The Fat Angel Sings

These new songs showcase Night Moves further evolution as a band and as songwriters, still trading in massive pop hooks that somehow manage to convey a sense of yearning melancholy but with a sense of maturity and perspective in the arrangements that comes with time. Synthesizers sweep, the pedal steel swoons, the high lonesome harmonica calls across a distance.

Minneapolis-based quartet Night Moves releases “Vulnerable Hours,” a layered, lush and deeply confessional new track, alongside a music video directed by Cody Lee Brown.

“Vulnerable Hours” is the second in a series of new singles to be released incrementally throughout the year, following the “psychedelic” (Under The Radar) “Fallacy Actually.” The track was written as part of NPR’s Song Confessional podcast, where songwriters turn anonymous stories and confessions into new, original songs.

Singer John Pelant says the track is “about one’s forays into the app based dating lifestyle at age 70 after being recently widowed. It’s based on an acquaintance’s real experience. However, the video conveys a slightly different take on the song, that of one’s vulnerabilities, inner demons, and insecurities during a first date gone awry. A tiny soap operatic trip to the market whilst lost in your head.”

“Vulnerable Hours,” and “Fallacy Actually” and the batch of new songs that will follow were recorded at Pachyderm Studios outside of the band’s hometown with producer John Agnello (Kurt Vile, Alvvays, Dinosaur Jr.). These new songs showcase Night Moves further evolution as a band and as songwriters, still trading in massive pop hooks that somehow manage to convey a sense of yearning melancholy but with a sense of maturity and perspective in the arrangements that comes with time. Synthesizers sweep, the pedal steel swoons, the high lonesome harmonica calls across a distance.

Founded by guitarist/lead vocalist John Pelant and bassist Micky Alfano, and later joined by Mark Hanson and Chuck Murlowski, the Minneapolis outfit Night Moves meld the sounds of classic rock with Americana, creating irresistible hooky cosmic sludge with a Nashville twang.

Today marks the release of “I’m Not Here”, the junior full-length album from Alex Izenberg. A collection of beguiling love songs, tender heartache, despair and confusion, “I’m Not Here” lays Alex bare, heart on his sleeve, and serves as a peek into the mind of one of LA’s most enigmatic songwriters.

To mark its release, Alex has shared a technicolor, animated video for song “Our Love Remains,” the center-piece to the ten-track long player. To bring the song to life, Alex recruited Dave Longstreth—the principal force behind the Dirty Projectors—who composed and arranged strings and woodwinds for several of the album’s tracks.

Alex on “Our Love Remains”: 
“This song was a way of making a light shine in the mere darkness of 21st century life.”

Like his debut, 2016’s homespun Harlequin, and its ambitious 2020 follow-up Caravan Château, Alex Izenberg’s new album “I’m Not Here” inhabits the shaggy, world-weary mode of artists like Harry Nilsson, John Lennon, Randy Newman, and Lou Reed. 

Alex on “Ivory”: I don’t know if it’s as much of a story as me trying to tell a story, because I don’t consider myself to be a storyteller like Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen, but I guess it was me kind of going for that. It could be interpreted in different ways, depending on what your mood is, but I think it kind of can be interpreted as a fancy couple going out and how they’re not really in love but they’re still together. And then “real love will stone you” at the end of the chorus can be interpreted as them finding out they’re not in love. I was kind of going for a “Best of My Love” Eagles kind of vibe. That song I think is about the singer just being hopelessly in love with somebody and just telling her she gets the best of his love. Lyrically it’s not quite the same but the vibe I was going for. 

“Ivory” is the third single off of Alex’s forthcoming studio album, “I’m Not Here“, due out May 20th via Domino imprint Weird World.

With the help of producer Greg Hartunian, and swelling string and woodwind arrangements courtesy of Dirty Projectors’ Dave Longstreth, Alex manages a paradoxical and visionary trick: he disappears completely while simultaneously revealing more of himself than ever before. 

Real Estate frontman Martin Courtney dropped the debut single from a new album out in June on Domino Records– it’s dripping with a layered, nostalgia vibe that seems perfect for summer road trips.

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.

Martin Courtney – “Corncob” from the forthcoming album ‘Magic Sign’ out 24th June 2022 on Domino Record Co.

Bully’s Alicia Bognanno joins Alex Edkins of Canadian punk iconoclasts Metz on this rip-roaring taste of his upcoming self-titled solo debut. Bognanno’s killer vocal steals this one.

Weird Nightmare (the solo project of METZ guitarist/singer Alex Edkins) has shared a video for his new single, “Wrecked.” It is the latest release from his forthcoming self-titled debut solo album, which will be out on May 20th via Sub Pop Records.

In a press release, Edkins states: “‘Wrecked’ is about missing someone. For me, it’s about missing my wife and son while on tour. Being away has become harder and harder to do. I think most people can relate to it. Feeling impossibly far away from the ones you love and coming to the realization that you won’t feel whole again until you return. I was really happy to collaborate with Alicia (Bognanno) on this song and I love what she adds to it. Alicia has a one in a million voice. A voice that you recognize immediately and she really lifts the song way up. Directed by Ryan Thompson, the video for ‘Wrecked’ is a tale as old as time. When a pooch with no pack strays into the park, you know things are gonna get ruff….”

“Wrecked” by Weird Nightmare from the self-titled album ‘Weird Nightmare’, out May 20th, 2022 on Sub Pop Records.

A man who needs no introduction, especially on British shores, the former Oasis frontman returns to action with his third solo LP this week and it might just be his best album to date.

With his new LP “C’mon You Know” in stores this Friday (May 27th), here’s everything you need to know…announced in October last year, the title for Gallagher’s third solo album was reportedly inspired by a catchphrase regularly deployed by none other than beloved Soccer Saturday host Jeff Stelling (and mercilessly mocked on Soccer AM).

The first new music came earlier this with the unleashing of ‘Everything’s Electric’, featuring one of the album’s other famous faces behind the drum kit. Andrew Wyatt and Greg Kurstin, both of whom have worked on Gallagher’s previous solo albums, return to production duties on his third full-length effort.

Dave Grohl applies his legendary drum skills to recent single ‘Everything’s Electric’, a track he also co-wrote with Gallagher, while Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig also puts in an appearance, playing saxophone on the album’s title track.

You’d expect to find plenty of rockers on a Liam Gallagher album and you won’t be disappointed on that front, with songs like ‘Everything’s Electric’ and the title track fitting that bill nicely, as well as the album’s closing track ‘Wave’, which includes a cheeky lyrical nod to his long-running feud with Noel Gallagher: “My brother don’t like me, he’s said it before / Who threw the first stone, and who’s keeping score?”

Elsewhere though there are more than a few sonic surprises across the new album, not least the angelic, choral opener ‘More Power’. One of these comes part way into ‘I’m Free’, which begins as a straight-up rock ‘n’ roller only to take an abrupt left turn into dub reggae territory – not an easy one to pull off, but it works surprisingly well.

The obligatory Beatles references are still dotted around and their influence shines through on the hazy trip that is ‘Moscow Rules’, while there are also shades of The La’s folky, melodic style to ‘World’s In Need’, but the album’s real highlights come on tracks like ‘Diamond in the Dark’ and ‘Don’t Go Halfway’, two moments where Gallagher’s trademark vocal style and knack for melody are paired with some interesting chord twists and tricks that elevate them to something beyond standard rock ‘n’ roll fare.

Liam Gallagher’s strength as a vocalist has never been in doubt, but as a songwriter he’s always been burdened with the shadow of his elder sibling and even though later Oasis albums included contributions from their mercurial frontman, they sometimes felt like a bit of a ‘Ringo’ moment.

But we’re a long, long way from ‘Little James’ here. His first two solo albums have both included moments of genuine brilliance, but his songwriting has gone from strength to strength over the course of his three solo albums, clearly benefiting from the influence of working with people like Greg Kusrtin and Andrew Wyatt, who do a great job on the production side here too. As a body of work, this is hands-down Liam Gallagher’s best record yet.

Chicago indie rockers Dehd are back with their third album, “Blue Skies”. The follow-up to 2020’s “Flower of Devotion” chronicles the perils of “love addiction,” as the band has noted. “I wrote it for myself and for everyone who needed to hear a song about choosing new forms of love,” vocalist Emily Kempf explained. “It’s about chasing a relationship with oneself rather than an unhealthy one, one that just doesn’t quite fit, or a co-dependent one.”

All songs written by Emily Kempf, Jason Balla, and Eric McGrady. Produced by Jason Balla.

“Hyaline” (released 27th May 2022) is the debut album from Ohio-born, Oakland, CA based artist and songwriter, Maria BC. Following last year’s debut EP “Devil’s Rain” which received critical praise from Pitchfork, BBC Radio 6 Music, KEXP and more, Maria created “Hyaline” across their untreated Brooklyn apartment in Summer 2021, like a wandering spirit gaining energy from different spaces.

Their classically-trained mezzo-soprano voice soars over raw, etherial guitars; audio samples from Prospect Park – now almost unrecognizable – dapple across minimal percussion; organ, played by Maria BC’s dad at his church in Ohio, settle alongside tender, transformative harmonies. Mixing together different sessions, tracks recorded directly into their phone and samples collected over the years, Maria BC likens “Hyaline” to a “sonic collage.” It’s a project of patience, and trusting the process.

“Hyaline”, the album title, describes something that is clear and translucent like glass, especially a smooth sea. For Maria, song-writing is a stretched blank canvas awaiting the strokes of an exhale, and it’s this slow-moving process that rewards us the ease of a crystalline sky, without forgetting the clouds that may have come before it. A knife’s-edge balance of intimacy and ambiguity, “Hyaline” accesses snapshots of grief, anxiety and wonder through a miscellany of spectres: these are ghost stories, but not as we know them.

released May 27th, 2022

Dawes have shared the latest taste of their forthcoming studio album, “Misadventures of Doomscroller”, which is set to be released on July 22nd. The single, dubbed “Comes In Waves,” showcases the band’s indie-folk sensibility with an added light rock layer due to an exceptional electric guitar solo during the latter half of the six-minute song. 

“I had this riff and one of the verses for a while,” offered Dawes frontman, Taylor Goldsmith. “Griffin, Wylie and Mike Viola came over to my backyard – this was peak Covid – to just play music together for one of the first times since lockdown.” He went on to add, “I started sharing the song and Griffin and Mike started singing their background parts you hear on the choruses on the record immediately. It inspired me to finish writing it.”

Goldsmith then remarked, “The lyric is about the arbitrary demands I make on myself. I want to perceive me or my life a certain way but I make no exceptions for an off day or a misstep. Whether it’s a win or a loss, it’s all transient, and only when I can live in some version of that awareness – which is itself transient – am I able to bat away any fears or anxieties or the consequences of an over indulged ego.”

The band has also shared the accompanying music video for their new single via YouTube. The intimate performance shows the band playing “Comes In Waves” in the studio, giving fans an intimate glimpse into Dawes’ unparalleled companionship as musicians. 

“Misadventures of Doomscroller” to be released on July 22nd

“There’s an immediate, Big Star-like appeal to Bread Pilot’s unabashedly poppy music; true, it’s leavened with a good deal of crunchier distortion and the periodic ragged holler of vocals, but the commitment to expertly crafted songs (with unexpected hints of psychedelia) is similar. Plus, the band performs the admirable task of getting in and out in under three minutes on most of these tracks. Rarely has the phrase “You have your whole life to make your first album” been more applicable: “New To You” is the full-length result of a decade of playing together that began in high school. And it’s one hell of a coming-out party.”
—The AV Club

Bread Pilot’s new album “New To You!” Recorded at The Unknown in Anacortes, WA and engineered by Sam Rosson (Great Grandpa’s Four of Arrows, Death Cab for Cutie) — we’re confident this album is going to be a classic.

“It’s an album which is rooted in the heart of lo-fi but produced with contemporary indie-rock sheen. Each layered track emanates a measured approach to song writing, a precise ear for earworm melodies, and scores of influences from the past.”
—Under The Radar

All songs written by Stephen Ibanez and Taylor Hayden

Bread Pilot is Evan House, Stephen Ibanez, Taylor Hayden, and Levi Nattrass

For more than 20 years, Neil Young’s mythical lost album “Toast” has sat on the shelf. Shelved by Young: “I was not happy with it, or maybe I was just generally unhappy,” he wrote in his Super Deluxe memoir. I don’t know. “It was a very desolate album, very sad and unanswered.” Now, “Toast” is being released.  On July 8th, the “lost” album recorded by the singer-songwriter and his long time compatriots in his band Crazy Horse will be released on CD, double vinyl, and digital formats.

Neil Young and Crazy Horse recorded the album “around the turn of the millennium” at San Francisco’s Toast Studios but the prolific and notoriously mercurial artist soon thought better of releasing it.  “Quit” and “Goin’ Home” appeared on 2002’s “Are You Passionate?“, the former in a re-recording with a different band (including Booker T. Jones, Donald “Duck” Dunn, and Crazy Horse’s Frank “Poncho” Sampedro). 

Still other tracks including “Standing in the Light of Love” were familiar from Young having played them live in 2001.  Young teased a release in 2008, telling Rolling Stone at the time that it was a “mind-blowing record…great rock and roll, very moody, kind of jazzy.”

Clearly it was back on his mind last year when he devoted an entry on his Neil Young Archives website to the album.  He wrote, in part, “It must be said that here Crazy Horse shows a depth never seen or heard before.  The greatest group I have ever met.  This is a pinnacle.”  He described the music to which the band applied its particular brand of alchemy: “”The music of “Toast” is about a relationship.  There is a time in many relationships that go bad, a time long before the breakup, where it dawns on one of the people, maybe both, that it’s over. This was that time.”

On July 8th, listeners will finally have a chance to hear what Young and Crazy Horse cooked up two decades ago.  Their last collaborative album to date, “Barn”, was released in 2021.  “Standing the Light of Love” is currently streaming at YouTube and all other streaming services.

Meanwhile, “Toast’s” existence was never officially revealed until 2008; since when it has become a central part of Young’s cannon of ‘lost’ albums, alongside “Homegrown“, “Chrome Dreams“, “Oceanside/Countryside“, “Island In The Sun” and “Times Square“.