The Big Cats

25 tracks of the sort of effortless-seeming power-pop brilliance that the Cats have mastered over many years.

Robert Bell via Arkansas Times, November 2012

The Big Cats are solid. Big rock guitars, paired with catchy lyrics and a shoe-gaze indie-rock mentality. A catchy and shiny collection of songs from a band that’s been through it.

Performer Magazine, November 2012

Picking up where they left off, the Big Cats have unleashed another solid batch of melodic, fun, indie rock. It's like Big Star and Rockpile hanging out in Little Rock.

Sean Clancy via Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, November 2012

Here's a partial list of proven, effective band-killers: geographical distance, the death of a group member, non-music careers, fam-ily responsibilities, long hiatuses and involve-ment in other, more commercially successful bands. For the Big Cats, however, these are all idle threats to the band's existence. Formed in 1993 by teenage friends in a bustling Little Rock, Ark., punk scene, the Big Cats thrive un-der adversity and separation, evidenced by the recent arrival of The Ancient Art Of Leaving: Two Parts, a double album whose first installment (The Ancient Art Of Leaving: High And Low) was issued last year. The twin releases provide a no-filler treasury of Middle American power pop and rock healthily influenced by the Replacements and Guided By Voices.

Led by singer/guitarist Burt Taggart, the Big Cats are an unlikely supergroup of side players. Jason White is the longtime touring guitarist for Green Day; drummer Colin Brooks is part of kids' music juggernaut Dan Zanes &. Friends; bassist Josh Bentley spent some time playing with the like-minded rockers in Superdrag. Missing from the current lineup is Shannon Yarbrough, who died at age 24 in a late-night automobile accident. In May 20DO, his car struck a bulldozer parked in the middle of the road; police believe the bulldozer was moved from a nearby construction site to the road as a prank. Yarbrough's passing galva-nized his friends and bandmates.

"Shannon's death absolutely brought us all closer together," says Taggart. "It came at a time when Colin was living in New York and Ja-son was in Berkeley and the band was in limbo. Everyone was feeling their way out, trying to figure where to live, what to do with jobs. When Shannon died, I think it crystallized the fact that we were all in this together and that no matter where any of us lived, it was important to stay in better touch as friends and try to make new music whenever we possibly could."

After Yarbrough's death, the Big Cats mus-tered their first full-length, Worrisome Blues, in 2002, and followed up with On Tomorrow in 2007. Life as the Big Cats approach their 40s, however, doesn't always make rehearsals and recordings convenient. Aside from his roles as a father and the proprietor of Max 8ecord-ings-home to the Big Cats, early American Princes releases and a variety of Little Rock bands-Taggart runs an architectural firm with his father.

In early 2011, the stars aligned for the quar-tet, which once again gathered in Little Rock to work on 25 songs Taggart had sketched out. All 25 were recorded during the Ancient Art sessions, many of the tracks ringing with nervy melody and youthful, big-chorused abandon. Even the forces that drive Taggart-friendship, artistry, the DIY ethic-come from that pure place of teenage idealism.

"I just fell in love with the freedom and fulfillment of being able to write, collaborate and record songs with my friends," he says. "And then from the label side of it, to continue that on and come up with art and packaging, distribute it, etc. To see it through the whole process. And to look back and realize you're making progress or getting better at it along the way. I may not always be thrilled that the Big Cats aren't known to more people, but I always feel good about how we choose to run our ship."

Matthew Fritch via Magnet Magazine issue #92, October 2012

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"Sometimes people perform music just for fun. And most of the time the result is some of the best music one might hear. There’s no fame-seeking in it. Just music. A melody. A beat. Some chords and words, and then a song. A good song. A song whose future its writers don’t concern themselves with. It’s just for pleasure and for the personal warmth coming from creative output.

Such it is with Little Rock’s The Big Cats. Perhaps back when the group played their first show on New Year’s Eve 1993 in the kitchen of a Stifft Station house, they had dreams of the big time. Perhaps not. The whole idea for The Big Cats was kind of as a side project for the friends. And for the past decade or so, the band — Burt Taggart and Jason White on guitars and vocals, Josh Bentley on bass (original bass player Shannon Yarbrough died in 2000) and Colin Brooks on drums — has rejoined once a year for a Christmas season show.

Sometimes The Big Cats play more than one show a year. It all depends on the band’s individual member’s busy schedules. Brooks is now the drummer for the Grammy-winning Dan Zanes and Friends, a band that creates “exuberant, handmade 21st century social music for enthusiastic crowds of kids and kid sympathizers.” White has been a touring member of Green Day for a dozen years. Taggart is the proprietor of Max Recordings. And Bentley is a well-known local musician who has played with a variety of acts.

Sometimes the band releases an album of new music. Very irregularly though. Worrisome Blues was released in 2002. On Tomorrow in 2006. But the on-again, off-again, sometimes reuniting group found time in 2011 to be on again, recording enough tunes for two albums worth of music.

The first half of that output released last week is the 13 tracks of The Ancient Art Of Leaving: High & Low, 43 minutes of power-pop guided rock ‘n’ roll. It’s a collection of tunes so good that you hate this only happens about every four or five years. Still, one gladly takes what they can from these guys, and this time around, the guitar lines are once again mostly clean and the drums rumbling. The melodies are deft and fluent, and the rhythms are taut but with a playful looseness to them.

The Ancient Art Of Leaving: High & Low is an intelligent and tuneful album. And an album packed with great tunes. The punk urgency of “Address To Address,” with Brooks’ thundering drums and Bentley’s steady bass notes powering the track. The bash and pop rock of “Interviewer Interviewed.” The bouncing, keyboard- and guitar-powered rock of “King Of Brief” with its horn outro. The short- and sweet power pop of “Unreliable Witness” with its quick-fire drum rolls. The explosive punk energy of “Shaky Feeling” with its persistent cry of “So I don’t get anymore/That shaky feeling, that shaky feeling.” The Connells-inspired jangle pop of “Back To The City.” And the economical “The Orchard Burns,” the best tune on the album: three minutes of stabbing guitar riffs, crisp vocal harmonies and heart-on-the-sleeve lyrics such as “When I was yours I didn’t feel like trash/When I was yours I didn’t get so smashed/Are you ever coming back?” The tune closes with horns and handclaps, and you love it.

Once again, Barry Poynter was behind the console, recording the album at his studio Poynter’s Palace. Both Brooks and White were off from their bands last January, so The Big Cats recorded throughout the month: learning songs by day, breaking for dinner and recording into the night.

So these four Cats, they don’t get together that often. But when they do, it’s magic. So it is with The Ancient Art Of Leaving: High & Low. (And one imagines the second half set for a spring release will be just as brilliant.) It’s really beautiful that a band that plays so inconsistently can be so skillful in creating smart, honest music with such startling melodies and rhythms. But The Big Cats pull it off.

“We enjoy each other’s company,” says Taggart of the band’s musical adeptness. “And I think having played music together for as long as we have, we really value watching the band develop and learn new ways of playing together. I think also — and this applies to Jason and Colin — but The Big Cats for them equates to total musical freedom.”

Perhaps that’s the secret. Musical freedom. Free of expectations. It certainly sounds like it. Refreshing and joyous. And oh-so good."

Shea Stewaret via Synch Weekly, December 2012

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 “When the Big Cats make rock and roll, they cut one hell of a figure.” - Dry Ink

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"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." - Nicole Boddington via Little Rock Free Press

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"There are, believe it or not, Little Rock bands not named Evanescence that make great rock music. The Big Cats have a particularly clean and articulate approach.

In case “clean” and “articulate” sound like insults to you, substitute words like “tighter,” as well as “moremelodious” and “less sludgy” or “not gothic” and you might get the picture. It’s pop. Maybe if you ever heard Big Star or The dB’s or even The Replacements, or the more obscure yet joyous Shoes, you can get a sense of how good these Big Cats sound.

One really admires an enterprising young businessman/musician like Burt Taggart, who I envision cajoling his Big Cats cohorts to drop by town every now and then for a recording session. Drummer Colin Brooks is part of Grammy winner Dan Zanes’ band. Guitarist Jason White is the fourth member of Green Day. Luckily for all concerned, Taggart operates his own label, Max Recordings, and he must know what he’s doing, since the sound quality here is unsurpassed, thanks to Barry Poynter’s studio, Poynter’s Palace.

I just can’t get enough of the band’s song, “Man of Leisure,” although “Country Lanes” certainly is evocative and a winner in its own right. I can’t find any weak sisters in this 11-song collection.

For a group of guys who only get together a time or two each year, due to coast-to-coast careers for some of them, these four seem to have an instinctual feel for the vibe they’re seeking, and the music is intelligent enough that the more you hear it, themore you appreciate it. This is the kind of stuff you can go around singing to yourself, you know, when no one is looking.

The Big Cats deserve discovery by a wider audience. But would it ruin them? Or would they prefer to be a great act instead of a famous act? Stay tuned. - Jack Hill / Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

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"The follow-up to Worrisome Blues has the Big Cats dedicating the record to Shannon Yarbrough, and he would be quite proud of this release." - Pop Matters

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"This kind of low-key, earnest jangle pop is timeless." - Stewart Mason / All Music Guide

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"Rock and Roll Nitemare," the opening track by Little Rock’s resurgent The Big Cats, takes decades-old rock tricks — handclaps, Chuck Berryish guitar breaks, propulsive drumming — reshuffles them and makes you believe all over again. A foursome now reformed back in Arkansas after years in other cities and other bands, the Cats display a weariness or resignation in lyrics and tone that’s refreshing in this otherwise robust rock context. Credit part of that to Burt Taggert’s evocative, controlled vocals. This doesn’t mean the guitars don’t ring out when required (love the opening salvo of "Runaway") or step back when the Cats want more mood than speed. A few tempo shifts don’t convince, but there’s at least six or seven highlights here that would sound great on any radio or home hi-fi. Here’s a reunion that clearly worked out for the best. - Werner Trieschmann / Arkansas Democrat Gazette

"Hidden inside this screened digipack, The Big Cats get caught up with a rich and explosive music. A music which is quite eager to point out the albums rock' n roll elements. The Big Cats even pull out a bit of a bluesy side that works to establish their own style which on "Fayetteville Blues" becomes honestly explosive. While on songs such as "Runaway", "Elanita" and "Doomed To Lose" The Big Cats seem comfortable sticking to a more tried and true indie rock approach. Nothing is left uncovered, all is to be discovered here. Fans of productions complete and fulfilling, this disc is for you." - Underground Society

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With a slightly rough-edged country rock sound, hinting at influences of punk and indie rock, The Big Cats come from Little Rock to JR's Lightbulb Club on Saturday night for a highly anticipated show. With their amazing hit single, "Fayetteville Blues," floating around since the summer, the complete album Worrisome Blues is now out and available at Clunk Records. The Big Cats clean pop lyrics on such songs as "Run Away," the nice accordion touch on "Elanita," and the need evident in the voices of singers Burt Taggart and the late Shannon Yarbrough on "Route 66" all make for a solid, if not short, record, leaving you wanting more. - Su Lauren Perry / Fayetteville Free Weekly

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Do the Big Cats want to replace the Replacements? That’s a thought that comes over sometimes while listening to Worrisome Blues, their new album. It all comes about when you hear a bit of slop and a lot of rough on top of a folky take on the Stones. But the punk “Runaway” shows that the Big Cats are ready to go their own way. The guitar interplay is solid, and all of their fast stuff is good for dancing. The foreboding “Route 66,” though, is not the Bobby Troupe classic. But you'll get your kicks anyway. — T.E. Lyons / Louisville Eccentric Observer