Friends!
I’ve been listening to the completed FAVES album, and I’m so thrilled about it. It’s a collection of their original songs, none of the covers, all work they have composed and recorded over the last five years or so (Maybe longer? Time flies!)
When our mutual friend and often producer Matthew King Kaufman suggested they release their work on Berkeley Cat Records, my first reaction was,
I’m honored and wow! and,
What can I possibly do?
BCR is a one-man operation, which I started just to release my own records. When I came up with “Berkeley Cat Records,” after a month of pondering different names, I knew right away that was the name. What else could it be, really? What I didn’t expect, was that Shannon Wheeler would draw an absolutely purrrfect logo.
Soon after, Russ Ellis asked me to help him finish and release his album. I told him the same thing, “I have no staff, minimal budget, what can I possibly do?” He replied, “So you DON’T want to do it?!” “NO, I mean YES!!” I bellowed, of course I want to. So we did, physical CD with beautiful package and all, produced by his son Dave, and thanks to his daughter Zoe’s magic touch, it got a great write up in the New York freakin’ Times. And sold a bunch, we actually recouped our investment.
So, you never know what might happen. I’m glad all these good folks reached out to me, and I’m glad I said Yes.
Now we have an impressive stable of wonderful artists, mostly based in Berkeley, and some (Nunnufya Bizness!) expats as far away as Scotland.
I’m not a great “label guy.” My time for this is limited, as I have a full-time job (which I love), and BCR is a labor of love in my free time. I’m also creatively driven. When a new song idea comes to me, if I find a window of time, I just go for it. This happened again just this very morning! A new one called, What Is The Thing? I’ll publish it when it’s ready. Soon, I think.
This got long. Rather than add links to the above artists and records, I’ll plop the BCR website link here:
https://berkeleycatrecords.com
And you can find any of the aforementioned records and artists which we have already released, there, per your curiosity.
And getting back to my original point, I am SO looking forward to releasing the FAVES album online. It’s been so fun, getting to know these gents a little better, especially as I was a childhood fan of their Beserkley Records with Earth Quake, Greg Kihn Band, and others, many of them produced by the aforementioned Matthew.
Us Beserkley Cats got together in 2025 and produced a cover version of Madison Avenue Man, originally penned by Matthew and Mr. Kihn in the Beserkley heyday. Kind of a dream come true, for me, to actually record with those guys.
So, thanks for the intro, Matt! And to all, I know I’ve mentioned this FAVES album here a number of times. It’s worth the wait! Release date TBA soon. And when we drop it, of course we’d love it if you all share it up. We have no promo team, our promo team is you.
This got longer!
OK, signing off, Happy Caturday, and thanks for your earballs.
Much Love,
Eric Din
Berkeley Cat Records Caterwauler In Chief (CIC)
Good luck Larry 👍 💓
Thank you for your wonderful write up Eric!
We're honored and ready to rock!