Monkeys And Cats And Jammers, Oh My!

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 5, 2005 8:45PM

Tonight marks the triumphant return of two local groups long given up for dead. Both Monkey Paw and Cats And Jammers have come out of hibernation to prove to the people that rock and/or roll truly never dies. Monkey Paw got slobbered all over by The Trib earlier today so we will waste no more time on them, other than to affirm that they are indeed a mighty fine live act, and we will turn our attention to Cats And Jammers.

Cats And Jammers is the brainchild of Scott Shell – who is also the man responsible for importing Live Band Karaoke to Chicago after experiencing it at Arlene’s in NYC a few years ago – and it is a group that openly embraces the wide-eyed and wild-toothed wonder of ‘60s garage pop. Please don’t get us wrong and run screaming at the mere mention of the (nowadays) terribly overused “garage” nomenclature since Chicagoist assures you that in this case it is well placed. The group practices pop in its simplest form as the songs bounce around and constantly threaten to fall apart or out of tune or out of rhythm or any number of the other unknowns that make real rock and/or roll so goldanged fun.

Some folks may wonder why a band this entertaining went underground for the last four. Some may wonder just why they chose this moment in time to make a comeback. Some folks ask an awful lot of questions when they should just be enjoying themselves. Chicagoist believes that’s one of the secrets to Cats And Jammers enduring viability. Both Cats And Jammers ands Monkey Paw return to the stage tonight at Schubas.