The Fat Angel Sings

The colliding circles of time bring us back to the brink of the Purling Hiss at last. Classic rock singing/screaming guitars fuse with Mike Polizze’s hope-n-dreamz feels and explode into fresh heartbreak, happening right now today, as sweet tunes and crushed guitar harmonics pour off the turntable and run out in the street, just like in the old days.

It’s 2023, and even the turn of this new century seems a long time ago now — but oddly, Purling Hiss’s guitar-band ethos feels ever more timeless, even as time accelerates and passes us and them (and decades of the mighty rock and roll) in the outside lane. “Drag On Girard“, the first full length Purling Hiss album in six years, cruises through diverse states of mind and places in time — dreams from the past and the future, careening lawlessly as they slide around loose on the road with crushed guitar harmonics, fused with anthemic melody and choruses.

As before, but with new twists, Mike Polizze and his gang let loose with the chaos and noise implied by their name, applying high end splatter and slow rolling low end to eight vehicles, running the gamut from gleaming pop gems to head-cleaning epic jams before they’re done. This time out, the colliding circles of time seem to have inspired both the songs and the band, and the sentiment-drenched mood explodes in a wild tangle of guitars that seem constantly about to overwhelm the room.

“Yer All In My Dreams” marries pop melodies to psyche-delicate expressions, emitting the expected formidable roar while setting a certain type of rhythmic strut for the band. A literal wall of distortion in your ears is prelude, as ever, to the heartening crunch of connection once Mike Polizze slides into his lead licks, and their warm reality lights the room. A sweet tune somehow more loosely chaotic and yet more monolithic and streamlined than preceding Hissongs.

releases March 24th, 2023 on Drag City Inc.

For the better part of a decade, Los Angeles scrappy rock n’ roll mystics Death Valley Girls have used their music as a means of tapping into a communal cosmic energy. On albums like “Glow In The Dark” (2016), “Darkness Rains” (2018), and “Under the Spell of Joy” (2020) the band challenged the soul-crushing banality of modern society and celebrated “true magical infinite potential” through a collage of scorching proto-punk riffs, earworm melodies, far-out lyrics, and lysergic auxiliary instrumentation. But on their latest album “Islands in the Sky”, Death Valley Girls’ songwriting mastermind Bonnie Bloomgarden uses the band’s anthemic revelries as a guidebook to spiritual healing and a roadmap for future incarnations of the self. And while these may be the loftiest aims of Death Valley Girls to date, the resulting music is also by far their most infectious and celebratory..

“Death Valley Girls are a gift to the world.” – Iggy Pop

“Harnessing the allure of the occult and the power of self-help, the Los Angeles garage rockers break free from their roots and ascend to the realm of spiritual psych-jazz rockestra.” – Pitchfork

“(Death Valley Girls) taps out of traditional songwriting and tune into a new spiritual consciousness…” – SPIN

“An insistent Banshees like boom and groove.” – MOJO

Written & Performed by Death Valley Girls Bonnie Bloomgarden – Vocals – Organ Larry Schemel – Guitar Rikki Styxx – Drums – Vocals Sammy Westervelt – Bass – Vocals Gregg Foreman – Synth – Wurlitzer – Hammond organ Little Ghost – Backing Vocals Kelsey R – Backing Vocals Pickle – Backing Vocals Gabe Flores – Saxophone Mark Rains – Percussion

Death Valley Girls “Islands in the Sky” out February 24th, 2023 on Suicide Squeeze Records.

For the first time since their 2015 LP, Public Image Ltd graces the world with a new track. “Hawaii” doubles as the John Lydon-led band’s bid to represent Ireland in 2023’s Eurovision Contest. Along with the single, the band will be performing “Hawaii” on The Late Late Show on February 3rd, and performing the song live is also a part of the bid. 

The single is dedicated to Lyndon’s wife, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, prompting the band to label “Hawaii” as one of the most personal songs Lyndon has ever shared. According to a report from Brooklyn Vegan, Lyndon says the new song is “dedicated to everyone going through tough times on the journey of life, with the person they care for the most.

Lydon reactivated PiL in 2009 – re-recruiting Lu Edmonds and Bruce Smith from the 1980’s line-up together with new recruit Scott Firth – touring extensively and releasing two critically acclaimed albums ‘This is PiL’ in 2012 followed by ‘What The World Needs Now…’ in 2015.

John Lydon, Lu Edmonds, Scott Firth and Bruce Smith continue as PiL. They are the longest stable line-up in the band’s history and continue to challenge and thrive.

It’s also a message of hope that ultimately love conquers all.” Along with the new single, there are rumours that a full album from PiL will arrive in 2023,

“Hawaii” will be released on limited edition 7″ vinyl later in the year. They will also be releasing a new album this year.

Nashville rockers Country Westerns are proud to announce their sophomore LP “Forgive The City“, due April 28th, 2023 via Fat Possum Records. Marking the band’s second full-length release for Fat Possum, this barn-burning collection is also their second to be helmed by famed producer Matt Sweeney (who even contributes his lead guitar stylings to a few tracks). The album’s sinewy, melodic first single “It’s A Livin” is out now across all DSPs along with the official music video, directed by Miranda Zipse (Miranda and the Beat). 

“’It’s a Livin’ is the last song I wrote for our new album. It’s meant to be a tribute to musicians and travelers who are waiting for the road to open. And also a promotion of forgiveness in general,” says vocalist and guitarist Joseph Plunket. “It’s about the last go around and wondering what’s left out there. An encouragement to those who have to push through and keep moving and also an acknowledgement of a time to lay it down. It has pretty obvious vibes of a pandemic spent in Nashville and the actual lyrics are less pretentious than this description. I wrote it on my Danelectro 10-string which gives it a cool aggressive jangle.”

Because no eagerly-awaited album release would be complete without shows all across the nation, Country Westerns will head back out on the road for a second time with the kindred spirits in indie rock heroes Titus Andronicus. 

Dry Cleaning brought one of their best songs to life with a performance of “Hoy Penny Day” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Still coasting off of the high praise for their 2022 album, “Stumpwork”, the band took over the late night stage just one day before they ship out on an extensive tour across Europe and the U.S. “Hot Penny Day” is a stand-out from an album full of terrific moments but seeing the song performed live brings a whole new meaning to the song. 

Frontwoman Florence Shaw’s signature spoken-word style is greeted with spacious psychedelia, a formula the band began to toy with on their 2021 debut album, “New Long Leg”. While 2021 saw the band quickly rise to the top of every critics “artist to watch” list, the band has been slowly perfecting their sound since 2018 when they began to release EPs like 2019’s “Sweet Princess”. Fast forward to today and there is nothing standing in front of Dry Cleaning and rock stardom, and after last night’s performance, the four piece seems primed for their upcoming tour. 

Dry Cleaning has perfected the use of space in their music, allowing each individual element of the song to breathe without stepping on another’s toes. “Hot Penny Day” is the perfect example of this, the cascading guitar acts as the star of the instrumental only for a rather groovy bassline to come in for an unprecedented assist to the track. Shaw’s monotone vocals are juxtaposed by the colorful instrumental, creating an eerie atmosphere that will have you sprinting back to hear it again. 

Dry Cleaning are heading out on a massive tour that will have the band on the road until April 1. The tour has the band jumping around North America with stops in Toronto, Atlanta, and Los Angeles before they ship over to Europe for a string of dates across the U.K and beyond. 

Musical guest Dry Cleaning performs “Hot Penny Day” for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

On February 10th, Matador Records will release ‘This Stupid World,’ the sixteenth album by Yo La Tengo.

Today the band has shared the gentle and atmospheric “Aselestine,” which features a lead vocal by Georgia Hubley. Coming 10th February: the most live-sounding Yo La Tengo album in years, “This Stupid World”. Times have changed for Yo La Tengo as much as they have for everyone else.

In the past, the band has often worked with outside producers and mixers. In their latest effort, the first full-length in five years, “This Stupid World” was created all by themselves. And their time-tested judgment is both sturdy enough to keep things to the band’s high standards, and nimble enough to make things new. At the base of nearly every track is the trio playing all at once, giving everything a right-now feel. There’s an immediacy to the music, as if the distance between the first pass and the final product has become more direct.

Taken from the upcoming album ‘This Stupid World,’ out February 10th on Matador Records.

At this point in his career, Iggy Pop seems as indestructible as ever. After decades of cultivating one of the most impressive discographies in recent memory, the punk rock godfather refuses to slow down. This is evident on the latest addition to Pop’s discography as just last Friday (January 6th), he released his latest album “Every Loser”, a quick yet fiery collection of songs that brought in some of the best musicians in modern rock for an assist. The likes of Duff McKagan, Chad Smith, and Josh Klinghoffer played on every loser while the whole thing was led by super producer Andrew Watt. The artists gave us a taste of what those sessions were like when Pop brought out his all-star band to perform “Frenzy” on the Jimmy Kimmel Live TV show. 

Despite any constraints that a late-night performance may provide, Iggy Pop held nothing back. His performance was electric and engaging as ever as the 75-year-old pranced around the stage in nothing but a vest and pants.

It’s safe to say Iggy Pop continues to prove why he has been labeled the godfather of punk, but that’s not without the help of this lineup assembled to back the man himself. Their collective screams of “Frenzy” during the chorus added even more energy to the performance while the arrangement was as tight and blistering as the one on the record. 

Vagabon, the moniker of Lætitia Tamko, releases a new song, “Carpenter,” today. The single, which was co-produced by Tamko and Rostam (Vampire Weekend, Haim, Clairo, Maggie Rogers), is her first newly created solo music since her 2019 critically acclaimed self-titled album, which made countless year-end lists upon its release, including the New York Times, Pitchfork, Billboard, and NPR. Last year, Tamako was featured on the Monako track “Hollow Moon.”

In 2021, she released a collaboration with Courtney Barnett: a cover of Tim Hardin’s “Reason to Believe,” inspired by Karen Dalton’s version of the song. That same year, she joined Jamila Woods on Miloe’s song “Winona” and again joined Barnett on Sharon Van Etten’s “Don’t Do It.” A new version of the Vagabon song “Home Soon,” with full orchestra, was featured in the 2020 film Antebellum, and a previously unreleased track, “The Wild” also was featured in a soundtrack, for the film Turning.

“‘Carpenter’ is about that humbling feeling when you desperately want to be knowledgeable, you want to be advanced, you want to be mature, forward thinking, and evolved,” Tamko explains. “It’s about being confronted with your limitations. It’s about that a-ha moment, when a lesson from the past finally clicks and you want to run and tell someone who bore witness to the old you, ‘I finally get it now.’”

In March, Vagabon will join Weyes Blood on her In Holy Flux spring tour

The fourth studio album from the instrumental collective Circles Around The Sun is set to be their most experimental yet. With the addition of guitarist John Lee Shannon, the band sets its sights on a new era as they look to continue to round out their spacious cosmic soundscapes. Giving classic psychedelic rock fixtures a facelift, the band is constantly building on itself to produce dense arrangements, and the lead single for “Language” is no different.

Shannon’s presence is immediately felt on “Outer Boroughs” as the rest of the band navigates his slick guitar playing. With a new guitar player at the ready and an insanely impressive single, Circles Around The Sun is set to release some of their best work yet. 

Release Date: April 28th

“Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd” is the ninth studio album from acclaimed singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey, comprising 16 tracks and interludes with features including Father John Misty, Tommy Genesis, Jon Batiste, Bleachers and more. It follows the prolific artist’s 2021 albums ‘Chemtrails Over The Country Club’ and ‘Blue Banisters’.

The prolifically blunt songstress Lana Del Rey is returning with her 9th studio album. The winded title is one that needs to be said in full, Lana Del Rey has made a career off of her artistically ambitious approach to balladry, making sure every word she records matters, shortening her album title would be a disservice. The promotional tactics for this upcoming LP include the ambient title track that features Rey’s signature velvet vocals and a sweeping arrangement and one single billboard she placed in the town of an ex lover. With the extremely impressive single already wowing fans and Del Rey doubters alike, this upcoming LP seems to be falling right in line with the artist’s already beautifully poetic discography. 

Release Date: March 10th