Sexcat prowl onto the scene with a big R&B/dance sound

By Andrea Swensson Tue., Sep. 27 2011 at 10:08 AM

Categories: Band to Watch

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Photo by Eric Elvendahl

Over the weekend I had a chance to catch Sexcat at Clubhouse Jager, and was taken aback by what a huge sound was being pumped by of this new band. Walking up to the show, the group's R&B beats and lead singer Hannah von der Hoff's smokey voice pierced the air for several blocks surrounding the venue, and by the time I got to Jager's back patio I had to get a closer look at just who or what was creating such scintillating music on stage.

One surprising element of Sexcat is that they're an honest-to-god new band, not just some reformation of existing Twin Cities musicians, at least as far as co-frontwomen von der Hoff and Megan Charles are concerned; Baltimore transplant Garrett Neal is a familiar face in the indie rock scene and most recently played in Fake Places, but Sexcat is a different twist for him.

Sexcat's songs are mostly about sex and partying, but their ear for melody and creating enveloping beats gives their songs more heft than you'd normally think sex-and-party music would have. Part of that comes from the fact that von der Hoff and Charles each have a natural presence on stage -- von der Hoff plays the badass while Charles slinks around like a party girl looking for trouble -- and part of it comes from the heavy reverb on the frontwomen's vocals, which makes it sound like they are performing in a cavernous dancehall, or maybe a giant cave in the middle of the night. You can listen to the lyrics or you can get lost in the sonorous radiance of von der Hoff's voice; I chose to mostly do the latter on Saturday.

The band ended their set by passing bottles of champagne through the crowd (something I'd never seen happen at a show before but which the crowd wholeheartedly accepted as people took turns swigging from the bottles) and singing a song I can only imagine is called "Champagne in Your Face." They followed that up with a straight-faced cover of Ginuwine's "Pony" and paid homage to their '90s R&B influences.

Check out a couple of their demos here:

Thunderbaked (DEMO) by SEXCATband

Sexpot (DEMO) by SEXCATband

It doesn't look like they have any shows on the books right now but you can keep an eye on their Facebook page for future performances.

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