The Adult Net

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The Adult Net was a rock band led by Brix Smith, an American singer and guitarist best known as a member of the British group The Fall.

The first releases by the Adult Net were four singles for Beggars Banquet Records (also home to the Fall) in 1985 and 1986, starting with a cover of Strawberry Alarm Clock's "Incense and Peppermints". Smith and fellow Fall musician Simon Rogers were the core of the band, and other band members and friends (including Smith's then husband Mark E. Smith) made occasional contributions. Initially, the band's sound was psychedelic pop, with some traces of the Fall's experimental side (an early Fall song "Rebellious Jukebox" was the B-side of the first single, and the 12" B-side "Fat Hell" is the Fall's "Elves" played backwards with Smith reciting poetry over it).

Over the next few years, Brix Smith worked with various musicians (including Craig Gannon, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce, all ex-members of The Smiths), and recorded an album called Spin This Web, which was offered to Geffen Records but rejected. Most of the material was re-recorded with musicians including Gannon, James Eller and former Blondie drummer Clem Burke. The Honey Tangle was released in 1989 by Phonogram Records, and at about the same time the Smiths' marriage ended and Brix Smith left the Fall. Although by this time the band's sound was straightforward pop in the style of The Bangles, and a few singles were released, the album was not a commercial success. The group was soon dropped by their record label, and apart from a brief return to the Fall in 1995-96, Smith's musical career effectively ended.