The Fat Angel Sings

Rhodes’ beautiful new album “Friends Like These” is a distillation of everything he has been through, good and bad, during a transformative period of his life. Though he and producer Rich Cooper (Josef Salvat, Lucy Rose) recorded its 10 songs during lockdown, they were chosen from around 100 that Rhodes wrote as he processed major personal and professional changes in the years that came before. Some, like becoming a father, were completely joyful. ‘Others, like deciding to leave his record label and trying to navigate his way out of toxic working relationships, provoked a complex array of competing emotions. Hertfordshire-raised, London-based Rhodes says he picked the songs that “best represented my journey over the past few years” and tried not to overthink what his second album “should” be. The title is derived from the old saying “with friends like, who needs enemies?”, but flips it into something positive. “My close friends are all over this record and if it wasn’t for them it wouldn’t exist,”

The album is finally out! “Friends Like These” feels like a milestone moment for me. So much has happened in the last few years and in what has felt like a lifetime I’ve been through some of the highest points in my life but also some of the lowest, there’s been a lot of heartache and pain, a lot of realisation and a lot of change, but one thing has always remained the same, you guys! You’ve all stuck by me and been so unbelievably patient waiting for what comes next. I’m grateful beyond words for that kind of belief and I really do hope these songs resonate with you. 

To me, these songs represent the chaos of it all and all of the twists and turns on the winding road that led me to where I am today. I’ve been talking in interviews recently about what music means to me and what music meant to me when I was growing up and discovering myself and my identity. Well, I always saw music as a refuge and an escape. When I listened to my favourite artists it was like a safe space to feel like I could express myself through their expression and I want you to feel that too, not just with the new record but all of the songs, to treat the music like a close companion speaking to you of understanding and hope, reassuring you that there is always a way through the darkness. 

We’re now so close to the UK & EU tour in February! There are still a few tickets left, so if you don’t already have yours, please follow the link and get them now! I want to see as many of you there as possible. I’m planning something very special for you and I’ll be playing a lot of songs from the new record but also a lot of the older songs from Wishes and some deep cuts from when it all began. The shows will be super intimate, which I feel is what always creates the most wonderful kind of musical memories.

Shortly after the release of their gloriously homespun 2017 debut “Ignite the Rest”, beguiling indie rock duo R. Ring began working on material for their follow-up. Kelley Deal and Mike Montgomery collaborated on fragments, again enlisting drummer Laura King, Lori Goldston on cello, and Joe Suer on vibraphone. Of course, R. Ring and friends had no clue that their process would be sidelined by a pandemic.

Engaged in other projects (Deal with The Breeders and Protomartyr and Montgomery with his Candyland Recording Studio) and waiting out a global crisis, Deal and Montgomery tinkered on nearly-finished tracks and bided their time. In early 2023, with a tentative hope that the coast was somewhat clear, R. Ring re-emerged with “War Poems We Rested”, an album replete with three-minute songs that stagger and strut in equal measure.

The album’s opener, “Still Life,” declares itself as the first of many thrilling stylistic fake-outs. In this case, King’s colossal drums quickly crescendo before toppling into a bone-dry torch song. The taunting top-line dances like a ghostly Marianne Faithful across a seasick chord progression embellished by Suer’s vibes. The second song, “Hug,” is a neat fusion of a classic Deal chugging dynamo and Montgomery’s guitar fuzz dream while repeating its mantra, “We’re all here.” This one-two opening salvo establishes the album’s far edges: by turns swaggering, joyful, vulnerable, and stark.

Another standout in an album stuffed with mini-gems is the spectral “Exit Music.” Over an eerie suspended organ, a choir of breathy Kelleys caress a startling, mazy melody that feels like an otherworldly transmission, while underneath the band burbles and squalls like 154-era Wire.

But “War Poems We Rested” isn’t all head fakes and sonic collage. Montgomery’s “Likeable” grants a two minute affirmation (“I consider myself very likeable”) over a sturdy, rolling arrangement, while King’s “Def Sup” strides through a rubbery groove with chunky analog synth jabs. And “Cartoon Heart / Build Me a Question” blasts through a bratty two chord vamp while Deal ponders the Big Questions: “What is the name of your favorite song? What’s up with your crooked leg?”

Kelley Deal describes “This song is a love letter to all the daytime drunks of the world who, with soggy brains and liquored breath will melt the face off anyone they can corner. Glitter and vomit— we’re all here.” 

In the album’s final stretch, “Lighter than a Berry” finds Montgomery unguarded as he outlines the dissolution of a moment. An ominous curtain of feedback parts to spotlight a lonely guitar figure which serves to prop even lonelier lyrics. And while the last song doesn’t necessarily undo “Berry”’s devastation, the stately instrumental, “War Poems,” offers a panoramic Americana guitar motif and the hypnotic motion of a dozy night drive as a lingering moment of grace.

Even though “War Poems We Rested” was momentarily quarantined, R. Ring used the opportunity to blow up the idea of album packaging and design. Singer and poet Matt Hart, tasked with writing some notes, enlisted a cadre of friends to create new poems inspired by each song, which resulted in a chapbook lovingly designed and handbound by Louisville’s alla testa. The first 125 copies of the “War Poems We Rested” LP will include this poetry collection featuring Sadie Dupuis, Hanif Abdurraqib, Lee Renaldo, Jackie Clark, Sara Jaffe, Rose Zinnia, Amber Tamblyn, Alejandro de Acosta, Jeremy Michael Clark, and Peter Davis.

“War Poems, We Rested” is out everywhere now, and is the first full length release from R. Ring since 2017.

Hailing from the sleepy rural town of Driffield, Yorkshire, Priestgate are charismatic, angsty and euphoric in equal measure. After a stellar year of experimentation, the band have emerged in 2020 with their own brand of guitar music

Dubbed “The best new live band on the planet” by Dork magazine and Ones To Watch this year by most blogging sites, the ascendant East Yorkshire five-piece Priestgate are back with “One Shade Darker”, the highly anticipated follow-up to their enthralling debut EP “Eyes Closed For The Winter”.

Dubbed “The best new live band on the planet” by Dork, the ascendant East Yorkshire five-piece Priestgate are back with “One Shade Darker”, the highly anticipated follow-up to their enthralling debut EP “Eyes Closed For The Winter“.

Formed as a battle cry against the restlessness and mundanity of rural life, Priestgate began as a reaction to the sparse local music scene around them, which in turn has allowed them to craft and develop their own unique sound without the added pressure of conformity. Drawing comparisons to The Cure and The Maccabees, Priestgate have combined bright guitar-pop hooks with darker lyrical sensibilities, concocting their own angst-laden blend of the hypnotic and euphoric.

Featuring ‘Some Things Never Change’, named Tune Of The Week by Jack Saunders at BBC Radio 1 (“outstanding, emotive, arena ready guitar music”) and the new single ‘White Shirt’, an anthemic homage to their small hometown of Driffield.

Formed as a battle cry against the restlessness and mundanity of rural life, Priestgate began as a reaction to the sparse local music scene around them, which in turn has allowed them to craft and develop their own unique sound without the added pressure of conformity.

‘One Shade Darker’ is the sophomore EP from rising East Yorkshire-based quintet Priestgate. Following 2022 debut EP ‘Eyes Closed For The Winter’, the group further underline their credentials by providing another four tracks of gothic, romantic and melody-heavy guitar pop, Drawing comparisons to The Cure and The Maccabees, Priestgate have combined bright guitar-pop hooks with darker lyrical sensibilities, concocting their own angst-laden blend of the hypnotic and euphoric.

Blue vinyl 12″ on Lucky Number. Edition of 500 copies

Happy Release Day to Meg Baird’s highly anticipated record, “Furling”. “Furling” moves through the breadth of Meg’s musical fascinations and the environments around them—edges of memory, daydreams spanning years, loose ends, divergent paths, secret conversations under stars—all led by a stirring, singular voice calling experience and enlightenment, elation, and ecstasy into bloom. 

At long last, Meg Baird will be releasing a new album with possibilties of going out on the road again—this time with a full backing band of captivating co-conspirators!

Deeply rooted in Sixties/Seventies English folk and progressive rock yet touching on Nineties trip-hop and electronica in places, ‘Furling’ is the fifth solo album from Meg Baird, the leader of American psychedelic folk act Espers among many other musical endeavours. It’s simultaneously her most intimate solo work yet, and also the most musically epic and band-led.

Since co-founding Philadelphia’s luminary psychedelic folk collective Espers, Meg Baird has steadily created a body of solo and collaborative work within folk, acoustic, electrified and underground music traditions. She has recorded with harpist Mary Lattimore, helped form Heron Oblivion as a drummer and vocalist, and has continued to create her own solo work featuring her beguiling guitar and songwriting. An index of observations, passions and humour in both lyric and musical form, emanates from Meg’s heart outwards to yours.

released January 27th, 2023

“Furling” was primarily recorded at Louder Studios by Tim Green. Additional piano and vocal recording were captured at Panoramic Studios in Stinson Beach, CA with Jason Quever 

Bob Dylan just announced a box with a ton of outtakes from 1997 comeback album ‘Time Out of Mind.‘ 

When it was released in 1997, Bob Dylan’s thirtieth studio album, “Time Out of Mind”, was hailed as a masterpiece.

The record picked up three Grammys, including Album of the Year, in 1998. Seen as a real return to form following some patchy ‘80s offerings, it was Dylan’s first collection of original songs for seven years – since 1990’s “Under the Red Sky”.

Prior to its release, Dylan had been plagued by ill health – a life-threatening respiratory infection caused by inhaling fungus spores, which he put down to riding his Harley in the Louisiana swamps. 

When “Time Out of Mind” emerged, reviewers tagged it as a ‘mortality album’ – pointing to songs like ‘Tryin’ to Get to Heaven’ (“Trying to get to heaven before they close the door”) or ‘Not Dark Yet’, which is written from the point of view of a man confronting his twilight years.

Critics even suggested it might be the final great Bob Dylan album – it wasn’t of course, but, as it turned out, “Time Out of Mind”, was the last album Dylan made with a producer – all his records since have been self-produced, under the pseudonym Jack Frost. For the brooding and bluesy “Time Out of Mind” – Dylan wrote the songs while snowbound on his Minnesota farm in the winter of 1996 – Daniel Lanois was at the controls. He’d previously worked with Dylan on 1989’s well-received “Oh Mercy”. There are plenty of stories about how Dylan and Lanois clashed in the studio over the sound of “Time Out of Mind” and Lanois’ approach to production. Lanois’ original production was too murky and swampy, and with too many effects on Dylan’s vocals.

New Order has announced an upcoming reissue of their 1985 album “Low Life” will be arriving in January next year, along with a bounty of 12″ singles and rarities not previously released by the New Wave icons’.   

The collection will unearth 12 previously unreleased mixes and alternative versions of tracks from the album, including “Love Vigilantes” and “Sub-Culture” instrumentals, plus “Sooner Than You Think (Full Length Unedited)” feature in the expanded edition of the band’s third album, along with two  DVDs of rarely seen live performances.

The two DVDs include rarely-seen live performances from Rotterdam Arena (Netherlands), Koseinenkin Hall (Tokyo, Japan), and the International Centre (Toronto, Canada) alongside a BBC session and three tracks performed at the famous Hacienda in 1985. 

A number of 12” singles, including “Shellshock”, “Sub-Culture,” and “The Perfect Kiss” are available to order now on New Order’s official website.

The definitive edition of New Order’s “Low-Life” includes the original album on 180g vinyl LP and CD, remastered. The collection includes a hardcover book designed by Peter Saville – famed art director of the era who created many iconic album covers for Factory Records artists, including New Order and Joy Division – and featuring rare photos and a new interview with the band. The vinyl album and CD are both wrapped in the original tracing-paper sleeve – not available since the very first pressing.

Definitive edition of their 1985 studio album “Low-Life” that includes the original album on 180g vinyl LP and CD – remastered. A second CD of unreleased audio, x2 DVDs of live performances from 1984 & 1985, plus a hardback book. 

The vinyl album and CD are both wrapped in the original tracing-paper sleeve – not available since the very first pressing, and the first time ever for the CD

CD 2 contains 12 previously unreleased mixes and alternative versions, including “Love Vigilantes” and “Sub-Culture” instrumentals, plus “Sooner Than You Think” Full Length Unedited.

Also included in the set is a beautifully presented hardback book featuring rare photos and a new interview with the band.

Part of a series of Fire re-issues celebrating 20 years of the legendary garage rock gurus from Atlanta, Georgia. This 2017 record features a musically evolved Black Lips, who still stay true to their original blistering take on fuzzy, dirty rock n’ roll. “Satan’s Graffiti or God’s Art” features guest contributions from Yoko Ono was produced by Sean Lennon throughout 2016.

During the recording, the band isolated themselves from the outside world, infusing the album with a focused liveliness similar to the spirit that brought them together in the first place. On “Satan’s Graffiti or God’s art?” founding members Cole Alexander and Jared Swilley teamed with former guitarist Jack Hines (who played in the group from 2002-2004) and additions Oakley Munson on drums and Zumi Rosow on saxophone.

A sonically captivating document that is as creatively unhinged as it is precisely executed, one of the rawest and most expansive albums in the band’s storied history.“

An injection of psychedelic texture to their naturally occurring punk rock cacophony… the Black Lips are still going from strength to strength.”★★★★ The Line Of Best Fit

Released January 27th, 2023

Sprints ‘The Back Catalogue’ sees their early work collected together for the first time. The band’s 2020 debut single “The Cheek” won them early support from BBC 6music legend Steve Lamacq, DIY and NME among others. 2021’s ‘Manifesto’ EP saw the band develop sonically and politically, with title single ‘Manifesto’ quickly becoming a fan favourite. This marked the beginning of a fruitful working relationship with Gilla Band’s Daniel Fox producing.

Driven by experience, tough political climates and social and economic uncertainty – their music is honest, often politically charged and authentic. Sprints’ vital, visceral next step came with 2022‘s ‘A Modern Job’ EP to critical acclaim, including widespread radio and streaming playlisting for lead single ‘How Does The Story Go?’. ‘The Back Catalogue’ marks the end of one chapter in Sprints story and beginning of the next.

Charting the rise of the band from their formation in 2019 to the present day, it takes listeners on a journey through the highs and lows of elation to anxiety at trademark breakneck speed.
Sprints – ‘The Back Catalogue’ @sprintsmusic bandcamp page.

Released December 1st, 2022

The new song, titled “There We Are John“, is taken from the Irish indie-punk band’s upcoming new album, “Making Circles Of Our Own“, which is scheduled to be released in February this year.

The new song is directly inspired by artist, filmmaker, activist Derek Jarman. Speaking about the new song, bassist Claire Miskimmin says, “Derek Jarman was a visionary avant-garde artist & filmmaker, with a career spanning four decades and multiple genres. An important figure in the history of gay culture, he’s been described as the Queer Pagan Punk.”

Vocalist Lyndsey McDougall adds, “I first encountered the work of Derek Jarman through his coastal garden, Prospect Cottage in Dungeness. When we wrote this song, we had just lost our home and had moved in with my parents (as a result of restrictions around the creative industry during Covid) and my dream of owning a garden seemed further away than ever. Somehow, studying Jarman‘s Prospect Cottage garden brought me great serenity and hope. In a place considered so desolate, Jarman created a beautiful, fruitful landscape. This song is about hope.”

“Making Circles Of Our Own” is set for release on February 17th via Big Scary Monsters.