The Fat Angel Sings

Wishy’s anticipated debut LP “Triple Seven” is out next month, and the latest single is the shoegazey “Sick Sweet.” “This song is about wanting something or someone despite doubts or misgivings,” Kevin Krauter says, “and laying it all on the line to see it through. I was inspired by an Oasis interview asking Liam Gallagher what his lyrics are generally about and he says something to the effect of ‘Just living life’ and ‘Just going for it.’ That’s the energy I put into this song.”

You could call Wishy’s story a lucky one. After prior monikers and iterations, Wishy was born as a kaleidoscope of alternative music’s semi-recent history, with traces of shoegaze, grunge and power-pop swirling together. On “Triple Seven”, Indiana songwriters Kevin Krauter and Nina Pitchkites’ musical synergy proves itself to be a rare one–the kind that sounds like someone striking gold. Part sly wink and part warm gratitude, it’s only fitting their much anticipated full length debut is titled “Triple Seven”, where Wishy’s penchant for indelible hooks is couched equally in pillowy atmospherics and scathing distortion.

By day Krauter works as a music teacher, giving drum and guitar lessons to students, while Pitchkites is a seamstress by trade and often makes embroidered merch for the band. Coming up in a scene defined by hardcore and emo, Krauter and Pitchkites instead found themselves writing melodies in their heads while driving to work, pulling music from the air and arriving at a blearier, more ethereal interpretation of Midwest expanse. Initially, their music oscillated between hazy dream-pop and heavier alt-rock.

The subject of their songs create a loose web of vignettes and snapshots, capturing Krauter and Pitchkites in a whirlwind couple of years — exiting the pandemic, embarking on an embryonic project, making sense of their musical pasts while forging a musical future alongside one another, each of them on a journey of self-acceptance and self-understanding. Sometimes gorgeous, sometimes festering, and always cathartic, “Triple Seven” is a vibrant and exhilarating document of self-discovery with the scope and heft of the bygone big-budget rock albums that inspired it. 

releases August 16th, 2024

We are beyond happy to announce that our second album ‘The Good Kind’ will be coming out on November 8th!!! We’ve been sitting on this news for a while now so we’re over the moon to be sharing it. There’s so much to say about this record, but for now we hope you enjoy our newest single “Something About Me Being A Woman” , The expression of hard-fought optimism encapsulates “The Good Kind”, an album exploring themes of sexuality, relationships, community, and illness. Our Girl’s trademark dynamics permeate the record, from heavy guitars and soaring lead lines to ear worm choruses and intimate vocal moments. Filled with warmth and honesty, “The Good Kind” is a celebration of determination – of choosing to recommit to what matters, against all opposition. “A lot of the songs are about taking setbacks and turning them into superpowers” says drummer Lauren Wilson.

“I only realised then, when I thought it out loud,” begins singer/guitarist Soph Nathan on ‘Relief’, the first single released from the album, “And I feel better now”. This song is aptly named, invoking a long-awaited exhale – the feeling of finally emerging from a long and lonely period of uncertainty and self-doubt. Beginning with a single airy strum, Nathan’s reverb-drenched guitar attaches itself to Joshua Tyler’s grounding bass chords, as Wilson’s quietly insistent drum beat throws its weight behind Nathan’s words of reassurance: “You’ve gotta see it to believe it/ Well, I see it in you already.”

This song speaks honestly to the life-giving importance of queer community. From the warmth and immediacy of her delivery, Nathan could be comforting a friend. But as ‘Relief’ builds from that cautious opening to a determinedly, driving force, it becomes clear: these aren’t empty platitudes. Nathan believes in you, because she’s learned to believe in herself.

This sentiment is at the heart of “The Good Kind”, recorded at Rockfield Studios and produced by alt-rock legend John Parish (PJ Harvey, Sparklehorse), Fern Ford (The Big Moon, Prima Queen) and Soph Nathan herself. For Our Girl, it mirrors the long and winding road to their sophomore release, and the lasting rewards of trusting in the process.

All three members recall moments of magic in the studio with Parish and engineer Joe Jones, who embraced the band’s spirit of experimentation and helped them to channel their electrifying live character onto tape. But despite these propelling creative moments, Our Girl struggled to fully realise the album exactly the way they wanted. “The way we work best is so based on feeling, and an instinct when we’re together,” says Wilson. “We see ourselves as a live band: that’s how we began, and where we feel fully realised,” says Nathan. Having not had an opportunity to play the songs live yet, the trio poured hours into making demos and rehearsing the songs, eventually arriving at Rockfield Studios almost “over-prepared”, says Josh. However, having recorded it under time pressure, all three members concluded the two-week session feeling as though some essential component had escaped them.

After hearing the recordings back, “It was the first time that we’ve all been on such different pages,” Nathan says, admitting that she even entertained painful thoughts of abandoning the project. Instead, Our Girl dug deep to reconnect with what had kept them together. It was a conscious decision to recommit to making the music they knew themselves to be capable of. “We all had to rediscover our connection – to the album, and to each other,” Wilson says.

Newly determined, the band spent six weeks with Fern Ford of The Big Moon at her home studio, pulling apart the Rockfield takes and recording more. Nathan recalls her bodily feeling of relief as they reopened and recommitted to the project “I couldn’t quite believe it” says Nathan “I felt a freedom I hadn’t experienced before. Fern really made that space for us and it was a real relief to be able to take the reins together”. With Ford’s help, Nathan took to the production, striving after the warm, comforting sound she’d envisaged. It was new territory for Nathan – but the attempt felt true to Our Girl’s shared ambition and commitment to breaking new ground.

This collaborative process speaks to a wider theme – when choosing to carve out their own creative path, the band leant more on each other, and on friends and other musicians: Warpaint’s Stella Mozgawa helped bring the title track ‘The Good Kind’ to life in its early stages, whilst Nathan’s partner and friends including Marika Hackman and Art School Girlfriend joined the rallying cry at the end of “Relief”. There’s evidently real joy to be found in taking ownership of your own creative vision, and also trusting friends to share that vision with you.

Using songwriting as a processing tool, many of the songs reflect Nathan’s own experiences, expressed with her trademark precision and lyricism. ‘Absences’ is about the frightening “absence seizures” she suffered through childhood, culminating in an epileptic fit at age 17. Such private, often lonely struggles with chronic health issues are a theme of “The Good Kind”, as well as the moments of solace within them; ‘What You Told Me’ evokes the relief of feeling that weight lift, however briefly.

Through the process of making “The Good Kind”, Our Girl learned to trust themselves, persevere with the harder path and recognise it as the only one worth travelling. Deciding to chase after the sound they wanted ended up being the most empowering moment of their career thus far, and it paid off: “The Good Kind” is their most confident, moving and fully realised work yet.

‘The Good Kind’ We’re over the moon to announce that our second album will be coming out on November 8th via Bella Union Records

From the rubble and ashes of punk a new youth cult was emerging. Divinely inspired by Bowie, Roxy Music and Kraftwerk, a new tribe the press started labelling New Romantics, or Futurists, discarded punk’s old-hat claims towards authenticity and protest, in pursuit of glamour, make-up, dressing up and dancing. Their home was The Blitz Club, a tiny wine bar at the edge of Covent Garden and what went on there between 1979 and 1980 would genuinely change the world. The other name for this cult? Blitz Kids.

The music of London’s Blitz Club is celebrated with a new box set curated by Rusty Egan the man who, with Steve Strange, started the weekly club which sound tracked a transition from the gloom of the UK in the late 70s into the new decade of the 1980s with the sounds, sights and glamour to go with it.

The Blitz was birthing the next wave of British pop stars. A young Boy George ran the cloakroom, its host and doorman was a young Steve Strange, soon-to-be the frontman of Visage, Spandau Ballet played their first gig there and on a given night you might find yourself dancing next to a member of Ultravox. Fashion designers in Regency ballgowns mingled with secretaries in rubber, post boys dressed as Biggles danced next to art school kids dressed as Pierrot. David Bowie assembled his extras for the ‘Ashes To Ashes’ video from the Blitz kids. Mick Jagger was refused entry. 

Strange would work the door/front of house, while Egan handled DJ duties in the club. The pair had originally met briefly backstage at an early 1978 gig, in Wales, with Rich Kids – the short-lived post-punk band put together by ex-Sex Pistol bassist Glen Matlock and featuring Egan on drums, Steve New on guitar and Midge Ure on vocals. The band split, and at 19 and 21 respectively, Strange and Egan started the club in a wine bar in Covent Garden called Blitz (having started out at Billy’s in Soho the year before).

“The ethos was that everybody in that club could be heroes, just for one day and my DJ set lists at the Blitz were designed to make YOU the star – on the dancefloor, at the bar or just standing there in your finest on a dreary Tuesday night,” remarks Egan of the innovative music he has compiled for this new box-set.  “You could be whoever you wanted to be – your life was going to be great and the ‘80s were here.  The late ‘70s had been so grey and drab and I wanted the music I played each week to instantly transport you somewhere else – maybe to Europe with a few film noir references or to Japan via some exciting new electronic sounds.  Of course there were lots of robotic vocals sung in German, Russian, French and English too.”

The Blitz Club quickly became the place to be and be seen and would regularly host designers, artists, and especially musicians, or aspiring musicians. Many of what would soon to become British pop’s most innovative early Eighties exports would be there on a regular basis, including the Blitz Club’s cloakroom manager Boy George, Sade, Spandau Ballet, Billy Idol, Ultravox, Visage, Adam And The Ants, Bananarama, Marilyn, Gary Numan, Siouxsie and Sigue Sigue Sputnik.

Spandau Ballet actually played their first gig at the Blitz Club (the Christmas party!) in early December 1979. Gary Kemp recalls: “The Blitz Club, with Steve Strange’s curated ragamuffins and Rusty Egan’s electro soundtrack, was the engine room for the ‘80s. Spandau Ballet was forged from that heat. We were determined to make our own advances into the new culture we wanted to lead. Vinyl was just one of our mediums. Here are the tunes we danced to, planned over, posed and gazed to. Energy poured out of this backing track.”

As well as a host of electronic classics, this new “Rusty Egan Presents Blitzed!” box-set includes many hard to find extended remixes and edits from artists like Grace Jones, Roxy Music and Kraftwerk (a scarce promo edit of the Düsseldorf band’s seminal track ‘Radioactivity’ is included).

This release is available as a deluxe 4CD set (66 tracks) and across four vinyl LPs (36 tracks). Both including extensive sleeve notes by The Guardian’s chief rock & pop critic (and occasional SDE reviewer) Alexis Petridis as well as an introductory essay by Rusty Egan.

“Rusty Egan presents Blitzed!” will be released on 28 June 2024 via Demon Music.

Most of the writing of Naima Bock’s second album, “Below A Massive Dark Land”, was a solitary affair. It may not sound like it – it’s made up of strong, purposeful arrangements with a huge host of musicians, filled with cradling space and warm light. This will also come as a surprise to anyone who has seen Naima perform in the time since the release of her 2022 debut “Giant Palm”, which was undoubtedly a communal experience. But there’s power in the solitary, too. “Giant Palm” was arranged with collaborator Joel Burton, but going this one alone in search of something that was truly hers, Naima found she was capable of more. “After me and Joel stopped working together”, she remembers, “it was an impossibility to even fathom doing arrangements myself but then I started learning violin and it was possible”. Finding that she could go it alone was incredibly powerful for Naima: “I think I needed it, to be able to feel proud of something”. Beyond the writing process, however, the record is not a stark, stripped back affair. “Below…” still has the majesty that made “Giant Palm” so remarkable.

Having tugged the first record down from the skies and spreading it across the earth, Naima finds a newfound vocal power and confidence born from hundreds of hours on stage, and the music sounds fuller, more tangible, and no less enveloping. This can be heard on the album’s lead singles: “Kaley” feels fresh and surprising in its rug-pull choppiness but is distinctly Naima in its swinging, jubilant choruses. The accompanying “Further Away” takes a different tack, drawing you in with its simplicity. Finally, the hazy, luxurious beauty of “Feed My Release” draws on the sepia-toned traditions of The Roches, John Prine and Loudon Wainwright III and imbues them with the kind of stark confessional song writing of Mount Eerie.

These are ambitious, rich arrangements that reach deeper and darker lyrically than “Giant Palm”.

“Below a Massive Dark Land” was predominantly produced by Jack Osborne (Bingo Fury) and Joe Jones, and recorded at The Crypt in north London, with additional production and arrangement by Oliver Hamilton (caroline, Shovel Dance Collective) and Naima herself. Six of the tracks on “Below…” were mixed by Jason Agel, with the remainder done by Osborne and Jones.

Sony Music in Japan are celebrating the 40th anniversary of Bruce Springsteen’s 1984 album “Born in the USA” as a special 4CD deluxe edition unavailable anywhere else!

The 4CD set features the original album on CD 1 (the 2014 remastering) and the a full live show at the Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey on 22nd August 1985, on the three bonus CDs.

The classic “Live 1975–85” box set album featured a couple of “Born in the USA” songs from 19th and 21st August 1985 Giants Stadium shows but none from 22nd August, and while this whole show has technically been available as a download and on CD-R via the ‘Live Bruce Springsteen’ Official Live Archive Series, this is the first time it’s been released ‘properly’ on CD anywhere in the world.

The four CDs are actually ‘Blu-spec CD2’ discs but rest assured these are fully compatible with standard CD players. This release is presented as a deluxe seven-inch Features cardboard with a photo book and a booklet (see image above).

This Japan-only “Born in the USA” 40th anniversary 4CD set will be released on 25th September 2024 via Sony Music Japan.

Little Feat’s classic 4th album released in 1974 and produced by frontman Lowell George was a near perfect distillation of the bands influences from blues, country, funk brewed into an irresistible mix.

Little Feat’s fourth album, “Feats Don’t Fail Me Now“, arguably ranks just a notch below the earlier “Dixie Chicken” and “Sailin’ Shoes“, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t loaded with fine examples of the group’s boundary-bending R&B-Southern rock. The last Little Feat  LP where cofounder and original lead vocalist Lowell George plays a big role, this 1974 LP is also the first to feature major contributions from the group’s other members. Highlight’s keyboardist Bill Payne’s funky “Oh Atlanta.” Another is George’s “Spanish Moon,” a brassy, jazzy gem that sounds like something the late New Orleans R&B master Allen Toussaint—an apparent major influence—might have created.

Both configurations feature a rarities disc of previously unreleased studio outtakes that were once thought to be lost when the recording studio located on a boat in Maryland sank in the late 70’s. While it is true that some did sink, this is what remains from those sessions.

Like “Dixie Chicken” and “Sailin’ Shoes“, this album is now available in a multi-disc edition. Its first CD presents a remaster of the original record while a second adds seven alternate versions, four outtakes, and the single edit of “Spanish Moon.” A third and final CD delivers a consistently entertaining nearly hour-long 1975 Paris live concert that features several numbers from “Feats Don’t Fail Me Now” plus Toussaint’s “On Your Way Down” and George’s best-known song, “Willin’,” which first appeared on “Sailin’ Shoes”.

The expanded “Feats Don’t Fail Me Now“, released on June 14th, 2024, is available on 3-CD and 2-LP in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here. Both versions include the studio album newly remastered from the original multi-track and two-track stereo tapes.

On May 17th, Little Feat also issued their first new studio album in 12 years, “Sam’s Place”.

“After nearly thirty years since my brother Rory’s passing, I now believe it’s time for other people to cherish Rory’s ‘orphaned’ 1961 Fender Stratocaster and the rest of his incredible instrument collection.

Since 1995, I have always felt that there was a mission to be fulfilled to cement Rory’s legacy and further widen the knowledge of his music.

So, following much deliberation and reviewing of all options, in what is one of the most difficult and sensitive decisions to reach, I have decided to facilitate the release of his instruments for sale, so that these emblems of his legacy can be enjoyed by others.

It is difficult to separate or even begin to quantify the depth of relationship Rory had with his instruments, this decision is one I recognise as challenging for some, however, with the proceeds raised from this instrument sale we will continue to do further good for Rory’s name and legacy, as well as assisting good causes, that my brother would have supported.” Dónal Gallagher

Bonhams Press Release:

THE WORLD’S MOST RECOGNISABLE FENDER STRATOCASTER OWNED BY RORY GALLAGHER COMES TO BONHAMS THIS OCTOBER

London – Known for his legendary live performances, the Irish musician and songwriter Rory Gallagher (1948-1995) was an inspiration to many and is one of the most revered guitarists of all time. Now the collection of Rory Gallagher will come to auction at Bonhams on 17th October in New Bond Street, London. The sale will consist of guitars, amps and accessories from Rory Gallagher’s life and career. The sale will include Rory Gallagher’s iconic 1961 Fender Stratocaster.

Rory Gallagher bought the guitar for £100 on credit from the owner of Crowley’s Music Store in Cork, Ireland in 1963. According to legend, it may have been the first Stratocaster to ever reach Ireland. It became synonymous with Gallagher and its wear and worn finish have made it one of the world’s most iconic electric guitars. It has featured in a number of landmark exhibitions, appeared on the cover of countless guitar magazines, and has been played by the likes of Johnny Marr and Joe Bonamassa. Since 2004, Fender has created and sold replica models of the guitar as part of their artist signature series.

Claire Tole-Moir, Head of Bonhams Popular Culture department, commented: “Rory Gallagher’s 1961 Fender Stratocaster is one of the world’s most recognisable guitars. It was an enormous part of Rory Gallagher’s life and was with him from the very start of his career right until the end. It could be said that it was on this guitar that he carved out his legacy of being one of the greatest guitarists of all time. It has been treasured by Dónal Gallagher, Rory’s brother and former manager, and the Gallagher family ever since Rory’s passing in 1995. Bonhams is honoured to be entrusted with bringing this iconic Stratocaster to auction and is excited to announce the landmark sale of Rory Gallagher’s extensive collection.”

Speaking of Rory Gallagher’s Stratocaster Sir Brian May commented, “He was one of a very few people at that time, who could make his guitar do anything it seemed, it just seemed to be magic…I remember looking at this battered Stratocaster and thinking “how does that come out of there?”. Brian May has also said that “One of the reasons I do what I do is because of Rory.”

The American band Sour Widows debuts this week with “Revival Of A Friend”. The band from California worked on the album for seven years and had to deal with the loss of loved ones and the corona pandemic during this period. Luckily the album was released, because “Revival Of A Friend” is an excellent album.

It’s an album that initially took me back to the 90s. After all, Sour Widows’ debut album contains quite a few influences from indie rock and slowcore from this decade. For example, “Revival Of A Friend” mainly contains songs that mainly move at a slow pace, but that can explode just like that. It provides the album with the dynamics that were common in the indie rock of the 90s.

The guitar work on the album also reminds me of rock music from a few decades ago. The guitar work on “Revival Of A Friend” is melodic and spacious, but can also sound quite gritty. The guitar work on the album is responsible for the dynamics in the music of Sour Widows, while the rhythm section mainly plays supportively, although the drummer of the band certainly deserves the necessary credit.

The beautiful guitar work on the debut album of the Californian band is combined with soft and often almost sweet vocals and that is also an important ingredient of the indie rock from the 90s. Where many 90s bands had one female figurehead, Sour Widows has two.

Susanna Thomson and Maia Sinaiko both account for both the guitar work and vocals on the album and this double line-up enriches both the instrumentation and vocals on “Revival Of A Friend”. You can also hear that the two have been playing together for years, because both the guitar parts and the vocals of Susanna Thomson and Maia Sinaiko flow together beautifully and know how to reinforce each other again and again.  Eventually enlisting drummer Max Edelman to flesh out their sound

Especially in the longer tracks on the album, the band makes a lot of use of repetitive chords, so that the music of Sour Widows has a special or even almost hypnotic effect on the listener. Especially in the subdued passages, which dominate the album, it is striking with how much care is played and that care is reflected in the vocals. The music of Sour Widows can sound rough at the same time and that’s great.

It’s all beautifully captured by Maryam Qudus, who produced the album together with the band and who added some atmospheric synths to the sound on “Revival Of A Friend”.

“Revival Of A Friend” contains over fifty minutes of music, which is a long time for a debut album. Due to the slow tempo and a number of longer tracks, the album seems to last longer, but the debut album of Sour Widows never gets boring. “Revival Of A Friend” can easily ripple along in the background, but the songs of Susanna Thomson and Maia Sinaiko become even more beautiful when you listen to them with full attention and considerable volume.

The latest single from London trio Honeyglaze, “Cold Caller,” can be summed up in one word: pretty. It’s a rock tune shepherded by a sinuous riff that explodes into an elegant measure of part-math rock, part-jangle pop goodness before nose-diving back down into the throbbing rhythms of the band’s controlled chaos. Vocalist Anouska Sokolow unravels atop Tim Curtis’s bassline, singing “I can hear your voice at night, bathed in warmth from my phone light. Stay with me, oh, love of mine.” There’s a delicacy in Sokolow’s phrasings, as “Cold Caller” is a delight from start to finish.

“It’s funny, because it’s a complete dynamic reversal: the last person you’d usually want attention from is a cold caller,” the band shared in a statement. “Can you imagine how lonely someone must feel if you aren’t getting enough from them? Wishful thinking and delusion determine your reality more than you’d think.”

Honeyglaze have an ace up their sleeves, and it’s Curtis’s foundational, timeless harmonics paired with Yuri Shibuichi’s snare-forward drumming and Sokolow’s lyrics of desperation and isolation. “Don’t let me get away,” Sokolow lets out. Lucky for the rest of us, “Cold Caller” will keep Honeyglaze around for a long while.

Mercury Rev have released a new single, ‘Ancient Love’. It’s taken from their upcoming release “Born Horses”, the band’s first new album of original material in nine years. Check out the six-minute track below.

“What we are today comes from our thoughts and perceptions of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life for tomorrow,” the band shared in a statement about the new song. “Our life is the creation of our mind which originates from ancient love.”

“Since our beginning in the mid 80’s with David Baker through to the recording of “Born Horses” with new permanent members, Woodstock native (pianist) Jesse Chandler and Austrian born (keyboardist) Marion Genser,

“When I opened my voice to sing on this record, this was the bird that sang: a lower, whiskery voice, which surprised me as much as it may others. I don’t know where the bird came from, but it’s there now, and I don’t question it. It’s just the bird that wants to sing.” – Jonathan

“Born Horses” arrives September 6th via Bella Union Records.