The Fat Angel Sings

The dreamy songs of the Midwest (United States) indie rock outfit draw on moody shoegaze, hooky grunge, and intimate lo-fi fare. On “Yard”, Wisconsin-bred, Chicago-based four-piece Slow Pulp nestles comfortably into pockets of nuance, impressions, contradictions–sonics and lyrics finessed together to bottle the specific tension of a feeling you’ve never quite been able to find the right words for.

In that regard, listening to Slow Pulp can feel like being in a room with someone who’s known you so long that they can read your every micro-expression and pinpoint exactly how you’re feeling before you can. Perhaps this spawns from the band’s own shared history and chemistry; in various ways, the four of them grew up–are still growing up–together.

The band made their full-length debut with “Moveys” in 2020. After the downcast 2021 7″ “Deleted Scenes”, they put the focus on hooky grunge pop for singles like 2021’s “In Too Deep” and 2023’s “Cramps”. After their label debut single the band toured throughout Europe and the UK earlier this year as main support for Death Cab For Cutie. The new album “Yard” is their second full-length album and first for ANTI-Records.

Teddy Mathews – Drums, auxiliary percussion, bass, guitar Alex Leeds – Bass, guitar, vocals Emily Massey – Vocals, guitar, bass Henry Stoehr – Guitar, piano, keyboards, bass, auxiliary percussion

Released: 29/09/2023

Wisely armed with bliss to fight our age of calamity, Los Angeles psych-kraut explorers Hooveriii return with their pastoral and expansive 4th album “Pointe.”

Inspired by everything from the ‘60s psychedelic act Pisces to Phil Lynott’s solo releases and pioneering electronic acts like Tangerine Dream, the band have set out to craft a collection of songs that are more about creating a specific type of feeling than fitting into a specific genre.

More than anything else “Pointe” feels like a full circle moment for Hooveriii, which has evolved from a bedroom solo project into an expansive band that features an army of talented musicians and contributors.

The band has shared the LP’s first single and a video for “The Tall Grass.” “Every record is kind of a response to the last record and I like listening to people’s discographies like that,” Hoover explains. “When we finished “A Round Of Applause” we were in rock mode playing with a lot of rock and psych bands and I was really thinking about what do you do with a fourth record?” The answer turns out to be something more esoteric and less predictable than a guitar-driven album while retaining the core of the band’s sound, which has made the Los Angeles-based act such an exciting act to watch evolve. From the spacey groove of the opener “Prom” to the expansive, synth-friendly ballad “This Rock” and the epic future-folk experimentation of the album’s closer “Dreaming” (which features vocals by Anna Wallace), “Pointe” is an album that references the past while stretching toward an unknown future.

LA psych-kraut explorers Hooveriii have just announced their pastoral and expansive 4th album “Pointe” via the esteemed Reverberation Appreciation Society. One quick look and one quick listen and you’ll see right away why we we’re so hyped to commission an exclusive Dinked Edition.

LIMITED DINKED EDITION
Black and Blue Smash Vinyl / Bonus Track 7″ Flexi Disc / 12” x 24” Double Sided Colour Insert / Hand-Numbered / Obi Strip / Limited pressing of 300

Released: 13/10/2023

After a short detour back into their country influenced roots via last year’s “Cruel Country” double album, “Cousin” sees Wilco back in their more familiar progressive and experimental rock territory. Tweedy’s singular songwriting voice is in full evidence, with lyrics weaving across a variety of topics from the iconoclastic to the introspective. Adding a unique and new element to the recording process was the attachment of Welsh singer/songwriter Cate Le Bon to the project as producer the first time an outsider has been actively involved in a Wilco recording session for over ten years. 

Wilco’s thirteenth studio album, “Cousin”, was recorded in the band’s legendary Chicago studio The Loft over a period of two years. The ten new tracks are written by band leader Jeff Tweedy, and feature musical performances by the long time lineup of Nels Cline, Mikael Jorgensen, Glenn Kotche John Stirratt, Pat Sansone and, of course, Tweedy on lead vocals.

Released: 29/09/2023

“Miles Kane returns to his guitar hero best on “One Man Band” as he focuses on big hooks and even bigger anthems. Sharp, infectious, urgent and packed to the brim with singalong moments, it’s Miles on the top of his game. A deeply personal record, Miles returned to Liverpool to work on the album, finding himself reflecting on his journey. “Making the album back in Liverpool with my family really helped to bring this out of me,” Miles said of the writing process. “We left no stone unturned. Sometimes you have to go backwards to go forwards, and this album helped me rediscover why I picked up a guitar in the first place. This album is like a brand new, yet somehow familiar leather jacket. A comforting melting pot of all the music that has inspired and continues to inspire me every day.”

This album means so much to me, and even more to me to be able to share it with you all.

This is me, going back to my roots and the reason I started making music in the first place. I recorded this in my hometown of Liverpool with me cousin James Skelley. Family, home and roots – this is the heart of this record. It drops on August 4th, but if ye jump on the pre-order now there might be some nice surprises for you all before then.

To celebrate the release, I will be coming to Stoke, Sheffield, Norwich, London and Liverpool to play for you guys.

The Jesus & Mary Chain are releasing double live album “Sunset 66” on August 4th via Fuzz Club. It was at the band’s 2018 show at L.A.’s Hollywood Paladium as part of their tour with Nine Inch Nails. Say the Reid brothers, “Side D of the ‘Sunset 666’ vinyl is taken from the December 11th 2018 show at The Hollywood Palladium with Nine Inch Nails and includes a few of our favourite songs from ‘Automatic’ to play live. This version of ‘Half Way To Crazy’ really gets the energy of that night.”

In 1990, a young American band, full of a precise kind of noise and darkness, were special guests on the US tour being undertaken by a group who had noise and darkness, poise and catharsis of their own. The young band: Nine Inch Nails. Those headliners: The Jesus and Mary Chain. Almost thirty years later, an invitation was extended. Would the Reid brothers care to reverse the roles and open for Nine Inch Nails on their own North American tour? Trent Reznor had been a fan of the Mary Chain, and influenced by them since hearing ‘Psychocandy’, so it felt a good fit and the Reid brothers accepted.

The resulting tour ended with a run of six shows at LA’s Hollywood Palladium and the seventeen tracks captured on the ‘Sunset 666’ double album were recorded from the desk on two of those nights.

Sides A, B and C are from the final show, December 15th. Those twelve songs were the full set that night, in sequence, meaning the show began with the here-we-f*cking-go drums of ‘Just Like Honey’ and ended with the ferocious euphoria of an eight-and-a-half minute ‘Reverence’. Side D of the vinyl record is taken from the December 11th show and serves almost as a mini-showcase of the ‘Automatic’ album, featuring versions of ‘Blues From A Gun’, ‘Between Planets’ and ‘Halfway To Crazy’.

Track-list: 1 Just Like Honey, 2 Sometimes Always (feat. Isobel Campbell), 3. Black and Blues (feat. Isobel Campbell), 4 Amputation, 5 All Things Pass, 6 Some Candy Talking, 7 Head On, 8 The Living End, 9 Cracking Up, 10 Teenage Lust, 11 I Hate Rock ‘N’ Roll, 12 Reverence, 13 Blues from a Gun, 14 Far Gone and Out, 15 Between Planets, 16 Halfway To Crazy, 17 In A Hole

Recorded live at the Hollywood Palladium, LA in 2018, ‘Sunset 666’ is a discography-spanning, 17-track set with tracks from ‘Psychocandy’, ‘Darklands’, ‘Automatic’, ‘Honey’s Dead’, ‘Stoned and Dethroned’, ‘Munki’ and ‘Damage and Joy’

Randall Meisner (March 8th, 1946 – July 26th, 2023) an American musician, singer, songwriter, and founding member of the Eagles. Throughout his professional musical career, Meisner’s main role was that of bassist and backing high-harmony vocalist as a group member and session musician. He co-wrote and sang lead vocal on the Eagles hit song “Take It to the Limit.”

In September 1971, Meisner (with Don Henley, Glenn Frey, and Bernie Leadon) formed the Eagles. The band signed with David Geffen’s then new label, Asylum Records, and released their eponymous debut album in 1972. While he usually played the bass and sang backing vocals for the Eagles, he wrote, co-wrote, and/or sang lead on songs on each of the group’s first five albums, most notably “Take It to the Limit”, the band’s first million-selling single, and the third song released from “One of These Nights”. Other songs he wrote and sang lead on include “Try and Love Again,” “Is it True?,” “Take the Devil,” and “Tryin’.” He wrote “Certain Kind of Fool” with Frey and Henley and sang lead.

Not so surprisingly, that Randy Meisner Songs are dominated by music from his 1971-77 tenure with the Eagles. But Meisner also collaborated with Poco before he joined the Eagles, With various former members of his old bands in a second career that began with great promise in the late ’70s.

Meisner first crossed paths with his future replacement in the Eagles when both he and Timothy B. Schmit auditioned for Poco in the late ’60s. Meisner got the gig, and later played on the band’s debut album, “Pickin’ Up the Pieces”. But Meisner quit the group before the record was released in May 1969, only to find his vocals had been replaced by George Grantham. He wouldn’t get back together with Jim Messina and Richie Furay – both former members of Buffalo Springfield – until Poco reunited for 1989’s “Legacy”.

By then, he’d also worked with James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt, then co-founded the Eagles with Don Henley and Glenn Frey. Over a six-album tenure, Meisner notably took the lead on “Take It to the Limit” – the Eagles’ first million-selling single – before he tired of fame’s white-hot spotlight and departed.

Meisner released a trio of solo albums through 1982, including two self-titled releases, 1980’s “One More Song”. Meisner then returned to sideman work, occasionally touring until health issues forced him off the road in the late ’00s. 

This was a make-good moment for Meisner, whose vocals were unceremoniously erased from Poco’s 1969 debut album after an acrimonious split. Twenty years later, he was singing with that same reunited line-up, and they hit the Top 40 with this song, co-written by Richard Marx for what would become Poco’s second gold-selling album.

This was Meisner’s final co-writing credit (and his final lead vocal) with the group he co-founded. “Try and Love Again” is also reportedly the only “Hotel California” cut that’s never been performed live by the Eagles, a sign of things to come. Meisner was always uncomfortable with fame,

Meisner co-wrote the twilit “Saturday Night” along with Don Henley (who sings lead here), and memorably steps forward for his own turn at the mic during the song’s lonesome bridge (“She said tell me; oh, tell me …”). Glenn Frey and Bernie Leadon, who add some lush backing vocals, were are also credited as co-writers. Any hopes Meisner had of staying safely in the shadows ended with “Take It To the Limit” the Eagles‘ highest-charting position at the time, putting additional pressure on him to hit the song’s emotional high note onstage night after night.

Panic apparently began to creep in, and Meisner reportedly asked that the song – despite its massive popularity – be removed from the band’s sets. When the rest of the Eagles refused, Meisner quit. The vocal was later taken over by Glenn Frey.

Pedrum Siadatian’s third album as Paint trades the stinging sweetness of garage pop for more open-ended instrumentals, nodding at krautrock, lounge music, dub and ambient electronics as it goes. The Allah-Las guitarist spent the pandemic hunkered over a Boss DR-5 rhythm composer, letting programmed tracks stand in for absent fellow musicians. He began thinking less in terms of songs, with their verse chorus constraints, and more about grooves, less about narrative and more about dream-shifting soundscapes. The result? A loose collection of moody bops that move but mostly do not speak. “Loss for Words” sounds like prime aughts electro-psychedelia: Black Moth Super Rainbow, Caribou, Ariel Pink and Animal Collective.

From the beginning Paint has been less sweatily engaged in real-world, rock-band aesthetics than the Allah-Las. “Spiritual Vegas”, from 2020, draped a surreal glaze and shimmer over its drawling boogies and vamps. But “Loss for Words” goes much further, dissolving radio pop like a tablet of Alka-Seltzer in water, leaving nothing but bubbles. “Rokc Muzik”’s warped spelling intimates how far Paint has slipped from scrappy bash and pop, a hard, unsyncopated machine drum rattling through woozy lava-lamp pulses of synthesizer. “Desolation Dub” flirts with Kingston’s cavernous echo and bass-y thunder, but layers in disorienting intoxication, shouts and murmurs, fever dreams.

Despite the title, this album isn’t exactly non-verbal. Word fragments echo through “Laffy Taffy” and “Lily Dust.” But you can’t catch onto them. You can’t use them to decipher whatever it is that’s happening here. This is an album that you feel rather than understand. It drifts by in pretty colors, trailing threads of sax and flute, plinking xylophones, swirling masses of synthesizer, and you’re in the middle having a moment, enjoying the view, quite possibly at a loss for words.

self-recorded at home(s) between 2020 and 2022

released July 28th, 2023

Watch: The House of Love dazzles in live film shot at French concert earlier this year.

“For fans who’ve not yet seen Guy Chadwick’s new line-up of The House of Love which performed on the band’s first U.S. tour in 30 years last fall — the group is the focus of a short live film by Sébastien Faits-Divers that documents part of The House of Love’s concert in Dijon, France, this past March.

The House of Love — Chadwick, plus Keith Osborne on lead guitar, Harry Osborne on bass and Hugo Degenhardt on drums — performs six songs in the film, including favorites “The Girl With the Loneliest Eyes,” “I Don’t Know Why I Love You” and “Shine On,” plus “A State of Grace,” the title track to the band’s 2022 studio album.”

Setlist: 0:00 The girl with the loneliest eyes 4:13 Shine on 8:03 Crush me 11:40 A state of grace 16:20 : Don’t fade away 19:36 : I don’t know why i love you

Recorded live at ‘La Vapeur’, Dijon, France, on the 26th march, 2023. A live film by Sébastien Faits-Divers.

To mark the release of ‘Dancing, Alone’, Ten Tonnes shares the ideas and writing processes behind each track on his new album. Ten Tonnes – aka Ethan Barnett – has undergone some significant life changes since the release of his self-titled debut album in 2019. With personal upheaval came a sonic shift, and Ethan focused his energy on pushing the boundaries of his previous work. Here he’s shared his highly-anticipated sophomore album ‘Dancing, Alone’ – a more considered, varied, and mature LP that marks a new chapter for his career.

To celebrate its release, he talks us through each of the record’s 12 tracks, sharing the inspirations, emotions, and instrumental approaches that went into every song.

Monday Morning

So here we go! The opening track and the first single I released from the album. The 80s influence is clear on this one. It was fully inspired by my love for power pop and new wave indie from that era. I thought it was a sweet concept for a song and would be the perfect album opener that didn’t feel too distant from the sound of my first record.

Heart To Break

I originally wrote all the music for this song first and then wrote the lyrics and melody afterwards. I’ve not done that before, but it was one of many ways I tried to approach the songwriting differently on this album. I love the guitar lines in this one and I think lyrically it has some great little turns.

Dancing, Alone

The title track, and I think my favourite on the whole thing. It’s a song primarily about isolation and being an outsider, and it contains lots of the overarching themes of the album. It was so exciting writing this song because it felt like a massive piece of the puzzle, and also felt like something people wouldn’t have heard from me before. I also have a big guitar solo which is always fun (it took about 30 takes)!

When It Goes

I recorded this album in batches of 4 songs at a time and this was in the last batch. I really loved recording the album that way, as it made clear what was missing sonically and musically as we went along. I knew I wanted to write a song that felt more bass/groove driven and laidback, and I really focused on counterpointing that with the vocal melodies.

Lone Star

I loved building the layers of guitars around the vocals on this one. Production wise, I was inspired by Joe Meek’s productions of the 50s and 60s, especially on the lead electric guitar line.

Out Of Here

I had made a little drum loop and added some sampled bongos to it, and then just kept playing the lead arpeggiated guitar line over it. It became a bit hypnotic and I liked the idea of a simple vocal refrain that continued throughout the song in that same way. I was trying to conjure some feeling of a vast, faceless city and the vibe of my favourite late 70s/early 80s records.

Drowning In The Deep End

Midway through making this record I started learning to play slide guitar and at one point I think every song had it on. I’m glad that’s not still the case. This is a song about hitting your lowest point, but reframed as an acceptance of that and an effort to reclaim your own life. It’s also one of the funnest songs to play live – it properly goes!

The Joke Got Old

I had this title in my phone notes for ages and when I was in the early stages of exploring ideas it jumped out. It was exactly the tone I wanted for the record; slightly tongue in cheek and also a bit devastating.

Weight Of The World

Big shout out to Jag Jago who mixed the album, I love the snare sound on this one and how it builds to the end. Again, hopefully a different sound to what people might expect.

Come On Home

The middle eight of this song is one of my favourite moments on the whole album. It feels like a real gear shift from the rest of the song; I loved working out the interplay between the instruments and their parts in that section too.

Give It Up

The penultimate track and one last big banger before the end. This is one of my favourites and I hope people connect with it. It has some of my favourite lyrics too, and it all feels like just the right amount of heartbreaking.

Waiting For The Sun

And here we are at the end, the big finish. This one kind of all just fell out in one piece and I made the demo right then and there. I love the scope of the song and the extended instrumental section into the last verse and chorus. It’s a slower and softer song than the rest of the album and I think it really builds in a lovely way – I always knew I wanted it to be the closer of the record.

Since releasing his self-titled debut album via Warner Bros, Ten Tonnes – aka Ethan Barnett – has undergone a multitude of changes both in his life and in his music The four years between the debut record and its follow- up, served as a recalibration for the songwriter. He went independent, moved out of London, started therapy, focused on the introverted part of his brain, and has returned with a mature and majestic second album about refection, growing up and carving a different path for himself. The indie juggernaut’s clear progression is showcased throughout his irresistible new offering; mixed by esteemed engineer Jag Jago

‘Dancing, Alone’ will be out on 28th July via Absolute.