Cat Heaven on Streaming Platforms!
Posted on June 26th, 2024
Short lived Missoula Montana punk band Cat Heaven is now up on streaming services. You can listen to our album “Fear of a Cat Planet” and a few demo’s from our “Litter Box Sessions” EP wherever streams are sold.
The band was composed of Grant Gieger (The Western States, Buddy Jackson) Ethan Uhl (Whoopass Girls, Go Hibiki, Mido Skip) and myself, Tyson Ballew (Xavier’s School and Cat Positive). Somehow in that short time the band played 20 shows, including a couple of reunion shows. While we never formally disbanded, considering all three of us live in separate parts of the country, and the likelihood of some sort of viral moment spurring a robust reunion tour seems unlikely.
In 2011 I had just released my 2nd Tyson Ballew studio album “The Escape Artist Kids.” I don’t remember whose idea it was but Ethan and Grant agreed to play those songs live with me as a band. We played a couple shows that way before I decided it would be more fun to convert the lineup into a band with its own name and work on some unreleased punk songs from a defunct earlier project. We dropped most of the solo songs from my set with the exception of “Garden City Hardcore,” which we turned into an anthem of sorts.
We recorded a demo EP before Ethan moved to Wyoming for a few months. We had fun making it but it's not that great to listen to. I mixed it poorly and the performances are pretty loose. All but three songs we re-recorded for our studio record, but three of the demos came out nicely and they are featured on the streaming reissue of the record. Grant and I played two shows as a two piece before Ethan triumphantly returned. It was heaven to be a three piece again.
Our approach to the band was unconventional and nonchalant in many ways. I was inspired by other local bands eschewing having social media pages so we had no online presence outside of Bandcamp. Ethan’s other band had a pay what you want model for all of their records and I was excited to also try that out. Our two releases each had a healthy amount of downloads at the time but no one ever paid for anything. On one hand this approach meant that I didn’t have to maintain a data graveyard of a band that has nothing going on but it also means that overtime our time spent as a band has grown more obscure. I can’t find any photos of us online and the reviews of our records have also disappeared due to the consolidation of media platforms.
In the time since we disbanded another band called Cat Heaven from New South Wales appeared and seemed to have the exact same life as our band. They too have limited online presence, one studio album and seem to have also disbanded. Their record “Living Room” is an excellent post punk record that you should also listen to. I am happy to share the band name with them, just know we had it first. If Cat Heaven NSW ever reunites I am also happy to release a split 7 inch with them and my current band Cat Positive!
Ethan is a prolific songwriter with a ton of music online and he brought three incredible songs to the band. We ended up doing a version of The Whoopass Girls hit song “Scout’s Honor.” It became a setlist mainstay. He also brought us two incredible songs “Senorita Gamera” and “(Fuckin' Up) In Montana.” The latter of the two I think is the best song ever released on Tummy Rock Records. It was fun having another songwriter in the band. I only wish we would have had more of Ethan’s songs to play!
I had a lot of fun in this band. The whole time I lived in Missoula I wanted to be in a band. Aside from a few one offs and collaborations my efforts in Missoula were often solo. We were never the best band in town. We told everyone we were the shortest and sloppiest band in town. By the end of the band though, we got dialed in and got better at playing and we all improved as musicians. We moved quickly through our recording sessions and while that may leave the recordings a little rough around the edges, I wouldn’t change anything. I had fun the whole time we were doing it. Thank you Ethan and Grant for playing music with me.
CAT HEAVEN "FEAR OF A CAT PLANET" featuring three demo tracks from "THE LITTER BOX SESSIONS" Streaming everywhere now!
