The Fat Angel Sings

Sylvan Esso have announced their upcoming fourth album, “No Rules Sandy”, and released the latest single, “Didn’t Care.”

The studio set will be released August 12th via Loma Vista Recordings, nearly two years after 2020’s “Free Love”. In addition to “Didn’t Care” the album contain lead single, “Your Reality” which the electronic pop duo first unveiled in late June in the wake of minimalist one-off “Sunburn”.

In a statement, Amelia Meath promised the album “feels like who we actually are. It just feels like us. We’re not trying to fit into the mould, just happily being our freak selves.”

To kick off the era, Meath and producer bandmate Nick Sanborn surprised the crowd at the Newport Folk Festival on Sunday by playing the entire album front to back during their set. Next, they’ll offer early previews of the studio effort at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn on July 27th and Gold Diggers in Los Angeles on August 4th.

Meath came together earlier this summer with Brandon Boyd of Incubus and Lucius members Jess Wolfe and Holly Laesig for a virtual round table celebrating the 50th anniversary of David Bowie’s seminal The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars with the acclaimed album’s co-producer Ken Scott as the panel’s very special guest.

The new album “No Rules Sandy”, out everywhere August 12th

As Bruce Springsteen hits the stage once more, the latest MOJO magazine takes an epic road trip through his 50 Greatest Songs. Entrapment and escape, love and betrayal, murder and mayhem, cars and girls: all human life encapsulated by a force of nature and his Swiss Army band. Plus, a 40th anniversary dive into the twisted landscape of “Nebraska”, Springsteen’s bravest, strangest album.

Out Now

Released after an ever growing live following and the string of successful chart hits, the Advert’s debut has cemented its place in punk rock history.

Now this 2xAlbum set release including an extra album with 12 tracks made of up single recordings and live bonus tracks. from the sonic armageddon which ushers in ‘One Chord Wonders’ through to the deliriously protracted fade of ‘Great British Mistake’, ‘Crossing The Red Sea’ never put’s a foot wrong. Created at the height of punk, recorded with all the venom and passion which gave the era such vitality, ‘Crossing The Red Sea’ was at once a statement of intent and a bellow of defiance, a refusal to take anything for granted, even its own brilliance. more than that, though, the album defined and thus became the precious moment in time when the establishment rules of rock fell away, and new ones still had to be carved out. and by those brittle standards,

The Adverts weren’t simply ‘Crossing The Red Sea’, they were parting it. With TV Smith’s intelligent and perceptive lyrics, and Gaye Advert’s thundering bass, the songs still pack a punch. From the screeching first chord of “One Chord Wonders” through to the surprisingly still relevant a blistering final song “The Great British Mistake“, it drives the listener forward.

The Adverts were never speed merchants, and their brand of punk rock was miles away from, say, Sham 69, and are closer in tone to The Ruts or mid period Clash. But these track still have the power to send a shiver down the spine and the hairs on the neck to rise.

What can I say except this has to be one of the greatest punk albums of all time a masterpiece.

Release: 2nd September 2022

I love seeing friends playing comfortably at home, especially when those friends are members of my favourite band. What we see in this Tiny Desk (home) concert is playfulness substituting for the intensity that I normally find in Big Thief on a big stage. This band has made many of my best-loved albums in the past few years, beginning with its 2016 debut “Masterpiece” and including its 2022 double-album “Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You”. The first three songs in this set all come from that album and were written by singer Adrianne Lenker, with “Certainty” co-written with guitarist Buck Meek.

Big Thief song’s are often filled with tender tales and poetic and playful words. I can say the same for Adrianne Lenker’s many solo albums and for Buck Meek’s 2021 solo album, “Two Saviors”. Drummer James Krivchenia produced Big Thief’s recent album and also a 2020 ambient album of his own, “A New Found Relaxation”. Max Oleartchik plays upright bass for this intimate acoustic set on the top floor of a house in “windy Connecticut.” There’s a bit of a “hold on to your hat” feel here, with players watching each other for a possible surprise. Maybe it’s James Krivchenia’s banjo percussion, the galloping rhythm on “Certainty” or how the four musicians sing aloud on a chorus; it is so much fun to see it all unfold. The final song was the biggest surprise; it’s an unreleased song Big Thief has been performing, appropriately called “Happiness.”

MUSICIANS Adrianne Lenker: vocals, guitar Buck Meek: guitar, vocals Max Oleartchik: bass, vocals James Krivchenia: percussion, vocals

SET LIST; “Change” “Dried Roses” “Certainty” “Happiness”

Becca Harvey aka Girlpuppy recently announced the release of her debut album, “When I’m Alone”, which will be out on October 28th on Royal Mountain Records. She also shared a video for the album’s lead single “Wish.” On ‘Wish’ I was thinking about when friends leave your life and you’re not entirely sure why,” Harvey explains in a press release.

“It’s a pretty universal feeling, I think. And, the thing is—even if you managed to live in the walls of that person’s apartment and were able to figure it out, their reasons might not make total sense. This song is me living with that feeling, when loss just doesn’t quite add up. This is the first shoegaze rock song I’ve made and I did that intentionally—the emotions in the song go from anger to sadness to nostalgia and all the other emotions that you feel when you go through a ‘friend breakup.’ I imagined it being really cathartic to play it live.”

“When I’m Alone” was produced by Marshall Vore. Girlpuppy’s debut EP, “Swan“, came out last year via Royal Mountain Records. 

“Playful and easygoing, as [girlpuppy] paints a hopeful summertime daydream…if anyone’s pandemic sidehustle sticks I hope it’s [hers].” NPR

“One of indie folk’s most promising newcomers…her knack for lyrical scene-setting and gossamer melodies that seem to hang in the air like the scent of a freshly baked fruit pie.” NYLON

“A breezy ode to less-than-effortless love” FADER

“Destined for stardom. Her debut EP “Swan” features heartfelt serenades and bouncy indie rock jams that make her irresistible, and her delicate voice is simply magical.” Paste
Office Magazine

“girlpuppy has stepped onto the scene with her debut offering, and is immediately proving to be on the path to excellence.” Line of Best Fit

This week, Art Moore a group consisting of Boy Scouts’ Taylor Vick and Ezra Furman collaborators Sam Durkes and Trevor Brooks have shared a new single, “Sixish” It is the latest release from their forthcoming self-titled debut album, which will be out on August 5th via ANTI-Records.

In a press release, Vick states: “When I first heard the instrumental demo version of ‘Sixish,’ the choruses had a heavy and heartbroken feeling to them so I tried to write lyrics to match that. I wrote about the version of heartbreak that involves a situation where you feel like you’ve got an infinite amount of love and energy to give someone but they’re no longer able to reciprocate.”

Upon announcement of the album in May, the band shared the debut single The first song we ever wrote together “Muscle Memory” It’s about the different phases in life. How friendships and relationships change over time and how we come to deal with it. We filmed an amazing, West Coast gothic music video with visionaries Rocco Rivetti and Gilles O’Kane

They later shared a further track “A Different Life”. 

Vocals: Taylor Vick Drums: Sam Durkes Guitar: Trevor Brooks Bass & Synths: Trevor Brooks : Written by: Taylor Vick and Trevor Brooks

If you have heard Opus Kink the buzz coming off the new Brighton band is enough to set everyone’s ears ringing – mixing raucous Western punk with screaming brass that can blow the speakers out. Coming out of somewhere between The Birthday Party and Madness, frontman Angus Rogers breaking out a full-punk tarantella dangerously hovering around.

After releasing a series of increasingly tantalising singles and playing some rather exhilarating live shows this sextet have now put together an EP they describe as “six songs of bad love, ill winds, possession, stagnation, and earthly delights.” It is an apt summary for a record that’s thick with poignant, carefully crafted, in places, unsettling lyrics; a feat of storytelling as well as music. This storytelling element is one of the strongest features, setting this EP apart, indeed; it is particularly successful in the way that the lyrics and the music work together in painting a vivid picture, the descriptions outlined by sound compounding those created by the words into a whole that is smoothly and accurately delivered.

There truly is a raconteur’s grace to the band’s blend of rock, blues, and country suggestions, brought together with a subtly punk edge and a shrewd use of vocals, both main and backing, all meant to summon an atmosphere which is somewhere in between old western movie and late night in a dingy bar.

Opus Kink – “Dog Stay Down”, out now on Nice Swan Records.

Our debut EP “Til The Stream Runs Dr”y is our now everywhere, vinyl and digital, prostrate and heaving, thank be to all gods.

We have a string or UK headline dates in September to commiserate the release of our EP. Tickets are flying for these shows and we’d urge you to pick up yours now rather than suffer eternal public shame.

When I think of San Francisco Bay Area trio Sour Widows (Maia Sinaiko, Susanna Thomson and Max Edelman) playing live, I think of “Crossing Over,” the sprawling center piece from their 2021-standout EP of the same name. Inspired by a true story, the song captures a moment of pure catharsis in performance: “We caught the storm pulling in / From Ohio to Wisconsin / Let the guitars wail / And the flood take the basement / Screamed to sing above it,” Thomson recalls.

Sour Widows’ slowcore-imbued “bedroom rock” captures such a storm’s intensity in every way, from the eerie quiet that precedes it to the explosive force of its crescendo and the light that breaks through the clouds in its aftermath.

With “Crossing Over”, Sour Widows discover a new intensity by turning inward. The second EP from this Bay Area band dials back some of the volume that drove their self-titled 2020 debut to make space for themes of self-reflection and painful change that cut through with sharpened clarity. The luminous vocal harmonies, complex guitar interplay, and understated drumming that have been at the core of the band’s sound remain foundational; but these four songs reach deeper, all the more stirring in their subtlety.

“Witness” is a patient, poignant slow-core track that explores the murky depths of loss and pain. Sour Widows—Maia Sinaiko, Susanna Thomson and Max Edelman move through grief’s disparate emotional spaces, from steely resolve (“I’ve had practice / I can let things die”) to overwhelming heartache (“My heart beating / Like a fist against the veil”) and a sense of insignificance—as if dwarfed by the enormity of life and death, and the inexorability of time (“The moments repeat / and feedback into and endlessly”). All the while, their dynamic rock fortifies these feelings, peaking as Sinaiko and Thomson vocalize together, then finding a gentler form in its home stretch, like the clear skies after a storm has blown through. “This is the first song we finished since I lost my mom in June 2021,” Thomson says of the song in a statement. “Monumental loss creates a very clear divide between those in your life who can understand the depth of that kind of pain and those who can’t. ‘Witness’ speaks to that experience.”

Written by Sour Widows

Guitar and vocals: Susanna Thomson
Guitar and vocals: Maia Sinaiko
Drums: Max Edelman
Bass: Timmy Stabler

“Crossing Over” by Sour Widows from their EP ‘Crossing Over’ released April 23rd, 2021 on Exploding in Sound Records.

Tacoma, Washington’s own rising rock stars Enumclaw are back with another single from their debut album “Save the Baby”, coming October 14th on Luminelle Recordings. “Cowboy Bepop” follows June’s “Jimmy Neutron,” hailed as one of the year’s best songs (so far). Over his and Nathan Cornell’s warm guitars, Aramis Johnson’s narrator finds himself happy with his life, yet longing for more control as it flies by. ”’Cause if you had to choose, would you / Wanna be brand new? / Well, joke’s on you, nothing’s new / I’m just the same as you,” he sings, finding peace in helplessness—like throwing your arms in the air on a rollercoaster. When a volcanic guitar solo punctuates his contemplation (“If you had to choose / What would you do?”), it hits like all of life’s possibilities manifesting at once. 

Official music video for Enumclaw’s new single “Cowboy Bepop” off of their forthcoming debut album “Save the Baby.”