The Fat Angel Sings

Half a Human is a collection of six songs created between two different worlds. While the architecture of each was constructed during sessions for 2020’s “The Main Thing”, the tracks came to life when the band began trading the material back and forth remotely throughout the pandemic. They found new ways of working together as they further explored the emotional landscapes they’ve been perfecting for more than a decade, and in taking stock of themselves and the uncertainty of their future, “Half a Human” helped them arrive at a new thesis statement for the band.

Real Estate have also released six new visual’s, one for each song on the EP, directed by FISK. Inspired by old winamp visualizers, each video was created through radical editing of candid footage from each band member. 

Another home run from Real Estate! Classic Real Estate sound and vibe throughout the EP. In the Garden is as beautiful a tune as they have crafted recently. Nobody elicits a bliss chill like this band consistently does. There isn’t a weak spot on this EP and the band seems to have really hit an extremely interesting and beautiful sound with this and the Main Thing that I can’t wait to hear them continue and progress. The addition of Julian to this band years ago cannot be understated – I love the change in direction the band has taken since him coming on board. The song writing all around here is just beautiful from start to finish!.

This collection of six new songs that were started and finished in two very different places. As Real Estate’s first EP in more than a decade, singer/guitarist Martin Courtney admits that when writing this music, he was feeling weird about being in a band, wondering how the group was still going strong after so many years. But while the architecture of Half a Human was constructed during sessions for their 2020 album. 

Though the past year might be the longest time Real Estate has spent off the road and away from each other, Half a Human showcases some of their most intuitive and interpersonal arrangements to date. “Half a Human” has long been one of Real Estate’s favourite songs to play live, while “In the Garden” builds a bridge between The Main Thing highlights like “Paper Cup” and the sound of the band’s next era. Throughout the rest of the EP they tackle thorny subjects of aging, connection and loss of innocence with lush instrumentation, even as lyrics evoke images of complicated emotion, 

Our new “Half A Human” is out now! Listen everywhere + order the 12” vinyl 

Released March 26th, 2021

2021, Domino Recording Co Ltd

2021 sees the birth of Hard Feelings, the brand new collaborative project between New York City’s singer/ songwriting powerhouse, Amy Douglas and Joe Goddard of Hot Chip.

After Joe having heard Amy’s work, the Hard Feelings project was birthed with one message from Joe reaching out publicly via Twitter; “Amy, can we make a thing?”. That “thing” became Hard Feelings, the ultimate immersive cinematic experience for your feet and ears, seated fluidly at the intersections of New Wave and Synthpop inspired Pop Music and full-on Dance majesty.

The band share their first single, “Holding On Too Long”. The track is drama in its purest form, Amy’s lyrics explore the pain and devastation from the demise of a romantic relationship, whilst the words are juxtaposed with Joe’s euphoric, driving bass and addictive piano hook. The video, starring Amy herself was directed by Katie Paul.

Amy notes: ”Holding On Too Long” is the common denominator of the entire musical union of Amy and Joe. In this “opera of sad bangers” here is its key aria, its “Un Bel Di” from Madame Butterfly or the “Mad Scene” from Lucia Di Lammermour, the unforgettable moment of the story wherein our heroine stands up defiantly and has her moment to wail, scream and cry her pain and fury centre stage to the world.”

“Holding On Too Long”, out now on Domino Record Co.

On the heels of releasing a staggering collaboration with the legendary Lonnie Holley, Matthew E. White has announced his new, long-awaited solo album, “K Bay”, will be released on September 10th 2021 via Domino Records. The kaleidoscopic first single “Genuine Hesitation” is out today alongside a new video and K Bay is now available for pre order at Domino’s webpage.

The single’s visual counterpart is a Super 8-shot album trailer directed by White and Shawn Brackbill, which previews the LP and introduces the friends and collaborators across Richmond, Virginia that played key roles in its creation: Spacebomb’s trusted house band (bassist Cameron Ralston, drummer Pinson Chanselle, and orchestral arranger Trey Pollard), along with multi-instrumentalist Alan Parker, keyboardists Devonne Harris and Daniel Clarke, and engineer/mixer Adrian Olsen.

The LP was produced by White and recorded between his beloved Kensington Avenue home studio (and album namesake) K Bay, Richmond’s Montrose Recording and his own local institution, Spacebomb Studio. K Bay finds the singer/songwriter, bandleader, and musical polymath expanding every facet of his creative process and harnessing the full power of his community, culminating in the best record of his career.

“For me, one of the most exciting production techniques from this record was this idea where I’d record the song twice,” explains White of K Bay and “Genuine Hesitation.” “First, in a more traditional, band-in-the-room, work out the parts and sounds, nail it, kind of way. Secondly, I would distill the concept of the song one way or another into an instrumental composition. I had a much larger band (based off of Miles Davis’s On The Corner bands) play this kind of new-music/improvisational piece at the same tempo as I had recorded the first, more ‘normal’ take. The goal was to be able to cut across between the two pieces, and/or layer them and have them fit together in wild ways. To a large degree it worked, which was pretty exciting for me. The intro to ‘Genuine Hesitation’ is an excerpt from the much longer improvisation based instrumental.”

K Bay, White’s first solo album in six years, is the astounding record he has forever aspired to make. A bold reclamation of independence and identity, K Bay establishes White as one of his era’s most imaginative artists. These 11 pieces are retro-futurist magic tricks that feel instantly classic and contemporary, the product of a musical mind that has internalized the lessons of his idols and used them to build a brilliant world of his own. 

After his solo introduction Big Inner became a surprise hit and his 2015 debut for Domino, Fresh Blood, ascended him to late night TV performances and further critical acclaim, career demands nearly overwhelmed White. His record label/studio Spacebomb, for instance, ballooned into a bevy of obligations and expectations. White followed Fresh Blood with 2017’s Gentlewoman, Ruby Man, a set of duets with Flo Morrissey, and continued to produce records for the likes of Natalie Prass, Bedouine, and more—doubtless privileges that sometimes crowded out his ability to work on his own music. So he began building K Bay, a home studio where he could sequester himself with his thoughts. Newly married and starting to talk about children as he inched toward 40, White funnelled a lifetime of experiences, enthusiasms, and obsessions into these new songs.

More than love, romance, or self-reliance, this is the animating ideal of K Bay—that we can forever strive for something better, no matter how flawed or blessed we have already been. A decade ago, Matthew E. White made a classic beauty no one expected; on K Bay, he has made a masterpiece by harnessing what he’s learned from that community and life itself in entirely unexpected, electrifying, and reaffirming ways.

Matthew E. White new album ‘K Bay’, out Sept 10th

Liverpool post-punks Clinic shared a new song, “Fine Dining”  via a video for the song. The band have also announced some new UK tour dates, which are their first dates in nine years .

Clinic seem like a band well suited for the pandemic, only in that they have long worn hospital facemasks in their press photos and live performances. But it seems as though things have changed a bit over the course of COVID-19 and the quartet is now a duo, with Ade Blackburn and Jonathan Hartley listed as members in the press release, but no mention of Brian Campbell or Carl Turney. The line-up had remained the same since the band’s 1997 formation, until now. And in the new press photo, only one member is wearing a facemask, with the other in a gasmask.

The single is out now via Domino Recordings. Emily Evans directed the “Fine Dining” video.

Amidst pulsing synths and a disco drum, Clinic’s new track folds in a sense of 1970’s American Fantasy Drama that adds a poppier element to their distinctive sound.

In the press release, Clinic collectively had this to say about the new song: “Fine Dining is a slice of dancefloor fun, combining the band’s love of the exotic and having a good time.”

Clinic’s last album was 2019’s “Wheeltappers and Shunters”, which was their first new album in seven years

Wolf Alice follow their Mercury Prize winning ‘Visions Of A Life’ with this exclusive Blood Records lenticular blue-marble edition of their third studio album ‘Blue Weekend’. Featuring a shape-shifting cover that changes when moved, the record comes hand-numbered on a first-come-first-served basis.

“Whereas in the past [Ellie] Rowsell has hidden her feelings behind metaphors and ambiguity, Blue Weekend sees her penning some of her most direct and personal lyrics to date. And perhaps this has given her a sense of release because vocally throughout the album she soars and produces a stunning performance ranging from dreamy half-spoken internal monologues to towering celestial beauty. On the gorgeous ‘Delicious Things’ she muses on the seductive promise of fame, with tales of unsuitable suitors and blaggers in Hollywood where she ends up bored with the thin veneer of glamour and phoning her mother. ‘How Can I Make It OK?’ is bittersweet dream-pop perfection, as Rowsell tries to salvage a relationship that is going awry, giving herself ‘a moment to change it all’ while she laments ‘how can I make it OK? I just want you to be happy.’ It’s a moment of shimmering beauty on an album that demonstrates how far Wolf Alice has come, and indeed how much more they have to give.”

Wolf Alice had previously shared a video for Blue Weekend’s first single, “The Last Man On Earth”, Then they shared the album’s second single, the bass-heavy version in “Smile”. They performed “Smile” on The Late Late Show with James Corden, where they were also interviewed. The album’s third single was the dreamy and understated “No Hard Feelings”, The band also shared one last pre-release single from the album, “How Can I Make It OK”. 

The first glimpse of the band’s new work came in the form of lead single “The Last Man On Earth”, premiered recently as Annie Mac’s Hottest Record in the World on BBC Radio 1, and blurs the lines between classic song writing, graceful atmosphere and their signature pin-sharp choruses. The band played a massive 187 shows on the Visions Of A Life world tour – including a sold out Alexandra Palace, 2 sold out dates at Brixton Academy, and a set on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury.  

Britain’s Wolf Alice released a new album, “Blue Weekend” last week via Dirty Hit/RCA. Since then they have shared new videos for the album’s “Delicious Things” and “The Beach.” They have also shared a live video for recent single “How Can I Make It OK?”

Jordan Hemingway directed the videos for “Delicious Things” and “The Beach.” The former features frontwoman Ellie Rowsell sharing a black taxicab with various couples (some of them other members of the band) and the latter features her in her bedroom and in the bath.

The band decamped to an Airbnb in Somerset, and it was here that they reconfigured who they were together, far away from festival stages, tour buses, awards shows, and fans. They cemented their friendship and set to work on some fledgling demos in a converted church. These demos evolved into Blue Weekend, a record produced by Markus Dravs (Arcade Fire, Björk, Brian Eno, Florence + The Machine) who has aided the band in refining their sound to an even sharper point. Rowsell’s personal storytelling is at the core of Blue Weekend, an album that sees Wolf Alice embrace a newfound boldness and vulnerability in equal measure. 

The band’s full line-up is Ellie Rowsell (vocals, guitar), Joff Oddie (guitar, vocals), Theo Ellis (bass), and Joel Amey (drums, vocals). The band stayed in an Airbnb in Somerset, England and worked on some demos in a converted church. Markus Dravs (Arcade Fire, Björk, Brian Eno, Florence + The Machine) then produced the final album.

Please note that Blood Records is a pre-ordering platform and this record is due for release on June 11th, 2021.

Blue Weekend is the band’s third album and the follow-up to 2017’s “Visions Of A Life” which won them the coveted Mercury Prize. Wolf Alice released their debut album “My Love Is Cool” back in 2015.

The band’s full line-up is Ellie Rowsell (vocals, guitar), Joff Oddie (guitar, vocals), Theo Ellis (bass), and Joel Amey (drums, vocals). The band stayed in an Airbnb in Somerset, England and worked on some demos in a converted church. Markus Dravs (Arcade Fire, Björk, Brian Eno, Florence + The Machine) then produced the final album.

Really happy to be able to share this live video we made for “In the Stone” a few months back. Given the events of the last year or so it felt really important to us to still document the live element of the album and our band in this moment. We ended up making a few videos like this which we’ll keep sharing.

Once we started rehearsing a set again we realised In the Stone is probably the hardest song off our album to replicate live because it requires simple things to be done so counterintuitively – the tune to which hairs were pulled! When we recorded the album version in Bristol we’d intended to play to a drum machine but the song felt better loose, changing pace a bit, so we ended up doing it with live drums and then triggered the drum machine from Riley’s hits.

This version in turn is us playing along with that drum machine track, triggered from the drum take Riley did in Bristol last year lol. The tempo is very emotional so playing it right doesn’t mean playing metrically in time, or getting over excited and ahead. I ended up really enjoying that this song forced us more so than ever to tune into the rhythm of our past selves – or more specifically Riley’s self last year – not to fight it, but…feel it! So yeah, this is that!

Also an enormous thank you to the amazing team both here in Brisbane and in London who helped us put this lil vid together: Marly Lüske for recording and mixing,Tom Carroll (DOP) and Hugo Nobay (1st AC) Madeline Randall for SFX Marisa Gesualdi for editing and James Caswell for producing the whole damn thing. And to our sweet sweet Al of course whose on lead guitar here, we love you!.

“In the Stone” is taken from the upcoming album ‘Mirror II,’ out on Matador Records

Delta 5 were formed in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, UK 1979.

There was a Leeds music scene at the time that revolved around the Leeds University Art Department, and local bands The Gang of Four and The Mekons were doing well. Kelvin had briefly replaced Hugo in The Gang of Four and was recommended to Delta 5 as a drummer. Kelvin and I played in a band in York together so I went along to audition and joined in May 1979.

First release “Mind Your Own Business” / “Now That You’ve Gone” – 1979. The Gang of Four were recording their album, Entertainment, in the WorkHouse in the Old Kent Road and they decided that they could help us out at the same time. We stayed with them on a houseboat on the Thames at Cheney Walk, Chelsea and their manager Rob Warr arranged for us to go in and record whilst they were out at a Madness/Specials gig in Camden.

“You” was supposed to be the first recording but it wasn’t happening so we changed tack and recorded both songs in about 8 to 10 hours. We had only been together a few months and done about 3 or 4 gigs by this time. Rob took the tapes to EMI who were paying for the studio but they passed – no surprise there – so Rob went to Geoff Travis at Rough Trade. Geoff came to see us at The Global Village (later Heaven) and we met him afterwards and agreed to a deal on a handshake.

The single came out in December.

John Peel was given a pre-release copy and he decided to play it twice that night. The next day we got a call asking if we’d like to do a session for him – yes please!! Then, we were off and running.

“Delta 5” and “Make Up” included on this CD are from that session of February 1980. We recorded a follow-up, “Anticipation” / “You” in February 1980. We were gigging more often at this point and “You” turned out pretty well. More gigging in Europe and the UK; around 1980 – 81, we played quite a bit at The Lyceum in London and shared the bill with The Gang of Four a few times, Echo and the Bunnymen, B52s, Specials, Teardrop Explodes and U2 to name a few. We toured with The Gang of Four and Pere Ubu in 1980.

In September 1980 we did our second Peel session, which included “Triangle,” which is included on this CD. Later in September 1980 we went to the USA.

We played New York and all along the East Coast. Then we went West, and “Shadow,” “Circuit,” and “Journey” are all from a show we did at the Berkeley Square in Berkeley, CA. Back to England in October and we recorded “Try”/ “Colour” with the Bad Manners horn section who we had met at a festival In Finland. In February 1981 we toured Holland and Belgium. In March 81 we signed with the Pre record label in April we went into Rak Studios in St John’s Wood to record an album. Rak was Mickie Most’s studios and The Animals, Hot Chocolate and Sweet had recorded there.

We experimented quite a bit on the album and perhaps we should have just recorded the songs as they were – the session versions included here are more a reflection of how we were live as they were all recorded quickly in one or two takes.

None of us really liked the title of the album but it was a compromise – I think we argued quite a lot back then. We did a UK tour culminating in a headline gig at The Venue London. We even had a horn section including Rico on trombone.

We went back to the USA for a few shows on the East Coast in May and came back to England in June. We recorded “Innocenti,” “Train Song,” “Final Scene” and “Singing The Praises” for a Richard Skinner session in July 1981.

The album came out somtime late in 1981 and we went to Holland in October – I decided it was time to leave when we got back – I think Julz and then Kelvin left and Bethan & Ros made one more single with new personnel before calling it a day in 1982.

The early days were the best and although we did argue a lot, (what band doesn’t!), we also had a lot of laughs – for a couple of years we got to play live and make some records, and then that was enough. Alan Delta 5

Indie pop hopefuls The Academic have just unleased The anthem if the summer! “Kids (Don’t End Up Like Me)” has the timeless quality and joyous feel which is going to get stuck in your head for a very long time!

“Kids (Don’t End Up Like Me) is one of the first songs I remember writing back when I was a teenager. It was the first time that lyrics had come very easy to me. It’s written about the fear of not getting out of your hometown and amounting to anything. Thanks to the lockdown, I had plenty of time on my hands, but nothing to write about, so I started looking through all my old notebooks and found this song fully written. I had a gut feeling that it might come to life now with a few more years of living behind me since it was originally written.” – Craig Fitzgerald

“Kids (Don’t End Up Like Me)” is taken from the forthcoming “Community Spirit” EP, which is scheduled for release on July 9^th 

A 6 song special release featuring: Deerhoof, Nels Cline (of Wilco), Shutups, Dave Depper (of Death Cab for Cutie), and Shaylee. 

Part of: Kill Rock Stars 30th Anniversary covers series, Who have put out 8-11 Deerhoof albums, depending on what you count as albums. We love Deerhoof forever. And each of these artists do, too – this is a very special ‘for the love of Deerhoof’ sandwich and we’re so happy to share it.

Also this is the best sandwich I’ve ever had, so listen yr hearts out.  Deerhoof: “KRS has an enormous catalogue. How do you choose? Something about the Sleater-Kinney song though, we had to try it. We wanted to celebrate one of these magic moments when they sounded like they didn’t quite know what they were doing…when emotions were revelations, and dissonances collided in some mystery universe between intention and accident. We relate to that part of us that works just like a child. We wanted to take a question mark of a song and not answer it.”

“This is to celebrate 30 killer years of Kill Rock Stars and is a love letter to our friends Deerhoof for being eternally inspiring.” says Wilco’s Nels Cline:

Shutups: “This track rips. It’s somehow the loudest and quietest song, like stadium rock in a pillow fort. I love how comfortable it makes me feel despite its flurry of time signature changes. We also couldn’t pass on the opportunity to cover a fellow Bay Area band, especially one with such nostalgic weight as Deerhoof.”

On “The Tears and Music of Love”, Shaylee’s second cover on Kill Rock Stars’ 30th anniversary compilation, Shaylee brings Kynwyn Sterling on board. With Kynwyn’s powerful, expressive drumming and sweet vocals providing a solid backdrop, Shaylee fills up the sonic spectrum with analogue synths, glockenspiel, and thick multi-tracked guitars to create a bristling and anthemic tribute to one of the most iconic bands ever signed to Kill Rock Stars.

Dave Depper:  Kill Rock Stars. An iconic name, linked inextricably with my formative music-discovery years as a teen and young twenty-something, greedily gobbling up new sounds, feelings, and ways of looking at the world. Unimaginable that I’d someday have the honour of releasing something on the label, and yet, dear reader, here we are. What a world.Deerhoof freaked me out when I first heard them and they still kind of do – lightning-in-a-bottle kind of music, simultaneously so random and chaotic yet deeply composed and expertly played. It really shouldn’t work but nearly always does. “Twin Killers” is merely one amazing song out of an embarrassment of them, and picked because it’s one of the handful that I could possibly hope to recreate without calling in favours from additional musicians who are far shreddier than I.”

Tracklisting:

1. Deerhoof “Don’t Talk Like” Sleater-Kinney cover
2. Nels Cline feat. Yuka & Ches “Jagged Fruit ” Deerhoof cover
3. Shutups “Milk Man” Deerhoof cover
4. Shaylee feat. Kynwyn Sterling “The Tears and Music of Love” Deerhoof cover
5. Dave Depper “Twin Killers” Deerhoof cover
6. Deerhoof “Hitch-hike” LiLiPUT cover