Cool For Cats?

Kittens Ablaze
Genre: Americana / Folk Rock / Indie
From: Brooklyn, United States

Time was, an indie rock band would catch more than a few sideways stares for enlisting a – gasp! – string player. So sacrosanct was the gilded less-is-more template favored by the genre’s progenitors (one more time with feeling, Malkmus, Marsch, etc.) violinist and cellists made a band seem bloated, seem like grubby over-reachers. But that was then, back before the likes of Kittens Ablaze (and contemporaries Ra Ra Riot, Cursive, etc.) proved that indie rock wasn’t about instrumentation as much as it was about implementation. After all, you can play intricate rhythms on a cello, too, people! Hence, wonderfully rickety orchestral rock music gets its shot.

Today, the six Brooklynites in Kittens Ablaze specialize in the stuff, turning parts of classical music, protest folk and punk rock into one disarming whole. In 2007 they bowed with their five-track debut EP. And earlier this year, with assistance from Nic Hard (Bravery console-minder) the band returned with The Monstrous Vanguard, a record that’s landed Kittens Ablaze on stages at SXSW and CMJ and in the pages of Vice Mag, and RollingStone.com .

Find out why with the magnificent MP3s below. And be sure to look out for more from Kittens Ablaze in 2010 when they will be releasing two new singles.

Go Try

MP3 - Kittens Ablaze - Gloom Doom Buttercups
If anyone from the IFPI is reading this track is published with the permission of Musebox so please refrain from alleging infringement of copyright.
MP3 - Kittens Ablaze - Evangeline
If anyone from the IFPI is reading this track is linked direct from the Kittens Ablaze Last.FM site and is therefore already freely available so please refrain from alleging infringement of copyright.

Go Visit

Kittens Ablaze - Myspace // Website // Last.FM

Go View

Kittens Ablaze
This Machine Is Dying