Australian jazz-hop cadre Cat Empire hit the Billboard Heatseeker with 'Two Shoes'.
After topping charts in Australia with the album following years of building popularity with their rousing goodtime live shows, Cat Empire are finally breaking the US with an appearance on Billboard's Heatseeker chart.'Two Shoes' got a release in the US in February on Velour Recordings (home to Kaki King and Soulive among others). Their label rep Sean Hoess told Billboard what Australians already knew, "The band really got off the ground like the Dave Matthews Band did - building a tour base. They were reaching fans directly."
While Cat Empire have toured the US before, their slot on 2006's Bonnaroo fest made the biggest impact, Hoess noting, "They started playing their set to only 200 people, but closed it out in front of 1,500. The audience , and the press , came away pretty stunned."
On February 13 they performed 'Sly' live on David Letterman and on March 1 they did it again at the studios of the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. In between they managed to squeeze in a sold out tour of Germany and the UK.
