The Fat Angel Sings

Phoebe Bridgers has released a brand new song, “Sidelines,” written for Hulu’s “Conversations with Friends,” a TV adaptation of the popular Sally Rooney novel. Bridgers, a longtime fan of Rooney’s work, was tapped by Hulu to write a song for the show, which she penned with bandmate and collaborator Marshall Vore and Ruby Rain Henley. This will be the only original new song from Bridgers this year.

It’s out now on Dead Oceans. The show premieres May 15th.

released April 15th, 2022
Writer(s): Phoebe Bridgers, Marshall Vore, and Ruby Rain Henley

Butts, an Oklahoma native, is a country music powerhouse with vocals equally as compelling as her song writing is impressive. After she crashed into the country music scene, making her name known with the 2015 debut album “Same Hell, Different Devil“, it took four years before a new single, and two more before the next in 2021.

Shortly thereafter, she began releasing singles for the upcoming album. It’s safe to say the suspense has been building for another album for quite some time.

These songs are all songs from different women facing the question: what else can she do?
based on her circumstances, what choices does she have, right or wrong?
Life isn’t all that pretty sometimes. it comes with pain and pushing through hard times, being stagnant, going through the motions, not knowing what to do, or just being flat out angry with whatever life has put on your plate.
I see myself in all of these women and their stories. I see these women in my friends and family all around me struggling with divorce, infidelity, financial instability, addiction, family issues, life-altering tough times but somehow, are still resilient and come out on the other side changes but better and stronger.
I hope that if you are in one of those moments, this album makes you feel seen and comforts you in times of darkness. know that you are never truly alone and it won’t always be this way.
-KB

Kaitlin Butts is not only one of the most underrated artists on the Texas/Red Dirt scene, but she’s one of the most underrated in all of country music.

I think that could change soon, though, with the release of her new album entitled “What Else Can She Do” set for release on Friday, April 15th.

Peeling us away from the Snooker World Champs, Duck Races and Egg Hunts we’ve got new music from our friend and now household name Kurt Vile – “(Watch My Moves)” (cleverly twisting one of his lyrics into an album title, I can rock parenthesis too KV!) which is a brilliant return to the languid, country-inspired psychedelia we loved from this slacker legend. A big old return in these parts with (watch my moves) from Kurt Vile of Philadelphia. His ninth LP has all the Vile hallmarks, laconically drawled poetry, freewheeling riffs and idiosyncratic musings, but the sonic palette is ever richer. Loads of instruments in the mix, loads of changes of pace, it’s a really great collection of songs. No one knows who Branwaltzera is yet, despite 6Music caning their music all week. It’s still not been ruled out that it’s not an AI program devised by AFX. Whatever – if you like to make your brain dance – I urge you to get onto this technical wizardry.

Made In Timeland is a long-lost King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard record mysteriously unearthed on the eve of 2022. Has to be said, even for KGWL, this is WILD. Two tracks, two sides and the metronomic bleep (at 60bpm, like a clicking clock) throughout as the tones move through ambient, dub, baroque library and about 100 other sonic ideas, landing a few times on tribal dance. This one won’t be on the digital services,

 50 Foot Wave keep lovers of axe wielders rocking hard this weekend; whilst antipodean freaksters King Gizzard return with what is their 19th studio album (not counting live ones yet) to date; surely giving Mark E Smith a run for his money. Black Pearl is the brand new LP from 50 Foot Wave, Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses ‘other’ band, featuring fellow Muses Bernard Georges on bass and drummer Rob Ahlers. Jagged indie rock riffs with some really dark distortion. This one really is a Black Pearl. 

50 Foot Wave – Black Pearl

Black Pearl is the brand new album from 50 Foot Wave: Kristin Hersh’s ‘other’ band – active since 2003, with fellow Throwing Muses’ member Bernard Georges on bass and drummer Rob Ahlers. A sonic trip from the heavy, echoey riff of ‘Staring Into The Sun’ with all of its grunge melancholy and drone core menace to the perfectly baroque ‘Hog Child’ with its spidery guitar that dissolves into motorik bass and drums.

Hailed in various quarters as “an outlet for the material deemed too weird or wild for Throwing Muses”, their “menacing, stalking, spirals of lean, hungry riffs, set alight” as “feedback rips into the fragile melody.”

50 Foot Wave continue to traverse the rigid tension of their own sound. They remain detuned and discordant at will.

Kurt Vile – (Watch my Moves)

On his major label debut album, Kurt Vile pulls his talents as a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer in unexpected directions — and the result is a vibrant, yet meditative record propelled by laid-back charm and curious spirit. Produced by Kurt Vile and Rob Schnapf.

Ravenously creative songwriter Kurt Vile broke through to mainstream success after years of steadily working on his craft. His laidback and drifting guitar rock took notes from masters like Neil Young, Sonic Youth, and Dinosaur Jr., exploring inventive guitar tones on meditative and often self-reflective songs. He co-founded the War on Drugs with friend Adam Granduciel in 2005, but quit shortly after the band got off the ground to focus more on his own music. After several albums on various indie labels, Vile signed with Matador in 2009 and would find increasing success with each new album. His 2013 album, “Walkin’ on a Pretty Daze”, broke through bigger than anything before it, taking Vile’s blurry-eyed musings and signature song writing style to a worldwide audience.

He would continue frequent collaborations, working with a multitude of special guests on his own records as well as co-creating albums with Steve Gunn and Courtney Barnett.

King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard – Made In Timeland

Timeland is a long-lost King Gizzard record mysteriously unearthed on the eve of 2022. It does not appear on any DSPs anywhere, making the physical product a highly coveted collector’s item. All LPs are housed in a brown paper bag to help combat the environmental impact of vinyl manufacturing.

Crows – Beware Believers

London four-piece Crows release their highly anticipated second album, Beware Believers via Bad Vibrations Records. Conjuring a dark and visceral post-punk that’s been hardened by years of notoriously rowdy live shows, Crows have amassed a legion of die-hard fans since they formed back in 2015 and cultivated a singular, much-adored presence in the British alternative music scene. Equal parts ferocious and hedonistic, the incoming Beware Believers LP arrives off the back of their critically acclaimed 2019 debut Silver Tongues, international touring and festival appearances, and shared stages with the likes of Idles, Wolf Alice, Girl Band, Metz, Slaves and Protomartyr.

Following the release of their long-awaited debut album on the Idles-run Balley Records back in 2019, Crows immediately set to work on its follow-up and by January 2020 they were already back in the studio tracking what would become the Beware Believers LP and then Covid hit. “Once we knew Covid was here to stay, we took the first break we’ve taken since we released our first single ‘Pray’ in 2015. Being locked down for three months unable to finish the last bits of the record was very frustrating but it did mean we could come back to the album with fresh ears and make sure it sounded like it should: a true representation of Crows.” Loud, cathartic and abrasive a quintessential Crows record it certainly is.

Spanish Love Songs – Brave Faces Etc

Spanish Love “Songs Brave Faces Etc” is the deluxe version of their most recent album Brave Faces Everyone.

This deluxe album was chance for the band to challenge themselves musically and expand the sound of the band to better reflect where they’re all at in terms of song writing and production compared to the original.

The Velvet Underground – A Documentary Film By Todd Haynes – Music From The Motion Picture Soundtrack

This soundtrack is curated by the documentary’s director, Todd Haynes, and music supervisor Randall Poster. It includes well-known and rare tracks from the band as well as songs and performances that influenced The Velvet Underground, including the doo-wop of The Diablos, the ground-breaking rock and roll of Bo Diddley, and the avant-garde compositions of La Monte Young. Its booklet also features exclusive liner notes by Haynes.

Featuring some of the band’s most well-known tracks, rarities and songs that influenced them, the soundtrack serves as the perfect introduction to the band and companion piece to the film and features such favourites as “Sunday Morning,” “All Tomorrow’s Parties,” “Pale Blue Eyes,” “I’m Waiting for The Man” and “Sweet Jane,” as well as the mono version of “Heroin” and the rare cut “Foggy Notion.” Also featured are live versions of “After Hours” and “Sister Ray,” Nico’s “Chelsea Girls,” and the tongue-in-cheek novelty song “The Ostrich” by The Primitives, an early band formed by Lou Reed and John Cale.

Tomberlin today releases a video for “sunstruck,” an unconventional love song and the charming new single from her highly anticipated new album “i don’t know who needs to hear this…“, which is out April 29th. The video was directed by Ryan Schnackenberg.

“This is an aerial view love song that is also not a love song. It is more a love song to forced distance, time alone with yourself, letting go, searching for yourself and the healing that takes place when you make those things an active focus in your life,” says Sarah Beth Tomberlin. “These things are choices, they don’t just happen on their own. You can choose to practice them or you can choose stagnancy. This is a love song to the growth that often can take place if you choose to tend to your own life’s garden.”

Tomberlin is hitting the road this spring on US and EU tours. The solo EU tour kicks off next week in Paris, France with support from Maia Friedman and the full band US tour starts on May 13th in Somerville, MA with support from Jana Horn.

Tomberlin is Sarah Beth Tomberlin, a pastor’s kid born in Florida, raised in rural Illinois. She wrote the majority of her debut, “At Weddings” (2018), while living at home. For a while after leaving home and church, she lived in Louisville, Kentucky. She worked a day job and kept writing songs. She posted some of these songs to Bandcamp, which led to her signing a record deal with Saddle Creek. It all happened fast: Less than a year after her first live show, she performed on Jimmy Kimmel and she ended up moving to L.A. which is where she wrote “Projections” (2020), her EP follow up to “At Weddings”.

“i don’t know who needs to hear this… is a rumination of feelings; a collection of songs steeped in inquisitive folk and dense instrumentation” – Rolling Stone

“The sound of an artist levelling up.” -NPR

“A salve… Each line [is] written like it is gently tracing the outline of some healing scar.” -The FADER

“Deeply felt folk” -Brooklyn Vegan

Leipzig-based experimental group Flying Moon In Space are today announcing their second album, ‘ZWEI’, which is due out June 24th on Fuzz Club Records! Alongside the album news, the band are also sharing the first single ‘The Day The Sun Was Made’ and announcing UK/EU tour dates for May/June!.  

Arriving following their 2020 self-titled debut and this year’s remix 12″, ‘ZWEI’ sees Flying In Moon In Space shift creative approach. Where their debut was an extension on their live shows, long improv performances that would last hours at a time, the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown restrictions meant they were forced to explore new ways of creating together (but get no less creative with it.) Adopting the childhood game ‘Stille Post’ (or ‘Telephone’), the six members would each send the demos around in a circle, recording a single line or changing up the tempo, until the songs took on a life of their own.

These demos were then into a studio deep in the forests of the Czech Republic and ‘ZWEI’ was born. “Musically it turned out to be somehow something completely new to us. As a result ZWEI has a more structured, poppy side compared to our debut, even though sound wise we opened up to more experimental layers – using synthesisers for the first time, loops and field recordings. The process behind this LP was manifold – testing out personal and aesthetic borders, and carrying on our idea of what Flying Moon In Space can be sonically.”

Describing ‘The Day The Sun Was Made’, Flying Moon In Space wrote: “A big bang explodes with an Elysian force still echoing across the heavens. A brightly flatulent star is formed in the Milky Way, sending its light in all directions for all the chaos to see. Eclipsed by none in our solar spin, the celestial throne of Ra looks warmly upon our tiny blue dot. Here we behold the grand design.”

Following her highly praised return with ‘Happy Birthday Forever’ and ‘Brexit At Tiffany’s’, Toronto-born, London-based artist Tess Parks is today sharing a new single and video, ‘Do You Pray?’. Following years of international touring and a lengthy list of collaborations with Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Anton Newcombe in recent years (most recently the duo’s self-titled 2018 LP), the track is the third to be lifted from her incoming solo album, ‘And Those Who Were Seen Dancing’, due out May 20th on Fuzz Club Records and Hand Drawn Dracula in Canada.

A driving psych-rock drone steered by Tess’ husky vocal, This week’s ‘Do You Pray?’, is the third single to be lifted from Tess Parks incoming ‘And Those Who Were Seen Dancing’ album due out May 20th.

Recorded over two years between 2019 and 2021 but with songs, lyrics and ideas dating back over a decade in some form, the incoming ‘And Those Who Were Seen Dancing’ is an album full of moments, people and places. Taking constant inspiration from interactions with those around her, ‘Do You Pray?’ is a perfect case in point. On the track, Parks recalls: “My friend Annie just asked me one day out of the blue, ‘Do you pray?’, and I thought, ‘Wow, yes I love that and yes I do, every day.’ The song is a mix of two traditionals: ‘My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean’ and ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’. This is one of a few songs on the album where my dad can be heard playing my grand-fathers old piano.”

*Due to manufacturing delays and reigning pressing plant chaos, the vinyl is unfortunately delayed and will now be released June 24th. It’s out of our hands sadly but will be worth the wait we promise!

New York trio Sunflower Bean vocalist and bassist Julia Cumming guitarist and vocalist Nick Kivlen , and drummer Olive Faber are gearing up to release their long-awaited new album, “Headful of Sugar”, next month. The band share new single “I Don’t Have Control Sometimes”. On the track Cumming revels in a period of recklessness and instability that brought her to the breaking point that made this new album such a force. But there’s no darkness to mine here “I Don’t Have Control Sometimes” is a jangly, bright pop song reminiscent of The Cure, confident in its refusal to be apologetic. “I don’t care what tomorrow thinks/ Today I’m totally mine,” Cumming sings, her scintillating vocals communicating a witticism and self-awareness that swallows any suffering beneath.

Julia explains, “I’ve always thought that my reckless side was both a gift and a curse, leading me to my best choices on stage but my worst choices in life. I don’t have control sometimes is admission, acceptance, and almost celebration of the parts of yourself that are impulsive or maybe even insane.”

“Headful of Sugar” will be released on May 6th via Lucky Number Records , and follows Sunflower Bean navigating the agony and ecstasy of contemporary American life. “Tomorrow is not promised, no tour is promised, no popularity is promised, no health or money is promised,” bassist/vocalist Julia Cumming says. “Why not make what you want to make on your own terms? Why not make a record that makes you want to dance? Why not make a record that makes you want to scream?” A psychedelic headrush designed to be played loud with the windows down, Headful of Sugar was produced and mixed by UMO’s Jacob Portrait, co-engineered by Olive Faber and Portrait, and recorded between Electric Lady and Sunflower Bean Studios.

Sunflower Bean are known for their singular live performances, which has seen them perform at major festivals like Glastonbury, Governors Ball, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Reading & Leeds, and tour with the likes of Beck, Cage the Elephant, Interpol, Courtney Barnett, The Pixies, The Kills, DIIV, Courtney Barnett, and Wolf Alice, and even open for Bernie Sanders during his primary campaign rallies. Now, the band are currently on the road for their massive Spring tour in support of “Headful of Sugar”. 

Sunflower Bean’s new single “I Don’t Have Control Sometimes” from the upcoming album ‘Headful of Sugar’ out May 6th.

The latest single “Winners Chapel”, is explosive and heartrending, enunciate of a first EP and its new approach, more bold and fresh of the genre Post-punk. A tune made of contagious lyrics, followed with energetic melodies. A mix that speaks out loud, an exciting debut for the four-pieces which seems to redefine the future of post-punk. Explosive and heartrending, enunciate of a first EP and its new approach, more bold and fresh of the genre post-punk. A tune made of contagious lyrics, followed with energetic melodies.

Cucamaras have emerged with a serious statement of intent in the form of massive new single ‘Winners Chapel’

Hailing from Nottingham, the four piece have been making serious waves in their hometown with a series of raucous live shows which have in turn amassed them an army of dedicated fans. Taking on board elements from a wide range of influences, their fresh, exciting take on post-punk foundations make them a band set to define the 2022 alternative musical landscape. 

Today sees Cucamaras return with the first track from a new era for the band, the urgent and vital ‘Winners Chapel’. Set against a driving backbeat and jagged guitars, pressing vocals and compelling lyrical work combine to create a glorious wall of sound that immediately offers an insight into the band’s imminent upward trajectory, a feriocious and undeniable entrance into the big leagues. 

‘Winner’s Chapel’ is the first release from a forthcoming EP, more information will be released in due course. Track recorded at Neighbourhood Studios, produced by Stephen Harrison. Released exclusively via Exag’ Records.