The Fat Angel Sings

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.

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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.

Germany-based experimental group Flying Moon In Space are today releasing ‘Traum Für Alle’ (‘Dream for Everyone’), the third single to be pulled from their incoming ‘ZWEI’ LP due out June 24th via Fuzz Club Records. Preceded by UK and EU tour dates kicking off this month, the six piece’s new album will arrive off the back of their highly-praised and sold-out self-titled debut album and a recent remix 12″ that featured reworkings by Xiu Xiu, Suuns, A Place To Bury Strangers, Minami Deutsch, Camera and Warm Graves.
 
Where the ‘ZWEI’ LP as a whole sees Flying Moon Space explore more pop-leaning sensibilities (see the infectious, festival-ready psych-pop of latest single ‘Optimist’), the racing krautrock jams of their earlier work – the sort that yearn to be experienced in some sweaty underground venue – are very much still there. New single and album-opener ‘Traum Für Alle’ kicks into a motorik pulse that is ridden at a breakneck speed, beneath Atom Park’s distinct, screeching vocals and a reverb-soaked triple-guitar assault.

On the track, vocalist Parks says: “The dream for everyone is more. More money. More time. More everything and anything. We never get enough of enough. Our sole purpose seems to be chasing the satisfaction that never comes. So we work for our piece of the cake that pays for a home we’re only at when we’re asleep. Every day. Every week the same thing; a dream you have to be asleep to believe. Then you wake and wonder, ‘why?'”

On their self-titled debut, Flying Moon In Space honed in an improv-driven approach to their art that, when committed to wax, resulted in a maximalist melting pot of psych-pop, krautrock, techno and math-rock. This approach, however, was an extension of their live shows: huge, improvised performances that were known to last hours at a time. As they began work on the album’s follow-up whilst the world shut down around them, it’s of little surprise that the resulting ‘ZWEI’ LP sees Flying Moon In Space change course (but get no less creative with it.) 
 
“Just like many other artists we used the time without concerts for a creative process,” Henrik Rohde recalls: “This started digitally at first. We used a concept that everyone has actually known since childhood – a game we call ‘Stille Post’ here. You whisper something in someone’s ear and after a while the content has evolved into something new.

We started a circle and each of us got a different tone, recorded a single line each, set a tempo and let go until we received a complete track. This was actually the starting point of “ZWEI.” Coming out of lockdown with an album’s worth of demos as a result, the band decamped to an old church deep in the forests of the Czech Republic and took the new ideas with them.
 
“We lived there all together for 3 weeks last summer and recorded our 2nd album. It was the perfect atmosphere to bring these ideas to life”, they reflect: “Musically it turned out to be somehow something completely new to us as we usually develop our ideas out of improvised sets we play live. 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, as well as loops and field recordings of the church and surrounding forest. I guess generally you can say that 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.”

As they’re simultaneously prepping for the release of their eighth album and celebrating the 40th anniversary of its classic debut “The Days of Wine and Roses“, L.A. rock veterans the Dream Syndicate used their second SXSW showcase to workshop the show they intend to take on tour later this year: a set of recent material and choice cuts from the catalogue, followed by “Days” front to back, with tonight’s show being the first time. The first half was more like a fourth, including reunion-era standouts “Glide” and “Out of My Head,” Medicine Show’s “Like Mary,” and “Where I’ll Stand” – the first single from “Ultraviolet Battle Hymns and True Confessions”. After sharing a memory of sleeping on Jody Denberg’s floor after the Syndicate’s 1982 show in Austin, bandleader Steve Wynn said, “Let’s drop the needle on side one,” and we were off.

Long time setlist perennials “That’s What You Always Say,” When You Smile,” and “Tell Me When It’s Over” got proper readings, of course, but deep cuts like the breathless “Definitely Clean,” the noirish “Until Lately,” and the dreamy “Too Little, Too Late,” sung by surprise guest Vicki Peterson from the Bangles as substitute for the long absent Kendra Smith, provided the deepest pleasures. “I think this album’s a keeper,” Wynn commented dryly, before leading the band through a blazing “The Days of Wine and Roses,” a model album closer on par with The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” and Blue Öyster Cult’s “Astronomy.” As the final chords faded into the air, Wynn summed up the show for everyone in the sanctuary: “What a freakin’ blast!” 

The brand-new album from The Dream Syndicate blends vintage Krautrock, Eno-like ambience, Neu-inspired rhythmic groove and a Californian sun baked sheen into the their classic psychedelic, melodic, hue. The Dream Syndicate have moved well past their early Velvet Underground influences and taken on British glam, German prog, and more.

Featuring singer / songwriter / guitarist Steve Wynn, drummer Dennis Duck, bassist Mark Walton, lead guitarist Jason Victor plus their newest member Chris Cacavas on keyboards, plus guest appearances from Stephen McCarthy (of The Long Ryders) and Marcus Tenney’s expressive sax and trumpet work.

“Atmospheric rock music veering between noise and subtlety— compelling.” Pitchfork

Released June 10th, 2022

Shearwater announced the release of a new album, “The Great Awakening”, which will be out on June 10th via the band’s Polyborus label in partnership with Secretly Distribution. The band also shared a video for the album’s lead single, “Xenarthran,” which wouldn’t sound out of place on a Talk Talk album.

Emily Cross directed the video. Frontman Jonathan Meiburg and Cross are also both in the band Loma together.

In a press release Meiburg elaborates on the new song: “Xenarthrans are the ‘strange-jointed’ mammals, which mostly live in South America: armadillos, anteaters, and sloths. Only one species of armadillo has wandered up to the southern U.S., and while we were recording “The Great Awakening” in Texas, I often saw them scurrying dimly through fields at dusk or snuffling in the mud after a rainstorm, and I couldn’t help admiring them. They’d walked thousands of miles on their wispy little feet, long noses to the ground, trundling into alien landscapes filled with unfamiliar dangers.”

“This song, and Emily’s eerie video, aren’t about armadillos, exactly—but they are about making your way through the dark spaces of a menacing but still very beautiful world. The roaring sounds near the end are howler monkeys I recorded in Guyana.”

we’re sharing “Laguna Seca’ , the third single from THE GREAT AWAKENING. JM says: “Laguna Seca’ came from one of those dreams where you meet someone you know, but they aren’t themselves. And then you realize that you’re not yourself, either.”

This is Shearwater’s seventh studio album, produced by the band and Dan Duszynski (Loma), shows us where its wandering frontman has been. While the thundering songs of the band’s 2016 LP Jet Plane and Oxbow (Sub Pop) were filled with fears for what the United States was becoming under the previous presidential administration, Meiburg resolved to find a new approach for “The Great Awakening”. “I felt hopeless,” he admits. “And I didn’t want to make hopeless music.“

“The Great Awakening” is a soulful and immersive travelogue of grand atmospheres and intimate landscapes, decorated with field recordings from Meiburg’s journey while writing his critically acclaimed debut book, A Most Remarkable Creature: The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World’s Smartest Birds of Prey, released in March 2021 by Knopf.

The resultant 11-track album—anchored by Meiburg’s closely-recorded voice, more otherworldly and urgent than ever—is one that Shearwater’s been striving toward for years: a journey into the unknown, embracing sorrow and joy, beauty and terror.

Shearwater’s last album, “Jet Plane and Oxbow”, came out in 2016 via Sub Pop

Jenny Hollingworth and Rosa Walton, also known as the founding members of the U.K.’s ethereal indie-pop band Let’s Eat Grandma, appreciate the countryside. While they spend significant time in cities like London for promotion and in others around the world to perform while on tour, when they’re home and off the road, each enjoys the more pastoral surroundings and the serene landscapes. While many their age (both are in their twenties) might aim to reside in fast-paced bustling cities, Hollingworth and Walton stay in the countryside, using the space and slower pace to reflect, think, contemplate and experiment with their craft. This decision has proven healthy for both their work and their interpersonal creative relationship. Evidenced by their spacious new LP, “Two Ribbons“, which the duo is set to release on Friday (April 29th).

“Being from Norwich,” Hollingworth says, “Norwich is kind of out of the way. Nobody really goes there. I think it’s allowed us to make music that was maybe a bit more kind of weird. We didn’t have that kind of pressure in place.”

“I think it gave us the space to make music,” adds Walton. “London is so busy and chaotic. It’s difficult to find the headspace to be creative, I think. Whereas I feel like being surrounded by countryside and beaches and stuff, that’s more conducive to creativity.”

Spending significant time in the countryside allows them, Walton explains, to process their lives and careers, as well as their friendship and working relationship. The quietness is welcomed. Not only that, it’s beneficial, but it provides a tangible sense of freedom—a feeling that shows up not only in the music they make but in the aura in which they make it. For many, being a professional musician requires an unabashed sense of competition—a scratching your way to the top, so to speak. But the duo of Let’s Eat Grandma, which began formally in 2013, doesn’t give off this impression. They’re each able to separate their growing, expectant audience from the creative process. After the success of their 2018 LP, “I’m All Ears”, the duo didn’t rush to make a follow-up. They allowed for space.

“It’s important having time between records,” Walton says. “To be out of the public eye. To kind of detach a bit from that. I think it’s really important to write for ourselves as opposed to an audience.”

“It feels like too much pressure thinking about trying to please everyone,” Hollingworth says.

“You can’t,” Walton says. “There’s always going to be somebody that loves it and somebody that hates it.”

“It’s no way to live life,” Hollingworth adds.

Hollingworth and Walton are intellectually mature beyond their years. They have grounded perspective in a time when they could be racing for some fantastical goal. The two have been friends since four years old. Yet, they are realistic about this relationship, its ups, and downs, even taking to their songs to write about their at times-personal and creative tensions.

“We’re both creative people,” Hollingworth says, “and music was the one that made the most sense to me, I guess.”

Of course, practice (and play) makes perfect. Today, the two have enjoyed great success, including albums that have landed prominently on the U.K. charts and a coveted appearance at Coachella. Today, as their new album is set to hit shelves, the two are both grateful for their success and for the time they’ve allowed themselves to grow within it. For the new LP, the two didn’t sit down and set out to write a record. They just allowed themselves to work on one song and then another until, well, they had a completed record. And that they mined their own lives and relationship made it cohesive.

“When you’re writing a song, when you’re in the feeling of the song, it’s impossible to know what feeling you’re going to want to write about next,” Walton says.

“We don’t tend to really plan stuff out,” Hollingworth says.

Hollingworth adds that this album felt particularly cathartic. Prior to its release, her boyfriend passed away after a battle with cancer. Writing music was her coping mechanism. When you’re in a state of mourning, as she was, there’s no time to think about the audience. Instead, it’s about putting your emotions into a piece of music. Additionally, the duo helped their own dynamic by processing whatever frictions they may have with each other in the music.

“It’s just a very personal record,” Hollingworth says.

“It’s not creative differences,” Walton says. “That’s something we’ve always agreed on throughout. It’s more just changes in personalities. Growing up, I guess. Growing apart and not really understanding how each others’ brains work in the way that we used to.”

“That coupled with so much going on in our personal lives,” Walton continues. “Loss and other things about growing up. There’s a lot of pressure on our relationship.”

Yet, even with all this in mind, the two express excitement about heading out on tour, to play their new music for fans. The two have been rehearsing with a rhythm section and the songs are tight. They’ve come to life outside of their recordings and they’re ready to fill a room. After the pandemic, there is a greater appreciation for live performance and while Hollingworth and Walton didn’t make their new record with an audience in mind, per se, they’re ready for one to hear what they’ve been up to together. For the two, music is an important part of their lives. It fills the spaces between days and creates new ones to live in and find their futures.

“I love the way that it’s something that’s always there,” Walton says. “If you’re feeling sad or angry or whatever, there’s always a song to help you feel comforted. That applies to writing music, as well.”

“For me,” Hollingworth says, “it expresses experiences and emotions in life that you just cannot express through words.”

Let’s Eat Grandma’s upcoming album Two Ribbons, out on Transgressive Records 8th April 2022.