The Fat Angel Sings

Croque Macadam is proud to present an exciting collaboration between two contemporary bands united by Cosmic American Music across the oceans: The Young Sinclairs and The Hanging Stars.

The Young Sinclairs, led by the distinguished Samuel Jones Lunsford (Stimulator Jones) are no strangers to the music scene. The band from Roanoke (Viriginia) has a special place in the history of our labels: in 2013, we issued two singles from the band (New Day and Hurt My Pride), debuting the discographic odyssey of Requiem Pour Un Twister. Since then we have had the honour of releasing their latest album, Out of the Box (2019 – RPUT31). For a dozen years, the North American band has thus built an elegant discography, heir to the folk-rock of the Byrds and affiliates (Gene Clark, Flying Burrito Brothers, Gram Parsons etc.).
In many ways, The Hangings Stars could be their British cousins. For the last five years, the London band led by Richard Olson (ex-The See See, Thelightshines, The Eighteenth Day of May etc.) have been releasing delicate country-rock albums on various British labels (Great Pop Supplement, Crimson Crow). If they were born in the fog that envelops London, their heads are probably flying over the mountains of Laurel Canyon.

The affinity between these two bands is now materialized through a 7” single where the Americans are covering the English and reciprocally. The Young Sinclairs pay a strong tribute to British rock. She Never Sleeps now sounds like an unreleased Rolling Stones song from the Let it Bleed period.

On their side, the Hanging Stars give to the song All Fallen Dawn of the Americans the look of a classic of the alternative country music of the 90s (Beachwood Sparks, Jayhawks etc.). The project finds its obvious place in the Croque Macadam’s catalogue where already appeared collaborations between bands with similar interests (Forever Pavot and Calypso, Beat Mark and Proper Ornaments). 

Released June 4th, 2021

Hurry are from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, I just released another new single called “Where You Go, I Go,” from our upcoming record. limited edition vinyl is still available, but it’s going a bit quicker than we anticipated, so if you’re thinking about it, I think now might be the time. reminder that all vinyl pre-orders will also get a copy of the 90 page Fake Ideas book totally free.

Limited edition vinyl with a die cut sleeve, and artwork from Frances Quinlan.

Releases June 25th, 2021

Oh My Eyes are a self-described “post-pandemic psychedelic surf band” out of Seattle that started as a group of songwriters who met weeks prior to the pandemic. They have since released their debut EP back in January and followed that up with their newest single “Can’t Believe.” Starting as a group of songwriters who met weeks prior to the pandemic, Oh My Eyes weaves high-energy, soulful hooks over cynical narratives about uncertainty, consumer culture, and societal collapse.

Combining psych-surf rock and garage sounds, it’s a track that feels like a cathartic release to finally being somewhat freed from our homes and welcoming the upcoming most well-needed summer of our lives. There’s a retro influence hidden underneath all the fuzzy goodness that feels life affirming and full of blissful positive energy.

Released May 14th, 2021

Jeffrey Alexander and the Heavy Lidders, Founding member of The Iditarod in 1996, Black Forest/Black Sea in 2003 and Dire Wolves in 2008. Joined JOMF in 2013. Started The Heavy Lidders in 2019. Former label owner of Magic Eye Singles and Secret Eye Records. Also toured with and featured on recordings by Kemialliset Ystävät, Avarus, Es, Fursaxa, Christina Carter, Gravenhurst, Jeffrey Alexander-Andrea Belfi-Stefano Pilia Trio. 

Jeffrey Alexander – guitars, vocal
Drew Gardner – electric guitar, vibraphone
Jesse Sheppard – bass
Scott Verrastro – drum kit

w/
Marissa Nadler – backing vocal
Rosali Middleman – backing vocal
Pat Gubler – vox organ
Ryan Jewell – drums, percussion

Releases August 6th, 2021

Known for their relentless touring schedule and DIY work ethic, New Candys is one of the most solid independent bands of recent years. “Vyvyd” follows up on the widely acclaimed third album Bleeding Magenta which saw them tour non-stop across Europe, United Kingdom, North America and Australia.

This album, which will be their fourth, is the first record made by the line-up of Fernando Nuti, Andrea Volpato, Alessandro Boschiero and Dario Lucchesi. It was recorded at Fox Studio in Venice, Italy by Andrea Volpato and mixed and mastered by Grammy Award producers Tommaso Colliva (Calibro 35, The Jesus And Mary Chain) and Giovanni Versari respectively.

“This record has its own mythology. We played with religious, pagan and archetypal symbols, which have been distorted through our lens. If we had to sum up the album in one concept it would be the contradiction of light: God/good is often represented with a bright glow, whilst Lucifer, the personification of evil, means light-bearer. We’ve been inspired by the visionary cinema of Kenneth Anger and Alejandro Jodorowsky among others”.

With a mighty barrage of heavy-hitting guitars and throttling drums come to life in New Candys’ making for an instantly memorable and equally energizing listen. Raw, garage-y, and dynamic in the very best of ways,

New Candys debuted over a decade ago with a gnarly, unapologetic rock ethos that has remained a defining party of their artistry ever since. 

Rochester, New York King Buffalo is a psychedelic trio in the classic format, whose expansive and thunderous music is a powerful concoction of heavy psych, blues, and stoner rock. Texturally rich and oozing with psychedelic goodness, yet honed and driving in the next blink of an eye. Their efforts coupled with their impressive live show, quickly gained them an international audience. Sometimes darker and heavier than its predecessors, “The Burden of Restlessness” still has that dreamy, psychedelic quality about it that makes King Buffalo so unique in the world of Rock music. Can’t wait for the other two releases announced for this year!

Released June 4th, 2021

King Buffalo – The Burden of Restlessness
Written and recorded by King Buffalo in Rochester, NY at the Main Street Armory in December of 2020 & January of 2021

Initial plans for a reunion of Jimmy Page and Robert Plant were made in 1993, with discussions between the two of collaborating emerging from casual small talk and then an invitation to perform on MTV Unplugged. Music producer Bill Curbishley, who had been managing Plant since the 1980s and who assumed management of Page in 1994, was integral in the reuniting of the pair. Despite failed attempts by others to reunite Jimmy and Robert, Curbishley was able to persuade the previously reluctant Plant into working with Page again.

On 1st May 1995, Page and Plant performed at the Bradley Centre in Milwaukee for a show that was recorded for live FM Broadcast around the greater Wisconsin area, and which proved to be one of the finest on the tour. The gig itself contains many classics and some deep cuts and I’d love to know how Jimmy got Plant to agree to perform the Coverdale/Page track ‘Shake My Tree’.

Featuring a sterling selection of Led Zeppelin classics, the odd solo-cut and even a cover of The Cure’s ‘Lullaby’, the show was a roaring success which is available finally for fans to hear via this delightful double vinyl, available now for the first time.

Recorded in the spring of 2010 and then mysteriously abandoned by prince before its release, the statement album “Welcome 2 America” documents Prince’s concerns, hopes, and visions for a shifting society, presciently foreshadowing an era of political division, disinformation, and a renewed fight for racial justice.

The Prince Estate and Legacy Recordings are to issue “Welcome 2 America” a previously unreleased Prince album recorded in 2010. The album was “mysteriously archived” by Prince and features some of his only studio collaborations

The album features some of Prince’s only studio collaborations with the bassist Tal Wilkenfeld, drummer Chris Coleman, and engineer Jason Agel, with additional contributions from New Power Generation singers Shelby j, Liv Warfield, and Elisa Fiorillo and keyboardist Morris Hayes, who Prince also recruited to co-produce the album. the vinyl edition has the 12 songs spread across three sides on 2 Lps in gorgeous gatefold packaging, with a custom etching on the fourth side.

A previously unreleased Prince album from 2010, “Welcome 2 America“ is set for release on July 30th via Legacy. Now another song from it, “Born 2 Die,” 

The song has a bit of a Curtis Mayfield vibe, which was purposeful on Prince’s part. A press release goes into a bit more detail as to the track’s genesis: “The song was recorded during a flurry of studio activity in the spring of 2010, when President Obama was just a year into his first term and Prince was reflecting deeply on the issues affecting the Black community and the role he hoped to play in the social justice movement. 

The deluxe edition of Welcome 2 America combines the 2lp and cd versions of the album with a never before released blu-ray of Prince’s full April 28th, 2011 performance at the forum, part of the Welcome 2 America tour’s historic 21 nite stand in Los Angeles. the show is presented in stereo, 5.1 surround and dolby atmos, and includes 24 tracks from across Prince’s career, from his biggest hits to fan favourites to ten rare covers.

In addition, the deluxe edition features a 32 page 12×12 book, exclusive poster and an embossed vellum envelope of limited edition memorabilia all housed in a luxe, gold embossed package. experienced as a complete package, the deluxe edition provides an immersive view of Prince’s creative genius during his spontaneous, energetic, and thought-provoking Welcome 2 America era.

In terms of chronology, if issued at the time, the album would have sat between 20Ten (2010) and Plectrumelectrum (2014).

The deluxe version of Welcome 2 America will come with a full-length live concert video from one of Prince’s string of 2011 shows at The Forum in Los Angeles during his “Welcome 2 America” tour.

Michelle Zauner returns with her third LP “Jubilee” as Japanese Breakfast but the big triumph and progression here is just all of it. The sound is more saturated, fuller, richer and deeper; it really is a beautifully crafted pop record, ecstatic with subtle hooks.

Michelle Zauner’s anticipated third album is coming out on June 4th via Dead Oceans. The last glimpse of the album we have already had the video for “Posing in Bondage” with Zauner entering an empty grocery store on a hoverboard, covered in blood, where she made an intimate connection with the clerk played by Girlpool’s Harmony Tividad. We never got the answers for her stone cold presence entering that eerie market, or why her chin was stained red, or why that connection with noodles and Tividad was so needed. But now, we do.

Japanese Breakfast Michelle Zauner wanted to find joy with her new album. The singer’s first two records under the moniker have been defined by difficult topics: 2016 debut ‘Psychopomp’ was written during her mother’s cancer treatment, with follow-up ‘Soft Sounds From Another Planet’ created during the aftermath of her death. Both of those albums were created within a wash of psychedelic shoegaze, escaping present troubles in whirlpools of noise and stories from lightyears away.

From the get-go, third album ‘Jubilee’ displayed higher ambitions, both for Zauner personally and in the jubilant music that these messages are transmitted through. “How’s it feel to be at the centre of magic?” she sings amid a euphoric blast of horns on opening track ‘Paprika’, a statement that sets the album’s aims in stone: this is a personal and musical breakthrough from a singer destined for far, far bigger things.

First single ‘Be Sweet’ is a superbly catchy, ’80s-indebted pop smash, written with Jack Tatum from the band Wild Nothing. “I wanna believe in something!” Zauner sings at the end of its triumphant chorus.

Elsewhere, ‘Slide Tackle’ once again employs horns to transmit its euphoric personal breakthroughs, Even when things get musically darker on the shimmering alt-pop of ‘Posing In Bondage’, there remains a prioritisation of pop melody; the fat is trimmed from all 10 songs on the record, leaving perfectly formed three-and-a-half-minute pop songs that want. 

The latest single from Jubilee is titled “Savage Good Boy” and comes with an opulent video starring The Sopranos‘ Michael Imperioli. “I want to take care of you,” Zauner sings on the upbeat track. “I wanna make the money till there’s no more to be made.” She sings about wealth and security while draped in luxurious clothing. In one scene, Imperioli and her are playing cards—he wins, and starts rubbing it in her face. The pair feel like a symbol of power; is their relationship built off love? Or, is it the ability to hold power over another when the world is crumbling? “When the city’s under water / I will wine and dine you in the hollows,” she sings later on.

Zauner shared the song’s inspiration in a statement: “‘Savage Good Boy’ came from a headline I read about billionaires buying bunkers. I was interested in examining that specific type of villainy, and I found myself adopting the perspective of a rich man coaxing a young woman to come live with him underground, attempting to rationalize his almost impossible share of greed and miserliness.”

She continued about the video she directed, “I knew I wanted the music video to be a pretty literal interpretation of that idea. I wanted to juxtapose images of this post-apocalyptic, industrial bunker with the lightness and extravagance of rococo fashion and set design. Aiming for that balance, my cinematographer, Adam Kolodny, and I were really inspired by Chan Wook Park’s The Handmaiden, Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon, and Sally Potter’s Orlando.”

“Savage Good Boy” the new song by Japanese Breakfast from the album ‘Jubilee’, out June 4th on Dead Oceans.

Ambition isn’t something that comes naturally in indie rock; the lingering idea that modesty is the coolest asset you could possess have persisted over the past 20 years, pulling many a band and songwriter back from the brink of fully shooting for the stars. In the future, ‘Jubilee’ may just be seen as a pivotal way station on the road to these ideas being rubbished once and for all.

New 2022 UK tour dates.

25 March – Bristol – SXW
26 March – Manchester – Academy 2
27 March – Glasgow – St. Luke’s
28 March – Leeds – Brudenell Community Room
30 March – London – Kentish Town Forum