Glen Mattson and Keith St.Louis played together for years in a band called the Peasants. Glen played guitar while Keith played bass. There were several lineups in tour group ranging from three to five piece formats but Glen and Keith were the only constants from the beginning. The Peasant sound was sort of a self-depricating, chaotic, noisy punk. They were able to get fairly good gigs in the Twin Cities area but our following remained pretty cultish. Members of some prominent local bands such as the Cows and Hammerhead (now Vas) liked them and often the audience would be mostly other musicians which was pretty satisfying. Unfortunately, Peasants have not been playing for about a year now.
Glen and Kat met approx. 3 years ago. They were introduced by Darrel, also a Peasant. They had sort of a whirlwind romance and have been together since. They started working out some songs together. As they wanted to play out they needed a bassist and they asked Keith to join. Kat gigged through two trimesters of her pregnancy last year with the band. They've just been playing locally, other than one trip to Duluth, so the England trip will be their first excusion afield.

Kat Bjelland: Guitar, Vocals
Glen Mattson: Drums
Keith St. Louis: Bass

``All the songs that we play now, except for one, were written before Henry was born, and the one I wrote after he was born is more melodic,'' Bjelland says. ``When I was in my early 20s, I was wild and, of course, that's going to show and reflect in the music. Now I'm almost 36, and I still scream and stuff, but I'm not as angry, I guess -- thank God. There's a reason for everything, and angst music is good, too, but I hope that I age gracefully. I don't want to be an old lady stomping around complaining. I'll be surprised if I play in a rock band when I'm over 40. ``I feel like I have to play music, and I don't feel very good if I'm not playing music. I need to vent, and that's how I do it. It's not really angry, it's passionate. It's pretty multidimensional -- happy, sad, angry. People think it's angry because you raise your voice, which is silly.
``We want to keep it pure. I just want it to be pure and follow a punk-rock ethic, in a way. We don't want to fall for stuff like fame or think about how we want to write songs so we will be a certain way.''
``For writing, I just sing songs to him Henry on my acoustic guitar, and he likes it. He's the judge, if he doesn't like it, then I don't play it. It's my new take on writing songs. I've been writing lullabies now, and they are really funny -- they're kind of bent lullabies.''
Henry Paul Mattson has his dad's sense of rhythm and his mom's lungs. Which is a polite way of saying that Kat and Glen's year-old is wailing and banging on the metal tray of his highchair with some plastic spoon-toothbrush contraption.
It's bothering the parents more than the customers in the Modern Cafe, the Northeast restaurant where Bjelland waits tables and where the band gathers for an interview a week after the First Avenue show. His head tucked into a red-and-blue striped cap and swaddled in a hood, Henry conducts this fit to empathetic smiles from most of the room. With pudgy, Gerber-baby cheeks and gorgeously unreal blue eyes, Henry solicits less of a hushing impulse than an urge to make him happy. After Cheerios and picture books fail to appease the boy, Kat chimes in with everymom's apologetic refrain, "He's usually really well-behaved."
So well-behaved that Katastrophy Wife plan to spend the summer touring on the festival circuit (the Reading Festival is already confirmed), with little Henry (and a sitter, of course) in tow. Interest in Bjelland's music remains strong overseas. U.K. label Alma Fame has already expressed interest in releasing the band's debut this summer.

Thanks to Keith St.Louis and City Pages for this info!