RUSS HARRINGTON
The reunited Stray Cats (from left, Lee Rocker, Brian Setzer and Slim Jim Phantom).
The retro-rock trio The Stray Cats — Brian Setzer, Lee Rocker and Slim Jim Phantom — will celebrate their 40th anniversary with their first studio album in 26 years and a tour.
The album, titled 40, will come out on May 24, and the tour will include shows at Ovation Hall at Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City, Aug. 3, and Pier 17 at the South Street Seaport in New York on Aug. 6. The Atlantic City tickets go on sale March 8 at 10 a.m.; the New York tickets are on sale already.
The band — whose past hits include “Rock This Town,” “Stray Cat Strut” and (She’s) Sexy + 17″ — will also release a vinyl picture disc EP with three of the songs, including first single “Cat Fight (Over a Dog Like Me),” on Record Store Day, which is April 13. “Cat Fight (Over a Dog Like Me)” is also streaming now on Spotify.
“You have to understand how unique the Stray Cats are,” said Setzer, in a press release. “It’s me playing an old hollow body guitar, Slim Jim playing two or three drums, and Lee Rocker slapping a stand-up acoustic bass. I get to write new songs and then play them with my buddies.”
Phantom also said, in the press release: “We’re very, very focused when we get into the studio, it didn’t feel like a long time had passed since we had done this, it felt very natural and familiar. We were all in a row with everyone watching each other, so it felt like a gig in the set-up. We really embraced that a little bit for the album, it’s like an old way of making records.”
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