The Fat Angel Sings

Bristol’s Wych Elm: ‘Scold’s Bridle’ brews up a hextastic tale of weird and wonderful sisters with a defiant grunge soundtrack.

A scold’s bridle was an instrument of punishment as a form of torture and public humiliation. It was used overwhelmingly on female victims to silence them from speaking entirely. The victims were punished for quite literally being “loud women”. Taken from our new EP, “Rabbit Wench“, out 24th September.

Vocalist Caitlin Elliman wrote the song about her own experiences of being silenced by men. “It’s alarming how little has changed in such a long amount of time. When women talk about the truth, you tend to be villanised because people don’t like that.”  

Wych Elm is the macabre-fuelled band who formed as ‘Jane Doe’ to play a Halloween gig in 2017, selling their debut EP in hand-sewn cadaver bag. But this is no gimmick band – their EP tackles serious issues relevant to the sisterhood for centuries. And it’s earned them places at Dot to Dot in Bristol and Nottingham and Wide Eyed in Leicester as well as Bristol and London headline shows for the end of 2021.

We’re very excited to announce our brand new EP Rabbit Wench out on 24th September through our own label Black Dog.

“2020 was a year no one could have predicted would turn out the way it did, including Sarah Tudzin and Illuminati Hotties. After the success of her debut album “Kiss Yr Frenemies“, and coining the term “tenderpunk,” Illuminati Hotties were on their way to recording and releasing a highly anticipated sophomore album. However, things at the label started to fall apart, and Illuminati Hotties found themselves stuck in a contract with a label who didn’t have the infrastructure to put out the album the band had been crafting for months. “It felt like any momentum came to a screeching halt. It felt painful to pick up a guitar, to write, to record any loose ends that needed to happen to wrap up the album,” Sarah recalls. With the emotional turmoil and uncertainty, Sarah turned her focus to songs that would become FREE I.H. The positive response brought back the energy and Sarah dove straight into the new album “Let Me Do One More“. The result is a diverse, layered album of “all riprs and no more skiprs.” From the vibrant, clever, and undeniably fun,

Known for the deeply DIY ethos and biting commentary in her music, Illuminati Hotties‘ Sarah Tudzin is gearing up for the release of her next LP, “Let Me Do One More“. So far, the musician has previewed the effort with the fiery track “Mmmoooaaaaayaya,” the Buck Meek-featuring “Uvvp,” and the sun-soaked single “Pool Hopping.” Now, Tudzin has enlisted the assistance of another indie rock favourite to remix one of her “Let Me Do One More” songs.

Tudzin tapped Bartees Strange, whose 2020 debut LP Live Forever was one of the best of the year, to rework “Pool Hopping.” The new version of the song takes the original up a few notches as Bartees Strange adds dimension with his complimentary vocals and jaunty guitar.

Speaking about the remix in a statement, Tudzin applauded Bartees Strange’s talents. “There is no one at this whole dang pool party that could give a better spin on ‘Pool Hopping’ than Bartees Strange,” she said. “I’m so honoured to have found a collaborator and friend in Bartees. Also I’m thrilled that he said yes to adding his style so we can all celebrate ‘Pool Hopping’ Summer for just a little bit longer.”

“Let Me Do One More” featuring  “Pool Hopping (Strange Pool Remix)” (feat. Bartees Strange)on Snack Shack Tracks, under exclusive license to Hopeless Records, Inc.

Released on: 19th August 2021

Let Me Do One More via Snack Shack Tracks/Hopeless Records.

The Doors are continuing their campaign to expand their studio output with the September 1st, 2021 announcement that their 1971 album, “L.A. Woman“, will receive a deluxe edition for its 50th Anniversary. The new 3-CD/1-LP collection, coming December 3rd via Rhino, will include more than two hours of previously unreleased session outtakes.

While the album is best known for its two singles, “Love Her Madly” and “Riders on the Storm,” it also includes such classic rock favourites as the title track and “The WASP (Texas Radio And The Big Beat).”

L.A. Woman: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition includes the original album newly remastered by The Doors’ long time engineer and mixer Bruce Botnick, two bonus discs of unreleased studio outtakes, and the stereo mix of the original album on 180-gram virgin vinyl.

For this new collection, the original album has been expanded with more than two hours of unreleased recordings taken from the sessions for “L.A. Woman“, allowing the listener to experience the progression of each song as it developed in the studio. An early demo for “Hyacinth House” recorded at Robbie Krieger’s home studio in 1969 is also included.

The outtakes feature Jim Morrison, John Densmore, Krieger, and Ray Manzarek working in the studio with two additional musicians. The first was rhythm guitarist Marc Benno, who worked with Leon Russell in the Asylum Choir. The other was bassist Jerry Scheff, who was a member of Elvis Presley’s TCB band.

The Doors’ 1971 album “L.A. Woman” turned 50 years old in April. The outtakes in the collection include covers of classic blues songs like John Lee Hooker’s “Crawling King Snake” and Junior Parker’s “Mystery Train,” Big Joe Williams’ “Baby Please Don’t Go,” and “Get Out Of My Life Woman,” Lee Dorsey’s funky 1966 classic, written by his producer Allen Toussaint.

“The previously unreleased reels here — serial takes of ‘The Changeling,’ ‘Love Her Madly,’ ‘Riders On The Storm,’ and ‘L.A. Woman’ — depict a band obsessed with groove while executing turns and flourishes with the precision of a well-drilled soul combo,” Botnick explains. “The idea was to go from song to song, to let it flow.”

The original demo of “Riders On The Storm,” possibly one of the Doors’ best song’s, which was recently discovered on an unmarked tape reel in the band’s vault. The recording was made with producer Paul A. Rothchild during the early recording sessions for the album at Sunset Sound studios.

The Doors’ long time producer Paul Rothchild famously quit on the band during the recording of L.A. Woman referring to the new songs as “cocktail” music, which created an opportunity for the band to relocate to their rehearsal studio to record the album themselves with long time engineer Bruce Botnick. This is the earliest known recording of “Riders on The Storm,” recorded at Sunset Sound Studios in those early days available for the first time on The 50th Anniversary Deluxe Version of The Doors’ iconic L.A. Woman, will be available December 3rd, 2021.

In the collection’s extensive liner notes, rock journalist David Fricke explores the whirlwind making of the album, which would be the last with Morrison, who died in Paris a few months after its release. “Morrison may never have come back to The Doors,” he writes. “But with his death, L.A. Woman became rebirth, achievement, and finale, all at once. It’s the blues too – original blues, as Morrison promised. Fifty years later, there is still nothing like it.”

A new collaboration with Julien Baker , featured in this week’s is Keaton Henson track ‘Marionette.’ The track’s subtle and beautiful melody line created from these two masterful songwriters has us listening to the ‘Fragments’ EP on repeat. His new EP “Fragments”, a companion piece to last year’s Monument LP, written and recorded at the same time.

Monument is a fragile, meditative and emotional unravelling of grief in the aftermath of losing his father, and for all its hushed acoustics, Monument cocooned its emotion in some beautifully tender melodies and acute observations. It’s a warm and relatable listen. On Fragments EP, whilst the lyrical themes and subjects may stray from Monument’s poignant subject matter, in its sound and atmosphere, it feels suitably entwined.

The eight tracks that form the EP orbit a sweeping kaleidoscope of sonic shapes, shades and textures. Keaton’s voice offers lyrics in an almost frozen romanticism. It’s a voice that sounds rooted in turmoil but also of strength. A happy sadness. Bleakly beautiful.

Another new track ‘No Love Lost’ from Keaton Henson ‘Fragments’ EP. Henson describes the song as “a sideways look at being left behind, less a love song and more a “don’t worry I’ll be fine song”, though I don’t know how much I believe him.”

Julien Baker shares a mic from across the ocean on new single ‘Marionette’. A songwriter of due reverence herself, Baker and Keaton share an affinity with the power of hushed words, fizzing melodies, and an innate wisdom.

The “Fragments EP and “Monument” are two fine bodies of work by this singular, unique British artist, and two empathetic records of sorrow and strength.

Simone Felice has released the sparse and strikingly poignant, “Year Around The Sun.” The song is the first release from an unnamed album which will come out in 2022.

“I wrote this song on New Year’s morning, 2021,” says Felice, “I woke up feeling empty inside. Like an old cornhusk battered by the wind. I’m sure the whisky in my whisky the night before helped me arrive there. I think it’s important to recognize and own the raw fact that we’ve all just been through the most surreal collective trauma this past year and more: seemingly endless lockdowns, constant fear and confusion, a recalibration of what’s real and what’s important. My hope is that perhaps with a little help from our friends, music, laughter, and time, we’ll find a rebirth.”

The song was recorded at the mountaintop studio in the idyllic Catskills in upstate NY, that he built with long-time friend, producer, and arranger/engineer David Baron. His production and co-writing over recent years with the likes of The Lumineers, Bat For Lashes, Jade Bird, Matt Maeson Feat. Lana Del Rey, and indeed The Felice Brothers, the band he formed in 2006 and left in subsequent years; have kept him busy. “Year Around The Sun” marks his first music under his own name with proper distribution since 2014.

Felice headlines London’s Lexington on 25th October. The show is preceded on 23rd October with a date at Radio Woodstock’s new studios in an historic turn-of-the-century church just outside of Woodstock, in West Hurley, NY.

Delicate like 2016’s Better off Dead, with a determined, candid sense of desperation and frustration, “Feels So Good // Feels So Bad” is an album of acceptance. It’s an uphill battle, with a glorifying sense of self and a satisfying sound to accompany the motions. Portland, Oregon-hailing psych-surf band The Shivas accomplish another time-traveling, reverb-ridden sound that refuses to get boring. Jared Molyneux’s guitar work knows when to be bright or bashful at the right times, breaking into guitar solos that possess a late-’60s groove. There’s a certain skill to channelling a slow surf-jam like “You Wanna Be My Man” as nimbly as the garage-heavy “Feel So Bad,” but The Shivas seem to blissfully flourish at either end of that spectrum. 

By putting it into song. “Feels So Bad,” The Shivas’ latest single off their forthcoming album Feels So Good // Feels So Bad is — simply put — a breakup song for the Before Times.

Though the psych-tinged guitar riff that drives “Feels So Bad” was written while The Shivas were still on the road, its lyrics didn’t fall into place until the band was well into lockdown, unsure of when they’d be able to return to their most imperative true love: Live shows.

“This was a song about wanting to be able to go out and play music and not being able to,” guitarist/singer Jared Molyneux said in a statement. “It felt like becoming a different person not doing that, like a break-up that you did not want to happen. It was like getting dumped!”

From the album ‘Feels So Good // Feels So Bad” out 24th September 21