The Fat Angel Sings

This autumn, The Stranglers are to release “Dark Matters” their first studio album since 2012 and the first since their keyboard player Dave Greenfield died last year (a victim of COVID-19).

Greenfield himself features on eight of the album’s 11 tracks, which were made over the course of two years at the band’s studios in Somerset and in Southern France, produced by long-time collaborator Louie Nicastro.

Band members, JJ Burnel and Baz Warne completed “Dark Matters” remotely during lockdowns, adding to it the song ‘And If You Should See Dave…’ a contemplative, but uplifting a tribute to Greenfield Written by Baz Warne & Jean-Jacques Burnel..

All orders come with an exclusive bonus CD titled Dave Greenfield – A Tribute. This features eight unreleased live recordings including two of the new tracks performed by Dave, live versions of four Stranglers songs that Dave sings on, and one of the last ever recordings of the band from their 2019 Japanese tour. One year on… A very sad anniversary today. Exactly a year ago, we heard the devastating news that Dave Greenfield had succumbed to Covid19 and had passed away. Dave was a Strangler for 45 years and his arpeggios and keyboard runs were an unmistakable signature of that Stranglers’ sound. Our thoughts are with Pam, his family, friends, fellow bandmates and crew today.

The Stranglers store also offers a red/black smoke vinyl edition, which like all the music products, includes the exclusive bonus CD.

“Dark Matters” is released on 10th September 2021.

Iceage released a new album “Seek Shelter” via Mexican Summer. On Wednesday, they shared one last single from it, “High And Hurt” via Adult Swim’s Singles Program. The ambitious fifth album from Iceage marks the band’s first collaboration with an outside producer. 

Sonic Boom (aka Pete Kember) produced the album. The band’s line-up features Elias Bender Rønnenfelt, Jakob Tvilling Pless, Johan Surrballe Wieth, and Dan Kjær Nielsen. An additional guitarist, Casper Morilla Fernandez, also joined them to record Seek Shelter, which was mixed by Shawn Everett.

Previously released singles from Seek Shelter are “Vendetta” and “The Holding Hand” plus “Shelter Song”.

Strutting, impressionistic lyrics that scan either as heartland reveries or apocalyptic premonitions, reminiscent of classic rock and Britpop as readily as Nick Cave hanging out on E Street. The Copenhagen five-piece Iceage have completed their transformation from grim-faced nihilists to wearied soothsayers. Produced by Spacemen 3‘s Pete Kember (Sonic Boom), these are Glastonbury-sized anthems with huge fuzz, riffs and even a gospel choir on one song. The universal acclaim is flying in already. 

Kevin Morby has released ‘Dumcane’, an outtake from his 2016 album ‘Singing Saw’ to mark its fifth anniversary.

In a post, Morby said he took ‘Dumcane’ to the recording sessions for ‘Singing Saw’, but it didn’t make the cut because it “wasn’t feeling quite right sitting next to the other songs”. The track was then taken to Kyle Thomas and reimagined as a stripped-down song.

“For reasons beyond me this version of ‘Dumcane’ sat inside Kyle’s tape machine lost and forgotten the last five years until Kyle stumbled upon it a few weeks ago while going through old tapes only days before Singing Saws fifth birthday,” Morby said.

“Singing Saw” got great reviews back in 2016, describing it as “a surreal world of death, love and murder populated by vultures, coyotes and one wandering man on the verge of losing his mind”.

“Using twilight walks into the mountains as inspiration and the shabby house he shares with his girlfriend, his guitars and an old piano as his base, Morby cooked up a glorious third album.”

“It felt like a sign from the universe that the song could finally take flight. I am so happy to share this document of Kyle and I making music in his Pine Room on some sunny afternoon in what seems like a lifetime ago.”

Released May 4th, 2021

Modest Mouse have announced a new album, “The Golden Casket” which is their first full-length in six years, and the band shared a new song from it, “We Are Between”.

The band’s last album was 2015’s “Strangers To Ourselves”. Although in 2019 Modest Mouse released a great new song, “Ice Cream Party” which sadly isn’t on the new album.

Dave Sardy and Jacknife Lee produced The Golden Casket, which was recorded in Los Angeles and in Modest Mouse’s studio in Portland.

A press release describes The Golden Casket like so: “The album hovers in the liminal space between raw punk power and experimental studio science, frontman Isaac Brock explores themes ranging from the degradation of our psychic landscapes and invisible technology, to fatherhood. The twelve tracks behave like amorphous organisms, undergoing dramatic mutations and mood swings that speak to the chronic tug-of-war between hope and despair that plays out in Brock’s head.”

The Golden Casket is due out June 25th via Epic Records.

Lump is the product of Brit Award-winning Laura Marling and Mercury Prize-winning Mike Lindsay. Lump’s stunning and essential second album “Animal” is released on Chrysalis Records and Partisan Records and is a vivid and psychedelic masterpiece.

“Animal” was a word Laura Marling threw into a lyric simply to meet a rhythm. But it seemed to capture the mood of the new record, and of Lump as a whole. “There’s a little bit of a theme of hedonism on the album, of desires running wild,” she says. “And also it fed into the idea we had from the start of thinking of Lump as a kind of representation of instincts, and the world turned upside down.” It is something childlike and grotesque and filled with possibility, they say. “We created Lump as a sort of persona and an idea and a creature,” says Mike Lindsay. “Through Lump we find our inner animal, and through that animal we travel into a parallel universe.”

Animal follows the band’s self-titled debut album, Lump ,which came out in 2018 via Dead Oceans.

“LUMP is so the repository for so many things that I’ve had in my mind and just don’t fit anywhere in that way,” says Marling in a press release. “They don’t have to totally make narrative sense, but weirdly they end up making narrative sense in some way.”

Marling’s last album, the acclaimed “Song For Our Daughter” came out last year via Partisan/Chrysalis. Tunng also released a new album, “Dead Club” last year via Full Time Hobby. Marling was working on both Song For Our Daughter and the LUMP album at the same time.

“It became a very different thing about escaping a persona that has become a burden to me in some way. It was like putting on a superhero costume,” she says, adding that sometimes it feels as if she might be “edging Laura Marling off a cliff as much as I can and putting LUMP in the centre.”

Animal is due out July 30th via Partisan/Chrysalis.

Portland-based singer-songwriter Andy McFarlane, “There Be Monsters” is a fitting soundtrack to accompany your worrying thoughts. The heart and soul of The National, the gloomy sentiments of Bonnie “Prince” Billy and the indie folk squiggles of Bon Iver come to mind. Sit down, dim the lights, empty your mind and let Far Lands make you hope that the unknown tomorrow will be alright.

“The creative simplicity of recording stood in stark contrast to the developing
situation in Portland, with the COVID-19 pandemic being compounded by scattered
protests and calls for racial justice. The album’s themes of exploring the unknown,
both externally and internally, started to take on a different tone as 2020 wound on.
As the sessions drew to a close and the album became ready for release, McFarlane
sat back and took stock…

Releasing the album in 2020 didn’t feel right. My story wasn’t the one the world needed to hear”… Not much has changed. The world is still aimless and unsettled, the disease still rages, and things are still tough, but it’s time for the world to hear McFarlane’s second act.
One of love, growth and change. It’s a reminder to navigate these trying days with an open heart, and take comfort in the ever-expanding unknown, because maybe you’ll end up in an ice storm that will change your life.”

“It’s Time” by Far Lands (Official Video) Album: There Be Monsters
Released: 30th April 2021 via Get Loud Records.

thanks turnupthevolume

One of the best things that happened soon after the turn of the 21st century was the formation and emergence of The Black Keys in 2001. Dan Auerbach, songwriter, guitarist and Patrick Carney, songwriter and drummer (and nephew of the late great horn player Ralph Carney) were friends since they were kids. They made their first album in 2002, and in 2008 teamed up with producer Danger Mouse — AKA Brian Burton. He produced and co-wrote songs with them, including their 2014 album Turn Blue. The first single released from that album, “Fever” arrived with the instantly irrepressibly infectious impact of a rock classic.

“That one started with that melody,” Dan Auerbach said to NPR’s “All Songs Considered” of the origins of “Fever.” “It was Patrick [Carney] and I on our own; we recorded that song and it came pretty quickly. I had that melody in my mind and worked out what the chords were and then we kept it really simple. We kept the bass and drums simple and dancey and tried to keep it upbeat — sort of like Motown.”

They finished the whole song together, except for the ending coda, which they wrote with Brian/Danger Mouse. “We love working with Brian,” said Patrick Carney. “When we go into the studio with him, we basically become like a three-piece band. We’re writing together and producing together. And Brian is the only person on the planet that can walk into that position with us…”

Auerbach, who wrote many great songs with John Prine (which are on Dan’s solo album Waiting On A Song and Prine’s last album Tree of Forgiveness) mentioned Prine when asked if music mattered more to him in songs than the lyrics.

“No,” he said. “I’m drawn to both. There are certain people who can turn a phrase and I think it’s amazing — somebody like John Prine or Tom Waits. But then there are songs like those Motown songs that just blow me away and get stuck in my head, and really, they don’t have a very deep meaning. They’re just such catchy songs.”

A new documentary on legendary band The Sonics by Jordan Albertsen opens a window on the rich and influential legacy of garage rock in the Pacific Northwest, and the role of visionary label owner and manager Buck Ormsby in shaping that sound. A sound which had such an influence on local musicians like Jimi Hendrix, Nancy Wilson, Mark Arm, and many others.

In 1963, before The Stooges and even the MC5, five teenage proto-punks from Tacoma, Washington (Gerry Roselie, Andy Parypa, Larry Parypa, Rob Lind, Bob Bennett) who called themselves The Sonics scored a No#2 hit on the Seattle music chart with their hard-driving debut single, “The Witch”. With its menacing keyboard line and tongue-in-cheek lyrics about a heartbreaker with “long black hair and a big black car,” “The Witch” was too hot to handle for Seattle area radio stations who would only play the single after 3 PM so as not to upset the housewives with what they initially perceived as “devil music”.

Seattle area teens caught on immediately, however, and the single sold 10,000 copies in its first two weeks debuting at #24.

By the time they released their debut LP “Here Are The Sonics”, the band became local legends, opening for The Beach Boys, the Mamas & The Papas, Jay & the Americans and The Shangri-Las. It would take forty years, however, for The Sonics to achieve nationwide fame in the U.S.

So, what exactly happened in those intervening years between The Sonics’ split in 1968 and their cover of Richard Berry’s “Have Love, Will Travel” becoming a ubiquitous hit featured in BMW ads and such feature films as RocknRolla and John Wick? Who are these guys who had such an impact on bands like Mudhoney, The Cramps, and even The Fall? when did their music make it over to the UK?

For the answers to these questions and many more, filmmaker Jordan Albertsen takes us on “a ten-year journey of discovery” from “south of Seattle, in the city of Tacoma, Washington” to London in his documentary feature, “Boom: A Film About The Sonics”. In Boom, we hear the story of The Sonics’ brief but ground breaking history and unlikely reunion from all five original members and from the late Buck Ormsby, a Pacific Northwest rock ’n’ roll legend in his own right who signed the band to his label, Etiquette Records in 1963 and also managed them. Boom also boasts a galaxy of rock ’n’ roll stars, including Nancy Wilson, Mark Arm and Mike McCready who all share a passion for The Sonics, and even the Sex Pistols’ Glen Matlock weighs in. What really drives this film, however, are the personal stories of The Sonics and their triumphant return and that of Buck Ormsby’s profound belief in the band’s music as well as that of filmmaker Jordan Albertsen, whose own passion for The Sonics has helped him to better connect with his dad. In fact, it’s almost hard to imagine Boom having the same impact on audiences as the bigger, more cinematic affair that Jordan had initially set out to make.

Since making its world premiere at London’s Raindance Film Festival, “Boom” has won awards for Best Documentary Feature this past year at the Lone Star Film Festival and at the Silk Road Film Festival in Dublin, Ireland, earlier this year, as well as the Audience Award at both the Tacoma and Olympia film festivals. Boom has also just been announced as an Official Selection at this year’s Newport Beach Film Festival as well as the upcoming Phoenix Film Festival on April 5th and also this past March at the Manchester Film Festival.

thanks pleasekillme

The Moon City Masters play positive, feel-good rock music with catchy melodies, funky basslines and crunchy riffs. Every show is good time. You’ll want to dance, nod your head, clap your hands!Expect a riff-cooking belter with a 80s classic rock forcefulness. Expect also electrifying echoes from legendary turbo Lynyrd Skynyrd, the high-powered blues flamboyance of Neil Young’s Crazy Horse, the over-the-top Macca vocals on Helter Skelter, and Slash joining the party, somewhere in the middle, for a stormy guitar solo.

I’m sure you have the feeling by now that some steamy showtime is coming up. Did I mention that this is actually a Beatles cover? No! That means that the bros nailed it big time with their own high-energy intensity.

Twins from planet Brooklyn playing funky Rock n Roll.

Performed by Jordan Steinberg, Talor Steinberg, and Justin Craig