Cat’s eh? Bien

The beauty of using headings is you can do hilarious puns like this. It’s not really a very good pun as this is nothing to do with cats, it’s about the band Kasabian. So although it’s like a play on words in way – say it “Cat’s eh bien” : it sounds like you’re saying Kasabian! [though you have to not pause/raise your voice at the question mark like might seem appropriate for it to work]- it would really only work as a good pun if it was about cats dancing to Kasabian. *Goes to YouTube to look if there is any videos of cats dancing to Kasabian*  No there aren’t any. There is this, though, which is just called ‘Katsabian’ but is merely a cat (if it was a meerkat that ‘merely’ would have been an excellent pun in its own right and of course been hilarious because it was meerkats and everyone could say ‘simples’ and laugh like a drain; unless people have stopped laughing at meerkats, realising the momentary giggle causeed by market and meerkat sounding vaguely familiar was anything other than a momentary giggle. At best).

So I have had chance to listen to the new Kasabian album. It is ok. And therein lies the genius of Kasabian. They are not geniuses. By never being particularly remarkable they don’t really let themselves in for a fall from grace. Each album is as alright as its predecessor. By occasionally sounding a bit dancy or dark they get away with never really being inspiring. Don’t get me wrong, I quite like them. But they aren’t doing anything to rocky my world. [I wouldn’t mind if they became massive because (a) their music appeals to me (without ever taking my breath away); and (b) it would make me seeing them in a really small venue in Chicago 5 years ago seem a lot cooler.]

By never defining a generation or releasing an album that could be described as really good, never mind (nevermind eh? BOOM!) they can never really fall from a pedestal like Oasis or disintegrate leaving millions wanting more – like The Stone Roses. They are by no means the only band you could label could throw this allegation; they are just the only one who seems to be truly big in some way. “Decisions are made by those that turn up,” Aaron Sorkin once wrote, for President JEd Barlett in The West Wing; Kasabian are turning up in a vacuum of a big group and getting to wear a crown on the back of it.

There are better bands of course, for my money The Arctic Monkeys are the best band out there right now; they, however, don’t play the game (well they do, to a degree) but to be the band to sell out arenas and inspire Oasis comparisons ad infinitum you have to decree yourselves as the saviours of British music. Something Kasabian are not afraid to do.

And don’t get me started on how much Oasis got grief for Beatles references and shit,there is a track on the new Kasabian album with a lyric about Lucy in the sky. Dear me. There’s one that reminds me of Cruel Summer by Bananarama though so it can’t be that bad.