The Fat Angel Sings

It’s only been a year since Metric released their latest album, “Formentera”, but they’re already preparing to drop something new, as they’ve shared a teaser of a funky new track. The band shared a clip on social media, featuring 18 seconds of a song full of throbbing beats, choppy funk guitar and synths that resemble disco strings. There’s an accompanying performance video of the band. At the end, the release date flashes on the screen.

Fittingly titled “Formentera II”, the album is out on October 13th via Metric Music International / Thirty Tigers.

The album was recorded primarily at the band’s Main Street Studios outside Toronto between 2020 and 2022, and was completed at Motorbass Studios in Paris in 2023. It was co-engineered and co-produced by Jimmy Shaw, Liam O’Neil and Gus van Go.

The new single “Just the Once,” which features strings composed and arranged by Drew Jureka (Dua Lipa). The track was mixed by Stuart White (Beyoncé).

Vocalist Emily Haines said of the track in a statement:

The only way I can describe “Just the Once” is to call it “regret disco.” It’s a song for when you need to dance yourself clean. Beneath the sparkling surface, there’s a lyrical exploration of a simple word with many meanings. Once is a word that plays a game of opposites. Once can mean once-upon-a-time and refer to a moment in the past, or it can mean someday, once something happens. And as for doing something only once versus doing something once in a while, well, I think we all know how vast the difference is between the two.

Julie Byrne has a poetic way of describing the world around her. Thoughts, feelings, sunrises—she treats them all with an almost delicate lyrical touch that can land with the force of thunder: “Love affirms the pain of life,” she sings on “Portrait of a Clear Day.” Paired with song arrangements that often start with intricate, fingerpicked acoustic guitar (surely the source of all those “astral” projections), Byrne’s songs on “The Greater Wings” are never short of being beautiful, and sometimes even sublime. Though Byrne’s songs tend toward understated, she frequently imbues them with a subtle urgency. Though “Portrait of a Clear Day” hasn’t come out as a single, it is in many ways the standout track on “The Greater Wings”.

Her breakthrough was met with much critical acclaim in indie spheres, and she went on to tour the record for two years.

A track like “Follow My Voice” is particularly magnetizing, especially in how she exudes these airy, haunting vocals atop a beautiful guitar strum that is so organic you can hear the strings creak as she moves her fingers across the frets. “I’ve got a complicated soul,” she lamented. I always thought, maybe in my own naive understanding of composition and my own inability to play an instrument myself, that Byrne was classically trained on the guitar. She’s not, she tells me. “I’m self-taught and have many mischievous habits to prove it,” she laughs. Byrne’s dedication to her instrument has always been at the forefront of her work. Her father grew up playing the guitar, too, and it was an important fixture in his family life growing up. In the years since he passed that affection down to Byrne, she has fallen in love with the inexhaustible potential that her own guitar holds for her. “The guitar is really in my blood,” she notes. “It’s a living, breathing instrument and there’s nothing that will eclipse it for me.

Not only does it linger like the heat of a sweltering summer day, it’s the one where Byrne strikes the most compelling balance between the pain of loss (in this case, her creative partner Eric Littmann, who was 31 when he died suddenly in 2021) and letting go of it. “I get so nostalgic for you sometimes,” she sings at the very end. The considerable power of “The Greater Wings” lies in how Byrne makes that specific feeling universal, and how resonant it becomes in the artfully woven tapestry of her music. 

Julie Byrne: “The Greater Wings“

Papercuts is the music of San Francisco based songwriter Jason Quever. Papercuts blends elements of shoegaze, folk, and 60’s pop. After A brief hiatus to focus on production work that has included Beach House, Dean Wareham, and Cass Mccombs, 

released July 7th, 2023

After spending nearly two decades establishing herself across New York and Los Angeles independent music circles, Frankie Rose returns after six years with a fresh form, aesthetic, and ethos embodied in her new full-length album “Love As Projection.” Celebrated by countless critical and cultural outlets over the years for her expansive approach to songwriting, lush atmospherics, and transcendent vocal melodies and harmonies, “Love As Projection” is a reintroduction of her established style through the new lens of contemporary electronic pop.

It’s been a long time coming (almost six years!), but we’re thrilled to announce that Frankie Rose‘s new album “Love As Projection” is out now and it’s a beauty. This is sublimely perfect pop from one of the masters, full of indelible tunes and lush production. It’s a real pleasure to team up with Glasgow’s Night School Records to bring you this essential record.

Painstakingly written, recorded, and engineered through some of the most tumultuous times in history, this new collection of songs harnesses the power and propulsion of Frankie’s early DIY-centric punk days without losing sight of the immersive, dreamlike world-building she’s been known for in recent years. Her love of new wave hooks and post-punk drive remain omnipresent, elevated by her utilization of modern production and an improved, polished palate of state-of-the-art instrumentation.

It’s more than a rebirth, a refinement, a resurgence – it’s a culmination of influence, a newly-defined scope using the tools at her disposal, a long-form project that was heavily considered for half of a decade – resulting in the most personal and accessible collection of art-pop that Frankie has delivered yet, propelling her signature melodies and dense, ethereal harmonies into the future.

released March 10th, 2023 on Night School and Slumberland Records.

Over the course of two well-received albums and various singles and compilation appearances, Jeanines have captured the ears of discerning listeners with a sound that recalls a diverse swathe of pop history, from 60s folk-pop and girl-group tunes to 80s DIY pop to solid gold 90s touchstones like The Aislers Set, The Cat’s Miaow and the post-Black Tambourine bands of Pam Berry.

Now they’re back with their second single since 2022’s “Don’t Wait For A Sign” and the hits just keep on coming. “Each Day” is moody jangler that delivers melodic and emotional heft that belies its brief 1:43 length. Destined for 1,000 indiepop mixtapes, it’s exactly the kind of song that the 7″ was invented for. “What The Echoes Say” is a strummy delight, showcasing Alicia Jeanine’s lovely vocal harmonies to maximum effect. Lovely. “Tilt In Your Eye” wraps up this ace single — it was Jeanines’ contribution to “Where It’s At Is Where You Are’s” ace 2019 compilation “The Moon And Back” and appears here on vinyl for the first time.

released July 7th, 2023

Five albums deep into their career, it was already fairly clear what Protomartyr’s MO was—if not made evident through the relatively minimal stylistic changes between each post-punk opus, then through frontman Joe Casey nearly speaking them over the din created by his band on each song. Yet with their sixth LP, “Formal Growth in the Desert”, the world has changed so drastically since the release of 2020’s “Ultimate Success Today“ that a shift in the band’s outlook seemed mandatory. 

“Formal Growth” sees Casey wandering existential terrain for both himself and his band as he struggles to make sense of the past three years. “During quarantine and after, without shows to play or any real reason to get up in the morning, I felt I had reverted to my pre-Protomartyr days—uselessness and self-loathing,” he notes in the track-by-track breakdown of the album’s themes he’s shared with us, highlighting what he later claims is one of the album’s most burning questions: “Can you hate yourself and still deserve love?”

Fortunately for the band this line of heavy self-reflection has long soundtracked some of their strongest instrumentals, “Formal Growth” being no exception. While Casey finds himself lost in deserts both literal (the LP was recorded at Sonic Ranch in West Texas) and figurative (“I had taken a trip to the desert and felt meaningless next to the ancient rock, but consoled myself with the fact that dogs still liked me,” he quips), the band sounds fully locked in in a way that reflects the 15 years they’ve spent together as a unit crafting the ominously spacious soundscapes that largely define their latest record. 

With “Formal Growth in the Desert”  Casey talked us through each track, explaining their origins with the dry and occasionally self-deprecating humor we’ve come to associate with the band. “We had been waylaid by COVID for so long, I was hoping it would be triumphant, but I’ll settle for whatever defeatist litany this ended up as,” he concedes. 

1. “Make Way”
This always seemed to be the opening track, even when we had just a handful of songs. At least, it always sounded like an opening track. I wanted to address the last couple of years in an oblique way, the mass forgetting we all seem to be in agreement on. We often use the first song as a table setter: “Here’s what to expect on this one.” This one feels more like a “previously on Protomartyr” recap.

2. “For Tomorrow”
I like the speed of this one. The trap for a lot of bands as they get older and fatter is to slow down. While I’ve fallen into this trap knowingly in my daily life, it’s good to hear the rhythm section up the tempo. Lyrically, this song touches ever so softly on what I think the “theme” of the record is. During quarantine and after, without shows to play or any real reason to get up in the morning, I felt I had reverted to my pre-Protomartyr days—uselessness and self-loathing. The song’s about seeing that in yourself and others, maybe trying to hide that from the world and loved ones. The “Special Way” is a liquor store near my old house. We call them “party stores” in Detroit. Life is a party, you know. 

3. “Elimination Dances”
The second single and possibly a toe-tapper? A toe-dragger, at least. We honed this one on a couple of mini tours we did at the end of 2021 and last year. For me, it’s all about the bassline. I’m realizing, having to write what these songs “mean,” that my overarching lyrical obsession is my opposition to time. The very first song on our very first album had a line, “time’s wrong.” Anyway, I had taken a trip to the desert and felt meaningless next to the ancient rock, but consoled myself with the fact that dogs still liked me. 

4. “Fun in Hi-Skool”
When I rail against time, I’m thoughtful and deep. When assholes do it, they are pathetically attacking youth and all they possess. Well, maybe I do it too. I did the vocals and lyrics very late at night after a full day of laying down other tracks. I’m glad it captures the rawer, wilder sound of our live shows while having this weird, alien gloss over it. Basically it’s about obsessing over “the glory days” to your own peril. I think “at least you had fun in hi-skool” could be used as an insult. The title comes from a Marx Brothers vaudeville routine, which is a kind of dumb meta joke. Anybody pining for those “good old days” when the current crop of old peoples’ “good old days” were happening are long dead now. 

5. “Let’s Tip the Creator”
Life is hard enough, but what makes it sting for me is this crop of billionaires flopping around, monopolizing culture, our time, and being so utterly stupid about it. The title sort of comes from Mark Zuckerberg’s video about the Metaverse, or whatever dumb name he has for the lamest thing I had ever seen. In the video, you can “tip” artists for their digitized work—just the most boneheaded, dehumanizing way to look at the world. The song goes through a couple “fictionalized” rich assholes and their follies. It would be a comedy song if they didn’t have such a throat-grip on the livelihoods of so many people. 

6. “Graft vs. Host”
I suppose I fear time because I witnessed what it did to my mother. After 10 years of suffering with dementia she, thankfully, peacefully passed away. She was so full of love and joy, as most great moms are. The difficulty of having that kind of positive person exit in such a painfully protracted way and trying to look for that joy in the world without them, that’s what this song is about. 

7. “3800 Tigers”
It’s a good idea to start side B with a Detroit song, so we did. “Eat ’Em Up Tigers” is a slogan that’s been around since the ’60s here. It was really made famous by James Van Horn, an old fella who would be outside of most Tigers baseball games shouting that and collecting money. He died in a hit and run a couple years back—a tragic loss for the city. The song also has a nod to Lou Whittaker, my favorite Tiger from childhood who deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. It would be an all-out celebratory song if not for the references to the low number of wild tigers on the planet and the possible brutal future of sport in the far-flung future. 

8. “Polacrilex Kid”
Polacrilex is a generic name for nicotine gum. An annoying habit you pick up after quitting smoking and any time after you pick up smoking again. I wanted to write a realistic comeback song. We had been waylaid by COVID for so long, I was hoping it would be triumphant, but I’ll settle for whatever defeatist litany this ended up as. It does contain what I think is the thesis of the album (if music was boring and not fluid and inexplicable): “Can you hate yourself and still deserve love?”

9. “Fulfillment Center”
Love comes up again in this song. Love in the face of the grindingly hopeless capitalism of the Midwest. You see a lot of the world through touring, go through many states and highways in America, and it’s often the ass-end. This song could probably be longer, with more sad adventures of these two characters. I would love to bore the world with a 15 minute story song someday. But I think brevity is the point. It doesn’t take that long to get disillusioned, even with love by your side. 

10. “We Know the Rats”
A weird one in that it came out of my experience having my house burgled four times in the span of two weeks. It’s weird because, while I certainly felt existential despair after dealing with the Detroit Police Department and having my family’s legacy thumbed through and stolen, the song turned out to be somewhat positive. A real “know thy enemy” song. Finding an enemy, no matter how large or amorphous, can give the despairing life purpose. It’s not necessarily a greeting card message, but spite has a place in breaking up the morass. 

11. “The Author”
One last song about my mother. Not much to explain here besides a feeling of gratitude, and I love how the song ends and I didn’t want to mess it up with some trite words. I find both this and “Graft vs. Host” to be the most emotionally honest songs on here and the instrumental codas both contain the most truth. 

12. “Rain Garden”
A real rain garden behind a real Coney Island (what we call diners that serve a certain kind of hot dog in Detroit) next to a Taco Bell. Again, the music is profound and gigantic and I just wanted to poetically sing (or whatever it is I do) about finding love after a couple of real shit years and do it matter-of-factly. The second half moves in such a musically cosmic way I figured I should evoke a bit of The Song of Solomon just to express how serious I am about love. So there you go: a winding, bitter, sad, and funny road to love. And we got there in less than 40 minutes.

The Detroit post-punk band’s lyrics are as incisive as ever on their 6th album, and their music is maybe even punchier, its intensity bolstered by a more elegant sense of songcraft and by continued innovations in their sound (on this album it’s a steel pedal.) Passionate, urgent, and empowered. Highlights: “Fun In Hi Skool,” “For Tomorrow,” “Polacrilex Kid”

‘Formal Growth In The Desert’ out 2nd June 2023 on Domino Recordings.

Longings unveil their second full-length album, “Dreams In Red”, revealing a broad post-punk vision of haunting atmospheres and driving melodies. Eight new songs with a sense of urgency, ranging from the abrasive to the abstract.

From the woods of Western Massachusetts, Longings are a powerhouse trio featuring Cole Lanier (California X, Rogue Trooper), Meghan Minior (Siamese Twins, Ampere), and Will Killingsworth (Orchid, Vaccine).

released July 7, 2023

Longings – “Expensive Graves”

“ZAM”, the Double-Album underground breakout release from Los Angeles Psych heavyweights Frankie and the Witch Fingers, completely out of print since its initial release in 2018. This is the record fans have been asking for. RSD Exclusive 2xLP colour vinyl edition of 5000.

Frankie and the Witch Fingers’ latest LP, “ZAM”, bleeds beyond borders and boundaries. Its opening preternatural sounds bubble up out of the primordial soup, spilling into our world, invading the inner recesses of the listener’s mind. Like a two-headed snake wrapped around the skull, the album pendulates between winding instrumentals and dancey riffs that pop like supernovas out of the black void. Just when a song goes one way, it propels another through long stretches of a cosmic inferno.

Bringing glimmers of krautrock and funk, its eleven tracks unleash a versatile and tenacious weight, slithering between the sexy, the aggressive, the vivacious, and the disorienting—until the living invasion is felt—“ZAM”—a supernatural entity summoned by four madmen obsessed with tearing open a gateway to dark space. After being pulled apart atom-by-atom, the listener is reconfigured on the other side, born unto starry wasteland. Where head is separated from body. Where music is seen and apocalyptic soundscapes flow to revelation. A funhouse undercurrent pulses through the album’s epoch, reflecting a carnival mosaic shrewdly lulling and doggedly brutal. As one track bleeds into the next, that hour of running time becomes wormhole travel, until the listener returns earthbound, transmuted, craving more odyssey.

New Artwork featuring RSD exclusive Mirror/Reflective Jacket Artwork & Bonus Flexi 7″” with an unreleased demo. 24″” x 24″” double sided full colour poster. RSD Hype Sticker on Shrink. Proudly reissued by Greenway Records.
Mirror Red & Chrome Wide-Spine Jacket
Double 12″” – A/B on Black Smoke & C/D on Red Smoke Vinyl
Poly-Lined Inner Sleeves
Unreleased Demo Flexi 7″”
Double Sided 24″”x24″” Poster

Releases on Greenway Records