Cats Laughing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cats Laughing is a now-defunct folk rock band based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The group consisted of Steven Brust, Emma Bull, Bill Colsher, Lojo Russo, and Adam Stemple. Both Brust and Bull are better known as writers of fantasy and science fiction. Stemple has also written a fantasy novel, and co-authored the Rock 'n Roll Fairy Tale series with his mother, the fantasy writer and editor Jane Yolen.
The group released two albums, The Bootleg Issue (1988, also released as The First Album) and Another Way To Travel (1990). Another Way to Travel featured cover art by editor and author Terri Windling and a song co-written by science fiction and fantasy writer John M. Ford.
Bull later played in folk duo The Flash Girls, while Stemple was lead singer and guitarist for the folk punk band Boiled in Lead. Russo switched from bass to mandolin to play in the Irish band Gallowglass, then began a solo career in 1993. The group occasionally reunited as late as the mid-1990s.[1]
[edit] References in other media
- Marvel Comics superhero Kitty Pryde described Cats Laughing as her favorite band. The band members themselves appeared in Excalibur #5 and Excalibur: Mojo Mayhem.
- The song "Signal to Noise", written by Emma Bull for the first Cats Laughing album, supplied the title for a graphic novel of the same name by Neil Gaiman. The song was later recorded by The Flash Girls.[2]
- Cats Laughing appears as a band in Borderland, a series of urban fantasy novels and stories created by Terri Windling.[3]
- Cats Laughing also appear in Spider Robinson's novel The Callahan Touch, and "among other weird and wonderful things [play] Lady Day's classic 'Gloomy Sunday' in Hungarian."[4]
- Born to Run, an urban fantasy novel by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon, makes a passing reference to "a few humans in Cats Laughing... concert-tour sweatshirts.[5]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Meyer, Jim. "Lojo Russo seeks ethereal accessibility", Star Tribune, January 5, 1996, pp. 02.E.
- ^ McCabe, Joe (2004). Hanging Out With the Dream King: Interviews with Neil Gaiman and His Collaborators. Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics Books, 254. ISBN 1-56097-617-9.
- ^ Sherman, Delia (1999). The Essential Bordertown: A Traveller's Guide to the Edge of Faerie. New York: Tor Books, 164. ISBN 0-312-86703-4.
- ^ Robinson, Spider (1995). The Callahan Touch. New York: Ace Books, 167. ISBN 0-44100-133-5.
- ^ Lackey, Mercedes; Larry Dixon (1999). The Chrome Borne. Riverdale, NY: Baen, 166. ISBN 0-671-57834-0.
