The Fat Angel Sings

Jeff Beck, one of our most influential rock guitarists of all time, has died at the age of 78. The British musician rose to fame as part of the Yardbirds, where he replaced Eric Clapton, before forming the Jeff Beck Group along with Rod Stewart.

His tone, presence and, above all, volume redefined guitar music in the 1960s, and influenced movements like heavy metal, jazz-rock and even punk.

Born Geoffrey Arnold Beck in Wallington, south London, the musician fell in love with Rock and Roll as a child, and built his first guitar as a teenager.

“The guy next door said, ‘I’ll build you a solid body guitar for five pounds’,” he later told Rock Cellar Magazine. “Five pounds, which to me was 500 back then [so] I went ahead and did it [myself]. “The first one I built was in 1956, because Elvis was out, and everything that you heard about pop music was guitar. And then I got fascinated. I’m sure the same goes for lots of people.”

After a short stint at Wimbledon Art College, he left to play with shock-rocker Screaming Lord Sutch and the Tridents.

When Eric Clapton left the Yardbirds in 1965, Jimmy Page suggested hiring Beck – and he went on to play on hits like “I’m A Man” and “Shapes Of Things”, where his pioneering use of feedback influenced musicians like Paul McCartney and Jimi Hendrix. “That [technique] came as an accident,” he later told BBC Radio 2’s Johnnie Walker.

“We played larger venues, around about ’64-’65, and the PA was inadequate. So we cranked up the level and then found out that feedback would happen. “I started using it because it was controllable – you could play tunes with it. I did this once at Staines Town Hall with the Yardbirds and afterwards, this guy says, ‘You know that funny noise that wasn’t supposed to be there? I’d keep that in if I were you.’

“So I said, ‘It was deliberate mate. Go away’.”

“Still I’m Sad”,From their 1965 album “Having a Rave Up with The Yardbirds”, This is the only original song on this album, written by bassist Paul Samwell-Smith and drummer Jim McCarty. Excellent and innovative psychedelic pop with a mock-Gregorian chant. Rhythm guitar player Chris Dreja: “We were just trying to do something different. The 12-bar blues was very predictable, and now we wanted to make things more exciting, for us and the audience. We had the rave up and it was now time for something new. And of course, Jeff had all these sounds, this orchestra of sounds, and we really wanted to use them.”

Beck stayed with The Yardbirds for nearly two years, before declaring he was quitting music altogether… then releasing his first solo single “Hi Ho Silver Lining”. Recorded in just three hours, the song was his only top 20 hit in the UK, charting in both 1967 and 1972. But the singer was famously ambivalent about it.

Beck formed the Jeff Beck Group, whose first two albums “Truth” (1968) and “Beck-Ola” (1969), took a ferocious approach to the blues. But the band members were unhappy – with a US tour regularly descending into arguments and physical fights.

Singer Rod Stewart and bassist Ronnie Wood quit in 1970 to join the Small Faces (later The Faces), and when Beck was injured in a car accident, so he had to put his career on hold. When he recovered, Beck assembled a second line-up of his band but their albums were commercially unsuccessful and Beck went solo in 1975.

The band had a few minor hits, including a song which pointed the way forward called “Beck’s Bolero.” Bolero was originally recorded in 1966 prior to Beck’s newest band, with a studio supergroup which included Nicky Hopkins on Keyboards, John Paul Jones on bass, Keith Moon on drums, Jimmy Page on guitar, and Beck laying down what became a concert staple in a career which spanned 60 years.

That year, he recorded an album, “Blow By Blow”, with Beatles producer George Martin. Entirely instrumental, Beck’s lyrical, mellifluous guitar playing essentially replaced the parts of a lead vocalist, an approach he would take for most of the rest of his career. “Blow By Blow” made the US top 10 and was awarded a platinum disc, and Beck quickly followed it up with 1976’s “Wired” (also produced by George Martin) .

The 1980s saw him collaborate with Nile Rodgers on an album called “Flash”, which contained his first hit single – a cover of Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready” with Rod Stewart on lead vocals – and earned him a Grammy Award. Beck has been described as a huge influence for movements like heavy metal, jazz-rock and even punk.

In 1987, he played on Mick Jagger’s solo album “Primitive Cool”, and continued to work with artists like Roger Waters and Jon Bon Jovi in the 1990s, as well as contributing to Hans Zimmer’s score for the Tom Cruise movie “Days Of Thunder”. But his solo output slowed down, until the release of 1999’s “You Had It Coming”, featuring Imogen Heap on vocals, followed in 2003 by an album he simply called “Jeff”.

He toured extensively in the 2010s, including a joint-headline venture with Beach Boy Brian Wilson. After each had their solo set, the two would combine forces for a few of Wilson’s biggest hits. Beck would add fun leads on songs like “Fun, Fun, Fun” and “Surfin USA.” However, it was his string bending take on Beach Boy’s classics like “Surf’s Up,” and “Don’t Talk” which also appears on “18,” 

The duo had hoped to record together but those plans fell apart. Instead, Beck ended up befriending actor Johnny Depp, with whom he released a full-length album, “18“, in 2022. While, it’s mostly covers of songs first recorded by John Lennon, Marvin Gaye, The Miracles, and The Everly Brothers, as with all of Beck’s music, the songs are as fresh and unique as the original productions. The album also features songs by Beck with his latest collaborator, Johnny Depp. Having been one of the founders of The Hollywood Vampires, along with Alice Cooper and Joe Perry, Depp comes to the recording process and stage with some serious rock and roll cred. The seemingly odd couple met at a Beck concert many years ago, and as Jeff came to respect Depp as a musician, he was soon invited to join the 60’s guitar God onstage at The Royal Albert Hall. With that, a rock and roll partnership was born.

His legacy lies in the balance between the fluidity and aggression of his playing, a technical brilliance equalled only by his love of ear-crunching dissonance. “It’s like he’s saying, ‘I’m Jeff Beck. I’m right here. And you can’t ignore me’,” wrote Mike Campbell of the Heartbreakers in an essay for Rolling Stone’s Greatest Guitar Players of All Time, where Beck was placed seventh.

“Even in the Yardbirds, he had a tone that was melodic but in-your-face – bright, urgent and edgy, but sweet at the same time. You could tell he was a serious player, and he was going for it. He was not holding back.”

Beck’s death was confirmed on his official Twitter page. “On behalf of his family, it is with deep and profound sadness that we share the news of Jeff Beck’s passing,” the statement said. “After suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis, he peacefully passed away yesterday. His family ask for privacy while they process this tremendous loss.”

Describing his playing style in 2009, Beck said: “I play the way I do because it allows me to come up with the sickest sounds possible.” “That’s the point now, isn’t it? I don’t care about the rules. “In fact, if I don’t break the rules at least 10 times in every song, then I’m not doing my job properly.”

The True West 3CD is being curated by noted reissue producer Pat Thomas, who is well known with music fans and collectors for his reissue work with Light In The Attic, Omnivore, Fire, Water, 4 Men With Beards, and other great labels.

The True West was born in California in 1981, and alongside its contemporary Dream Syndicate, Green on Red, Rain Parade, Thin White Rope, Long Ryders among others, paved the so-called Paisley Underground, a DIY scene inspired by its foundations and doctrines Punk’s nas, flourished with influences from the sixties psychedelia Byrds, the experiments of VU, Acid Folk of Buffalo Springfield, the leisery of Pink Floyd circa Syd Barrett and Big Star’s power pop, the same R.E.M. source matrix of R.I.M. meaning, any coincidence is not mere resemblance, or vice and vice versa.

Gavin Blair and Russ Tolman are the minds behind the sound beauty of True West, Tolman reportedly began his musical saga with The Suspects, alongside Steve Wynn and Kendra Smith, both of Dream Syndicate.

“Drifters” is the guys debut, originally released in 1984, a pearl lost in the limbo of the underworld of good sounds, melodically exuberant, acidic and smooth in proportionally accurate measures, became a cult album years after its release this.

Michael Stipe and Peter Buck confessed True West fans, since the early days, True West were the opening band of the “Fables Of The Reconstruction” tour.

Another iconic fan of the guys was Stan Ridgway from the great wall of voodoo.

True West should have conquered the world like R.E.M. but the music gods have reserved cult band status to them,

The True West set will contain all three studio albums (Hollywood Holiday, Drifters, Hand of Fate), with tons of rarities including extra tracks from the Hand of Fate sessions, recently surfaced demos, live tracks, and other rarities, all packaged in a multi-fold digipack with 24 page book with liner notes by producer Pat.

This Traffic concert was broadcast on WNEW-FM in New York City. The next day, these songs were recorded so well at this concert were planned for a Live Traffic album by UA that was never released.

Possibly because the recording was damaged on “Glad”. This was edited between songs possibly for a recorded album.

Setlist: 01. Introduction by Bill Graham 02. Medicated Goo 03. Pearly Queen 04. Empty Pages 05. Heaven Is In Your Mind 06. Forty Thousand Headmen 07. John Barleycorn Must Die 08. Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring 09. Every Mother’s Son 10. Glad/Freedom Rider ( Sadly, some screw-ups on the master. ) 11. Means To The End 12. Dear Mr. Fantasy

Personel: Steve Winwood – Keyboards, Guitar, Vocals Chris Woods – Flute, Sax, Organ Jim Capaldi – Drums, Vocals Rick Grech – Bass

Dublin four-piece Inhaler look to have 2023 in the palm of their hands, and it could be the year they sky-rocket to superstardom. Their debut album, “It Won’t Always Be Like This”, went to number one in the United Kingdom and their native Ireland. For their second album, “Cuts & Bruises”, could be the one for them to break big time.

Inhaler haven’t reinvented themselves, but they’ve found an extra gear on the singles, ‘Love Will Get You There’ and ‘These Are The Days’, which gives fans reason to be optimistic about the release.

For the new record, Inhaler reconvened with producer Antony Genn, and drummer Ryan McMahon previously said they were intent on making “very much a band album”. Detailing further, singer Eli Hewson added: “Get Back (The Beatles documentary) was hugely influential, just being in the room and writing. It sounds so obvious, but when you’re on tour, you actually don’t get a chance to do that, so we tried to do that as much as possible.”

Inhaler’s new album ‘Cuts And Bruises’:

Canadian singer-songwriter Andy Shauf has confirmed that his latest LP, “Norm”, will be coming out this February. It will be Shauf’s eighth LP overall and first since 2021’s “Wilds”. According to Shauf, the album is centred around the titular character of Norm, who was inspired by a David Lynch’s film.

After a trio of beautiful records that unfold like funny, bittersweet novels—2016’s Nicholas Braun-approved “The Party” taking place at, yes, a party; 2020’s Barack Obama-promoted “The Neon Skyline” at a Toronto bar; and 2021’s “Wilds” at a destination wedding—Shauf aimed for a less linear story with “Norm”. But this is hardly just a mix of good songs, and the album is lyrically quite ambitious, with different narrators, including god in “Wasted On You” and the titular dude, whose deceptively chill-sounding track of the same name was played on repeat plenty by yours truly. 

“The character of Norm is introduced in a really nice way,” Shauf says of the first round of preview singles. “But the closer you pay attention to the record, the more you’re going to realize that it’s sinister.” 
Shauf’s status as one of indie’s greatest songwriters was solidified with the excellent “The Neon Skyline”. Strangely enough, “Wilds” kind of came and went without much fanfare.

“Catch Your Eye” is out now, the second song from ‘Norm’ on Anti Records / Arts & Crafts. Animated by Mary Vertulfo.

Here’s hoping that a little more attention is paid to “Norm” when it comes out on February 10th.

Everything But the Girl are releasing a new album entitled “Fuse”, their first studio album in 24 (!) years, this April. The British pop duo are best known for their infectious 1994 bop “Missing,” and have been sorely missed on the pop airwaves ever since announcing an indefinite hiatus in 2000. Though the pair had stated over a decade ago that they were to never perform together again, their album news comes with  with a fresh single, “Nothing Left to Lose,” which sounds like the sonic equivalent of dissociating on the dance floor. Time indeed does act like a renewing salve; we can’t wait for even more new EBTG

The duo went on an amicable, indefinite hiatus in 2000, choosing to go out on a natural high note. Their re-emergence appears to have come about just as organically: “Ironically the finished sound of the new album was the last thing on our mind when we started in March 2021,” Thorn said in a press release. “Of course, we were aware of the pressures of such a long-awaited comeback, so we tried to begin instead in a spirit of open-minded playfulness, uncertain of the direction, receptive to invention.”

Watt adds: “It was exciting. A natural dynamism developed. We spoke in short-hand, and little looks, and co-wrote instinctively. It became more than the sum of our two selves. It just became Everything But the Girl on its own.”

It was the months of July through October 2000 when David Bowie worked on a passion project that came to be known as “TOY” . The plan was to hit a recording studio with his touring band at the time (which included guitarist Earl Slick, bassist Gail Ann Dorsey, pianist Mike Garson and drummer Sterling Campbell) and knock out an entire album as fast as possible for a “surprise” release. Hoping to get the LP out by March 2001, the entire project was shelved by the label, leading Bowie to jump ship to a new label and craft what became his 23rd studio album, “Heathen”. As for “TOY”, various tracks from the record surfaced over the years, but it wasn’t until 2021 when “TOY” was officially released; first as part of the “Brilliant Adventure (1999-2001)” box set, then later as a deluxe edition in January 2022.

The urgency and spontaneous energy of tunes like “You’ve Got a Habit of Leaving” permeates the inspired and truly brilliant posthumous release. Give it a spin to recognize Bowie’s heavenly birthdate of January 8th.

Between his early masterpieces like “Hunky Dory” and his 26th and final album “Blackstar”, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that David Bowie made plenty of music that fell through the cracks or never saw a proper release. But Ziggy Stardust devotees will be happy to know that “Toy”, Bowie’s elusive 2001 album, has finally received its proper commercial release today.

“Toy” arrived as part of an archival box set titled Brilliant Adventure (1992 – 2001). Bowie recorded it in 2001, in the aftermath of his 2000 Glastonbury performance. His intent with “Toy” was to reimagine some of his earlier recordings with a full band and then surprise-release the record, but when his label EMI/Virgin squashed those plans, Bowie then signed to Columbia, ditched “Toy” altogether, and moved along to making his 2002 album “Heathen”. Some of the “Heathen” tracks were originally intended for “Toy”, which was eventually leaked in 2011, but today marks the album’s first official release.

“Toy” is like a moment in time captured in an amber of joy, fire and energy,” said Bowie producer Mark Plati in a statement. “It’s the sound of people happy to be playing music. David revisited and re-examined his work from decades prior through prisms of experience and fresh perspective — a parallel not lost on me as I now revisit it twenty years later. From time to time, he used to say ‘Mark, this is our album’ — I think because he knew I was so deeply in the trenches with him on that journey. I’m happy to finally be able to say it now belongs to all of us.”

Following its inclusion in the archival box set, “Brilliant Adventure (1992 – 2001)”, “Toy” will receive a standalone release as a multi-disc set called “TOY:BOX” on January 7th.

In more Bowie news, the iconic musician will be further memorialized in a forthcoming documentary by filmmaker Brett Morgen, who pored over thousands of hours of unseen concert footage for the project.

Toy Tracklist:
01. I Dig Everything
02. You’ve Got a Habit Of Leaving
03. The London Boys
04. Karma Man
05. Conversation Piece
06. Shadow Man
07. Let Me Sleep Beside You
08. Hole In the Ground
09. Baby Loves That Way
10. Can’t Help Thinking About Me
11. Silly Boy Blue

Julia Jacklin’s new album draws to a close with a plea: “Be careful with yourself,” she sings in the song of the same name. She begs someone to “please stop smoking” because she “want[s] your life to last a long time,” and later advises them to “make sure you have got a little savings” and “keep all our doctors appointments, give voice to our doubts.” As an early 30-something, the Australian singer is now, like so many millennials, faced with the realities of adulthood. “There’s nobody coming to save us,” she eventually sighs in the penultimate song of her third LP, “Pre Pleasure”. While Jacklin is probably singing from the perspective of a worried friend or partner, “Be Careful With Yourself” is one of a few songs on the album that contain what sounds like advice from a concerned parent. And when her lyrics don’t lean towards the maternal, Jacklin is a sharp observer of her own internal life, hacking away at the crust of her neuroses and conditions—be they intrusive thoughts or caring too much—until some nugget of meaning is unearthed. For Jacklin, this involves a combination of revisiting childhood and confronting adulthood, a process that results in some of the Australian artist’s sharpest songwriting to date. 

Julia Jacklin covers “Just To Be A Part” by Bill Fay, out now on Dead Oceans.

In recent years, there’s been an influx of musicians embracing minimalism. Often, the lack of excess can lead to these songs being dismissively tagged as “sad,” particularly if the artist dares to fill that space with any emotion at all. One of the finest practitioners of this sparse musicality is Sarah Beth Tomberlin, who performs under her surname. Her 2018 debut album “At Weddings” drew comparisons to ambient icons like Grouper and staples of contemporary indie like Julien Baker. Her music sits at the intersection of these artists’ in both sound and subject. “At Weddings” dealt with Tomberlin’s internal conflict, having left her home and religion behind. Raised in rural Illinois as a pastor’s kid, she uprooted to Louisville, where the bulk of “At Weddings” came to fruition. Since then, she’s moved to New York and released an EP called Projections in 2020. Projections, produced with Alex G, saw Tomberlin’s arrangements fill out—several of its tracks played with percussion, something rarely found on her debut.

The natural next step was for her to follow in the footsteps of Baker, who began making hollow, devastating music before gradually fleshing out her band. And she did, sort of. Her new album, “i don’t know who needs to hear this…” is grander than anything she’s done before, but rarely does it feel like a departure. Recorded in Brooklyn with producer Philip Weinrobe, known for his work with Adrienne Lenker and Buck Meek, the record features contributions from Shahzad Islamly and Told Slant’s Felix Walworth.

Where “At Weddings” was written without a goal in mind and carries that homespun air, the deliberateness of the songs on “idkwntht” is palpable. At the record’s heart is Tomberlin simultaneously embracing self-love and acceptance (“born again runner”), and taking love away from toxic influences (“collect caller”), no matter how difficult both acts may be.

Results aren’t the point; it is simply the act of trying and holding space for one’s emotions that counts.

The American musician Madison Cunningham delivers with “Revealer” a very beautiful and wonderful album, which stimulates the imagination endlessly both musically and vocally with particularly exciting songs.

I had never heard of Madison Cunningham until recently, but since my first listen to her new album “Revealer”, I think the chances of her popping up high in my annual list in December are huge. The American musician has a beautiful voice and is a talented guitarist and songwriter. Together with many top musicians and renowned producers, she has made an album that never chooses the easiest way, but nevertheless effortlessly seduces. Madison Cunningham’s adventurous songs amaze and amaze, but also sound particularly pleasant and “Revealer” only becomes more beautiful when you hear the album more often. Impressive.

There’s something in Madison Cunningham’s music for everyone: folk roots, but with jazzy accents and sharp enough guitar and drum lines to allow you to move with it. There’s so much glittering on the surface of “Revealer”, and then so much that swims underneath. Although the first few tracks sparkle, the album takes you by surprise with curveballs like “Life According to Raechel,” a true heartbreaker in the center of the album that leaves your skin crawling with sorrow, and “Who Are You Now,” relentlessly asking the listener, “Who are you now / Who are you this time?”

Her songs feel like perfectly and eccentrically built cupboards, housing everything just so inside different nooks, making well-organized space for the shape of every word and synth swell. From the melodies and arrangements to the lyrics, it is clear that this LP is in the most vulnerable space, one of self-consciousness coupled with a lot of emotion in every possible direction. Cunningham never has to scream to make herself heard. Instead, she often remains low to the ground with her volume, making it all the more powerful when her voice soars into pure upper registers or the cymbals accent her point. On album closer, “Sara And The Silent Crowd,” she aims for her own heart and yours, leaving you with: “And when the glamour dies down, there’s only you now / Only you and yourself to appease the silent crowd / And no one can shelter you now.”

Madison has really grown beyond the confines of the sweet-voiced “singer-songwriter” genre definitions with this sophisticated and richly composed record. Her catchy guitar licks have strong jazz influences, and her chops most certainly have jazz influences! She singe with power, sensitivity to the lyrics, and a meaningful clarity. Beautifully crafted and beautifully performed throughout, there’s not a weak track here,

released September 9th, 2022