The Fat Angel Sings

It is with great pain in our hearts that we have to inform you about the passing of Chris Bailey, singer and songwriter of The Saints, on April the 9th 2022. The Saints were one of punk rock’s earliest and most influential forces

Chris Bailey, frontman of Australian punk rock icons The Saints, died on Saturday. Chris lived a life of poetry and music and stranded on a Saturday night.

The Saints formed in Brisbane in 1973. Their 1976 debut single, ‘(I’m) Stranded’, was a landmark punk rock anthem upon its release and remains influential to this day.

Spanning numerous solo efforts together with The Saints’ 14 studio albums, not to mention various collaborations, the catalogue of late Aussie icon Chris Bailey is as extensive as it is influential.

For those wondering, ‘Who is Chris Bailey?’, while he’s been named one of the co-creators of punk music, his work spans far greater than the band’s breakout hit “(I’m) Stranded“. In paying tribute to Bailey, who passed away over the weekend.

“The reason why we sounded the way we did, certainly Brisbane is the backwoods of this country,” he told triple j in 1985. “It’s like a lot of things that happen to you, you’re not aware of why they’re happening until after the fact. “I’ve got no explanation for why the first Saints record sounds like it does. Maybe because it’s so quiet [in Brisbane], that’s why the music was so noisy.

Bailey retained The Saints name after the departure of fellow founding member and songwriter Ed Kuepper, releasing albums through the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, ending with the 14th The Saints album, “King Of The Sun“, released in 2012.

After several years of solo adventure, Bailey revived The Saints to record Howling in 1996. This album was followed by “Everybody Knows the Monkey” (1998), Spit the Blues Out (2002), “Nothing is Straight in My House” (2005), “Imperious Delirium” (2006) and “King of the Sun” (2012-Australia, 2013-Europe) which were all recorded under the name of The Saints.

He also released albums under his own name, beginning with 1983’s “Casablanca” and ending on “Stranger“, his 2012 collaboration with French singer-songwriter H-Burns.

Many have begun paying tribute to Bailey and his seminal work, as fellow artists and writers reflect on the huge impact he had. Most notably, Bailey’s schoolboy friend Ed Kuepper, with whom he wrote

“Chris and I met when we were about 14 during detention at Oxley High School and became close friends which later developed into what I always thought was an extremely strong artistic partnership,” Kuepper wrote Monday morning.

“I couldn’t have hoped for a better singer.

Know Your Product – The Saints (1978)

While Bailey has frequently been credited as one of the forefathers of punk, he wasn’t tied to the constraints of the genre, and shortly after The Saints’ ground-breaking first album, which borrowed its name from their acclaimed debut single, they unleashed a follow-up LP in “Eternally Yours“, which introduced a more R&B-driven sound. Know Your Product was the second single from the album and shook things up with prominent brass throughout, which confused a lot of people at the time.

Ghost Ships – The Saints (1984)

Again, with The Saints’ sixth album, “A Little Madness To Be Free”, Bailey continued to push the envelope, gravitating towards a sound that encompassed grand arrangements, with horns and strings heavily featured throughout – all of which can be heard in the album’s title track opener.

Just Like Fire Would – The Saints (1986)

What we didn’t mention about “Know Your Product” was that it was one of Kurt Cobain’s top tracks. Bailey’s writing chops saw him garner a slew of big-name fans, including none other than The Boss. The band’s 1986 single, “Just Like Fire Would“, featured on album seven, “All Fools Day”, would eventually be covered by Bruce Springsteen, who first performed the track in Australia during his 2013 Wrecking Ball tour before featuring a recorded version on his 2014 album “High Hopes”.

It Doesn’t Matter Anymore (Buddy Holly Cover) – Chris Bailey (1989)

To commemorate the 30th anniversary of Buddy Holly’s passing, Bailey recorded a version of “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore“, which was included on the “Every Day Is A Holly Day” compilation.

Everything I Need – Chris Bailey (1994)

“Everything I Need” is taken from Bailey’s eclectic fourth solo studio album, “54 Days At Sea”, recorded Malmö, Sweden. While the album version dropped in 1994, we’d like to highlight this stunning performance from 1996 on Dutch music show 2 Meter Sessions.

Bring It On – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds featuring Chris Bailey (2003)

Not only did Bailey provide chorus vocals for Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ “Bring It On“, taken from Nocturama, but he also toured the US with them and appeared during their Late Show With David Letterman performance in 2003.

Can’t Help Falling In Love (Elvis Presley Cover) – Chris Bailey (2004)

Among some of his final solo works was epic two-part compilation “DM Blues“, the second volume of which finishes with a cover of Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling In Love” that will never get old.

Hey You! – Chris Bailey & H-Burns (2011)

One of Bailey’s many collaborative efforts, in 2011 he teamed with French country-folk troubadour H-Burns for an album, “Stranger. Hey You!” was featured on the album; a release that saw the duo tour France together.

King Of The Sun – The Saints (2012)

It’s hard to believe that The Saints’ fourteenth album, “King Of The Sun”, was released 10 years ago. It’s a concept album about a journey home after a hundred-year war, and its title track is proof that Bailey’s creativity hadn’t faltered since the band’s inception.

    

After blazing a trail with 2020’s critically acclaimed “Good Luck Seeker”, The Waterboys waste no time in delivering again with the announcement of their brand new record “All Souls Hill“.

The first track & video available is “The Liar”, a creeping groove-laden masterpiece, taking a powerful, descriptive swipe at Trump and the lies and deceit that infest those in power. The video, featuring a haunting image by satirical collagist Cold War Steve, amplifies its subject matter in dark eerie fashion. Mike Scott says, “The Liar” is a comment on recent and still-current events, and both song and video speak for themselves. We are proud to work on this video with the brilliant Cold War Steve “.

“All Souls Hill” is nine tracks of Waterboys brilliance, mixed by Scott himself. “All Souls Hill” is current, on the money social commentary, but with an air of hope.

“All Souls Hill” is mysterious, otherworldly, tune-banging and emotional,” comments Mike. “I made it with Waterboys old and new and my co-producer, brilliant sonic guru Simon Dine. Its nine songs tell stories, explore dreamscapes, and cast a cold but hopeful eye on the human drama.”

The Waterboys will release their 15th studio album entitled “All Souls Hill” on 22nd April 2022 via Cooking Vinyl Records.

On June 3rd, Zappa Records and UMe are taking a journey to Elsewhere.  Frank Zappa’s 1974 live album Roxy and Elsewhere primarily featured performances from Hollywood’s Roxy Theatre recorded in December 1973.  The Elsewhere in the album’s title referred to “Son of Orange County” and “More Trouble Every Day,” both of which were captured in May 1974 at Edinboro State College in Edinboro, Pennsylvania (with parts of “Son of Orange County” drawn from a Chicago show).  Now, the entire Edinboro show will be issued for the first time as part of the new box set “Zappa/Erie“.

The box set captures a string of shows Zappa and his band (three different line-ups) performed along the border of Pennsylvania and Ohio from 1974 to 1976, a three-year stretch that yielded his classic LPs “Over-Nite Sensation”, “Apostrophe (‘), and “One Size Fits All”.

Tracks from all three albums are scattered throughout Zappa/Erie, as are songs from his earlier Mothers of Invention works and subsequent LPs, notably 1976’s “Zoot Allures”, which arrived just one month before the final full gig 

The 6-CD, 71-track box (also available digitally) features three shows from the Erie area (including Edinboro, some eighteen miles outside of Erie) plus a handful of bonus tracks from other locales including Toledo, Ohio; South Bend, Indiana; and most far-flung, Montreal, Canada.  The set boasts over seven hours of music, of which only 10 minutes has ever been officially released.

The May 1974 Edinboro concert sampled on “Roxy” was part of a month-long run of shows marking the tenth anniversary of The Mothers as well as the recent release of “Apostrophe (‘).  Zappa was joined by a band including Bruce Fowler on trombone and vocals; Chester Thompson on drums and percussion; Don Preston on synthesizer; George Duke on keyboards, synthesizer, and vocals; Jeff Simmons on guitar and vocals; Napoleon Murphy Brock on tenor sax, flute and lead vocals; Ralph Humphrey on drums; Tom Fowler on bass; and Walt Fowler on trumpet.  Zappa reinvented songs from the Mothers’ early albums “Freak Out “(1966) and “We’re Only In It for the Money” (1968) and the set also included Apostrophe’s “Cosmik Debris” and a number of compositions that hadn’t yet appeared on a Zappa record.  This show is presented on the first two CDs of the new box.

Zappa returned to the area in November, this time at Gannon University with a smaller band featuring Thompson, Duke, Brock, Fowler, and the recently-returned Ruth Underwood on percussion.  The setlist was considerably different this time around, with highlights including Apostrophe’s “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow” and “Stink-Foot,” the unique live arrangement of Over-Nite Sensation’s “Dinah Moe-Humm,” and selections from Uncle Meat (“Uncle Meat,” “The Dog Breath Variations”).  This concert, included on CDs 3 and 4, was notable for a raucous audience; the tapes preserve how Zappa dealt with the disruptive crowd.  Two bonus tracks have been added to CD 3, performances of “Montana” and “Get Down” from South Bend, Indiana in 1974.

Two years passed before Zappa returned to Erie for what was the third and final time.  This time, he played a large arena, the Erie County Fieldhouse, with a completely new band consisting of Eddie Jobson on keyboards and violin; Patrick O’Hearn on bass and vocals; Ray White on guitar and vocals; Terry Bozzio on drums and vocals; and Lady Bianca on keyboards and vocals.  (The blues singer-musician would leave Zappa’s organization one week later, having spent just a month on the road, due to discomfort both with the material and the audience behaviour.)  A blizzard kept the band’s lighting and sound systems from arriving at the venue, leading them to play with rented equipment, but this didn’t deter Zappa from giving his all on the set which drew heavily from “Apostrophe”, “Over-Nite Sensation“, and his then-newest release, “Zoot Allures”.  One bonus track has been added – a performance of “Black Napkins” from the next evening’s Toledo show.  The song was selected to demonstrate the fluidity of the band’s interpretations from night to night.

Zappa/Erie has been produced by Ahmet Zappa and Vaultmeister Joe Travers.  The booklet contains rare photos and memorabilia as well as new liner notes about the shows and recordings including an essay from Erie, PA journalist Dan Schell (author of 9 Years of Rock: The Story of the Concerts at the Erie County Fieldhouse).  The box holds special meaning for Travers, whose hometown is Erie.  He states in the press release (as excerpted from his liner notes), “When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020, I found myself, like so many others, with a lot of extra time on my hands.  Because of this, I threw myself even more deeply into archiving the fabulous vault of Mr. Frank Zappa. During this time, it dawned on me that in all my years being the Vaultmeister for Zappa, I had never prioritized documenting the concerts FZ played in my hometown of Erie, Pa.” Among the booklet’s treasures is an autographed polaroid of Zappa that Travers’ mother purchased for him at a local garage sale in the 1990s.  In working on this release, Travers determined that it was most likely taken at the Erie County Fieldhouse show.

The audio for the set was professionally recorded on four-track tape by Zappa’s team of engineers Bill Hennigh, Brian Krokus, Davey Moire, and Claus Weideman, and newly mixed from the original tapes by Craig Parker Adams and mastered by John Polito at Audio Mechanics.

“Zappa/Erie” is available to pre-order today exclusively via Zappa.com.  Those who pre-order will receive a limited-edition poster illustrated and designed by Fantoons with various “Easter eggs” from Zappa’s career.  A standard version of the box, sans poster, will become available for pre-order on April 22nd.

Frank Zappa, “Zappa/Erie” (Zappa Records/UMe, 2022)

They’re back everyone! Interpol announce their return with a brand new album, titled “The Other Side Of Make-Believe” it’s due out on July 15th.

If fate didn’t quite ordain the circumstances for Interpol’s seventh album, it was at least fortunate that the band had happily concluded their “Marauder” cycle on stage in front of 30 thousand-odd Peruvian fans. Rather than be sent scrambling like so many other musicians on tour or promoting new music, when lockdown clamped in March 2020, Interpol quickly got into a productive mood.

Coming from a group whose early work was characterised by Polish knife-wielders and incarcerated serial killers, you might expect Interpol’s pandemic record to be an emotional tar pit — doubly so, given the presence of towering producer-engineer duo Flood and Moulder on the boards. But Banks felt the call to push in a “counterbalancing” direction, with paeans to mental resilience and the quiet power of going easy. “The nobility of the human spirit is to recover and rebound,” he says. “Yeah, I could focus on how fucked everything is, but I feel now is the time when being hopeful is necessary, and a still-believable emotion within what makes Interpol Interpol.”

They have also dropped the first slice of music from said album in the form of “Toni”, is taken from Interpol’s upcoming album ‘The Other Side of Make-Believe,’ out July 15th on Matador Records.

Along with the new album message a couple of days ago, the band shared the first single “Toni” and its eye-catching clip.

And just like that here’s already piece two, called “Something Changed“. A moony mid-tempo Interpol ballad, as we know them.

Paul Banks about the video: “In “Something Changed,” part 2 of our short film with Van Alpert, reality and reverie converge and our two lead characters find themselves in a kind of dream state — being pursued inexorably by an ominous figure (played by myself). The lives of the three are intertwined in a nebula of fear, retribution, desire, and defiance.”

“Something Changed” is taken from Interpol’s upcoming album ‘The Other Side of Make-Believe,’ out July 15th on Matador Records.

Bursting out of The West Midlands is Wolverhampton’s rip-roaring new band, Baudelaire and their equally rampant debut single “Prayers“. The tune comes off the back of their formation – yes this is their first-ever track! – and hard work in the past year, coming together as a five-piece to create an expansive and quite honestly massive sound for themselves.

The track is only around two and a half minutes long but in that time they pack loads in. The track is quick out of the blocks with distorted bass and tumbling drums, right before the soaring guitars come in draped with gothic vocals that remind us of The Cure in places. The chorus is by far one of the best Indie-Rock choruses of the year so far, and just keeps the pace of the track flowing – but by this point, it’s evolved into a tornado of whirling sounds. As a five-piece band there’s so much to chew over, and it only enhances them as with every listen you end up discovering more. 

With some support slots with Cabbage, Document and King Nun already under their belts the future is sounding big for this band.

This is a debut track to froth over, so stop wasting your time and go check it out.

Out on Jagjaguwar, ‘We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong’ is the sixth studio album from Sharon Van Etten. Unusually, no songs were trailed before the record’s release, as the American singer-songwriter intended it to be heard as a continuous suite of ten songs (therefore, it doesn’t include the 2021 Angel Olsen collaboration ‘Like I Used To’ or 2022 single ‘Porta’).

For those of you here, I believe you know I just announced my new album yesterday. It’s titled, “We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong“, and it will be available May 6th. For those that are wondering why I have chosen not to release any singles ahead of this release, I want to share the following with you,

I miss the days of waiting for a new record to come out, without hearing anything until then. I’d run to the store, invite friends over and hold the record in my hands, read the lyrics, the credits, and listen from start to finish and hear the album in the way the artist intended. To honour that sentiment and those that still believe in the concept of what a record can mean to the individual, I wanted to give that same opportunity to the listener to engage with this collection of songs the way I have imagined, without being teased singles leading up to the day it is out. I hope the listener can appreciate this gift of anticipation. I hope my fans are excited to have a chance to listen to the record the way they want to.

From beginning to end, this album is an emotional journey that documents the rollercoaster of the last two years we have all experienced in our own ways. I hope you will take that ride with me. Thank you for staying by my side. x Sharon

Clearly harbingers for a new album. True, Sharon Van Etten announced her sixth long player, titled “We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong“, arriving on 6th May. But surprisingly those new songs will not be on the album.

Van Etten: “I wanted to approach this release differently, to engage my fans in an intentional way, in an effort to present the album as a whole body of work. These 10 songs are designed to be listened to in order, at once, so that a much larger story of hope, loss, longing and resilience can be told.”

“We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong” coming May 6th.

Shoegaze lovers rejoice in the new sounds coming from Blushing’s new album “Possessions” on Kanine Records. Featuring Miki Berenyi, the front person of 90’s shoegaze, indie pop greats Lush and her new band Piroshka on the main single ‘Blame’ you instantly feel that you are transplanted back into 1990. Focused on charismatic vocals with dreamy guitar hooks and swirling bass lines the ‘Blame’ is a strong introduction to an album filled with Dream Pop greats. To top it off Mark Gardener of Ride adds his mastering talents to the song, while also mixing an additional album track ‘The Fires’.

Blushing are a strong part of the modern dream pop and shoegaze community that has since garnished a resurgence. Enlisting long time friend Elliot Frazier of Ringo Deathstarr* to produce and engineer the album in their native Austin, TX home has helped the band create an album that is truly one that needs to be heard for all indie music lovers.

Fans of Lush, Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Slowdive won’t be able to resist this album.

released February 18th, 2022

Steve Earle is one of the most acclaimed singer-songwriters of his generation, a worthy heir to Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark, his two musical mentors. Earle has distinguished himself as a master storyteller, and his songs have been recorded by a vast array of artists, including Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Joan Baez, Emmylou Harris, the Pretenders, and more.

“This record completes the set, the work of my first-hand teachers,” Earle writes in the liner notes. “The records were recorded and released in the order in which they left this world. But make no mistake – it was Jerry Jeff Walker who came first.”

Steve Earle has been creating intimate and personal music for well over four decades now. His song writing has wound itself along a path from Texas to Tennessee and his education came in the form of learning from the best. 2009’s Grammy-nominated record TOWNES was a tribute to his dear friend and mentor, Townes Van Zandt. Ten years later Earle released,“GUY” – an album concentrated on paying homage to the late Guy Clark and the indelible friendship that they had formed in stories told through song. 2022 welcomes the release of JERRY JEFF: a 10-song collection of songs written by the gypsy songman, Jerry Jeff Walker. Featuring hits like, “Mr Bojangles” and “Gettin’ By”, Earle & The Dukes honour the late Texan by amplifying the concept and sound of each song with a full-band recording.

All songs written by Jerry Jeff Walker

Releases May 27th, 2022——————

The Dukes:
Steve Earle – Guitar, Mandolin, Octave Mandolin, Harmonica, and Vocal
Chris Masterson – Guitar, Mandolin, and Vocal
Eleanor Whitmore – Fiddle, Strings, Mandolin, and Vocal
Ricky Ray Jackson – Pedal Steel Guitar, Dobro, and Vocal
Jeff Hill – Acoustic and Electric Bass, Cello, and Vocal
Brad Pemberton – Drums, Percussion, and Vocal

And
Tony Leone – Drums and Vocals (Thanks for bailing us out.)