The Fat Angel Sings

This final reissue is a celebration of a record that sounded out of time in 2004, dripping in future nostalgia, and which twenty years on still sounds as unique and uncategorizable as it did when it arrived.

20 years of The Go! Team’s “Thunder Lightning Strike”, 20 years of lasers through tracing paper, orange tone oscillations, cable access hangover, music made through sunburnt circuits, a K-tel dream sequence, a haunted vision mixer, station wagon-core, straight to video, VHS in distress, something in the fog, fluff on the needle, chromakey constellations, a hovercraft on the fret board, maxing the minute maid, faxing a car alarm, a Morse code pep talk, etch-a-sketch jackknife, a daily Haley’s comet, light sound colour motion, a holiday from yourself.

This final reissue is a celebration of a record that sounded out of time in 2004, dripping in future nostalgia, and which twenty years on still sounds as unique and uncategorisable as it did when it arrived.

RT LP – Comes with an exclusive 7”, featuring new versions of “Hold Yr Terror Close” by The Pastels and The Orielles and a recreation of the original CD-R demo version of the album which stands up as a document of band leader Ian Parton’s unique method of working.

This collection draws from the neo psychedelic movement that took hold in California during the early to mid 80’s, one that melded the psychedelia, country, garage rock, avant-garde and pop of the 60’s with the DIY ethos of the then burgeoning punk scene, a hypnotic amalgamation of sound that came in staunch contrast to the blown out sonic excesses of the time.

Futurismo proudly present a celebration of the Paisley Underground scene with “TWISTED DREAM MACHINE The Paisley Underground / California’s Psychedelic Renaissance: 1982-1986”, the next volume in their Altered Vision compilation series.

“Twisted Dream Machine” takes you on a trip from the city to the desert, as the kaleidoscope of noise drifts from the The Dream Syndicate’s Velvet Underground inspired take on Crazy Horse and The Three O’Clock’s chiming baroque powerpop, to Rain Parade’s dreamy Beatlesesque melodies and the Bangles hook-laden Love inspired pop. Also featured are the wondrous sounds of Green On Red, The Long Ryder’s, Game Theory, True West, Thin White Rope and others highly worth your attention.

If you are not familiar with some of the bands here, you will surely question how that is possible. The Paisley Underground, if anything, encapsulated a certain musical mindset, an outlook where the past and the future would collide in the moment. This thread would bond the bands, yet each honed it’s own sound in a twisted incarnation of the seeds planted two decades earlier. Whilst the ‘scene’ did remain contained, its influence did in fact spread throughout mainstream culture as the Bangles stuck a chord into the heart of MTV, whilst Prince took inspiration from the movement in his own song writing and the naming of Paisley Park, as well as signing The Three O’Clock to his label and writing one of the Bangles biggest hits.

As you listen to the tracks on “Twisted Dream Machine” you will be reminded that there is still music left to discover and inspire, this compilation is aimed to hopefully delight longtime fans, as well as ignite a passion for those new to the bands. The Paisley Underground was the sound of neo psychedelic rock, it was subterranean pop…in
the classic sense, it was alternative rock before the term existed, a distillation of the fundamentals present at the dawn of rock ‘n’ roll, with a twist. The bands of the Paisley Underground may have been writing out of their own time, but as you listen to them in today’s context these songs should be heard as landmarks, rather than throwbacks. After all, nothing this good should stay underground.

This 2xLP comes on limited edition coloured vinyl, it is housed in a gloss laminated outer sleeve with colour inner sleeves and contains a large fold-out poster with unseen photos and liner notes by Lisa Fancher of Frontier. Also available on CD with Gloss laminated Sleeve and Fold Out Poster. 

Tracklist:

1. The Three ‘O’ Clock – Jet Fighter
2. The Rain Parade – Don’t Feel Bad
3. True West – Lucifer Sam
4. Bangles – Going Down to Liverpool
5. Thin White Rope – Down in The Desert
6. Game Theory – 24
7. The Dream Syndicate – Definitely Clean
8. The Long Ryders – Too Close to The Light
9. Green On Red – Illustrated Crawling
10. 28th Day – Pages Turn
11. The Dream Syndicate – That’s What You Always Say
12. The Pandoras – In and Out of My Life (In A Day)
13. The Long Ryders – Ivory Tower
14. The Three ‘O’ Clock – With A Cantaloupe Girlfriend
15. Bangles – All About You
16. The Rain Parade – Talking in My Sleep
17. The Three ‘O’ Clock – Her Heads Revolving
18. True West – Shot You Down
19. Wednesday Week – If Only
20. Thin White Rope – Exploring the Axis
21. The Rain Parade – Mystic Green
22. Green On Red – Lost World

released June 18th, 2024

In celebration of the 10 Year Anniversary “The Balcony” is released on limited edition ultra-clear 2LP with inverted white artwork and 6 bonus tracks including a selection of previously unreleased acoustic versions of ‘Cocoon’, ‘Kathleen’ and ‘Pacifier’, ‘Rango’ (single version), ‘Hourglass’ (Ewan McGregor version) and rare bonus track ‘ASA’ available on a vinyl 12” for the first time after the original pressing of the limited edition 7” single 10 years ago.

Debut and breakthrough record “The Balcony” has become a career-defining album for Catfish and the Bottlemen, with Double Platinum status and  9 BPI Certified Singles including ‘Cocoon’ and ‘Kathleen’, it was originally released through Communion/Island Records on 15th September 2014. Written by Van McCann and produced by Jim Abbiss, the collection of songs on this album showcase McCann’s talent for posing everyday, easily identifiable observations through his lyrics.

In celebration of the 10 Year Anniversary “The Balcony” is also released as a limited edition 7” boxset which mirrors the highly sought after and sold out series of 7” singles that were released around the album’s original release. This boxset features the full album (singles audio in album version), 

The album’s success and the many sold out shows resulted in a Brit Award for British Breakthrough Act.

As part of our continuing Suede30 campaign, Demon Records will be issuing Suede’s fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth singles as highly collectable 7” picture discs, reproducing the original arresting cover images on the discs. 

Originally released on 12th September 1994, the band’s sixth single was “We Are The Pigs”. The first song to be released from the “Dog Man Star” album, The Times commented “Propelled by one of Bernard Butler’s finest riff chord sequences and fuelled by the nightmare visions of Brett Anderson’s lyric, the song romps home with a glorious chorus that combines old-fashioned sing-a-long appeal with an intriguingly sinister edge.” The single peaked at number 18 in the UK charts.

The B-side was “The Killing Of A Flash Boy”. This song did not appear on the “Dog Man Star” album, but in recent times, Brett has commented that in hindsight, he would have included the song in the album’s track listing.

The 6CD + 1 LP Queen I box set contains 63 tracks with 43 brand new mixes, comprising the original album with its intended running order restored,

Over half a century since its release and a vital chapter in the band’s story, Queen’s self-titled 1973 debut album has been remixed and restored by Justin Shirley-Smith, Joshua J Macrae and Kris Fredriksson to sound the way the band always wanted it to. A new track listing, alternative takes, demos and live tracks have now been added to create the most complete version of this pivotal work. This is the very first time that a Queen album has ever received a new stereo mix.

Absent from the 1973 release, the song “Mad The Swine” has been reinstated to its original place in the running order. A 108-page book containing handwritten lyrics and memorabilia accompanies the release.

“This is not just a remaster,” writes Brian May in the CD sleeve insert notes, “this is a brand new 2024 rebuild of the entire Queen debut album, which, with the benefit of hindsight, we have re-titled “Queen I.” All the performances are exactly as they originally appeared in 1973, but every instrument has been revisited to produce the ‘live’ ambient sounds we would have liked to use originally. The result is “Queen“ as it would have sounded with today’s knowledge and technology – a first.”

“Queen I is the debut album we always dreamed of bringing to you.”

Queen began life in early summer 1970, but took their first steps in the studio after vocalist Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor recruited bass guitarist, John Deacon, in July 1971.

“The first three years were really faith and fumes,” says Roger Taylor. “We were penniless but we had a lot of belief in ourselves and a lot of energy.” “We wanted everything to sound like it was in-your face,” says Brian May. “We had this incredible fight to get the drums out of the booth and into the middle of the studio and put the mics all around the room.”

The Collector’s Edition also includes a 108-page book containing handwritten lyrics and memorabilia, fly-on-the-wall audio of Queen in the studio, demos, rare live tracks, and two previously unheard recordings from an early Queen show, recorded at London’s Imperial College in August 1970 before bassist John Deacon had joined the band.

Queen have also released the first single from the set, a newly remixed version of “The Night Comes Down”, which will be released as a vinyl 7″ single on October 4. 

“The Night Comes Down” is based on acoustic guitar, my beautiful old acoustic,” says May. “But the guitar harmonies are all electric. People in those days used to say, ‘You can’t mix electric guitar with acoustic guitar.’ They would say the electric guitar is too loud for the acoustic. And I went, ‘Come on, it’s just a question of balancing in the mix.’ “The Night Comes Down” was like a demonstration. ‘Yes, we can do this. We can make our own rules!'” 

“Thrasher” is one of Neil Young’s greatest songs, a highlight from “Rust Never Sleeps” that documents Young grappling with the incessant need to get back on the road. In a later verse, he famously takes a shot at his CSNY bandmates: “So I got bored and left them there/They were just dead weight to me/Better down the road without that load.”

“Parts of it were. Just dead weight,” he said in a 1985 interview with Bill Flanagan. “Well, at that point, I felt like it was kind of dead weight for me. Not for them. For me. I could go somewhere, and they couldn’t go there. I wasn’t going to pull them along, they were doing fine without me. It might have come off a little more harsh than I meant it, but once I write, I can’t say, ‘Oh, I’m going to hurt someone’s feelings.’ Poetically and on feeling, it made good sense to me, and it came right out. I think I’d be doing a disservice to change it based on what I think a reaction would be. I try not to do that.”

“Thrasher” follows “Bright Sunny Day,” a previously unreleased track off the 10th disc “Sedan Delivery” (1978): Neil Young with Crazy Horse. “Bright Sunny Day” is one of the 15 tracks unreleased in any capacity until “Archives III”. Overall, the anthology boasts 28 hours of 198 tracks over 22 discs.

Next month, Neil Young will perform at Farm Aid, which will take place this year at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, New York, where he serves on the board. The appearance marks his return to the stage since canceling all concert dates due to an unspecific illness.

Horse Jumper of Love thrive on patient and uncompromising songs. Thanks to frontman Dimitri Giannopoulos’ evocative lyrics and arrangements that suddenly turn from delicate to blistering, their music is full of intensity. While the Boston trio, which also includes bassist John Margaris and drummer James Doran, has stretched the fringes of indie, their latest is their most immediate yet. Out August 16th via Run For Cover Records, “Disaster Trick” tackles self-destructiveness with healing and heart.

Where Horse Jumper of Love’s last release 2023’s “Heartbreak Rules” excelled with quiet, bare-bones songwriting, “Disaster Trick” cranks up the volume while keeping the no-frills intimacy of the band’s catalog. Recorded at Asheville, North Carolina’s Drop of Sun Studios with producer Alex Farrar (Wednesday, Indigo De Souza), the recordings soar with searing guitars and an unshakeable rhythm section. “I tried the quiet thing on the last album and I realized there’s definitely two parts of me: I like really heavy music, and I like really gentle music,” says Giannopoulos. “The two albums I listened to the most while we were in the studio were Leonard Cohen’s Songs From a Room and Hum’s Downward is Heavenward.” This contrast between quiet and loud exists throughout “Disaster Trick” but it’s animated by stark emotion and straightforward, timeless song writing.

“Disaster Trick” feels like a creative reset. It’s also Horse Jumper of Love distilled to their purest essence, which is partly due to Giannopoulos’ recent sobriety. “This was the first album I’ve ever done where I went into it with a very clear mind,” he says. “In the past, we would just show up at a studio, drink, and record. Here, everything felt purposeful.” With newfound energy, the band revisited old, unfinished material like “Gates of Heaven,” which dates back nearly a decade. Originally written during a period Giannopoulos describes as full of immaturity, he sings, “I am late to work again / I’m always missing something / when I walk out the door.” By focusing on a mundane moment, he highlights how self-defeating behaviors can linger.

For the band, the album marked an opportunity to strip down their songwriting to the essentials: urgent, accessible arrangements full of catharsis. “This album helped me realize that a lot of the time, simplicity is the answer,” says Giannopolous. Lead single “Wink,” captures this perfectly. When Giannopoulos sings over hushed guitars, “And your arms have never looked / More empty than they do from here,” his delivery exudes a remarkable earnestness. As the track hits a boiling point in its thunderous chorus, it’s disarmingly raw.

Other songs like “Today’s Iconoclasts” are imbued with wry humour, referencing both “the Amazon Basics Bible” and playing “fuck, marry, kill” in consecutive verses. Whatever the mood, Giannopoulos’ lyrical directness anchors “Disaster Trick”.

While in Asheville, the band enlisted collaborations from Wednesday’s Karly Hartzman and MJ Lenderman as well as Squirrel Flower’s Ella Williams.

Opening track “Snow Angel” kicks off with a growling, shoegaze-tinged guitar riff. It’s a heavy song that’s grounded by wistfulness. “Would you pull me a feather / From your pillow – I want to dream like you,” sings Giannopoulos. Throughout, “Disaster Trick” navigates uncomfortable, dark thoughts with a subtle grace. On the downtempo and compelling “Word,” Giannopoulos finds lightness in relationship malaise: “Last night we had a fight / You blamed it on the moon / But that’s not very fair to the moon.”

“Disaster Trick” is a dark record but there’s a glimmer of hope throughout. As he sings on “Death Spiral,” “I know it sounds dramatic / But I must describe / The way that it felt.” This gets to the core of the album: looking back on mistakes with the grace and clarity that comes from growing up. “A lot of the songs came out of this point where things in my life were going well but I couldn’t accept it,” says Giannopoulos. “I was being a brat. “Disaster Trick” is me cleaning up my act and reflecting on it.” 

released August 16th, 2024

Dimitri Giannopoulos – Vocals/ Guitars 
James Aloyseus-Charles Doran – Drums/ Percussion
John Theodore Margaris – Bass/ Backing Vocals/ Piano

Karly Hartzman – Vocals on “Wink”, “Today’s Iconoclast”, “Wait by the Stairs” & “Heavy Metal”
Ella Williams – Vocals on “Snow Angel” & “Lip Reader”
Jake Lenderman – Guitar on “Snow Angel” & “Curtain”
Maria Gelsomini – Synth on “Heavy Metal”

Happy to finally announce my next album ‘Evergreen’ is out on 25th October I wanted to change things up a bit on this one and play around with some more organic textures. It was really important for me that the song writing shone through everything and came to the forefront. These songs are very close to my heart and I hope they become close to some of yours as well! First single “M” is out now

This was the first song I wrote for this album and I feel like it really gave me the direction I needed.

“Evergreen” was made by Allison in Atlanta’s Maze Studios with producer Ben H. Allen III (Deerhunter, Animal Collective, Youth Lagoon, Belle and Sebastian).

releases October 25, 2024

2024, © 2024 Loma Vista Recordings.

Punk-turned-prophet Nick Cave often describes music as “sacred”. Performance, for him, is an act of communion with the audience. But “Wild God”, his 18th album with The Bad Seeds, feels more like a baptism: an ecstatic immersion in the rushing, pooling waters of love and loss that the sexagenarian artist has experienced since the death of his sons Arthur Cave (15) and Jethro Lazenby (31) in 2015 and 2022, respectively. “Wild God” is the followup to “Ghosteen“, which peaked at No. 2 in 2019. Cave’s 2021 collaboration with Dirty Three leader Warren Ellis, “Carnage“, also reached No. 2.

Ahead of its release, Cave stopped by The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, for an intriguing discussion which covered grief, artificial intelligence and his experience recording with Johnny Cash.

AI he warned will “take the creative act from us.” Computer learning programs would “create music as a product” and the creative process would be reduced “as an impediment.”

Across nine swelling, sinking, swirling soundscapes, the album’s imagery plunges listeners into the lakes and seas of a “swimming god” before bringing us up for air to gawp up at the stars (“bright, triumphant metaphors for love”) and then grounding us on a warm Earth where “the country doctor whistles across the meadow” and rocking us to sleep with the muffled piano ballad “As the Waters Cover the Sea”.

Cave has described each song on this record as an individual conversion – one track is titled as such – but you don’t need to subscribe to any religious faith to buy into the transformative power of love that is hymned here.

As a vocalist, Cave has long honed a pacing, praying preacher-man’s style that allows his stories to ramble passionately across the contours of the music. It is put to use once again on “Song of the Lake”: a humble parable of an old man beside the shore, mesmerised by the sight of a woman bathing in the golden light. This transient pleasure leads Cave to allude to his bereavement as he quotes from the nursery rhyme “Humpty Dumpty” (about the egg who fell to his death like Arthur).

The original line runs: “All the King’s horses and all the King’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again”, but Cave abandons it halfway through: “Ah, never mind, never mind.” The old man on the shore finds peace, instead, in the inevitability of mortality: “He knew he would dissolve if he followed her [the bather] into the lake/ But also knew that if he remained upon the shore he would, in time, evaporate.” A chorus raise their voices behind him as our hero repeats the consoling refrain of “Never mind” like an “Amen”.

Cave is great at balancing his wordy grandiosity with casual vernacular like this. He’s likewise brilliant at shifting from fiction and metaphor to blunt truth, as on “Joy”, where he flips from a classic blues opening lyric – “I woke up this morning with the blues all around my head” – to the brutal reality of “I felt like someone in my family was dead”. The only lyrically duff moment comes when he clumsily rhymes “panties” with “scanty” on the otherwise lovely shuffle of “O Wow O Wow (How Wonderful She Is)”.

Swinging between doubt and faith, Cave picks up the pace with the rockier title track, on which an ailing deity flies through a “dying city like a prehistoric bird” over the brittle bones of a harpsichord effect. “Wild God” soars into triumph as the chorus throw themselves into a jubilant refrain. The collective crescendo, though, is soon washed away by the more intimate, fluidly bowed rains of “Frogs”, on which the titular amphibians are pictured “jumping in the gutters/ Amazed of love/ Amazed of pain/ Amazed to be back in the water again/ In the Sunday rain”. Close your eyes and you can see the splayed, wet-webbed feet and the slick giddy leaps. Later in his holy bestiary, Cave invokes rabbits on “Joy” and “Cinnamon Horses”.

Many people find Cave’s recent output too ambient and rambling – the songs lacking traditional hooks and structure. This album doesn’t try to win over any of those doubters. In three “Making of Wild God” videos on YouTube, the band are seen joking about writing “yoga music” – but the films, shot live at the spacious Miraval studios in the south of France, help make clear the big-hearted humanity they pour into their music. Cave stalks about in black and white like a pipe cleaner, while co-producer Warren Ellis chuckles into his wizard’s beard as they search for the moments of spontaneity that spark these songs into life.

Throughout “Wild God”, the rattling fire of Thomas Wydler’s drums and the rolling undertow of Martyn Casey’s bass keep up the heat beneath the gracefully meandering, melodic arcs of Cave’s piano, Ellis’s violin, synths, flute and loops, Jim Sclavounos’s spine-tinglingly resonant vibraphone, and George Vjestica’s tender guitar. Melodies flood through the music and then disappear like currents. “Wild God” can feel fathomless, but it leaves you buoyant.