Insights into Photography
Photo by Carly Ealey
“Meow!” says a towering Zoltron Monsieur as he opens the door to the quiet College Area home he shares with Kittytron Churro, his wife and partner in the duo Lion Cut. They’re in the midst of a photo shoot for their upcoming self-titled CD.
Monsieur’s dressed in full feline garb: Cheetah print vest, contrasting cuffs and furry boots.
“I took a Zyrtec in case my allergies act up,” the photographer jokes.
After double-knotting her gold Reeboks, Churro ensures her ears are pointy and brushes out her tail.
“We want to emulate Roxy Music’s Country Life cover, but with less ’80s muff,” she instructs.
Churro cites the MGM lion as one of her influences; at 6-foot-5, Monsieur points to T.S. Elliot’s Rum Tum Tugger, as well as Joey Ramone, whom he calls his “tall-guy hero.” Feline iconography is everywhere: a National Geographic tiger calendar; a Kit-Kat clock on the wall; Zoo News clippings affixed to a mirror; and books with titles like The Tattooed Cat and Of Cats and Men alongside the Ann Landers Encyclopedia, Volumes I and II (these last two serve as inspiration for Churro’s advice column, “Dear Assy,” which she writes for a friend’s ’zine). In a corner, there’s a fishbowl with four inhabitants, one guppy and three neons—they look scared shitless.
The story of Zoltron Monsieur and Kittytron Churro is quite simple, really: Cat meets cat on a planet inhabited by anthropomorphic space travelers; they marry and, six years later, come to Earth to make music and “party down.” They say their planet, Leonid, is “like Pandora, but with catnip.” It’s a magical place with lots of napping and self-grooming, where “mad treats” abound and workdays are just a half-hour long.
Though originally meant as a front to produce video art, the budding act became heavily influenced by their tabbies, Annapurna and MacCaulou, during the initial creative process, and they rolled with it.
“I used to sing little ditties to them around the house—that’s how songs like ‘Tigers in the Night’ and ‘Diamonds on Her Tail’ got started,” Monsieur recalls as the tabbies emerge from the couples’ round-bed-dominated boudoir. The result? Catchy tunes like “You’re all the Cats” (“Posh as a Persian / black as a panther / cool as a puma / you’ve got the answer”).
The band’s name came organically as well. “It’s an actual type of haircut given to cats to survive the summer heat, and Kittytron and I are all about San Diego weather,” Monsieur says. “Plus, it’s just funny. If you ever want to see a pissed off cat, just Google lion cut.”
A visit to Hair Unlimited—a Mission Valley wig shop—and a quick diversion to L.A.’s garment district on their way to a Pixies concert sealed the deal.
“I’d never sung before,” Monsieur admits. “It’s a silly concept, but why can’t silly be tied in with performance art to form an avant-garde post-vaudeville act? By nature, cats are mysterious. Personally, we find people are intrigued by us because we’re not necessarily ‘scene’ or ‘scenesters.’ I’m not sure a dog-themed band could accomplish that.”
After a timid Soda Bar debut and a six-month hiatus that followed, allowing them to hone the concept, they’re now slowly but surely packing ’em in, thanks to their unique sound and Heathcliff-by-way-of-Klaus Nomi aesthetic. They experienced their first bona fide crazed-fan moment courtesy of a trashed sorority girl along the way.
“I saw something coming at me out of the corner of my eye; it was a pair of jeans,” Monsieur recalls. “I looked down at the audience and there’s this drunk pants-less girl going, ‘Woo-hoo!’ The shocking moment came when I noticed she knew all our lyrics.”
“Our fans are cool like that,” Churro purrs, as they switch up cover inspirations for their photo shoot and go for a Dylan Bring It All Back Home look. “This is going to make one fierce Christmas card.”
One could echo serial killer John Wayne Gacy’s famous quote, “A clown can get away with murder,” and argue that their garb has a lot to do with their instant appeal, but fact is, the duo’s got chops. He’s an alum of the formerly local act Free*Stars; she’s a classically trained violinist who decided to throw formality out the window, making her great-great-grandfather’s fiddle soar in tracks like “Millionaire Falconaire,” in which she successfully mimics a DJ Jazzy Jeff-approved scratching sound.
“Falconaire,” set to be Lion Cut’s first single and video, came with its own stunning realization: The birds of prey are hard to come by. “We thought, OK, this should be a breeze—we’ll just find someone who owns one and use it as a prop, but it turns out falcons are federally protected birds,” Monsieur says. “It’s been very weird negotiating a live falcon for the video. Then again, we dress as cats for a living, so we’re used to weird.”
Convinced that it’ll go viral, the duo’s persistency paid off when they came across Sky Hunters, an Alpine reserve for injured and retired birds of prey, and they’re currently in negotiations. Problem is, they quickly realized falcons are notoriously ill-tempered, especially the one they’ll be working with. “We thought this was going to be the easy video because all the rest would require lions and tigers,” Kittytron laughs.
With their milk bowl full, immediate plans include “world domination” and moving into a new Golden Hill home.
One problem they most likely won’t have to deal with in the new digs: Mice.
“Our Earth cats usually take care of that,” Monsieur says. “But if one escapes, they’ll have us to answer to.” Lion Cut will play a CD-release party coinciding with the Chinese Year of the Tiger celebration on Saturday, Feb. 13, at Tin Can Alehouse.
