The Fat Angel Sings

By 1973, the Who had begun recording their “Quadrophenia” album, the rock opera about mod culture. The Quadrophenia tour started in Stoke on Trent in October ‘73 – the same month the record was released – but was immediately beset with sound and relationship problems.

Their US tour started on 20th November at the Cow Palace; a legendary show during which Keith Moon passed out, prompting Pete Townshend to ask the audience, “Can anyone play the drums? I mean somebody good.” The show was completed with audience member Scott Halpin behind Moon’s kit.
The Who’s penultimate gig in the US during their ‘73 tour, was performed at the Spectrum in Philadelphia on December 4th. Playing a stunning concert which for many fans was the best show of the tour, the Who ripped through an extraordinary set, bookended by Who classics, but with a dynamic selection of numbers from “Quadrophenia” at its core.

The Who recorded live at The Spectrum in Philadelphia PA on 12/4/1973. Broadcast on the nationally syndicated King Biscuit Flower Hour on WXCD 94.7 Chicago and other stations nationwide. The Who: Pete Townshend – Guitar, Vocals; Roger Daltrey – Vocals, Harmonica; John Entwistle – Bass, Vocals; Keith Moon – Drums, Vocals

Richard Lewis: “A more complete version of this show is now in circulation and includes both “Punk and the Godfather” and “5:15″. “No Love Reign O’er Me“, yet which would complete the most likely setlist. However, after an 8 minute ovation the band returned to the stage for a 12 minute encore of “Naked Eye” I added the songs to setlist.

Bonny Light Horseman’s debut was a folk masterclass, re-imagining centuries-old standards with effortless grace and wonder. Those Grammy-nominated, list-topping songs not only suggested renewed possibilities for aging songbooks but also marked the arrival of a trio fully capable of reorienting the wider folk landscape. “Rolling Golden Holy” marks their return with preternatural beauty, charm, and imagination. This is a band working at the edge of modern folk. The band thrives in rendering fresh wisdom and insight from old models, whether scraps of ancient songs or the spark of entwined voices. Theirs is a space created for sharing, learning, risking, singing, and playing as one. The new album is the band’s testament to interdependence, partnership, and trust at a moment when we crave such connections so much. Anaïs Mitchell, Josh Kaufman and Eric D. Johnson as a trio fully appreciate what they have found in one another through Bonny Light Horseman; on “Rolling Golden Holy”, we get to live inside that magic, too.

From the upcoming album Rolling Golden Holy, out 7th Oct 2022 with 37d03d Records.

The iconic Pixies forged an influential path for alt-rock during their first era, while their post 2004 reunion has seen them alchemize more sophisticated dark arts – a return which has them add another three UK Top 10 albums to the three they achieved on their first run. Now as fired up as ever before, Pixies are readying the release their eighth studio album “Doggerel” via BMG, including lead single ‘There’s a Moon On’.

Doggerel is a mature yet visceral record of gruesome folk, ballroom pop and brutal rock, haunted by the ghosts of affairs and indulgences, driven wild by cosmic forces and envisioning digital afterlives where no God has provided one. And all the while, right there on the news, another distant storm approaches.

Official Lyric Video for There’s A Moon On by Pixies – from the new album Doggerel, out on September 30th.

When Martin Courtney was a teenager, he knew how to get lost. In the late ‘90s and early 2000s, there’s Martin, loaded into a car with friends. They’re navigating the suburban sprawl of New Jersey with no destination in mind. He and his friends would “get thoroughly confused and look for familiar green signs with arrows pointing to towns we’d heard of. We’d call them ‘magic signs,’” he says. 

That’s the thing about magic: when you go looking for it, you start to see it everywhere.  And you can hear it twinklingly throughout the ten songs on “Magic Sign“, the second solo album written, performed, & produced by the Real Estate songwriter. The album was recorded, mixed & co-produced by Rob Schnapf. Additional performers include Matt Barrick, Oliver Hill, Kacey Johansing, and Tim Ramsey

Real Estate band member Martin Courtney – “Sailboat” from the forthcoming album ‘Magic Sign’ out 24th June 2022 on Domino Record Co.

The best music reflects a wide-screen view of the world back at us, helping distill the universal into something far more personal. Since forming in Austin in 2004, The Black Angels have become standard-bearers for modern psych-rock that does exactly that, which is one of many reasons why the group’s new album, “Wilderness of Mirrors”, feels so aptly named. In the five years since the band’s prior album, “Death Song“, and the two-plus years spent working on “Wilderness of Mirrors”, pandemics, political tumult and the ongoing devastation of the environment have provided ample fodder for the Black Angels’ signature sonic approach.

“Wilderness of Mirrors” expertly refines the Black Angels’ psychedelic rock attack alongside a host of intriguing sounds and textures. There are classic blasts of fuzzed-out guitars meant to simultaneously perk up the ears and jumpstart the mind, alongside melancholy, acoustic guitar-driven newfound experiments. Mellotron, strings, and other keyboards also play a more prominent role on “Wilderness of Mirrors” than ever before.

Even amidst these new experimentations, The Black Angels remain masterfully true to psych-rock forebears such as Syd Barrett, Roky Erickson, Arthur Lee and the members of the Velvet Underground, all of whom are namechecked on album highlight “The River.” “The Velvet Underground song ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’ – that’s what every Black Angels album has been about,” says vocalist/bassist Alex Maas. “You can’t work out your struggles unless you bring them to the forefront and think about them. If we can all think about them, maybe we can help save ourselves.”

“El Jardin” now from our forthcoming album “Wilderness of Mirrors”:

Has there been a busier musician over the last two years? A more prolific artist? More creative? More heroic? We are delighted to welcome Tim Burgess into the Dinked fold with his superb and eclectic new double album, “Typical Music” which will be out on September 23rd via Bella Union. Burgess also shared a video for the album’s title track.

Burgess discusses his new album in a press release: “OK, we all know about double albums, right? Historically, they’ve been thought of as indulgent. But I came to the conclusion that what I was doing was the opposite of that. I wanted to give people everything that I’d done. Every idea was treated as if it was the best thing and had to be treated with extreme care. I wanted to give everything of myself. That was it.”

He adds: “I fell in love with the world again. During COVID, I read a pile of books, got better on guitar. I had new perspective. I wanted to learn how to be Tim Burgess who makes solo records. People have a vision of me as the singer in The Charlatans. That’s not going to change. Then there’s me as the Twitter guy. But I just fell in love with the world again and wanted the world to take me with them.”

“Typical Music” was recorded at Rockfield Studios in Monmouthshire, Wales, and features musical contributions from Daniel O’Sullivan and Thighpaulsandra.

In April, Burgess shared the album track “Here Comes the Weekend,”  Last September, Burgess released the book “The Listening Party”, written about his Twitter listening parties.

.

Los Angeles-based Dummy follows up their debut LP, “Mandatory Enjoyment”, with two songs for the Sub Pop Singles Club. The A-Side, “Mono Retriever,” is a baroque-drone-pop rager that imagines what a punk Free Design song might sound like. The lyrics criticize the corporate greenwashing and dishonesty at the root of ecological devastation. On the B-Side, “Pepsi Vacuum,” the band experiments with sampling and digital editing, taking inspiration from ‘90s ambient and chill-out music. As a lyrical counterpoint, “Pepsi Vacuum” is about the spirituality of nature; the powerful feeling of universality and connection, down to the molecular level.

The two songs function as mirrors, referencing the other musically, and both sharing oceanic lyrical themes. A jittery post-punk banger, “Mono Retriever” manages to be lush while still taking a barebones approach. The chirpy track ruminates on the blatant disregard that big businesses have for nature, and serves as a mirror for its shoegaze-inspired counterpart. The perfect contrast, “Pepsi Vacuum” sees the band experiment with digital editing and sports a ’90s chillwave edge. While both tracks play with an oceanic motif, Dummy shows their versatility by creating two completely different sonic experiences that still somehow fit together seamlessly.

Dummy’s debut LP “Mandatory Enjoyment” came out in October 2021 on Trouble In Mind, following two cassette EPs on Pop Wig and Born Yesterday, respectively. Dummy is Emma, Nathan, Mark, Alex and Joe, and they appear courtesy of Trouble In Mind.

In The Red release the 12-inch vinyl release of six songs from The Linda Lindas’ early recording sessions on beautiful colour vinyl variants that were specifically picked by each member of the band. The group released the tracks digitally a year ago and have since become instant sensations when their song “Racist, Sexist Boy” went viral—now everyone knows how awesome they are. In The Red were already huge fans of the band and are thrilled to be giving these songs the vinyl treatment.

After their amazing performance of “Racist, Sexist Boy” at the LA Public Library we couldn’t wait to meet this tween & teen punk band. Jimmy checks in with them backstage during the monologue and they talk about going viral and the meaning behind their now famous song, and later in the show they make their national television debut performing live in our studio!

This version originally released in 1984 and unavailable for almost 40 years, this was a collaboration between one of the most successful (UK) female stars of the ‘60s and indie darlings the Smiths, who were big fans. It features three Morrissey / Marr originals on which Sandie is backed by messrs Marr, Rourke and Joyce. Despite having established themselves as a group, Morrissey and Marr still harboured ambitions that they would be recognised as songwriters by having their songs covered by others. Their top choice was singer Sandie Shaw, of whom Morrissey was a fan, and who had scored several hits throughout the 1960s and she was one of the most prominent British vocalists of her era. The recording became Shaw’s first hit in a decade when it reached number 27 on the UK Singles Chart. Marr, Rourke and Joyce backed Shaw on two mimed television performances of the song, first on Channel 4’s Earsay in March 1984, and then on Top of the Pops on 26th April, where the band appeared barefoot in homage to the singer, who did so often in the 1960s.

“Hand in Glove” is a song by the Indie-rock band the Smiths, written by singer Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr. It was released as the band’s first single in May 1983 on independent record label Rough Trade Records. 

“Hand in Glove” was written by Morrissey and Marr in January 1983. By that date, they had been working together for around eight months, had written more than ten songs together,and had recorded two demo tapes, but had been rejected by both Factory and EMI. Their usual composition method was for Marr to add music to Morrissey’s lyrics, though for “Hand in Glove”, Marr had the music first – he developed the chords on an acoustic guitar while at his parents’ house. Unable to record the music there, Marr’s girlfriend Angie drove him to Morrisey’s house while he continued to strum the guitar, altering it with suggestions from Angie. At Morrissey’s the tune was recorded on a cassette tape. Morrissey said that he wrote lyrics for it in the span of two hours. Even prior to performing the song live, the group was unanimous in the opinion that “Hand in Glove” was their strongest song to date.

The song’s line “I’ll probably never see you again” appears in Delaney’s kitchen sink realism play A Taste of Honey and The Lion in Love. Morrissey paraphrased the line “Everything depends upon how near you stand next to me” from the 1974 Leonard Cohen song “Take This Longing”. Goddard conjectures that the song’s title was inspired by the 1947 detective novel Hand in Glove by Ngaio Marsh. The lyrics are also quoted in the coda of “Pretty Girls Make Graves”, another song from the band’s first album.

The Smiths asked their manager Joe Moss to fund the recording of “Hand in Glove”. In late February, the group booked a one-day recording session at Strawberry Studios in Stockport at the cost of £250, which they produced themselves. Morrissey claimed in later years that he was dissatisfied with his vocal and returned a week later to re-record his part, the day after which the entire group travelled to London and convinced Rough Trade owner Geoff Travis to release the record. However, author Simon Goddard noted that it was not until April 1983 that Marr and bassist Andy Rourke visited the Rough Trade offices. On that occasion, Marr handed Travis a cassette featuring “Hand in Glove” and a live recording of “Handsome Devil”, telling Travis, “Listen to this, it’s not just another tape”. Impressed, Travis promised he would. The following Monday, Travis called the group and invited them back to London to release “Hand in Glove” as a single. Both parties agreed to release the single as a temporary arrangement before agreeing to any long-term partnership.

Two months after the single’s release, the Smiths recorded the song again during aborted sessions for their debut album with producer Troy Tate. This version was recorded a tone lower than the original in the key of F# minor, and features a shorter introduction. The Smiths recorded the song again with producer John Porter in October at Manchester’s Pluto Studios. Morrissey rejected this version of the song. Due to impending deadlines, the version that ultimately appeared on the band’s first album The Smiths was a remix of the original master recording from the Strawberry Studios session. For this version, Porter increased the separation between Marr’s guitar tracks and Morrissey’s vocals, emphasised drummer Mike Joyce’s drum beat, pushed Rourke’s bass back in the mix, and created a more dramatic opening and conclusion to the song

“The Stylist”, Kelley Stoltz’s 17th album finds him following up the Third Man Records reissue of his 2001 “Antique Glow”, with a collection of 10 new songs. The album was recorded early in 2021, and has been languishing in the vinyl pressing log jam ever since – but luckily Stoltz writes timeless songs, the kind that might’ve appeared on the fringes of the late 60’s or mid 80’s.

Acoustic guitars, synthesizers, drum machines and strong melodies abound. As with his other classic records “Below the Branches”, “Double Exposure” and “Ah! (etc)” Stoltz plays most of the instruments himself and records in his home studio in San Francisco. Kelley says, “I chose the title ‘the Stylist’ because musically I guess that’s what I am… because of the way I write, at my leisure over a period of months at home, I kinda flit around between styles. It’s all in the pop-rock vein, but there’s usually a wide range of sounds and inspiration from song to song. It sort of fits together in a mix tape kind of way, rather than an exploration of one particular mood. That’s always been the case with my albums.”

The chorus-y guitar jangle of “Your Name Escapes Me” somehow name checks the New Bomb Turks, while reflecting on familiar if forgotten faces from Stoltz’s past. On “My Island” insistent piano and saxophone solos take the listener on a tropical trip to the soft rock radio dial. Stoltz played rhythm guitar in Echo and the Bunnymen for a few years, and “We Grew So Far Apart” clangs like a lost Liverpool 80’s classic. Stoltz says, “There’s a touch more piano on this record… going back to my Sub Pop days, when I was writing more Beatle-y bits… Harry Nilsson… that kind of thing.” Indeed, the piano led “It’s a Cold World” plays like a holy union of Todd Rundgren and the Zombies where Stoltz declares, “it’s a cold world at times, but I’m not ready to give up the fight.”

Thankfully, after 23 years the beat goes on… and no matter what style Stoltz chooses, The Stylist is another platter of tuneful delight in the impressive catalogue of one of the great songwriters of our time.

“the Stylist” by Kelley Stoltz, released June 2022 by Agitated Records.