The Fat Angel Sings

The Tubs were formed in 2019 by Owen Williams and George Nicholls, formerly of much-loved Welsh pop band Joanna Gruesome. The two hunkered down in rural North Wales to expand on the fuzzy, hook-laden sounds they propagated in their former outfit, this time incorporating elements of post-punk, traditional British folk, and guitar jangle seasoned by nonchalant Cleaners From Venus-influenced pop hooks & contemporary antipodean indie bands (Twerps/Goon Sax, et al). They hit the ground running, releasing the “I Don’t Know How It Works” 7-inch on Prefect Records in February 2020 and playing gigs with UK colleagues like Porridge Radio, Ex-Void and Marcel Wave, as well as support for Flasher & Public Practice. After a few line-up shuffles, they recruited Max Warren (bass), Steve Stonholdt (guitar) and Matthew Green (drums) to solidify the current line-up. Trouble In Mind is honoured to be co-releasing their newest effort worldwide, the “Names” 7-inch EP – our first 7-inch release in four years (that’s how good it is!) – alongside Prefect Records in the UK.

From note one, the “Names” EP is all business; “Illusion”s punchy riffs (suitable for stargazing or naval-gazing) gallop forward, with Williams pontificating on his reflected reality vs. the illusion of self; a two-minute earworm on gender confusion. “The Name Song” is next, with its persistent jangle, laundry list of Williams’ favourite Seventies names & instantly memorable chorus of “I don’t care about anyone” coyly delivered with a sardonic wink and nod. “Two Person Love”s fuzzy lead line opens side two, (an ode to “erotomania”) barreling forward like a Fairport deep cut on ephedrine. A woozy cover of Felt’s “Crystal Ball” ends the EP, a faithful love-letter to an obvious influence, draped in a gauzy flange. Wrapped in an eye-catching sleeve design by Total Control’s James Vinciguerra, the “Names” EP practically screams “essential”. Look for more music coming soon on Trouble In Mind from The Tubs as the band heads into the studio to record their debut album. 

Released July 30th, 2021

Owen Williams- vocals
George Nicholls- guitar
Max Warren- bass
Matthew Green- drums
Steve Stonholdt- guitar

Liverpool’s Zuzu has today shared her new single ‘My Old Life’, along with details of her upcoming debut album “Queensway Tunnel”, which is set for release on 12th November on Planet Z Records. The album captures Zuzu’s take on everything from mental health to sci-fi. She has also been making music for Adventure Time: Distant Lands on Cartoon Network and re-working songs for The Sims.

‘My Old Life’ shows Zuzu as one of the UK’s finest singer-songwriters. The song begins with a simple yet gutsy acoustic guitar before launching in with cinematic strings for the grand finale. She spoke about what the song means to her:

“This last 18 months have brought about some of the biggest changes in my life. I’ve had to learn how to set boundaries. Learn how to walk away from people and how to let people walk away from me. This song is about a particular period I had to dig really deep to find enough self-worth to move on from an emotionally exhausting situation that – at the time – felt like the end of the world. It’s about pushing through those dark times and coming out stronger and wiser. Writing ‘My Old Life’ really helped me to shake off all of the toxic energy I was holding onto and truly let go.”

The first record from the Liverpool artist is set to arrive on November 12th, and comes after she joined the likes of Blossoms and The Lathums in playing one of England’s first gigs after lockdown earlier this year.

According to an official release, it sees her tackling issues of “change, addiction, sci-fi, escapism, identity, community, and the protection of mental health”.

The first thing that strikes you about Skirts’ debut record “Great Big Wild Oak” is its cover photo. In the background, a lush, bright green landscape stretches out, rising into a hill that is cut short by the parameters of the photo. Clusters of conifers thrust from the ground, others towering over them. In the foreground, a pool of water reflects the vista before it. Everything is still but for the gentle ripples around four swimming figures, tiny and faceless with the distance. It’s a beautiful photo, calming, the kind of scene you might envision if you closed your eyes and tried to slow your heart rate in an anxious moment.

The photo was taken by Alex Montenegro, the singer-songwriter behind Skirts, on a trip to Mount Rainier before the record ever existed. “I was on a hike with my best friend, and there were these people swimming in a no swimming pond, and it just looked so magical,” she says. She tucked it away, knowing she’d use it for something. It couldn’t have found a better fit than Great Big Wild Oak, an indie folk record so gentle and soothing it becomes an idyll of its own.

Montenegro, 26, grew up in the suburbs of Dallas. Her dad was a DJ who showed her how to play a vinyl record when she was barely old enough to talk and raised her on ’70s disco. Aged nine, Montenegro was inspired by School Of Rock to ask for her first guitar, and by high school she was discovering indie rock on Tumblr. She was especially excited by the bedroom lo-fi of Flatsound: “I learned, ‘This guy’s doing this all at home. I should try that too.’” Later came artists like Alex G and Frankie Cosmos, and soon Montenegro started posting her own demos on Tumblr, originally under her surname before switching to the Skirts moniker.

A little later, she was working at a record store in Dallas, where she befriended people who were plugged into Dallas DIY — until then, she hadn’t known such a thing existed. One new friend was Evan Gordon, an artist who ran a huge house venue called “The Compound”. She started playing and attending shows there and discovered how deep the community ran. “There’s so much local love, and so many people coming out to the shows,” she says. “The Texas love is very awesome.” Before long, she self-booked her first tour and headed up the East Coast.

Skirts is still based in Dallas, despite Montenegro’s complicated relationship with the city. “I used to hate Dallas growing up,” Montenegro says. “[But] as I’ve gotten older, I’ve developed a love for Texas and Dallas. I love it the most because of all the people I know here, everyone I’ve met.” Yet it can be difficult to ignore that she lives in a deeply red state. “It’s hard. It’s so discouraging. During the Bernie campaign, a lot of Dallas was really excited and hopeful. And then after it, you’re sort of hit with the reality of, oh yeah, Texas would never let something like this happen.

“Texas is such a weird state. I have no idea what’s in store for it for the future. I can talk to my people and spread awareness through my personal communities, but as a whole, there’s only so much you can do.”

Great Big Wild Oak has been in the works since 2018. “It felt like a whirlwind, recording and writing all of it,” says Montenegro. “It was like a million little parts coming together.” Though Skirts is officially a solo project, the record was a full-band effort, and songs were built collaboratively. Skirts’ live band members — Vincent Bui, Victor Bui, and Joshua Luttrull — were on guitar/pedal steel, bass, and drums respectively. Vincent Bui is also credited as co-producer alongside Montenegro. For its release, Skirts signed to Double Double Whammy, a label that’s been one of Montenegro’s favourites since her days at the record store. “[Signing with them] was always a dream, but a dream that was too good to be true,” she says. “It’s big to me, finally finishing an album and releasing it on one of my favourite labels; there’s a meaning behind it, I like to believe that.”

The album’s Americana sound was inspired by the Band and Bob Dylan: “Older acts, where you’re like, ‘Whoa, listen to that pedal steel, or that guitar twang.’” There were contemporary influences, too, among them Montenegro’s longtime favourites Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver. The woodwinds on “Easy” were directly inspired by the National track “So Far Around The Bend” — “There’s this one part where you hear all these little flute flutters, and I really wanted that for ‘Easy,’” says Montenegro. The instrumentals across the album are warm and mostly traditional — pedal steel, acoustic guitar, piano — though it’s exciting when electronic textures do show up, like the drum machine on “Easy” or the synth on “Dayspell.”

The whole album has an intimate lo-fi feel, though Montenegro laughs at that: “We’re so used to my lo-fi lo-fi stuff that we listen to Great Big Wild Oak and we’re like, ‘Holy crap, whoa!’” It was all home-recorded, with the exception of “True,” an especially Southern-flavoured cut driven by piano and seesawing drums. “I wrote that during a band practice and everyone came in, and it just happened like that, like magic,” says Montenegro; they ended up in a studio to capture that one.

Some way into the process, COVID hit and the band had to start working remotely. “It became this weird, distant, ‘Hey, we’re gonna upload these stems and you see what you wanna do,’” says Montenegro. “It took a really long time to record, just because of the strain of not seeing each other, or really [having] a good plan. I’m definitely to blame for that. I kinda wanted to just go with it and see how things end up, but then it ended up being really hard.”

“I don’t know how it would have sounded if we would have done it all in two weeks and then sent it off to mix, versus the two years it took,” she continues. “It made me figure the songs out more. Because I guess I didn’t really know them. I thought I knew them, but I ultimately didn’t until I had worked with them for so long.” Montenegro admits that she’s something of a perfectionist; the pretty piano ballad “Swim” — out today as the album’s third single — was re-recorded something like five times, and the vocals on “True” took countless takes. “Sometimes I feel like it holds me back, and at a point I did just settle. There became a point where me and Joshua and Vincent had to be like, ‘Okay, let’s just finish.’ Especially because a lot of the takes that we ended up using ended up being one of the first few ones.”

Almost all of the album’s lyrics were born out of a heartbreak. Montenegro’s words often call on streaks of imagery — an oiled puddle, rusty strings, plastic flowers. But there are also moments of sharper focus, that pull you into the immediate shock of heartbreak. This line from “Always” is particularly breath-taking if it catches you on the right day: “I turn left when the light is red/ I hope it’s you who slams on the brake.”

“[The album’s lyrics] came from a place of comfort, in trying to feel better about a situation that I felt really upset about,” she explains. And the album is comforting, from the homespun production to Montenegro’s tender vocals. It’s intimate without being heavy or demanding on the listener. “They used to feel hard to perform, ’cause I felt like an open book singing them,” Montenegro admits. “They feel like a direct look inside my brain sometimes. Sometimes I feel silly or goofy for feeling as intensely as I did. But also, thanks to those feelings, I feel like I’ve grown so much from where I was when I wrote those songs. I feel more in touch with myself, and like I have a better understanding of what I want or need out of life, and what’s important.”

Great Big Wild Oak‘s penultimate track, “Sapling,” is the key to that evolution: “I wrote that the day before my birthday, and it was one of the last songs I wrote for the album. It was a super emotional experience, ’cause I let myself be emotionally aware and in touch with this feeling of losing someone – whether it’s romantically or through death.” On the second verse, over plucked acoustic guitar, she sings, “Another year has passed, and I don’t feel as old/ As it says on my license, until I am told/ That I have grown into a great big wild oak/ And I’ll always be a sapling to my mother.” “That lyric linked everything; a similar feeling in every song of not having any control of a situation, just a powerlessness. That song is incredibly special to me ’cause it’s like, I feel powerless, but there are people that see that another way.” So she surrenders to powerlessness, realizing it may just be the same thing as growth.

Great Big Wild Oak is available everywhere July 30th.

Soft Cell the UK synth-pop duo of Marc Almond and producer/instrumentalist David Ball—have announced their first album of new material in 20 years. “Happiness Not Included” arrives spring 2022 via BMG Records. They’ve also announced a November tour of the United Kingdom.

Frontman Marc Almond said in a press release, “In this album I wanted to look at us as a society: a place where we have chosen to put profits before people, money before morality and decency, food before the rights of animals, fanaticism before fairness and our own trivial comforts before the unspeakable agonies of others. But in the album there is also a belief that there is a utopia if we can peel back the layers and understand what really matters.”

Soft Cell released “Northern Lights” back in 2018, part of a compilation called “The Singles Keychains and Snowstorms”. That one included another original song called “Guilty (‘Cos I Say You Are’),” and came alongside the retrospective box set Keychains and Snowstorms The Soft Cell Story”.

Soft Cell’s last album of new and original material, “Cruelty Without Beauty” out in 2002.  

We are delighted to announce the brand new album from Soft Cell and some very exciting live dates to celebrate 40 years of Non Stop Erotic Cabaret. The new album, “Happiness Not Included“, will be released via BMG in Spring 2022. The album will be available as a deluxe CD, digital download, yellow vinyl, picture disc and even cassette! There will be a number of ‘bundle’ options available too.

To increase the excitement even more – we can announce some live dates for later this year taking in Glasgow Manchester, Leeds and concluding at the iconic Hammersmith Apollo. The show will feature Non Stop Erotic Cabaret performed in full and many of the hits and fan favourites. Selected tracks from the forthcoming album will also be previewed.

Soft Cell released their first new song in 15 years in 2018, in conjunction with their “farewell” show, but we learned earlier this year that the iconic synthpop weren’t saying goodbye just yet. Marc Almond says, “In this album I wanted to look at us as a society: a place where we have chosen to put profits before people, money before morality and decency, food before the rights of animals, fanaticism before fairness and our own trivial comforts before the unspeakable agonies of others. But in the album there is also a belief that there is a utopia if we can peel back the layers and understand what really matters.

And Dave Ball adds, “Recorded remotely during a world pandemic. Science fiction stories for the 21st century.”

Tickets for the shows got on general sale at 10am on Friday 6 August

That in punk times, being a good musician was kind of frowned upon. This is despite ample evidence to the contrary – we only have to look at the likes of The Damned, Sex Pistols or the Clash to see that some of music’s best musicians sprang from these times.

Nevertheless, tales of musicians ‘unlearning’ their craft or pretending they couldn’t really play are plentiful. The reality of the situation is that the punk and post-punk scenes gave us some of the best and most innovative players of recent times. More than this, there was a sense of musicians searching for something new, of rejecting the standard way things were done and pushing the boundaries of what music could be.

John McGeoch came to fame as a founder member of Magazine, one of the great punk/post-punk bands. After founding Buzzcocks, lead singer Howard Devoto was quickly able to see the limitations that were being defined by punk music and left to create a band that would know no such boundaries. They were a band whose vision was instantly forward looking and expansive and whose lyrics were thoughtful and literate.

Left us on (March. 4th) in 2004: John McGeoch (in his sleep, aged 48), best remembered as the Scottish guitarist with a long list of notable UK post-punk bands, including Magazine (1977-80, performing on the group’s first three albums), Visage (1979-81, including 1980 international #1 hit single, “Fade to Grey”), Siouxsie & The Banshees (1980-82, including UK hit singles “Happy House”, “Christine”, “Israel”, “Spellbound” & “Arabian Knights”), The Armoury Show (1983-85), & Public Image Ltd. (PiL) (1986-92, including the albums ‘Happy?’, ‘9’ & ‘That What Is Not’).

Devoto struck lucky when he met McGeoch, who had moved to Manchester from his native Greenock to study art at university. Prior to this, McGeoch had played with a local band, but Devoto’s great fortune was that this undiscovered guitar player turned out to be one of the finest of his generation. Sometimes things just work out like that.

Magazine’s debut single, the wonderful “Shot By Both Sides”, was deceptively straightforward and borrowed a guitar line from Buzzcock’s Pete Shelley and so was perhaps not immediate notice of McGeoch’s talents. But the band’s debut album would soon put that right.

“Real Life” was a glimpse of the future. Blending synthesisers with McGeoch’s guitar lines and Barry Adamson’s loose funky basslines, it was epic and instantly influential. It is easy to see Real Life as a signpost of what was to come, a direction for post-punk and laying the foundations for what came to be known as New Romantics. One thing that is hugely impressive about McGeoch and his playing is that he is quite happy to be in the background, adding texture, if that is what the song requires. A lot of players with his ability would perhaps feel side lined or their ego would make them want to be higher in the mix or to be the main attraction, but his playing is subtle and restrained and the songs are the better for it.

A lot of the playing on Real Life is fairly chord based. There are obvious exceptions to this, such as the magnificent “The Light Pours Out Of Me”, but what we are getting here is the first step in the evolution of John McGeoch’s playing style and the direction he was able to take guitar music in. Their move away from rock’s conventions was further cemented by 2^nd album “Secondhand Daylight“. By now, Magazine had become further driven by bass and keyboards. McGeoch responded to this by developing a more delicate guitar style; chords are used for emphasis, but for the most part he adds picked guitar lines, subtle and effective. Opening track, “Feed The Enemy“, shows this to great effect. The bass and keyboards drive the song, but take away the guitar and the song would sound empty and incomplete. Part of McGeoch’s genius is to be able to do exactly what is needed to make a song more effective.

Magazine’s third album, The Correct Use Of Soap, was to be McGeoch’s last with the band as he became frustrated at the lack of commercial success the band got, despite huge critical acclaim. There are plenty of Magazine fans who would disagree with me on this, but their glory days were already behind them and to me this album sounds thin, rushed and somehow unsatisfactory. If you ask me (which I know you weren’t), McGeoch was wise to sense which way things were going and leave a sinking ship.

During his time in Magazine, McGeoch also played the field a bit. With band mates Barry Adamson and Dave Formula, he joined Steve Strange’s Visage, playing on their first album and their hit single, “Fade To Grey”. He also found the time to play some tracks with Gen X and temporarily joined The Skids for a “Peel Session” when Stuart Adamson became ill.

Meanwhile, Siouxsie and the Banshees were having personnel troubles . Guitarist John McKay and drummer Kenny Morris had left the band on the first date of a tour to promote their second album, Join Hands. The tour was quickly rearranged with Robert Smith of the Cure standing in on guitar and playing two sets per night, the first as support act then with The Cure before joining the headliners for the second. Budgie was recruited as drummer, a position he quickly made his own.

Never a band to let a disaster derail them, The Banshees quickly moved on to album three with a cast of guitarists, including old friend, Steve Jones. McGeoch played on five tracks, adding guitar, sax and keyboards and toured America with The Banshees.

It was soon announced that McGeoch had joined the band full time and The Banshees entered what is widely regarded as their golden age with their classic line-up. The first release with McGeoch as a full member of the band was the classic single “Israel”, featuring an unforgettable picked guitar line.

The album “Juju” came next and is, for me at least, both Siouxsie and the Banshees and John McGeoch’s high water-mark. The singles Spellbound and Arabian Knights are still regarded as classic alternative, the rest of the album is just as memorable. “Night Shift” features some of his best guitar work McGeoch ever recorded; heavily phased, expertly played and also showing highly effective work with feedback. Voodoo Dolly is a genuinely menacing track that builds over seven minutes, starting with a simple bass line and McGeoch getting some most un-guitar like sounds out of his instrument and effects. As the song goes on, it builds in both intensity and speed, with some of the most out there guitar work The Banshees ever saw, at times little more than an expertly controlled squall of noise.

Next album, “A Kiss in the Dreamhouse”, was to be McGeoch’s last with the band. It was recorded during a turbulent time for the Banshees; long time manager and ex-boyfriend of Siouxsie, Nils Stevenson, was fired shortly before recording began, but after he had to see the developing relationship between her and Budgie, who married in in 1991. There is a quote on the albums sleeve that says “Nellie the Elephant packed his trunk and said goodbye to the circus”, Nellie being the band’s nickname for Nils.

McGeoch was drinking heavily, which became a problem when the band promoted their new album. He was hospitalised after a visit to Madrid and was fired from The Banshees shortly afterwards. He said of this time, “I had a bit of a burn-out, that’s the easiest way to sum it up. I ended up in hospital and I didn’t get a second chance. By the time I’d got myself sorted out, it was a done deal.”

His swansong with the band is another superb album. “A Kiss in the Dreamhouse” saw the band broaden their sonic palette, using strings, chimes and experimenting with more vocal overdubs than previous records.

Despite the sudden and controversial sacking, Siouxsie herself described John McGeoch as “my favourite guitarist of all time.”

In 1983, McGeoch returned to making music with The Armoury Show, a supergroup comprised of members of Magazine (McGeoch and John Doyle) and The Skids (Richard Jobson and Russell Webb),who played some storming live shows and released an excellent, if over produced album, “Waiting for the Floods”.

Russell Webb was an old friend of John‘s and so invited him to play guitar in this new supergroup. The pair were to be reunited later in Public Image Limited. The pair were so close that Russell describes them as “co-adventurers” for over 30 years and was to deliver John‘s eulogy. The Armoury Show’s first single, “Castles in Spain”, is an often overlooked gem of a record. McGeoch’s playing is superb and, to these ears, Jobson has never sounded better.

Jobson’s attention seemed elsewhere, finding work as a model and TV presenter. As a result, McGeoch left, along with Doyle. The Armoury Show struggled on for a while, releasing the excellent Love in Anger and New York City singles before calling it a day, with what would have been their second album morphing into a Richard Jobson project.

Around this time, McGeoch was effectively head-hunted by John Lydon to join Public Image Ltd. Lydon had first made this offer in ’84, but eventually managed to snag him thanks again to Russell Webb, who had joined the band on bass. McGeoch went on to become the longest serving member of PiL apart from Lydon himself. McGeoch’s guitar work with PiL was again extraordinary, even if it did create perhaps the most conventional music of their career.

In many respects, Lydon and McGeoch was not a dream pairing and their albums sold poorly. This was due in no small part to a lack of promotional budget from Virgin Records, but we must also wonder at the lack of chemistry between two of punk/post-punk’s guiding lights creating something that was somehow less than the sum of its parts.

Following his stint with PiL, McGeoch turned his hands to a few things, including playing with Sugarcubes, Glenn Gregory and forming another group, called Pacific, along with Spandau Ballet’s John Keeble. Unfortunately, nothing came of this and McGeoch retired from music in the mid ’90s and retrained as a nurse/carer.

Magazine reformed in 2008, with tours and a new album. Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood was offered the job of guitarist but turned it down, according to Adam Buxton, “I think Jonny was just overwhelmed, cause he’s the biggest Magazine fan in the world”. It is well documented that Radiohead are huge fans of John McGeoch, so this may well be the case.

Richard Jobson reformed The Skids and The Armoury Show and it is tempting to think that McGeoch would have been involved with both of these ventures.

John was considered one of the most influential guitarists of his generation, dubbed at one point ‘the new wave Jimmy Page’; John Frusciante of The Red Hot Chili Peppers said that he taught himself to play “learning all John McGeoch’s stuff in Magazine & Siouxsie & The Banshees”; he was listed by respected UK music magazine ‘Mojo’ in their ‘100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time’; in 2008, the BBC aired an hour-long radio documentary on his life & work, titled ‘Spellbound: The John McGeoch Story’…John McGeoch was a pioneer, an influencer before such a word existed and a creative whirlwind.

thanks to sun13 for the words

New York’s Activity are a favourite of ours, Consisting of members of the equally brilliant Gowns and Russian Baths, the four piece released their stunning debut album, “Unmask Whoever“, last year.  It was among the best debut album’s of the year and we’ve since heard nothing else to suggest otherwise. While the quality of Unmask Whoever is evident, we should also point out at Activity are probably the unluckiest bands from the lockdown period. Having released their debut two weeks before the pandemic and inevitable lockdown, look no further than the album title. 

Clocking in at just over 5 minutes, “White Phosphorus” starts with a medieval- riff before those water-tight rhythm sections take the song into a sprawling atmospheric presentation of the very idea of indie-rock circa 2021.

We are friends and we’re working on album 2. New York / Philadelphia. Our newest single thingy “White Phosphorus” (which was a song that got recorded along with our first album)

released February 5th, 2021

Earlier this year, Squid took part in an exciting and extraordinary live to vinyl recording challenge. In one take, the band recorded two new songs straight to lacquer for a two track EP titled ‘Near The Westway’, live and direct to vinyl at Metropolis Studios -and BBC 6 Music’s Steve Lamacq was there to listen in and play out on his show. A limited run of the EP was first available as part of Record Store Day Saturday and unsurprisingly sold out immediately. Squid then announced a further run of ‘Near The Westway’ available from 27th August via Warp Records.

Releases August 27th, 2021