The Fat Angel Sings

Sixty years into a career that began with Fairport Convention and has spanned decades as one of rock’s most acclaimed singer-songwriters, Richard Thompson is still chasing surprise. On “Hippies, Thugs and Heroes“, he lets his subconscious take the wheel, pulling from a cast of old friends, false gurus, former selves, and invented characters who insisted on having their stories told. The result is an album that refuses to sit still. It opens with the bright, Byrds-inspired jangle of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” — a song rooted in Thompson’s own history with 1970s spiritual movements and the complicated pull of charismatic leaders — before swinging into the rowdy “Everybody’s Stealing” and landing on the bluesy closer “Stringer.”

Along the way, “Cocaine Walking, Booze Talking” delivers some of his most inventive guitar work yet, a raw-nerve build into a splintered, psychedelic solo that captures a hardscrabble cast of London strivers and connivers. Recorded live with his longtime band — Taras Prodaniuk on bass, Michael Jerome on drums, David Mansfield on guitar and fiddle, and wife Zara Phillips on backing vocals — at Hobosound Studio in Weehawken, NJ, the sessions moved fast, often in just two to four takes. But the songwriting itself runs deep: more elaborate home demos gave Thompson’s own musical identity a stronger hold on the final record, resulting in an album he describes as “less them and more me.”

What emerges is a spiritual inquiry disguised as a rock record — a meditation on the towers we build and the ruin that follows when we invest in them too completely. Thompson doesn’t fully understand every song here, and that’s exactly the point. “Hippies, Thugs and Heroes” is proof that after sixty years, the joy of not knowing where a song will take you hasn’t faded one bit.

After the one-two punch of “The Messenger” and “Playland” early in the 2010s, Johnny Marr has been consistent in dropping a guitar-heavy solo album every four years since. Following 2022’s expansive “Fever Dreams Pts 1-4″, he recently revealed another new LP right on cue, with “The Age of Everything” set to drop on October 2nd. Following lead single “Spin,” he’s sharing another track called “Ophelia” which possesses a sense of yearning rooted in his work way back when with The Smiths.

“The Age Of Everything” is Johnny Marr’s fifth full length studio record. Written in London, developed live on the road across the East Coast of North America and recorded in Manchester, “The Age Of Everything” captures the energy and tensions of the city. Sharp, fast and dynamic, filled with ideas and possibilities.

“This is the record that’s been the most cathartic. The title came to me early in the process and became an inescapable idea. It seemed to sum up the way I think a lot of people are feeling. It’s all encompassing, but it’s not necessarily a negative statement. There’s a sense of overwhelm in the culture brought about by technology, but looking at it with a different light, there could also be a sense of possibility.” Johnny Marr

“The character of “Ophelia” is confounding but there’s a real nobility and strength which reminds me of someone in my life,” he shared of the tune. “So the name just stuck and sounded like a song. I thought about the character and I saw quite a few similarities with the “Ophelia“. As a songwriter, sometimes these things happen where it just sings really well over the track and you go with it. It turned out right.”

Since his last album, Marr released a best-of compilation of his solo work, as well a book about guitarsboth of which he spoke with us about a few years back. He also materialized earlier this year to contribute to the latest War Child comp, “HELP(2)“.

Taken from the new album ‘The Age Of Everything’, out 2nd October.

“With their ever-mutating brand of jazz-and-country-laced punk, Opus Kink have always cut a singular figure in a saturated landscape. Making their name with incendiary, cult-like live shows, the band — formed in Brighton in 2017 — have developed a sound as elusive as it is recognizable. Underscored by a formidable horn section and ragged, sardonic delivery, the band bear passing resemblance to post-punk and no-wave acts like The Pop Group, Birthday Party and Lounge Lizards, but it’s the weaving of older, more traditional influences — choral, folk, country, Latin, Weimar cabaret, cruise-ship-crooning — into the fabric of their music that sets them apart.

Their highly anticipated debut album “The Sweet Goodbye” is released via So Recordings and follows a series of EPs and singles.

The album is produced by Grammy award-winning producer and mixer Craig Silvey (Arcade Fire, Florence and The Machine, Baxter Dury, REM, Kronos Quartet, Sam Fender), with album track ‘The Head Tree’ featuring The New Eves (No.1 Independent album in 2025).

The debut album ‘The Sweet Goodbye’ released 31st of July.
New single ‘Come Over, Do Me Wrong’ out now. 

“Foundlings” is a seven-track collection that digs deep into Dead Meadow’s archives, spanning over two decades of sessions, tributes and unreleased gems. Known for their hypnotic blend of heavy riffage, dreamy atmospherics, and mesmerising grooves, Dead Meadow have been delivering their organic, masterful and utterly transportive sonic recipe for nearly thirty years now. The “Foundlings” rarities collection promises to illuminate the band’s evolution, featuring previously unheard material that showcases their unique ability to channel classic influences — from Sabbath-inspired heaviness to shimmering Cure-like textures — through their own hazy lens, while also serving as a tribute to bassist and founding member Steve Kille, who passed away two years ago after a long battle against cancer.

“Lost To Light” is Dead Meadow‘s brand new single, taken from the upcoming new album “Foundlings”.
The release will see the light 31st July via Heavy Psych Sounds.

Militarie Gun have shared that a deluxe version of “God Save the Gun” will arrive on August 7th via Loma Vista Recordings. The new iteration of their 2025 LP features three new tracks, including “World’s Always Burning” featuring the band Mannequin Pussy, which is out now. “I can’t say whether or not the world is actually ending but it certainly feels like the sense of community in the world is all but dead,” MG’s Ian Shelton shared. “I wanted to write about all the things we’re tricked into arguing about so politicians and technocratic fascists can get away with whatever they want. My neighbor and I might not agree on everything but at least I know they’re not the one taking people’s rights away and destroying the world.”

Regarding the deluxe edition’s full slate of bonus tracks, Shelton added: “Everything in “God Save the Gun” became so focused on the internal, that when it came to fitting these songs in, it felt like they had stepped outside of that perspective. In my head these songs started to form into the feeling of finally coming to after being so caught up in your own head, and then realizing the rest of the world is still out there and you haven’t been actively participating.”

Militarie Gun’s “God Save The Gun” starts with a confession: “I’ve been slipping up” frontman Ian Shelton roars. This isn’t just a sonically daring swing of a rock album, it’s a very human document of being at your worst when you should be on top – an absurdist guide to the intersection of self-destruction and self-belief. “I’m well aware that being this vulnerable turns my personal trauma into a marketing hook for this album,” Shelton says. “But I’m fine with it, if not provoking it.”

Teenage Fanclub have announced new album ‘Do Not Dare To Dream’. Check out the laid-back single ‘Day In The Sun’ 

The new record marks the 13th from the indie giants, and the first from them since 2023’s ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’. It is set for release on October 9th via Merge Records, Arriving decades on from their formation in 1989, the new album sees the band work to push their style of melodic guitars, eye-catching harmonies, and introspective song writing into new directions.

As well as announcing the LP, the band have also dropped a taster in the form of new single ‘Day In The Sun’ – a relaxed track that centres on themes of renewal and embracing a new outlook.

For the album as a whole, Teenage Fanclub explores how hollow optimism feels “ridiculous”, and retaliates against empty words of encouragement.

“Those ‘dare to dream’ sentiments are kind of ridiculous,” singer Norman Blake said, “I don’t think the world works that way.” “We can still be cheerful and optimistic in the face of things not being great,” added Raymond McGinley.

The album sees them joined by longtime members Euros Childs, Francis Macdonald and David McGowan, and was written as the musicians all embraced being in the studio together, without obsessively perfecting arrangements ahead of time.

“I think what happens is you just move from one thing into the next and before you know it, 30 years have passed,” Blake shared.

McGinley added: “Yeah, it’s been a while since we started doing this thing we do, but to us it feels like no time at all. In the place where we made the record people would have been singing thousands of years ago. Life is short, but music is eternal.”

As well as releasing new music, the indie band are heading out on tour later this year,

Detroit-formed post-punkers Protomartyr announced a new album this week, “Hotel Usona”, and the band shared its first single, “Sounds We Cannot Hear,” via a music video. They have also announced some tour dates. “Hotel Usona” is due out September 25 via Domino Recordings.

“Hotel Usona” is the follow-up to 2023’s “Formal Growth in the Desert” and 2020’s “Ultimate Success Today”. Protomartyr is vocalist Joe Casey, guitarist Greg Ahee, drummer Alex Leonard, and bassist Scott Davidson.

The band recorded “Hotel Usona” with producer Dave Fridmann (Mercury Rev, MGMT, The Flaming Lips) at his own Tarbox Road Studios in western New York. Nate Varrone (Maddie’s Secret and The Bear) stars in the “Sounds We Cannot Hear” video.

Punk legend Iggy Pop had this to say about “Hotel Usona” in a press release:

“What is a Protomartyr? I don’t really know, but I imagine it may refer to an earthly being who wants a little more than the usual shit out of life. A person or persons who want to be part of something beautiful and interesting, with the understanding that you may pay a price for that, and that others who come after will have an easier time. Kind of like Jesus.

“So then there is Protomartyr the band. Four guys who are very, very skilled musicians and creators who I suspect would be totally fucked without the intervention of their talents, which are considerable. They are, to put it crudely, a kind of rock band out of Detroit. That’s a subject I know something about. And they’ve made a new album. It is highly themed and symphonic in its reach. I could call it a kind of drive-through Sgt. Peppers, but that would miss the mark. This record is Wagnerian, it reminds me very much of the Opera Tristan and Isolde (by Richard Wagner). Musically, it sounds modal, and kind of chromatic, like I imagine Celtic war horns might sound in some forgotten battle. The singer, Joe Casey, is blessed with a beautiful voice that you want to listen to, but he stays perverse enough to keep things interesting when he wants to get petulant or a little bitchy.

“One of my favorite moments on the record is when he simply announces, all alone, ‘We got a bad review.’ Which presides a furious outpouring from the entire group. Wow! I wish I thought of that! And in today’s world, how relatable! Who hasn’t gotten a bad review? Plumbers, shoe salesmen, etc etc etc. right up to Influencers. All is reviewed… I’m trying hard not to let this attempt at biography turn into a review, but hey, I’ve been listening to these guys for quite a while now and I get the feeling that they are a slow growth item, something that is gaining followers, listeners, and respect little by little, over the long haul. There’s a lot of content here. The four of them can shift rhythms and harmonics very, very smoothly in a way that seems effortless. It’s the mark of fine arts in a popular group.”

“Sounds We Cannot Hear” taken from the album ‘Hotel Usona’ out on 25th September on Domino.

In Metz, the fearless noise rock trio who released five full-length albums on Sub Pop between 2012 and 2024, it was singer and guitarist Alex Edkins. Slinging indie rock and hardcore records in his hometown record store while attending university, Edkins became an ardent student of rock ‘n’ roll; from the psychedelic 1960s to the DIY 1990s and beyond.

Alex Edkins has fronted the long-running punk band Metz for nearly two decades. The trio may have gone on hiatus in 2024, but Edkins has stayed busy with his solo project, Weird Nightmare. Every band worth its salt has a member who worked in a record store. The new Weird Nightmare album “Hoopla“, mixes and matches these wide-ranging influences in fun, exhilarating combinations, showcasing his sophisticated musical mind. Bursting to life with hooks and earworms.

Citing influences like The Replacements, Elvis Costello and Teenage Fanclub takes some swagger, but Edkins delivers, especially on his sophomore solo album, “Hoopla”.

While his debut channeled lo-fi, underground energy, “Hoopla” embraces full-on power pop, thanks in part to production from Spoon’s Jim Eno. Following the previously released single “Forever Elsewhere,” which Stereogum called “… an undeniably infectious power-pop anthem”, Weird Nightmare has shared an official video for their new song, “Might See You There,” which was directed by CC Mulligan. 

Edkins shares about the track: “‘Might See You There’ is about going back to visit my hometown and being flooded with teenage nostalgia. Small-town boredom and isolation almost feel like a gift in today’s highly connected world. I feel fortunate for that time spent idly, down in the basement, learning the entire Rancid “Let’s Go” album on guitar with my friends. I find it easy to romanticise that time in my life, even though I was, without question, a disgruntled kid who badly wanted to escape my surroundings and see the world.

“I was listening to a lot of the Irish bands The Undertones and Protex while writing this one, and I think there is a fair bit of their influence. Just the simplicity and big bar chords mostly.

Seth Manchester and I were very into the idea of adding piano and bells to the outro, akin to the Phil Spector-produced “End of the Century” album by The Ramones. The great Julianna Riolino sings with me on the choruses, too!”

“Weird Nightmare is all about hooks and melody. Still delivered with levels in the red, but these are ultracatchy powerpop songs first and foremost, and really good ones at that.” – Brooklyn Vegan

“The debut Weird Nightmare album from Metz guitarist/vocalist Alex Edkins is a hook-filled set of blown-out power-pop with distorted guitars, punchy rhythms and bright pop melodies.” – KEXP

“Alex Edkins finally lets those melodies loose, resulting in an irresistibly euphoric blast of feedback spattered garage-pop that is just what the doctor ordered to chase away any lingering post-lockdown blues.’” – The Quietus

“All chiming chords and smart harmonies, “Wrecked” is a boisterous ode to ’90s indie-rock and everything that followed.” –  [“Wrecked”] Guitar World

“Bully’s Alicia Bognanno joins Alex Edkins of Canadian punk iconoclasts Metz on this rip-roaring taste of his upcoming self-titled solo debut. Bognanno’s killer vocal steals this one.” – [“Wrecked”] Fader

“Hoopla”, Weird Nightmare’s Stunning New Record Is Available Friday, May 1st, 2026, Worldwide From Sub Pop

Wild Pink (the band led by John Ross) are releasing a new album, “Still Coming Down,” on August 21st via Fire Talk Records. Now they have shared its second single, album opener “Box Store,”

Ross had this to say about the song in a press release: “This was one of the last songs I wrote for the album and it immediately felt like the opener when I started on it. It kind of reminded me of Warren Zevon so I leaned into that direction with it.”

Previously Wild Pink shared the album’s first single, “Round of Applause At the End of the World,” via a music video. It was one of our Songs of the Week.

Still Coming Down follows 2024’s Dulling the Horns. It was recorded across one week in Asheville, NC at the Drop of Sun studios, working with producer and engineer Alex Farrar (Bnny, Wednesday, Samia). Vocal takes were done more quickly than on previous Wild Pink albums.

“There was not a ton of overthinking,” Ross says in a press release.

The album also features longtime Wild Pink member Dan Keegan on drums, along with guests Meg Duffy (aka Hand Habits) and MJ Lenderman and his The Wind bandmates Landon George and Xandy Chelmis.

Wild Pink’s 2022 album, ILYSM, was inspired by Ross’ cancer diagnosis. Since then he’s beat cancer and become a father for the first time.

We’re one month away from Wild Pink‘s highly anticipated new album, “Still Coming Down“, out August 21st. Wild Pink have been a staple of the indie rock scene for the better part of a decade, and it’s on “Still Coming Down” that Ross cements the voice he’s been steadily honing over the years. There’s a novelistic impression to the songs of Wild Pink, where characters peer over the edge of potential futures, past mistakes and paths not taken. “500 Is The New 250” bounces between scuzzy guitars and softer, reflective moments that poke fun at the listlessness of consumerism, coping through detachment while finding the punchline of it all. “Took the cyber truck // to my favorite bar ‘Hard Luck’ // to bet on my phone and drink alone” Ross intones atop sparse production helmed by Alex Farrar, “The Steelers are in Baltimore tonight // I got no dog though, I got no fight.”

“Strangely, I feel like I’ve found my voice on this record,” he says.

releases August 21st, 2026

One thing that comes with maturity for many artists is becoming comfortable with what works and what doesn’t. Early on, it’s hard not to fret over what you’re doing and how you’re doing it; with a decent amount of experience under your belt, you can better understand your process and how to let the ideas flow as they will. 2026’s “Transmitter” is the fourth album in eight years from Cut Worms, the project of singer and songwriter Max Clarke, and in many ways it feels like the simplest and least fussed-over LP he’s released to date. It’s also one of his very best. Rather than obsessively overdubbing himself into a harmony group or trying to construct some deep-focus concept piece, Clarke has written ten great pop songs and let them play out in the studio with a small, solid band providing the guitar jangle and keeping the melodies in line.

The craft of “Transmitter” is excellent, and it feels alive and propelled by the natural energy of a band connecting in the moment, with some microphones thankfully on hand to document it all. Jeff Tweedy of Wilco produced “Transmitter” at his studio in Chicago, the Loft, and while the results don’t sound like Wilco, it does share the warmth and immediacy of albums like “Cruel Country” and “Twilight Override”; these recordings hit a near-perfect balance between precision and casual enthusiasm, and here Clarke manages to give us the best of both sides.

(The electronic wobble on “Walk in an Absent Mind” is a rare moment of obvious technical manipulation here, and in context it works beautifully.) As for the songs, Clarke is just as introspective as we’ve come to expect, but he’s learned to express himself with clarity and focus, and his vocals are articulate without excess theatricality — though this material doesn’t always sound joyous, especially in these thumbnail sketches of characters struggling with life’s challenges, Clarke’s performances are the work of a man who is learning to make sense of a chaotic world and find peace in it, and it all seems nearly optimistic without kidding himself or the listeners. Sometimes all you need to make a great album is a batch of fine songs, a handful of sympathetic musicians, and a bit of kismet. “Transmitter” has all those things, and it’s a quietly excellent album that favours Max Clarke’s talents in all the best ways.