The Fat Angel Sings

Ian Osborne worked in TV most of his Working Life and was a 21 year old studio sound technician at Thames TV. Buying Elvis Costello’s first album “ My Aim is True” two weeks before and heard that Elvis Costello was to be a guest on the lunchtime show ‘Good Afternoon’ (that particular recording hosted in Thames TV’s Studios 5 at the Euston Road complex by the lovely Mavis Nicholson). I was due to be working in St.6 next door that day but did a ‘swap’ with a colleague so I could see Costello.

He turned up for a sound check and rehearsal and I mic’ed up his Fender Champ 10w amp and set a vocal mic, he arrived with his Fender Jazzmaster guitar, slightly nervous but personable, told me he was doing two songs and we asked him to run through so the Sound Supervisor (talented guy named John Baker who sadly died a few years ago) could get levels. John knew that I was a fan so he recorded the rehearsals on 1/4” tape for me. EC played two songs that hadn’t been released at the time although “Watching the Detectives” had been played live with his new supporting band The Attractions (as he told me later), the other song was “Hoover Factory”. Everyone happy with levels, Mavis was then called to the studio and we recorded the show ‘as live’ in one go. It was a good interview and EC relaxed as it went on. This was the period when Jake Riviera had banned interviews with the Music press and many rumours / false stories were filling the inches of the weekly ‘inkies’.

My overriding memory of the musical performances was the intensity of his performance of ‘Detectives’ – it was mesmerising and so powerful to be feet away from him. I remember looking at the studio crew around and old hacks of the ‘seen it all before’ scene crew (probably my age now!) who were transfixed and staring. After the show recording EC, Mavis and producer, director and team (not us studio crew – we were never invited) went to the Green Room for post show drinks. My Sound Sup John tapped me on the shoulder and said ‘come on’ and took me to the Green Room (proof 1st time there I was surprised it wasn’t green!) and to my embarrassment walked me up to EC and said ‘this is Ian he is a fan and changed his work schedule to meet you” – a few moments of mutual verbal shuffling developed into a 30 odd minutes of conversation. I discovered much of his musical likes and he spoke of The Attractions and the arrangement they had made of “Detectives” and how different it sounded from the forthcoming single. I really enjoyed the chat and thought he was a nice guy…. 18 months or so later I worked on another show with him as a musical guest and he was like a completely different person and a complete arse, couple of years after that a sound recording session with him and back to normal (even if the sound mixer had to give him a fader to control which actually did nothing!) Anyway over he years I have had the recording of the rehearsal of “Detectives” & “Hoover Factory”, aware that apart from the few people I’ve played it to, no-one has heard it since that day (27th Sept 1977) and that now seems a bit selfish. I’ve made a simple video as easy way to share.

“Rome” is the definitive live document of The National. Recorded live (without overdubs) on June 3rd, 2024 at the architecturally stunning venue Parco Della Musica Ennio Morricone, named for the famed Italian film composer, the 21-track LP showcases scintillating versions of beloved songs like “Bloodbuzz Ohio,” “Don’t Swallow the Cap,” “I Need My Girl,” “The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness,” “England” and “Fake Empire”; plus sharpened readings of recent tracks “Eucalyptus,” “New Order T-Shirt,” “Tropic Morning News” and the boundary pushing “Smoke Detector.”

The double album, mixed by long time collaborator Peter Katis, spans the band’s 20-plus years of song writing and reveals how each song has taken on a new life in its live performance. “You have to see this band live” is often said about The National, and now, “Rome” is the next best thing to actually being there.

Reflecting how the band changes setlists significantly from night to night to cast fresh light on hidden gems from the catalogue , “Rome” is marked by rarities such as show opener “Runaway,” “Lemonworld,” “The Geese of Beverly Road,” “Lit Up” and a tour de force pairing of “Humiliation” from the critically acclaimed album “Trouble Will Find Me” into “Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers’ “Murder Me Rachael.”

The Rome encore features the election anthem “Mr. November,” and, from “High Violet”, “Terrible Love” and the show-closing fan singalong, “Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks.”

Accompanying today’s announcement, we’ve released a four-song EP titled NTL RM EP I previewing Rome highlights “I Need My Girl”, “Lemonworld”, “The Geese of Beverly Road” and “Lit Up”.

“Rome”, the definitive live document of The National, will be released worldwide December 13th on 4AD.

Consisting of punk legends from bands such as Ramones, The Damned, Rocket From The Crypt and more, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes is the punk super-group and cover band extraordinaire of 2024

Together, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes are an outfit that has always operated more like a beer-hall pussycat dolls than a regular mortal band.

After 7 studio albums, 2 live records and too many singles to count, they’ve tackled just about every genre under the sun. Be it motown, country, show tunes, japanese pop (sung in japanese!), these seasoned punk rock pros have triumphed on every occasion in a way only the Gimmes could.

In case you missed it, our new song (and final single before the album yikes!) ‘What You Told Me’ came out last week. This song’s about seeing illness affect someone I love. It’s about the heartbreak in that but also the comfort and joy in the moments of respite. It always makes life a bit better when you can share in it with someone else, even if it feels like the odds are against you sometimes. I’ve just started a Substack so I can wang on a little more about this kind of thing.

Will see how I go, but I plan to talk about the songs, our recording process, touring and share snippets of demos and stuff like that!

Taken from the new album ‘The Good Kind’, out 8th November on Bella Union Records.

California-based alt folk artist Wryn makes their debut on Righteous Babe Records with their new single, “Steady.”

Four years ago, Wryn’s world shifted. It rocked, it tumbled and it turned itself inside out as they looked inward, reassessed their trauma and began a new journey of self-discovery. Wryn’s life began to embody a new shape.

Out of this rebirth arose “Steady,” a stirring number penned during the pandemic in 2020. The song serves as a sweeping hymn — a prayer — to navigate that period of their life. “Being alive in this body is / Heavy, heavy/ Fill up my lungs and wish me to breathe / Steady, steady,” they sing with a syrupy lilt before slinking into a stunning crescendo of strings and harmonies. Produced/mixed by Bella Blasko (Aaron Dessner, The National) and featuring performances by drummer JT Bates (Bonny Light Horseman) and bassist/saxophonist Mike Lewis (Bon Iver).

Wryn hopes listeners can find connection, process their own emotions and release them if need be. “My songs were always emotional, that never changed,” they said. “Now I’m confronting the roots of the emotions.”

Wryn – Vocals, Background Vocals, Electric Guitar
JT Bates – Drums
Mike Lewis – Saxophone, Bass
Bella Blasko – Background Vocals

released September 24th, 2024
Written by Wryn

Now 78 years old, Neil Young is still breaking new ground: On Saturday, the iconic singer-songwriter debuted a new live band named The Chrome Hearts, at this years Farm Aid event. The abridged festival set in Saratoga Springs, NY come’s just three months after Young had abruptly scrapped his summer tour with long time backing band Crazy Horse due to illness within the band.

The Chrome Hearts band members include organist Spooner Oldham (Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section), guitarist Micah Nelson (Particle Kid), and Promise of the Real‘s Corey McCormick on bass and Anthony LoGerfo on drums.

Whereas Crazy Horse was heralded for high-octane, heavily distorted concerts with lengthy improv-friendly versions of classic songs, the first gig by The Chrome Hearts was a much more subdued and sentimental performance. “This is something we can to help all the farmers,” Young told the crowd of Farm Aid. “When the earth is solid and the earth is healthy, the farmers can really do their thing. Not the corporate framers. Not the factory farmers. Not the farmers with the big offices. The farmers, the real American farmers, all kinds of people on the earth together, all Americans, working together.”

Young kicked off his 40-minute, eight-song set with a trio of “Harvest” tracks: “From Hank to Hendrix”, “Harvest Moon”, and “Unknown Legend”. Backed by an acoustic guitar, Young’s quivering vocals were more of a vocal point than at his summer concerts with Crazy Horse. The capabilities of his backing band remained a constant, however, as The Chrome Hearts deftly maneuverered the delicate compositions, contrasting to Crazy Horse’s power force the new band is tight, Neil’s voice is clear, great harmonies.

Moving to the piano, Young un-shelved “Journey Through the Past” from 1973’s “Time Fades Away“ for the first time since January 31st, 2019, . The at-times cantankerous Godfather of Grunge then engaged in a bit of crowd work, introducing the next number by asking the crowd what their favourite planet is ahead of “Love Earth”. Micah Nelson was given the space to shine on slide guitar on a rare full-band “Heart of Gold” before Neil finally brought out his “Old Black” Les Paul electric guitar.

The last two songs of the set took up a combined 12 minutes. First, Young cranked up the volume for “Homegrown”. The groovy title track to Young’s “lost” 1975 studio album again hit at the theme of the agricultural benefit concert while also letting out a bit of the leash for The Chrome Hearts to display their rock n’ roll chops. Ending the set with a blazing “Powderfinger”, Young’s distorted guitar playing was the star as he fired off a couple biting solos.

The contrast between Crazy Horse and The Chrome Hearts was perhaps most noticeable here, where The Chrome Hearts remained on the tracks and avoided the delightful musical cacophony of their predecessor. In short, The Chrome Hearts kept it straight while Young went off into the overdrive-laden ether, whereas Crazy Horse would follow him down the distorted highway.

Esoteric Antenna are delighted to announce the release of “State Of Dystopia”, the wonderful new album by Son Of Man. The album is the long awaited follow up to the band’s acclaimed self-titled debut album issued in 2016.

Hailing from the heartlands of Welsh rock, Son Of Man features members drawn from legendary Welsh bands, namely George Jones (Guitars & Vocals), Bob Richards (Drums & Vocals), Glenn Quinn (Guitars, Bass & Vocals) Richie Galloni (Lead Vocals) and Marco James (Keyboards & Vocals). They have earned much acclaim for their powerful live concerts and now this established classic rock band bring you their second album – “State of Dystopia”.

A “State of Dystopia” is defined as an imagined state or society in which there is great suffering or injustice. Typically, one that is totalitarian or post-apocalyptic.

The album is an eclectic mix of original tracks laced with the themes of life and love, war, peace and hope. The band’s trademark guitar sound and melodic harmonies is present, along with a powerful rhythm section, tempered with tides of keyboards and one of the greatest voices in rock today. “State of Dystopia” is a fine rock album for our times.

Availiable from Cherry Red / Esoteric Recordings

American Football’s debut album that gives it an undying resonance, 25 years on from its release? “It’s all common themes, and I imagine I was going through them pretty commonly,” frontman Mike Kinsella offers.

It’s an understatement that suits ‘American Football’ (usually referred to as ‘LP1’). They were young students in the college town of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, when they made it; their band was one of many in the group of friends they hung out with. They were a mix of jazz enthusiasts and DIY punk kids, so the music mixed intricate instrumentation with a scrappy, heart-on-sleeve dynamic. Once they’d recorded and released the record, college ended and they drifted apart.

Few could have predicted what happened in the years following. This is often said about bands, but for American Football it’s meant in the truest sense — they never even aimed to make a second album. A few years after its release, the DIY emo scene they came from exploded into the mainstream; a few years after that, when the trend had died, a new generation of kids started recreating the pure, underground energy of those early days, and American Football were one of the key pieces of the puzzle.

The album gained traction and eventually, the erstwhile members of American Football noticed. In 2014, American Football reunited, and played to crowds ten times bigger than they ever had before; in 2016 and 2019, they released new albums that excitingly expanded on their original sound.

In commemoration of the album’s 25th anniversary, the band are set to release both a reissue and a covers album on which nine different artists recreate the tracklist — ranging from folk icon Iron & Wine to math-rock shredder Yvette Young, via Ethel Cain, Manchester Orchestra, Blondshell and more. They’re also heading out on tours across the UK which they’ll play the album in full.

As the two bands kicked off their co-headlining tour of North America, The National performed a cover of Echo & The Bunnymen‘s ‘Bring On The Dancing Horses’ with The War On Drugs‘ Adam Granduciel during a performance in Toronto this weekend, As both band kicked off their co-headlining ‘Zen Diagram’ tour this month, which has so far seen them perform in cities across North America including New York, Columbia and Philadelphia. The National also performed favourites like ‘I Need My Girl’, ‘About Today’ and ‘Fake Empire’ throughout their set.

“There’s a lot of music, so that means a lot of new music for us to play,” bassist Scott Devendorf shared. “We’ve really tried to mix up the setlist a lot and try to be more dynamic in that way just because it’s interesting for everyone.” Asked if there was more to come, Matt Berninger replied: “No, we kind of purged ourselves. Once we started writing again, I wrote almost everything that was in the folders and made a song out of everything. Now the folders are filling up. The National’s last album, 2023’s ‘Laugh Track’, describing it as a “heavier companion record” to April’s ‘First Two Pages of Frankenstein’

The National & The War On Drugs’ Adam Granduciel perform a cover of Echo & the Bunnymen’s “Bring On The Dancing Horses” live in concert at Budweiser Stage in Toronto, Canada on September 20th, 2024.