The Fat Angel Sings

Elvis Costello and the Imposters took to the stage on Friday’s episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to give a rousing performance of “Farewell, OK,” the lead track from the group’s latest album, “The Boy Named If”. The song tells the story of a relationship gone off the rails, with one party wondering how things might have gone differently. “Ran my hand in the rhythm along the ballroom wall,” Costello sings. “Felt the rumble of the bass through the entrance hall/ And the door flung open to a mascara cry/ I can’t shake the sound of ‘How could you or why?’”

The incredible Elvis Costello descended on the Ed Sullivan Theater last night with his band The Imposters, and surprised our audience with this impromptu medley performance of two songs, “Farewell, OK” and his classic, “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding.”

“Like a lot of good rock and roll songs this began with a drummer down in a basement and a singer howling outside the backdoor,” Costello said in a statement about the track. “It’s a blurred gaze, a drink too much, an accidental punch and a kiss goodnight all in the tumult of a dancehall.”

Costello also surprised the audience with a rendition of his classic hit, “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding.” The song, which appeared on Costello’s 1979 LP “Armed Forces”, was originally written by English singer-songwriter Nick Lowe.

“The Boy Named If” dropped earlier this month. In an interview about the album Costello shared what still attracts him to writing rock music after nearly five decades in the business. “I don’t like much rock music. I like rock & roll,” the 67-year-old said. “I think if you lose the roll part, a lot of the fun goes out of it.”

Costello is set to hit the road this summer in support of “The Boy Named If” album which is out now.

Punk rockers Spanish Love Songs know that even on the darkest, desolate morning there’s hope in waiting for the sun to come up. “Brave Faces Everyone” feels like a defining moment for the band.

Since the release of their brilliant “Schmaltz” album, the Los Angeles based rockers Spanish Love Songs, have racked up the miles playing to ever more fervent crowds keenly affected by frontman Dylan Slocum’s raw honest, heart on the sleeve lyrics, and the band’s rousing brand of indie punk. In that time, Spanish Love Songs have had to navigate growing popularity whilst avoiding the pitfalls that have curtailed so many bands before them.

On new album “Brave Faces Everyone“, these experiences have translated into universally relatable, authentic anthems with a clear unifying link. Binding the songs together is the tacit acknowledgment that we all need love, empathy, and recognition to move forward.

The album opens with soft swells of synths and a solitary electric guitar as Slocum croons the line, “On any given day I’m a six of ten”, summarising in a single line what many of us feel. We may well be connected by our shared existential (or very real) angst but, by inference, maybe we are doing slightly better than average. The song then quickly kicks into gear as the band crash into a monumental chorus.

“Self Destruction (as a sensible career choice)” maintains the momentum. It’s a surging rocker that bounds to its delightfully cynical chorus of “It won’t be this bleak forever / Yeah right!” Few lyricists can manipulate their misery into such sing-a-long hooks as well as Slocum does on this album. “Generation Loss” reflects on an entire generation trying to navigate the world largely unaided, all while being endlessly judged. (“We’re so fucking tired of explaining ourselves.”)

“Kick” details the all to real plight of someone watching a loved one slide into hard drug addiction. Remarkably, despite the subject matter, it’s one of the catchiest songs on the album, with the band embracing a more pop-rock dynamic. It’s also a superb example of Slocum’s more storied song writing approach as it’s a well-rendered character study rather than a purely autobiographical piece.

“Beach Front Property” is one of the albums subtler, more nuanced moments that finds the band amplifying the space in the song and heightening its emotional resonance. Followers of the band will already be well aware of the song “Losers” – a remarkable, authentic call to arms for the dispossessed and disenfranchised. Based on an almost classic rock ‘n’ roll riff, it’s probably the most straight-up, anthemic rock song in the band’s canon.

Album closer “Brave Faces Everyone” captures the dichotomy that lies at the heart of the album. Torn between wanting to give up (“But I feel like burning down my life again”) and stealing oneself for what comes next, it exemplifies the confusion, anxiousness, and qualified optimism that lies at the heart of the album. “Brave Faces Everyone” feels like a defining moment for the band. By furthering their sonic template, they show just how they have grown into dynamic and articulate songwriters while retaining their ability to write rabble-rousing, shout-along choruses. What’s more, Spanish Love Songs understand that even on the darkest, desolate morning there’s hope to be had in waiting for the sun to come up.

Releases April 15th, 2022

Since 2007 these DIY sonic alchemists have been creating whacked out soundscapes and songs that appear to have been born from another universe, all from the confines of their sonic bunker.

A 20 track sprawling trawl of alternative versions , never heard before demos and other dug up sonic dirt and treasures from 2007-2020.

Released January 20th, 2022

All tracks written and performed by Cult of Dom Keller

Bill Fay has always sung about attempting to understand the most universal questions: those of nature, spirituality, humanity. His songs are “calming hymns for another chaotic time”, he says. His influence can be traced through many artist’s work, and so it only seemed right to celebrate this with a collection of newer voices interpreting his timeless tracks. Originally released in 2010 by David Tibet (Current 93), “Still Some Light” was released as a double CD, made up of 70’s album demos (Disc One) and 2009 home recordings (Disc Two). This year, for the first time, this collection of recordings will be pressed to vinyl and released digitally, presented alongside contemporary re-imaginings of the tracks by Kevin Morby, Steve Gunn, Julia Jacklin and Mary Lattimore. Bill Fay’s words and melodies remain unaffected by the passing of time and changing trends; and here alongside the original recordings, these reinvented versions still calmly guide us through another moment of chaos.

“Still Some Light Part 1”, collecting Fay’s archival recordings from 1970 and 1971. Many of the songs are intimate sketches which were eventually re-recorded for Fay’s self-titled debut and for his landmark album, “Time of the Last Persecution“. This double LP set includes heart wrenching versions of some of his timeless works, such as “I Hear You Calling” and “Pictures of Adolf Again”, and features equally powerful songs like “Arnold is a Simple Man” and “Love is the Tune,” which only appear in this collection.

Released January 14th, 2022

Indie rock, shoegaze, post-wave quartet from Olympia, Washington outfit Waves Crashing is a band that combines elements of indie rock, new wave, and shoegaze into something special, as seen on their recently released EP “Sea of Wires”.

You get the full scope of their sound and the uplifting “Nightmare” a song that captures elements of all the best 90s rock with a bit of a Galaxie 500 and expansive 80s classic rock and dream pop sound that packs a genuine and hearty melancholic feeling that we can’t get enough of.

Released November 12th, 2021

Written and Recorded by Waves Crashing in Olympia, WA

On January 30th, 1972, in Derry, Northern Ireland, British soldiers shot 26 unnamed civilians during a protest march against internment without trial. Most of the protesters were shot either fleeing or helping the wounded. The event ultimately left 14 dead, and is now remembered as Bloody Sunday,

In 1983, Irish post-punk band U2 famously honoured the memory of the lives lost during the massacre with their song “Sunday Bloody Sunday”. Now, to mark the anniversary of the horrific event, U2 took to social media to unveil a sombre acoustic performance of a modified version of the song led by Bono and The Edge.

30th January 2022 – With love, Bono & Edge

The glam boys canned a new long player, called “10 Tracks To Echo In The Dark“. It hits the streets
this summer, on 22nd July. As an introduction, we get the latest track with “Connection” as the most notable. A funky little groover. Singer Luke Pritchard tells us about their critical rebirth with a new generation, writing love songs for his new wife, trying to write a sci-fi novel and no longer feeling in a dark place

Work on the album started in Berlin with local producer Tobias Kuhn before the pandemic, and features collaborations with German duo Milky Chance and Swedish EDM musician Neikid. Although the album was finished with Tobias in London, the European flavour was a deliberate response to the continuing problems for British musicians after Brexit.

’10 Tracks To Echo In The Dark’ is the first album The Kooks have made since Luke got married to singer-songwriter Ellie Rose and the couple became parents to son Julian, who is now 10 weeks old. It also contains ‘Sailing On A Dream’, the first song on a Kooks album to be written by the full band of Luke, guitarist Hugh Harris and drummer Alexis Nunez.

The release of the ‘Connection’ EP, also featuring the songs ‘Jesse James’ and ‘Modern Days’, comes as The Kooks begin a delayed 15th anniversary tour for their debut album ‘Inside In/Inside Out’,

Taken from our new album ’10 Tracks to Echo in the Dark’, out on 22nd July

Pete Doherty and collaborator Frédéric Lo have shared the single ‘You Can’t Keep It From Me Forever’ as well as announcing details of their new album ‘The Fantasy Life of Poetry & Crime’. Having previously shared the title track, now The Libertines/Babyshambles man and the French musician, musical director, composer, arranger, music producer and singer-songwriter preview their upcoming album (due for release in March) with the summer-ready track ‘You Can’t Keep It From Me Forever’ – which Doherty said was inspired by his now drug-free lifestyle and the pair’s love of classic indie-pop.

“It reminded me a little bit of early Morrissey or some of the early Suede stuff, with an old-school catchy guitar,” Doherty said. “I never get bored of singing this song. I’m really going to enjoy singing it live. There’s just something so uplifting about it.”

Peter Doherty & Frédéric Lo “You Can’t Keep It From Me Forever” taken from the forthcoming album “The Fantasy Life of Poetry & Crime.’

Asked about the lyrical inspiration, Doherty replied: “I suppose it’s a not-even subconscious yearning for things. I’ve been clean since December 2019, so at the time of writing this I was really white-knuckling it with the drugs and feeling like would only be a matter of time before I went back to it. It hasn’t turned out to be that way, but there was that kind of kicking out at the new way of being clean and feeling like it was temporary. You can apply that to any kind of yearning, but to me it was specifically about that. Time passed, and I’ve managed to somehow keep on the straight and narrow, if it is indeed straight and narrow.

“That’s the honest answer, but it seems silly to give that answer now, though. If it really was such a necessity then I would have just gone out and used. I suppose this is just a smarmy, self-sabotaging sort of thing, but just in the role of a narrator.”

Lo, most notably known for his work with Pony Pony Run Run, Stephan Eicher, Maxime Le Forestier, Christophe Honoré and Alex Beaupain, first met Doherty in the summer of 2020 when he asked him to record a cover for a tribute album to his late collaborator, the acclaimed French singer-songwriter Daniel Darc.

From there, Doherty said that he naturally found himself writing lyrics for pieces of music that Lo had written. Within six months, a whole album had been written during lockdown before being recorded at Cateuil in Étretat in Normandy and Studio Water Music in Paris.

“It was really natural,” said Lo . “It was the end of summer in beautiful sun, and we worked in a beautiful house in Normandy. We just kept writing songs until we had a whole album. Peter didn’t want to play guitar, so I played guitar, bass and keyboard and recorded a French drummer with one of the biggest orchestras in Paris. It really was something special.”

Though London-based duo lilo have only recently emerged, theirs is a bond that runs a decade deep. Christie Gardner and Helen Dixon met at school in Winchester aged 11, and from that day forward have forged an unshakeable creative bond with their gossamer harmonies and finely-spun acoustic arrangements.

It’s a sound that calls to mind the ethereality of Laura Marling, but that is only the first glimpse of the versatility of lilo’s sound, their new material is set to break new ground in the UK indie-folk landscape. They hold the promise of a more full-bodied, band-driven direction, weaving elements of slow-core and offbeat country-pop refractions.

lilo began recording their debut EP ‘Sleep Country’ with close friend and collaborator Joseph Futak in August 2020. Over the five tracks that make up the EP, Christie and Helen explore new perspectives on love and friendship often through the frame of loss. Despite this, the tone remains distinctly hopeful and chooses to treasure the small things in the face of larger sadness.

Released January 28th, 2022

All songs written by lilo

Coming out of Asheville, North Carolina, Jake Lenderman, sometimes fishes on the Pigeon River, and creates his own music as MJ Lenderman he is also the guitarist in the indie rock band Wednesday. Lenderman released his debut album, “Ghost Of Your Guitar Solo”, back in 2021 and now return’s over a year later with his second offering, “Boat Songs” due out this April on Dear Life Records. Lenderman describes the album as his most “polished” sound to date, built around songs that “chase fulfillment and happiness”—whether that means buying a boat, drinking too much, or watching seeds fall from the bird feeder.

With “Boat Songs”, Lenderman emerges confident as ever, an innovative yet unassuming artist, straightforward and true. Recorded at Asheville’s Drop of Sun with Alex Farrar and Colin Miller, “Boat Songs” is the first album Lenderman made in a professional studio. WWE matches and basketball games were silently projected on the studio walls during recording sessions. And you can hear their power in these ten unapologetically lo-fi tracks, each brimming with pent-up energy and the element of surprise.

Musically, there’s both an ease and a confidence to “Hangover Game“, the drums swagger in, accompanied by fuzzy guitars and MJ’s straight-talking vocal, What lifts this song above a historical re-telling, or a Basketball themed episode of Murder She Wrote, is the intimacy of the lyrics, while not telling his own story, MJ still shares so much of his personality, present as he sings, “I bought fake Jordans, they weren’t even shoes”, or his open-hearted closing line, “I love drinking too”.

All songs written by MJ Lenderman except for Toontown, written by MJ Lenderman and Andrew James, All instruments played by MJ Lenderman except for bass, keys, and trumpet played by Colin Miller
And Pedal steel by Xandy Chelmis

Guitars on You Are Every Girl To Me played by Alex Farrar and Lewis Dahm, Back up vocals by Karly Hartzman and Colin Miller

“Boat Songs” is out April 29th via Dear Life Records.