LA's own ZED CATS mark their debut release with the new Big Stir Single, staking their claim as part of their hometown lineage of roots-tinged punk (think X, Geraldine Fibbers, Green on Red) on the A-side “Jackrabbit Protector”, and stirring in a bit of CBGB angularity on the B-side “Walking Distance” (featuring guest guitar from Jon Melkerson of Eggplant and Rockford). Both sides are out January 8 and up for preorder at bigstirrecords.bandcamp.com now.

Singer/guitarist SOLACE GRACE and co-singer/bassist JEEZE CRIMINY cite the influence of current LA bands alongside the aforementioned hometown titans as the inspiration for the ZED CATS sound. “We are massively influenced by The Walker Brigade in the way they update that male-female harmony sound and include covers of stuff like Wire in their live sets... it just seems so fresh,” says Grace. Criminy adds Leslie Pereira & The Lazy Heroes and Rockford themselves as vital bands still reshaping postpunk guitar rock in their bracing live sets. “Zed Cats are built for the stage, aspiring to the level of those bands,” he notes, “We just didn't get off the ground before the live scene shut down last year. But we will!”

ZED CATS were far enough into the writing and rehearsing process to remotely collaborate on recording their two first tunes with an ear toward those eventual live gigs. Grace and Criminy are joined by bassist LARS ESCARPMENT and drummer KENNETH PIPER, and the band is augmented by one-person string section LAURENCIA TATE and the garage-rock organ of LA free agent REY ESCOBAR. The mixing of the A-side was handled by ADAM BRISBEN and the B-side by PETER WATTS of SPYGENIUS, with Melkerson adding spiraling Tom Verlaine-like lead guitar to the latter.

The songs give listeners a taste of the band's lyrical concerns, too. “They're both about finding empathy as a heroic trait in unlikely places”, says Grace. “Jackrabbit Protector” is a true story about the journey of a friend of the band, an army veteran and club bouncer whose stoic and imposing stature belies a compulsion to protect those in need, from war zone civilians to abused animals. “Walking Distance” adds an oddly prescient wrinkle: “It's set in what was an imaginary post-apocalyptic future,” says Criminy, “but among the regular folks who aren't out there engaging in leather-clad Mad Max turf wars. Things are frankly boring for them, but there's still a sense of lawlessness and self-involved entitlement running rampant. The protagonist is struggling to retain his moral compass in the face of that. It kind of came true last year. And it's once again about small acts of compassion often being the only kind of hope and heroism available to us.”

The debut album from ZED CATS is expected in early April on Big Stir Records.