A song of racism, institutionalized poverty, and the poor getting poorer.  The chicken has no money, no papers, and no hope for the future.

Chicken Calypso

A cover of the classic song from the Fabulous McCleverty's from the Virgin Islands, with backing vocals by The Charmer (Louis Farrakhan)  This version has the famous Matt DaHarp singing Louie's backing vocals instead.

Don't blame it on Elvis

Bo Diddley meets Lord Kitchener in the Kalypso Katz hit "Konto's Mambo calypso."
This track was excluded from the Jump Up Records 10" record.


Konto's Mambo Calypso

Spoofing the old classic calypso tune "Clear the Road"  we have changed the theme from Trinidadians making mass in New York. Now we have Friedrichshainers making grill in the park.....Boxhagener park, in Berlin, Friedrichshain, that is.  Written back in the days before the neighborhood was gentrified by boring, stupid, middle class wankers.


Boxi Bacchanal

This is a track with a very long, grey beard.  Originally a Tin pan alley tune, it was recorded as a calypso song in British Guayana in the early 1920's.  Felinni used a version, even the 17 Hippies covered their take on it, although I'm glad to say that our tune came out first. 
We've redone the live version with a new ending, which we might just record one of these days. 

Jack's Broth

Here's a nice little ditty we wrote, and as you can guess it's about not judging people by the way they dress..... or more importantly by their race, religion or sexual orientation. It's also about the privatization of the US prison system, which incarcerates minorities for profit.   The text was co-written with our buddy Kevin Stewart from the band Jahoodi Craws,  big heads up, Kevin.

Don't Judge Me

A bit of yule tide cheer with a nice tropical bent. Why the hell not?
You can even listen to it in June if you want, we wont mind.

Lord Mouse and the Kalypso Katz-Calypso Christmas

Originally by the Caresser, this is a charming wee ditty about a dirty little prince who was quietly shipped off to the Bahamas to learn the noble arts of polo, cricket, and sun bathing while the rest of the world was thrown into chaos.  Something to do with his bad taste in friends, from what I understand.  This is available on our upcoming CD, "Go Calypsonian" which comes out soon. This is the only place the public can listen to this song. This is the only song uploaded for public consumption from the album. 

Love alone

Here is a slightly controversial tune. As a calypso band, we deal with all of the classic calypso themes, and race is one. But how can you sing about race when your band is made up of a bunch of whiteys?  Easy.  We get lots of slack, too! This song is about whitey playing black music, and the resulting jibes we pick up for it, not from blacks, so much as from everyone else!


White Boy Calypso

Listen to the opening track of our new album "Go Calypsonian", to be released June 14, 2013 worldwide by Piranha Musik!


Monkey Bop

A big band of seventeen musicians, Lord Mouse and the Kalypso Katz thrill audiences thanks to the vocal and scenic playfulness of its riveting chorus and of its energetic singer and composer Lord Mouse. Faithful to the traditional roots of Trinidadian calypso, the group has rejuvenated the genre to offer a boisterous sound that will have the audience up and dancing.

WHAT THE HELL IS CALYPSO? 
Grand father of Reggae, father of Ska, and the original Carribean musical style that ties them all together. The missing link of Creole rhythms. Yes, this is Calypso...beats carried over with the African slaves, mixed with the pentatonic scales of the indigenous people of Trinidad and Tobago, and the instruments of the European gentry. Born from the savagery and inhumanity of slavery, poverty, and indifference, Calypso was the New world's first protest music, a defiant fist against oppression and injustice. Calypso evolved slowly, first sung in Spanish, while the people were under that rule. Later the France took control, introducing carnival and extemporaneous singing, and ultimately the British arrived. The languages may have changed, but what seperates Calypso from it's Jamaican cousin Mento is the „Spanish tinge,“ as Jellyroll Morton called it, or the „Scottish snap,“ as it has been known. (Mento has the more straightforward „square“ rhythms that the English would have appreciated.) Calypso was recorded first in New York in 1914 by Lionel Belasco, who beat a quick trail there from Trinidad after impregnating the teenage daughter of the wealthy, white mayor of whom he was giving piano lessons. This was just the bare bones of the genre, being mostly instrumental in nature and having more of a stately, European flavour. In the late 1920's (the „golden age of Calypso“) the young prodigy The Roaring Lion, a dirty minded and cheeky, and his politically inclined older friend Atilla the Hun, showed up in NY to record for Decca. This is really what set up the genre. The Lion injected it with sexual innuendo, racy local gossip, shameless self promotion, and tales of debauchery and murder, while Atilla spoke earnestly of the political, social and economic problems of Trinidad and Tobago, decrying the emperial stranglehold of England upon his island, the two setting a precedent as to what would eventually define the genre. The early 1950's saw the next great wave of calypsonians, as the music began to develop a more upbeat, dance oriented flavour, with the likes of The Mighty Sparrow in Trinidad, Lord Kitchener in London, and Houdini and the Duke of Iron in New York, all rocking dancehalls and street parades alike. Harry Belefonte brought the mix to mainstream USA, although being of Jamaican parentage, his „calypso““ was actually Mento. Then came a long, lean period of 45 years, where the genre was lost, forgotten, abandoned and neglected. Then, out of the blue, in 2008 sprang Lord Mouse and the Kalypso Katz... from Berlin, Germany of all places, to pick up where the others had left off. Retaining all of the important elements of the style, meanwhile utilizing modern production, the band began to successfully re-popularise the lost genre. Since it's inception, the band has managed to put the word Calypso back into the popular music vernacular. Suddenly bands, DJ's and music journalists are relating to this wicked, dirty, moral, cheeky, politically charged and ultimately dance-worthy music. Thank you, Lord Mouse and the Kalypso Katz. The once forgotten style of Calypso deserves it. And so the do people.

Lord Mouse & Kalypso Katz

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