The Fat Angel Sings

Liam Gallagher – “Knebworth 22“. The new documentary, in cinemas from Thursday 17th November for a limited time. 

On the honey shores of Cape Cod in a beach shack, Courtney Marie Andrews found self-love and her voice. Every morning, she’d walk 6-8 miles around the back trails of an island and meditate on her life, perusing old memories and patterns like browsing a used bookshop. After more than a decade on the road, the Phoenix-born songwriter, poet, and painter finally had the space to process all the highs and lows of a life of constants. She was finally ready to make a record of triumph, while not completely forgetting the years that made her. That record is the Sam Evian produced “Loose Future”.

The sometimes difficult transition to autumn is made gentle by the embrace of Courtney Marie Andrews’ new album, “Loose Future”. It’s the kind you want to put on to add a little extra warmth at any time of day—the walk to work through newly brisk air, making dinner with friends, those moments just before you drift off to sleep. It’s easy to convince yourself there might be an extra something tucked into Andrews’ voice just for you, making it an album you can share secrets with. The production of her Americana sound makes it soft on your ears, easily strummed guitars and light shakers fuzzing out the edges of her songs, a change from some of the sharper, more volatile songs of her past. You move toward Andrews’ voice like a moth toward a light; she manages to just sound kind, imbuing the hops and skips of her voice with the right amount of nostalgia and sadness, even rolling in little bits of humour. “You and I in the corner of a room / At an awkward party / Where no one was talkin’ / As you were mocking the disaster,” she sings, almost laughing at herself before singing, “I still hold space for you / Even with all you put me through.” It’s an easy album to listen and give yourself over to, fully. 

Courtney Marie Andrews’ new song, “These Are The Good Old Days,” off her forthcoming album ‘Loose Future’, out on Fat Possum on October 7th.

Picking up right where “A Billion Little Lights” left off, “ILYSM” finds John Ross once again staring into the cosmos and the infinite abyss, looking towards the moon as a companion and the night sky as a link to all of humanity. Early on in the writing process for “ILYSM”, Ross was diagnosed with cancer, and there are moments on almost every song where you can hear him grappling with this diagnosis and trying to make sense of it all. In spite of its tough subject matter, or perhaps because of it, “ILYSM” is a record brimming with hope and a newfound appreciation for life itself. Songs like “Hold My Hand,” a duet with Julien Baker, and the hauntingly beautiful “St. Beater Camry,” which features vocals from Samantha Crain, take a more laid-back sonic approach which, in turn, makes them all the more effective as Ross shares some of his most vulnerable lyrics to date.

These tracks in particular serve as further proof that no matter how complex the band’s arrangements have grown, the humanistic qualities of their songs have always endured. However, it isn’t until “The Grass Widow in the Glass Window” that Ross delivers one of the record’s most devastating lines: “Now is not for the faint of heart / They’ll put you on a shelf / If you can’t just shut the fuck up and be alone with yourself.”

“The Grass Widow In The Glass Window” from Wild Pink, available now on Royal Mountain Records. “ILYSM” out October 14th, 2022.

Like their heroes, Teenage Fanclub, Alvvays have always gone all in for the anthemic. But whereas the former sets a course for the stars with sweeping guitar chords and epic choruses that blast upwards on a more-or-less straight trajectory, Alvvays finds drama by drilling down into the core of their songs and breaking them apart at the cellular level—and never more so than on noisy, moody new record “Blue Rev”. Brimming with melodic twists, hairpin rhythmic turns, screeching key changes, and instrumental chaos that only feels uncontrolled because it is so precisely arranged, there’s so much happening within and around the fringes of “Blue Rev” that every moment teeters on the edge of destruction in the style of the amateur who doesn’t realize that it’s the kitchen sink that sinks the ship.

And yet this is masterful stuff for the simplest of reasons, which is that it hardly matters how far Alvvays want to explode their songs because the fact is that they have songs, good ones, and at the end of the day when you’re a guitar pop band, even one with stadium-sized ambitions and a taste for pastiche, the song is all that counts.

There are newly aggressive moments here—the gleeful and snarling guitar solo at the heart of opener “Pharmacist,” or the explosive cacophony near the middle of “Many Mirrors.” And there are some purely beautiful spans, too—the church- organ fantasia of “Fourth Figure,” or the blue-skies bridge of “Belinda Says.” But the power and magic of Blue Rev stems from Alvvays’ ability to bridge ostensible binaries, to fuse elements that seem antithetical in single songs—cynicism and empathy, anger and play, clatter and melody, the soft and the steely. The luminous poser kiss-off of “Velveteen,” the lovelorn confusion of “Tile by Tile,” the panicked but somehow reassuring rush of “After the Earthquake”.

The songs of “Blue Rev” thrive on immediacy and intricacy, so good on first listen that the subsequent spins where you hear all the details are an inevitability.

released October 7th, 2022

Molly Rankin : Vocals, Guitar, Production
Alec O’Hanley : Guitar, Keyboards, Bass, Production, Mixing, Engineering
Kerri MacLellan : Keyboards, Vocals
Sheridan Riley : Drums
Abbey Blackwell : Bass

Chris Dadge : Drums
Moshe Fisher-Rozenberg : Drums
Drew Jurecka – Cello, Viola
Joseph Shabason – Flute, Baritone Saxophone
Phil Hartunian – Guitar

Even though the man himself has been gone for nearly 30 years, the excellent and essential new releases just keep on coming, thanks to his seemingly inexhaustible vault/archives and the impressive efforts of his estate. The latest offering “Zappa ’75: Zagreb/Ljubljana”, documenting a pair of historic Yugoslavian shows officially arrives this weekend. But there are already rumours about the next set coming down the pipe: A multi-disc box featuring the 1972 albums “Waka/Jawaka” and “The Grand Wazoo“, supposedly being released on December 16th. The press release below surfaced online the other day. I haven’t seen any official confirmation from the powers that be yet, but it looks legit to me. Besides, who would bother to create a fake press release about a Frank Zappa box set? 

“Waka/Wazoo” is a comprehensive 4-CD + Blu-ray audio box set celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Mothers Of Invention’s “Waka/Jawaka” and “Grand Wazoo” experience from 1972.

During the aftermath of being pushed off the stage at the Rainbow Theatre in London, England, Zappa found himself recuperating for months in his home in Laurel Canyon. Although he was confined to a wheelchair, his work ethic could not be tamed. During this time, he managed, among other things, to assemble an ensemble that quenched his thirst and desire to work with a large “Electric Orchestra.”

Ultimately, a 20-piece group was contracted, along with recording sessions and an eight-city tour. Shortly thereafter, a scaled down 10-piece configuration, now known as the Petit Wazoo, toured for almost two months. After all was said and done, Zappa finished the experiment with two albums in the can, “Waka/Jawaka” and “The Grand Wazoo”, plus two tours and an archive of show masters in his vault. It was a monumental feat for a guy with a cast on his leg and a conductor’s baton in his hand.

The “Waka/Wazoo” box set features a complete historical rundown of the entire project, with alternate takes of almost every composition recorded during the album sessions, plus vault mix session outtakes and oddities. Also included is the full final show of the 10-piece tour, recorded at the famous Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco on December 15th, 1972.

The Blu-ray audio disc features both albums with brand-new, first-time-ever Atmos and 5.1 mixes from the original multi-tracks and the 96kHz 24-bit high-resolution stereo remasters. Finally, during the album recording sessions at Paramount Studios, Zappa worked with George Duke on some of Duke’s solo material. These demos were produced by Zappa, who also played guitar. Although George would go on to re-record the compositions for his own albums, the versions with Zappa have never been officially issued until now.”

“Waka/Wazoo” features a complete historical rundown of the entire project in a five-disc multi-format box. The comprehensive set boasts unreleased alternate takes of almost every composition recorded during the album sessions, Vault mix session outtakes and oddities, and also includes the full final show of the 10-piece tour, recorded at the famous Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco on December 15th, 1972.

Additionally, the collection includes a set of demos for George Duke’s solo material that Zappa produced and played guitar on during the album recording sessions at Paramount Studios. Although Duke would go on to re-record the compositions for his own albums, the versions with Zappa have never been officially issued until now.

The Beatles have released a new animated video for their 1966 classic “Taxman”. The video heralds the arrival of the expanded Special Edition release of the band’s classic “Revolver” album, which hits the shelves on October 28th. 

The animated video for “Taxman” was directed by Danny Sangra, who previously worked with the band on a series of animated birthday messages from “Taxman” writer George Harrison to John, Paul and Ringo. Sangra has also worked on a collaboration between Metallica and Italian shoe brand Brioni. 

The Beatles announced the expanded edition of “Revolver” in July, and released a demo version of “Taxman“. Earlier this month another demo arrived, the first recorded version of “Tomorrow Never Knows”.

The track was recorded across three Studio Two sessions in April and May, 1966. One of three songs on the album by George, in “Taxman” he expresses his frustration with the UK’s ‘super-rich’ tax rate at the time (90%), with a vocal wink to the “Batman” TV theme song. Get The Beatles’ “Revolver” into your life with the new mixes and expanded Special Editions. Available everywhere October 28th, 2022 across 5CD/4LP Super Deluxe, 2CD Deluxe, Picture Disk, 1LP, 1CD, Download and Streaming. Dolby Atmos Mixes + original mono mix accompany never-before-released session recordings and demos, plus the “Paperback Writer” and “Rain” EP. The Beatles’ 1966 album “Revolver” changed everything. Spinning popular music off its axis and ushering in a vibrant new era of experimental, avant-garde sonic psychedelia, Revolver brought about a cultural sea change and marked an important turn in The Beatles’ own creative evolution. With “Revolver,” John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr set sail together across a new musical sea. Showcasing GRAMMY-winning original album artwork created by Klaus Voormann, the Super Deluxe CD and vinyl house a beautiful book featuring Paul McCartney’s foreword, an introduction by Giles Martin, an enlightening essay by Questlove, and insightful chapters by Kevin Howlett.

The expanded edition of “Revolver” will be available in several configurations, including standalone vinyl, picture disc, CD, and expanded CD and CD/vinyl sets. The Special Edition tracks have been remixed by producer Giles Martin and engineer Sam Okell in stereo and Dolby Atmos. 

When it comes to the worst-ever rock’n’roll botch jobs, The Clash’s 1985 death rattle “Cut the Crap” deserves special mention, it turns out that the “Cut The Crap” songs were actually good songs horribly produced as you can hear in the video below. And there were about 30 songs from those “Out of Control” sessions. Might have been a great double album had the boys recruited a quality producer and begged Mick and Topper to return to the fold.

Largely concocted by Joe Strummer and Clash manager Bernie Rhodes, Cut the Crap spat up a queasy gumbo of amateur-hour punk guitar and football chants laid atop a mess of inept drum programming, wedding-band funk bass, and cornball 80s synths. And as if that racket weren’t bad enough, the pair then overdubbed ‘found sounds’ like arcade noises and short-wave radio broadcasts at random, often overpowering the vocals.

What they forgot to include, however, were any actual members of Strummer’s post-Mick Jones Clash, most unforgivably their powerhouse new drummer Pete Howard. Not even original bassist Paul Simonon made the cut.

But for many Clash fans who saw or heard recordings of the ‘84 line-up incendiary shows, the album was utterly inexplicable. “Cut the Crap” scrapped the live arrangements, then replaced the new band with synths and beatboxes, the very machines Strummer had publicly denounced partner Mick Jones for dicking around with in 1983. Henceforth, fans would have to content themselves with bootlegs of varying audibility to hear the original versions of Strummer’s Clash II songs.

Cover versions of songs from The Clash’s Cut The Crap (Out of Control) sessions. Songs: This Is England (The Strummers) 00:00 Fingerpoppin (El Quatro) 04:43 Three Card Trick (The Crap Cutters) 08:24 Are You Ready (The Crap Cutters) 11:34 Play To Win (Winterdrinks) 15:24 Life Is Wild (The Crap Cutters) 18:52 Dirty Punk (Basenji) 21:21 Movers and Shakers (The Violets) 24:46 Pouring Rain (Indio Bravo) 27:35 Backwoods Drive (Sussed Out With Sol Roots) 31:55 Jericho (Ammunition) (Crap Cutters) 34:28 Galleani (Don Zientara) 37:33 We Are The Clash (Too Much Joy) 41:12 Glue Zombie (The Crap Cutters) 43:58 Blues On The River (The Crap Cutters) 46:21 Dictator (Silverado) 50:59 Out of Control (Do It Now) 53:35 Before We Go Forward (The Crap Cutters) 56:49 Sex Mad Roar (Dom Casual) 1:00:00 Are You Ready (Scotch Bonnets) 1:03:05 Play To Win (The Crap Cutters) 1:06:14 National Powder (Sussed Out) 1:09:10 Cool Under Heat (The Violets) 1:12:57 Pouring Rain (The Crap Cutters) 1:16:19 Jericho (Ammunition) (The Delarcos) 1:21:32 Rock ‘n Roll City (Space Giants) 1:24:36 Life Is Wild (Don Zientara) 1:27:00 North and South (The Crap Cutters) 1:30:54

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German musician Gerald Manns (of punk/metal outfit Mutant Proof set about to put modern technology to better use, undergoing one of the most ambitious fan remix projects ever attempted. And with his restoration, Mann has given long-suffering fans the nearest thing they will ever have to a Great Lost Clash Album.

Mann digitally stripped Strummer’s vocal tracks from “Cut the Crap”, pasted them into his meticulous recreation of the band’s live arrangements, and created what is for all intents and purposes an entirely new work of art (retitled “Mohawk Revenge“, after a Clash t-shirt design).

Nick Sheppard, the only member of Strummer’s new Clash actually invited to the “Cut the Crap” sessions?. Nick has heard the remixes, and cited the stunning reggae revamp of the heretofore-unlistenable “Play To Win” as “genius,” and his personal favourite. He also gave special praise to Gerald’s drum programming and cited his arrangements of “Are You Ready for War” and “This is England” as being “ridiculously close” to what the band had originally intended, though he felt the guitars “would have been more aggressive” on the Clash album.

Sheppard said, “All in all it’s a great and noble endeavour,” but also lamented that it was “a bittersweet listening experience for me, as it definitely confirms that ‘what could have been’ would have cut the mustard.”

Shorn of all the inept studio scuzz, even the weaker tracks like “Dirty Punk” and “Cool Under Heat” sound more like classic British power-pop than 80s

Romi, Sarah, Emily, and Meg were fed up of music being a ‘members-only club’ at its best and a phallocracy at its worst, so in 2018, they decided to do something about it. Cue, Panic Shack.

Armed with brash, witty lyrics and killer hooks, they crashed through the UK music scene with a tidal wave of ear-crunching noise. Immediately building up a reputation for their raw, unapologetic live shows and off-kilter songs, Panic Shack prove that DIY does it better.

Since their inception it’s been non-stop for this Welsh punk quintet. With support from BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 6 Music, Huw Stephens, Jack Saunders, Radio X, Bob Vylan, and PRS, it’s clear that this band have started something special.

Having already played prestigious stages at Green Man Festival, Liverpool Sound City, Cardiff Castle, and 2000 Trees Festival, and joined bands like The Wytches, Grandma’s House, and Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard on stages across the UK, Panic Shack are only going to continue to create unhinged, earth-shattering music (until, of course, they’re rich enough to be sipping champagne after taking a dip in the pool at their mansions).

Released via Brace Yourself Records 2022

As they have said since their inception, they want to be “the best band since Oasis.” As frontman Aramis Johnson puts it, “In the lineage of rock, Oasis is the last band to go from some random dive bar to a stadium. And if we’re not selling out stadiums, we’re not doing it how I wanted to do it.”

It’s a lofty goal, but they’re already on their way to earning that moniker, drawing plenty of interest from the indie world with their “Jimbo Demo” EP. But when listening to “Save The Baby”, you begin to realize that for Johnson this band’s success isn’t just a goal – it’s a necessity.

Beneath the blown-out guitars and sun-lit hooks that colour the album, Johnson’s lyrics are restless and confessional, revealing a nervous desperation for salvation that only the band can provide. He says as much on “Park Lodge,” an early highlight that also doubles as a mission statement一 “’Cause in my life, I’ve prayed for change/About a thousand times/And in my life, I’ve wasted time/But I had to take what’s mine.”

If nothing else, Enumclaw understands the power of mythmaking.