NEWS
3.2.2009
This certainly didn't count as "very soon" and for that I apologize.
Things that have happened since the last update: We toured most of the fall.
I said sad goodbyes to my Minnesota band and joyful hellos to new Seattle folks.
I gained an affinity for Tullamore Dew, an Irish Whiskey that's tastier than Jameson, but inexplicably no more or less expensive. Come on T-Dew, you've got to fill a niche.
We shall see what happens with touring soon. I really want to, but finding folks in Seattle unattached to jobs/lovers/bathing is going to take a bit of time.
That is fine, in most ways they have it right and I am confused and compensating for something it will probably take the bulk of my life to figure out.
I have a bunch of new songs and exciting plans to record them, more about that in the near future.
We're playing great shows this spring in the NW, come check us out if you get a chance. Thanks for making us a big or small part of your day or days, see ya soon!
-Eric
7.25.2008
Whoa! The new CD is out in the world. Look at it below! Stream it into your ears!
Buy it with your credit card! Do neither of those things!
We're booking a fall tour that is going to be pure magic.
If you live above the 40th parallel and west of the 85th meridian we're probably coming to your town.
(We're going from Seattle to Chicago and back).
That is all for now, much more very soon,
-Eric
BIOGRAPHY
Let's be honest. Most band bios are exercises in two things: Writing about yourself in third person and using flowery, alliterative language. When you read something like "Cataldo's moody melodies shed light on obvious song-smithing prowess," you know who's writing that shit. Me. Eric Anderson.
"Cataldo" is a band name I picked because "Eric Anderson and His Friends Who Play Music Well" didn't make a sensible acronym. That's who makes the recordings, that's who plays the shows, and that's how it will remain for the foreseeable future. Sometimes I play shows by myself. Why I picked that specific name is more complicated.
The Cataldo Mission is the oldest standing building in Idaho, where I was born and grew up. Built by a Jesuit priest named Anthony Ravalli, it's a gorgeous church that seems the picture of old world dignity and craftsmanship. In reality, it was created using simple tools, unpaid Indian labor, and cheap, provincial building materials. The internal frame was constructed using lumber cut and carried to the site. The chandeliers were made from tin cans. The walls were draped in fabric from Ft. Walla Walla, and are, in fact, hollow. Ravalli and his workers used simple materials to fashion this building, a testament to rural resourcefulness and ingenuity that you can still walk around in today.
So what am I trying to say? I want to make beautiful things using people and tools around me. I believe in circuitous, round-about methods, trying as hard as you can, and fucking up as much as is necessary before you get things right. I believe in counter-melodies, gang vocals, and the banjo. Most of all I believe in singing things that are important to me and might be important to you. Thanks for your time,
-Eric
PRESS
"Harmonically rich, lyrically intricate composition...accompanied by jangly banjos, subdued guitars, percussive piano and a bevy of guest singers."
-Paste Magazine: Emergent Artist Feature"The sometimes sleepy, often sparse musical nature of Signal Fire is one of thoughtfully placed eloquence, combined with his sweet, sweet tenor. "
-City Pages"Eric Anderson, the face of Cataldo, seems to have a hundred heartstring-pullers in his pockets. Though songs which are reflective of bad times and nostalgic for good times tend to permeate independent music as a whole, Anderson’s words seem as authentic as the subtle and smooth music that follows it. "
-Volume One"Anderson has put together eleven songs that run the gamut of slow love duets to group sing-alongs catchy enough to make you want to throw up. Filled with love and warmth, Signal Flare is an album that doesn’t care if you listen to it. But you won’t be able to resist. "
-Sun On the Sand"Sure, you’ve heard heart-on-sleeve-sad-sack-folk-rock a thousand times before, but has it ever been dressed up this pretty? On Cataldo’s sophomore album Signal Flare, the sound of a sighing heart is tethered to joyous banjos, raucous group sing alongs and alarmingly catchy melodies. Being down-hearted has never felt so good. "
-Metromix Magazine"What truly holds Signal Flare together is the exchange between the musicians: You can hear it in the collective voices calling back in chorus to Anderson, the connectedness of the violins, the bantering of guitar, mandolin and banjo — the "freedom of the moment" that Anderson wanted so much to achieve. If his aim was to utilize what was around him in making a great sound, Cataldo has surely benefited from outstanding resources. It's an album that will likely last for a while and continue to draw you in deeper with each listen. "
-The Inlander
"Anderson's eye, particularly for a songwriter so young (just 21 and
graduating from Macalester College in St. Paul this spring), is
uncommonly sharp. Signal Flare's eleven songs are all relationship
oriented ruminations, but rather than the emotional bleating that
frequently entails Anderson's boyish tuneful tenor deals in precisely
captured moments, following the short story writer's dictum of 'show,
don't tell' when it comes to conveying emotional truths ("Years ago I
swore I'd never buy a queen size bed, over too many drinks. Lords
knows how I got four pillows but two of them would fit your pretty
dents perfectly").
The album also breaks the mold musically, eschewing the hermetic dude
with a guitar route of most home-recorded folk pop (nearly a dozen
musical guests from the Twin Cities and Pacific Northwest help
Anderson flesh out his tunes) and employing a bevy of lavish
instrumentation to dress up his simple homespun melodies in high style
(banjo, brass, strings, distorted windchimes, various pianos and
keyboards). "I would be a fool to know musicians this good and not
ask them to play on my record," says Anderson, clearly enthused to
shine the spotlight on others. "As soon as I heard Shawn Neary [of
Seymore Saves the World] play bass I knew I wanted to record with him
if I could, it was the same thing hearing Adam Svec [of The Glad
Version] sing. It was a blast trying to figure out arrangements with
all of my friends here in Minnesota and the Northwest."
True to Anderson's take on the album Signal Flare's multi-faceted
charms are strongly bolstered by its collaborative energy, a number of
the songs feature large group sing along choruses and the album
features not one, but three, stirring duets in which Anderson trades
verses with up and coming songwriters from across the country
(Californian songbirds Heather Frederick and Lily Maring,
Pennsylvania's Jordan Smith), folks he's befriended on tour and
spending last summer living in the always percolating indie music
scene of Olympia, Washington."