Animals / Cats
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How Did I Get Hear? #17 - Alan Gregg on Ed Cake's "Downtown Puff"
- Slow Boat Records
- Behold the Golden Man! Some time in the mid-1990s I was sitting on a sofa in Auckland watching a Saturday morning kids’ TV show called What Now? A band came on and played a song which featured the lyric “If I go to hospital / Will you administer my pill?” I had no idea who they were, but the song was brilliant, and one of the band members appeared to have springs attached to the soles of his shoes. A few weeks later I met two members of that band, Edmund McWilliams and Geoff Maddock, at a Supergroove show at Auckland University. We talked about our shared enthusiasm for the music of Jonathan Richman, and they gave me a cassette(!) of some songs they were working on. When I got home and played the cassette it was a revelation. It contained intensely melodic songs with absurd lyrics and unusual arrangements. I felt like I’d stumbled upon some kind of secret treasure. They were pop songs, but not like anything I’d heard before. The songs on that cassette later turned into the eponymous Bressa Creeting Cake album (Flying Nun Records 1997), which is still spoken of in reverential tones in certain circles. The three piece Bressa Creeting Cake band, with Joel Wilton on drums, came on tour around New Zealand with The Mutton Birds (who I played bass with), and it felt like a privilege to watch them play these amazing songs to baffled audiences each night. By that time Edmund McWilliams was becoming better known under the moniker Edmund Cake. In 1999 Edmund and I played together in Bic Runga’s band, when she supported Paul Kelly on a tour of Australia. On that trip I saw first hand how Ed’s approach was not like other musicians I knew. At one show Bic’s band was invited to join Paul Kelly and his band onstage for their encore, and during the song Ed played Paul Kelly’s acoustic guitar with such intensity that his hand bled all over the body of the guitar. At soundcheck the next day Paul Kelly’s unimpressed guitar technician greeted Ed with the guitar and a cleaning cloth. Ed set to work making it spotless, and we weren’t invited onstage for the encore again. Bressa Creeting Cake split up around that time, and Geoff Maddock formed the band Goldenhorse, which went on to become hugely popular in New Zealand. All of this is a very longwinded way of getting to the point that after the demise of Bressa Creeting Cake, Edmund Cake made a solo album called Downtown Puff (Lil’ Chief Records 2004), which I consider to be a masterpiece. Around the time Bressa Creeting Cake ended, an A&R man from the Dreamworks record label in LA came to visit Ed in New Zealand and gave him an advance to make some demos. Ed recorded three songs and sent them to the label. After not hearing from the A&R guy for a while, Ed called him in LA to ask what he thought of the songs. He replied that they were “Quite great”. Dreamworks did not sign Edmund Cake to the label in the end, but they did sign a little-known artist named Nelly Furtado. In the meantime, Tim Finn had become a supporter of Ed’s music and lent him some recording equipment for a studio Ed had assembled in a building in Gore Street in Auckland. Neil Finn had also become a fan and gave Ed time to complete Downtown Puff in his own studio. Edmund Cake is an unusually talented songwriter. He has a gift for composing melodies and chord changes which are both surprising and breathtakingly beautiful. He’s also able to write lyrics which can be funny and strangely affecting at the same time. And he doesn’t sound like anyone else. On Downtown Puff Ed played most of the instruments, and he engineered and produced the songs himself. It’s an album that constantly treads the line between the sublime and the ridiculous, and sometimes does both at the same time. "You’re Watching Me” and “Beautiful Sleep” are ballads as melodic and effortless as any I can think of. The song "Gunga" sounds like Captain Beefheart jamming with Devo on the set of Sesame Street. “My Son the Harpist” tells the story, over an Omnichord drum beat, of a young harp player who meets a tragic end. Ed was improvising the lyrics the first time he ever recorded the vocal on that song and he never changed them. As a result, there are some spontaneous words in that song that you won’t find in any dictionary. The song “Oh Baby Bear” is the catchiest song you’ll ever hear about the Auckland Public Transport system. Ed sings “She’s got a cuppa tea and sandwich, she’s feeling fine / She just crossed the Pukapuka line,” all delivered in a fair dinkum Kiwi accent. Perhaps Downtown Puff’ s master stroke is the track “Golden Man”, which sounds a bit like a 1970s psychedelic folk band singing a gospel song. The poetic lyrics, swooping melodies and Ed’s trademark falsetto vocals all contribute to the song’s eerie beauty. “He commands the cats to claw / He commands the boats to shore / He commands the gulls to fly / He commands the crops to die”. Sometimes Edmund’s music can evoke the genius of Brian Wilson in the way he can take really unusual chord changes and make them seem completely natural in a pop song. But this music doesn’t sound like Brian Wilson. Ed often adopts different character voices for the songs. One moment he’s singing in a sweet falsetto, and in the next he’s growling like Tom Waits. Each song has a distinct vocal identity, almost reminiscent of the way Prince used completely different voices for some of his songs. But this music sounds nothing like Prince. Sometimes I wonder why the Downtown Puff album isn’t better known than it is. It certainly has some devoted fans, but I can’t help thinking more people would like it if they knew about it. For me it’s the work of a visionary musical artist, and it's a collection of songs that contains just the right balance of beauty, mystery, playfulness and outrageously good tunes. It’s also worth mentioning that Edmund Cake released another album under the name Pie Warmer a few years later called The Fearsome Feeling (2009 Lil’Chief Records), which is every bit as great as Downtown Puff. Alan Gregg last year released a superb album under the name Polite Company, entitled "Please Go Wild" - first single "Circulation" is here, we have copies on LP and CD, and his website is here
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Slow Boat Records, Cuba Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6040, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Wasabi: Big recovery for a small cat
- Cats Protection Wellington
- In December 2024, tabby girl Wasabi was surrendered to CPW by her family as they’d been unable to find a pet-friendly rental.
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Turning wool into gold for kitties
- Cats Protection Wellington
- Gail is one of the unsung, invisible heroes who has been knitting items for the good of the CPW cats for years.
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Memorial Garden ready to bloom
- Cats Protection Wellington
- The Memorial Garden behind the CPW has historically housed the ashes of cats who passed away at the shelter or in foster care, and includes a collection of stone plaques and statues.
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Microchip leads Ninja back home
- Cats Protection Wellington
- Late in January, the CPW shelter team took a call from an 82-year-old lady, who had a cat making himself at home at her place.
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Rosie Posy’s new lease of life
- Cats Protection Wellington
- Rosie Posy came to us in a bit of sorry state after the death of her elderly owner.
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2024 Annual General Meeting
- Cats Protection Wellington
- Our Annual General Meeting will be held at the CPW shelter on Sunday 25 August at 3pm. It will be at 29 Vancouver Street in Kingston, upstairs in the West Wing meeting room.To vote at the AGM, you must be a financial member for 2024/25. You can rejoin or become a member by completing the online form on this website. ...
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Zuko’s superstar life
- Cats Protection Wellington
- Of all the cats who have found their homes through the CPW shelter in the last year, Zuko would have to be voted most likely to star in his own TV show.
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New microchipping and desexing rules for domestic cats
- Hutt City Council
- Hutt City Council has voted to introduce "chipping and snipping" rules for domestic cats.
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Cairo takes over the office
- Cats Protection Wellington
- This pretty tabby girl (11) came in when her folks moved overseas to take care of elderly parents and couldn’t take Cairo with them.
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Let us know what you think about proposed new chipping and snipping requirements for domestic cats
- Hutt City Council
- We love our feline friends, but there’s no denying the harm they cause to wildlife and the growing feral cat numbers across Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai Lower Hutt.
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Lower Hutt, Lower Hutt City, Wellington, 5010, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Adopting Austin was a bit hairy
- Cats Protection Wellington
- He quickly established a personality that was feisty, bitey and swipey, and most volunteers learned not to get in range of his claws, especially given his long reach.
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Stone keepsakes made with love
- Cats Protection Wellington
- Headhunted from the Netherlands to take up the position of Professor in Ethical Leadership at Victoria University’s School of Business, Karin and her husband Juan (an IT specialist) moved to New Zealand in September 2016.
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Consuela retires with grace
- Cats Protection Wellington
- She now has a home with people dedicated to meeting her every need.
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Remembering Hugo Rusbridge
- Cats Protection Wellington
- Hugo will be best-remembered by long-standing volunteers from recent years, as he would come in every week to spend hours combing and grooming the cats.
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Colin Feral’s criminal past: EXPOSED
- Wellington City Council
- He’s the cutest security champion at the Council and the floofiest ginger – but will his dark past as a serial trespasser be his downfall? Or will his reformed ways prove an inspiration to many?
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Cat Owners of Wellington Survey
- Kōrero Mai | Let's Talk | Wellington City Council
- Our Cat Owners of Wellington Survey is now live.
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Mr Magoo melts healts
- Cats Protection Wellington
- Mr Magoo enjoys a cuddle with CPW team lead Delwyn....
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Countdown to new building
- Cats Protection Wellington
- We’re almost there with CPW’s new shelter building! CPW, Cranko Architects, and DRD Builders Ltd are onto the last things to do, such as installing a downpipe and heat pump controls, and replacing a door in the laundry.
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Vancouver Street, Kingston, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6242, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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CPW's oldest foster cat reaches 23
- Cats Protection Wellington
- Gypsy had a close bond with Geena, who fostered and loved her for three years....
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High demand for desexing help
- Cats Protection Wellington
- Oreo was a stray who needed to be desexed before he came in to us. All cats in the CPW shelter are desexed....
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Bostik's sticky situation
- Cats Protection Wellington
- He was noticed in the machinery room of a local factory, which houses a moving conveyor belt.
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Nikau Foundation donates $5k to CPW
- Cats Protection Wellington
- Tama is one of our cats who benefits from Nikau Foundation's donation. He has ongoing medical needs due to a number of conditions, and is cared for at the shelter....
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Mystery's miracle rescue
- Cats Protection Wellington
- A pest removal expert seems an unlikely ally to a cat rescue charity, but his rescue of Mystery from destruction was one of the high points of our year.
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Keep your cats sun-safe this summer
- Cats Protection Wellington
- Keep all your family sun-smart this summer – including your cats! While we’re slapping on our own sunscreen and hats, we also need to protect our pets from the harsh New Zealand sunlight.
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Farewell to Tasman Street Vets
- Cats Protection Wellington
- One of CPW’s longest supporting vet partners has sadly closed its doors after a 50 year history.
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CPW T-shirts now online
- Cats Protection Wellington
- CPW’s online shop now offers more items to buy, alongside our calendars and Christmas cards.
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Shoutout to our volunteers
- Cats Protection Wellington
- It's National Volunteer Week, which means it’s time to tell the world how awesome the CPW volunteers are! The one thing all our volunteers have in common is their love for our cats, which is obvious just if you look around the shelter any day of the week.
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Volumes of support for CPW
- Cats Protection Wellington
- Tucked away in Left Bank, just off Cuba Mall, is one of Wellington’s best-loved bookshops.
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Pegasus Books, Left Bank, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6040, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Powering into paintjob
- Cats Protection Wellington
- Two volunteer teams from Wellington Electricity, Northpower and Treescape spent an afternoon each at the shelter recently, as part of their annual community volunteer days.
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Related sites
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Cats Protection Wellington
- When Cats Protection Wellington was begun in 1982, it was one of the first voluntary charities in NZ that was dedicated solely to the welfare of cats. The first president, Catherine la Roche, modelled it on the Cats Protection League in the UK. In 1983 Carol Kisby, the second president, donated a space behind the Penthouse Theatre in Brooklyn for CPL, and by 1986 this had become our first shelter.
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Cats Feeds
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Cats Protection League feed 2021
- Cats Protection Wellington
- Latest Item: 3 May 2025
- Last Read: 1 minute ago
- Submitted by tonytw1
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CPL news
- Cats Protection Wellington
- Latest Item: 14 May 2020
- Last Read: 1 minute ago
- Submitted by tonytw1
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CataBlog Feed
- Cats Protection Wellington
- Latest Item: 13 Sep 2010
- Last Read: 1 minute ago
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