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DEATH CAT is an American art-punk band formed in Detroit Michigan in 2008. The band is known for their eclectic, chaotic and high energy performances. They are considered a multi-platform or cross-media band, stemming from their music, comic books, movies & art.

Early Years 2008-2010

DEATH CAT originally was formed by ToM Cat(real name ToM Zarzecki) in Detroit Michigan. The songs "Evil Dead" and "Mind Brain" were originally written for former bands BathrooM in 2005 AND KillAttacK in 2006. The songs would appear on the debut album "Anti-Existence". The band originally consisted of ToM on vocals and guitar and Jade Dunn on drums. The band was originally called "ToM Noise" until September 2008 when they played a set at a DIY house in Ann Arbor Michigan.

DEATH CAT performed around Michigan and gained some local college radio attention with their demos and live recordings. Jade Dunn would frequently disappear, leaving half of the shows to be solo sets either acoustic or electric. The early songs were considered by fans and reviews to be anything from punk, thrash, experimental, screamo to fast blues.

At a punk show at the Token Lounge, after performing, ToM threw a large cup of water at a band because he thought they were "wimpy" which caught the attention of Austin Sowersby also known as "Scummy Bear". Austin auditioned for bass, but couldn't play fast enough. They thought it would be more interesting to have him play synth keyboard instead for a more unique sound.

Although technically Austin and Jade were in the band at the same time for months, they both were so inconsistent and unreliable that they never actually met. DEATH CAT would perform mainly at bars and coffee shops, getting into arguments and fights for refusing to turn the volume down or being too vulgar. At a coffee shop in Plymouth, during a solo performance, the manager complained that customers from the other room had been leaving and that DEATH CAT was banned from the shop. ToM Cat, having been playing there for sometime, in anger, knocked over a few tables of coffee, swearing and took off speeding in his car after the owner called the police.

The band recorded the demo "Basement Stupicide", spoofing a song from a previous band and shortly later the "Anti-Existence" album, originally called "Nihilistic Love Despair". There was an error with the 8 track recorder, and Jade again disappeared, after recording the songs "Roboscape" and "A Fresh Death", leaving ToM to use drum machines on the keyboard, resulting in a very sloppy, aggressive, lo-fi sound.

Austin was kicked out of the band according to ToM because half of practices were spent, getting ToM to drive him around to buy drugs and flaking on shows. They agreed to remain friends and work on other music projects such as the noise improv version of DEATH CAT called "Gatto di Morte" as well as Austin's noise rock group "LED Laser Dildo Helmets".

In September 2009, Seth Mehan moved up from Toledo Ohio and joined DEATH CAT on drums. Shortly after, Joseph O'seph joined on keyboard. Joseph O'seph is a solo folk musician and comedian that would frequently perform at First Cup Organic Coffee in Redford Michigan where "ToM DEATH CAT" would perform weekly, along with their friend Dan Kennedy who put together shows and compilation CDs.

This lineup of DEATH CAT wrote & recorded most of the second album "Submit to Nothing". They performed to very small audiences, sometimes with one or two people at shows. The band also began experimenting with LSD and recording music and making art. This era was known as "The War Against the Living". Barry Bednarski joined the band playing various things from violin, synthesizers through PCs, the board game Kerplunk on a microphone, thunder boom springs, sometimes keyboard and various other instruments. The band also would play art-galleries, taping sparklers to the guitar and throwing poppers at the audience. Around this time, the band built a malfunctioning robot that would create sounds to their music, calling it "Demodog-1138" which would jokingly be considered the most reliable band member since.

The band began to experiment with making music videos and short movies at this time. They started the first version of the acid influenced film "Telepathic Telephones" as well as the mockumentary "The Curse of the Death Cat". The band often performed at art galleries, basements and garages around this time.

Chicago Years 2010-2012

In late 2009 and early 2010, Joseph, then ToM moved to Chicago Illinois. ToM spent the first month homeless, sleeping in the lounge room of a hostel and various couches. They were taking LSD, filming movies and street performing often. They performed without a drummer for awhile, mostly improvising sets. Between 2009-2010 they recorded five improvised albums under Gatto di Morte. The band changed the name back and forth from DEATH CAT, Gatto di Morte and смерть кота. After a bad psychedelic drug trip that resulted in existential crises, ToM and Joseph distanced themselves.

ToM finished the Submit to Nothing album with drum machines, playing synth on most of the album and released it on cassette tape in 2011 under his own label "Not-Recordz", which he would also release

In 2011 Jesse Kimo Knowles, a student from SAIC joined the band. His first show was with ToM and Joseph, playing a sheet of metal with contact mics on it. Jesse became the keyboardist, being a very sophisticated musician who helped re-shape the band's structure better. ToM's girlfriend, Melissa Birckhead at the time had secretly been taking drum lessons after seeing other drummers constantly back out of joining the band. She became the drummer and they finished building Demodog-1138. The band would perform around Chicago as well as Ypsilanti and Detroit Michigan until September of 2012.

The badn also released "The Curse of the Death Cat" mockumentary in April 2012.

The band wrote and recorded the third album "Guadare la Morte in Faccia" and it was released on Not-Recordz after the band members parted ways when ToM moved back to Michigan.

2013

2013 was essentially a year of hiatus where DEATH CAT only performed a handful of times with random members. During this time, ToM with and past members of the band filmed the movie "Telepathic Telephones", recording soundtrack music and early versions of future songs.

Los Angeles Years 2013-2021

In September of 2013 ToM relocated to Los Angeles California where he met Spirit Sanctus.

In 2014 Spirit Sanctus joined DEATH CAT as the accordionist. They would perform as a two piece on the streets of Hollywood as well as various venues and clubs. Later that year Ryan Skaggs joined the band as the first official bassist of the band and Matt D on drums. The band performed as this lineup for almost a year until Matt was kicked out. The band recruited friend, Phillip Haut to play drums on their 0 Function EP in 2015. Around the same time, Harry Cloud joined the band as the drummer.

This line up of DEATH CAT became the most successful at the time. They embarked on their first U.S. tour on the west coast for three and a half weeks in summer of 2015. They released their Zero Function EP after many issues with the Old Boots studio which is said to have involved the ghost of Barry White hiding car keys, and bass strings snapping in half after heated arguments with the audio engineer. It was said that the tape reel machine was used by Barry White prior. The band had to transfer the tapes to another format by sending it to a man who took the tapes to Australia, then transferred the digital files back to tape to finish recording at Phillip Haut's Unisex studios. They four tracks ended up costing them over $1,500. The album was released on cassette as a split with three other L.A. bands. The band played SoCal and Las Vegas frequently.

The band toured across the country in summer 2016.

In 2016, the band switched over to recording at Kitten Robot Studios. They recorded and released "Horrible Halloween Noizes", an album that consisted as half spooky halloween sounds and half noise punk songs.

ToM Cat was quoted saying:

"I remember Ryan and Harry were pissed for a minute, asking me why we were spending studio money to record me stepping on leaves and jingling chains, but after the album came together, it all made sense."

In spring of 2017, Spirit Sanctus left the band and was replaced by Svetlana Lucifer on keyboard. The band recorded the "Abstraction EP" which had more of a prog rock, art-punk vibe, as well as a few songs for the "Dodo Bird/Dirt/Eyeball album".

After their 2017 tour, Harry Cloud left the band, and Svetlana was dropped.

A friend, Nikolitsa Boutierros joined the band on drums and Batman Catman on keyboard. The band also had a consistent live painter in the band for this period. KT Kinetic joined the band on saxophone and backing vocals. This "Dodo bird/Dirt/Eyeball" era of the band had more of a avant garde, jazz punk sound, having little to no distortion, absence of guitar on half the songs and album and having a beatnik, poetry theme. During this time, the band finished writing and recording the album which was bass driven. They had guest accordionists, Aaron Marshal Cohen, Carrot Topp from the Radioactive Chicken Heads and Matt ????????? perform on the album and for a few live shows. The album was mainly bass and vocal driven, which their live shows sometimes suffered, due to Ryan transitioning to Sacramento for work.

In November 2018 the band self-released the album after nine months of failing to find a record label to press it. Feedback often cited that the album was great but it wouldn't sell well.

Harry Cloud returned as a part time drummer in September 2018 with George Hanna-Wilson as the bassist for live shows. The band at the time had two bassists and two drummers. KT quit the band that year.

The band recorded the "3011 y.c.e. EP" in summer of 2019. Shortly after Batman Catman moved away and was released from the band. ToM Cat, Harry Cloud and Ryan Skaggs toured the East Coast, midwest and parts of Canada in October-November 2019, playing primarily their Halloween Noizes songs. After the tour, Harry quit the band again.

In mid to late 2019 they recorded the DEATH CAT vs Christmas album, of originals and spoofs of classic Christmas songs, featuring both drummers and bassists on it.

In January 2020 the band filmed the movie "DEATH CAT vs Christmas" where they killed off Nikolitsa to parallel with her leaving the band. DEATH CAT disbanded temporarily during the pandemic for ToM to focus on college. During this time, he recorded demos for the long planned "Cosmic Cats" space album.

In 2021 George recorded bass tracks on the demos and Briana Roman joined the band as keyboardist, under the name and character "Catpira" created by ToM.

Relocation to Detroit 2021-present

In 2021 DEATH CAT reformed with ToM playing the character Count Cat, Briana as Catpira, Max Grean on bass as Professor Nutzenboltz and 18 year old Grayson Tamer on drums as Gruesome Grayson and Demodog-1138 as Demondog 138.

The band recorded the "Furrocious Flicks" album as a CD, tape and video DVD album. Each song on the album is about a classic horror film, which they showed on their horror hosted TV show "Castle Cat TV". It was released in September 2022 at the Punx for Paws benefit show for stray cats. At the end of 2022, Grayson left the band and Briana was kicked out. They were replaced in early 2023 by Nick Davidson as The Mad Arachnid Hatter on drums and Nadi as Bubbles the Clown on keyboard.

In 2023 the band began working on the Cosmic Cats album and shifted from the horror theme to a space theme.