The Fat Angel Sings

Horsegirl are three friends who make music in a basement. It’s true, and they want you to know that, not because they’re shy about the attention they’ve received as indie rock’s latest breakthrough, but because the Chicago trio of Penelope Lowenstein, Nora Cheng and Gigi Reece want you to know that they’re having fun. They’re accomplishing that in the way that only passionate teenagers can: professing their admiration for Kim Gordon, painting T-shirts haphazardly, and throwing riffs against the wall until they unfurl into songs. The end product of those basement hangs, “Versions of Modern Performance,” impressively combines noisy, punk-minded influences that congeal into a wondrous concoction of post-punk, no-wave, early shoegaze, and more. While inspired by the ’80s and ’90s cadres of emergent indie rock’s noisier actors, Horsegirl’s sound is singular, curious and glossed.

Chicago’s Horsegirl signed to Matador when members Gigi Reece, Nora Cheng, Penelope Lowenstein were all still in high school and hadn’t played very many live shows. But their songs, indebted to Sonic Youth, Galaxie 500, Flying Nun bands and The Raincoats, already feel like those of a seasoned band. Adding to their indie rock bona-fides: they made the album at their hometown’s famed Electric Audio studio with producer John Agnello (Dinosaur Jr., The Breeders). “It’s our debut bare-bones album in a Chicago institution with a producer who we feel like really respected what we were trying to do,” the band say.

Horsegirl stopped by SiriusXM’s studios while in NYC last week to chat about their upcoming debut album and to record a short set. That included this excellent, low-key cover of Au Pairs’ 1981 song “It’s Obvious.”

Horse Girl performs “It’s Obvious,” cover by Au Pairs. Horsegirl’s debut album ‘Versions of Modern Performance,’ out June 3rd on Matador Records.

This stunning 1995 broadcast recording, Made in the wake of the “Outside” album. Following David Bowie s critically well received and commercially successful “Black Tie, White Noise” album, released in April 1993 Bowie s first solo-effort of the 1990 s – he explored new directions on “The Buddha of Suburbia“, ostensibly a soundtrack album of music composed for the BBC television adaptation of Hanif Kureishi’s novel.

Only the title track had been used in the TV drama, although some of his themes for the series were also present on the album. It contained more of the new elements introduced on “Black Tie White Noise“, and also signalled a move towards alternative rock. The album was a critical success but received a low-key release and only made No. 87 on the UK charts. Then, in September 1995, Bowie released “Outside“, which re-united him with Brian Eno on a quasi-industrial collection, originally conceived as the first volume in a non-linear narrative of art and murder. Featuring characters from a short story written by Bowie, the album achieved UK and US chart success, and yielded three Top 40 UK singles. In a move that provoked mixed reactions from both fans and critics, Bowie chose Nine Inch Nails as his touring partner for the “Outside” Tour, visiting cities in Europe and North America between September 1995 and February 1996. In December 1995, Bowie appeared on a special, extended edition of Chanel 4 s “the White Room” music show, on which he – alongside his band, made up of Carlos Alomar and Reeves Gabrels on guitar, Gail Ann Dorsey on bass and vocals, George Simms, Peter Scwartz and Mike Garson on keyboards and Zachary Alford on drums, played a quite extraordinary set lasting just short of an hour in length.

Clearly and understandably wishing to promote the new record, the band performed several tracks from such with a smattering of cuts from previous releases, although not the obvious choices, this time preferring to perform less known songs, making the entire concert something of an unusual event for Bowie fans. Previously unreleased on CD, this recording is now available on this new release, certain to delight enthusiasts of this truly great composer and performer from across the globe.

TRACKLIST: 1. Introduction 1:46 2. Look Back In Anger 4:56 3. The Hearts Filthy Lesson 5:36 4. The Voyeur of Utter Destruction (as Beauty) 5:24 5. Under Pressure (Take One) 2:35 6. Under Pressure (Take Two) 4:37 7. Hallo Spaceboy 7:54 8. Boys Keep Swinging 3:15 9. Jump They Say 3:42 10. We Prick You 5:23 11. The Man Who Sold The World 3:51 12. Teenage Wildlife 7:27

Joan Shelley is a songwriter and singer from Louisville, KY. Often joined by guitarist Nathan Salsburg, she has shared shows with the likes of Jake Xerxes Fussell, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Daniel Martin Moore, the Other Years, & Michael Hurley.

I want to explain these songs / I want to leave them unexplained. We’ve all been working with a lot of silence. I was tired from touring, remembering the long drives across the midwestern plains at dusk, against the pale yellow sky seeing the black outline of the horizon with the occasional silhouette of a little farmstead, a corn crib or windmill, beyond, a breaking society, beyond, the aches of a world in pain.

A powerful tugging between apparently opposite things, hopelessness and resilience, isolation and togetherness, all at once. A deep connection to our homeplace, to staying, a complex reckoning with family, with the past, with the rubble, with the wind taken out of everyone’s sails, with new life and constant death.

We returned to the feral tree farm. Raising goats, chickens, listening to birds, watching the river, growing a child. A deep clean spring. So I started reaching out. Bringing in.

I wanted these people I admire to be close to me in the game, in the tangle of my emotions, in my unaddressed fears, I wanted them woven into my tapestries, which are songs, , because I am only a bird on a branch echoing others, embellishing the present with past inventions.
Let the new world come around. Together we shook these things out of the rug, our shared anxieties, our guilt, our joy, discomfort and heartbreak. We asked and were asking of each other.

Dying breath, wind-breath, singing breath shared beyond the language song, strings and brass, heartbeats and drums, wooden and stone breath, water and light, non-human breath, written breath, the little breaths of a newborn thing. Now I sing some of these songs to my daughter. Soothing her discomforts. Especially “completely,” she likes to hear that one. How it goes from low to high.
How it goes from song into silence, and back again.
Do you know that line of Wendell Berry’s “make a poem that does not disturb the silence from which it came”? 

releases June 24th, 2022

From “The Spur” out June 24th

So, heads up. I got this idea to write a bunch of songs where they were all up tempo mini-action movies. Plots, characters, heists, hostages, questionable capers, getaway cars, all that stuff. Gas pedal glued to the floor. Eventually, as you might guess I wanted at least one song where the tempo relaxed a little and that’s the title track but otherwise buckle up. We hid out in the woods in Chapel Hill and made this album with nobody knowing about it.

Proper secret-soldier style. It has been pretty hard keeping this under our hats, we are really proud of what we got here. Alicia Bognanno (of Bully) produced & played with us, and the great Shani Gandhi mixed.

The album is called ‘Bleed Out’ and will be out on August 19th via Merge Records. The first single is “Training Montage” which does what it says on the tin, and you can pre-order the album now…

“Training Montage” by the Mountain Goats from their new album ‘Bleed Out’ coming August 19th, 2022 on Merge Records.

Los Angeles psych-rock band Hooveriii (pronounced “Hoover Three”) have announced the July 29th release of their new album “A Round of Applause”.

Though created in large part by founder Bert Hoover, Hooveriii has grown to include Gabe Flores (lead guitar and vocals), Kaz Mirblouk (bass and synths), James Novick (synths), and Owen Barrett (drums).

Prior to delving into “A Round of Applause” — Hoveriii’s second album through The Reverberation Appreciation Society —the band had stuck to a routine of issuing about two releases a year (including singles, live albums, etc.). After the rise of a certain five-letter word that starts with a C, they realized that time really shouldn’t be taken for granted. Finding additional inspiration via Nick Cave, who once said that dabbling with new ideas continues to fuel his near-50-year career, the band decidedly took a different approach with their new album and gave themselves the freedom to explore in the studio.

Today the band shares the first take of the album by way of “A Round Of Appluases” opening track, “See.” The band’s Bert Hoover notes, “‘See’ is about trying not to take life for granted. Some things are easier said than done. It’s our first song to feature Anna Wallace singing along with us and it came together rather seamlessly. It was a pretty bare bones jangle jam until the band filled it with ear candy.” The video was filmed on 16mm at the Trona Pinnacles in Trona CA. Conceived and co-directed by the mighty Nikki Houston and Owen Summers it features aliens stranded on earth try to find their way home until things go very wrong.

The end result is “A Round of Applause“, an expansive and even, at times, experimental record. Whereas 2021’s “Water for the Frog”s was akin to a jam-band record — most of its seven songs are about five minutes long (including a closing track that lasts nearly 10) — “A Round of Applause” could be considered their “pop” album. Occasionally paying homage to the Canterbury scene, the band consider it to be a palette cleanser of sorts. “I am not really a playlist guy or a singles guy,” Hoover admits. “I’m really into the album experience. … So yeah, we made a pop record. But also, to me, this record is very progressive as well, and I think that that provides a nice balance.” HE previously referred to “Water for the Frogs” as the band’s equivalent of Iggy Pop’s The Idiot. Playing with that idea he says “A Round of Applause” is the kindred spirit of Lust For Life.

Hooveriii derived the album title from the late-‘80s Roky Erickson song “Click Your Fingers Applauding the Play.” “That’s too much of a mouthful,” Hoover qualified. “My title, “A Round of Applause”, just came one day, and we were like, ‘Yo, that sounds like a Gentle Giant record.’”

Reflecting the mostly lighthearted and uplifting record, “A Round of Applause” closes cheekily — but not sarcastically — with the sound of people clapping. Hoover adds graciously: “We’ve been lucky so far. I don’t think we really have a, you know, ‘bad song.’ ” Maybe one will, someday. But Hoover doesn’t dwell on that; after all, his band has more records to make — and time is of the essence. 

Hooverii have confirmed their first U.S. tour in support of “A Round of Applause“. The dates kick off July 23rd.

On May 27th, 1968, Iron Butterfly recorded their classic song “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”. Iron Butterfly’s signature track and often considered one of the most influential songs on the heavy metal movement — especially in the United States. A progressive rock gem, as well, “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” has also been known for its length. Perhaps the highlight of the track is Ron Bushy’s drum solo at just over the six-minute mark. It delivers a kind of Jungle vibe. It builds up to a frenetic pace and cools off before the band comes together for a collective jam. Bushy again moves into the forefront at the 13-minute mark; an overall drum performance that was quite impressive for the late 1960s, and helped define this epic rock classic.

Okay – anyone who wants to make fun of hippie-era silliness has all the fuel they need in this album’s title, also that of the group’s #30 hit song of the same name (a just under three-minute edit of the 17-minute album track). The band’s stature as hard rock progenitors is underscored by the title of their previous album, “Heavy“, and big worldwide sales of “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” certainly helped spread the sound.

At slightly over 17 minutes long, it occupies the entire second side of the “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” album. The lyrics are simple, and heard only at the beginning and the end. The track was recorded at Ultrasonic Studios in Hempstead, Long Island, New York. The original title of the song was “In The Garden of Eden”.

The recording that is heard on the album was meant to be a soundcheck for engineer Don Casale while the band waited for the arrival of producer Jim Hilton. However, Casale had rolled a recording tape, and when the rehearsal was completed it was agreed that the performance was of sufficient quality that another take was not needed. Hilton later remixed the recording at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles.

In later years, band members claimed that the track was produced by Long Island producer Shadow Morton, who earlier had supervised the recordings of the band Vanilla Fudge. Morton subsequently stated in several interviews that he had agreed to do so at the behest of Atlantic Records chief Ahmet Ertegun, but said he was drinking heavily at the time and that his actual oversight of the recording was minimal. Neither Casale nor Morton receives credit on the album, while Hilton was credited as both its sound engineer and producer.

“Welcome 2 Club XIII”, Drive By Truckers the 14th studio album, marks a sharp departure from the trenchant political commentary of their last three records. A reckoning with the dualities of the things that make you alive and how they sometimes can kill you. A life affirming flashlight for the dark nights of one’s soul. The title track is a tongue in cheek homage to a local dive that founding members Cooley and Hood played in the early days. As they say in the song “Our glory days did kinda suck”.

As on the Drive-By Truckers’ terrific trilogy about growing up below the Mason-Dixon line – “Southern Rock Opera”, “Decoration Day” (2003) and “The Dirty South” (2004) – “Welcome 2 Club XIII” is a loose concept album, this time looking back at the years before their identity was fully formed. “Tonight we’re gonna be entertained by our favourite Foghat cover band,” Patterson Hood sings on the title track, recalling their indifferently received opening gigs as Adam’s House Cat, who get a name-check here.

Their seven-minute opener “The Driver” sets the tone as Hood opens an early tour diary filled with late nights, new towns and youthful optimism. But it’s not always fond memories: There are Klan sightings and hazardous icy roads along the way, and, drugs and booze take their toll in “We Will Never Wake You Up in the Morning,” a tribute to a late friend. “Wilder Days,” the album’s six-and-a-half-minute closing song, drops the Drive-By Truckers in the present day while tracing the line from before there were families to support – “we were invincible and unafraid” – to the life that now keeps them on the road for months on end: “The days are getting shorter and the years counting down, and the sun gets dizzy watching us as we go spinning around.”

Recorded quickly and with little fuss, “Welcome 2 Club XIII” sounds raw and weary, as if the past couple of years aren’t the only thing that’s weighed on the band; the decades have, too. When the Drive-By Truckers spring to life – the throwback “Shake and Pine,” Mike Cooley’s horn-abetted “Every Single Storied Flameout” – it’s a temporary salve. But they never sound defeated. “Have a seat and stay awhile,” invites Hood in “Forged in Hell and Heaven Sent.” They’re still in for the long haul.

Fresh grief, like fresh love, has a way of sharpening our vision and bringing on painful clarifications. No matter how temporary we know these states to be, the vulnerability and transformation they demand can overpower the strongest among us.

Then there are the rare, fertile moments when both occur, when mourning and limerence heighten, complicate and explain each other; the songs that comprise Angel Olsen’s “Big Time” were forged in such a whiplash.

“Big Time” is an album about the expansive power of new love, but this brightness and optimism is tempered by a profound and layered sense of loss.

“Big Time” by Angel Olsen from the forthcoming album ‘Big Time’, out June 3rd on Jagjaguwar.

Soak’s Bridie Monds-Watson has spent their last two albums sifting through melancholy, trying to find nuggets of hope. “I’m lost in some nothingness,” they keened on “Valentine Shmalentine” backed by weary drums and sympathetic strings, “And I can’t find where the exit is.” 2019’s Grim Town brought out a cheeky, jauntier side of Monds-Watson compared to the drifting anxieties of their debut, but it’s on their third full-length “If I Never Know You Like This Again” that they finally embrace joy with a sprawling sense of abandon. Like a Mary Ruefle poem, these songs are spiked with a stream-of-consciousness candor that grapples with the pandemic’s absurd precarity: exploitative landlords, “Live Laugh Love” signs, existential crises. It’s a departure from the spare narratives of their past releases, but one that seems to come naturally for Monds-Watson.

Derry artist Bridie Monds-Watson’s third Soak album If I never know you like this again was released today is inspired by 90s college rock and bands like Broken Social Scene and Pavement.

‘Swear Jar’ is a fine example of how SOAK’s music has developed over the years, with an internal confidence, matched with lyrics about depression and the breakdown of a relationship. It’s got some wonderful string and backing vocal flourishes.

“I felt so disconnected from myself and life that I was starting to question if I’d ever truly been present or if I’d always been on autopilot,” said Bridie Monds-Watson of the song.

New album ‘If I Never Know You Like This Again’ out now.

On the title track to “Welcome 2 Club XIII”, Drive-By Truckers pay homage to the Muscle Shoals honky-tonk studios where founding members Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley got their start: a concrete-floored dive lit like a disco, with the nightly promise of penny beer and truly dubious cover bands. “There were no cool bars in town and Club XIII was the best we had but it wasn’t all that good, and our band wasn’t particularly liked there,” says Hood, referring to the vocalist/guitarists’ former band Adam’s House Cat. “From time to time the owner would throw us a Wednesday night or let us open for a hair-metal band we were a terrible fit for, and everyone would hang out outside until we were done playing.

It wasn’t very funny at the time, but it’s funny to us now.” The 14th studio album from Drive-By Truckers  whose line-up also includes keyboardist/guitarist Jay Gonzalez, bassist Matt Patton, and drummer Brad Morgan — “Welcome 2 Club XIII” looks back on their formative years with both deadpan pragmatism and profound tenderness, instilling each song with the kind of lived-in detail that invites bittersweet reminiscence of your own misspent youth. Featuring background vocals from the likes of Margo Price, R.E.M.’s Mike Mills and Mississippi-bred singer/songwriter Schaefer Llana,

“Welcome 2 Club XIII” was recorded live with most songs cut in one or two takes, fully harnessing the band’s freewheeling energy. Notes Cooley: “For us it’s always about just getting together and having fun, but this time there was the added feeling of being set free after a long time of wondering if we’d ever get to do this again.”

“Welcome 2 Club XIII” is the first single from Drive-By Truckers’ upcoming album ‘Welcome 2 Club XIII’.