The Fat Angel Sings

Dublin four-piece Sprints have spent the past 12 months accelerating. The band enjoyed an exceptional year, laden with highlights – foremost of which include signing for revered label City Slang, and recording their debut album ‘Letter To Self’.

Out now, the release of the record is a key moment for the group. Karla Chubb (singer-guitarist), Colm O’Reilly (guitar), Jack Callan (drums), and Sam McCann (bass), to look back on their rise. What follows is an engaging conversation around what promises to be a critically acclaimed album.

Spints‘ debut album “Letter to Self” embodies their substantial evolution over the past 3 years. Transforming pain into truth, passion into purpose and perseverance into strength, the Dublin four-piece have steadily grown in stature, releasing two acclaimed EPs and building a fearsome live reputation.

“Letter to Self” is the sound of Sprints consolidating and levelling up. Exhibiting their most vulnerable moments and imbuing their visceral garage-punk with a palpable sense of catharsis that we can all benefit from.

Inspired by Savages, their sound matured into energetic and abrasive garage-punk, synthesising influences ranging from early Pixies, Bauhaus, Siouxsie Sioux, IDLES and LCD Soundsystem.

Singer, guitarist and lead-songwriter Karla Chubb tackles her inner turmoil head-on, and uses her platform to address inequality and issues close to hear heart, like the campaign for ‘Repeal The 8th’, and women’s ongoing fight for bodily autonomy, struggles with self acceptance, identity, mental health struggles, sexuality and catholic guilt.

For their debut album the band set about transforming so-called “negative energy” into an opportunity for communal catharsis and healing. Karla Chubb explains sums up message that lies at the very heart of the album: “No matter what you’re born into, or have experienced, there’s a way to emerge from this and be happy within yourself.”

They’re probably one of the best groups in Ireland at the moment. They’re so political. They’re really on the ball, they really stick up for what they believe in and then they’re so down to earth to top it all – you’re like, where’s the downside?

Edinburgh duo Quiet Houses have shared new single ‘What My Heart Is For’. The group made their introduction in 2021, sharing bold debut EP ‘Big Town’ to warm acclaim. Since then the duo – Jamie Stewart and Hannah Elliott – have dug deeper, working on fresh ideas, and taking their music in some unexpected directions.

Fuzzy electronics meets assured dream pop, ‘What My Heart Is For’ is a moment of maturity. Reminiscent of Beach House in places, they also yearn for the melodic directness of London Grammar, 

Amid all this, the sense of openness is very Scottish, very Celtic – there’s a drone backing, while the half-whispered vocal yearns for something “just across the water…”

Jamie Stewart and Hannah Elliott comment:

“’What My Heart is For’ is a song about the ridiculousness of having dreams and pursuing them. It’s about wanting something desperately even when you’re not sure what it is you want or why you want it.”

American band Wilco have shared a cover of David Bowie‘s ‘Space Oddity’ to celebrate what would have been the late star’s 77th birthday.

The live recording of the cover is the first taster of a new compilation album from live performance radio station Mountain Stage. The album, ‘Live On Mountain Stage: Outlaws and Outliers’, will be released in full on April 19th via Oh Boy Records, and also feature Margo Price, John Prine, Jason Isbell and more.

“Striving to reach the heights of his freedom and talent is a wise goal for any band. We thank Mountain Stage for letting us give this song another home on Earth.” “As a gratefully, if not begrudgingly, Earth-bound band, it’s always an honour and a challenge to tackle any of David Bowie’s space-soaring arrangements”

The album will feature a collection of live performances from various artists captured during Mountain Stage tapings over the years, including Rhiannon Giddens, Margo Price, John Prine, Jason Isbell, Indigo Girls, Tyler Childers, and Birds of Chicago featuring Allison Russell among many others. On January 8th, we are sharing the first track from the compilation, a cover of “Space Oddity” by Wilco, released in honour of David Bowie’s birthday.

Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein talk about how the “heartbreak” of Roe v Wade influenced their new song, as well as how their new album ‘Little Rope’ helped them through turbulent times, Sleater-Kinney spoke about their latest single ‘Untidy Creature’ from their latest LP ‘Little Rope’ – along with the grief and tragedy that shaped it.

Back in October, the Washington alt-rock icons announced their 11th studio LP ‘Little Rope’, which is set for release on January 19th, and shared the lead single ‘Hell‘ followed by ‘Say It Like You Mean It’. Now, they’ve kicked off 2024 with ‘Untidy Creature’ – featuring that signature blend big riffs alongside Tucker’s wailing vocals.

“And it feels like we were broken / And I’m holding the pieces so tight / And you can try to tell me I’m nothing / And I don’t have the wings to fly,” Tucker howls during the chorus, describing a relationship in turmoil.

“The song is meant to be like a personal story about feeling trapped and are unable to move forward,” explained Tucker. “It’s about a relationship that sometimes feels like that so, it’s meant to be the very core personal moment where you are feeling that constriction.”

Back in June 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade – a five-decade-old decision that guaranteed a woman’s right to obtain an abortion. Tucker explained how the duo were inspired by the move as it marked “a real blow to women feeling like they’re in control of their own bodies, health and their own safety”.

“One of the things we want to do as songwriters is to try and tell a personal story and use that story to kind of reflect what’s going on in the larger world,” she said. “That bit of heartbreak is reflected in the song and the way that I think women are being viewed as not good enough to make those decisions for ourselves. I was trying to mirror that personal and that larger political story at once in the song.”

‘Untidy Creature’ is the final track on ‘Little Rope’, chosen for its balance of anguish and liberation. “There’s a lot of meaning without words, a lot that’s being evoked and conveyed without the lyrics, and it just felt like, at the end of these 10 tracks that deal with themes of loss and rage and urgency and we just wanted it to break into something that transcended just the every day there,” said Brownstein. Due to the track’s essential and fundamentally Sleater-Kinney sound big riffs and Tucker’s vivacious singing, it almost didn’t make it onto the album.

“The things that were familiar about it made us doubt whether we were pushing the narrative pushing our song writing forward enough, but because the other songs ended up differentiating themselves and being distinct from this, it ended up having a rightful place on the album,” explained Brownstein.

She added: “Sometimes things that come easy we can be doubtful of or skeptical of, at this stage in our careers, because we think, ‘Oh, maybe it was easy because we’ve done this before’. I think despite ‘Untidy Creature’ conjuring some very essential Sleater-Kinney ingredients, it also sounds unlike other songs we’ve done.”

In autumn of 2022, Brownstein received a call from Tucker, who had been contacted by American embassy in Italy – desperately trying to inform her that her mother and stepfather had been killed in a car crash while on holiday in the country. Centred around grief, personal loss and the state of the world, ‘Little Rope’ provided a vessel for the two to mourn and meditate.

Whether it be how America has “acquiesced to a culture of violence for our children” (which loosely influenced the lead single ‘Hell’) or calling for a ceasefire in the Israel/Gaza conflict along with peace and Palestinian liberation during their live show in November, devastating world events continue to impact the politics of the duo’s work.

Sleater-Kinney describe their music as a place of escapism, a creation of their own special space with its own language and key. “It is a job and it is work but it’s our world under our domain,” said Tucker. “It’s a place that we can go to where we feel like we’re in charge and that feels like a relief when we go there.”

The band used the creation of the album during these turbulent times as a means to wrestle with both the light and dark aspects of their lives. They were able to transform their emotions into a collection of 10 tracks that were “catchy and had melodies that you could sing along to,” transporting them into something that is “not necessarily joy, but it has something that glimmers within it.”

Brownstein added: “This is not a sombre record, there is a lot of life in this record. There’s a vibrancy to it. Because the stakes felt very high, we wanted to be careful with each moment. Being able to work on music during personal or more sort of globally trying times, is a way of asking questions.”

She continued: “Music is wonderful in the way that it doesn’t necessarily provide a definitive answer, but lets you sit in that mystery and uncertainty. That’s a really special place to be. It’s ultimately the thing we have to come to terms with, all of that not knowing.

“We just try to embrace all of that liminal space and not take it for granted. I felt very fortunate to have the shape of Sleater-Kinney to posit me in time and place during a moment where I was very confounded and disoriented, very lost.”

‘Little Rope’ is set for release on January 19th via Loma Vista Recordings. 

The indie legends started to tease a collaboration at the end of 2023, and opened the New Year on fiery form. Joint single ‘Just Another Rainbow’ is out now, and it’s causing a ruckus, Officially announced last month after months of teasing – with Gallagher hailing their upcoming record as “the best record since [The Beatles’] ‘Revolver’” – the first taster of the project from the former Oasis frontman and Stone Roses guitarist arrived last week It’s glorious, gargantuan, and so confident it borders on ridiculous. There is also nothing else like it in music right now. The sound of the early 1990s with a contemporary twist. 

 ‘Just Another Rainbow’ isn’t quite fan-service, but the duo are certainly playing to their strengths: Liam’s vocals are full ‘Mind Games’-era Lennon, and Squire’s skills as a guitarist are given room to shine on a song that’s in a more familiar territory for the latter than the former. It’s a pleasure to hear Squire back on record at all, in fact.”

With more music promised from the pair and the ‘Definitely Maybe’ shows in the summer, Liam Gallagher is having his cake and eating it in 2024, balancing new material with sating the nostalgia for the days that made his name. And who are we mere mortals to argue with that? 

Out now, ‘Just Another Rainbow’ has been remixed by Looking Glass Alice. Set to gain its inaugural radio play on Soho Radio via the redoubtable James Endeacott, this take on the song taps into its primitive groove, ushering the indie legends back out on the dancefloor.

Looking Glass Alice is a two-piece project informed by multiple waves of psychedelia, and that is certainly evident here – the beatific glow of ’67 is merged with some distinctly 90s aspects in the production, recalling that post-baggy swathe of trip hop leaning remixes.

On what would have been David Bowie’s 77th birthday, Parlophone have announced a special vinyl LP called “Waiting in the Sky (Before The Starman Came to Earth)”.

This record features the then provisional track-listing for what would become Bowie’s 1972 album “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars”. This early version is taken from the Trident Studio quarter-inch tapes dated 15th December 1971.

There are four songs on “Waiting in the Sky” that didn’t make the final album. On side one, in the place of ‘Starman’ (one of the last three tracks recorded for the album in February 1972, is the Chuck Berry cover ‘Round and Round‘ which was eventually found a home as the B-side to the “Aladdin Sane” single ‘Drive-in Staturday’, on 6 April 1973.

Also, Bowie’s version of Jacques Brel’s ‘Amsterdam’, ended side one (this was sat on for even longer and became the B-side of ‘Sorrow’ on 12th October, 1973. Side two of this RSD release includes both ‘Holy Holy‘ and ‘Velvet Goldmine‘. The former is the re-recording with The Spiders of David’s 1971 single and wasn’t released at the time until ‘Diamond Dogs’ was issued as a single when it became yet another B-side. ‘Velvet Goldmine’ was unreleased for nearly four years, but became the B-side to the 1975 reissue of ‘Space Oddity’.

As well as ‘Starman’, ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide’ and ‘Suffragette City’ had not been recorded and are also missing from this early version of the album. Three great late additions, The Spiders’ from Mars line-up – guitarist Mick Ronson, bassist Trevor Bolder and drummer Mick “Woody” Woodmansey – first came together on Bowie’s “Hunky Dory” a year before in 1971. But the album that would become “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars” would make them stars, as fronted by Bowie in a new, jaw-dropping alter ego that established him as an enduring trailblazer in pop and rock music. “Waiting in the Sky” offers a distinct spin on that era, and a special piece of history for Bowie vinyl collectors.

This vinyl was cut from digital and is a half-speed vinyl pressing. There is no CD version for Record Store Day .“Waiting in the Sky (Before The Starman Came to Earth)” will be released on 20th April 2024 (this year’s Record Store Day) via Parlophone

 “We have Nuggets. We have Pebbles.” alongside Back From The Grave, Teenage Shutdown, Last Of The Garage Punk Unknowns, and many, many more. The fact is that the great garage comp has long been a staple, a door through which many a young and impressionable mind has passed into the world of fuzz, one that pulls together some of our favourites while twisting our ear to catch a song we’d never before heard. Ah, yes, we can’t all hold the master key to the gritty garage gates.

This is raw, exciting music with tons of attitude – fuzz guitars, swirling organs, wailing harmonicas, thumping drums and tough vocals are plentiful.

In the mid 1960s, teenage rock ‘n’ roll groups proliferated throughout the USA, often inspired by ‘British Invasion’ bands such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Yardbirds as well as US styles including surf, blues and folk rock. Most towns and cities had local scenes revolving around dance parties, clubs and ‘battle of the bands’ contests and many of the bands here were regional royalty but never broke nationally.

Key bands featured include The Seeds, The Sonics, The Standells, The Shadows Of Knight, The Thirteenth Floor Elevators, Love, The Electric Prunes, Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band, We The People and ? & The Mysterians.

“Pushin’ Too Hard” does exactly that and is a great collection for it. Any label worth their salt putting together this set, one that, like Nuggets before it, captures those that broke through with those that bubbled under, would never leave off the pillars of the original scene. Of course, we get The Seeds. How could we not with the set named after one of their classics? They show up twice on the first CD, first with the unedited version of “Pushin’ Too Hard”, a version dug up and released on 7″ in 2012 on Ace Records, and then later with the first take of “Out Of The Question”, from their 1967 “Future” album. Hearing it again, rougher around the edges, it’s clear where The Cynics were picking up the mantle from when the 80s revival rolled around. It’s these types of nuggets that instantly make the collection worth a trip.

The crossover with Lenny Kaye’s seminal compilation, especially the 1998 extended set, is inevitable, so we get songs like “Wooly Bully” (Sam Sham & The Pharaohs), “Liar Liar” (The Castaways), “Too Many People” (The Leaves), “I Ain’t No Miracle Worker” (The Brogues) “One Track Mind” (The Knickerbockers), “Mr Pharmacist” (The Other Half), “Diddy Wah Diddy” (Captain Beefheart), and The Rational’s version of “I Need You“. Many of these tunes were, after all, Billboard Top 100 hits on their original release as the sound of suburban teenage boredom spread from the garages to the streets. And quite frankly, I could listen to 96 tracks over three CDs of The Choir’s “It’s Cold Outside” every day of the week. They rub shoulders with other such classics like Love’s “My Little Red Book”, their version rightfully included over any of their amazing originals as a true artyfact of the scene. Not only was it the song that played a massive part in getting the band signed to Elektra, but also one of the songs that spawned the proto-punk style.

Sprinkled in amongst them are other gems by some of the most well-known bands of the scene, great additions for the casual listener and also for those who want some of their favourites in one place. We get an extended version of The Standell’s “Rari” and “Barracuda“, The Sonics’ You Got Your Head On Backwards“, and ? & The Mysterians’ Girl (“You Captivate Me”). And of course, no such set would be complete without a dose of the Elevators. The inclusion of the single version of “Tried To Hide“, originally released as a b-side on their “You’re Gonna Miss Me” single, shows again how well curated this set is, as we also get the a-side in its original early Spades’ version. It’s the inclusion of rarities like this, and others such as the Autumn version of The Mojo Men’s “She’s My Baby“, that sets this compilation apart from those that have gone before. No longer must we rely on a ripped-to-YouTube version.

Aside from the classics, there is gem after gem to discover here, tracks that will lead you down a rabbit hole of discovery. Stand-out ones for me are The Fire Escape’s version of “Love Special Delivery”, originally recorded by Chicano Rock band Thee Midniters, and the fantastic garage-soul of The Sparkles’ “Hipsville 2.9 BC”, written by Don Turnbow during his time at Acuff-Rose Music. Roy Junior’s version of his “Victim Of Circumstance” also makes a great addition. There are also a host of tracks that, here, get their first official UK release, such as The Bedlam Four’s stomping 1967 single, “No One Left To Love”, and The Blue Beat’s 1966 single, “Extra Girl”, a track that shimmies on a more jangle garage groove, that link between the British Invasion, early psychedelia, and a soulful pop coming through.

The chronological order of the songs also gives a great insight into how the garage sound progressed from its inception as the British Invasion took hold. Opening song Justine by The Rangers shows that what started as a ramped up and wild traditional rock ‘n’ roll, the kind of proto-punk sound birthed by bands like The Trashmen, swiftly splintered into a multi-layered genre. As it rolls on we get more Freakbeat sound on tracks like The Free-For-All’s “Show Me The Way”, while songs like The Hustlers’ “If You Try” show that the kids were also looking out from their garages to the Laurel Canyon sound of The Byrds and incorporating it in with their fuzzed up sound.

Over the 94 tracks, “Pushin’ Too Hard” is encyclopaedic in its presentation. Of course, there are classics and ones that any garage fan will know, but there is more than enough to make the compilation 100% essential for any fan.

The psych influence sidles up clearly with bands like The Seeds, The Elevators, The Electric Prunes, and The Unusuals, while bands like Chris Morgan & The Togas were still harking back to a more 50s-inspired vibe, marrying the past and then present wonderfully.

“Released in the fall of 1985, The Replacements’ major label debut “Tim” peaked at No. 192 on the Billboard charts, selling just 75,000 copies. Over time, however, the record would find a mass audience among successive generations thanks to the enduring appeal of anthems like “Bastards Of Young” and “Left Of The Dial” and ballads like “Swingin Party” and “Here Comes A Regular”.

Even with “Tim’s” evolving status as an all-time classic, The Replacements remained unsatisfied with the sound of the record, largely centered on the mix done by the album’s producer, Rock And Roll Hall of Famer Tommy Erdelyi, aka Tommy Ramone.

Now, after four decades, the LP has finally been given a long overdue sonic overhaul as part of “Tim: Let It Bleed Edition”, arriving September 22nd.

The Replacements’ “Let It Be” is the best record ever made—or, that’s what I declared on my Twitter feed The prompt was to pick one safe and one unsafe choice for the all-time greatest album, and I’ll let you be the judge of which pick of mine fits where. It’s not lost on me, though, that both records were made in Minnesota—or, in broader terms, the Midwest, region of America. The Replacements largely existed in that zone, especially by way of their song “I Will Dare,” which was a fixture on local stations .

Paul Westerberg, Tommy Stinson, Chris Mars and Bob Stinson—lovingly called The ‘Mats, a truncation for The Placemats—were four kids who grew up a half-a-day’s drive away from my residence in Ohio. They also happened to make some of the most crucial music of the last century, despite their best, continuous efforts to squash that destiny long before it could fully unfurl.

A clip of Westerberg and the boys performing an out-of-tune rendition of “Bastards of Young,” blissfully unbothered (in actuality, I admittedly never caught a glimpse of it) by the frontman yelling “Come on, fucker” at Bob Stinson just inches away from his microphone. What I really saw were four unkempt, unbothered dudes playing their instruments who sang and laughed and proudly showed off shit-eating grins like we’d all done so often.

I’d find The Replacements again some years later, when I was knee-deep in my first watch of One Tree Hill. In a Season Three episode, Sheryl Lee (Laura Palmer, for the unhip folks) delivers a monologue about the greatest moment of her character’s life happening when she and her friends attended an outdoor festival in Winston Salem, North Carolina and watched Paul Westerberg play “Here Comes a Regular” after a torrential downpour caused an hours-long power loss. “In typical fashion,” Lee says. “He finished the song, smiled and then threw up and fell off the stage.” It was a fictional account about the miraculous wonder of a very real and very perfect song. The details were embellished, but the magic was all the same—“Here Comes a Regular” is, maybe, the greatest ballad ever written or, at the very least, a song that transcends generations.

“Here Comes a Regular” is the subdued, emotional closer on “Tim”, the fourth Replacements album and their first for Sire Records. Prior to that point, the band had been attached to Twin/Tone Records, a label founded by Peter Jesperson, the manager of the Minneapolis record store Oar Folkjokeopus and the guy who discovered the Replacements (and later managed them). But “Tim”, which came out in September 1985, was a sonic turning point for the band, who’d taken the raw, oral intensity and early indie leanings of “Let It Be” and transposed them into these mature, understated articulations on growing up under the microscope of newfound fame—and it arrived such a far distance away from the bold, biting volume of “Hootenanny” and “Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash”.

It’s “Tim” that remains a favourite Replacements project. From the gauzy gallows imagery of “Swingin Party” to the honky-tonk-coloured “Waitress In the Sky” to the jangly “Kiss Me On the Bus,” it’s an untouchable assemblage of tracks. Westerberg had found a lot of influence in everyone from Roy Orbison to Nick Lowe to Big Star, particularly in how each of them constructed pop melodies—and, in turn, “Tim” is a real halcyon affair brimming with golden, catchy rock cuts. Lines like “unwillingness to claim us, you got no war to name us” and “if being alone’s a crime, I’m serving forever” and “everybody wants to be someone here” .

Part of the story—and, perhaps, the downfall—of the Replacements is that they were drunken Midwesterners who kamikazed their own potential. There’s a mythology there, this idea that, because they were chaotic and self-implosive back then, they’ve retained that same youthful and raucous energy far into adulthood. The truth of it is that Westerberg found his way into recovery in the 1990s, Tommy has maintained a busy career in bands like Guns N’ Roses, Soul Asylum and Perfect and Mars has dedicated his post-Replacements years to his artwork. Bob passed away in 1995 from organ failure that came about after years of drug use.

Four years ago, Rhino Records put out “Dead Man’s Pop”, a remix of the band’s ill-fated 1989 album “Don’t Tell a Soul”. In 2023, the label are returning to the well with “Tim: Let It Bleed Edition”, a large box-set that—at its core—reshapes and restores Tim to its original intended form, along with demos, live cuts and alternate mixes. But the release of “Tim: Let It Bleed Edition” is a paradox in many ways: The Replacements, for a long, long time, have held the opinion that “Tim” and “Don’t Tell a Soul” have always sounded terrible but, if it was fully up to them, we’d never be hearing any of these outtakes or rarities.

“Tim: Let It Bleed Edition” features a special disc of nearly 20 songs performed live at the Cabaret Metro in Chicago on January 11th, 1986. It was a week before they’d travel east and play a last-minute gig at Saturday Night Live, filling in for the Pointer Sisters, who had to cancel mere days before the live show. It’s one of the better live recordings of the band you’ll hear, as they tumble through “Tim” songs in a truly anarchic showboat of messy intensity. The Replacements often played drunk and would play bits and pieces of un-rehearsed songs and covers instead of the material they were supposed to be spotlighting. To think that that same band would go on to play one of the most prestigious late-night shows ever, it felt like a victory for DIY, homegrown bands who didn’t have industry connections or big label deals—but, perhaps, that was just as much a detriment as it was a promise of hope.

Though that Metro gig is an outlier for its streamlined song selection and the band’s harnessed, unfiltered energy, the spirit that oozes out of the set greatly foreshadowed what was to come on Saturday Night Live a week after its recording—when they played “Bastards of Young” and “Kiss Me on the Bus” bonkers sloshed, after drinking and taking drugs with guest host Harry Dean Stanton in their dressing room in-between the dress rehearsal and live show. Between the band wearing mismatched combinations of each other’s clothes and Bob tripping and falling on his guitar and breaking it, I suppose it’s no shock that The Replacements were banned from SNL and banned for 30 years (Westerberg would return and do a solo performance in the 1990s.

The “Tim: Let It Bleed Edition” deluxe box set is built around a stunning new mix of “Tim” by legendary producer/engineer Ed Stasium (Ramones, Talking Heads) and features a collection of previously unheard tracks (Sons of No One: Rare & Unreleased) and a classic concert from 1986 (Not Ready For Prime Time).”

Guitar: Bob Stinson Drums: Chris Mars Guitar, Vocals: Paul Westerberg Bass: Tommy Stinson