“Part of the reason why we gravitated towards Americana and country music was that the tradition was so full of complicated characters, and storytelling,’ says Grammy- and Tony-Winner Michael Cerveris, who along with Kimberly Kaye, fronts Loose Cattle, a band who have been part of New Orleans, Louisiana’s uniquely diverse and eclectic roots music scene for over a decade. The pair of bandleaders—a one-time couple, enduring friends, and lifelong working artists—put such an emphasis on character development and storyline because, well, they’ve spent most of their lives acting, singing, and playing, logging hours under stage lights on- and off-Broadway, in punk clubs and on Warped Tour stops, and in honky tonks and classic theaters country-wide. And with their upcoming release, Someone’s Monster—out November 1st on Single Lock Records—Loose Cattle have taken the reins and written their own roles for their first LP where original compositions take center stage. They’ve also written in parts for friends like Lucinda Williams, members of Drive By Truckers, and the Grammy-winning Lost Bayou Ramblers who make guest appearances throughout Someone’s Monster.
“We may have started as a very casual cover band, but that’s not where we’ve landed,” says Kaye. Take for example the hard-rocking, REM-inspired album-opener, “Further On,” penned by Cerveris in the throes of the pandemic when vaccines and reopenings were starting to give everyone hope that life might be returning to “normal.” “And that’s when things got even darker, and people got even weirder,” remembers Cerveris. “When things were at their darkest, I had this faint hope that this all might be a real turning point around the world. I guess my years of watching sci-fi movies had given me visions of the way humanity always shows up when invaders from another planet threaten life on earth.” “Further On” ended up being Loose Cattle’s attempt to reckon with the idea that the global threat to humans was being turned into another opportunity to sow hate, lies, and fear in an already vulnerable populace. “I knew we knew better, I just thought we would have been better.”
“When Michael sent his first draft of the chorus to me during the Pandemic, I immediately thought ‘god dammit, I hate how this one sentence sums it all up so succinctly,’” says Kaye. “Now it’s 2024, so much time has passed, and somehow that one line is summing up even more, even more succinctly.” Musically, “Further On” is a full-blown rocker, drenched in Rurik Nunan’s foreboding minor-key fiddle embellishments. “I’m infatuated with Rurik’s fiddling on this song,” says Kaye. “Sonically, I feel like ‘Further On’ is a Molotov cocktail being thrown out a front door as a greeting, and his violin communicates how flammable our collective frustration feels so clearly.”
Fans can stream or purchase “Further On” today and pre-order or pre-save Someone’s Monster ahead of its November 1st release on Single Lock Records right here. Make note of the band's NYC release show at Joe's Pub on Nov. 18 with Nashville and New Orleans release shows to be announced soon. For more information, please visit loosecattleband.com.
In addition to the album announcement, Loose Cattle’s Michael Cerveris has also just been announced as the newest member of the cast of Tammy Faye, a new Broadway production which Financial Times called a “divinely delirious glitz-bomb of a musical.” The musical, which features music by Elton John and lyrics by Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears, will begin preview performances on October 19th and will officially open on November 14th. For more information, click here.
Someone’s Monster Tracklist:
Further On
Joanne
Cheneyville
Here’s That Attention You Ordered
God’s Teeth
Crescent City
Before We Begin
Not Over Yet
The Shoals
Antiversary
Big Night Out
Tender Mercy
About Loose Cattle: Loose Cattle is led in tandem by Michael Cerveris and Kimberly Kaye—a onetime couple, enduring friends and lifelong working artists. The band was formed more than ten years ago in New York City, but found its momentum when the pair moved to New Orleans, broke up and were welcomed into its warm (and expert) musical community. They joined forces with Rene Coman and Doug Garrison, 30-year veterans of the Latin-inflected roots-rockers the Iguanas and Alex Chilton’s former rhythm section; they also roped in fiddler and vocalist Rurik Nunan as a regular, plus a host of repeat co-conspirators from a bench that, in the Crescent City, is even deeper than the Mississippi that runs through it.
Kaye is conservatory-trained in trumpet, jazz vocals and musical theater; she also traveled the Warped Tour circuit in the late ‘90s, playing with teenage ska-punk bands. WV-raised Cerveris toured as a guitarist with Husker Du’s Bob Mould and scooped up a pair of Tonys and a Grammy Award during a stage-and-screen career that’s included the title roles in Tommy, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and Sweeney Todd; close work with composers from Pete Townshend and Elton John to Andrew Lloyd Webber and Steven Sondheim; and a rogue’s gallery of cult-favorite weirdos on Fox, HBO and Netflix. “Part of the reason why we gravitated towards Americana and country music was that the tradition was so full of complicated characters, and storytelling,’ Cerveris says. They’ve played Lincoln Center, NPR’s Mountain Stage and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival; both Rolling Stone Country and No Depression nodded to their 2017 album Seasonal Affective Disorder on its best-of lists.
Loose Cattle are inheritors of the progressive politics and compassionate humanity of folk and country truth-tellers past and present, some of whom have become friends: both Lucinda Williams and Patterson Hood guest on Someone’s Monster (out Nov. 1) produced by John Agnello (Son Volt, Dinosaur Jr.) as their debut for the mighty Southern indie Single Lock Records. The album ably takes on these weird American times with tenderness, rigor, empathy, and guitars.
