Katsu was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 rock band

Rock Band

Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...

 from State College

State College, Pennsylvania

State College is the largest borough in Centre County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is the principal city of the State College, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Centre County. As of the 2010 census, the borough population was 42,034, and roughly double...

, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, from 2001–06. Their musical style was self-described as a cross between hip hop

Hip hop music

Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

 and the music of Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

, along with mixtures of classic rock

Classic rock

Classic rock is a radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format features music ranging generally from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, primarily focusing on the hard rock genre that peaked in popularity in the...

, alternative rock

Alternative rock

Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

, punk rock

Punk rock

Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

, reggae

Reggae

Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...

, and ska

Ska

Ska |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...

. Many of the band's themes dealt with "explorations of life, love, broken hearts and lost innocence in blue-collar

Blue-collar worker

A blue-collar worker is a member of the working class who performs manual labor. Blue-collar work may involve skilled or unskilled, manufacturing, mining, construction, mechanical, maintenance, technical installation and many other types of physical work...

 America".

Beginnings

Singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 and acoustic guitarist

Steel-string acoustic guitar

A steel-string acoustic guitar is a modern form of guitar descended from the classical guitar, but strung with steel strings for a brighter, louder sound...

 Dennis Fallon, bass guitarist

Bassist

A bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments...

 Frank Yarnal, guitarist

Guitarist

A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...

 William Love, and drummer

Drummer

A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...

 Ralph Jones formed the band Forty Pound Test in State College in 1999. The band was named after Jones' late uncle, an avid fisherman. When Jones left the band in 2001, the remaining members reformed as Katsu and added Eric "Z" Rozzi as replacement drummer. The band's new name derived from a quote in Phillip Toshio Sudo's book Zen Guitar: "KATSU: A shout that emanates from the soul. Martial artists call this kind of shout katsu

Katsu (Zen)

Katsu is a type of shout that is used in Chán and Zen Buddhism to give expression to one's own enlightened state and/or to induce another person to move beyond rationality and logic and, potentially, achieve an initial enlightenment experience...

. Katsu is the roar of a person who knows what it means to be alive".

Katsu began playing mostly as a cover band

Cover band

A cover band , is a band that plays mostly or exclusively cover songs. New or unknown bands often find the cover band format marketable for smaller gigs, and these bands may be known as a wedding band, party band and function band. A band whose covers consist mainly of songs that were chart hits is...

 in popular bars and taverns in downtown State College, such as The Rathskeller

Rathskeller

Ratskeller is a name in German-speaking countries for a bar or restaurant located in the basement of a city hall or nearby...

, The Saloon, and The Lion's Den, although they substantially reinterpreted cover songs and regularly included original songs into their performances. Along with Dylan, other artists who influenced the band's sound included the Beastie Boys

Beastie Boys

Beastie Boys are an American hip hop trio from New York City. The group consists of Mike D who plays the drums, MCA who plays the bass, and Ad-Rock who plays the guitar....

, Mike Ness

Mike Ness

Mike Ness is an American guitarist, vocalist, and chief songwriter for the punk rock band Social Distortion, which was formed in 1978. As of Dennis Danell's death in 2000, he is now the only original member of the band...

, Sublime

Sublime (band)

Sublime was an American ska punk band from Long Beach, California, formed in 1988. The band's line-up, unchanged until their breakup, consisted of Bradley Nowell , Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh . Michael "Miguel" Happoldt also contributed on a few Sublime songs, such as "New Thrash." Lou Dog, Nowell's...

, and Tom Petty

Tom Petty

Thomas Earl "Tom" Petty is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is the frontman of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and was a founding member of the late 1980s supergroup Traveling Wilburys and Mudcrutch. He has also performed under the pseudonyms of Charlie T...

. The band chose "Katsu is watching you!" as their slogan for use on their website and bumper stickers.

The band released a basement bootleg

Bootleg recording

A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. The process of making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging...

 album retroactively called Songs for Jake (also Jake's Greatest Hits) in 2001.

Radio

Katsu was often featured on Penn State's student radio station, WKPS

WKPS

WKPS is a college radio station owned by Penn State University. The station runs on a full-time, multi-format schedule featuring a wide variety of programming. "The Lion 90.7 FM" transmits to a potential audience of over 125,000 from its studio in the HUB-Robeson Center...

 - The Lion 90.7 FM on an afternoon show titled "State Your Face", which featured rock, oldies, punk, reggae, and ska. They had a number of in-studio interviews and performances in 2004 with WKPS DJ Kip Talley.

Gorgeous Mess

In December 2001, the band began recording their first album Gorgeous Mess

Gorgeous Mess

Gorgeous Mess is the first album by the Pennsylvania rock band Katsu. It was released in the United States in August 2002.Gorgeous Mess was recorded over a six month time period from 2001-2002 at Saturation Acres Studio in Danville, Pennsylvania....

. Bret Alexander and Paul Smith of The Badlees

The Badlees

The Badlees are a Roots rock band from central Pennsylvania formed in 1990. They released several independent albums and achieved national success with their 1995 album River Songs...

 produced the record, which took six months to finish. Love left during the recording process and was replaced with heavy metal

Heavy metal music

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...

 guitarist Mark Klein.

The record, which was chosen as the best independent album by Pennsylvania Musician magazine in 2003, included the songs "Leave Me", "Anymore" and "Walkaway", an anthem rocker about growing up in Pennsylvania. Yarnal explained the band's success: "Our live show is very energetic. We like to interact with the crowd. We have a lot of catchy sing-a-long choruses. There is never a dull moment."

Rozzi left the band after the record's completion and was replaced with Keith Lingenfelter, a high school friend of Klein.

Disaster

After completing Gorgeous Mess, the band began writing new songs, which led to another basement bootleg album in 2003, Elvis in Furs. Katsu was signed to The Badlees

The Badlees

The Badlees are a Roots rock band from central Pennsylvania formed in 1990. They released several independent albums and achieved national success with their 1995 album River Songs...

' record label Saturation Acres Music of Danville, Pennsylvania

Danville, Pennsylvania

Danville is a borough in Montour County, Pennsylvania, USA, of which it is the county seat, on the North Branch of the Susquehanna River. Danville was home to 8,042 people in 1900, 7,517 people in 1910, and 7,122 people in 1940. The population was 4,897 at the 2000 census...

, and from August – October 2003 recorded their second album Disaster at Saturation Acres Studio, again under the production of Alexander and Smith. The record, released in 2004 featured the punk rock

Punk rock

Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

er "Cold Stop", "Down The Line" and the southern rock

Southern rock

Southern rock is a subgenre of rock music, and genre of Americana. It developed in the Southern United States from rock and roll, country music, and blues, and is focused generally on electric guitar and vocals...

er "Prison Break". Lingenfelter left the band shortly after the album's release and was replaced with drummer Josh Troup, giving the band its final lineup.

Touring

During the band's existence Katsu played throughout Pennsylvania, including the Grape Street Pub of Manayunk, Philadelphia

Manayunk, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Manayunk is a neighborhood in the northwestern section of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States. Located on the banks of the Schuylkill River, it contains the first canal begun in the United States . The area's name comes from the language of the Lenape Indians...

, popular for its original music performances, and the Hard Rock Cafe

Hard Rock Cafe

Hard Rock Cafe is a chain of theme restaurants founded in 1971 by Americans Peter Morton & Isaac Tigrett. In 1979, the cafe began covering its walls with rock and roll memorabilia, a tradition which expanded to others in the chain. In 2006, Hard Rock was sold to the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and...

 in Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...

, as well as playing in Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...

. Katsu featured at the Penn State Dance Marathon

Penn State Dance Marathon

The Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon, commonly referred to as THON, is a two day Dance Marathon that takes place every February at the Pennsylvania State University with the purpose of raising money to combat pediatric cancer...

 and served as the opening acts for The Presidents of the United States of America

The Presidents of the United States of America (band)

The Presidents of the United States of America, commonly referred to as Pot USA or "PUSA" or The Presidents, are a twice Grammy-nominated American alternative rock band. The band formed in Seattle, USA, in 1993. The three-piece group currently comprises vocalist and "basitarist" Chris Ballew,...

 and Jason Mraz

Jason Mraz

Jason Thomas Mraz , also known as Mr. AZ and Mr. Raz, is an American singer-songwriter. Mraz released his debut album, Waiting for My Rocket to Come, which contained the hit single "The Remedy ", in 2002, but it was not until the release of his second album, "Mr. A-Z", in 2005, that Mraz achieved...

. Regarding the latter act, Fallon said, "Yeah, we played a show with all the screaming 12-year-old girls. We also opened for the '80s metal band FireHouse. We don't really match that scene, either. It was pretty wacky." State College remained the band's base, however, despite the propensity of a rural university town

Pennsylvania State University

The Pennsylvania State University, commonly referred to as Penn State or PSU, is a public research university with campuses and facilities throughout the state of Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1855, the university has a threefold mission of teaching, research, and public service...

 for cover songs. Fallon explained, "State College is our base of operations. This is where we learned how to play."

Later recordings

For the MTV

MTV

MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

-produced compilation album

Compilation album

A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...

 Lit Riffs: The Soundtrack in 2004, Katsu supplied a stripped-down cover version

Cover version

In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

 of Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five

Grandmaster Flash

Joseph Saddler better known as King Grandmaster Flash, is an American hip hop musician and DJ; one of the pioneers of hip-hop DJing, cutting, and mixing....

's "The Message". In 2005 the band released the EP

Extended play

An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...

 The Basement Albums Vol. 3, a collection of new tracks (recorded in a basement) and recordings of older songs from live shows. Chris Rosengrant, manager of The Lion's Den, praised the band that year by saying, "Their music is fantastic and their interaction with the crowd is great."

In January 2006, the band released the EP A World on End

A World on End

A World on End is an EP by the Pennsylvania rock band Katsu and the final studio recording by the band. The EP is a compilation of songs from the band's earlier studio recordings with the addition of the new song "Please Don't Start".-Track listing:...

, a compilation of songs from earlier recordings with the new song "Please Don't Start".

Katsu disbanded in May 2006. Along with three other State College musicians, Fallon and Yarnal formed the band Lowjack in June 2006; the new band premiered at The Rathskeller in August that year. On September 28, 2007, Katsu reunited for a single show at The Rathskeller.

Discography

• Songs for Jake (2001; bootleg)
• Gorgeous Mess
  Gorgeous Mess
  Gorgeous Mess is the first album by the Pennsylvania rock band Katsu. It was released in the United States in August 2002.Gorgeous Mess was recorded over a six month time period from 2001-2002 at Saturation Acres Studio in Danville, Pennsylvania....
  
  (2002)
• Elvis in Furs (2003; bootleg)
• Disaster (2004)
• The Basement Albums Vol. 3 (2005; EP)
• A World on End
  A World on End
  A World on End is an EP by the Pennsylvania rock band Katsu and the final studio recording by the band. The EP is a compilation of songs from the band's earlier studio recordings with the addition of the new song "Please Don't Start".-Track listing:...
  
  (2006; EP)