The Fat Angel Sings

Moreland with his new album “Birds in the Ceiling”, a nine-song collection that offers the most comprehensive insight into the thoughts and sounds swimming around in his head to date. A compelling blend of acoustic folk and avant-garde pop playfulness, “Birds in the Ceiling” lives confidently in a space of its own, enriched by tradition but never encumbered by it. The song writing that has stunned fans and critics alike since 2015’s “High on Tulsa Heat” remains potent, while the sonic evolution that unfolds on the record feels like a natural expansion of 2020’s acclaimed “LP5″.

The New Yorker, Pitchfork, Fresh Air, Paste, GQ, and others have embraced Moreland’s meditative songs, while performances on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, CBS This Morning, NPR Tiny Desk Concert, and more have introduced Moreland to millions. And yet, while the Tulsa-based Moreland is grateful for the respect and musical conversation he’s now having with people around the world, he is also more focused on the idea of just talking to one person––or even himself. “Through the years, I’ve felt like I’m increasingly talking to myself in my songs, more and more,” he says. “Maybe in the past, I wasn’t aware of it, but now, I am. I think doing that has helped me be less hard on myself, which makes you more generous and compassionate in general.”

Moreland’s songs do feel intimate––like overheard conversations or solitary meditations. “I want to talk one-on-one to someone in a song,” he says. “I don’t want to address a group, really, because I think that’s when it’s easy to start pontificating––and it gets less honest.”

released July 22, 2022

John Moreland: vocals, guitars, sampling/sequencing, mellotron. John Calvin Abney: pianos, mellotron, synths, ukulele, Bonnie Whitmore: bass guitars, double bass, cello, Matt Pence: drumset

Shannen Moser wants to have a conversation: with their past selves, their present self, their undesignated, unfurling future selves; with the trees that adorn their old street, and the door they used to call home; with the shadows of lovers-turned-to- friends and the overwhelming cacophony of abrupt change. They’re drawing a map but the port of call is cloudy and indistinct. It’s while traveling along these nebulous contours that their latest album “The Sun Still Seems To Move” forms a kind of physicality, of outstretched giving hands, that offers a guide through the fog. Here, Moser examines the disorien- tating, challenging task of trying to hold onto ourselves – and everything else – all at once. But this isn’t a fatalistic journey of melancholy or apprehension. Instead, Moser celebrates the small steps and the unwavering perseverance that makes it all worthwhile.

“The Sun Still Seems to Move” is an album of reckoning with death and trauma, with all the shapes that love can take and all the people we’ve been and will become. It’s a record of regret and relief, unlocking every facet of feeling with an unabashed yet tender vigor. It’s watching the clouds bend to a new shape and still staying outside. It’s cry-laughing on the phone to an old friend, and trying to trust yourself again. By leaning into–and being at the whim–of this kind of vul- nerability, Moser is able to navigate the spaces between the losses to produce a truly honest and lustral work. “Holding space for all of these feelings is confusing, but I think that’s what makes the world turn,” they explain. “It’s love and grief existing in tandem and it feels like this never ending, switch- ing one out for the other.”

Moser’s previous albums “Oh, My Heart” (2017) and “I’ll Sing” (2018) were praised for their careful, intimate arrangements that showcased their sharp, interpersonal narration and time- less lush vocals. On “The Sun Still Seems To Move”, their first release in four years, Moser takes the arresting simplicity of their past LPs to form a malleable foundation, and combines it with orchestral swells and poignantly-rich harmonies.

Been sitting on this for awhile and I’m SO excited to share this with you all. “I’ll Sing” comes out but you can stream it on band camp today! right now! So much time and energy and love was put into making this. The biggest, most loving thank you to everyone involved, to anyone who has ever supported me, challenged me, and made me feel capable. Two years ago I made a barely 19 minute record and today I get to share with you a 40 minute record. Time is cool and cruel but this is a very good day.

Released September 30th, 2022

If you’re into psychedelic rock junk you’ll play this hell of a record ’til your ears bleed. You’ll get intoxicated with a transfixing mix of influences by masters of the genre such as jangly hero Anton Newcombe and his Brian Jones Town Massacre gang (Stupid Games / In Time / Failure), The Black Angels (S.P.M.U. / Stupid Games) and Heart (TieMe Down / Sugarwave) when second vocalist Claire Tucker gets behind the microphone instead of maestro Jim Biggs. It’s all served with layers of mind-expanding guitars and hallucinogenic imagination. Black Nite Crash are a psych collective started by Jim Biggs (vocals, guitar) twenty years ago in Seattle Washington. The band has had more than 30 members over the years.

Listen to the first single from our new album, “Washed in the Sound with Black Nite Crash” Jim Biggs: “This is the band’s fifth full length in nearly twenty years of existence, and
it looks to be the start of a period of more frequent releases as we work through our backlog of unreleased recorded songs, not to mention the surplus of new material we’re working on even now. As to the music, I’ve long been a proponent of the idea that all rock music should only be about god, girls and drugs (or god, boys, and drinking, or any combination of those themes, really), but it’s hard to look at the state of the nation and the state of the world and not say a thing or two about it.”

Get the sonic picture? I thought so. 

Eight years after his acclaimed debut album, singer-songwriter Paul Thomas Saunders returns with the terrific new album “Figure In A Landscape.” Saunders’ new album, “Figure In A Landscape“, has now been released. And his journey toward this album is quite interesting. The Brighton-based singer-songwriter released his debut album, “Beautiful Desolation”, on Atlantic Records in 2014 to rave reviews from The Guardian, The Times, The Line of Best Fit and more. Becoming disillusioned with the music industry after that initial burst of success, Saunders stopped performing for a time and became a member of a lifeboat crew as well as a paramedic for England’s National Health Service (NHS). He made a fleeting return in 2017 with two singles, featured on Mae Martin’s acclaimed Netflix series ‘Feel Good’ but it proved to be a false start. But then stepped away from music once again. An invitation from Bon Iver’s Justin Turner to perform at Dublin’s Forbidden Fruit Festival lit a fire under Saunders and led to him writing the songs that appear on the “Figure In A Landscape” album. The album is named for Francis Bacon’s 1952 painting Study of Figure in a Landscape.

The album opens with the excellent, atmospheric “TV, Junk Food and Bed.” It contains a good vocal by Saunders and the instrumentation is understated for the most part. “Bloodlust” is an easy going track with a nice flow to it. Saunders’ vocal on the song is top notch. “Heartlands” includes an effective echo on Saunders’ vocal and a distant trumpet toward the end of the song. Saunders’ production work on the track is fantastic. “Heaven Or Higher” features a perfectly understated vocal by Saunders, and the echo on the track gives the song an otherworldly feeling.

The sound of the album was inspired by an old jukebox owned by Saunders’ father. The album’s songs have the warmth, crackle and hiss of tunes playing on a jukebox. The album was written, recorded and produced by Saunders himself at his home amid collaborations with Alastair Thynne and Max Prior, with the record also featuring a number of other artists and friends including Ajimal, Hilang Child and SIVU.

The most interesting song title on the album is “Jesus Says, ‘Forgive Yourself’.” It’s a very chilled-out, mellow song with a nice ‘70s vibe to it. “Cruel” is quite beautiful and is one of the highlights of the album. It contains a subdued vocal by Saunders and is about trying to get through tough times.

“I’ll Come Running” is the album’s wild card. The drums on the track are heavier than on the album’s other songs. It’s probably the most pop-sounding song on the album. “Pas De Deux” is a relaxed song, featuring light instrumentation and a hushed vocal by Saunders. Album closer “Love Birds” has disjointed music at the start before Saunders echo-laden vocal kicks in. It’s a solid way to round out the album.

“Figure In A Landscape” is a very satisfying return by Saunders. And as good as the material sounds on the album, it is even better when Saunders performs live. If you have the chance to see Saunders in concert, definitely do so. You will leave the venue quite impressed. I certainly was when I saw Saunders play live. He is, without question, an artist of considerable substance.

The punchy, propulsive “I Can’t Grow Up” is the latest single off Tegan and Sara’s new album, “Crybaby”, which is out next month. The song “was musically inspired by Chicago band Dehd and their album “Flower of Devotion,” Sara Quin says. “The song started on bass, an instrument I’d never written with until “Crybaby”, and I was channelling a little bit of Emily Kempf from Dehd, and Peter Hook from New Order. My partner had travelled back to the U.S., after a year of being stuck in Canada during the pandemic, and I was enjoying late nights alone writing music and singing full tilt in the basement.”

Tegan and Sara trotted out one last advance single, “Smoking Weed Alone,” earlier this week before the arrival of their 10th studio album, “Crybaby”, this friday.

“With this album, I wanted there to be a dialogue that we could have about the songs. Some of Tegan’s songs became almost like duets, because she allowed me to go in there and challenge her to rewrite lyrics,” Sara Quinn said of the son. “I wanted a narrative that could tie into our relationship and some of the things that were happening in our life, even if the song wasn’t about that. And for ‘Smoking Weed Alone,’ there’s a chorus where we’re sort of singing to each other, and we haven’t done that before, in our career.”

The C.I.A. a new project and band comprising Ty Segall, his wife Denée Segall, and the Cairo Gang’s Emmett Kelly announced a new album: “Surgery Channel” which arrives January 20th via In the Red Records. The group has shared lead single “Impersonator,” along with a music video directed by Joshua Erkman and Denée Segall. In the clip, Denée Segall’s face morphs as other images of Miss Piggy, Pinhead from Hellraiser, Gollum, Chucky, and more—are projected on top of it.

Step into a sick rhythm. And I mean sickly. “Surgery Channel” is a constructed world where everything is piercing and pinpointed. Every single word brings confrontation. With an intro as intimate and uncomfortable as this, The C.I.A. make you question what could be happening here…or what they’re after. Denée Segall (vocals, lyrics) is both haunting and seducing us at once with her voice. Something unhinged might be about to happen and they’re calmly dangling it over your head. Is it the possibility of dismemberment? Revenge?

There is something about “Surgery Channel” that is sterile and covered in dirt at the same time. Maybe it’s the feeling of simultaneous anger and defeat. Maybe it’s what comes after. Or maybe it’s about the ever-so-brief silent spaces between notes and words. Rhythm would be nothing without empty space. Words are rhythm at The C.I.A.

“Vicious visage / Internal monologue / Blink and stare / The metal and the glare / Intentions negating / The ego ascertaining / A pause / A cue / A push to make a move” from “Better”.

The C.I.A. released their self-titled debut album in 2018. The trio wrote “Surgery Channel” last year, and recorded it with Mike Kriebel at Ty Segall’s own Harmonizer Studios. Ty Segall issued his most recent solo LP, “Hello, Hi”, earlier this year.

Father John Misty is releasing “Live At Electric Lady”, a Spotify exclusive EP that features alternate versions of “Chloë and The Next 20th Century” highlights “Goodbye Mr. Blue,” “The Next 20th Century,” “Buddy’s Rendezvous,” “We Could Be Strangers,” “(Everything But) Her Love,” and a cover of Stevie Wonder’s “I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever).” The session was recorded in May 2022 at the famed Electric Lady studios in New York.

Father John Misty’s touring in support of “Chloë and The Next 20th Century” is underway. The North American dates currently end with a show on Sunday, November 20th at Mexico City’s Corona Capital Festival. The late summer and fall tour features support from Sub Pop label mate Suki Waterhouse and includes a stop at Radio City Music Hall with The New York Pops on Thursday, September 22nd, 2022. Father John Misty’s UK live dates follow in March next year.

The Natural Lines, the artist who previously recorded as Matt Pond PA, are pleased to share their latest single and video “Spontaneous Skylights 2” from the band’s “First Five” EP which is released today via Bella Union. The song and its accompanying video, which was created by Jen Taylor, follows the band’s recent single “The Problem Is Me”.

About the song and video Matt Pond says: “My friend Jen Taylor and I were laughing at ourselves a few weeks ago. We simultaneously seemed to have swerved—I changed the name of my band and she started working in television after years of working for herself. I mentioned our song ‘Spontaneous Skylights 2’ and about being out of sync with myself. In the song, I imagined the roof exploding and seeing our world from the stars. Space and time, completely out of whack. Something clicked and I wondered what Jen’s early films would look like with this current track. As if we might be able to make sense of our lives by attaching the present to the past.”

Matt Pond-watchers might wonder why the name change. Recorded with close collaborators and friends over a period that saw Pond make vital adjustments to his life, The Natural Lines’ stealth emergence reflects his desire to set a fresh pace for himself and come from somewhere new, somewhere more open. “I quit lying,” he adds. “I checked my harsher tones. I cut my drinking down. I went to therapy and stopped shouting at cars.”

Now, the name change honours his collaborators. Among a revolving cast, one constant presence in his work has been Chris Hansen, who plays guitar, bass, keys, saxophone and sings. Singer-songwriter Anya Marina, shines on “In The Dark” and Simon Raymonde (Cocteau Twins / Bella Union) lays down a lush bass on this tale of hide and seek with true connection. Other band members number Hilary James (cello/vocals), Kyle Kelly-Yahner (drums), Louie Lino (keys), Sarah Hansen (horns), Sean Hansen (drums/bass), Andy Dixon (drums), Kat Murphy (vocals) and, also on vocals, 17-year-old MJ Murphy, for whom Matt brims with praise: “She can do anything she wants to musically.”

A genuine rebirth for Pond and his friends, the result also pays warming and witty testimony to the value of reconfiguring one’s outlook. “I thought I might lose the realness in song writing,” says Matt of his decision to steady his pitch. “I thought I’d have to surrender my edge and my shield. But if your best enemy is yourself, it’s hard to be in a band with the same name.

Matt has been anything but quiet since “Still Summer” (2017). A re-sequenced reissue of 2015’s “The State Of Gold” emerged in 2021, an EP of Covid-era originals and covers including The Thermals’ ‘Pillar of Salt’ appeared on the “Songs of Disquiet” EP in 2020, and soundtracks kept Pond busy. But The Natural Lines was not a project to be rushed, and “First Five” gives a window into what is surely Pond’s best work yet.

A further departure from the past for Matt is ‘It’s a Trap’, where he sets out to surpass his own sarcasm, hunting and holding onto hope within his hands. “Morning comes an hour late” gently opens ‘Spontaneous Skylights 2’ and before we know it the roof blows off the building. When ‘The End of the World’ arrives, The Natural Lines appear to have survived and surrendered to love.

“Once I took control of my mind, I could see what I wanted to say more clearly. Instead of random floods of mania and panic, I felt like I was composed and composing. It has become as simple as reading thewords of a sentence in the right order. As small as the pause before I hit ‘send’.” A development, you might say, conducted along the most natural of lines.

“First Five” EP is out now!

Soundwalk Collective with Patti Smith have announced news of a special deluxe box set release of “The Perfect Vision”, the triptych of acclaimed albums that encompasses “The Peyote Dance”, “Mummer Love” and “Peradam”.

With their one-off live performance at the Pompidou Centre in Paris taking place this Saturday, 22nd October, Soundwalk Collective with Patti Smith today share a beatific rework of the track “Song Of The Highest Tower” by acclaimed electronic artist Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith. 

“Song Of The Highest Tower” is the second track to be shared from the upcoming deluxe box set release of “The Perfect Vision”, out 25th November via Bella Union and available to preorder here, and follows Jim Jarmusch’s striking reimagining of “Eternity”. Both tracks are included on the remix album that comes with the box set alongside the three accliamed albums – “The Peyote Dance”, “Mummer Love” and “Peradam” – that make up “The Perfect Vision”.

Between 2019 and 2021, Soundwalk Collective and Patti Smith collaborated on a triptych of albums which took their inspiration from the writings of three emblematic French poets: Antonin Artaud, Arthur Rimbaud and René Daumal. Central to the work was the poets’ necessity to travel to different lands to acquire a new vision and perspective on themselves and their art. Recorded in the Sierra Tarahumara of Mexico (The Peyote Dance), the Abyssinian valley of Ethiopia (Mummer Love), and the Himalayan Summit of India (Peradam) respectively, each album retraces the poets’ footsteps, channelled through on-location recorded soundscapes, in search of hidden, earthy sounds that hold embedded existence, with Patti Smith revisiting the poets’ words that have been inspired by the landscapes. The result is a sound and visual montage that traverses the works of Rimbaud, Artaud and Daumal in their voyage to elsewhere.

Stimulated by these metaphysical journeys, the musical and sound composition of “The Perfect Vision” is the starting point for a new site-specific and multidisciplinary exhibition – “Evidence” – that Soundwalk Collective and Patti Smith have conceived for the Pompidou Centre. Evidence is a poetic and immersive quest, an ode to a world without borders, a contemporary reflection on the infinite and the universal, a spiritual quest for oneness as a living and life-giving presence. The physical, sound and visual journeys of Soundwalk Collective enter into a conversation with the poetic trajectories of Patti Smith, to create a new vision and language. The exhibition space presents sound, film, abstract imagery, objects and found art collected from their travels, leading the visitor towards a large investigative installation that juxtaposes photography, text and original artwork by Patti Smith, from both her personal collections as well as those of Musée national d’art moderne and MoMA, as an evidence of the existence of these poets and their inspiration, offering a true immersion in their thought and art. 

The exhibition opens today and this Saturday 22nd October Soundwalk Collective & Patti Smith will play a special one-off live performance in the Grand Salle of the Pompidou Centre.