The instrumentation of an old jazz combo, the sinewy arrangements of DC hardcore, and songs that reveal obsessions with work, mortality, and animals. Call it Old World punk. Fans of Django Reinhardt, Fugazi, the Pogues, and Tom Waits will find plenty to enjoy here.

Cat Hair Ensemble was formed in early 2005 as an outlet for the musical obsessions of songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Roderick Cumming. The group was originally imagined as a rotating line-up of musicians sympathetic to Mr. Cumming's interest in early jazz, French chanson and musette, German theater music, American folk, and art punk.

However, after a couple of shows with bassist Michael Ibarra (also of Killsonic and El Haru Kuroi), bass trombonist Joe Tepperman (Killsonic, The Nourishment), trumpeter Andrew Duncan (The Wedding's Off, The Ebola Music Orchestra), and guitarist/banjoist Clint Heidorn (Radiation 4), an honest-to-goodness band coalesced. The recent addition of drummer Spencer Savage (Stay Home, Danny Cohen) has added some muscle to Cat Hair Ensemble's crooked waltzes, nervous tangos, and gallows swing.
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