Leaving The Criminals right around the time of their Adeline Records release ‘Broken Fingers and Burning Flesh’, Brady Baltezore had been hammering away at his new musical project ‘Black Cat Music’. Working with his own voice, rather than writing for the Jesse Townley led Criminals, Baltezore soared with some engaging dark and hypnotic music beaten into punk shapes.
Brady Baltezore (The Criminals, Black Cat Music) : “Black Cat Music started out at the "practice pad" downtown Oakland where Criminals had a room, and a bunch of other bands at that time. Dan McComas had left the Criminals, but we remained close friends. We started playing with some songs we'd been writing separately that were in a weirder place than The Criminals could get to. My taste in music had kind of changed by that point as well, I was getting into a lot of darker, more theatrical stuff that didn't necessarily gel with The Criminals. I'm sure part of it was just my ego, wanting to start my own thing. Travis and Jon I'd known from around Gilman. I just remember it sounded really tight right off the bat, we had a kind of a buzz about us, and we were all that age where you think you can set fires with your eyes, so we probably acted the part. We did a couple records with ‘Cheetah’s Records’ and then I think I talked Lookout into doing a 7" off the second Cheetah's LP. Dan and I were pretty big Morrissey nerds at that point, and I think we just wanted to have a "B side" song that wasn't on the album”
Following up the ‘This Is The New Romance’ EP and ‘The Only Thing We’ll Ever Be Is All Alone’ full length on Cheetah’s Records, Black Cat Music released the ‘One Foot In The Grave’ (LK 249) 7”, featuring two tracks of crafted and instantly moveable rhythmic music. The bass and drum lead title track held a rock swagger approach with tight musicianship full of attitude, a great taster for things to come.
Working on his own project for Lookout was indeed a moment that the frontman had been working towards since his teen years, despite being on board as The Criminals guitarist during the Lookout period for the ‘Never Been Caught’ album.
Brady Baltezore (The Criminals, Black Cat Music) : “This goes back to '91 or '92. At that time, in those suburbs, East of Oakland and Berkeley the only channel for discovering new bands was reading skate magazines, or someone's cool older brother. Thrasher got me to the 'canonical' punk bands - Misfits, Minor Threat, Black Flag etc which seemed like some fascinating ancient civilization to me. I think Brian Stern of ‘Dead & Gone’ was the 'cool older brother' who told me about Gilman St, and Lookout - at that point it was like, "wait, this is still going on? My friend went to school in a nearby town with the guys from Scherzo - for us it was like, "they're from these same shitty suburbs as us- but these guys are doing it! From that point on Lookout was like Stax records to me. I remember in a high school screen printing class, I meticulously hand cut a silkscreen of the Lookout logo, and a few others. Once I actually started playing in bands, and putting out records with Lookout, it wasn't just a casual thing - I had been a fan, so it felt like big personal accomplishment to me.”
Brady Baltezore and company returned to carry on with an album of sounds that the band had previously delivered on their two track EP, with the ‘Hands In The Estuary, Torso In The Lake’ LP (LK 269).The slowburning sound of Black Cat Music found it’s feet, with the band better suited to the format of the full length. Being able to explore a world of brooding mood music over the course of 11 tracks added some more light and shade as the band proceeded to weave a tapestry of textured dark melodic moments of varying tempos and dirty rock n roll balladary.
Brady Baltezore (The Criminals, Black Cat Music) : “We had begun to build a kind of local support with the Cheetah's records, but "Hands In The Estuary" definitely took it to a new level. I think the general consensus among our fans is that record being the peak of the band, I'm fine with that - right around that time is when we started headlining locally, touring regularly, etc. The beginning of the end! The main chunk of that record was written while I was living in NYC, experiencing that whole 'Grand Tour' type thing. I was bartending at Kate's Joint on 4th and B, and subletting a room from Tiffany Anders across the street. Kind of a dark time for me personally, but I like the songs that came out of it. I remember recording that album out in San Rafael with Davy Vain, the singer of late 80s B-list glam band ‘Vain’. He had a ton of stories about that whole scene, but the funniest thing was the dog at the studio was this geriatric brown lab that had belonged to Steven Adler from Guns N Roses. I guess Davy adopted him when that dude hit the skids on drugs or whatever. Davy was combative with me when we got to recording the vocals, like it was pretty clear he felt like I wasn't a good enough singer for the band. I like what we ended up with for the most part, that record still sounds good to me.”
With a solid album release, and finding their fanbase, Black Cat Music toured on several road stints in support of the ‘Hands In The Estuary’. Having crossed over from the 90’s to the new millennium while working with Lookout, Baltezore began to notice the musical shift at a time that was the beginning death call for many of the previously thriving independent labels.
Brady Baltezore (The Criminals, Black Cat Music) : “There was definitely a paradigm shift, not just with Lookout but in "independent music" in general. We got the sense that there was more pressure to tour, to recoup, basically compete with the larger "independent" scene that had grown up out of punk - kind of straddling the thin line between fun and business. When you add to that the real rise in popularity of the internet, it was just a strange time. After the mp3 made it super easy to share music, but before sites like myspace made it possible to control it all yourself. I think it had less to do with the label itself than the climate at the time.”
I love punk rock and I am reading this glorious book right now.
Well done!!!!
Posted by: Esme Prested | 12/07/2014 at 11:10 AM
OMG!!!!
Such a great book I will cherish it forever.
Is there anyone else out there who likes punk as much as Kev???
Posted by: Esme Prested | 12/07/2014 at 11:14 AM