The Fat Angel Sings

‘There is talent and there is skill, but there’s a certain amount of magic attached to songwriting.’ – Paul Weller

“Magic: A Journal of Song” is a fascinating portrait of one of Britain’s most prolific songwriters. Magic combines a selection of over 100 lyrics from across Paul Weller’s musical life, proving him to be the ultimate shapeshifter: from The Jam’s punk sensibilities to the genre-defying Style Council, through to a remarkable 30-year solo career. His third Genesis edition, Magic is narrated by Weller and illustrated with more than 450 photographs and pieces of ephemera throughout. A revealing commentary garnered over a series of conversations with journalist and author Dylan Jones covers the songs, the stories and inspirations behind them, and all of the 28 albums of Weller’s ever-evolving musical journey.

‘As a songwriter, Paul Weller has proved that he is not only beyond reproach, in some senses he is quite possibly without equal.’ – Dylan Jones

‘The thing I have discovered is that music in its truest sense is beyond any trend or movement or category.’ – Paul Weller

The photography featured is pulled from a range of never-before-seen negatives and iconic shoots that chronicle Paul Weller in detail throughout his extraordinary career. 

From the early days of The Jam, when the band played local talent competitions in Woking, through to performing in London, Tokyo and New York, Magic captures both the energy of their live shows as well as behind the scenes, in the studio and backstage. Later experimental images of The Style Council in Normandy and Paris recall the band’s European influences. Weller’s extensive solo career is documented by a range of photographers and friends, whose work shows Weller rediscovering himself as an artist. 

Photography by globally recognised photographers is presented, including Janette Beckman, Julian Broad, Anton Corbijn, Jill Furmanovsky, Nick Knight, Mary McCartney, Pennie Smith, and many more. Together, their photographs capture historic performances, rehearsals, video shoots, and studio sessions. 

Each album is personally introduced by Weller, alongside the album artwork and photoshoot outtakes.

‘First and foremost, I try to satisfy something inside myself. And if other people get it and they share in it? That’s fantastic.’ – Paul Weller

Offering unprecedented insight into his creative process, Weller’s personally curated selection of over 100 song lyrics is accompanied by an illuminating commentary of over 25,000 words. As told to journalist and author, Dylan Jones, Magic: A Journal of Song presents Weller’s most candid and intimate account of his musical life to date. From founding The Jam as a teenager, through his time as one half of The Style Council, to his years as a solo musician, Magic is Weller’s definitive document of his songwriting career. 

Paul Weller is an award-winning musician with a career spanning almost 50 years. He has been an integral part of the British music scene since the early 1970s, when he founded The Jam. Following this, he teamed up with keyboardist Mick Talbot to create The Style Council, in which political statements were aired to nostalgic, summer-soaked melodies, and has gone on to have a hugely successful solo career. As a songwriter, Weller is considered on par with artists such as Paul McCartney and David Bowie and has received awards from the BRITs (Lifetime Achievement Award), NME Awards (Godlike Genius Award) and a GQ Award for Songwriter of the Year. 

‘Over the years, he has developed an encyclopaedic knowledge of dozens of different genres. But more importantly, he still writes and performs with the enthusiasm of a teenager.’ – Dylan Jones

Supergroup The Smile featuring Radiohead members Thom Yorke & Jonny Greenwood and Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner amazed with their long-awaited debut LP “A Light For Attracting Attention” last May. An entrancing and riveting work
with Yorke at is feverish and vulnerable best.

To keep the momentum going the band shared a live album “Live At Montreux Festival – July 2022” a few months later.
It’s clear that The Smile was not a one-off project.

Two days ago they played a 3-songs Tiny Desk set (live concerts hosted by NPR Music at the desk of All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen in Washington, D.C.)

Setlist: “Pana-vision”, “The Smoke”, “Skrting On the Surface”

Originally released in 1975, “No Heavy Petting” is UFO’s fifth studio album and the last to be produced by Ten Years After’s Leo Lyons. Stepping up from the rawer sound of “Force It”, the album was their first to feature a permanent keyboard player in the band and gave a nod to what was to come. The album includes a number of tracks that were to become staples of their live set for many years, including “Natural Thing” and “I’m A Loser”
This newly remastered clear vinyl 3LP gatefold deluxe version includes the Roundhouse 1976 live set previously unavailable on vinyl.

A classic rock album from ‘75, “No Heavy Petting” . The album includes the classic tracks “Highway Lady”, “Belladonna”, and “I’m A Loser”. Chrysalis Records now presents the 2023 remaster, across two exceptional expanded formats with both including the Live At the Roundhouse 1976 concert.

Night School is so excited to share “Anything“, the first single from “Love As Projection“, the new album by Frankie Rose. Resplendent with a glorious pop chorus, layers of textured harmony and a giddy immediacy, Anything is one of the catchiest and endorphin-generating songs you’ll hear this year.

“Love As Projection” signals Frankie Rose’s emergence into the realm of contemporary electronic pop, a rebirth for one of the most respected songwriters in the underground. Recorded with producer Brandt Gassman and mixed with long-term collaborator Jorge Elbrecht this is the album Frankie Rose has been building up to her entire career. After spending nearly two decades establishing herself across New York and Los Angeles independent music circles, Frankie Rose returns with a fresh form, aesthetic, and purpose embodied in her new 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 iconic style through the new lens of contemporary electronic pop.

Featuring beautiful, ethereal songs like lead-off single “Anything,” “Sixteen Ways” and “Come Back,” this album is more than a rebirth, a refinement, a resurgence – it’s a culmination of influence and the most personal and accessible collection of art-pop that Frankie has delivered yet.

More than a resurgence, “Love As Projection” boasts a widescreen scope: a long- form project heavily considered for half of a decade, culminating in the most personal and accessible collection of art-pop that Frankie has ever written. When Rose aims for the pop jugular as in first lead track Anything, the result is unstoppable. A majestic pop song built for radio, it erupts into an irresistible chorus that marries classic epic 80s American pop (think peak Belinda Carlisle) with the cult effervescence of Strawberry Switchblade “It’s like a prom scene in a John Hughes movie. It’s a hopeful song about abandoning fear even if the world is quite literally on fire.. In the end, at least we have each other,” says Rose.

“Love As Projection” is released on March 10th 

Crystalline crooners The Lemon Twigs returned with a new single called “Corner of My Eye,” which serves as their first new release since 2020’s “Songs for the General Public“. The track is a dreamy Beatles-esque ballad about falling into a new romance post-heartbreak. “But how much loneliness can a man take / Before he tries to take the reins,” goes one standout lyric delivered in soaring falsetto.

“We recorded this track winter of 2021 in our old rehearsal studio in Midtown, NYC,” the band—made up of brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario—said. “Apart from the vibraphone, the instrumental track was recorded live with Andres Valbuena on drums and Daryl Johns on upright bass. We laid down the vocals late that night once the traffic outside had died down. We’ve had the song for a while now, so we’re excited to share it with fans who may have heard it live over the years!”

The single also comes with video directed by Hilla Eden and the band’s Brian D’Addario, which takes place in a cemetery. Spooky or romantic? They do say, “’til death do us part.” Maybe it’s a metaphor for a life-long bond; maybe it’s something a bit more cryptic. 

With a style that borrows from the likes of Judas Priest, Thin Lizzy, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath and Lynyrd Skynyrd, White Reaper stand out primarily for their power-pop enthusiasm and classic guitar-rock ethos.

“Might Be Right”, from the LP “You Deserve Love” (2019), offers a peppy but layered guitar sound and hop-along rhythm that will take listeners back to the most optimistic days of ’70s-era rock.

White Reaper are releasing a new album titled “Asking for a Ride”, the follow-up to 2019’s “You Deserve Love”, on January 27th via Elektra Entertainment. We’ve already heard the singles “Pages” and “Fog Machine,” and today they shared another new track called “Pink Slip,” which is a raw admission about growing pains. “Grow up so slow / Hard to believe us when we grow up so slow,” goes the chorus alongside serrated, reverb-soaked guitars. “Part of me is off to sea / The other half is waiting to come home,” goes another poignant lyric. There’s speck of rock nostalgia hidden in “Pink Slip,”

if there’s one surefire way to start your Shaky Knees weekend off right, it’s with White Reaper’s Friday afternoon set. The Louisville, Kentucky, quintet are known for their hooky, high-energy rock, a natural fit for arenas and the garage alike. Their three albums to date 2015’s “White Reaper Does It Again”, 2017’s “The World’s Best American Band” and 2019’s “You Deserve Love” have consistently satisfied,

But it’s White Reaper’s live show that really sets them apart: “The cliché ‘They’re better live’ was invented for bands like White Reaper,” wrote Zach Schonfeld in his review of the band’s second LP for Paste. “The records are good, but onstage is where the band’s wonderfully scuzzy blend of pop-punk and garage rock goes stratospheric.” You couldn’t ask for a better Day 1 shot of adrenaline.

White Reaper’s official video for their new track ‘Might Be Right’ – from the album, “You Deserve Love”, available now.

The power-pop revivalists’ fourth album “Asking for a Ride” arrives January 27th via Elektra Entertainment.

Rozi Plain is preparing to release her new album “Prize” due out January 13th. She’s already shared a few singles, including “Agreeing for Two,” “Prove You’re Good,” and “Help.” Today, she’s shared another one titled “Painted the Room,” which follows suit in its delivery of cool-and-collected rhythm and unbothered vocal tone as Rozi Plain sings lines like “Painted the room black / You’re not going back.”

“I think this is a sort a celebration song dedicated to scummy situations retreating—relief when you are able to have the clarity and freedom to just trot off!” Plain explained. “It changed so much from how it started and took a couple of hilarious and surprising-to-me new turns. Then we just deleted the guitar. Then I went to Danalogue’s (from The Comet Is Coming and Soccer96) studio and he topped it up with some of his trademark good ear good vibe.”

The video that accompanies the single was filmed with Alabaster dePlume during a recording session at London event and studio space Total Refreshment Centre two days before Christmas. “This song is about freeing yourself up so I guess I just wanted the visual to feel not too precious. I really like how the split screen distracts you just enough to focus in the right way and notice coincidences and cosmic moments in the two images playing together. It also feels very good to capture a moment with sweet friends in a place so full of heart like The Total Refreshment Centre.”

Her new album “Prize” is out January 13th via Memphis Industries.

Have you watched the movie John Wick. It is obscenely violent, unbelievably cool, and very unrealistic. But one aspect that makes sense is the film’s central theme of grief, a significant portion of which is dedicated to the loss of a pet. There is no grief quite like the passing of an animal, especially one that’s a devoted companion. H.C. McEntire shared a song that Wick might raise his whiskey on the rocks to. “Rows of Clover,” the latest single from her latest album “Every Acre” that’s out January 27th, is a sprawling and tender ballad for grieving the loss of a “steadfast hound.” McEntire’s textural lyrics act as grounding couplets when overwhelming emotion can easily send one’s mindset into a spiral.

“As an artist, if what I’m after is meaning and understanding, then vulnerability is how I find my edges,” McEntire said. “In my experience, if that pursuit is honest and unfiltered, on some level it will also be uncomfortable. “Every Acre” encouraged a slow observation of everything around me—great heights and vast depths, immeasurable static, and some fragments still coming into focus.”

She goes on to note that the lyrics to the chorus were the first thing written for the entire album “They are dark and straightforward, unapologetic—a body in pain, a broken spirit, a tired heart. I needed to acknowledge my grief and depression in an unmistakable way; to name it and know the feeling of it being lifted by my lungs.”

“Every Acre” arrives January 27th via Merge Records

Achy joints. Dirty bosses. An effing UTI. These are the ailments that pile up in Special Interest’s working-class anthem “Foul,” which details a bubbling frustration with bad jobs. The New Orleans band makes danceable punk music that borrows from the angular, jittery rhythms of ’80s bands like ESG and Delta 5, with frenzied songs that carry a highly political bent. “Short-staffed! Overworked! Sleep-deprived! It’s an art,” band members Maria Elena and Alli Logout shriek in a call-and-response as a groovy, thumping bassline grounds the song’s noisy chaos.

“Foul” briefly calls to mind another New Orleans artist who helped turn exhaustion with overwork into accessible musical perfection: rapper Big Freedia, whose “release your job!” command set the tone for Beyoncé’s house hit “Break My Soul.” But where “Break My Soul” was all motivational pop, an empowered cry to listeners to hand off their daily stresses at coat check before meeting the star on the dancefloor, “Foul” is the sound of being physically unable to do so. The quartet—Alli Logout, Ruth Mascelli, Nathan Cassiani, and Maria Elena (who just goes by Maria)

Special Interest share a prickly sense of humour, and each member is quick to claim and grant credit for any given idea. The band’s bassist, Cassiani, suggested the sensory deprivation tank outing; he describes himself as “shy” and “reserved,” but reads more like the group’s quietly influential technician. Mascelli, on synths and drum machines, has a nervy, restless energy—he says that even the float session didn’t still his racing mind—but invariably speaks in complete thoughts. Maria, the guitarist, has the steady, unselfconscious presence of that one friend from the punk house, and when she’s finished eating, she unbuttons her pants. Logout, the frontperson, is the celebrity: a big talker and electric live performer, a vector for the kind of natural charisma that doesn’t intend to please anybody. 

It buzzes with the energy of a fly trapped in a jar, as shouted complaints ping against the glass with no resolution in sight. “Foul” takes that enclosure and finds power within its limits, the music not a vehicle to escape life’s soul-draining conditions so much as a place to confront them.

The Hold Steady is 20 years old! Time flies when you’re having fun, but it’s still hard to believe that 2023 makes two decades of THS. Of course, we think growing out of our teenage years is reason to throw a party or two – this year will be full of Hold Steady celebrations to honour the music, positivity, and incredible community that have made the last twenty years so amazing.

The Hold Steady have announced a new album. “The Price of Progress” releases March 31st via the band’s own Positive Jams label and Thirty Tigers and is led by the single “Sideways Skull.” The band, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary, will also hit the road starting January 28th in Brooklyn, New York, for a series of special event concerts.

we are releasing our 9th studio album “The Price of Progress” on March 31st, 2023 via Positive Jams/Thirty Tigers. Produced by Josh Kaufman and recorded over the past year, this record features 10 new the Hold Steady songs, some of which we’ve been playing live in recent shows.

“The Price of Progress” is the follow-up to 2021’s “Open Door Policy”. The band recorded its ninth LP in Rhinebeck, New York, with production by Bonny Light Horseman’s Josh Kaufman and mixing by D. James Goodwin. “These are some of the most cinematic songs in the Hold Steady catalogue, and the record was a joy to make,” vocalist and guitarist Craig Finn wrote in a statement. “I feel like we went somewhere we haven’t before, which is a very exciting thing for a band that is two decades into our career.”

THE WEEKENDER 2023

Friday, March 10 – Electric Ballroom / London, UK, Saturday, March 11 – Electric Ballroom / London, UK, Sunday, March 12 – Colours Hoxton / London, UK – SOLD OUT

“Sideways Skull” · The Hold Steady · Craig Finn · Tad Kubler · Franz Nicolay