The Fat Angel Sings

Montreal’s Laughing digs into a power pop and indie sound that culls from the College Radio boom of the ‘90s. Catchy to a fault and stomping out of the speakers on fuzz guitars and carefree harmonies, the record ably captures the immediacy of the era. The band most often flips through the second wave of power pop, with an ear towards Teenage Fanclub, The Lemonheads, Matthew Sweet, and Velvet Crush. Like those touchstones, the band has a way with turning emotional ache into insistent pop songs, hung on a crush of guitars and delightfully barbed hooks.

What’s so funny about peace, love, and understanding? Laughing are Montreal-based rock n’ rollers who take cues from some of the greatest pop songwriters of the past five decades. Four unique voices from across the Canadian expanse. Cross-stitched material and temporary ego sublimation serve them well in their pursuit of the holy grail: a perfect song. Their debut album “Because It’s True” is an honest attempt at inviting you in on the cosmic joke. Heap your praise, adulation, scoff, or scorn upon them; they’ll still be Laughing.

Laura Jeffery: Drums and Vocals
Josh Salter: Guitar, Bass and Vocals
André Charles Thériault: Guitar, Bass and Vocals
Cole Woods: Guitar, Bass and Vocals

released June 28th, 2024

For their 26th album, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard swap the widescreen concepts of their recent albums for the intimacy of six good friends collaborating on the most bonhomie-laden set they’ve yet committed to wax. For “Flight b741“, bandleader Stu Mackenzie says King Gizzard “wanted to make something that was primal, instinctual, more ‘from the gut’ – just people in a room, doing what feels right. We wanted to make something fun.”

“Flight b741” is lightning caught inside a bottle. Across its 10 ragged, glorious barnburners, King Gizzard flesh out rough skeletons of songs with their inspired improvisations, inimitable grooves and a unique pass-the-mic approach to vocals that saw every member of the band raise their voice and sing. “We’re having a lot of fun,

With a dose of Cosmic Americana in their heart and a ‘70s glam glow-up on the rise, the band finds their compass pointed towards Little Feat but tipping into T. Rex and Slade. The record captures the band at their most lascivious, though they aim their leer away from carnal concerns and towards the lip of societal slip. It’s a pelvic pump of an LP that’s more concerned with environmental collapse than the sweat and swagger would let on. The King Gizzard has been glossed in synth, minced through microtones, and splattered across the official bootleg pipeline, but they haven’t sounded like they’re having this much fun in a few years, and I’m fully here for it.

released August 9th, 2024

On “Songs From A Thousand Frames Of Mind”, the kaleidoscopic full-length debut from Kate Bollinger, entire worlds lie in the small details. “When I’m recording a song,” the Charlottesville-born, Los Angeles-based songwriter observes, “my indication of whether it’s worth pursuing is if I’m seeing a movie in my head to go along with it.” Blending classic pop songcraft with scrappy punk instincts, Bollinger casts a collage-like vision that’s instantly memorable and uniquely mystifying. Ranging from homespun folk songs to warmly rendered psychedelic rock—like early Rolling Stones as fronted by Hope Sandoval—the resulting album can feel like flipping through your coolest friend’s record collection

Capitalizing off of her mixture of ‘60s folk-pop, ’70s Canyon cool, and a porcelain-delicate delivery, the songs on the debut carry a breeziness that’s expected and a depth of production that turns her sunny folk into layered pop dioramas. Strung between contemporaries like Sylvie and Weyes Blood and a link to the past that nods to Linda Perhacs and Susan Christie, the record is both contemporary and classic.

The album swings from Brill Building grandiosity to E6 psych-pop on a shoestring and Bollinger’s ability to make it all weave together seamlessly remains her greatest strength. The listener is transported, cocooned, and cradled with chambray melodies that swing in the breeze.

released September 27th, 2024

“On A Golden Shore” still finds the band inhabiting the later lineage, but they’ve let go of their grip on the darkness and desire of Hollow Heart. The band’s Richard Olsen has noted that the band were striving for something more ‘baggy and Balearic’ while still wading through the waters of Country. Their fifth album succeeds in its strive, carving out a sound that’s more homegrown, with nods towards the late ‘90s this time. The delightfully English spin that the band puts on the Cosmic American sound solidifies them as a true outpost in the East — the Starry Eyed and Laughing to Rose City’s Flying Burrito’s breeze.

This is wasted, soulful cosmic Americana at it’s very best, laced with toasty enticing jangling guitars, low-keyed romantic vocals, along with delicious melodic and airy harmonies that will ease a mile wide smile across your upturned face, nominated for UK Album Of The Year in the Americana UK Awards.

The last album built expectations, but “On A Golden Shore” has leaped over them with ease. “On A Golden Shore” the band toured the UK and Europe, hung out and played with our hero Gerry Love, worked on some new music with Bonnie Dobson, summertime in Sweden, criss-crossed Spain with Alaska Winter, spent time on the road with the legendary Sid Griffin…the list goes on and on. It’s been beautiful.

released March 8th, 2024

EggS second album. The Parisian pop band EggS has just released a new music single, “Head In Flames” to announce the upcoming release of its second album, “Crafted Achievement” released in November 1st, still in collaboration with the label Prefect Records for the UK. The ever wonderful EggS release their new album “Crafted Achievement” . “Head In Flames” is the first single to be taken from the album and continues with bands hypnotic mix of garage rock influenced indie pop. It’s a dynamic sounding track that’s for sure, boding well for the new album.

Smelting classic-era indie rock with an undercurrent of new wave and a few hardened garage touches, the band embraces an era of sprawling line-ups and ornamental embellishments. But leave the choir robes and Canadian arts grants by the wayside, because despite feeling like the heirs apparent to towering tracks from the early Aughts, the band offers up their version with no pomp and little pretense. Flecked with brass and built on soaring choruses, the new album buzzes with an unstoppable inertia. Pounding guitars set themselves opposite a heavier reliance on keys this time around.

The band’s influences and touchstones could be picked apart all day, but what keeps this a constant on the speakers is the energy that the band brings to the album.

released November 1st, 2024

This past July, L.A. band Beachwood Sparks released their first album in 12 years, “Across the River of Stars“. Sometimes, when a band makes a comeback after such a long hiatus, the music can be hit or miss. Do they still have ‘it’? Is this just a money grab? “Across the River of Stars” has the psychedelic country vibes longtime fans of Beachwood Sparks know and love. They did a great job of channeling their classic sound, but still making it fresh with new influences.

“Across The River of Stars” shines bright, a prime example of the band’s West Coast winds. Balancing the gauziest textures of Once We Were Trees with the Americana openness of Tarnished Gold, the band feels confident in their own skin. The album retains Beachwood’s golden glow, buoyed by synths, sonorous harmonies, and the sepia-tinged twang that has long been their ally. With Chris Robinson behind the boards, they’ve crafted a record that speaks to their legacy, while pushing their sound to the forefront of the current cosmic crop.

played & sung by
Chris Gunst, Brent Rademaker, Farmer Dave Scher,
Ben Knight, Andres Renteria, Jen Cohen Gunst

released July 19th, 2024

Aluminum slice through the shoegaze garden with well-prepared shears — nipping the topline luminaries like MBV and Ride, but slicing deeper into Chapterhouse, The Swirlies and Drop Nineteens. Unlike many nu-gaze contemporaries, the band doesn’t see fit to stop at the foam and fuzz. Rather than just create a smudged wonderland that’s beholden to their influences, the band embraces the baggy beat of Madchester, letting it litter a few of their singles. They flirt with Brit-pop’s love of rhythm, the influx of rave, and the verdant sweat of Mazzy Star.

“Fully Beat”, overflows with tenured confidence and a singular style that deftly comprises shoegaze, big beat, and jangle pop. With influences ranging from Orbital, to Wipers, to The Avalanches and Sly and the Family Stone, theirs is a multifaceted take on established forms, fed through fuzz and led by honeyed, dual vocal harmonies from Bay Area post-punk veterans Marc Leyda (of Wild Moth) and Ryann Gonsalves (of Torrey).

Band Members::
Marc Leyda – vocals, guitar, sampler
Ryann Gonsalves – vocals, bass
Austin Montanari – guitar
Chris Natividad – drums

released May 24th, 2024

As Alex Izenberg was piecing together the sweeping, psychedelic opuses on his full-band debut Alex Izenberg & The Exiles, the Los Angeles artist was focused on a simple goal: making something built to last. At the heart of his songs are bold ideas that take inspiration from the heady musings of philosopher Alan Watts, the multi-layered storytelling of King Crimson, and the imagistic vistas of Fleet Foxes. While the subject matter may feel esoteric—“My unconscious named the tongue/Of the lights of closed eyes” goes a characteristic lyric—Izenberg and his band let the music drift pleasantly to earth.

The melodies are romantic and warm, and the arrangements are invitingly expansive, making expert use of a new ensemble formed around the strongest songs of his career.

released July 26th, 2024

2024, Domino Recording Co Ltd

Ex-Vöid – featuring Lan McArdle (Joanna Gruesome, Lanny), Owen Williams (The Tubs), Laurie Foster (bass) and George Rothman (drums) – return with their second album: “In Love Again“. The record sees the band flourish from a chaotic power punk group into a fully fledged pop behemoth.

Fans of Joanna Gruesome Both Ex-Vöid and fellow Owen Williams-led outfit The Tubs have records on the way. Of the two, Ex-Vöid is softer at heart. Williams serves more as a sparring partner here with Lan McArdle, whose plush vocals render the band’s songs warm and inviting. On their second outing the two songwriters parry harmonies while picking apart the particulars of love and longing. Atop the fizzing churn of the band’s indie pop, peppered with just enough punk to sate those who’ve come for the fuzzed riffs over the ringing jangles, the Vöid turns personal turbulence into whirlpools of pop. It’s easy to get sucked in, lost in the band’s whoosh and whisper, listening to the guitars crash against the edges of the soul.

It’s the kind of perfect pop that stops listeners in their tracks, or at least those that have a soft spot for pockets of the ‘90s that showed a bit of vulnerability. That may be the band’s most valuable asset. For every fizzing riff and towering wave of sound that gets thrown at the listener, the band always leaves themselves unguarded. It’s an album of soft underbelly, but in an era when artifice often outweighs authenticity, it’s nice to see a band that displays their loneliness, their insecurities, their infatuations, and their regrets in bold pastel strokes. The band hooked me hard with their debut, but they show no signs of letting the barbs loose on “In Love Again“.

Inhaler have dropped a new single called ‘A Question Of You’ ,  the track marks the latest preview of the Dublin quartet’s upcoming third album ‘Open Wide’. Recorded in RAK Studios in London and produced by Grammy and BRIT Award-winning Kid Harpoon, the upcoming album is set to showcase “jubilant pop melodies, intricate grooves and rock’n’roll dynamism”. Following on from previous singles ‘Your House’ and the title track, the album is set for release on February 7th via Polydor.

“You killed the morning / You called me up / Poured your heart out into my cup / Words of desire / Are they enough / What is it you were trying to make up?” sings frontman Elijah Hewson atop a playful, guitar-pop riff.

“Can’t believe we got left where we’re left / Can’t be old if we don’t wanna be grown / Sing me a love song / I know the words / Tell me a story but I already heard,” he continues, as the track evolves into a playful love song.

“This is love song territory for me, about how in order to be honest with someone else you’ve got to be honest with yourself, like, ‘I’ve gotta sort my own shit out so I can be around other people,’” explained Hewson. “It’s also a soulmates thing. The choir really changed everything on this one.”

Speaking about how New York City served as an inspiration for the album, Hewson explained: “People always talk about that adrenaline of the journey from the airport to the city, when you drive over the bridge and you see the skyline for the first time. A lot of that energy was used to finish our songs, and having that kind of spark just made things feel fresher. We love Dublin and the UK, but whenever we land in New York, we just want to go and do something immediately.