As the title suggests, stressed former pro skateboarder turned fractured singer/songwriter Jason Lytle is planning to ditch Modesto Just Like The Fambly Cat.
The Craigslist apartment hunting has been narrowed down to Los Angeles and Billings, Montana areas. Which one is The One has yet to be decided. But everyone knows that when a cat is sick, it will run away to die alone. So my money is on L.A.
Here, as always, J. Lyt’s hometown of Modesto plays a huge part in his songwriting (“Where I’m Anymore”). So does skateboarding (“Skateboarding Saves Me Twice”), living in the past (“Rear View Mirror”), being withdrawn (“Disconnecty”, “Campershell Dreams”). And girl’s mom’s who be drinking Haterade (“Jeez Louise”). “Where I’m Anymore” contains both a chorus of meow’s and lyrics that are somehow so pointed in their simple observations (“M’ijahs ridin little pink bikes in the middle of the road” “The dog stole a blanket from the tweaker in the park”).
Then there’s the song about writing songs (“Elevate Myself”) wherein Lytle sings as only he can, “I don’t wanna work all night and day on writing songs that make the young girls cry/or playing little solos on the keyboard so the kids will ask me how and why”.
The cover art for Just Like The Fambly Cat speaks quiet volumes. A setting sun. An enflamed pick up truck. A two-lane highway. A mancat – part man part blue tabby and Modesto’d out in Dickies and a bright puffer jacket. Some post-its from the studio reading in part, Sad Strings, Tiny Strings, Chunk Chunk Guitar, End Ahhs, Piano. Is it all really that simple?
Musically and in feeling Just Like The Fambly Cat falls somewhere between the forced smiles of Grandaddy’s 2003 full length Sumday and the floaty brilliance of The Sophtware Slump. The band filed for divorce in January 2006. They’d been leading very separate lives for quite some time. Just Like The Fambly Cat really is a Lytle title for what the album is – an indifferent shrug that slowly grew into a goodbye. Sure Lytle could’ve just as easily named it Get Out, Please Leave or Just Go but No. For through all of this drama Granddaddy never loses its charm – its inherent sadness or Winnie The Pooh style poor grammar for that matter. |