Grandaddy

Grandaddy broke up last winter, but its heart and soul will live on as long as the band’s singer/songwriter Jason Lytle still holes up in his studio from time to time. The songs on Just Like the Fambly Cat have a youthful familiarity; not angry punk anthems about parents and school, but richly layered sing-song melodies that cut you loose from the 104-degree temperatures of central valley anytown U.S.A., where nothing grows except never-ending chain restaurants, strip malls and oily clouds of exhaust left by guys in muscle cars spinning brodies behind the high school. “Summer … It’s Gone” is plaintive and strong at the same time, while the sweeping “Rear View Mirror” shifts from frustration to free and back again. “Where I’m Anymore” is like the song you made up when you were bored and grabbed the cat and made it part of your “band” with a meowing chorus and teen-existential lyrics. Watch Lytle’s home-spun video for the song at www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uyhBWHBI4w.