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For fans of: The Brian Jonestown Massacre, the Black Angels, St. Vincent, Celebration.
Cat Hoch is anxious. She's due to be at the dentist in 30 minutes. It's not the financial obligations she is worried about, or the procedure. She just can't find the place.
Her musical endeavors are also the product of lost meandering. After a few semesters at the Pacific Northwest College of Art, Hoch, a drummer by training, went to Europe and had an epiphany. "That's when I knew what I wanted to do," she says. "I knew I wanted to put all my effort into music." She returned to Portland, holed up in the basement of an old house she shared with several other musicians and began writing. Her housemates started Sex Ghost, a fuzzy, lo-fi indie outfit, but it quickly fell apart. She then formed another group, Tender Age, with songwriter Tauna Leonardo. But if Sex Ghost suffered from a lack of direction, the new project had too much ambition. "We were playing too much," Hoch says. "Five hours a day, five days a week, not getting paid or anything. I was really sad, but I quit."
It was then that Hoch decided going solo might be the best path for personal satisfaction. She met Unknown Mortal Orchestra drummer Riley Geare, who suggested she bring him the songs she had been working on and fine-tune them for a record. "He just knew all the sounds I liked that I had in my head and couldnât really express,â she says.
First single "Look What You Found" is a dreamy, slightly dirty groover, perfect for the burgeoning summer season. Geare's pounding backbeat drives a screeching blues lead into the stratosphere before Hoch's elegant, swirling voice croons the title as if it were a message from the mountaintop.
Hoch and Geare are putting the finishing touches on what will be her first solo EP, while also preparing for her first local show. "I'd like someone bigger to take an interest, but I also think putting it out with a local label might be good," she says of the record. "I guess we'll see." Just then, she arrives at the address she's been looking for. Once again, by circumstance and accident, she's found her way.
SEE IT: Cat Hoch plays the Know, 2026 NE Alberta St., with Crocodiles and Vice Device, on Monday, May 25. 8 pm. $8. 21+.
WWeek 2015