The Hourglass Cats are leaning more rock 'n' roll than ever after the Saturday evening release of their two new tracks "Be That Way," and "Been Thinkin" at Tempe's C.A.S.A. SunBá. There isn't even a hint of THC's early reggae and ska influences, as the tracks go in a far more garage rock directions that almost borders on punk.
"The show went very well. It was a good time," says Cori Rios, lead singer and guitarist of THC. "You know how in Phoenix how there's always that gap between the stage and the crowd? That gap was about two inches at C.A.S.A., which is what we like and what we dig on. People I've never seen before and I know don't know our friends were, like, attentively watching our video on this 80-inch screen."
The sound is just tremendously buff with the backing of their outstanding horn players, sax man Chaz Fertal and trombone shorty Lisa Lizanec, and the full integration of drummer Johnny Groove is doing wonders for the five-piece.
They haven't fully abandoned the reggae vibe and they definitely bring some latin rhythms and other worldly sounds to the table in their live shows. But if a person were to only hear these two recordings they would definitely peg THC as garage rockers, and by the looks of the video they may just incorporate a thought or two of proto-punk.
"We have so many influences and luckily for me I have amazing musicians on my team," says Rios. "We can play whatever genre we want to play and no one wants to listen to a band that only plays one style of music anymore anyway."
The video itself was directed and conceptualized by Marcus Eden and it looks cool. The Cats are in front of a big white screen rocking out, and Eden plays around with the camera's focus, angles, and adds some pretty nifty flash effects into the video.
According to Rios, this is the first time Eden has ever worked with flash effects, and for a first-timer, it looks great. It isn't some high-concept video, but it still has a cool, modern look, and the song is really great.
"We just wanted something professional to send out to labels, and management teams, and to festivals. Something to put us outside of the Arizona scene and start making some bigger moves," says Rios.
For now the moves are a main stage appearance to open McDowell Mountain Music Festival, a video for their other newly released track "Been Thinkin," recording their new EP, which will hopefully commence in April, hitting up Colorado and California on tour, and throwing more big local shows.
