The Fat Angel Sings

Unearthing and refining material beginning from two 2013 sessions – one in The Brian Jonestown Massacre‘s Berlin studio, the other in Leeds alongside the band’s formative producer Richard Formby – neo-psych titans The Telescopes unveil their sixteenth album, one which emanates a superbly subversive style to their usual ethereal storms. The band, whilst still cruising across their sea of far-out noise improv at the time, were also creating a distinctly Telescopes-themed world of gorgeous song-based music: although separate from most of their discography, the tracks still retain a sense of melody, spontaneity and experimentation that is wholly theirs.

Saved by founding member Stephen Lawrie (rescuing and fine-tuning the album in his studio over the pandemic) following a hard drive loss, “Growing Eyes Becoming String” is at last ready to delight the ears of psych fans the world over, boasting well-honed evergreen tunes.

The Last Dinner Party are excited to announce details of their debut album, for release in February 2024. “Prelude To Ecstasy” will be released on 2nd February via Island Records. It was produced by James Ford in London, and will feature the breakthrough singles, ‘Nothing Matters’, ‘Sinner’, and ‘My Lady Of Mercy’. The band that’s on everyone’s lips. From supporting The Rolling Stones to Florence and the Machine, the 5-piece bring baroque indie glam to the masses on their debut.

Alongside this news, we’re also elated to share a new song from the album, ‘On Your Side,’ a love song with its hands tied. It’s about being so devoted to someone that not matter what they do, no matter how much it hurts, how much you know you should leave, you can’t escape.

Produced by the experienced James Ford, “Prelude To Ecstasy” is the hotly anticipated first album from London-based indie rockers The Last Dinner Party. Following a heady summer of 2023 that saw packed festival performances, a UK headline tour and a clutch of great singles (all of which are included here) the band cap it off with a modern, classic debut.

Pissed Jeans is sharing a new track “Sixty-Two Thousand Dollars in Debt,” a crushing new song about the heady excitement of shrinking debt-to-credit ratios, and a highlight from their forthcoming album “Half Divorced”.
 
Last month, the band announced the release of the album with the official video for indelible lead single “Moving On” from director and frequent collaborator Joe Stakun (“The Bar Is Low,” “Bathroom Laughter,” “Romanticize Me”).  
“Moving On” is, “…a song that cuts deep to the core while brightening up the layers of distortion that have defined the sound of previous Pissed Jeans albums through perky guitar tones and anthemic vocals.” Stereogum named the song one of its “5 Best Songs of the Week,” and said, “Where Pissed Jeans’ music was once overwhelmingly mean and scuzzy,

‘Moving On’ sounds vast and anthemic, with keyboards and melodies and an actual singable hook. It might be the friendliest song that Pissed Jeans have ever recorded.”

Later this month, Pissed Jeans will also grace the cover of New Noise Magazine’s February/March issue (see January 31st news story).
 
Pissed Jeans’ “Half Divorced” is the follow-up to 2017’s “Why Love Now”, an album that took aim at the mundane discomforts of modern life. The twelve songs of “Half Divorced” skewer the tension between youthful optimism and the sobering realities of adulthood. Pissed Jeans’ – Matt Korvette (vocals), Bradley Fry (guitar),  Randy Huth (bass), and Sean McGuinness (drums) – notorious acerbic sense of humour remains sharper than ever as they dismember some of the joys that contemporary adult life has to offer.
 
“Half Divorced” was produced and mixed by Pissed Jeans and Don Godwin and engineered by Mike Petillo at Tonal Park in Takoma Park, Maryland, and mastered by Arthur Rizk (co-producer and mixer for “Why Love Now“).
 
Pissed Jeans’ previously announced international tour dates in support of “Half Divorced” 

Blood Red Shoes just released “Live in Madrid” “People come up to us all the time at shows and say, hey, you should really release a live album. Well, the time has finally come. Since we’re barely playing this year we figured it’s the ideal time to release some live shows for download. Only we’re not releasing just one album. Starting today, we’ll be releasing one new show for download every month of 2024.

Starting off this live series is our show from Madrid last September, 

released February 6th, 2024

Psych rock legends The Black Angels are poised to make a triumphant return with their second album for Partisan Records and first in five years, “Wilderness of Mirrors!” Clocking in at 15 tracks, the new album shows off many excellent sides of the band, both refined over time and developed in the last few years.

The best music reflects a wide-screen view of the world back at us, helping distill the universal into something far more personal. Since forming in Austin in 2004, The Black Angels have become standard-bearers for modern psych-rock that does exactly that, which is one of many reasons why the group’s new album, “Wilderness of Mirrors”, feels so aptly named. In the five years since the band’s prior album, “Death Song“, and the two-plus years spent working on “Wilderness of Mirrors”, pandemics, political tumult and the ongoing devastation of the environment have provided ample fodder for the Black Angels’ signature sonic approach.

“Wilderness of Mirrors!” expertly refines the Black Angels’ psychedelic rock attack alongside a host of intriguing sounds and textures. There are classic blasts of fuzzed-out guitars meant to simultaneously perk up the ears and jumpstart the mind, alongside melancholy, acoustic guitar-driven newfound experiments. Mellotron, strings, and other keyboards also play a more prominent role on “Wilderness of Mirrors” than ever before.

Even amidst these new experimentations, The Black Angels remain masterfully true to psych-rock forebears such as Syd Barrett, Roky Erickson, Arthur Lee and the members of the Velvet Underground, all of whom are namechecked on album highlight “The River.” “The Velvet Underground song ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’ – that’s what every Black Angels album has been about,” says vocalist/bassist Alex Maas. “You can’t work out your struggles unless you bring them to the forefront and think about them. If we can all think about them, maybe we can help save ourselves.”

Our version features an Obi Strip + Rainbow Foil Cover Gatefold Jacket, Printed Inner Sleeves + Archive-Ready Poly Inner Sleeves & Hype Sticker 

For the better part of a decade, Los Angles’s scrappy rock n’ roll mystics Death Valley Girls have used their music as a means of tapping into a communal cosmic energy. On albums like “Glow In The Dark” (2016), “Darkness Rains” (2018), and “Under the Spell of Joy” (2020) the band challenged the soul-crushing banality of modern society and celebrated “true magical infinite potential” through a collage of scorching proto-punk riffs, earworm melodies, far-out lyrics, and lysergic auxiliary instrumentation.

But on their latest album Islands in the Sky, Death Valley Girls’ songwriting mastermind Bonnie Bloomgarden uses the band’s anthemic revelries as a guidebook to spiritual healing and a roadmap for future incarnations of the self. And while these may be the loftiest aims of Death Valley Girls to date, the resulting music is also by far their most infectious and celebratory

La Luz has always been a band with a vision. Their discography is a study in balancing both heavenly and haunting sounds for a lush style of rock music that’s all their own. On their self-titled fourth album, La Luz fearlessly launch themselves into a new realm of emotional intimacy with a collection of songs steeped in the mysteries of the natural world and the magic of human chemistry that has found manifestation in the musical ESP between guitarist and songwriter Shana Cleveland, bassist Lena Simon, and keyboardist Alice Sandahl. To help shape La Luz, the band found a kindred spirit in producer Adrian Younge.

Primarily known for working with hip-hop, soul, and jazz acts, Younge saw in La Luz a musical kinship that transcended genre. “We both create music with the same attitude, and that’s what I love about them,” he says. “They are never afraid to be risky and their style is captivating. I don’t work with many bands, but I love taking chances on people that share the same vision. We both love to be ourselves, and it was an honor to work with them.” The album was recorded at Linear Labs Studio in Los Angeles.