The Fat Angel Sings

Esoteric Recordings is pleased to announce the latest release in the Todd Rundgren Archive series, “All Sides Of The Roxy 1978”. In May 1978 Todd Rundgren performed a series of concerts at The Roxy Theater in West Hollywood, California with a band comprising members of The Hello People (Bobby Sedita, Larry Tasse, Greg Geddes & Norman Smart) along with keyboard player Moogy Klingman, bassist John Seigler and drummer John “Willie” Wilcox.

The highlight of this residency was a concert on the 23rd May 1978 which was the largest concert simulcast on American FM radio at that time with an estimated audience of over ten million listeners. Hosted by the legendary DJ Wolfman Jack (himself the inspiration for a song on Rundgren’s “Something Anything” album), Todd tore through a wonderful set that included material from both his solo albums (including the recently released “Hermit of Mink Hollow”) and his work with Utopia. He was joined on stage by such illustrious company as Daryl Hall & John Oates, Stevie Nicks, Spencer Davis, Rick Derringer and Kasim Sulton (of Utopia).

This three disc clamshell boxed set includes the entire set from the 23rd May concert over two discs, along with a third disc comprising other soundboard recordings made by Todd during his residence of shows at The Roxy. This release also features an illustrated booklet and is a welcome addition to Esoteric Recordings’ Todd Rundgren Archive series.

Sweet, Wild and Vicious: Listening to Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground by Jim Higgins

Greg Kot, writes
“I didn’t think we needed another book on Lou Reed or the Velvet Underground until I read “Sweet, Wild and Vicious. by Jim Higgins who contextualizes Reed’s life and aesthetic in a way that illuminates the world he created between the headphones. His recordings finally get the book they deserve. An essential addition to our understanding and appreciation of Reed/Velvets.“

“Bite Down”, the Merge Records debut of Rosali, finds acclaimed songwriter and guitarist Rosali Middleman in the midst of transition. Written after moving to North Carolina from her longtime home of Philadelphia, “Bite Down” is a searching, hungry record by an artist who is resolved to bite down on life, in all its horror and joy.

She is joined here by Mowed Sound David Nance (bass, guitar), James Schroeder (guitar, synth), Kevin Donahue (drums, percussion) and in studio by Destroyer collaborator Ted Bois (keys). “Bite Down” is Rosali’s second album working with Mowed Sound, and there is urgency and ambition in their collaboration a band pushing each other not just to expand on what they’ve already done together, but to break through into altogether new territory.

It’s hard to talk about Rosali’s music. Songs that reach outward like this, but then constantly disarm with their intimacy. Songs that long for a sense of peace and songs that want romance, all on equal footing in the same plot of earth? Performed wild, but always centered around the incredible lyrical calm that is Rosali’s voice.

This new Rosali album is real good, and while this particular tune doesn’t fit it, talking about the album does allow me to share a new theory I’m cooking up in my head thanks to listening to music from the 90s a lot more than I’d care to admit, but anyways, here it is: we have all underestimated the impact Natalie Merchant had. Not a slight in any way, just noticing it more and more. Anyhow This is such a perfect closing track to a really solid record. Love that for us.

Active for the past nine years singer/songwriter Nick Carpenter’s artist project has long been a vessel of raw connection and uncompromising self-expression – wrapped, of course, in some insanely catchy melodies and cathartic performances. Through four-plus records and tours with Lewis Capaldi, FINNEAS, and most recently Holly Humberstone, Medium Build has brought his unfiltered heart and soul to the masses – and while statements like this always sound unnecessarily hyperbolic, his latest music really is some of his best.

Having released his first major label EP last year (the six-track “Health” is a tender, brooding, sun-kissed daydream worth everybody’s time), Medium Build is now on track to release his first major label album: “Country” is set to release April 5th via slowplay / Island Records, and will feature the stunning singles “In My Room,” “Crying Over U,” “Cutting Thru the Country,” and “Knowing U Exist.” Technically it is fifth studio album, “Country” is filled with Carpenter’s “goddamn DNA” – he explains, “I wanted “Country” to have a human touch. I want “Country” to be something you love with and dance with and cry with and sleep with and lean into.”

In all honesty, I’d love to spend some time unpacking each and every one of “Country’s” songs at some point I want to dive into “Cutting Thru the Country,” the album’s emotionally-charged third single, released back in February.

A dramatic and heated folk rock fever dream, “Cutting Thru the Country” is a spirited, sweltering release of pent-up energy, inner tension, and fiery emotion: Carpenter churns and charges his way through three intense minutes of chorus-less reckoning, singing about cross-country drives (several of which he took during the making of this album) and all the heavy, inescapable thoughts and feelings that cloud the mind on those trips. Passion and urgency combine into a furious, visceral eruption as Medium Build goes big:

“In August, while I was driving from Alaska to Nashville, I started a little poem,” Carpenter says of this song. “I wanted it to feel like an Earl Sweatshirt song. Just bars, no chorus, no melody. We found an old keyboard and plugged it in. Found some wild tones and I did like 6 takes of the vocal. Probably the easiest tune we made on the album.”

That ease translates into an all-consuming experience as Medium Build dwells unapologetically in his depths, coming to an impassioned climax as he sings, “Nothin’ is forever and I don’t even know, that’s just how it goes, that’s just how it goes, people get sick, yeah, everybody knows, everybody knows, that’s just how it goes…” – a line that, without fail, always sends shivers down my spine.

The fun thing about discovering an artist a decade into his career is that there’s several hours’ worth of Medium Build music for me to dive into, and I’m still catching up. Nevertheless, there’s not a shred of doubt in my bones that “Cutting Thru the Country” is a very special song: An unrelenting explosion of angst, roaring vocals, and turbulent energy – with plenty of cinematic guitars and propulsive drums, to boot – that comes to life as a three-and-a-half minute cleanse; a freeing, white-hot release of all our stress, all that weight we’ve been carrying inside, and all those heavy emotions that don’t have an easy way out.

Dehd have announced their fifth studio album, “Poetry”. The new album is out May 10th via Fat Possum. Watch the music video for “Poetry’s” lead single, “Mood Ring,”

Would appreciate the temperature rising so I could make good use of this song, which deserves open windows and a drive where you manage to inadvertently speed.

“Poetry” follows Dehd’s 2022 album, “Blue Skies”. They worked on the new album while on a road trip that took them to Taos, New Mexico, and the Puget Sound. “Eating, sleeping, breathing, living—our only purpose was to write,” singer and bassist Emily Kempf said of the experience in a press statement. Dehd finished the album at Chicago’s Palisade Studio with co-producer Ziyad Asrar.

“Mood Ring” leads the Chicago trio’s first studio album since 2022’s “Blue Skies“

Dehd’s “Light On,” off of their new album ‘Poetry’, due out May 10th, 2024, on Fat Possum Records.

I am happy to say that the new Restorations album kicks an immense amount of ass. This is about as good of an opening track as we are going to get this year. Restorations were a big part of that burgeoning Philly scene in the 2010s and henceforth. Algernon Cadwallader’s Joe Reinhart (later of Hop Along) worked on their early stuff as well, so you know they would be worth their weight in gold. And as the years rolled by, call them ‘dad rock’ or whatever, they always lived up to the building. True Americana rock ‘n roll, with nostalgic cuts and a post-rock hue that fans of The Gaslight Anthem, Well, with their fifth EP — aptly titled “Restorations” (which cements their first self-titled as LP1) — finally released, it’s safe to say Restorations haven’t lost any of their magic.

Now, let me preface this by saying, LP2 is a juggernaut. A titan of a record few bands could ever live up to. The fourth full-length, oddly titled LP5000 though was less angsty and felt like a sonic shift — nothing too far gone but a simple reminder that bands do evolve and ache for something new. This album feels like the best middle ground someone could ask for who is familiar with their archive.

Off the cuff, the band’s strength is on display with “Field Recordings” post-rock gem that nods to songs like “Nonbeliever” — quiet when need be, but melodic chaos as it swells. This gives way for songs like “Cured” — dynamic shout alongs and that effervescent, smokey bar energy that is, for want of a better word, Its vintage Restorations. I have always enjoyed that songs like these are rough, not too anthem-y, and just catchy enough in their call-and-response nature. Of course, I think their shorter, punchier tracks are straight-up jams, too. Not everything needs to be loud, explosive bangers, right?

“The Cost” is one of their most remarkably-written jams. At this point, I’m not gushing. Sure, there are gorgeous soundscapes but a few tracks do lose some momentum along the way. But all in all, Restorations (working with Retro City Studios, Spring Garden Studios, The Greenhouse and Mission Control Mastering) are every bit as good as when they polished their tunes back home at Miner Street Recordings. The music is still lush, nuanced and hopefully optimistic. Even the nihilistic parts that hint there is no light at the end of the tunnel but that we still have to do our best to enjoy the harsh rigours of life in this reality resonate with a meaning and sentiment.

I was not familiar with Lizzy McAlpine’s game, I must say, before recently. Sure, there was that better-than-the-original cover of “A Little Bit of Everything” last year. But good lord, where to even start with this tune? Just hiding punch after well-timed punch in the strings and hushed vocals. And then… it just breaks open with warmth. More, please.

Lizzy McAlpine returned to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to perform the title track off her forthcoming album, “Older”. Watch it below.

The performance, which featured the singer-songwriter backed only by a pianist and guitarist, marked the live debut of “Older.”  The full album is set to arrive on April 5th via RCA Records. In recent weeks, McAlpine also dropped the moody and restrained single “I Guess” as another look into the project.

Writing and recording “Older” was one of the most creatively fulfilling and moving experiences of my entire life. i brought half of this song to Mason Stoops & Taylor Mackall and within 20 minutes we had the full thing. we recorded three takes, just the three of us in a room, no headphones or click or anything. you can listen to the third take now. pure, pure creativity and love.

Out June 21st via Rhino, six days before the album’s original release on June 27th, 1974, The Grateful Dead will release “From The Mars Hotel” (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) which features remastered audio by Grammy Award-winning engineer David Glasser, with Plangent Processes tape restoration and speed correction. Eight months after the release of “Wake Of The Flood”, the Grateful Dead followed up that masterpiece with the second album on their Grateful Dead Records label, “From The Mars Hotel”. To this day, most of the songs on From The Mars Hotel are played frequently by the band members as they continue to bring the music to the people, and during the Grateful Dead’s touring career, more than half of the songs were important parts of their live repertoire.  Although “Loose Lucy” had a 15 year hiatus 1975-1989. Phil’s two songs on the album are often played live these days when Phil performs with his rotating cast of Friends, and these songs, “Pride Of Cucamonga” and “Unbroken Chain” are elicit ecstatic responses. These would be the final two Phil-sung songs on a Grateful Dead studio album.

Produced for release by Grateful Dead Legacy Manager and Audio Archivist, David Lemieux, the deluxe edition also includes demos of “China Doll” and “Wave That Flag” – the song that became “U.S. Blues” – as well as a previously unreleased live performance of the Grateful Dead at University of Nevada-Reno on 5/12/1974.

As the band filled an outdoor football stadium with epic highs like a huge “China Cat Sunflower”, “I Know You Rider,” “Mars Hotel” cuts including “U.S. Blues” and classics such as “Brown-Eyed Women,” “Tennessee Jed,” “Mississippi Half-Step,” “Truckin’” and “Sugar Magnolia,” a massive wind storm was no match for the Wall of Sound.

Designed to improve the listening and performance experience at what were becoming larger gigs and longer, more dynamic and varied sets, the Wall of Sound required 21 stage hands, and underlined the resounding effect the Grateful Dead were having on American audiences and culture at the time, even as the entire operation remained homespun and humble. 

In addition to the 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, “From The Mars Hotel Remaster) will be released on June 21st as a single 180-gram black vinyl LP, limited edition Neon Pink vinyl, limited edition “Ugly Rumors” custom vinyl exclusive to Dead.net, and a specially-designed picture disc created in partnership with zoetrope pioneer Drew Tetz. When viewed with a camera or strobe, the zoetrope LP will appear to animate, and can be pre-ordered along with the rest of “From The Mars Hotel (50th Anniversary Remaster”) the Dead’s nearly complete, previously unreleased show from May 12th, 1974, at the University of Nevada in Reno, playing an outdoor football stadium during a huge wind storm.

Johnny Winter’s supervision of Muddy Waters’ comeback in 1977 was far more productive than the superstar recordings of “The London Muddy Waters Sessions” of 1972 (and even more so Howlin’ Wolf’s collaborations with British musicians the year prior). Recorded with the late Texas bluesman alongside members of the blues icon’s own band–plus harpist James Cotton with whom the albino Winter had worked before on the album “Hard Again” that was in fact the first of three such releases (in addition to a collection of live recordings) and the initial project on Blue Sky Records following Waters’ departure from his long-time home label Chess Records. Rather than demonstrate health issues that would afflict him later this same year, the concert clip from 1981 exhibits all the joy and pathos in the best work of the man born McKinley Morganfield.

Here you’ll find Chicago blues titan Muddy Waters on his home turf near the end of his life. This 1981 performance (Waters died in ’83) features the final version of Muddy’s band, including pianist Lovie Lee and harmonica man George “Mojo” Buford, but there’s also a guest appearance from blues-rock guitar hero Johnny Winters, who had produced a trio of late-’70s albums that gave Waters a comeback of sorts. The set list includes plenty of Muddy’s classics, like the carnal stomp “Mannish Boy” and the frenzied “Got My Mojo Working.”

“The One & Only” Scott H. Biram showcases the singer’s signature unapologetic style. Tracks like “No Man’s Land” describe the hazards of growing up poor in a small Texas town, breathing the fumes from oil wells and brush fires. “Inside a Bar” captures the feel of an empty saloon on a slow Monday night. “I was going for the sound of loneliness and alcoholism colliding.”

“I view my albums as collages, combining elements from punk, metal, blues, country, and bluegrass. They reflect the diverse aspects of life – it’s not a concept but an expression,” explained Biram.

With “The One & Only” Scott H. Biram the singer once again proves to be an unstoppable force and demonstrates his unique ability to live up to the traditions of rough-hewn, individualistic Texas-borne music.