HOMEPAGE AT www.jackadaptor.com

NOTE - Current Band

Concentrating on studio work for the rest of the decade, the band Jack Adaptor [1] was launched in 2004 and found instant fame in Europe. First release was "Jack Adaptor" on Schnitzel [2] records in November 2004, with a single "No Logos" on the same label. The band is now Paul Frederick (vocals) and Christopher Cordoba (all instruments/production).

http://www.peoplesound.com/artist/jack_adaptor/

Biography

From writing songs together for 8 years, hundreds of songs, from a relationship that goes beyond just being songwriters. Mr Frederick and Mr Clark met through a mutual friend neither of them can remember. They both love The Show About Nothing, south coast sport, Joe R. Lansdale, Richard Ford and Annie Proulx, a good roast dinner. Mr Frederick served his rock apprenticeship with the ahead-of-it's-time band The Family Cat, UK Top 50 singles and all, later splitting the group to form a new band with Mr Clark, releasing a radio-friendly, play-listed single 'Here Come The Millionaires', (now a collector's item due to a pulping error at the distributor's end) as Pure Grain. Fierce Panda also released their 'Sweetest Song' on a 45, 'Cry Me A Liver'.

But the songwriting took over and the studio became their obsession. Jack Adaptor became the focus of all their energies. In the studio they recorded enough material for 4 LPs. Musically eclectic and adventurous, they planned each record to be different to the next. Lyrically, Mr Frederick explores the modern world with his cynical and entertaining eye for detail. Inspired by American fiction and the tough joys of life in London, his characters discuss with us modern topics such as thwarted ambition, fear of failure, fear of work, fear of the very young, consumerism, ex-girlfriends on holiday, gameshow hosts, unfulfilled travel plans, sexual frustration. 'I'm a pessimistic optimist,' he says. 'I try to have one good joke in every song' he says, 'even in the really dark ones.'

Here comes  "Right Royal" , an hour long masterpiece recorded in the blink of an eye across a short London summer. "It's like "Physical Graffiti" meets "Sign O The Times"!" said an exitable person lucky to get an early hearing of the whole thing.

The second Schnitzel Records LP is called "Road Rail River" and is due for release in the spring of 2006. Before that there will be a limited 7" single "Who Can Shout Loudest"/"The Inevitable".
Other releases are right now being hatched in HQ.

reviews


check it on www.joyzine.co.uk ALBUMS

>JACK ADAPTOR - S/T

Rising from the ashes of "Cat Family", Jack Adaptor is Fatboy Slim meets Beck in an eclectic mish-mash if trip hop goodness; a band that truly deserve the title "un-pigeon-hole-able". Through layers of heavy metal-esque guitars, soulful, multi-tracked vocals and studio wizardry, this is a journey into the musical unknown. And while it is the guitars that are instantly striking it's always the driving bass and huge beats which form such a solid backbone to the record. Despite being supremely varied, and transcending genres in a sleek and funky way which Mike Skinner could only dream of, it never once loses its focus. Brilliantly written, recorded and produced there really isn't a negative word to be said. It's summed up beautifully in the chorus to "Pop music" with the question "Do you like music?" In terms of Jack adaptor? The answer has to be: "Yes, yes I do".

Review by Tom Lewis



"undeniably very talented": Steve Marshall, LondonNet

"Spaced out, with helium voices and sing-a-long choirs, maybe this is too weird for the more mainstream pop market, but fans of Ween should buy this album. Because when the tracks dont invite you to dance they still wanna make you play air guitar".

"It reminds us of rock musicals" KLEE (in Intro Magazine)

AN ACE ALBUM TO BLOW AWAY THE COBWEBS OF EVIL - Vic McGlynn (BBC Radio 6 Music)

Sunset gazing and logo hating Jack Adaptor write misanthropic funky pop songs that are slickly cynical, maddeningly eclectic and more peacockish than Prince backed by ELO. This debut effort is a real floozy that dazzles with natural bling" Nick Miller, Unpeeled


Justin Langshaw at new-noise.net listened to the record. Very carefully!

Jackadaptor formed in London in 2002 from the remnants of the well-respected outfit Family Cat, and centre around the creative force of the two main protagonists, Paul Frederick and Christopher Cordoba. On their latest eponymous release, the contributor list tells of a baffling array of scratchers, cellists, 'droners' and keyboardists. One listen and you can tell why. There is a dizzying depth to their brand of short, sharp electronic pop, devoid of any prejudice toward genre, fashion or chronology. Opener 'Everything is Free' starts with chunky electronica overshot with Van Halen guitar, throwing in some hip-hop and rock before blindsiding you with a bizarre quartet harmony that's so quick and so surreal you wonder if it happened at all. "Everything I say is a joke," sings Frederick. It's a good joke.

'Pop Music' is another heady mix of horns, guitars and keys, along with percussive 'treatments' which soar out of, and course through, the tracks. 'No Logos' is a sardonic anti-corporate manifesto set to perfect sunshine pop, while 'Summer of George' takes jarring guitars with two-part vocals and morose industrial beats with what appear to be dustbin-lid cymbals – the overall effect is intense and reflects the song's regretful poise to great effect."There ain't no flame… I want a world where no one knows what's coming next." It's a well-trodden sentiment, perhaps, but at least Jackadaptor seem to be doing something about it.In a music world that slaps itself on the back at any slight progression forward, this may be some of the only truly innovative music I have heard in all of the last year.

Live, they actually pull it off. Where others would flounder under the weight of complexity, they couldn't seem more at ease. Cordoba is so competent it is sickening. Backing-vocalist-in-residence Dee Dee is a picture of louche sophistication, while Frederick's Nick Cave glare and faultless delivery ties the whole show together. At a recent Brixton Windmill show, they showed up their predecessors on stage for hacks and amateurs, and made the four-chord headliners look so incompetent I'm surprised they went on at all. And Billy Childish came to check them out as well. This is the sound of the nu-school old-school. This is progress, but not as you know it.


from Nighttime.com:
Jack Adaptor have been out playing dates around London recently - I'd heard from some friends that they weren't too shoddy - so I thought it wise to check out their self-titled debut album (Schnitzel Records). Comprising of Paul Frederick and Christopher Cordoba, both of whom used to ply their trade with indie favourites, The Family Cat, not that the two bands have a whole lot in common. Jack Adaptor play wiry guitars, earthquake inducing bass and wraparound tunes, with plenty of dance-friendly electronica on the side. "Everything Is Free" has got it all; Portishead-style scratchy atmospherics and a messed up guitar noodle for a solo. "Pop Music" brings everything into focus and "Summer Of George" applies a level of doomed sobriety to the project which is as unexpected as it is strangely welcome. It's when the robotics take over, I begin to lose a little interest, but you get the feeling that the Jack Adaptor have come up with the record of choice for this year's cooler Christmas bashes.

LondonNet 's Steve Marshall gives us a good seeing to at the Windmill:

"London's own Jack Adaptor hit the stage next and probably could've actually benefited from having a simple formula. At their best, they mixed minimalist guitar rock with funky bass, unexpected soaring male and female vocal harmonies to create energetic, feverish pop sounded something like Oasis meets the Anniversary. Later songs belied influences of everyone from the Doors to the Everly Brothers. Nonetheless, despite being undeniably very talented, their lack of focus often turned their sound into an incomprehensible stew with too much jamming and too few memorable tunes".

Grrrrr!

"Keep on Rockin' (In The Free World)" get to grips with "No Logos"
(as translated by Oliver Geywitz):

"With this 3 song EP JACK ADAPTOR give a brief but founded impression towards the studio album due to be released in September. On No Logos the four Brits around Fred show some different musical infuences. With a touch of electronica, with a bit of scratching and background voicing along with a combination of 60's + 70's guitar sounds and a very nice harmonic singing NO LOGOS deals with all the things that we don't need or want.

The 3 minute, a little bit slow moving ALBINO ALLIGATOR shows the band a bit rockier but still some electronic beats come to use. The Phil Vinall mix of the title track rounds up the 11 minute EP. One should be looking forward to hear the album of this charming band".