Three albums in, and the bit has yet to get old. Fantastic Cat, the New York rock band that previously released albums titled The Very Best of Fantastic Cat and Now That’s What I Call Fantastic Cat, has announced their third studio LP, Cat Out of Hell. A play on Meat Loaf’s timeless 1977 debut, the album will drop April 10.
On Wednesday, Fantastic Cat previewed the LP with first single “Donnie Takes the Bus.” The song is a turbo-charged blast of jangle-pop, but it’s the accompany music video that makes the whole package wonderfully demented. The clip features four male models — who look nothing like Catmen Anthony D’Amato, Mike Montali, Brian Dunne, and Don DiLego — miming their way through a performance of the song in Orson Welles-era black & white.
“Taking cues from the sprawling, momentary-glimpse storytelling style of The Band, ‘Donnie Takes the Bus’ is a revved-up, citified tale of a wayward vagabond pass-stamping his way through life via good ol’ fashioned public transportation,” DiLego, Fantastic Cat’s kinda-sorta drummer, says in a statement. “Simply put, ‘Donnie’ soon learns that life ain’t really about the things you think you want, but about the things you need. (I’m Donnie, by the way.)”
Produced by D. James Goodwin (Goose), Cat Out of Hell features 12 tracks and will be released via Missing Piece Records. Fantastic Cat is set to tour throughout April in support of the album, beginning with a gig at Levon Helm’s studio in Woodstock, New York, on April 11.
Along with their roles in Fantastic Cat, the four members each maintain their own solo careers. Montali will reunite with his infamously fractured group Hollis Brown for a reunion show on March 26 at the Wonder Bar in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Dunne, meanwhile, watched his album Clams Casino land on a number of year-end best lists for 2025. D’Amato’s most recent solo album, At First There Was Nothing, was released in 2022. DiLego, a licensed pilot, recently sold his plane. He now takes the bus.
