The Fat Angel Sings

When Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Ronnie James Dio and Vinny Appice reunited in 2006, they did so under the band name Heaven & Hell so as to avoid confusion with the Osbourne-led Black Sabbath line-up. They released one studio album, 2009’s “The Devil You Know”, and then two live albums, 2007’s “Live From Radio City Music Hall” and 2009’s “Neon Nights: 30 Years of Heaven & Hell”. The name of the group is derived from the 1980 album “Heaven and Hell”, the first Black Sabbath album to feature Dio as lead vocalist. According to Iommi, the name change was made to avoid confusion between the two different line-ups of Black Sabbath, so that fans at concerts “would not expect to hear ‘Iron Man’ and ‘War Pigs’ and all that… it’s none of the old stuff, it’s none of the Ozzy period. It’s all Dio stuff. So by calling ourselves Heaven & Hell, it’s revisiting that period.”

Even though this is Black Sabbath in all but name, because they focus exclusively on Dio-era material. That said, these are essential listening for fans of that era, particularly “Neon Nights”. These seasoned veterans revisit their past (including 1992’s underrated “Dehumanizer”) The band showcase their new material with unmatched panache. This line-up may have only worked together sporadically over the years, but listeners should consider themselves lucky these metal masters crossed paths at all.

The four members of Heaven & Hell had recorded and toured together as Black Sabbath from 1980 to 1982 and from 1991 to 1992. Dio had replaced founding Black Sabbath vocalist Ozzy Osbourne and Appice had replaced founding member drummer Bill Ward. The decision to call the group Heaven & Hell was made to differentiate the project.

After “Heaven & Hell” reunited to record three new songs for the 2007 compilation album, “Black Sabbath: The Dio Years”, they embarked on a 2007–2008 tour.

 The band released the studio album “The Devil You Know”, containing the single “Bible Black”. The subsequent promotional tour, the Bible Black Tour, spanned from May to August .

The posthumous live album “Neon Nights: 30 Years of Heaven & Hell” was released in November, recorded in Germany at the Wacken Open Air festival on July 2009 Dio had been diagnosed with stomach cancer the band planned further activity following a brief period of rest for the singer. They were slated to tour in support of Iron Maiden in Europe from July to August, but the tour was cancelled due to Dio’s ill health. Dio died from this illness on 16th May 2010 at 67 years old.

This session features Adrianne Lenker. The session was shot on 16mm in a private home outside of Copenhagen. Adrianne always gives me chills. I can’t articulate what her music and songwriting does to me. It’s very special spiritually. Known for her raw, poetic, and honest song writing, and work with Big Thief, we are proud to present Adrianne Lenker for the first time as a solo artist in Denmark. The American artist performed songs from her critically acclaimed 2024 album, “Bright Future,” encapsulating fundamental human feelings like love and longing.

As Lenker puts it herself towards the end of the session, “I feel like we are in a spaceship… In a good way.” In its entirety, this session feels like being on a spaceship piloted by Adrianne Lenker, heading towards a bright but delicate future.

Alongside Nick Hakim, she performs “Vampire Empire”, “Sadness As A Gift”, “Donut Seam” and “No Machine”.

Guitar and vocals: Adrianne Lenker Piano and vocals: Nick Hakim

TRACK LIST: 00:37 Vampire Empire 04:25 Sadness As A Gift 08:02 Donut Seam 10:50 No Machine

Former Girls frontman Christopher Owens will release his new solo album “I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair” on October 18th, and he’s announced a few shows to promote it, hitting Philly, Brooklyn, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco . Owens co-produced his new album in San Francisco with Doug Boehm. He also worked with producers Ariel Rechtshaid and Jacob Portrait on the album’s “This Is My Guitar.” In a statement, Owens referred to “I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair” as “a record about a journey back to the centre of myself.”

In related news, Girls’ three albums 2009’s “Album”, 2010 EP “Broken Dreams Club” and 2011’s “Father, Son, Holy Ghost”  are getting vinyl reissues on December 6th via True Panther. 

Written and Performed by Christopher Owens

releases October 18th, 2024

Weather Station returns with new album in 2025, “Humanhood”,  following up 2021’s Critically acclaimed album, “Ignorance”, and its companion piece, “How is it That I Should Look at the Stars“.  

In the fall of 2023, Tamara Lindeman gathered six musicians at Canterbury Music Company, where she had recorded “Ignorance” and “How Is It That I Should Look at the Stars”. Several of these players—drummer Kieran Adams, keyboardist Ben Boye, percussionist Phillippe Melanson, reed-and-wind specialist Karen Ng, and bassist Ben Whiteley—had worked together but never in this specific arrangement or context.

Much of “Humanhood” is a riveting and real document of what it means to be lost, to be hamstrung by confusion, unease, and grief for a period so long you begin to wonder if there is an end. The Weather Station will tour globally in support of “Humanhood“

Here’s the first single from The Weather Station’s forthcoming album “Humanhood“

The Weather Station’s previous album, “Ignorance“, was No#1 AOTY at The New Yorker, UNCUT, The Globe and Mail, The Observer and top 10 at New York Times, The Guardian, PItchfork, PASTE, Exclaim, Rolling Stone Germany, Magnet, The Quietus, Sunday Times, Stereogum, and many more. 

“Neon Signs” off of The Weather Station’s upcoming album ‘Humanhood’ out on Fat Possum, January 17th, 2025.

If “Funeral for Justice” was the sound of outrage, “Tears of Injustice” is the sound of grief. Mdou Moctar’s new album is “Funeral for Justice” completely re-recorded and rearranged for acoustic and traditional instruments. It is an evolution of the band’s critically-adored breakout – the meditative mirror-image to the blistering original.

In July of 2023, Mdou Moctar was on tour in the United States when the president of Niger, Mohamed Bazoum, was deposed by a military junta who made him prisoner at the presidential residence. They ordered the nation’s borders closed, leaving band members Mdou Moctar, Ahmoudou Madassane, and Souleymane Ibrahim unable to return home to their families. Plans to record a companion to “Funeral for Justice” then still many months from release had been in the works already, but the idea now took on new urgency and gravity. Two days after the tour wrapped in New York City, the quartet began tracking “Tears of Injustice” at Brooklyn’s Bunker Studio with engineer Seth Manchester.

“We wanted to make a separate version of “Funeral” for people to hear,” explains the band’s US-based bassist and producer, Mikey Coltun. “We’re always playing around with arrangements at shows. We wanted to prove that we could do it on a record, too. And there’s a whole other side of the band that comes out when we play a stripped down set. It becomes something new.”

On “Funeral for Justice“, anger at the plight of Niger and the Tuareg people is plainly expressed in the music’s volume and velocity.

They chose to track Tears sitting together in one room, keeping the session loose, stripped down, and spontaneous. “We didn’t really work on the arrangements prior to going in,” recalls Coltun. “We’d just play, find the feel, and do the song.” Things came together quickly, with principal recording wrapped in only two days. The hypnotic 8-minute take of ‘Imouhar’ is actually two distinct passes through the song performed in quick succession – Moctar didn’t stop playing long enough to split the takes apart. After a month, the band was able to return home to Niger and, when they did, Coltun gave Madassane a Zoom recorder to take along. The rhythm guitarist used it to record a group of Tuaregs performing call-and-response vocals, which were later added into the final mix.

On “Tears“, the songs retain that weight sans amplification. They are steeped in sadness, conveying the grief of a nation locked into a constant churn of poverty, colonial exploitation, and political upheaval. It is Tuareg protest music in raw and essential form. “When Mdou writes the lyrics, he typically writes them with an acoustic guitar. So you’re getting closer to that original moment,” says Coltun. “It retains heaviness, but it’s haunting.”

Taken from Mdou Moctar’s upcoming album ‘Tears of Injustice’ out on Matador Records February 28th, 2025.

Dean Wareham, his partner Britta Phillips, and frequent collaborator Sonic Boom have teamed up to make a holiday album. It’s titled “A Peace of Us” and will be out November 22nd via Carpark Records. The recordings took place Sonic Boom’s studio in Portugal: all three sang, Dean played guitar, Britta played bass and keyboards, and Sonic provided the psychedelic effects and mixed the album. Britta says it’s “like Bing Crosby…on acid,” which means a little more when you’re talking about something involving Sonic Boom.

“Pretty Paper” is a single from Dean & Britta & Sonic Boom’s album ‘A Peace of Us’ out November 22nd, 2024 on Carpark Records.

Madi Diaz has announced a deluxe edition of this year’s “Weird Faith”, due out on October 25th via Anti-Records, and she has shared a new track that appears on it, “Worst Case Scenario.” “Sometimes when I’m afraid, I test out a theory I’ve made up in the last few years: Life has never completely gone the way I imagined it would go (for better or worse),” she says. “From time to time, I find myself daydreaming up scenes and playing them out in my mind, thinking if can get ahead of it all by thinking of the worst and how I’d survive it, then maybe it won’t actually happen. This song was my prevention plan against what I imagined would be the worst possibilities playing out.”

Harry Styles handpicked Diaz to open for him in arenas and stadiums in North America, and was so taken by her captivating live show, he asked her to be a member of his touring band, to sing alongside him all over Europe and the UK, as well as continuing to open the show in various cities.

from the upcoming album ‘Weird Faith (Deluxe)’, out on Anti-Records

Australian band Royel Otis have released a deluxe edition of their debut album “Pratts & Pain” that comes with this new single. The band say: “‘If Our Love Is Dead’ was born out of that feeling when you’ve been with someone for a while and you’re not sure if the spark is still there. You’re like… If it’s dead and it’s not there, then what are we holding on to? What are we doing it for? Are we doing it for the sake of just sticking it out, or do we actually just want to cut paths and move on with things?”.

“Pratts & Payne”, the South London pub that sits around the corner from the famed home studio of producer Dan Carey, has an important place in the history of Royel Otis.  When making their debut album with Carey in early 2023, the Australian duo – childhood friends Otis Pavlovic and Royel Maddell – would decamp to the pub to finish lyrics and make decisions on the direction of their frst LP. “Dan would ask us to record vocals,” Royel remembers, “and we’d say, ‘Just give us half an hour, we’re popping to Pratts & Payne’, and we’d have a pint, a few shots, and get some lyrics down.” Eventually, it made such a mark that they named the record “Pratts and Pain”.

Across the debut album, Royel Otis swing between melodic, pop- inspired indie and woozy psych, but it never feels tied to one lane. As soon as one style or mood has outstayed its welcome, they handbrake turn into psychedelic weirdness or dissonant noise, keeping everybody on their toes.

“If Our Love Is Dead” (Official Music Video) by Royel Otis, shot in London during the UK leg of their Glory to Glory tour.

Thus Love have shared the title track to their upcoming album “All Pleasure”. The band say: “It’s no accident that we named the album after this song,” says singer/guitarist Echo Mars. “‘All Pleasure’ is the very first song we wrote collectively as a quartet and I think that collaborative spirit really comes through. The addition of Ally’s vocals as a counterpoint gives the song a very different energy and feel to it. I remember when we all listened back for the first time — it was one of those eureka moments when we all realized how special this new incarnation of Thus Love could be.”

“All Pleasure” by “Thus Love”, off their sophomore album “All Pleasure“, out November 1st on Captured Tracks.

Cloud Nothings’ superb 2014 album “Here and Nowhere Else” turns 10 years old this year, and the band is about to be playing it in full on tour. They also just released a 10th anniversary edition that features live recordings of every song on the album, plus remixes of two songs by Outer Space and Bee Mask.

Produced by John Congleton (Baroness, St Vincent, Anna Calvi), “Here And Nowhere Else” sees Cloud Nothings retain the power and intensity of their highly acclaimed previous album, “Attack On Memory”, whilst also bringing back more of the tunefulness familiar from their earlier work. This album is Cloud Nothings refined: impossibly melodic, white knuckle noise rock that shimmers with sumptuous detail, from Baldi’s lone, corkscrewing guitar to his dramatically improved singing to bassist TJ Duke’s piledriving basslines and drummer Jayson Gerycz’s volcanic fills.

To celebrate the 10 year anniversary of their seminal record “Here And Nowhere Else“, Cloud Nothings release a new double LP version! The album include the original tracks plus the entire album recorded live between different shows in 2014 and 2015, 

released October 2nd, 2024