In last year’s band issue, readers met Cattlehead, a very green band that said it traversed the chasm of tear-jerking to aggression-drenched rock. When asked where they play, they confessed, “We are working on that ... but for right now, Kyle’s house.”

If Lafayette’s rock scene were Rocky III, the Rockys of the scene were out living the high life, gigging it up while Clubber Lang Cattlehead sweated it out doing sit-ups in drummer Kyle Alwert’s house, waiting for its shot.

In the year between The Big Band Issue 2 and the Band Issue Episode III, Cattlehead has moved from playing only at Alwert’s to gigging at the epicenter of the underground rock scene, the Renaissance, to the first church of all local music, Grant Street Dancehall. The group has recorded Noise, a full-length record, and earlier this month made its way into both The Times Best Of Best New Band and the Best Rock Alternative Band categories.

“I think the first step to getting to where we are now is The Big Band Issue,” says Ryan Cazares, guitarist and singer, in a statement not prepared by our office. “Last year, a lot of people had seen our profile in there, and we actually got a couple gigs because of it. People saw our influences and types of music we play and were interested. That’s the first thing that got us somewhere. And once we started playing, we pretty much played by word of mouth to get where we are today.”

Friends in the bands Automoon and the now-defunct Victim of Modern Age took a chance and booked them as openers. Without a demo, word-of-mouth praise for the show and the group’s potential drawing powers were the band’s only calling card.

“It’s pretty cool, the people in Lafayette have supported us and helped us to get to where we are today. We’ve had a lot of support from the local crowd. We’ve come such a long way in just a year,” Cazares says.

Cattlehead is relatively new on the scene, but the three members are old friends (bassist Case Milligan and Cazares going all the way back to kindergarten). They started playing music in high school, later forming the short-lived Blindspot. Admittedly, they weren’t too serious about music until a year or so ago when Cazares recorded a demo on his computer and gave it to his current band mates.

Cattlehead — named after a middle school take on Cazares — formed around it. The group’s roots are in late ‘90s rock, with dabs of Rage Against the Machine, Tool and Audioslave. The band’s lyrical content ranges from an obtuse song about musical addiction to songs that only make sense to its members. Just as much emphasis is placed on the music, laden with better thought-out timing and rhythm than most radio bands.

Cattlehead’s first year yielding a birth in the Best Of runoffs is almost eclipsed by the band’s ability to make fans out of both mainstream rock radio listeners and the more discerning indie/underground fans.

“Its definitely tough. You pretty much have two different crowds around. You have got the kind that’s totally opposed to mainstream, and you’ve got the people who think underground music is crap. But somehow, we were able to tie that together,” Cazares says.

“I think its just our type of music. We don’t go for just one sound. We mix it up. We’ve got the artsy songs, and we’ve got the rock anthems and the ballads. I think everyone can just come together and just listen to us with our type of music.”