The Fat Angel Sings

We’re excited to announce the opening of our first ever ThirdManRecords store outside the USA. Situated on Marshall Street in the heart of London’s historic Soho – an area renowned for its rich musical history – the London store will complete a trio of Third Man physical spaces that includes buildings in Nashville, Tennessee and Detroit, Michigan. Located at 1 Marshall Street, London W1F 9BA, the store will officially open to the public on Saturday 25th September. Come one come all, with priority given to #ThirdManVault members.

The space has been personally designed by Third Man founder Jack White. Third Man Records London (Third Man Records London) will be multi-functional, tripling up as a two-level retail space, an intimate live music venue named “The Blue Basement,” and a European headquarters for Third Man Records. It will feature a host of quirks, details and idiosyncrasies. In celebration of the opening, we approached some of our favourite UK artists –Paul Weller, David Ruffin, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Cornershop, Gina Birch of The Raincoats and the great, lost Manchester group Magic Roundabout – to record something brand new or contribute something previously unheard to the Third Man catalogue. These exclusive releases will be available to buy on black vinyl on 25th September from the Third Man Webstore (soon to be expanding to the UK/EU), at all three Third Man Records stores, and independent record shops everywhere, and on very limited edition yellow vinyl in the Third Man London store only.

To celebrate the opening of The Third Man Records Store London store on 25th September they asked if we’d like to provide something unique for a vinyl release. Our friends at Third Man are based in Detroit where the label was born. Our sound engineer has the useful habit of recording our live shows so we invited Third Man to choose three songs from our last show in Detroit’s historic Fox Theatre on 23rd Oct 2018. They chose The Living End, Teenage Lust and Cracking Up. This is also our first 7” vinyl release since 1998.The 7″ will be available in good record stores on 25th September on black vinyl, and on very limited edition yellow vinyl only in Third Man’s new London shop.

Nashville in 2010 was a time and place bristling with potential. The city had long been characterized by a sort of underdog spirit, and in 2010, that spirit was in full display at DIY punk venues, run-down honky-tonks and hole-in-the-wall dives. This is where Caitlin Rose worked out the songs which became “Own Side Now“, a now timeless classic being reissued here as a Deluxe Edition.

Just over a decade ago Caitlin Rose came crashing to the world’s attention with her critically lauded debut album, “Own Side Now”. With a long-overdue new record apparently already recorded, this week Caitlin has announced it will be preceded by some anniversary celebrations, with a deluxe new edition of “Own Side Now” due out in October. Alongside a re-mastered take on the original, the record also features two bonus tracks, and this week Caitlin has shared the first of them, “Whatchoo“. Also the remastered “Shanghai Cigarettes,” a breakup song featuring Rayland Baxter about which American Songwriter wrote, “Rose’s vocals are so sweet and the beat is so contagious, you might be tempted to break up with your beau just to have an excuse to listen to it on repeat.” 

Recalling the origin story of Own Side Now, Caitlin recalls how it came from a time, “when I was at my most naive that nobody doubted me and I could create something so temporal and honest”. The record was heavily influenced by Nashville, as was “Whatchoo” as Caitlin explains, “this album came out of a city that didn’t need people telling it who it was. ‘Whatchoo’ is the lament over a city that seems to have forgotten itself”. The song builds from a gentle opening, and the vocal remains delightfully serene throughout, even as she’s pulling a knife from her back, left there by someone, “who wants to win the fight and then destroy everything”. Rose released “Own Side Now” in 2011 to instant acclaim from critics, who praised her crystal-clear vocals and her ingenious lyricism – equal parts heartbroken and defiant – and compared her to her musical heroes Stevie Nicks and Linda Rondstadt.

Own Side Now is a record that has gone down in the annals of Americana-history, and while it might never quite hit the acclaim I think it deserves, this is a well-deserved reminder of just how special it truly is.

“Own Side Now” Deluxe Anniversary Edition out on Cloudy Clear vinyl with Bonus 7” vinyl is out October 1st via ATO Records.

Brighton based, Breathe Panel formed now with Split between London and Brighton, Breathe Panel come together to create a sound that is the sum of their four parts. Playing together half unplugged in a living room and swapping drums for cushions is where they would often hit their natural r, “no agenda other than the enjoyment of making music together”. The band took that sense of freedom and enjoyment into their forthcoming album, “Lets It In”, recorded in just five days working with acclaimed producer Ali Chant. With the album due out next month via FatCat Records, September 17th, 2021. Breathe Panel are premiering the latest track from it, “Love You, I Love You”.

Breathe Panel formed in an East London house that frontman Nick Green and guitarist Josh Tyler shared and the duo set about using music as a method of escapism from the fast pace of the city, as Nick puts it, “a mediation from the mess”. In the case of Love You, I Love You, this manifests as a search for comfort in shared doubts, as Nick explains the track is, “a lighter take on feeling a bit down and worried, so the lyrics cover overthinking and doubting yourself but understanding that it’s what most people go through and finding comfort in that thought”.

The track was written on a day off the band had in the middle of touring, “we set up in our living room, half unplugged, just having fun playing with no expectations and it came together pretty quickly“. The final version maintains that sense of freedom and playfulness and merges them with a rich production, hitting a similarly wistful jangle to bands like Real Estate or Chris Cohen. Particularly excellent is the meandering lead guitar line that snakes through the track, a perfect foil to Nick’s easy vocal delivery. This feels like music from a good place, comforting, outward glancing and ready to heal any listener willing to lend Breathe Panel an ear.

The result is a second album that sounds real and present in the moment, evoking the moments in time in which it was made. 

“Lets It In” is out September 17th via Fat Cat Records. 

Brothers Anton and Christoph Hochheim latest project as Always You have a fantastic track “Have It Your Way” the Los Angeles band whose previous project Ablebody churned out sophisti-pop gems like “One Dime A Day” The brothers were also previously part of New York-based group The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, while Anton is also a member of Beach Fossils.

The track’s excellent music video, directed by Saoli Nash, is striking visually, capturing a series of ritualistic scenes as the brothers try to contact the “spirit” (played by Simran Jehani). “We wanted the video to be light-hearted and fun,” explains Anton, “while touching on the heavier subjects of nostalgia, memory, failed love and the scars it leaves on our conscious and subconscious minds.”

Fans of sophisti-pop in the vein of Prefab Sprout and Aztec Camera will easily fall for the project’s sound, evidenced by the immediate “Have It Your Way.” Suave vocals and jangly guitar flickers engage initially, driving to a replay-inducing hook — “and your temper said I don’t need for you to validate my life.” A brassy adornment in the closing moments plays with a stylish savviness, leading cohesively into one final hooky go-around. The brothers are today announcing details of their second album, “Bloom Off The Rose” via the crystalline-pop of their first single, “Black City Nights” which arrives with a video directed by Nathan Castiel.

The Hochheim brothers emerged as Ablebody via the dream breeze-driven “All My Everything” EP followed by the serene glam power-pop single “After Hours”, a precursor to the smart and sophisticated full-length debut Adult Contemporaries which found Ablebody earning critical acclaim from FADER, Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan, Dazed, DIY and more. Fast forward over the course of four years full of changes, romance, discovery, and more, the duo, now titled Always You, presents the much-anticipated follow-up. Bloom Off The Rose comes developed in Christoph’s apartment, on the road with Jerry Paper, The Pains and Beach Fossils, and features assists from bassist Jordan Sabolick with mixing/mastering provided by Kenny Gilmore (Weyes Blood, Julia Holter, Chris Cohen) and Josh Bonati (Mac Demarco, Wild Nothing, Slowdive). “The subject matter is life as vignettes,” Christoph describes, “Snapshots and stories of my relationships, mainly the one I’m just coming out of as viewed from different moments in our timeline, often projected imagined futures and mourning losses yet to come.” 

Released July 16th, 2021

“Have It Your Way” and “Black City Nights” comes via the newly released album “Bloom Off The Rose”, was produced by Jerry Paper (aka Lucas Nathan)

Durham, NC-based band The Pinkerton Raid is building to the release of their upcoming fifth studio album, “The Highway Moves The World”, due out in 2022. Over four records the band has steadily pulled in influences from across the folk and Americana world, but has recently hinted towards a new indie rock turn with the swaggering style of their recent singles “Au Cheval” and “Cinnamon Sweet.” Now the band is sharing the video for their most recent single, “Lisbet Cries,” .

Vocalist and songwriter Jesse James DeConto most especially shines on “Lisbet Cries,” showing off his talents as an emotive storyteller. The band weaves an emotionally potent tale of grace and empathy, backed by winding guitar lines and a standout plaintive trumpet solo. Meanwhile, the accompanying animated video tells the song story in innocent storybook imagery, adding a new heart warming layer of meaning to the song.

Deconto explains of the song and video, “‘Lisbet Cries’ is a song that started with the experience of my sister, Suzanne ‘Elisabeth’. She would cry unconsolably through a lot of her young childhood. It seemed as if she felt the pain of the world more acutely than other people. She struggled for direction in her teens and early 20s, and eventually found her calling as a schoolteacher while volunteering with kids in developing overseas communities. Intense feelings about her own experience turned into powerful empathy and compassion for others.

With the video animation, I wanted to communicate this universal story and steer clear of the paternalistic sort of colonialism where white Americans are always taking care of somebody ‘weaker’. Indonesian animator Aldy Kusuma placed the story in a culturally vague setting with ethnically vague characters, trying to bring out the basic human story of feelings and suffering too big to get our arms around. It had been our old drummer Scott McFarlane’s idea to have a toy globe serve as the main character, pursued by Lisbet and her big feelings.”

Listen to the song and video and keep an eye out for more from “The Highway Moves The World“, coming In 2022.