How many times do you see people get the most terrible leaving presents. At a place I once worked, one of my (male) colleagues left to work nearer his home, and they bought him some tableware. This was a bloke who was well into six feet tall, lived in Barnsley and played bass in a trash metal band. What they were thinking buying him what essentially amounted to a (cheap) dinner service I’ll never know. I don’t suppose it mattered really as they were never going to see him again anyway. Similarly I once got bought the evil that is a tie with a cartoon character on it. The sort of attire that says ‘yeah, I wear a tie to work – but check me out, I’m craaazy!’. Upon wearing it (as a gesture) for the first and only time, I almost found myself wanting to say to people ‘you don’t have to be mad to work here (comedic pause) but it helps!’. Of course, I wasn’t mad and a couple of hours later, I didn’t work there anymore anyway, so it didn’t matter.
Sheffield band cats:for:peru are sadly the ones leaving us now, having decided to call it a day. Starting out in 2007 in the sleepy Sheffield suburb of Dronfield, they’ve risen to a variable degree of prominence (certainly not the level their endearing Indie Rock deserves, mind) with a well received album ‘Attack Of The Pitching Machine’ which came out in December 2009, an EP ‘We Had This Problem Last Winter’ followed and then last year the bad released a double a-side single.
cats:for:peru – Bien/Run out of dogThey’ve decided to give everyone else a leaving present though, and without a daffy duck tie or cheap pottery in sight. Turns out that they recorded four songs for the said double a-sided single released last year, and the other two ‘Bien’ and ‘Run out of dog’ are available for a free download now. Bien is a harmony laden, initially acoustic number, reminiscent of a sort of Arcade Fire/Elbow sort of feel, building to an enormous spine-chilling crescendo. The second track is another winner, with squelchy keyboard riffs under a sort of post-Radiohead guitar work. Its sudden ending makes sense, but leaves you wanting more. A bit like, it seems, cats:for:peru themselves.
The thing about the present I got, like a lot of leaving presents, was it didn’t last long. The present cats:for:peru have left us will last an awful lot longer.
