New Band of the Day: Dangercat

Since moving to Winnipeg just last summer, LTW’s Chris Hearn has seen and heard quite a few great local artists who are part of a thriving scene. A new one for you to check out is pop-punk band Dangercat!

I’ve been sitting here editing and posting articles online and doing various computer work, and all the while have been listening to Dangercat’s “Where I’ll Be” album which was released last May by Winnipeg based Newform Label. I believe I’ve listened to it about 5 times in full at this point. This is good, good stuff and I’m enjoying the heck out of it! Right from the start, it sounded like a familiar old friend, and like an album that I already knew well.

Lately, I’ve been listening to, writing about or dealing with all kinds of music that is NOT punk. So, it’s nice to get back to listening to something a little more ‘punked up’ – it makes for a bit of a comforting change. And what a band to bring a person back to the genre! They are impressive representatives.

Again, like many other punk bands I’ve written about over the last year, they aren’t exactly reinventing the wheel. This is straight-forward, simple and good 90’s style Fat Wreck Chords soaked pop punk. ‘Where I’ll Be’ is honestly one of the best pop punk albums I listened to this year. They are excellent at what they do and deserve to be noticed.

The first time I heard about Dangercat was at a showcase of music videos from Manitoba Music during the Nuit Blanche event here in Winnipeg held in September. That night, they had videos playing on the IMAX theatre screen downtown and live performances from bands. Dangercat’s video for the title song of the album just cracked me right up! I thought it was such a good idea. Punk puppets doing party punk things at a punk house show with Dangercat. I like it. I like puppets, what can I say. This was cool. It hooked me in.

Dangercat has been around in one form or another since 2007. The current line-up is Keith Dueck on guitars and vocals, Ryan Roemer on bass and Dylan James on drums. That was only solidified in 2011 however. They have a split EP with Everyone Everywhere and an EP called ‘Head in the Clouds’. And, they now have their full length out. So, they’ve been busy! Keith does the song writing as well, and according to their website “Singer Keith Dueck cuts out the filler and writes what he knows, that family and friends matter more than possessions, and the working class struggle.” Well, okay then. There you have it!

So, now that I know of Dangercat and really dig them I now want everyone else to know about Dangercat because they are rather infectious with their catchy, hooky, loud, sing-a-long anthems. This is a virus you want to have…the Dangercat pop punk virus. It’s one of those fun viruses that lift you up and make you feel good as opposed to the kind that will kill you.

Thus far, I haven’t seen them live, but they seem to be playing shows fairly regularly around town so chance are good that I’ll be checking them out soon. I’ve heard good things thus far, not that I am surprised in the slightest.

Check out Dangercat on Facebook and twitter and you can pick buy their music on their bandcamp page. They also have their own official webpage at www.dangercatband.com.

Words by Chris Hearn. More writing by Chris on Louder Than War can be found here.