Ancient Cat Society

McGonigel’s Mucky Duck presents Ancient Cat Society.

After learning Ancient Cat Society contains members from the band Buxton I couldn’t pull Youtube up fast enough. With a quick search I found “Carolina,” a song about a girl.

Their clever lyrics and catchy tune aren’t the only thing that caught my attention and made me hit the reply button many times over; The song and accompanying video’s video simplicity feels more like old friends chatting instead of a band playing.

With a guitar and feet tapping out a beat on the cement, Ancient Cat society begin their tale of a heart trapped by a girl’s smile. “With her eyes it’s so fantastic / With a nose you’d swear it’s plastic” Armed with a beautiful face I fear for any guy who is lucky enough to see her pretty smile. Their romance starts with something small, a gift to show his affection. Flowers, perhaps? Her eyes light up and spark a smile to die for. Before he knows it, he’s buying one gift after another just for another glimpse of her smile. But does it ever end? “Took her shopping back in Bristol / She bought diamonds by the fistful.”

The extravagance of presents is escalating with every purchase and soon he finds himself in trouble but helpless to stop. He just needs to see her smile. “Exotic chocolates from Sweden / dear I swear my wallets bleedin’” Before his mind says no, “Buy this for me darling / As I reach for my last cent.” He cries out “What do I do?!” Haley Barnes leans over and whispers what he can’t do but is unable to stop himself from doing: “He gets it.”  Forced to choose between a cute girl’s smile and having no money the smile wins EVERYTIME.

The poor guy never had a chance.

Ancient Cat Society minimalistic technique uses the melody of their voices and storytelling to make up for the lack of instruments. When Haley Barnes isn’t providing backing vocals she lends her cute mousey voice to Carolina, giving the characters more depth as well as helping to add to the already believable environment “Carolina” creates. Ancient Cat Society’s “Carolina” is my personal summer song of 2012.

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/ancientcats