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The Family Cat Announce Best Of
Laurie Tuffrey , December 17th, 2012 08:00

Two-disc retrospective due in late January

Nineties indie five-piece The Family Cat have just announced the release of a new best of.

Five Lives Left (artwork above) will be a two-disc affair, taking in singles, key album tracks, b-sides, BBC sessions and previously unreleased material, due for release on January 28 via 3 Loop Music.

The band first released a mini-LP, 'Tell ‘Em We’re Surfin’' in 1989, with The Jam's Rick Buckler on production duties, before going on to put out their first full-length, Furthest From The Sun, in 1992, which included a pair of singles 'Colour Me Grey' and 'River Of Diamonds' featuring PJ Harvey on backing vocals. While the band followed it up with their best work to date, 1994's Magic Happens, the LP wasn't met with commerical success, and the group disbanded a year later.

Says singer Paul Frederick, who compiled the album along with bassist John Graves: “We chose all the singles and some alternative versions of a lot of the LP tracks, plus unreleased songs from the sessions which would have become the third full LP if the band had carried on after Magic Happens. It’s strange to listen to this music after so many years, but it’s good to hear that unique mixture of power-pop, psychedelic grooves and heads down, no nonsense, guitar grinding!”

You can pre-order the album from the label's site here; meanwhile, listen to their first single, 1989's 'Tom Verlaine' below: