The Fat Angel Sings

The Zombies have released a second track, “Love You While I Can,” from their upcoming studio album, “Different Game”. The LP arrives March. 31st, 2023, via U.K. indie label Cooking Vinyl Records. In support of the release, and a forthcoming feature documentary, the band will resume their “Life Is A Merry-Go-Round” Tour in 2023 with appearances at Austin’s famed music and film festival, SXSW, as well as concerts in the U.S., followed by a full U.K. run in the Spring. More extensive touring is planned throughout the year.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers began work on the album after their 2019 induction and a U.S. tour with Brian Wilson. The Zombies are founding keyboardist Rod Argent and lead singer Colin Blunstone, along with drummer Steve Rodford, guitarist Tom Toomey and bassist Søren Koch. As primary songwriter and producer Rod Argent notes, “Making this album has been a joy from start to finish. Post-lockdown, we were absolutely determined to come together and record in as ‘live’ a way as we could – to capture the magical, fleeting quality of energy and immediacy of performance.”

“Different Game” is produced by Argent together with the band’s longtime live audio engineer Dale Hanson.

The album, their first since 2015, is being released in advance of a new feature documentary entitled “Hung Up On a Dream”, directed by musician and filmmaker Robert Schwartzman, and co-produced by Schwartzman’s Utopia Films, The Ranch Productions, and Tom Hanks’ Playtone, slated for release later in 2023.

Elvis Costello opened his 10-night residency at the Gramercy Theatre in New York City on Thursday.

“This is not the Bruce Springsteen show, by the way,” he quipped after performing the first two songs, “Welcome to the Working Week” and “Miracle Man,” both from his 1977 debut, “My Aim Is True”. Costello’s set, performed entirely solo, included early classics like “(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes,” “Mystery Dance” and “Alison.”

Costello also performed a handful of covers, including Van Morrison’s “Domino.” He added that he enjoyed Morrison’s music when he was younger, “before he went totally mad,” noting that Morrison is now “a comedian.” He also performed a cover of Grateful Dead’s “Dupree Diamond Blues.”

“It’s been a tough day,” Costello admitted near the middle of the set, referencing the recent death of onetime collaborator Burt Bacharach, with whom he worked on 1998’s “Painted From Memory” and 2018’s “Look Now”. A really great man left us,” Costello said, before performing Bacharach’s “Baby It’s You,” best known as a hit record by the Shirelles in 1961.

Costello prefaced the first of the Bacharach songs he performed, “Baby, It’s You,” by saying, “I always like the opportunity to play one of his songs. And I was thinking, I want to sing a gentle song of his… I learned this here song from the Beatles (The Beatles recorded the song on their debut album two years later.). And you can sing with me if you want.” Indeed, much of the crowd murmured along and added the famous “sha-la-las,” along with the “cheat, cheat” that represents naysayers’ gossip about the couple in the song.

Costello also covered Bacharach’s “Anyone Who Had a Heart” and “Please Stay” Thursday night.

The theme of the Thursday performance was songs written by Costello prior to releasing his debut album, “My Aim is True,” in 1977. He stretched that to include a few songs others had written prior to that date, But inevitably it allowed for the trio of Bacharach classics, two of which Costello had recorded before. He cut “Baby, It’s You” as a duet with Nick Lowe in the 1980s and later recorded “Please Stay” for his “Kojak Variety” all-covers album in the ’90s — both before he actually joined up with Bacharach to write the song “God Give Me Strength” for the film “Grace of My Heart,” followed a few years later by a full collaborative album, “Painted From Memory.”

Costello promised the audience — some of whom had bought a pass for the entire 10-night engagement at the Gramercy — that he would be exploring the catalogue of songs that he wrote with Bacharach himself when his long time pianist Steve Nieve joins the run six nights in.

You can see the set list for Costello’s show below.

When Costello announced the residency last year, he promised fans that he would play more than 200 different songs throughout 10 nights. He will perform solo for the next several evenings, before being joined by his longtime keyboard player, Steve Nieve. He also previously divulged — in the form of a poem in a press release — that there are surprise guests in store: “Let’s just set up the chair or two and play / In case some friends turn up along the way.”

For some fans, the opportunity to see Costello 10 nights in a row was too good to pass up. Craig Danuloff, a New York City resident who also runs the Bob Dylan fan club Freak Music, said before the show that selecting which nights to attend was downright impossible, so he bought a ticket for each one.

“How could I choose between them? How could I live with the set lists I missed? So it wasn’t a hard decision,” he explained. “More than anything I pray for great sound and that everyone else will shut the fuck up while he’s singing.”

Costello’s sold-out residency will continue through February 22nd.

Elvis Costello, Gramercy Theater, New York, 2/9/23
1. “Welcome to the Working Week”
2. “Miracle Man”
3. “Hoover Factory”
4. “(The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes) Red Shoes”
5. “Stranger in the House”
6. “I Can’t Turn It Off”
7. “Sneaky Feelings”
8. “Imagination (Is a Powerful Deceiver)
9. “Domino” (Van Morrison Cover)
10. “Living in Paradise”
11. “Baby It’s You” (Burt Bacharach Cover)
12. “Poison Moon”
13. “Dupree’s Diamond Blues”
14. “Wave a White Flag”
15. “I’m Not Angry”
16. “Anyone Who Had a Heart” (Burt Bacharach Cover)
17. “Radio Sweetheart”
18. “Mystery Dance”
19. “Mr. Moon” (Clover Cover)
20. “No Dancing”
21. “Cheap Reward”
22. “Alison”
Encore:
23. “Please Stay”
24. “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding” (Nick Lowe Cover)

Teeming with melodic epiphanies and layered sounds, squid’s second album is a musical evocation of environment, domesticity and self-made folklore.

Like its predecessor, 2021’s ‘Bright Green Field’, it is dense and tricksy – but also more warm and characterful, with a meandering, questioning nature. expansive, evocative and hugely varied, ‘O Monolith’ retains squid’s restless, enigmatic spirit, but it still holds surprises for those familiar with ‘Bright Green Field’. it’s a reflection of the outsized progression of a band always looking to the future. like its namesake, ‘O Monolith’ is vast and strange; alive with endless possible interpretations of its inner mysteries.

From the forthcoming album ‘O Monolith’ out 9th June via Warp Records.

Formed in 1984, Dinosaur Jr carved a singular path through the latter half of the 1980s and early 1990s, issuing a number of highly influential albums in the process before finding a home with Sire Records. ‘Where You Been’, their fifth record, emerged in 1993, at the height of enthusiasm for grunge and the alternative American rock scene the band had long been part of.

At this point in time, there is no questioning where J Mascis stands amongst his peers. His song writing has transcended generations and continues to evolve with each passing release. Everything he touches turns to gold, from the moment he started his shape-shifting band Dinosaur Jr. back in the mid-’80s, it was clear that he was more than your average frontman. J.Mascis oversaw the entire production and writing process for multiple LPs in the Dinosaur Jr catalogue, playing and recording almost entire albums as a one-man show. While Mascis is far from needing help to craft the blazing guitars and moody vocals that makeup Dinosaur Jr’s signature sound, some of his best work comes when a full band is backing his poetically bleak lyricism. Such is the case on the band’s fifth studio album, “Where You Been”, which was released on February 9th, 1993.

“Where You Been” marks one of the few albums released by the band via a major label that includes a full roster. Mascis was joined by longtime drummer of Dinosaur Jr, Murph, and a fresh face to the scene in the form of bassist Mike Johnson. With the full weight of the recording process lifted off Macis shoulders, he was able to truly hone in on his lyrical craft and vocal delivery while the rest of the trio rips through the wide range of tones delivered on this album. 

In just 10 tracks, Mascis and his band deliver one of the tightest and most well-rounded albums in their discography. This is very much a Dinosaur Jr album, seething guitar solos swooping in to knock the wind out of you right before the raspy sweetness of Mascis vocals carry you from one song to the next. Despite the undeniable style that is associated with the band still being present, “Where You Been” feels like a coming-of-age moment for the band. The playing from each member reached a level even higher than the bar they set on previous records, allowing these ideas to take their full form. Their chemistry shines the brightest during the bridges on these songs, these onslaughts of full instrumental pieces span from thrashing walls of sound to masterful bite-sized moments of pure rhythm. “On The Way” holds one of the more aggressive examples of chemistry on the tracklist, Dinosaur Jr gifts us with a bridge that would fit on a motorcycle gang’s playlist while a song like “Drawerings” features a more technically skilled moment with the blazing guitars and head-pounding drums creating a sort of harmony with each other. 

While the trio’s chemistry is a strong reason for the album’s success, with the song “Start Choppin’” marking the band’s highest charting single at the time, “Where You Been” is still very much a Mascis clinic. He toes the line of personal and relatable with his songwriting here, painting pictures that can be interrupted a variety of ways almost as if the pictures being painted are more on the abstract, minimalist side. Track 3 on the LP, “What Else Is New” is one of the best moments on the album and a highlight in the Mascis songbook in general. He’s stretching the possibilities of what his voice is capable of through a wavy melody as he delivers some of his most vague yet impactful lyrics. All over the album Mascis lays the foundation for us to build a narrative around his writing without creating a disconnect between his personal views and the music, forging these moments of clarity that still feel refreshing 30 years later. 

Mascis achieved something special with the lyrical content on “Where You Been”. He pieced together 50-minutes of scenic poetry that continues to provide solace to new fans the same way it did when people were hearing these songs for the first time in 1993. This style of songwriting breaks down generational gaps and time as we know it, creating a connective tissue that makes the world feel a lot smaller. The absence of directness in these lyrics gives these songs a sense of freedom, they were released into the wild with just enough disconnect from the author, making the listener an author in their own right as they build their own narratives around these 10-songs. 

30 years and a plethora of other releases from Dinosaur Jr, “Where You Been” still stands as one of their strongest. With the assistance of a full band, Mascis was able to explore new areas of his creativity and toy with his own blueprint in order to create a fresh sound without losing touch of his originality. In another 30 years, there will be another article written about Dinosaur Jr’s “Where You Been” as they created an album that is, in one word, timeless. 

 “Where You Been” is a great introduction to the music of Dinosaur Jr;

The Second solo album by La Luz singer / guitarist Shana Cleveland. “Manzanita” is the common name for a kind of small evergreen tree endemic to California which has strong medicinal properties. It’s also the name of the brand new full length by visual artist, writer, songwriter, and musician Shana Cleveland. Subtle, powerful, and unafraid. We can’t actually tell you how much we love this record because you’d never believe us, so we’ll just say that it is her strongest and most personal album to date.

These songs are as strong as the bricks in the Brill building, and seem destined to be covered by others in years to come. Where her previous record, 2019’s “Night of the Worm Moon” (Hardly Art) functions as a collection of speculative fictions equally inspired by Afro-futurist pioneers Herman “Sun Ra” Blount and Octavia Butler, “Manzanita” concerns the love that loves to love. “This is a supernatural love album set in the California wilderness,” Cleveland explains. The combinations of words and song structure are so strong throughout that one hardly notices Cleveland’s nimble fingerpicking on first listen, or how much is packed into the arrangements. The lyrics are satisfyingly direct, with the buoyantly whimsical descriptions typical of the 1960s New York School of poetry. It’s peppered with the kind of unexpected turns that make the words more modern, and in their spookiness they are more West Coast, as in “Mystic Mine,” with its “Mystic Mine Lane, cars rotting away/ I feel so relieved to be/ Back in the country.” So much of the pop music we love is propelled by those first blushes of infatuation and lust, but “Manzanita” concerns the kind of love that one can only experience with time, work, and devotion.

Cleveland says: “The songs were all written while I was pregnant (side A) or shortly after my son’s birth in that weird everything-has-quietly-but-monumentally-shifted state (side B),” she says. Moving to the country, starting a family, laughing for real at the same joke the thirteenth time you’ve heard it, surviving heavy shit (this is the first release since Cleveland’s successful treatment for a diagnosis of breast cancer at the start of 2022). 

This is a love album that’s somehow populated with the insect world, ghosts, and evil spirits. Sonically, “Manzanita” sits in a meadow similar to her previous solo records, set back and away from the genre-recombinant garage pop of her band La Luz. This is part due to the fact that there’s a different sonic palette in use here. While Cleveland continues to play guitar and vocals; Johnny Goss, who has recorded all of Shana’s solo material and early La Luz recordings, and Abbey Blackwell (Alvvays, La Luz) play the bass; Olie Eshleman is on pedal steel; and Will Sprott plays the keyboards, dulcimer, glockenspiel, and harpsichord—little of which would have been out of place on her previous two solo records—Sprott also adds layers of synthesizer infused with the sounds of the natural world. 

For fans of Robert Wyatt, Opal, Nilsson, Kevin Ayers and his Whole Wide World, Norma Tanega, Jessica Pratt, Julie Driscoll, Michael Nesmith, Sibylle Baier

Fews the Malmo based four-piece release new single “Get Out” (Thursday 9th February) on Gothenburg based independent label Welfare Sounds. “Get Out” follows on from “Massolit” – their first new music in over three years – which came out last November and is the second single to be taking from the band’s forthcoming third album “Glass City”,  Fred Rundquist: I’d say there’s been a bit of a delay. “Massolit” was recorded over a year ago. Since then, we had to find a label which was so hard and also a booking agency now, because everything just stopped in the middle of Covid. It’s almost like we had to start all over again.

Fred Rundquist: I met Fredrik (Andersson) that owns the label at South By Southwest (SXSW) in 2016. He was there because he was working with Henrik (Nystrom) from PIAS which was our old record label. After we got dropped from PIAS we didn’t know what to do. So, we sent the album to loads of people and no one replied as usual. But then I thought of Fredrik. He has his own label in Gothenburg. So, I just sent it to him and he was like, “Yeah, let’s fucking do it!” So here we are.

The four-piece – Fred Rundquist (vocals & guitar), Jacob Olson (guitar), Jay Clifton (bass) and Rasmus Andersson (drums) – have been working on “Glass City” since releasing their second long player “Into Red” at the tail end of 2019. Because we thought that people would’ve forgotten about us basically since we haven’t released an album for four years. You’re always thinking, “I wonder if it’s anyone’s gonna come to the shows or anything?” so yeah, it was super overwhelming.

However, due to the global Covid-19 pandemic and logistical issues, the album is finally ready to go and bares all the hallmarks of its creators at their exhilarating best. Comprised of ten songs in total, 

Madfish are proud to present, for the first time in one set, the complete studio album recordings of The Pretty Things. From the bands’ chaotic beginnings on their self-titled debut in 1965 through to their more reflective latter day output in “Bare As Bone, Bright As Blood”, this 13 album box set contains it all.

The Box Set encompassing the bands’ raucous self-titled 1965 debut, the conceptual Psychedelic brilliance of “S.F. Sorrow” and more reflective latter day output such as “Bare As Bone, Bright As Blood”, this deluxe 13 LP box set contains the entire Pretty Things studio output. 

All albums have been remastered for vinyl and feature replica original artwork. Each album comes with an individual, album specific 4-page insert with rare photographs and original single sleeves (with words from Mike Stax, Dick Taylor and Mark St. John).–

Led by founding vocalist and guitarist Phil May & Dick Taylor, The Pretty Things, iconic 1st wave R&B cult heroes, created some of the most exciting and innovative records of the sixties, early seventies and beyond. Winners of the very first Mojo Hero Award, the band have been a massive success and a huge influence on artists as diverse as David Bowie, Aerosmith, The Ramones, Bob Dylan, The Sex Pistols, The White Stripes, Kasabian and many, many more. 

From the chaotic beginnings of the band’s self-titled debut in 1965 through the experimental, turbulent times of the rock opera masterpiece ‘S.F. Sorrow’ to their more reflective, contemplative latter day output in ‘Bare as Bone, Bright as Blood’; this deluxe, thirteen LP box set contains every studio album the iconic band released over five decades.

Invaluable to the development of British music, The Pretty Things have been a critical success who site their outrageous behaviour, incandescent stage performances and astonishing catalogue of remarkable, ground-breaking recordings as fundamental in the creation of their own work. Still recordings until the passing of Phil May two years ago, this set follows the bands’ journey until those final recordings in 2020.–

Contents

The Pretty Things (1965)

Get The Picture? (1965)

Emotions (1967) 

S.F. Sorrow (1968) 

Parachute (1970)

Freeway Madness (1972) 

Silk Torpedo (1974) 

Savage Eye (1976) 

Cross Talk (1980) 

… Rage Before Beauty (1999) 

Balboa Island (2007) 

The Sweet Pretty Things (Are In Bed Now, of Course…) (2015) 

Bare as Bone, Bright as Blood (2020)

All albums have been remastered especially for vinyl with original artwork recreated throughout. Within each album comes an individual, album specific 4-page insert with rare photographs and original single sleeves with words from Mike Stax, Dick Taylor and Mark St. John. Fans will also find an exclusive pull-out print of the band in their prime. All this is housed inside a deluxe slipcase style box.

“The Pretty Things were the biggest influence on us… they invented garage bands.” – Joey Ramone

“The Pretty Things completely bent my head.” – Noel Gallagher

“The Pretty Things made the Stones look tame.” – David Gilmour

Housed in a deluxe slipcase style box, the set also includes an exclusive pull-out print of the band in their prime.  

Limited to 1,000 copies worldwide.Show less

Depeche Mode suffered a tremendous loss last year when Andrew Fletcher suddenly passed of an aortic dissection in May. Martin Gore and Dave Gahan are forging on with the band, however, with their fifteenth studio album “Memento Mori”, set to drop on the 17th of March via Columbia Records.

Depeche Mode releases the much-anticipated lead single, “Ghosts Again”, a song that was teased with two countdowns; one for the initial announcement, and another for the premiere date. The “Memento Mori” album marks a new chapter for Depeche Mode’s peerless, evolving legacy. “Memento Mori” originated early in the pandemic during the chaos of uncertainty and global panic; now the grim title also reflects the sombre reality of a Fletch-less future for the band. 

Dave Gahan noted that although work on ‘Memento Mori’ started before Fletcher’s death, Fletch did not record any material on the album. “He never got to hear any of it,” the singer said, “which is really sad to me because there are songs on this record where I know he’d be like, ‘This is the best thing we’ve had in years.’ I can hear his voice,” he said. “I can also hear him saying, ‘Does every song have to be about death?!’”

“After Fletch’s passing, we decided to continue as we’re sure this is what he would have wanted,” says Martin Gore, “and that has really given the project an extra level of meaning.”

Depeche Mode’s poignant song addresses the life cycle – knowing that Death isn’t a harbinger of the end, but rather a guide to the next phase.

Corbijn, who used the striking imagery from the film here, makes a poignant commentary on the state of a modern world constantly immersed in fear of this mortal chess match. This time the roles are played by Dave Gahan and Martin Gore themselves, as they battle their queens and pawns on a city rooftop, then make their way through a cemetery. It’s filmed in his usual black and white, Expressionist style, as Gahan and Gore poignantly send off their love to the other side.

“To me, ‘Ghosts Again’ just captures this perfect balance of melancholy and joy,” said frontman Dave Gahan of the song, with Martin Gore proudly adding: “It’s not often that we record a song that I just don’t get sick of listening to – I’m excited to be able to share it.”

“Ghosts Again” is a touching encomium to the lost souls of this volatile world, and especially to their recently check-mated bandmate.

“Memento Mori” will be released on March 24th on double vinyl, CD, cassette, and digital. 

The inimitable post-punk icon Brix Smith is held in high regard for her work with The Fall, The Adult Net and The Extricated, but even after four decades in the game she’s still embracing new musical horizons with characteristic intensity. This is her debut solo album. Produced by the Grammy Award winning Youth (The Verve, Jesus and Mary Chain, Killing Joke), Brix’s seemingly effortlessly cool vocals top a mix of power-pop addictiveness, ragged garage-rock riffs and classic grunge melody.

Given its explosive energy. The album was started during lockdown, with Brix and Youth collaborating remotely between her home in London and his base in Spain. She has described the album as sounding like a cross between The Breeders and Hole with an atmosphere that’s “very dystopian California.” It features special guests including Susanna Hoffs from The Bangles and Siobhan Fahey of Bananarama and Shakespear’s Sister.

Check out the new video produced by Funky Doodle and filmed at the Lexington.

The third single from the album ‘Valley of the Dolls’, “Fast Net” is written and produced by Brix Smith and Martin ‘Youth’ Glover. Brix, a former member of The Fall in which she performed with Mark E Smith has teamed up with the legendary producer and bass player of Killing Joke to create this amazing album and latest single.