RING OF FIRE RECORDS presents O´Farrell, the unofficial first album by the band Jaya The Cat. Recorded back in 1999, it was never released until now, 14 years later. All the tapes were recovered and are now presented to the public for the first time as a white 180 gram vinyl limited edition (500 pieces), as a digisleeve-CD with vinyl-look and as download.
Back when singer Geoff wrote the songs for the album, he was living on the multi-cultural street O´Farrell in San Francisco - hence the album name. The typical Jaya The Cat sound is present on the album, however with more punk elements than usual: Distorted guitars with impulsive offbeat and above all Geoffs distinctive rough voice. Some of the songs were rerecorded for the album Basment Style. Highlights are the three brilliant cover songs Night Nurse by Gregory Isaacs, Walking The Cow by Daniel Johnston and Misunderstood, which was made famous by the Animals and is transformed to a rock-ska version by Jaya The Cat.
All photographs in the artwork were taken by Joseph Szymanski on and in the vicinity of O´Farrell street. Szymanski is a photographer from San Francisco who spends his time working mainly with analogous film material and developing his own photos in a darkroom, and also teaches at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.
