The Fat Angel Sings

The Black Crowes became overnight sensations with 1990’s “Shake Your Money Maker”. By the time they released 1992’s “The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion” critics had jumped on their bandwagon – and they stuck around when mainstream audiences started losing interest in 1994’s “Amorica”.

But neither fans nor pundits could entirely agree on 1996’s eclectic and polarizing album “Three Snakes and One Charm“, which the Black Crowes recorded during a period of intense internal acrimony, particularly between the brothers Chris and Rich Robinson.

“There was a lot of emotional baggage” in the aftermath of the Amorica tour, and everyone got on each other’s nerves,” said Rich in September 1996. “We almost broke up a few times, but finally we all let go and moved on.” Chris, for his part that eventually “you just realize, ‘Oh, shit, I’m lucky and I’m happy ’cause I’m making a living being a musician, which is the thing I love more than anything.'”

A little distance also seemed to do the trick, as Chris was living in Los Angeles and Rich in Atlanta when they started swapping song ideas long distance. They slowly knocked their demos into shape before calling their band mates and producer Jack Joseph Puig to record basic tracks in an Atlanta home they soon baptized as Chateau de la Crowe. Prolific as usual, the band wound up capturing over two dozen songs, out of which they picked 12 that showcased both familiar Black Crowes hallmarks and novel experiments, all of them later finished at Los Angeles’ Ocean Way Studios.

Among Three Snakes’ many highlights, “Under a Mountain” was a cryptic Southern rocker (sample lyrics: “Lay down with number 13”) that was written in five minutes, according to Rich; “Nebakanezer” was a psychedelic strut laced with serpentine guitars and “(Only) Halfway to Everywhere” an irrepressible singalong; the Indian-flavored “How Much for Your Wings” made for a beguiling detour and “Blackberry” was a funky rhythm & blues penned in the spirit of the band’s earlier, breakthrough hit with Otis Redding’s “Hard to Handle.”

And while some songs, including “Good Friday,” “One Mirror Too Many” and “Better When You’re Not Alone,” generally slacked off or dragged on like they had no place to go, the similarly slow but in every way sublime country soul of “Girl from a Pawnshop” became a peak moment in the Black Crowes‘ career, as it gradually built up with delicate tension, finally released via Marc Ford’s stinging, cathartic lead breaks.

Sales were sluggish compared to prior efforts, stalling well short of “Amorica” gold and the previous LPs multi-platinum figures. The No. 15 chart peak slightly disappointing, but it’s hard to find more flaws than triumphs among these songs. Instead, the Black Crowes remained fairly untouchable when it came to reviving classic-rock sounds and re-imagining them in original new ways, making them sound as fresh and timeless as you please.

Three years later, with 1999’s next studio album, “By Your Side”, Chris, Rich, Marc, drummer Steve Gorman, keyboardist Eddie Harsch, and new bass player Sven Pipien (who replaced the popular Johnny Colt) were generally praised for reviving the safer Stones and Faces inspired style of their debut. With the benefit of hindsight, the risk-taking freedom of Three Snakes and One Charm appears to have been vindicated in the broad scope of the Black Crowes’ career – polarized opinions, occasional imperfections, and all.

With the recording of The Black Crowes fourth album, Three Snakes and One Charm, released 25 years ago, the band remained untouchable when it came to reviving classic-rock sounds and re-imagining them in original new ways. 

For the 25th anniversary of the album, we wanted to create something as unique as the record, and asked illustrator Nathaniel Deas to take viewers on a visual exploration of the album: Creating a print for The Black Crowes is an absolute dream come true, and not a responsibility that I took lightly. Previous artwork for the band, created by some of my personal heroes, has established an iconic legacy that I tried to honour while putting it into my own words. To celebrate the 25th Anniversary of “Three Snakes and One Charm,” I tried to incorporate as many references to the album as I could squeeze in, scattering hidden nuggets throughout the design. My hope is that the viewer has as much fun exploring Mr. Crowe’s garden as I had while creating it. 

Darkside is an American rock band formed in Providence, Rhode Island in 2011. The group consists of Chilean electronic musician & vocalist Nicolás Jaar and American multi-instrumentalist Dave Harrington. Jaar and Harrington first met while studying in Providence through their com- mon friend and saxophonist Will Epstein. In the summer of 2011, they toured Europe and Australia in support of Jaar’s breakthrough debut album “Space Is Only Noise”.

Upon returning to Providence, they continued to write together, releasing their self-titled EP in 2012 and their critically acclaimed debut album “Psychic” on Matador Records in October 2013. The album was met with glowing reviews, including a 9.0 from Pitchfork and The New York Times calling it “the soundtrack to a lost David Lynch sci-fi movie.”

In the summer of 2018, Harrington and Jaar rented a small house on Lenni-Lenape territory, which is present-day Flemington, New Jersey. The group spent a week there, making a song a day. While it would take another year and a half to complete their second album, six songs from the band’s new record “Spiral” were written and recorded during this initial session.

“From the beginning, Darkside has been our jam band. Something we did on days off. When we reconvened, it was because we really couldn’t wait to jam together again,” says Jaar. Harrington echoes this, “It felt like it was time again,” he said. “We do things in this band that we would never do on our own. Darkside is the third being in the room that just kind of occurs when we make music together.”

Released July 23rd, 2021

2021, DARKSIDE under exclusive license to Matador Records

The second episode of Jim Beam’s Welcome Sessions see’s Grammy-nominated Irish act Fontaines D.C. return to, beloved North London independent music venue, The Lexington.

The Lexington was home to some of Fontaines D.C.’s first shows outside their native Ireland. Within its walls, the band cut their teeth amongst London’s live music fans, earning their reputation as a tour-de-force live act and drawing in sell-out crowds.

Working in collaboration with photographer Nick Helderman and music production team La Blogotheque, the band tore through a re-recording of their A Hero’s Death track, “I Was Not Born”

“So often it’s a singularly unique experience you can’t replicate or imitate playing live and is so often magnified or diluted by the space you are in. As opposed to the overly controlled feeling you get in larger venues, there’s a more natural, authentic feel offered to you by the smaller independent gigs,” Fontaines D.C.’s Conor Curley says.

“It’s refreshing to be back at The Lexington, which has a particular romance that reminds us of when we started out. Memories of this place are all about the people within it. The moment when crowds fill the space and surround the stage. That feeling of belonging and never being alone that music gives us as performers and audience members.”

Carlos O’Connell ads, “We have been incredibly lucky that there’s always been ‘a buzz’ and energy around our live gigs. The experience of being a live performer is a heightened one in which emotions are amplified and having that sense that you are welcome within a space among an audience who share your love for the music you are making is a vitally important thing.

“In its very essence, a live performance is a conversation between the band, their instruments, and the crowd in front of them. You can’t manufacture that buzz. It can never be as fulfilling as creating communion with an audience that is both feeding off and providing you with the energy you need in the moment.”

“You’ve Got It Wrong” is the second in a series of singles leading up to an album release on 24th September 2021 titled All Our Born Days. This song is the polar opposite of the positive vibes from Ocean & the Moon. Written several years ago after The Daydream Club experienced front line displays of toxic human behaviour and it left them feeling vulnerable and enraged. Being level headed people they decided to move past it and shelved the song but over the years to follow it seemed relevant to so many events occurring around the world and so it was time to release it. The music features an air of restrained power and tension with bursts of mass harmonies, trembling high tones and a steady electric guitar laying down the anchor.

During the recent trying times for everyone around the world, one positive that comes out of the chaos is the spotlight it shines on the people you care about and who you couldn’t imagine living without. The duo wrote the heartwarming song ‘Ocean & the Moon’ as an open love letter to each other, “You were meant to be my home, Like a force that can’t be known, Like the ocean & the moon, I’m connected to you.” The sound blends dream-like ambient atmospherics with a summery groove and lush harmonies throughout.

All Our Born Days is the seventh album release from The Daydream Club in 11 years. Made a decade after forming, All Our Born Days draws upon the lifespan of the band to date. Having formed in 2010 a lot has happened in global and personal events. Lyrically Adam & Paula explore what they have witnessed and experienced, the good and the bad. Musically it’s a culmination of all of the duos sounds over the years coming together in one album, combining influences from alternative, ambient, electronic, folk, classical crossover, soul, dub and trip-hop.

As with all of The Daydream Club’s releases they have personally created every aspect of the album from writing, recording, producing, mixing and mastering to the artwork, photos and music videos… there’s no big team between audience and artist, just two people creating art.

Released July 23rd, 2021

All songs written & performed by The Daydream Club, Adam Pickering – Vocals, Rhodes, Electric Guitar, Synth, Bass Guitar, Programming, Drums Paula Pickering – Vocals

THE CLASH – “ENOUGH ROPE?” 10-INCH DOUBLE ALBUM ON TRI-COLOURED CLEAR VINYL IN GATEFOLD SLEEVE

LIMITED EDITION JUST 2000 NUMBERED COPIES

“Enough Rope?” is the legendary broadcast from The Palladium NYC on 21st September 1979. This powerful recording captures The Clash at the peak of their form performing material from “Give ‘Em Enough Rope”, “The Clash” and their soon to be released third album, “London Calling”.

This may be the most famous concert in the history of The Clash, the night of the “ultimate rock photo” when Paul smashed his bass and it became the cover of “London Calling”. This is also the source of probably the most widely circulated Clash bootleg from the FM radio broadcast.

Track Listing:

Side A

1. Safe European Home
2. I’m So Bored with the U.S.A.
3. Complete Control
4. London Calling
5. The Guns Of Brixton

Side B

1. (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais
2. Koka Kola
3. I Fought The Law
4. Jail Guitar Doors
5. English Civil War

Side C

1. Clash City Rockers
2. Police And Thieves
3. Capital Radio
4. Wrong ‘Em Boyo

Side D

1. Janie Jones
2. Garageland
3. Armagideon Time
4. Career Opportunities
5. What’s My Name
6. White Riot

The Allman Brothers Band, Fillmore East, February 1970, The band played 27 titanic shows at promoter Bill Graham’s storied Fillmore East in Manhattan between 1969 and 1971, releasing 1971 recordings in July of that year for the classic “At Fillmore East” live LP.

But an earlier, raw and hungry era of the band is heard on the newly released “Bear’s Sonic Journals: Fillmore East, February 1970,” recorded by Grateful Dead soundman Owsley “Bear” Stanley when the Allman Brothers opened for the Grateful Dead on February 11th, 13th and 14th.

Listening back more than 50 years later, it’s easy to hear why Stanley was so passionate about these recordings.

In particular, the February 14th performance of “Mountain Jam” even with a reel-change gap, is a towering, 35-minute testament to the band’s rich, complex interplay, especially dual-drum tactic of Jaimoe and Butch Trucks under the twin-guitar attack of Dickey Betts and Duane Allman, who died the year after these recording were made.

“I would rather have some of it,” Semins said. “I would rather have every last Duane Allman solo, even if it’s cut up, than not have it at all. And that was the approach that we took with this.” There’s a potency to this collection that comes from a combination of the band playing in prime form, Stanley’s crisp and clear recording, and the energy of a New York City audience ready for whatever the Allmans throw at them.

“I think it’s the electricity they felt from the audience who seemed to really appreciate what they were doing,” Holman said. “You’re playing through as good a sound and lights (system) as there was at that point, and (you had) the ability to play multiple nights in the same room where you’d get really used to what the room sounds like – and it was a really good-sounding room from a musician point of view.”

You asked for it, so here it is! The Owsley Stanley Foundation & the Allman Brothers Band are pleased to present Bear’s complete recordings of the Allman Brothers Band at the Fillmore East in February 1970 in CD format. Available at the Big House Museum, this Deluxe Edition, 3-CD set will include the already-released compilation CD along with 2 CDs of the source material from all three nights — the complete set of Bear’s Sonic Journals from each show as played on February 11th, 13th, & 14th, 1970, including all three complete versions of the earliest known live concert recordings of “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed.” We also expanded the booklet to include more photos from these historic nights, taken by Bear’s good friend, Amalie Rothschild. The photos include an extremely rare shot of Bear in the soundbooth, up in the balcony overlooking the stage.

Important Note: These recordings were not previously released on CD in their entirety because they contain significant flaws, primarily due to reel changes in the middle of songs. We released them last summer as high resolution downloads, but many of our listeners preferred to have a physical copy. We get it; we’re the same way. Moreover, it was Bear’s wish that these recordings (especially the February 14th show) be released in whole because they are sonically pure and include important, previously unreleased material of the band with Duane in his prime.

“We have Owsley’s emails where he writes about how good they were, and he didn’t know the Allman Brothers,” said Bill “Hawk” Semins, an attorney who serves on the Owsley Stanley Foundation’s board of directors and executive produced the set with Holman.

“That was the first time the Allman Brothers had played with the Grateful Dead, and he (Stanley) has got tremendously good ears and recognizes talent and they immediately captured his fascination,” Semins explained. “There are a lot of opening acts where we don’t have the tapes, there are lots of times where he tapes over them. But he knew these tapes were special and he had written about it to other folks and he had held onto them for 50 years.”

A single-disc set collecting highlights from the three nights was released in 1996. That’s been re-packaged alongside Stanley’s raw recordings, complete with gaps for reel changes and a couple of cuts.

“We’re all completists at the foundation and the idea of releasing the entire set, reel gaps and everything, was what Owsley wanted,” said Semins. 

Produced and recorded by the Dead’s Sound Engineer, Owsley Stanley. The recordings feature the line-up of Duane Allman (Lead & Slide Guitars), Gregg Allman (Vocals, Hammond B-3 Organ), Dickey Betts (Lead Guitar), Berry Oakley (Bass, Vocals), Jaimoe (Drums, Percussion), and Butch Trucks (Drums, Tympani).

• 3 CD Set
• Bear’s complete recordings of the Allman Brothers Band from these historic shows on February 11, 13, & 14, 1970
• Expanded 16-page booklet, including rare band photos and a photo of Bear in the soundbooth
• Complete versions of the three earliest known live concert recordings of “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed”

On this day (July 21st) in 1978: The brilliant Edinburgh, Scotland comic-book dayglo band The Rezillos released their debut album ‘Can’t Stand The Rezillos’, one of the most insanely fun records of this or any other period; it included their previous single “I Can’t Stand My Baby” as well as future classics “(My Baby Does) Good Sculptures” & “Top of the Pops”; recorded at the Power Station in New York City, it reached #16 on the UK albums chart.

Towards the end of 1977 the band’s energetic live shows were gaining the attention of the music press and several major record labels. The group eventually signed with New York-based Sire Records which at that point was regarded as the major label most sympathetic to the emerging punk and New Wave music scene, having already signed the Ramones and Talking Heads. The band’s second single, “(My Baby Does) Good Sculptures”, which was originally also scheduled to be released on Sensible Records, was released in December on Sire instead.

Sire suggested to the Rezillos that they record the album in New York City, to which the band readily agreed, eager to travel outside the UK. The album was recorded during February 1978 at producer Bongiovi’s studio The Power Station), with Bongiovi and his assistant Lance Quinn originally scheduled to handle production duties. However, due to illness Bongiovi was unable to attend the majority of the recording sessions, and in his absence his engineer Bob Clearmountain ended up overseeing most of the album: the band recognised Clearmountain’s contribution to the record and pressed for his name to be included on the production credits.

A third single, “Top of the Pops” was released to coincide with the album and became the band’s biggest hit. 

In 2003, ‘Mojo’ magazine included the LP among its ‘Top 50 Punk Albums of All Time’…(This photo shows the back cover of the album signed by vocalists Eugene Reynolds & Faye Fife.

Released on Sire Records and including the top twenty UK hit “Top of the Pops”, part of which was used as a jingle on BBC Radio One. Unusually for a punk/new wave band group, the album The album featured several sixties covers, “Glad All Over” (originally a hit for The Dave Clark Five), and “Somebody’s Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight” (originally by Fleetwood Mac) and “I Like It” a Gerry and the Pacemakers hit song. 

The reviews from the UK music press upon the album’s release were very favourable. Rock critic Paul Morley described the album as “13 quick cuts lustily shot through with cheap culture combinations, The group’s inventiveness does things with noise that are a little too clever for hippy-happy exhilaration; there’s no chance of any calculated innocence here … But it’s all very clever: the parodied dissatisfaction of punk; the lashings of beat and controlled chaos; the frenzied passion of the production, and, above all else, lots of cosmic vibes, Melody Maker said, “There’s no need for worried glances: the band have pulled the proverbial cat out of the bag. They have always been about wraparound, cartoon strip enjoyment and that’s exactly what you get. Both sides seethe with great pop bluster which has been captured (as it should have been) in all its rough-edged immediacy.” Sounds magazine stated that the album was “a definitive slice of the Scottish beat combo’s past and present in full unabridged glory… No flabby excesses, the Rezillos stick ‘wisely’ to their ultra confident and rigid style, a format which sweeps through both sides with little hesitation or respite.”

The press enthused over the “hyperactive tempos, raging guitar, abbreviated pop melodies, goofy and slightly off-kilter lyrics that display a fascination with junk culture and ’60s pop… the real key to this album is its simple, good-hearted joie de vivre; funny-punk was rarely executed with the degree of skill, finesse, and pure delirious glee as the Rezillos summoned up on Can’t Stand the Rezillos. It makes me smile more than any U.K. punk album ever made me, and it has the greatest Dave Clark Five cover ever committed to tape – what greater recommendation could you ask for? A triumph

In 1993 the album was reissued on CD in a remastered and expanded version titled Can’t Stand the Rezillos: The (Almost) Complete Rezillos. This 28-track version comprised the original thirteen-track album, the group’s November 1978 single “Destination Venus” and its B-side “Mystery Action”, and the 1979 live album Mission Accomplished… But the Beat Goes On. The final track of Mission Accomplished…, a live version of “Destination Venus”, had to be dropped due to time constraints on the CD.

Jenn Champion and the Oyster Kids are sharing “Push,” a new single from their “Love Nobody” EP available from June 29th, 2021 on all DSPs worldwide from Hardly Art Records.
 
Champion says of the single, ”’Push’ is about the imagined love we have with strangers in dance clubs. It’s a lo-fi new wave song that captures the moment of feeling both so good and so consumed, being crushed out on a dance floor. Where the music is loud and you have immediate sexual eye contact. Like invisible hands pushing you together. A song for that moment of lust and the unknown.”

The three-song Love Nobody EP is packed with as many sexy synth lines and longing looks as an 80s teen movie. The project was born when Champion met Andrew Eapen (Oyster Kids) at a party shortly after she moved to LA. They became fast friends once they realized they shared a passion for sad pop songs. The two started writing music together only a few weeks later, and the song “Love Nobody” materialized in their very first session.

The eponymous lyric video for “Love Nobody” which was released earlier this month, is a lithe and breezy track with Champion’s signature vocal style. She says, “‘Love Nobody’ is about the fear of falling so hard for someone when you know it’s destined to crash and burn. Those crushes where it feels like your heart is cannibalizing your brain. We’ve all been there when you look into someone’s eyes and know they will destroy you, and yet, nothing can pull you away. You are all in. You hate it and have never wanted anything more.”
 
The two also included a paired down version of “Love Nobody” – a down-tempo piano version to play when your crush leaves the party with someone else. Because isn’t that just the way?

“Love Nobody” from Jenn Champion & OYSTER KIDS’ ‘Love Nobody EP’ (Release date: June 29, 2021)