Satan’s Cats – Satan’s Cats EP

Satan’s Cat’s are the meeting of vintage first wave UK punk band, Satan’s Rats, and Puss Johnson of Pussycat And The Dirty Johnsons. Satan’s Rats originally burned brightly before imploding in the late 70’s, the result of that implosion led to the formation of The Photos, with the addition of Wendy Wu on vocals, who peaked early with their superb self titled debut album before the music industry chewed them up and spat them out. Now they are back with the claws and vocals of Puss Johnson upfront, who has been tearing it up across the UK with Pussycat And The Dirty Johnsons for over a decade.

Satan’s Rats might have formed, recorded, toured, including supporting the Sex Pistols, and split up long before Puss Johnson was even a kitten, but it turns out the combination of old school punk rock with hellraising rock ’n roll was a stroke of genius. The EP features four classics from the Rats’ repertoire, You Make Me Sick, Facade, Sex Object (the only track to have been recorded by all three incarnations) and Year Of The Rats, and a cover of Thin Lizzy’s The Rocker. Almost four and half decades of dust is blown away, the delivery of the original trio belies their years and the addition of the energetic Puss Johnson front and centre brings new life to the tracks. There is talk of an album to follow, whether this will continue to mine Satan’s Rats back catalogue, dip into The Photos era of the band or become an entity in it’s own right remains to be seen, but on the basis of this debut EP we can only hope there’s more to come.

This is is not the first time vintage punk acts have recruited much younger people to accompany them, TV Smith (The Adverts) regularly plays with the Bored Teenagers to resurrect his back catalogue and Eater Frontman Andy Blade has relaunched that first wave band with the accompaniment provided by JoJo & The Teeth. Satan’s Cats however, does not feel like a resurrection, whilst still retaining the old school feel of the songs, the tracks are updated, crucially including some of the lyrics as some things written over forty years ago can age quite badly, and the songs are delivered with renewed vigour and energy. You might be able to teach an old dog new tricks, but if you really want to change things up the message is clear, get a cat!

The Satan’s Cats EP will be released on the 4th November and is now available for pre-order via Bandcamp.