i wish
as i wish
as i wish

THE HOTEL SINK

in the hotel sink there's a tap that keeps running
and i'm as far away as a plane could take me
in the saucer of a cup that keeps pouring
i couldn't run my way back from here
i couldn't run my way back from here
by the morning

there's a girl that doesn't see me
i'm weak, and in a week she'll be back home
so for now, it's a rainy terrace
a place for me to lay my head
and stare for a little while
so let's have the night where we agree
let's say everythings in front of us
and we'll just go on and on and on
you know some things get stronger
while others you can't even remember
and no matter that i'm never immune
i'll be coming right back to you soon

SHE'S NOT LOST

in the delta in the hammock
she was tired but never stranded
it's a place you call home
not the picture you imagine
while your wishing for a camera
in a place far from home

she's not lost, she's not lost, she's not lost
she's not lost, she's not lost, she's not lost

not here but not forgotten
and still so well spoken
in a place by her home
and when it seemed quite certain
she pushed aside the curtain
(and headed for) a place you call home

(so I refuge you in art to keep the memories from coming apart)

some things you can't imagine
you just go on and then you see them
it's a place far from home
i've got pictures from the mountains
i died there and was re-imagined
it's a place far from home

COUNTRY LANES

it's a shame when they say we can't do better than yesterday
truth be told i do care, & i don't wanna be anywhere
you aren't right now, uh-huh

no middle i'm on a side, but there's no cover left in the night
standing strong, fortified, i've never felt so far outside
i won't go along

they say for us to split is best
they say for us to split is best
i won't go along

it's said will must win and that peace will know no end
in the sounds of mortar guns, patience will not overcome
in the hours before the light

so stay close while we can soon the fighting will begin again
and i won't find you

ALL I CAN DO

it's all i can do
it's all i can do
it's all i can do to just get by

age will take it's toll on a star
my looks have never taken me far
standing in the rain for a car

just another lucky stain i've known
wouldn't wash out and so i've grown
they play out like songs that start too slow
i just do my best to hit every note

it's all i can do
it's all i can do
it's all i can do to just get by

well some thoughts grab ya and they won't let go
but tonight i'll take my cues from her pretty blues
and leave the worrying outside for one night
if i might

it's all i can do
it's all i can do
it's all i can do to just get by

MAN OF LEISURE

man of leisure, this man of safety
in a duplex near the freeway
any old night could be another story
for the ages

dressed up hoping to feel better
wanted more salt, needed more pepper
he fished around for a clean shirt
bit his nails until they hurt

i can still be banshee
but more and more I don't wanna be

what goes up comes down
3:07 PM 
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Monday, February 12, 2007 
Congrats to Colin for winning a Grammy last night for his playing on the Dan Zanes album "Catch That Train"!
3:32 PM 
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Thursday, January 25, 2007 

Category: Music

Becoming Big Cats

A group of punks grows up and so does their music.

by Nicole Boddington

In the summer of 1992, eighteen-year-old Burt Taggart got permission from his parents to tour with his band, Chino Horde, in support of an album they had put out themselves on File 13 Records, an independent punk rock label Taggart ran out of his parents' home. During the band's six-week, forty-city tour, they found kids crowding around the stage, singing, screaming, dancing to every song, an early indication that the music they were making - loud, irreverent, riveting stuff - was not only catching on but it was making waves outside of Little Rock. "We thought [our following] was just a hundred or so kids that would come out to shows here in Little Rock, but once we toured and played across the country, we realized how big it was," Taggart says. While the band dissolved in 1993 and its members moved on to other projects, like enrolling in college and forming new bands, Chino Horde, along with Rites of Spring and Jawbreaker, is credited as one of the most influential bands in the emo music scene, an unlikely feat for a group of high school kids from Little Rock. But, perhaps it wasn't so unlikely, at least not for these kids.

At sixteen, Taggart, a sophomore at Pulaski Academy, opened an independent record store called Long Arm Records. Before Long Arm, kids had to shell out cash to Dischord and Lookout Records, among others, and wait weeks for their mail-ordered albums to arrive. Unlike the other record stores in Little Rock, Long Arm had no "no loitering" policy and quickly became a community center of sorts for kids from different high schools who liked to talk about, listen to, share, trade, and buy music. Chino Horde practiced there after hours, their late-night practice sessions contributing to the store's eviction from three different locations and its eventual close after nine short months. By the time Chino Horde had put out a 45 in 1991, and the mystery of how to record an album had been solved, its members decided to put together a full-length LP that would be, essentially, a compilation of songs from various local bands, who, like Chino Horde, were the driving force behind the do-it-yourself, independent music scene at the time. Chino Horde, Substance, Five-O, Entrance and Drain were just a few of the bands featured on the album. Local writers and artists, whose zines had experienced a surge in popularity, put together a thirty-page booklet of artwork and writing to accompany the album. What resulted was Towncraft: a twelve-song snapshot of alternative art, music, and literature in Little Rock circa 1992.

When members of Chino Horde went their separate ways in 1993, Taggart took off to Kalispell, Montana, to avoid living in the punk rock squalor that his friends had succumbed to in San Francisco and New York. He quickly found there wasn't much to do in Montana and that it was very cold. During his eight weeks out West, he holed up and wrote six songs that would eventually become the Big Cats' first songs. He wrote them for himself, not knowing who would play on them. "The only thing I knew was that this wasn't going to be anything like Chino Horde," Taggart says. Taggart recorded a demo and sent it to his friends: former Five-O guitarist Shannon Yarbrough, former Chino Horde guitarist Jason White, and friends Colin Brooks and Josh Bentley, former drummer and bassist for Substance. Jason White recalls "Route 66," a brooding song about the long road home, was one of the songs on that cassette. "I remember thinking, 'Burt wouldn't take Route 66 to get home from Montana.' Didn't matter. I knew what he was saying. I thought he'd really come into his own when I heard this stuff for the first time. I had no prospects of being in a band with him while living on the West coast at the time. I learned every song anyway. I had to figure out what he was doing," White says. Together, they formed the Big Cats, a band that started off as a side project, only playing once a year on New Year's Eve. In 1994, when their friend Shannon Yarbrough joined on as a second guitarist, the band became more committed to writing and recording songs and touring regionally. In 2000, the band suffered a great loss when Yarbrough was killed in a car accident. He was twenty-four years old. Three years later, the Big Cats scraped together twelve tracks they'd worked on over the years and put them together on Worrisome Blues, the first album released on Taggart's Max Recordings, a label started in remembrance of Shannon Max Yarbrough, after whom it is named. The album's high-energy opener "Rock N Roll Nitemare" is an infectious rocker with frenzied guitars and solid vocals. While "Runaway" and "Route 66" are relentless, in-your-face rock songs, the ballad "Anyhow Again" proves that the band is equally capable of showing vulnerability.

The eleven-track, full-length follow-up titled, On Tomorrow, finds the Big Cats a bit older and wiser. Still present are hard-hitting, guitar-driven beats, but, this time, Taggart's gentle vocals smooth it out into a moody mix of blissful pop and slightly rough-around-the-edges rock. "We've definitely matured over the years, I wouldn't say it as a getting older thing, which we are, but just that I feel we've refined our process of writing and playing songs," says bassist Josh Bentley. The new album feels more complete, something Taggart attributes to composing the songs in a year's time and to the band's recording process. Taggart would write and prepare two or three songs at a time and send acoustic versions of the songs to his band mates. They'd meet in Little Rock every couple of months to record for a week at a time. Taking month-long breaks in between recording sessions allowed the band to steer the album in the direction they wanted it to go. While its themes of love, loss, friendship, and home might be typical preoccupations of thirty-somethings everywhere, Taggart tried to make the album feel inherently local using images from his daily life and surroundings. On "Minor Decay," you'll hear of geese in a pond at War Memorial Park near his home; on "She's Got Skills," her "church-key smile" was influenced by the Quapaw Methodist Church where the band rehearsed. "Little Windows" was inspired by an ultrasound that his wife underwent while pregnant with the couple's first child. "Suddenly, this image comes up and you see for the first time this other person. It's bewildering," Taggart says. "Even if it was for my own benefit, or my child's benefit, there are things I wanted to tie in, normal, real life kinds of things." And, there are special tributes to Shannon Yarbrough. The church bells, signaling the opening of "Little Windows," are bells from Barcelona's Montserrat monastery that Taggart and Yarbrough visited in 1996.

While the Big Cats functions as a side project, with band members Jason White and Colin Brooks finding success with bands Green Day and the Stills and Dan Zanes, respectively, Burt Taggart managing Max Recordings and working with band mate Josh Bentley as draftsmen for an architectural firm, everyone agrees that the Big Cats is something they want to keep going at their own pace. Jason White put it this way: "There's no pressure to sell records or sell-out the show or make it to the next level. We keep it on our own level. It's also a way to pay tribute to and remember an original member of this band, our friend Shannon Max Yarbrough, the Kid." To promote On Tomorrow, the Big Cats will play their annual holiday show on Friday, Dec. 22 at the Revolution Room in downtown Little Rock. "We do seem to be making more time for this band," Taggart says. "There's something thrilling and comforting about the four of us playing music together." There's talk of the Big Cats playing a few release-style parties to support their friend and filmmaker Richard Matson's project Towncraft, a documentary about Little Rock's independent music scene, which will be released by Matson Films this winter. Max Recordings is compiling the film's forty-song soundtrack. "The new album isn't even out yet and we're already talking about doing another one," Taggart says. "I do think there's more in store from us, for sure."

The Big Cats' new album On Tomorrow will be released on Max Recordings on Feb. 6, 2007.
11:04 PM 
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Monday, December 18, 2006 

Category: Art and Photography
So these fabulous photos of the band were shot by the two most extreme guys in town, Jim Hunnicutt & Matthew Martin. Gratzi!
3:31 PM 
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Monday, December 11, 2006 

Category: Music
THE BIG CATS

w. The Easys, Smoke Up Johnny, & The Reds

Friday / December 22nd
@ The Rev Room
9PM / $6
10:52 PM 
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