The Adventures of Kid Catastrophe

Over the past two years, Illinois has garnered a reputation as a lovably ramshackle live act. Having toured with acts such as The Hold Steady, The Kooks, and Menomena, most are surprised to find that they have released only one EP to date, entitled What The Hell Do I Know?. Lead singer Chris Archibald (aka Arch) never stopped writing, however. Quite the contrary: he had spearheaded a torrential songwriting barrage, to the tune of over 100 songs. We concluded that Arch had a bit of the savant in him.

The songs, all written and recorded by Arch, were done in his basement on Garage Band. For microphones, he drew from his day job as an electrician and fixed up a busted '58 he found on a scrap heap. A Styrofoam cup glued to the mic head served as a pop filter. He also hot-wired a secondary mic using only a mic cable and a telephone receiver. Needless to say, the recordings were a bit raw, but raw is often just another word for honest.

The songs profile a character named Kid Catastrophe, who can aptly be described as Arch's disillusioned alter ego. T-shirts ripped, bedroom slippers on his feet - when Kid Catastrophe goes looking for room to roam, he finds only hell and high water. What does one do, for instance, when that gold skinned girl gets old, your soul empties for good, youve got one foot shakin' in the grave, and they're serving your blood in a goddamn saloon? Imbued with humor, calamity, and heartbreak, Arch often finds redemption in the most basic of elements: a forlorn "la la la," a comfortable pair of headphones, and a bottle of whiskey.