catfish and the bottlemen came back and all i got is this stupid broken mic
Back to the graft again they said... Back My Ass!!
We’ve all been waiting for the biggest band no one know about to come back in all their glory. If you asked me 2 years ago if I thought Catfish would make a comeback, I would’ve told you that I wasn’t even sure if Van McCann was alive.
Bondy (CATB ex-guitarist) came out and said that the band’s relationship was completely dysfuntional and someone’s attitude was intolerable (much like my parents’) and that he left the band in March 2021. They pulled out of shows because of “unforeseen circumstances”, a trend we’ll see again by the way. All hope was lost, the crocodiles were deflated, the coocon was gone, I’m not 7 hours behind anymore and oxygen is not overrated. But then, all of the sudden we started hearing voices coming from the graveyard, it’s like one of our longshots paid off.
Is that a new CATB song? There’s no way… Is that CATB headlining Leeds? No fucking way!!
February 22nd, 2024. The best day for the most annoying person you know, Catfish are back, my best friend Van is back with a great tune. I don’t care if people don’t like “Showtime”. I love it, and that’s all that matters. Name a better way to come back after 5 years without new music that “Back to the graft again / just sold my voice for a long weekend” . Are we getting a whole new album? Are we getting a tour? Festival dates? Something great for The Balcony’s 10th anniversary? Not exactly.
Sefton Park was the first concert back in what felt like forever. The crowd was static. Are we sure Van is actually here? Who’s the drummer? Who’s the guitarist? Can they play the solos the way my closest friend Bondy can? Turns out Kai is great, but it’s a fucking mess on stage. Van’s hair is very long and by the end of the night very sweaty, constantly in his face, he’s messing up his own lyrics, he’s running around in stage, he’s playing limbo with the mic cord and getting pissed off because the mic is magically broken. The streets say he’s high out of his mind. He’s just a little bit silly, let him be.
It doesn’t matter if user4348938 thinks it’s a mess. I love it, my band is back. Do you know what that does to the 13 year old girl that still lives in me? Imagine what it must be like to a musician. You thought all your hard work is in the bin, but now you have the chance to start new. I would’ve run around stage and played limbo too.
Now we can get excited. We’ve got a whole tour lined up, we’ve got Reading & Leeds, possibly a new album. Life is good, I’m indie sleazing, fanfics are starting to hit again. I am on cloud 9. MY BAND IS BACK BITCHES!!
We are at Reading & Leeds Music Festival. My favorite time of the year, close to Glasto. It’s my yearly ritual of crying while watching concert videos, because I live in a 3rd world country 12.330 km away, but now I’m watching my boy Van headline Leeds like he promised he would.
Well, there goes the power, their fucking guitars aren’t working… What is he doing? Shut up. He sung Coocon (world’s best FIFA song) acapella with the crowd AND I WASN’T THERE. That’s real heartbreak.
Whatever, I can miss Leeds, I’m sure they’ll come to Lollapalooza next year, but after their tour in America, the UK and Australia. Oh, right, there is no tour.
Remember when we talked about the initial break up and how they started cancelling shows. Well, they cancelled their entire tour without telling anybody because of “health issues”. The first show to go was Dublin… 5 minutes before they opened the doors. To all my people that were in Ireland, you are better than me. I’d still be crying outside that venue.
The street say some sort of OD, but those are just the whispers in the street not me (pls don’t sue me).
All over again, hope was lost… maybe. My friend is a huge FIFA fan, and the soundtrack release is like his Christmas. We were on a facetime call when he started talking about it.
“It’s really diverse and good, there’s your indie shit, my latin shit and some popular stuff” he said.
“What indie shit is there?” I laughed at his peculiar way of phrasing it.
“Those Fontaines guys you won’t shut up about and that Van dude” He said. That Van dude?
“What, is it Showtime?” I asked, intrigued at the endless possibilities. There’s no way, that song doesn’t really fit the vibe right? Is there a new song? Am I hearing voices coming from the graveyard again?
“No, it’s something called Suntitled” He said and I stopped breathing “Is it any good? You haven’t played it for me yet”
“When is the game out?” I’m sorry I ignored your question darling.
“September 20th, why?” Oh my god that’s in 3 days.
3 days, a possible new song and we know nothing.
Catfish this is a direct message for you. If you need a media manager, someone with a twitter account, a mailing list, whatever, I am the girl for you. I can even arrage carrier pigeons if you prefer, but for the love of God communicate with us.
Look, I don’t know if this is the end of Catfish and the Bottlemen or if we are on the brink of a fresh new start. Maybe it’s for the best that Catfish as we know it gets buried, either way, I do think it deserves a proper funeral.
Maybe we’ll get a Ryan McCann solo album or collaborations, but in the mean time they should fix their biggest public issue right now; uncertainty. And the only way to tackle it is to download twitter and instagram and tik tok and talking to your people.