The debut album of gothic rock and country shaded indie/alternative rock from the Australian group gets its long-awaited vinyl dues.
On limited-to-500 copies vinyl with a 7’’ featuring four unreleased tracks and a signed art print.
Emerging from the garage rock and post-punk revival scenes of the mid-2000s, the Sydney and later London group drew acclaim for their debut release back in ‘06. ‘Howling Bells’ was lauded for its filmic noir atmospheres, scene-setting vocals and darkly romantic lyricism, and guitarwork moving between blues, folk, dream pop, and Americana.
Howling Bells celebrate the 20th anniversary of their acclaimed self-titled debut with its first-ever vinyl release. Originally released in 2006, the album introduced the Australian band through Juanita Stein’s distinctive vocals, darkly romantic songwriting and expansive guitar sound.
Critics were unanimous in their praise. Pitchfork hailed Stein’s voice as “confidently strange” and “immediately commanding”, while NME called it “an extraordinary album”. The Guardian, MOJO and Clash also singled out its songwriting, emotional weight and unforgettable vocal performances.
The first vinyl release for their debut follows the Stein sibling and co.’s anticipated comeback album ‘Strange Life’ which dropped earlier in the year.
Produced by Ken Nelson (Coldplay, Gomez, The Charlatans), it quickly established itself as one of the standout alternative rock debuts of the era.
Introducing Vault package #69: Sly and the Family Stone – Turn Me Loose: Live at the Fillmore East 1968
Recorded in October 1968 over two nights at Bill Graham’s legendary Fillmore East in New York City,“Turn Me Loose: Live at the Fillmore East 1968” compiles all four of the band’s incendiary performances onto a single LP, highlighting the most explosive moments from each concert. Along with the four LPs – each pressed on 180-gram colored vinyl evocative of the mood of the evening at Third Man Record Pressing in Detroit, MI –
In addition to four LPs and a gatefold showcasing the historic performance shot by Amalie Rothschild, Vault package #69 comes complete with a top notch slip mat featuring artwork from the legendary Joshua Light Show projected at the Fillmore East in 1968, the hallmark liquid light look that became the backdrop of an era. And to tie it all together, two 6” x 6”, luster-finish photo prints made from unarchived studio portraits shot by Bob Cato, printed by Third Man Photo Studio in Nashville, Tennessee.
Vault #69: Sly and the Family Stone – “Turn Me Loose: Live at the Fillmore East 1968” is available now through July 31st
Two years after their blockbuster 1981 LP “Architecture & Morality”, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark released “Dazzle Ships”, a dark and experimental work about the Cold War. The world didn’t rapturously respond—critics initially panned “Dazzle Ships”, which saw a 90% decrease from “Architecture & Morality’s” sales—though many now consider it OMD’s masterpiece.
The album is noted for its experimental approach, incorporating musique concrète, shortwave radio recordings, interval signals, speaking clocks, and news bulletins. These elements explore themes of war, socialism, technology, and the Cold War, reflecting the geopolitical tensions of the early 1980s
Influences from electronic pioneers like Kraftwerk are evident, and the band used innovative instruments such as the Emulator sampling synthesizer, toy piano, typewriter, and Speak & Spell machine
Building upon Kraftwerk’s Radio-Activity (an album itself themed around nuclear radiation and radio communications), OMD intersperse conventionally structured songs with musique concrète pieces. Unmistakably synthetic sounds and bleak atmospheres complement dark lyrics about industrialization, societal failure, and communications systems, with Andy McCluskey’s vocal performances theatrically presented but deeply desperate.
Layered and manipulated snippets of Eastern Bloc radio stations and Emulator samples further contribute to the record’s cold nature, which to say the very least has aged remarkably well.
Critics found its sound challenging and unconventional. Over time, however, the album has been re-evaluated and is now regarded as a cult classic and a major influence on electronic, rock, and hip hop artists . The album spawned two singles: “Genetic Engineering” and “Telegraph”
Other tracks feature a mix of conventional synthpop songs and experimental sound collages, reflecting the band’s exploration of new musical directions. Its experimental nature and forward-thinking production have earned it recognition as an album ahead of its time.
The American foldover jacket doesn’t have the UK original or new reissue’s die-cut gatefold cover, but still includes a printed inner sleeve.
Ea Othilde mines the beguiling elements of 90s alt rock and shoegaze to cut a cathartic swathe that’s feather-light tone still bristles with frustration and catharsis. Leaning further into the rawer elements of her guitar-led sound, with sliding bar chords merging into a squealing fuzz pedal riff and twitchy drums, all the while daubing it with the vivid intimacy and emotional heft of her previous songwriting. It reminds one of elements of the heart on the sleeve sound of Soccer Mommy or the widescreen dynamics of Juliette Hatfield or early Smashing Pumpkins, yet this is deft song writing all of her own.‘I Forgot You’ is the final release before her new EP ‘You’ll Leave The City’, offering one last taste of this direction ahead of its arrival.
“I Forgot You” gives me a bitter feeling. I wrote the song about someone who was portraying me as the bad person in the story after a bad ending to things. I still feel like his reaction was very unfair and the song represents that frustration and anger.“
Ea Othilde, 21, from Oslo, has quickly become one of the most compelling new artists in Norwegian music. With the critically acclaimed releases “Mary, Aren’t You Tired?” (2023) and “I Will Not Be Like That” (2025), both nominated for Norwegian Grammys, she has built a steadily growing audience. She has also made a strong impression live, with appearances at festivals such as Øyafestivalen, Pstereo and by:Larm.
The EP explores life as a young adult without anything steady to hold on to. The songs revolve around relationships, insecurity, longing, and trying to understand yourself in your early 20s.
Musically, the release moves between alternative rock and shoegaze. The arrangements are patient and uncompromising, carrying a sense of weight and presence that stands in contrast to the restless pace and short attention span of today.
The EP is produced by Hans Olav Settem and Marit Othilie Thorvik, with mixing by Mikko Gordon (The Smile, IDLES, Elias Rønnenfelt, Geese, Arcade Fire and more
t’s a strange thing to say about one of the most prolific artists of his – or any – generation, but Jack White has been undergoing something of a career renaissance of late. After firmly establishing himself as one of the most beloved and defining figures of 21st-century rock with his early-00s blues duo the White Stripes, White seemed to get bigger and bigger over the next decade-plus, releasing albums with well-liked side projects the Raconteurs and the Dead Weather, dropping a couple of fine solo albums, and helping spark the music industry’s vinyl revival with his label and pressing plant Third Man Records.
But, at some point in the mid-2010s – around the release of his third solo album, 2018’s “Boarding House Reach”,White’s influence and celebrity seemed to be outweighing his actual output, Record plants the world over became backed-up, thanks to pop stars releasing dozens of gimmicky vinyl variants of their own albums, resulting in months-long delays for indie artists – hardly a problem White was responsible for but certainly the result of a craze he had helped spark.
White has spent the past couple of years proving that reputation isn’t all that important if the music slaps. In 2024, he released his sixth album “No Name” with little fanfare – unlabelled copies were slipped in with purchases at his Third Man stores, which is a kind of fanfare, to overwhelmingly great response. Wholly comprised of the kind of mean-mugging blues-rock that he had made his name on, “No Name’s” lean, raw songs were a welcome reminder that, beneath the huckster magician vibe, White was still deserving of his stature.
“Frozen Charlotte”, White’s follow-up to “No Name”, finds the 51-year-old digging his heels in further, wholly embracing the more brutal, squally and squalid side of the 70s blues rock that’s always informed his work. Opener “GOD and the Broken Ribs”, a bolshie, ridiculous retelling of the Genesis story, sets the terms, with White rapping over a muscular blues chug, between histrionic guitar solos: “Watch me rock, then I roll baby / And it’s let me out, let me out, let me shout / Right from my soul, with salt and coal / Now listen to me roll with it.”
The 40-odd minutes that follow are loud and ostentatious and seemingly more focused on production and instrumentation than the witty, political “No Name”. Heavy delay effects give “Raising the Grain” a wobbly, enjoyably destabilised atmosphere, as White sings about how he’s going to “boil in linseed oil” before he enters “the catacombs where the river flows”. “You’ll Never Fix Me” is an old-fashioned White garage barnstormer, its vaguely defiant lyrics seemingly less important than the immense sense of rebellion that seeps through in White and his band’s nasty, anarchic riffs.
As on “No Name“, it is enjoyable to hear White back in this no-frills mode, with a fury and meanness in his voice that really sells a line like “click clack, back track, tick tock, smack talk”. This is a pure form of fan service, but it’s preferable to the overblown White solo records that preceded “No Name”, and will probably feel a whole lot better live than anything from, say, 2022’s “Fear of the Dawn”.
Even so: while “Frozen Charlotte” is fun, and rarely feels laboured, it can be a lot. Unlike No Name, there is little stylistic variance between songs, and by the time you reach “She’s in a Frenzy“, you start to wonder if the album has simply looped back to the start, and you’re listening to the same overdriven guitar solos and sneery punk-rap from earlier. “Frozen Charlotte” works best when leaving this zone, as on “Neighbors Blues“, a genuinely bonkers potboiler. The simmering aggression renders the track far more effective in creating tension than many other songs on the record, which tend to play their hands early, neutering White’s great sense of dynamics. It’s an ironic quirk of the album as a whole: this record may be part of White’s stripped-down renaissance, but it might have been helped by an even more back-to-basics approach.
This new retrospective set captures the Minneapolis post-punk legends at their prime in 1985, following the release of their acclaimed album, “Zen Arcade”, a year earlier. “The Miracle Year” contains Hüsker Dü’s complete set from the legendary club First Avenue, as well as additional live cuts performed during the band’s tour that year. 1985: The Miracle Year is a previously unreleased live set from Minnesota punk trio Hüsker Dü and it is honestly absolutely brilliant. The recordings were intended for a live album but were shelved, then thought to be lost forever in a house fire, but thankfully unearthed and man alive, do they ever kick like a mule! There is something about their SST years (also Minutemen) that feel as eerily relevant as they must have done forty years ago.
This all-new 4LP/2CD edition includes Beau Sorenson’s restoration of an entire January, 30th 1985 set, twenty extra live tracks from the year’s touring schedule, and a deluxe booklet detailing twelve months of history-making music. They are wonderful things.
Hüsker Dü. Live. 1985. Need we say more? Witness the transcendent Minneapolis punk trio tearing into the most incendiary year of its existence, captured live on stage at First Avenue in perhaps the highest fidelity recordings of the band’s lauded SST era.
This 4-LP/2-CD edition includes Beau Sorenson’s restoration of an entire January 30th 1985 set, 20 extra live tracks from the year’s touring schedule, and a deluxe booklet detailing twelve months of history-making Hüsker Dü. What is the sound of a legend being written?
Considering the late-Jan 2011 fire that consumed a precious portion of the Dü archive, it has to be reckoned as a kind of subordinate miracle that the 1985 1st Ave tapes survived at all. They deliver peak Husker Dü at full gallop through already beloved material, still years shy of fully cementing their status as a blueprint for the alternative rock skyscraper to come. This set celebrates these tapes, strikingly perhaps the highest fidelity Hüsker Dü recordings ever produced during the band’s lauded SST years.
Seattle indie-folk icons The Head and the Heart commemorate the 15th anniversary of their landmark debut album with the release of a 2011 live show at their beloved hometown venue Neumos. This double-album captures a vibrant live set right at the moment the band was breaking out. “Live at Neumos” (2011) features all the songs from The Head and the Heart’s platinum-selling self-titled album, plus two previously unreleased songs: the original “Long Time Away,” and a cover of Jimmie Rodgers’ “T is for Texas (Blue Yodel #1).”
Interpol are releasing a new album, “This Mirror Weighs a Ton“, on August 28th via Partisan. Now they have shared its third single, “Iron City.”
Previously Interpol shared the album’s first two tracks, title track “This Mirror Weighs a Ton” and “See Out Loud.” “This Mirror Weighs a Ton” is Interpol’s first for Partisan after previously being on Matador Records for much of their career.
Interpol’s core members are Daniel Kessler, Paul Banks, and Sam Fogarino. “This Mirror Weighs a Ton” is the band’s eighth album, and the follow up to 2022’s “The Other Side of Make-Believe“, 2019’s “A Fine Mess” EP, and 2018’s “Marauder” full-length.
Andrew Wyatt (ROSALÍA, Charli xcx) produced the album, recording it in his studio in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. David Fridmann (Sleater-Kinney, MGMT) mixed the album. The album cover features an artwork by Addie Wagenknecht, which is currently held in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s permanent collection. “This Mirror Weighs a Ton” is the first Interpol song since “PDA,” from their 2002 debut album “Turn On the Bright Lights”, to feature vocals from Kessler.
Of working with Interpol, Wyatt says in a press release: “I wondered what it would be like to keep the parts perfectly legible, because everyone in that band writes such great parts. And to add some different spatial dimensions to it.” Wyatt says. “It was something almost a little bit more like chamber music—the musical ideas bear scrutiny without needing the sonic treatment of it to carry all the weight. It was also nice to add a trick or two I picked up over a couple decades of making pop records.”
In 2020 Interpol frontman Paul Banks released an album with Muzz, a band that also featured Matt Barrick of The Walkmen and Josh Kaufman of Bonny Light Horseman. Their self-titled debut album came out in 2020 via Matador.
“The World’s Best American Band”. The bold statement from Louisville’s White Reaper is not only the title of their album, but also the band’s credo.
“Because we are the best,” says guitarist/vocalist Tony Esposito. “Just like Muhammad Ali was the greatest, you gotta say it out loud for people to believe it.”
And with that mentality the band hit the studio with close friend and producer Kevin Ratterman (My Morning Jacket, Young Widows) and made a good ol’ fashioned in-your-face rock ’n’ roll record.
“We didn’t make this record or start this band because we wanted to come across in a single, certain way,” says Esposito. “We just make records that we’d want to hear. We started doing this because it’s fun as hell, just as much now as it was when we were 14.”
Boasting textured melodies, layered guitars and more seasoned lyrics, “The World’s Best American Band” finds the quartet busting out of the basement sound established on their previous full length (2015’s “White Reaper Does It Again“) and setting their sights on the arena.
Garnished with glimpses of the golden age of rock and roll, TWBAB is loaded with guitars that scream and gigantic drums in lockstep rhythm, each song packing its own massive, but none the less unique, punch. Lead single “Judy French” struts like a runway model raised on Heavy Metal Parking Lot, while midway point “The Stack” pairs a classic rock shimmy with a flair for glam.
The Kentucky boys eagerly await hitting the road in 2017. Armed with a record that celebrates rock in all of its glory, they are poised to satisfy crowds whether they are packed shoulder-to-shoulder in the “standing room only” pit or kicking back in the cheap seats.
“Come to the show, have a drink, have fun,” laughs Esposito. “But be nice to everybody, cause you’re gonna get real close.”
Recently announced the August 28th release of “1989-1992“, a long-requested compilation of Velocity Girl‘s early years, including their first two singles, various compilation and split single tracks, a pair of unreleased recordings and some other rare bits and pieces. Add in extensive liner notes and sharp new art and we think you’ll be as excited as we are about this one.
Getting their start as the 1980s bled into the 90s, Velocity Girl arose from a new pop underground that had been percolating in Washington, DC and its suburbs, a group of bands clustered around our then-nascent Slumberland Records who broadened DC’s punk paradigm with an ear for pop songs and feedback-driven racket. Velocity Girl, blessed with multiple gifted songwriters, particularly knew how to merge euphoric pop hooks with waves of noisy bliss and lovelorn melancholy.
This new compilation “1989-1992” covers the band’s pre-Sub Pop years and shows that their skill with a tune was there from the beginning, across several line-up changes and numerous early releases.
The all-time classic “Forgotten Favorite” is included, as is their debut single “I Don’t Care If You Go,” featuring original vocalist Bridget Cross (later of Unrest). There are also crucial split single and compilation contributions, a few choice covers (Beat Happening, The Jam) and even a pair of unreleased tunes.
Newly remastered and featuring extensive liner notes by DC scene scholar John R. Davis and gorgeous art by Galine Tumaysan, “1989-1992” is the comprehensive view of their early years that Velocity Girl has long deserved and their fans have long wanted.
The Fat Angel Sings 