This Charlotte-based rock duo takes a light-hearted approach to its music. Not that the music itself is silly, but the lyrical content focuses on comic book characters with themes of magic and science intertwined … oh yeah, and there’s dinosaurs and cats.
First listen to the band, comprised of singer/guitarist Chris Rigo and singer/drummer Sara English, sounds a bit like the illegitimate offspring of The White Stripes and Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory. The drumming is straightforward, and while Rigo tosses a fuzzed-out riff or two in for good measure, even the strumming can stay simple when needed. Singing — it’s more often yelling in excitement for a prehistoric creature of some sort.
The project has always felt like a creative outlet/side project for the former Sugar Glyder guitarist/current Kodiak Brotherhood drummer and his girlfriend. And why not? It’s not like all music has to be taken seriously. After all, the words to the song “Ter-O-Dac-Tal Man” are just that … and nothing else aside from the occasional “hey!” The words to the song “Dinosaurs!” aren’t much more than “dinosaurs” and “yeah!”
It will take a while to get through this EP’s six tracks, as the album — the. entire. album. — clocks in at just over nine minutes. (Read the first part of that sentence with a hint of sarcasm, please.) The instant impression is that Solar Cat is about a simple good time, simple good songs and turning your hobbies into a musical project. If you threw in more talk of physics and subatomic particles, I bet Sheldon Cooper and his buddies would love it.
This article appears in Apr 22-28, 2015.
