Cheem’s short, sweet and humble note accompanying their first (?) EP, describes themselves as “soft punk electronic stadium kitty rock.� This could either be the most perfectly concise way to describe this L.A. band, or it could be of no help whatsoever; it depends on the listener. First, their logo includes a kitty, their website has a kitty’s photos all over it, and on the first track here, aptly titled “Kitty,� they sing about kitty (something about breaking its neck the way his mama showed him how, and “kit kit kit kitty! Meow meow . . .�). It’s immediately endearing to a fellow crazy cat person as myself (you cat people will know what I mean), but it also leaves one begging the question, “Are they serious?� Moving on to subsequent tracks, however, one can discern that they are indeed serious, mostly, as the songs are astutely arranged and played by the proficient players—singer/guitarist Billie Sola, guitarist Dan Dyer and drummer Martin Silva. Cheem collectively combine lumbering backing tracks and otherwise tricky percussion with walls of buzzing guitar to buoy Sola’s high-pitched vocals. Track 2, “Viking,� picks up the pace with a trippy dance beat along with the buzzing guitar; “Owl� drops back down to a plodding speed; “Lover� is a happy medium with slow swaggering beat behind Sola’s soulful yet slightly creepy vocals exclaiming, “My lover my lover my lover has gone, he doesn’t want me anymore.� The final track is the best, concentrating on the same lumbering beat, but with Silva’s very cool, mellow and jazzy beats spotlighted—real and programmed—with smatterings of Sola’s soulful vox. Not sure what Cheem would deliver live, but this EP is a unique collision of electronica, rock guitar and skilled percussion.
-Penelope Biver
