The Fat Angel Sings

The first words we hear Ben K. Lochen sing after a rousingly up-tempo and kickass rendition of the Flying Burrito Brothers’ “Sin City” are these: “You wanna be like those old singers / you wanna live like that’s true / you wanna give all you can give / to the ones who gave to you.” Certainly by the time we hear “Caught,” the fourth track on “Long Gone Saviors”, the lowly ambitions and lofty aspirations to be a specific breed of Graham Parsons-esque burnout country star feel apparent on Idle County’s debut—sure, you can write “Hot Burrito #1” and “She” and beat the Stones to market with “Wild Horses,” but with it is going to come lonely nights on barstools, a burned-down home in Laurel Canyon, and an early grave at 26.

As most albums in the genre are now, the sound and writing of “Long Gone Saviors” is perhaps better understood through the lens of everyone that came after Parsons—many of whom are neither gone nor saviors. The North Carolina that birthed Idle County feels deceptively unrecognizable from the music scene that’s currently thriving there right now. While the Ashville band have opened for the likes of Collin Miller, Florry, and rising phenoms i26 Connector (some of whom play on the album), and Lochen grew up seeing MJ Lenderman and Wednesday play in small clubs well before they broke into the mainstream, the album itself dizzily embodies the exact alternative southern rock sound that caused writers to come up with the term “alt-country” in the first place—many forsaken Gen X tastemakers would’ve quickly anointed Idle County a tentpole of the genre alongside the Bottle Rockets, the Jayhawks, and the Old 97s 30 years ago, and rightfully so. A bevy of booze-soaked, riff-heavy tomes, the stories involve characters who know their fates are tethered to destiny or tragedy—ingrates watching the world pass them by: run-up bar tabs, thrown-away guns, love lost and beads of sweat earned. In that sense, it most closely resembles a lost Truckers album, with Cooley and Hood and early Isbell sounding like true north stars for Lochen’s songwriting.

Close enough, welcome back uncle tupelo. But no joke, this album rocks. Virtuosic performances and amazing songwriting a level above

Cautiously acknowledging the lonely passage of time and hard life lived that can come with chasing the ghosts of country stars and sounds, the six-minute closing title track feels as much written from the POV of a character as it is Lochen; inevitable tragedy runs through it as he raises his beer to sing, “This one is for all the times you said / we were gonna put this thing to bed.” Given he’s just put out one of the best alt-country albums in years, I hope he’s not putting it to bed too soon, but I’d understand all the same if it all tragically fades away. 

Our debut record, “Long Gone Saviors,” is yours. Grown locally. Play it loud.

released July 10th, 2026

Guitars, Vocals: Ben K. Lochen
Lead Guitar, Vocal Harmonies: Caelan Burris
Bass: Clayton Gibb
Pedal Steel: Will Elliot
Fiddle: Zoë Eshan
Drums: Eli Whitlow
Banjo on “Caught”: John James Tourville

All songs written by Ben K. Lochen, except “Sin City,” written by Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman.

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard have released their 28th album. Out today, ‘Alien Metal’ arrives via the band’s own p(doom) Records. King Gizzard’s new album “sees the ever shape-shifting Melbourne six-piece set the controls for the dark heart of electronic dance music ”Alien Metal” was written and recorded on the modular synthesiser set-up which they took out on the road last year, affectionately named “Nathan” by the band.

The album grew out of last year’s ‘rave shows’ where King Gizzard abandoned traditional instruments in favour of their modular synthesiser set-up. What began as a fun experiment grew into an obsession, inspiring one of the band’s most ambitious records to date.

At this point, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s new album could arrive at any moment. The prolific, ever-morphic Australian psychedelic wizards previously announced that the rave-centric “Alien Metal”, their 28th studio LP, would come out this summer, and they shared “Level 5” and the title track. The band still hasn’t announced a release date for “Alien Metal”, but the third single from that record is out today.

You have to figure that the album isn’t far behind.

The album grew out of last year’s ‘rave shows’ where King Gizzard abandoned traditional instruments in favour of their modular synthesiser set-up. What began as a fun experiment grew into an obsession, inspiring one of the band’s most ambitious records to date.

“It completely rewired my brand,” said lead singer Stu Mackenzie, who discovered the possibilities of the Eurorack synthesiser format on the recommendation of fellow King Gizzard member Joey Walker. “I was like, ‘I’m going to forget everything I know about music and relearn it all from scratch.’”

“We’ve never scrapped so much material as we have for this album,” Mackenzie explained. “Entire albums, entire universes that were formulated, created, recorded, deleted and started again.”

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard have released their ‘Alien Metal’ arrives via the band’s own p(doom) Records.

King Gizzard featured in not one, not two, but three major Rolling Stone AU/NZ lists last year.

We included “L.W.” (2021) in our 100 Best Australian Albums of the 2020s So Far countdown; “Dragon” (2023) and “Gamma Knife” (2016) made our Best Australian & New Zealand Songs of the 21st Century So Far countdown; and we included “Phantom Island” (2025) in our year-end Australian albums list.

John Mellencamp has said that 1987’s “The Lonesome Jubilee” was made differently than how he usually makes records. In the past, Mellencamp generally would write and record the songs for an album while in the studio and that would be the album. But for “The Lonesome Jubilee” Mellencamp and his band talked about the kind of record that they wanted to make ahead of time and Mellencamp wrote songs that would fit that thematic and sonic vision. Indeed, “The Lonesome Jubilee” was originally envisioned as a double album but in the end Mellencamp himself decided to cut it down to a single album when he felt too many of the songs he had written strayed from the vision he had for the record.

This focus makes “The Lonesome Jubilee” arguably the best record of Mellencamp’s career.

“The Lonesome Jubilee” opens with the great “Paper In Fire”, an intense and ferocious rocker that builds the tension and then releases it in a cathartic blast of a chorus. Lyrically, the song draws on Mellencamp’s own extended family’s drama and how the inability to control desires can destroy a person and their life. “Paper In Fire” was the lead single for “The Lonesome Jubilee” and a very big hit. “Down And Out In Paradise” is a fiery rocker about how the blue collar worker was losing access to the American Dream under the economic policies of the Reagan administration. It is another angry and disillusioned song about the erosion of the way of life in the American heartland.

The third track is the third single “Check It Out”, a midtempo song with a great melody and vocal hook refrain that gets lodged in your head. Another hit song, “Check It Out” is about the ups and downs of everyday people just trying to live a life of meaning and happiness. It is a hopeful song with a touch of melancholy that serves it perfectly as it really does capture the small joys and trials of living life.

“The Lonesome Jubilee” opens strong and that consistency continues as the record goes on. “The Real Life” is based on many people Mellencamp knew growing up in small town Indiana, including his own uncle. Mellencamp remembered having a conversation with his uncle when his uncle was in his 40’s. His uncle told him “I have done what I thought was right, what was expected of me: Married young even though we weren’t really in love, stayed with her, had kids, worked hard to provide for them, and never did anything for myself. Now I am going to”. This inspired Mellencamp to write “The Real Life”. The sentiment is one many people can relate to as they age and change and question their choices in life and the song is lyrically strong. Musically, I find “The Real Life” to be one of the album’s least interesting songs, but it is still very listenable.

This is followed by the album’s second single, and one of Mellencamp’s most popular songs, “Cherry Bomb”. “Cherry Bomb” is one of those songs that perfectly captures the feeling of young love, young lust, carefree days, and hot summer nights; of being young and unburdened by life. The song is told as a reflection back on those days from the perspective of an older, wiser, and less naive person who now knows that those days are far too short and that as much as you enjoy them at the time, you can’t really appreciate them until they are gone. “Cherry Bomb” is a classic and one of the more warm and positive songs on “The Lonesome Jubilee”.

Things get a bit more serious and sombre on the brooding rocker “We Are The People”, which serves as something of a centerpiece of the record; a reminder that the everyday, hard working people that this song is about are the real heart and soul of our communities and of the country. The song also has a touch of the more Americana influences that were beginning to come into Mellencamp’s work and eventually would become his main interest. “Empty Hands” leans into the Americana influences even more without yet abandoning the fact that Mellencamp is a rocker. The percussion crashes and is high in the mix (Mellencamp almost always had great drumming and percussion) and drives forward the tense and yearning song. “Empty Hands” is good enough to be a highlight on most of Mellencamp’s but on “The Lonesome Jubilee” it is just another excellent song that isn’t quite on the album’s very best.

“Hard Times For An Honest Man” could be the theme of the whole record, and in spite of its lyrical pessimism, it is one of the record’s more upbeat, jubilant feeling tracks musically. They may be hard times for the honest man, but the song gives the impression that they can still succeed. “Hard Times For An Honest Man” has a summery feel that is even more present on the warm, breezy “Hot Dogs And Hamburgers”, which has that warm, nostalgic feeling that is made for 4th of July barbecues and dancing at the county fair. “Hot Dogs And Hamburgers” may feel like a lighthearted jaunt (a fact reinforced by the title) but it actually is a fairly deep look at the exploitation of the Native Americans, historical trauma, and personal morality. Thus, it works really well on either a casual listen or a deeper one.

The original album closer is “Rooty Toot Toot”, a song that Mellencamp wrote as a kind of nursery rhyme for his daughter Teddi Jo when she asked him why he had never written a special song for her. It is a fun and lighthearted closer than works well for this particular album.

Later issues add a short bonus track called “Blues From The Front Porch” as the album closer. “Blues From The Front Porch” is a loose blues jam primarily sung by Crystal Taliefero, who worked as a prominent backing and counterpoint vocalist all across “The Lonesome Jubilee” and several other albums. It is also a good way to end the record for versions that have it. 

“The Lonesome Jubilee” has strong songwriting, varied sounds and styles, thoughtful lyrics, emotional resonance, and a strong and unified theme. It is Mellencamp’s best work.

The other great act to perform at Woodstock on Day Two technically didn’t take the stage till the early morning hours of Sunday. The Who had achieved some middling success in the states to this point, with exactly one Top Ten single to their credit in the US to this point (and 9 in the UK during the same period). But the allure of the singles charts was fast losing its appeal, and with “Tommy” now on its way to becoming the blockbuster they always knew they had in them, their elevation to top-tier act was assured.

By the time they took the stage, the band was in a particularly foul mood: too cynical to buy into the peace-and-love vibe of the event, they would not go on until their fee had been paid upfront. (They were also angered to find that they’d been dosed with acid backstage against their will.)

Theirs was the longest set of the entire festival (in terms of number of songs performed), where they not only showcased the new double-album but also played another half-dozen songs – all in 65 minutes. (And within this, Pete found the time to assault Abbie Hoffman, who ill-advisedly mounted the stage to make a speech during their set.)

They began their set at 5AM – by the time they concluded the “Tommy” portion with this stirring finale, the sun was just starting to rise.

The Session Man: Who Was The Unsung Hero Behind Rock’s Greatest Hits? Nicky Hopkins

The story of highly gifted pianist and unsung hero, Nicky Hopkins, who played with the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Kinks and many more. What happens when the greatest rock bands in the world all rely on the exact same hidden genius?

In this incredible music documentary, we explore a compelling narrative about unsung heroes, unparalleled musical talent, and the fascinating history behind some of the greatest songs ever recorded! The story follows a highly gifted pianist whose nimble fingers and extraordinary musical ear made him the go-to session player for legendary acts during the golden age of rock. From crafting iconic piano riffs to elevating ordinary tracks into masterpieces, he contributed to over 250 albums, playing alongside giants of the industry. Despite battling profound personal health challenges throughout his entire life, his dedication to his craft never wavered. Join us for this cinematic journey as we explore incredible behind-the-scenes stories, exclusive interviews with music legends, and the heartwarming tribute to a quiet visionary who truly shaped the soundtrack of a generation!

What’s in this documentary?
→ A highly gifted pianist becomes the secret weapon for the world’s most legendary rock bands.
→ This incredible music documentary explores the life and legacy of an unsung musical genius.
→ Facing profound personal challenges, a quiet visionary shapes the soundtrack of a generation.
→ The film offers a compelling narrative about the brilliant mind behind countless iconic piano riffs.
→ Discover a sweeping cinematic story filled with exclusive interviews, music history, and inspiration.

Magic Castles are back with new album Realized, a set of lush psych-rock reveries from Minneapolis songwriter Jason Edmonds, blending late-60s folk-rock warmth with shoegaze shimmer.

Newly signed to Fuzz Club, Realized takes Magic Castles’ music to a newfound level of clarity, whilst still retaining that same, long-harboured analogue warmth only made possible through an array of vintage amps, guitars and transistor organs. Realized consists of nine dreamlike, melody-led trips that unfold in waves. Equal parts hazy nostalgia and widescreen modern psychedelia, centring dreamy, heavily-layered arrangements and floating vocal harmonies.

Magic Castles’ new album ‘Realized’, released April 26th 2026 on Fuzz Club

Brighton-based Swedish songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Nina Winder-Lind, best known as a member of the electrifying ‘hagstone rock’ band The New Eves releases her debut solo album, “Wild Love”,  via Transgressive , alongside the focus track “Foremothers”. 

Rich in feeling, instinct and expansive musicianship, “Wild Love” captures Winder-Lind at her most open and fully realised, establishing a distinctive solo voice while building on the creative foundations that have made her one of the UK’s most compelling emerging artists.

Produced by longtime collaborator Jack Ogborne (Bingo Fury, The Cindys), “Wild Love” was recorded across two Bristol studios: one beneath the iconic Louisiana venue and another inside a converted church. Winder-Lind is joined throughout by her live band, including fellow New Eves member Ella Oona Russell alongside Finlay Burrows, Edward Deeney and Toma Sapir, with additional contributions from Francesca Brierley (heka, Dorothy).

Originally conceived as an EP before growing into a full-length with the support of Transgressive, “Wild Love” gathers songs written across several years into a remarkably cohesive statement. Across its eleven tracks, Winder-Lind explores love in all its forms, romantic, platonic, familial and spiritual, while celebrating emotional honesty, instinct and the freedom to live unapologetically.

Female experience runs throughout the album, from songs honouring “foremothers” to reflections on girlhood and the ways women continue to be constrained by expectation. Yet “Wild Love” reaches beyond resistance. At its heart, it is an album overflowing with movement, desire and the exhilaration of simply being alive.

The electric guitar sits at the centre of the record, serving not only as its defining instrument but as a symbol of liberation and emotional expression. Familiar themes from The New Eves, wildness, mysticism and defiance, remain present, but here they are refracted through a more autobiographical lens, rich with tenderness, longing and vulnerability.

Speaking about the album, Nina says:

“The kind of base line is that I am alive… I’m so alive and I’m so grateful for that. You get to do all these things and feel all these things and you’re in a body and you get to express yourself and you have to or you’re gonna explode.

They’re all love songs, really. Romantic love, love for my family, my friends, love for the landscape. It’s about intense emotional entanglement with other beings.”

Raised in Stockholm and based in Brighton, Winder-Lind‘s artistic voice has been shaped equally by Sweden’s vast landscapes and Brighton’s vibrant music and activist communities. Across both her solo work and collaborations, she channels life’s emotional intensity through fearless songwriting, searing vocals and performances that invite complete immersion. While The New Eves thrive on collective energy, “Wild Love” reveals a more intimate and deeply personal side of her songwriting.

The album marks Winder-Lind‘s first solo full-length, following her acclaimed 2023 EP The Spirit Is Carnal and 2025 poetry collection Röd Ska Jag Leva. It also arrives after a breakthrough year with The New Eves, whose debut album “The New Eve Is Rising” was hailed by Clash as “an unforgettable debut”, while The Guardian wrote in its lead review that “it feels exciting, as does their future.” The record also appeared in end-of-year lists from Dork, Loud & Quiet and Hard Of Hearing.

The arrival of “Wild Love” follows a string of celebrated recent singles, including “Headfirst”, “This Is Our Life” and “Girls”. Anchoring the album release is the emotional focus track, “Foremothers”, a heartfelt ode to her grandmother and the generations of women in her family tree, serving as another showcase for Nina’s distinct smoky vocals. Opening as a vulnerable, acoustic and eclectic arrangement, the track gathers momentum and sweeps into a larger than life crescendo. 

Nina Winder-Lind’s upcoming debut album ‘Wild Love’, out
14th August 2026 via Transgressive Records,

The debut album from rising Dublin-based band, Basht. – via Lab Records.

“Poor Advice” is a bruising concept album that traces the tangled wires between power and those crushed under it. Through 10 tracks, it maps the old dance between church and state in Ireland, where pulpits and governments traded sermons for policy and shaped a generation with guilt, silence, and obedience. It then pulls that thread into the present, following how moral authority has been outsourced to boardrooms and barracks, with the military industrial complex running like a grim metronome: conflict brewed, weapons sold, grief managed, contracts renewed. 

“Poor Advice” is the title because it’s all the counsel handed down from above: keep your head down, say your prayers, trust the deal

BASHT. release their eagerly anticipated debut album via LAB Records in Autumn 2026.

Los Angeles five-piece Dummy have announced a new album, “do you love the color of the sky?“, and shared its first single, “Lowest Common Denominator,” via a music video. They have also announced some new tour dates. “Do you love the color of the sky?” is due out October 16th via Polyvinyl. check out the new single and the album details, followed by the band’s upcoming tour dates.

Guitarist Joe Trainor had this to say about “Lowest Common Denominator” in a press release: “I was trying to make something just heavier, and we joked it was our nu metal song, during the recording we added the tambourine that gives it a more dancey vibe, Deee- Lite meets Deftones.”

Vocalist/keyboardist Emma Maatman adds: “This is the Technofeudalism bop. Tech billionaires are treating AI like the new Alchemy, using it as a source of power and magic. This supposedly soon-to-be all-powerful technology could not exist without harvesting all of humanity’s intellectual property and collective work. ‘Prima Materia’ is the building block of all alchemical matter, so in the canon of the song, we humans are the Prima Materia.”

Matt Wells directed and edited the song’s video.

“Do you love the color of the sky?” is the followup to 2024’s Free Energy. The press release cites Seefeel, Windy and Carl, Laika, Disco Inferno, early Björk, The Sundays, and Madonna’s Ray of Light as reference points for the new album. Dummy’s full lineup is Alex Ewell, Emma Maatman, Nathan O’Dell, Joe Trainor, and Lance Umble.

Roxy Music’s 1973 album, “For Your Pleasure” will be reissued in November in what represents the first major Roxy reissue campaign since the art-rocker’s eponymous debut was re-released back in 2017.

Regarded by many as their masterpiece; you could call it the ‘Godfather II” of studio albums, in that it’s at least as good as, if not better, than the first record. Their last long-player to feature Brian Eno, “For Your Pleasure” expands on what the band started a year earlier and features more elaborate production and experimentation.

Frontman Bryan Ferry remembers the expectations of delivering a second album:

It was a good pressure. Realising, now there’s an audience to write for. An intelligent audience. I felt a responsibility for the work that I hadn’t for the first album, certainly with regard to the lyrics. There was a hunger in the whole band to do more: a very strong urge to get back into a recording studio and make a better record than the first one. Bryan Ferry

Preceded by the non-album single ‘Pyjamarama‘ (the band’s second top 10 single in the UK), “For Your Pleasure” includes ‘Do The Strand’ which wasn’t issued in the UK as a single, but did get a limited release in Europe. Other highlights include ‘In Every Dream Home A Heartache‘ and the nine-minute ominous minimalism of ‘The Bogus Man‘.

The 2026 reissue is available as a 3CD+DVD box set, an exclusive blu-ray, alongside a 2CD edition and 2LP vinyl versions. As well as the album on CD 1, the box set features features a second CD of 20 unheard songwriting sketches recorded at home by Bryan Ferry, band rehearsals and studio outtakes newly mastered by John Webber at AIR Studios. A third CD is filled with live sessions, singles and instrumentals, including 14 previously unheard recordings. The DVD features rare TV and live performances from the 1972–1973 period, originally broadcast by the BBC, German and Swiss television networks.

The box set includes a 116-page book, complete with exclusive archive content, includes a 7000-word essay built from new interviews with the band, producers and creative team, and a 2500-word essay by Michael Bracewell. The book is illustrated with many rare and unpublished photographs, lyrics and work-in-progress lyric notes by Bryan Ferry, tape scans, tour dates, and a “For Your Pleasure” chronology. The book also includes an essay by Nick de Ville on Roxy Music’s visual world.

On top of all that, this blu-ray features over an hour of unreleased outtakes and Peel Sessions.