The Fat Angel Sings

“Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!”  was the second live album by the Rolling Stones, released on 4th September 1970 on Decca Records in the UK and on London Records in the United States. It was recorded in New York City and Baltimore in November 1969 prior to the release of their studio album “Let It Bleed”. It is the first live album to reach number 1 in the UK. It was reported to have been issued in response to the huge selling bootleg “Live’r Than You’ll Ever Be”.

The Rolling Stones 1969 American Tour’s trek during November into December, with Terry Reid, B.B. King (replaced on some dates by Chuck Berry) and Ike and Tina Turner as supporting acts, played to packed houses.

The tour was the first for guitarist Mick Taylor with the Stones, having replaced Brian Jones shortly before Jones’s death in the July; this was also the first album where Taylor appeared fully and prominently, having only played on two songs on “Let It Bleed“. It was also the last tour to feature just the Stones – the band proper, along with co-founder, road manager and session/touring pianist Ian Stewart – without additional backing musicians.

The performances captured for this release were recorded on 27th November 1969 (one show) and 28th November 1969 (two shows) at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, except for “Love in Vain,” recorded in Baltimore on 26th November 1969. Overdub sessions took place in January 1970 in London’s Olympic Studios. The finished product featured overdubbed lead vocals on all tracks except “Love In Vain” and “Midnight Rambler,” added back-up vocals on three tracks, and overdubbed guitar on two songs (“Little Queenie” and “Stray Cat Blues”).  However, this album is widely recognized as one of few actual ‘live’ albums during this era.

“Ya-Ya’s” is manna for guitar freaks, thanks to the fiery interplay between the immortal Keith Richards and inarguably the greatest lead guitarist the Stones ever boasted, Mick Taylor. “Under My Thumb” and “Live with Me” feature wondrously rejiggered riffs, while “Love in Vain”, “Street Fighting Man”, and “Sympathy for the Devil” soar with brilliant solos (two solos in the case of “Sympathy”). Rhythmically, the whole set (aside from a two-song acoustic blues interlude) coagulates into one long, sweaty, irresistible throb.

The title “Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!” is taken from Blind Boy Fuller song “Get Your Yas Yas Out”. The lyric in Fuller’s song was “Now you got to leave my house this morning, don’t I’ll throw your yas yas out o’ door”. In the context of Fuller’s original song and its use in other blues music, “yas yas” appears as a folksy euphemism for “ass”. However, Charlie Watts’ T-shirt worn on the album’s front cover shows a picture of a woman’s breasts, suggesting an alternative explanation. Watts said that his wardrobe on the album cover was his usual stage clothing, along with Jagger’s striped hat.

Some of the performances, as well as one of the two photography sessions for the album cover featuring Charlie Watts and a donkey, are depicted in the documentary film Gimme Shelter, and shows Watts and Mick Jagger on a section of the M6 motorway adjacent to Bescot Rail Depot in Walsall, England, posing with a donkey. This is adjacent to where the RAC building now stands. The cover photo, however, was taken in early February 1970 in London, and does not originate from the 1969 session. The photo by David Bailey, featuring Watts with guitars and bass drums hanging from the neck of a donkey, was inspired by a line in Bob Dylan’s song “Visions of Johanna”: “Jewels and binoculars hang from the head of the mule” (though, as mentioned, the animal in the photo is a donkey, not a mule). The band would later say “we originally wanted an elephant but settled for a donkey”.

Jagger commissioned the back cover, featuring song titles and credits with photographs of the group in performance, from British artist Steve Thomas, who said he produced the design in 48 hours.

Rock critic Lester Bangs said, “I have no doubt that it’s the best rock concert ever put on record.”

This was also the band’s final release under the Decca record label and not under its own label Rolling Stones Records.

Echo & The Bunnymen brought ‘Songs to Learn & Sing’ to Brooklyn Steel. “The lights went down at Brooklyn Steel and the packed house cheered as Echo & The Bunnymen guitarist Will Sergeant walked on stage…alone. Approaching the centre stage mic, he greeted the audience and then said, “Just to let you know, Mac’s got a bit of laryngitis,” Sergeant said to some immediate grumbling from the audience. “The show must go on, of course, but just know Mac won’t be at 100% strength. 99.5, though. See ya in a minute.

With expectations lowered, so began the Brooklyn stop on the Bunnymen’s “Songs to Learn & Sing” tour. Though the name might have you thinking they’re playing the band’s classic 1985 singles collection in full, it was more a repurposing of the title for a run-through of some of the band’s most popular songs.”

The set which actually didn’t include at least a third of what is on that album “Do it Clean,” “The Puppet,” “The Back of Love” and “A Promise” are not being played on this tour. Which was fine; I love all of those songs but I’ve heard “Do it Clean” plenty of times over the years and it was really hard to argue with what they did play across two sets and an encore. Ian McCulloch‘s voice was noticeably more froggy than usual on opener “Going Up” from their 1980 debut, “Crocodiles”, and he struggled a bit through the next few songs, but by the time things got to the gothy “All My Colours (Zimbo),” his pipes were rallying. And even when it was rough, it was still unmistakably Ian McCulloch. That voice. There’s no one else like him.

One aspect to the Songs to Learn & Sing tour is the Bunnymen are really encouraging the audience to sing along, and on some of their biggest hits the band would lay back at times, making the crowd the star. I could’ve done without that, personally, as Brooklyn Steel did not need to be asked to sing along to anything. We were all there on a Friday night to have a good time. Other times, it was like Mac was letting the crowd sing the notes he couldn’t hit. Will Sergeant, though, was spinning gold all night, laying down his signature leads and atmospherics, and breaking out the autoharp for “The Killing Moon” which was especially cool to see.

There was a 20-minute break between sets and when they came back out, Mac’s voice was remarkably better and the energy in the room went up. “Over the Wall,” with some theatrics from both Will and Mac, is always great, and “Never Stop” had the whole place dancing. “Nothing Lasts Forever,” their Britpoppy 1997 hit was one of only two songs of the night that weren’t from the Bunnymen’s imperial phase and was the night’s only moment when Mac went into his signature covers medley thing (which on other tours would happen during “Do it Clean”). Being in NYC, this meant Lou Reed songs, including “Walk on the Wild Side” (“Hey New York, take a walk on the Merseyside” was a nice adlib) and “Coney Island Baby.”

From there it was a parade of hits: the Doors-y “Bedbugs and Ballyhoo,” “The Killing Moon” (one of the orchestrated sing-a-longs) and “Lips Like Sugar” to close out the second set. The band’s usual two encores were combined into one due to the venue’s curfew, which was all the better since walking on and off stage is, let’s be honest, all for show anyway. We got two of the Bunnymen’s greatest songs: a storming version of “The Cutter,” and then the beautiful “Ocean Rain” to finish the night on an emotional high note. Mac was clearly saving his strength for that one.

Diiv’s “Frog in Boiling Water” comes half a decade after its predecessor, 2019’s “Deceiver”, and took most of that interval to compose. Made as the band (now in its second incarnation) fretted over its direction and identity, the album drills into melancholy and vulnerability with irradiated guitars that throw off dream-pop sparks. In the fashion of shoegaze’s more maximal strains, an undercarriage of funk and breakbeats helps transmute the angst of Zachary Cole Smith’s lullaby vocals into the ultimate catharsis.

“Fourth album from DIIV might be their best yet and definitely lands at a fortuitous moment.” brooklyn vegan”

The band’s despondently beautiful fourth album pairs songs about a world falling apart with seductive sonics and a little bit of hope.” allmusic

DIIV – “Frog in Boiling Water”, released on May 24, 2024.

Mammoth Penguins are Emma Kupa (guitar, vocals), Mark Boxall (bass, vocals) and Tom Barden (drums, vocals). Reminiscent of the pop melodies of The Beths, the indie dissonance of Land of Talk, and the guitar forward slacker rock of Weezer, Mammoth Penguins marry heart-ache indie pop with spiky guitars and Emma’s frank confessional song writing.

The new record leans into a raw pop-punk power-trio sound more than ever, with a deep growl in layered guitars and bursts of percussion and harmony. The songs and artwork explore themes about finding a place for yourself and familiarity with people and places. Although it turns back towards a classic three-piece sound, the band weren’t restricted by that palette, adding finishing touches of percussion, extra guitars and backing vocals in short bursts in a garden shed, and also bringing in gorgeous strings to sweeten the title track.

You might also be interested in Emma’s solo album

Sugary, joyous indie-pop fun from Cambridgeshire-based Mammoth Penguins, who’ve been one of the most underrated bands in the country for the best part of a decade. Five years on from “There’s No Fight We Can’t Both Win”, they return to the power-pop / pop-punk leanings of their 2015 debut “Hide And Seek” on their fourth album “Here”.

Pip Blom have today announced details of the release of the ‘Bobbie Remixes’ A 9-track EP, which will be available digitally via Friday 23rd May 2024. Featuring reworkings of tracks from their much acclaimed third album, “Bobbie”, which was released in October last year,

Hailing from Manchester, Tom Sharkett is a producer that seeks to blend the weird, wonky and disparate elements of all corners of dance music into his productions. He is also in the band W.H. Lung.

Talking about the remix Tom said: “After meeting the Pip Blom contingent and bumping into them over the past few years of touring (including a particularly late one in Amsterdam at afters Darek put us on to) it was great to finally remix one of their tunes. It was also a nice bit of synchronicity that they recorded the album at the same place we’d made our first two records.

I loved the physicality of the new record and wanted to translate that into a Dark Italo/EBM thumper. ‘Get Back’ felt particularly raw and stood out to me most to remix. I could hear Pip’s vocal over an 1980s Belgium-adjacent bassline, and once I added in some harsh, industrial drum samples and the crunchy guitars from the original stems, we were away!”

released May 23rd, 2024

Last month Brooklyn post-punk rockers Pamphlets released their debut album, “Take Your Place”.

We have shared a handful of tracks ahead of its release and today show some love to standout single “In Those Eyes.” It’s another perfect demonstration of the bands sharp post punk delivery with an angular blend of new wave inspired instrumentation and punk grit.

Speaking on the track, the band adds: “in Those Eyes” is a self realization of becoming something you fight against. It’s realizing how weaponized hate is cyclical and in so vowing to break the cycle.

Pamphlets · Jeremiah Marquez · Benjamin Griffin · Daniel Pemberton

Pratts & Payne, is a South London pub that sits around the corner from the famed home studio of producer Dan Carey, who 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.

After the table was laid on the two EPs, “Pratts & Pain” brings everything from the band’s history together on a record that’s reverent towards their beginnings but unafraid to push forwards into new sounds. This loose, open formula for what makes a Royel Otis song is written all over  “Pratts & Pain” , an album defined by its sense of fun and adventure.

Jordan Lehning has been a musician I’ve admired since I was a teenager so when he asked me if I wanted to make music together I jumped at the chance. I try to write everyday as an exercise and the songs for this came quite fluidly. The whole project came together in a short amount of time and was recorded at The Duck in Nashville, TN. In this past year I came into a new sense of fierceness within myself and I think the music is reflective of it in tone.

In “A Little Longer” Samuels captivates with her signature tender melodies and observations of everyday truths so astute it makes the mundane, poetic and worthwhile. The first single from her forthcoming EP, “First and the Last” , reminds us of the excitement and curiosity that uncertainty can bring when we don’t focus on the fear. “A Little Longer” is a big light in the darkness.  

“I was lucky enough to make the music video for this with the multi-talented Paige Starke. She shot it on super 8 film on a day of adventuring. This day of shooting was such a perfect one… full of laughter, playfulness and experimentation. I think she captured the song’s energy perfectly and that though it’s a lighthearted video, a lot of tenderness and emotion is conveyed in it.” – Johanna Samuels

The recordings were also extremely joyful to create. There was a profound amount of laughing and hamming in the studio and I can only hope that comes thru to its listeners in this collection as well. I felt lucky to have my old friend and incredible drummer Dom Billet on the EP. I hope that these songs are interpreted with a sense of levity and joy as they explore the more nuanced elements of love and self.

releases June 21, 2024

Youth Lagoon is back with another new song out now on Fat Possum Records, Youth Lagoon is the prized moniker of Idaho-based songwriter Trevor Powers who returns with a new single/video, “Lucy Takes a Picture.” A portrait of “salvation hiding in our wounds,” the song is a soul-stirring chronicle of love and narcotics…a triumph of American gothic imagination. “Once in a while there’s a song that feels like I’ve been trying to write it my whole life,” says Powers. “Lucy is one of those.” With a bent toward rural noir, Powers has found a home in a world where his personal journals and poetic confessions are indistinguishable from the twisted mythologies of habitual sinners and devout barflies. “My only concern now with music is bringing the inner world to life,” says Powers. “It’s not about making something better — it’s about making something true. Songs were a lot harder to write when I hated myself. When my soul changed, my music did too.”

“Lucy Takes a Picture” takes Powers’ devoted articulations of struggle and redemption to a new frontier. Written at Powers’ home in Idaho and recorded in Los Angeles with co-producer Rodaidh McDonald (Weyes Blood, The xx, Gil Scott-Heron), the song is guided by a choir of pizzicato strings, a bed of synth pads played through a shoebox tape recorder, and Powers front and centre singing about darkness, deliverance, and love with the ghoulish timbre of an apocalyptic lounge singer.

In 2023, Powers released the acclaimed “Heaven Is a Junkyard”, an album of warped Americana that brought his focus back home. He also reunited with his long time creative partner Tyler T. Williams for its music video.

After an eight-year hiatus from the project, Powers released his most recent Youth Lagoon album, “Heaven Is a Junkyard“, in 2023. It served as his fourth Youth Lagoon LP and the follow-up to 2015’s “Savage Hills Ballroom”.

Horse Jumper of Love have announced a new album: “Disaster Trick”, the Boston slowcore band’s fourth full-length LP, arrives August 16th through Run for Cover Records. Featured on the LP are “Gates of Heaven” and new song, “Wink,” The single, featuring Wednesday’s Karly Hartzman, leads the Boston band’s fourth full-length LP

Singer-guitarist Dimitri Giannopoulos was inspired by Russian author Dmitry Bakin’s short story “Leaves” while writing “Wink.” “The story is partly about people leaving their home for something better, but when they return they are back to the same place they started,” he explained. “The story shed some perspective on my own life and the ebb and flow of pushing forward for something better and going back to your old ways.”

“Disaster Trick” will be Horse Jumper of Love’s first full-length album since 2022’s “Natural Part”. Additional contributors to the new album include Wednesday’s MJ Lenderman and Squirrel Flower’s Ella Williams. Last year, the trio released a mini-album “Heartbreak Rules”, that included two reimagined tracks from “Natural Part” and a cover of the Smashing Pumpkins’ “Luna.”