The Family Cat -> Jack Adaptor

Having spent the last month or so rediscovering what a fine band The Family Cat were, I was going to post their second Peel Session (as it's the only one of the three they recorded that I haven't seen blogged in the wild) but I ended up following the trail to MODERN TIMES and found that the singer Fred is still recording and releasing music as one half of a band called Jack Adaptor.

Despite the fact their website seems to throw annoying javascript stack overflow errors (or maybe this part of the "experience" and I just don’t get it?) you can navigate your way to the music page to hear some mp3 samples, but it's one song in particular (not on the website) that I've become enamoured of which you can download here:

Jack Adaptor - Everyone Talked About Us

Fred's voice hasn't changed a bit and neither has his way with words

Parkkeeper's coming to close the gates at dusk
I'm sitting in my car which is 90% rust
Doing crosswords in Russian just to pass the time
I've got an active mind and it likes to remind me that you were mine

It's a sweet super sad song about a failed relationship, but not the bitter immediate aftermath. It's that moment where enough time has passed for you to look back and remember the good times, but with the perspective to realise why & how it went wrong. You know it shouldn't still hurt but it does.

I must have listened to this song on repeat for hours. It's MY kind of song.

Half-time Round-up

Whilst I've not exactly been setting the world of speed-blogging alive, I am still on the case and have a couple of new posts planned this week. Honest I do.

Big excitement for me personally on the blog front though when I received a comment on my Better Beatles post from a "JeanpSmith" - who it turns out was the original vocalist from The Better Beatles and she hints that the full Better Beatles session (they recorded an albums-worth) getting a release soon!

As I said at the time, info on the band was scarce (YOU try googling them..) but armed with a name I quickly found a great post on Crud Crud which contains a little more of the history and a longer comment from Jean explaining the origins of the band.

I never really intended to just blog old stuff, but I'm a sucker for reminiscing - and I don't like passing judgement on new stuff until I have the benefit of hindsight. Baggy has served me well in that respect. Nonetheless it seems that I've had a pretty good hit rate when it comes to digging up the past.

A comment on my inaugural Seymores post alerted me to Dave Fera's new band Big Blue Marble. Great stuff that retains a lot of the melody and melancholy of The Seymores

Since my first Ted Chippington post, he's come out of retirement, done a load of gigs, been on TV and released a boxset of his work! Last week I got a nice package through from Ted with recordings of a couple of the latest gigs and a little note signed "cheers chief"...priceless

Dave Howard Singers have also apparently just re-released their back catalogue (including various mixes of Yon Yonson) and Dave is still recording new music. Check his Myspace and snazzy new official site

A kindly soul sent me a copy of some more amazing stuff by Those Naughty Corinithians after my post thereof. It's just served to make me wish I knew a bit more about them though..

And finally since I posted the BOB Peel Session, Richard from the band contacted me to say they were also resurrecting plans to release a BOB retrospective due to renewed interest from the weird wide web. Official website on the way and some unreleased tunes on their new BOB Myspace. Richard also has some great solo stuff on his own Captain Black Myspace which is well worth a listen if you loved BOB.

Thanks to everyone who has left comments and got in touch so far, it really does make it all worthwhile! Keep it coming..