The Fat Angel Sings

Wilco have announced a new album, “Cruel Country”, and shared its first single, “Falling Apart (Right Now),” via a video for the new song. “Cruel Country” is due out May 27th via the band’s own dBpm label. The album is due out the same weekend as the band’s Solid Sound Festival in North Adams, MA and they will perform the album at the festival. The black & white “Falling Apart (Right Now)” video showcases the band in the studio working on the song.

As its title suggests, “Cruel Country” embraces the band’s Americana side. “There have been elements of Country music in everything we’ve ever done,” says frontman Jeff Tweedy in a press release. “We’ve never been particularly comfortable with accepting that definition, the idea that I was making Country music. But now, having been around the block a few times, we’re finding it exhilarating to free ourselves within the form, and embrace the simple limitation of calling the music we’re making Country.”

Wilco—Tweedy, John Stirratt, Glenn Kotche, Mikael Jorgensen, Pat Sansone, and Nels Cline recorded almost everything on the album live in the studio together, with minimal overdubs, recording at the band’s own The Loft recording studio in Chicago. “It’s a style of recording that forces a band to surrender control and learn to trust each other, along with each others’ imperfections, musical and otherwise,” says Tweedy. “But when it’s working the way it’s supposed to, it feels like gathering around some wild collective instrument, one that requires six sets of hands to play.”

“Cruel Country” is a concept album of sorts, one that loosely chronicles the history of the United States. “It isn’t always direct and easy to spot, but there are flashes of clarity,” Tweedy explains. “It’s all mixed up and mixed in, the way my personal feelings about America are often woven with all of our deep collective myths. Simply put, people come and problems emerge. Worlds collide. It’s beautiful. And cruel.”

Tweedy adds: “The specifics of an American identity begin to blur for me as the record moves toward the light and opens itself up to more cosmic solutions—coping with fear, without belonging to any nation or group other than humanity itself.”

“Cruel Country” isn’t just about history, but also comments on the troubled times we’re currently living in. “More than any other genre, Country music, to me, a white kid from middle-class middle America, has always been the ideal place to comment on what most troubles my mind—which for more than a little while now has been the country where I was born, these United States,” says Tweedy. “And because it is the country I love, and because it’s Country music that I love, I feel a responsibility to investigate their mirrored problematic natures. I believe it’s important to challenge our affections for things that are flawed.

“Country music is simply designed to aim squarely at the low-hanging fruit of the truth. If someone can sing it, and it’s given a voice… well, then it becomes very hard not to see. We’re looking at it. It’s a cruel country, and it’s also beautiful. Love it or leave it. Or if you can’t love it, maybe you’ve already left.”

Wilco also recently announced a massive 20th anniversary reissue of their 2002 album “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” that features a whopping 82 previously unreleased tracks, including a 2002 live recording of “Reservations,” which they shared when announcing the reissue. They also performed the album’s “Poor Places” on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The reissue is due out September 16th via Nonesuch Records.

The band’s annual Solid Sound Festival will take place this May, featuring Japanese Breakfast, Sylvan Esso, Hand Habits, Iceage, and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, among many others. Their last studio album, “Ode to Joy”, came out in 2019 via dBpm. 

The dynamic Chicago rock band Wilco returns with its 12th studio album, the first of its kind. “Cruel Country” is the band’s exploration of the genre they’ve often been defined by but, until now, never fully embraced. The double album features 21 Jeff Tweedy-penned tracks, made almost entirely of live takes, created with all six members together in The Loft for the first time since the 2011 release “The Whole Love“. “Cruel Country” will be available as a digital download on May 27th.

Black Midi have announced a new album, “Hellfire”, and a North American tour. Check out Gustaf Holtenäs’ video for new song “Welcome to Hell” below, along with the dates and the album art, which was, once again, designed by David Rudnick. If “Cavalcade” was a drama, “Hellfire” is like an epic action film,” the band’s Geordie Greep said in a press release.

The band released that second album, “Cavalcade“, last year, followed by “Cavalcovers”, an EP featuring covers of Taylor Swift, King Crimson, and Captain Beefheart.

In a press release,

said: Almost everyone depicted is a kind of scumbag. Almost everything I write is from a true thing, something I experienced and exaggerated and wrote down. I don’t believe in Hell, but all that old world folly is great for songs, I’ve always loved movies and anything else with a depiction of Hell. Dante’s Inferno. When Homer goes to Hell in The Simpsons. There’s a robot Hell in Futurama. Isaac Bashevis Singer, a Jewish writer who portrays a Satan interfering in people’s lives. There’s loads!.

If you preorder from select retailers you’ll receive one bonus 7” Flexi out of 6 possible songs, past and present, that we performed live at Electrical Audio – recorded by Steve Albini. 5 of them have been chosen already but the 6th, which is available from the BM and Rough Trade Webstores,

‘Hellfire’ is our Third Album for @roughtraderecords is out July 15th – Produced by Marta Salogni, Co-Produced by Max ‘Sizzle’ Goulding

New Album ‘Hellfire’ is out 15th July.

This Friday (May 13th), The Smile are digitally releasing their debut album “A Light for Attracting Attention”. Ahead of the release, the trio has shared the music video for the new song “Thin Thing.” The stop-motion animated visual was directed by Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña.

According to a press release, León and Cociña spent six months on the “Thin Thing” video. They said in a statement: Hearing the song for the first time, we imagined a frenetic fluid that carries machines, pieces of human bodies and carnivorous plants. When presenting the idea to the band, Thom [Yorke] told us about a dream that made him write the song. We believe the video is the conjunction of these two things

Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, and Tom Skinner comprise line up of the Smile. In addition to “Thin Thing,” the trio’s debut album includes the singles “You Will Never Work in Television Again,” “The Smoke,” “Skrting on the Surface,” “Pana-vision,” and “Free in the Knowledge.”

And finally! A release date for our new album “A Light For Attracting Attention”, a new song, the artwork that Thom and Stanley have been painting all winter – and a sense that we will get to share, at last, our new music in full. I feel grateful that we managed, with Nigel’s help, to record these songs in a way they deserve. And the singles released so far have been liked – as far as I can tell – which makes me feel dangerously confident in the rest of the record.

So yes, we’re properly proud and excited for everyone to have the whole thing – but, it’s been a drawn-out process so far, with so many single songs released. I can only apologise for our tentativeness. But, come May 13th, all digital copies will be with you and physical copies will be available from June 17th.

“A Light For Attracting Attention”, out on XL Recordings

We’re so excited to announce Irish singer-songwriter and musician, Aoife Nessa Frances, as the newest addition to the Partisan Records roster!.
Following her critically lauded debut album Land of No Junction (2020), Aoife’s making her return with a new song, “Emptiness Follows” — a mesmerizing, pastoral psych-folk piece that pulls inspiration from magical realism, tarot, astrology, art-rock and avant-garde orchestrations.

Irish musician Aoife Nessa Frances has signed to Partisan and returns with a new recording “Emptiness Follows” — a meditation on the pain of friendships drifting apart.

“Emptiness Follows” presents a thrilling emotional and sonic landscape and carries a striking sense of grace. Pre-order the single now on metallic gold cassette, featuring the experimental alternative “Emptiness Follows (Dreams Of Our Love)” on Side B.

released May 9th, 2022

Last year, Wolf Alice returned with their third album “Blue Weekend”. The collection eventually earned them a Mercury Prize nomination. Today, they’re back with the news of a companion EP called “Blue Lullaby“, featuring stripped-down, reimagined versions of four “Blue Weekend” tracks.

“Blue Lullaby” came about because we wanted to strip down some of our more emotional songs from “Blue Weekend” and see if they hit any different,” Ellie Roswell said in a statement. “We also had a really nice moment during the “Blue Weekend” campaign singing one of our songs with a choir and we wanted to experience that again with a few other songs, especially as there are a lot of harmonies and a lot of vocal layering on “Blue Weekend”. Hearing multiple voices singing together is an unparalleled feeling to me so I’m happy we got to record this experience and I hope people enjoy it.”

The songs Wolf Alice chose to rework include “No Hard Feelings,” “Lipstick On The Glass,” “The Last Man On Earth,” and “How Can I Make It OK?”

“The Blue Lullaby” EP is out 24th June via RCA Records.

“Covers of Covers” ~ Celebrating 20 Years of Under the Radar Magazine

This exclusive compilation features some of the magazine’s favorite artists covering artists who have graced the cover of Under the Radar over the past 20 years. Hear brand new covers of Metric, Grandaddy, Divine Comedy, Phoenix, Broken Social Scene, Stars, HAIM, Mitski, Angel Olsen, Animal Collective, Beck, Elliott Smith, Joanna Newsom, Belle and Sebastian, Phoebe Bridgers, Modest Mouse, St. Vincent, and R.E.M.

One dollar from every album sale is donated to the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund, a non-profit organization that provides financial assistance to all types of career musicians and music industry workers who are struggling to make ends meet while facing physical or mental health issues, disability, or age-related problems.

Released March 4th, 2022

“Songbook” by the Australian band The Lazy Eyes come through the speakers and you are thrown back in time to the 60’s/70’s . The band from Sydney is strongly influenced by a wide range of psychedelics also incorporates influences from surrounding genres and especially from prog rock. The music of The Lazy Eyes often sounds wonderfully trippy, but the band can also work with songs with a head and a tail. There is currently a lot of appearances in this genre, but The Lazy Eyes sounds a lot more languid and dreamy than most of its peers, which in any case benefits my listening pleasure considerably.

After two fine EPs, the Australian band The Lazy Eyes debuts this week with their full-fledged debut album, “Songbook“. It is a debut album that does not take much time to show in which genre the band from Sydney prefers to move. it soon becomes clear that The Lazy Eyes is going full for breathing new life into psychedelics from the 60s and 70s.

The band is also not averse to mesmerizing guitar solos, as far as I am concerned is always an enrichment of the genre. The excellent guitar work on “Songbook” is combined with spacy keyboards and occasionally with wonderfully dreamy vocals. Occasionally the band adds some influences from folk rock, hard rock and prog rock, but also trips to the more modern sounding neo-psychedelics are not shunned.

Overall, however, “Songbook” is an album that immediately takes you back to the late 60s and early 70s, where the band is not limited to the psychedelic rock that was made in and around San Francisco during this period, but also some influences from The Beatles, The Byrds and The Beach Boys pass by.

Especially in the longer tracks, the Australian band takes the time for psychedelic jams, but “Songbook” by The Lazy Eyes is fortunately also an album with songs with a head and a tail. Because of the fairly compact songs, the broad inspiration from the psychedelics of the 60s and 70s and the openness to influences from surrounding genres, The Lazy Eyes is ultimately a somewhat different band than all those other psychedelic bands of the moment.

“Songbook” remains far removed from the flirtations with pop of a band like Tame Impala, which once started just like The Lazy Eyes, and also manages to combine catchy songs with a lot of musical fireworks, It’s an almost contradictory combination, but on “Songbook” it somehow works perfectly.

I don’t dare to predict yet whether the debut album of The Lazy Eyes will still be as irresistible in a few months as the album currently sounds, but after hearing it quite a few times, there is certainly no question of boredom, if only because the band from Sydney has added a lot of variation to its sound due to the influences from surrounding genres and by alternating catchy and more complex passages.

Based on the two previously released EPs, the debut album from The Lazy Eyes was looked forward to with high expectations and after the first listens I can only conclude that the band from Sydney meets or even exceeds our expectations.

Bands inspired by Californian psychedelics from the late 60s are plentiful, bands that make music of the beauty of Papercuts’ “Past Life Regression” are extremely rare. “Past Life Regression”, is the seventh album by the American band Papercuts, only needs a few notes to drag you back decades in time. Let the album of the band from San Francisco come out of the speakers, close your eyes, and you imagine yourself in the California of the ‘summer of love’. The great thing about Papercuts’ music is that on the one hand it sounds wonderfully authentic and nostalgic, but on the other hand the band around Jason Quever subtly incorporates influences from a much later date.

Jason Quever has been releasing timeless dream pop as Papercuts since 2004; his new album “Past Life Regression” is a journey into the dreamier reaches of psychedelic folk-pop that digs deep into influences as wide-ranging as The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, Spiritualized, Echo & The Bunnymen, Leonard Cohen and late 60s pop of various flavours.

Jason’s songcraft, arranging and production are immaculate as always, reflecting his broad experience and enlivened by his move back home to the San Francsico Bay Area. It’s remarkable that after more than 15 years he’s writing his best songs and in “Past Life Regression” has made his finest record. Gorgeous, perfectly constructed chamber pop for the very unusual times we’re living through.

“Past Life Regression” is an album to dream away from, but in the meantime you don’t want to miss a note of all the musical splendour on this album.

Taken from the forthcoming album “Past Life Regression,” out April 1, 2022 on Slumberland Records/Labelman.

Holiday Ghosts, are from the south coast of UK, is the ongoing musical collaboration between partners Katja Rackin and Samuel Stacpoole, now joined by B. Spanks and Morgan Lloyd-Mathews. Call it garagey, jangly, rock n rolly, indie, punky, poppy, whatever you want. They frame their own takes on the human experience with a sound that is as lean, under-processed and straight to the point. Yeah the 1 drum beat Katja learned at the start remains ever present but it never fails to feel new.

Their new EP “Credit Note” was recorded and engineered by Phil Booth of JT Soar studio, in North Wales in early January 2022. “We decided to make an EP that is really true to our current live playing style. On our albums we always favour a range of styles, tempos and instruments to give a varied record. We realised though, that we often find ourselves playing pretty hard and fast at gigs chasing more punky, and rock n roll sounds. So if you want to hear a condensed record of us doing just that, that’s what the “Credit Note” EP does.” Kat

The six tracks on “Credit Note” EP are a full collaboration with all four band members for all stages of the writing and recording process. Since their third LP “North Street Air”, released by FatCat Records in 2021, founding members Katja Rackin and Sam Stacpoole have found a new dream team.

Again from the endless well of ex Falmouth / Troubadour Studio musicians. B. Spanks is on 2nd guitar and vocals and Morgan Lloyd-Mathews on longhorn bass.
Whilst the lyrics and vocals of “Plain Dumb” come from Katja and Sam, Morgan contributed the whole chord sequence and structure, pushing the tempo to the fastest and hardest Holiday Ghosts song to date. “Bright Lights Big City” is a song fully imagined by B.Spanks who takes lead vocals and production duties. The method behind writing this song was to not practice at all between the start of the idea and a year and a half later when it was recorded to allow room for improvisation.

Continuing the lyrical themes of social commentary that were present in 2021s “North Street Air” LP, Katja’s lyrics on “Credit Note” talk of how our current political system continuously fails to provide adequate social change and how any attempt to do so just feeds into that same system; like a credit note that can only be spent in the same shop. ‘Credit notes no change” This theme can be heard echoed in the rest of the EP particularly on “Sardines” ( a vinyl only bonus track) “jagged benches and armrests where you sleep, hostile architecture trying to keep you on your feet”
This is the first time that Holiday Ghosts have ever outsourced an engineer to work with them in the studio. “It was great for me to finally not be wearing both hats of performing and engineering at once. Particularly as the music was recorded live, I was able to focus a lot more on what I was playing on guitar. Phil is a great producer/ engineer, not only for his efficiency but he’s got a real knack for pointing out parts of the songs that might not be gelling or suggesting subtle differences that make the songs a lot stronger” sam.

Releases July 27th, 2022