CATALANO (Ex - De La Cruz) Debut EP out in November

[Glen]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Depends though, what are you listening on? Is it on your stereo, computer, MP3 player, car? Might have something to do with it

I'm very much beginning to think this is the issue. He keeps saying certain albums sound like shit, or songs, or whatever, when everyone else isn't hearing what he's hearing. It might be time to invest in proper equipment.

 

And then lastly, on my own car stereo which is a bit like 'Riot Avenue' compared to 'New Religion'

 

what better you mean?

 

 

No, much worse.

 

 

 

What I don't get is your thinking this is more commercial than De La Cruz??

 

I mean how much more crazy 80s commercial can De La Cruz get?

 

This however is pretty dark in places.

 

 

Really? De La Cruz had quite a few pretty "standard" hard rockers mixed in with the more melodic stuff. Across the board, this new stuff seems to be pretty "commercial" and melodic without any real exception, except maybe the opener, 'Metal dreams.' There just seems to be more hooks and melody than De La Cruz, imo.

 

 

Id say pretty much all these are commercial with good hooks....even if some are a bit repetitive....the overall sound is more 80s imo

 

1. Street Level

2. Girls Go Wild

3. Turn It Up

4. Legions of Love

5. Gimme Love

6. Cherry Bomb

7. Dreaming

8. Invincible

9. Worlds Collide

10. S.E.X.

11. Set the Night

12. Shine

[phaffas]

 

 

 

 

 

Depends though, what are you listening on? Is it on your stereo, computer, MP3 player, car? Might have something to do with it

I'm very much beginning to think this is the issue. He keeps saying certain albums sound like shit, or songs, or whatever, when everyone else isn't hearing what he's hearing. It might be time to invest in proper equipment.

 

And then lastly, on my own car stereo which is a bit like 'Riot Avenue' compared to 'New Religion'

 

what better you mean?

 

 

No, much worse.

 

 

 

What I don't get is your thinking this is more commercial than De La Cruz??

 

I mean how much more crazy 80s commercial can De La Cruz get?

 

This however is pretty dark in places.

 

Geoff is smoking something..

[KarpetRydOFunk]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Depends though, what are you listening on? Is it on your stereo, computer, MP3 player, car? Might have something to do with it

I'm very much beginning to think this is the issue. He keeps saying certain albums sound like shit, or songs, or whatever, when everyone else isn't hearing what he's hearing. It might be time to invest in proper equipment.

And then lastly, on my own car stereo which is a bit like 'Riot Avenue' compared to 'New Religion'

what better you mean?

No, much worse.

 

What I don't get is your thinking this is more commercial than De La Cruz??

 

I mean how much more crazy 80s commercial can De La Cruz get?

 

This however is pretty dark in places.

Geoff is smoking something..

I often feel I need to be smoking something to talk to Geoff.

[Geoff]

Jeez you guys make it hard for a brother to make an obvious point which is hard for you simpletons to understand.

 

Glen, I am pretty sure it was mostly you who made this point at the time; Half of those De La Cruz songs are good straight ahead hard rockers, but the choruses are just basic repetitive lines over again. Good solid stuff, very much like 80's Ratt or something like that. We all love it, but it's hardly "commercial."

 

Stuff like 'Legions of love,' 'Dreaming,' Invoncible,' 'Worlds collide' and 'Shine' are all nice melodic tunes. But stuff like 'Girls go wild,' 'Turn it up,' 'Set the night' etc. all rely on a pretty basic, straight forward hard rock formula.

 

All I mean, is that aside from the first and last track on the Catalano album, regardless of "darkness" every single song has a big hooky and catchy chorus. There is none of the basic repetitive choruses that were kind of a staple for De La Cruz. It can't be that hard to see that... can it?

[Glen]

Jeez you guys make it hard for a brother to make an obvious point which is hard for you simpletons to understand.

 

Glen, I am pretty sure it was mostly you who made this point at the time; Half of those De La Cruz songs are good straight ahead hard rockers, but the choruses are just basic repetitive lines over again. Good solid stuff, very much like 80's Ratt or something like that. We all love it, but it's hardly "commercial."

 

Stuff like 'Legions of love,' 'Dreaming,' Invoncible,' 'Worlds collide' and 'Shine' are all nice melodic tunes. But stuff like 'Girls go wild,' 'Turn it up,' 'Set the night' etc. all rely on a pretty basic, straight forward hard rock formula.

 

All I mean, is that aside from the first and last track on the Catalano album, regardless of "darkness" every single song has a big hooky and catchy chorus. There is none of the basic repetitive choruses that were kind of a staple for De La Cruz. It can't be that hard to see that... can it?

 

I was talking about the overall sound and vibe of the album.

 

IMO De La Cruz has a far more polished and commercial 80s sound...with huge production and backing vox (one thing you are always banging on about) than this new album...........doesn't really matter if the song choruses are repetitive.

 

Some of the best songs on that disc were the ones that belted out a repetitive chorus.....like 'Street Level' for example (awesome song imo)

 

Not saying that I don't like the Catalona disc though - it has some v goods songs for sure....especially through the middle part of the album.

[Roxx Catalano]

Hey guys, my name is Roxxi Catalano, ex-singer of DLC and creator of CATALANO

Stumbled on this thread and had a brief read, in response to some things and in addition to others:

Firstly thank you for listening to and purchasing my work, both current and previous, and for listening to it enough to formulate opinions.

I’ll share some insight!

CATALANO is definitely not meant to be a DLC #2, I guess sonically there will be touch points because well….i wrote 80% of DLC’s music, hooks, lyrics, melodies and the majority of the guitar riffs too….so it’s only natural that this should follow suite.

I guess it’s simply my songwriting style.

Regardless of who the ‘shredder’ is, everything I write in any genre will always have that ‘sound’.

I had bands before DLC and they too sounded much the same, if you ever get to hear these rare recordings, you will agree...

Admittedly, and for various reasons, I personally never felt DLC reflected myself as a musician accurately, so this latest album of mine, Dark Skies, is more ‘me’ than that band ever was.

I have created this simply from a love of music, from a love of singing and creating rock music and also a love of the 80’s ‘sound’ and sonic dynamic.

I certainly don’t intend to emulate DLC in any form whatsoever, there is no commercial drive and undertow here, which was something my previous lead guitarist Casey was forever pushing at the cost of all credibility and taste.

Futhermore I don’t intend on emulating anything at all actually, I am going to create music that foremost I like and if people also enjoy it and get behind it, then that is an exceedingly welcome bonus.

If they hate the fxck out of it, i’m not worried, i’ll still be sleeping well and having steak for breakfast.

Naturally people will draw a continuation from Street Level to Dark Skies, and in my opinion Dark Skies is better…but that’s biased perhaps.

I think what I would like people to realise is that this is entirely homegrown, I wrote the songs, all the riffs, all the lyrics, melodies, arranged, recorded, organised, promoted, funded, designed all of this right down to the photographs and art, all with the distinct and accepted risk that nobody would be interested.

There’s no sponsors or benefactors, it’s about as ‘real’ as it gets to the extent that while I’m able to, I am personally mailing CD’s from my local post shop.

And i really fxckin’ like that, because that dynamic doesn’t exist in music much anymore.

It’s organic.

Over time the sound will change, there will definitely be another CATALANO album, and it’ll be good, infact I can assuredly say it will be better and you can hold me to that.

With regard to production, correct it is a bit more ‘raw’ and basic, that is quite intentional to be honest…I don’t know for others but I always felt Street Level was a bit over mixed, a bit bland.

Ofcourse it was produced really well from a commercial aspect but I felt there was a certain quality missing.

It’s like Sykes era 1987 compared to Slip Of The Tongue….S.O.T.T was missing a bit of its ‘fxck’…brilliant but efficient and clean.

For me this is my turning away from DLC, my own vessel, my own course, and anybody is welcome to join!

I’m sure the next CATALANO disc will be indeed slicker as budget increases and in turn that will annoy a whole other group of listeners haha

I like my rock with power, with a sharp edge, with fxcking substance.

Music that makes you wanna crack a cold beer and kickoff with some girls or cruise the beach!

You get to that point in production where you cross over the line from voltage into sterility…and in the first instance I would rather stay on the former at the risk of rawness than the latter.

It would only be another few compressors before people were all like “too dry, too dull, too fxckin’ thin, sounds like rubbish”

Fans are fickle, whatever you create there will be people that hate it, and that’s fine, but i would never compromise what i personally like to hear, after all I’m the one who has to live with it and have my name attached to it.

Vocal mix…I’m really not sure what you are hearing, but I will concede to the sentiment and leave interpretation up to the listener.

Thank you to those who have purchased, I can’t stress more the key effect this has for musicians, the fundamental frame of all of this is fans like you who buy the music. It makes it all possible.

(Especially in this day and age of digital piracy!)

NB: There will also be a limited edition line of CATALANO t-shirts coming in the near future, keep an eye on the FB.

Regards, keep kickin’ ass and thankyou for your shared opinions!

\m/

Roxxi Catalano

[Geoff]

...with huge production and backing vox (one thing you are always banging on about) than this new album...

Really? Am I?

[Glen]

 

...with huge production and backing vox (one thing you are always banging on about) than this new album...

Really? Am I?

 

 

Crazy Lixx??

[Geoff]

 

 

...with huge production and backing vox (one thing you are always banging on about) than this new album...

Really? Am I?

 

 

Crazy Lixx??

 

 

Is me mentioning (very rarely, I might add) that the production on that album sucks dog balls (along with a chorus of other posters) really "banging on about production and backing vocals?" I hardly think so, scholar.

[Glen]

 

 

 

...with huge production and backing vox (one thing you are always banging on about) than this new album...

Really? Am I?

 

Crazy Lixx??

 

Is me mentioning (very rarely, I might add) that the production on that album sucks dog balls (along with a chorus of other posters) really "banging on about production and backing vocals?" I hardly think so, scholar.

 

Anyway that's not the point is it.......the point is that De La Cruz has this in abundance and Catalona doesn't so De La Cruz is more 'commercial' imo...........that's all.

[Geoff]

Yeah, fair enough. It's not important. You have a different idea of "commercial" to me and that's fine. I'm purely, 100% just talking about songwriting... that's it for me. The Catalano album is very focused on catchy choruses with good hooks and melody whereas De La Cruz do this too, but split it about 50/50 with just straight ahead hard rock.

[DeLaCruz]

 

Admittedly, and for various reasons, I personally never felt DLC reflected myself as a musician accurately, so this latest album of mine, Dark Skies, is more ‘me’ than that band ever was.

I have created this simply from a love of music, from a love of singing and creating rock music and also a love of the 80’s ‘sound’ and sonic dynamic.

I certainly don’t intend to emulate DLC in any form whatsoever, there is no commercial drive and undertow here, which was something my previous lead guitarist Casey was forever pushing at the cost of all credibility and taste.

 

whaddaya mean by that roxxi? is there stuff that was left on street lev or the ep where you feel credibility or taste is lost or did casey try to push some things you were able to avert?

[DeLaCruz]

not overanalyzing but you say you wrote 80% of the music in de la cruz but at the same time didn't feel it representet you as an artist..... is that solely based on the production or you feel the music that resulted from the band never representet you accurately? which would be weird cause you're written most of the music

[grissolm]

 

I think what I would like people to realise is that this is entirely homegrown, I wrote the songs, all the riffs, all the lyrics, melodies, arranged, recorded, organised, promoted, funded, designed all of this right down to the photographs and art, all with the distinct and accepted risk that nobody would be interested.

There’s no sponsors or benefactors, it’s about as ‘real’ as it gets to the extent that while I’m able to, I am personally mailing CD’s from my local post shop.

And i really fxckin’ like that, because that dynamic doesn’t exist in music much anymore.

It’s organic.

I think the CD sounds just find and rocks hard! I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it. I gotta admit that I had doubts when I heard you were coming with a solo CD. Didn't think much about it and only thought with reservations about it. But wow was I surprised (by the way have you sent one to Spain yet? haha!)

I will definitely check out the next one you're on!

[phaffas]

 

 

Admittedly, and for various reasons, I personally never felt DLC reflected myself as a musician accurately, so this latest album of mine, Dark Skies, is more ‘me’ than that band ever was.

I have created this simply from a love of music, from a love of singing and creating rock music and also a love of the 80’s ‘sound’ and sonic dynamic.

I certainly don’t intend to emulate DLC in any form whatsoever, there is no commercial drive and undertow here, which was something my previous lead guitarist Casey was forever pushing at the cost of all credibility and taste.

 

whaddaya mean by that roxxi? is there stuff that was left on street lev or the ep where you feel credibility or taste is lost or did casey try to push some things you were able to avert?

 

That comment stuck with me also...i happened to love the musical direction on the De La Cruz album - in fact ill spin it again today whilst i train (maybe even the EP too). It was one of the best Aussie releases for a very long time which i think you should be proud of. If it lacks credibilitiy and taste then most albums discussed on this website lack credibility and taste. I dont think there there is any reason to go down that path.

 

Either way, the #1 important thing is now that an Aussie is still making this king of music. It was dissappointing for quite a lot of people when DLC disbanded after one album, but very glad the Catalano album came to be.

[KarpetRydOFunk]

Is Big Cartel the only place to get this at the moment?

[Roxx Catalano]

Ahh I see how that would seem contradictory,but perhaps I worded it wrong.
Yeah absolutely I wrote the lions share of the music, which is not to detract from the others exceptional playing at all! I couldn't have done it alone.
When I say it didn't reflect me (and i can safely speak for RJ, Lace and Grant too) as a musician I mean more in a global sense, an aesthetic etc, we had a vision of a hard rocking band with a long career and it didn't work out as intended. I believe if left unchecked, that album would have been much worse, and I'm thankful we never did a 3rd album. It's difficult not to air dirty laundry on this matter but out of respect I won't. DLC could have and should have been a LOT more, I think we had real staying power

With regard to credibility and taste, it was extremely micro-managed for squeaky clean radio friendly family friendly fun, which interestingly enough was the marked opposite of mine, Lace, RJs and Grants lives at that time, and i truthfully think if that edge had been allowed to remain a bit more then it would have made the songs and vibe a lot better.

Either way that is in the past now, and I appreciate the positive sentiment about my latest album, I'm actually already looking forward to writing the next album already.
It will have more interesting song structures i think, and probably bigger chorus's....and more power. I don't think i will ever stray too far from that sound, it's what first got me into the 80's music, which was better than the rubbish other people were listening to when i was at school in the 2000's.

And yes Spanish CD's have been mailed, and in response, yes also the album etc is only avail thru my big cartel. I was offered a few record deals but rejected them in favour of DIY for this album alone, I was born in New Zealand and that 'built in the garage' mentality is an inherent trait.
Next time I will probably go for a different tack.
Who knows, that's the exciting thing about having a solo rock band.

[KarpetRydOFunk]

Cool. Just wanted to know if there was a closer distributor for shipping purposes. Alas, I'll have to buy it directly from your ass. ;}

 

$7.50 isn't actually outrageous for shipping.

[Roxx Catalano]

$7.50 for all international shipping is actually selling me short in order to give the customer a fair deal. It costs me roughly $9 per album to post. Which over several 100 etc is quite a loss but that is ok. It doesn't factor in to account paypal fee's, cost of the packaging itself etc...it is just the direct postal cost.
But i'd rather fans get the music cheap as possible \m/

[Captain Howdy]

There was nothing hugely wrong with Street level, but somehow it just did not click for me. I know a lot was made of the repetitive choruses, but that never really bothered me, I just didn't find it very hooky despite the sterling musicianship.

Dark skies though I have to say has far more hooks already. I do need to give it more spins as it turned up around the same time as a couple of other CDs, so none of them have been given my full attention yet. But all initial opinions for me are very positive, and its head and shoulders above DLC for me.

[DeLaCruz]

whatever floats your boat, whether one prefers de la cruz or catalano it's all good

 

just seems weird you're being so defensive and trying to justify yourself or distance yourself from dlc roxxi which i'm sure wasn't all THAT bad...... or was it? sure you must've been proud of what you created. now if people perceive it a different way (the music) than it was intended then that's their problem

[grissolm]

.And yes Spanish CD's have been mailed

 

Thanks! I got it this week. That was fast. Just in time for my weekend

[PeterS]

This one passed me by when it was released. Wow. Brilliant. Almost certainly a top 10 of the year.

Was reminded on first listen of Icon and that thought has only strengthened, but as I love Icon that's a really good thing.

[lettard]

Did anyone else receive the cd with tracks 2 & 10 mixed around? or was it only me?

[JLPRocks]

Mine was like that as well.