The Fat Angel Sings

‘TexiCali’, from Grammy winner Dave Alvin and Grammy nominee Jimmie Dale Gilmore, continues to bridge the distance between the two troubadours’ respective home bases of California (Alvin) and Texas (Gilmore). The geographic theme reflects Alvin’s repeated journeys to record in Central Texas with Gilmore and the Austin-based backing band that has toured with the duo for the past few years.

Behind blistering blues licks, “TexiCali” doubles as a roadtrip across Grammy winner Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore’s beloved home states and the memories within, honouring shared musical influences, friends gone too soon and all they’ve endured along the way. These folk heroes have now evolved their unbreakable bond into a fully-fledged musical and songwriting partnership.

“TexiCali” continues to bridge the distance between the two troubadours’ respective home bases of California (Alvin) and Texas (Gilmore).

Its 11 songs also connect their shared fondness for a broad range of American music forms. On their own, both have been prominent artists for decades. A philosophical songwriter with a captivating, almost mystical voice, Gilmore co-founded influential Lubbock group the Flatlanders in the early 1970s. Alvin first drew attention as a firebrand guitarist and budding young songwriter with Los Angeles roots-rockers the Blasters in the early 1980s.

They’re both quick to credit the musicians who joined them in the studio as crucial to the sound and spirit of the album. On “Downey To Lubbock”, they recorded primarily in Los Angeles with a crew that included ringers such as the late Don Heffington on drums and Van Dyke Parks on accordion. This time, though, Alvin’s longtime rhythm section of drummer Lisa Pankratz and bassist Brad Fordham played a larger role, along with guitarist Chris Miller and keyboardist Bukka Allen.

“After the time we spent touring, Jimmie and I became members of this band,” Alvin says. “The band can play just about anything, which the album shows off.”
“TexiCali” also found Alvin and Gilmore increasingly focusing on original songs. Among them are “Trying To Be Free,” which Gilmore wrote more than 50 years ago; “Southwest Chief,” a collaboration between Alvin and the late Bill Morrissey; and “Death of the Last Stripper,” which Alvin wrote with Terry Allen and his wife Jo Harvey Allen. 

released June 21st, 2024 Yep Roc, LLC.

With over an hour of performances, “Live Mind” was recorded in February and March 2024 at the Troubadour in Los Angeles, Ventura Music Hall in Ventura, CA, and The Kessler Theater in Dallas, TX. Produced by Dave Alvin and Victor Krummenacher, the album was mixed and mastered by Craig Parker Adams at Winslow Court, Los Angeles, CA.

This live album recorded at The Third Mind concerts in California and Texas, captures the band doing what they do best – going wherever the moment takes them musically. If you have yet to attend one of their acclaimed live shows, this album is an opportunity to hear what all of the fuss is about.

“…onstage is where its spontaneous mastery goes off the rails in the best way.” – Magnet,
“…Live Mind” supplies what too few of us got to see; The Third Mind’s uncanny, exquisitely sympathetic synergy at work in front of a live audience, the place the band’s collaborative abilities was made for.” – Rock & Blues Muse.
“With this record, Dave and company take the listener on a kaleidoscopic ride. To paraphrase Ralph Waldo Emerson, It’s not so much the destination, as the journey.” – Coachella Valley Weekly 

“Doralee” was the first song I wrote for my band Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter. There had been a huge flood in Skagit Valley, Washington, and I knew Doralee —who lived on the flood plains. She was a tough country woman — seemingly unfazed by the potential destruction of the coming waters. She seemed to understand how transitory everything is and had a knowingness that it was all part of a larger grand plan. I wanted her to be witnessed in this context—in the face of nature’s relentless violence and disconcerting solitude, where there was a quiet grace in facing imminent catastrophe. She left a deep impression on me and I’m glad she lives on forever, inside this song. –J.Sykes

Jesse Sykes: acoustic guitar, vocals Dave Alvin: guitar Michael Jerome: drums Mark Karan: guitar Victor Krummenacher: bass

released February 14th, 2025

Swans return with ‘Birthing’, the latest album, developed over the course of a yearlong 2023-2024 tour. ‘Birthing’ is released via Mute and Young God Records. The initial pressings of the deluxe vinyl and CD include a bonus DVD featuring ‘Swans Live 2024 (Rope) “The Beggar’, a concert film by Marco Porsia documenting the band’s most recent US tour. The DVD also includes ‘I Wonder If I’m Singing What You’re Thinking Me to Sing’, a documentary by Christopher Nicholson following Michael Gira’s 2022 solo tour.

Refined through relentless improvisation and live performance, as well as newly composed studio pieces, ‘Birthing’ is a testament to Michael Gira’s uncompromising sonic vision. Beginning as skeletal acoustic compositions, the songs were gradually expanded and transformed in the studio with long time live members and collaborators.

“The material contained in this album was largely developed over the course of a yearlong Swans tour, during 2023 – 2024 (‘The Healers’, ‘I Am a Tower’, ‘Birthing’, ‘Guardian Spirit’, ‘Rope’, and ‘Away’), then recorded and further orchestrated and rearranged in the studio. Two pieces were created and performed in the studio (‘Red Yellow’, ‘The Merge’). In all cases the material began with me sitting in my office with an acoustic guitar, singing and dreaming about what would become of these skeletal songs.

I’m blessed to have such a stellar group of musicians to work with live (listed below), and through improvisation, endless revisions and an intensity of focus in performance (not to mention endurance), over the course of time the music morphed into what you generally hear on this collection. This album, coupled with the recent live release, “Live Rope”, constitutes my final foray (as producer / impresario) into the all-consuming sound worlds that have been my obsession for years.

We’ll do a final tour in this mode towards the end of 2025, then that’s it. After that, Swans will continue, so long as I’m able, but in a significantly pared down form. Hints of that direction can be found in a few moments on the current album. In the meantime, my hope is that the music provides a positive and fertile atmosphere in which to dream.” – Michael Gira / Swans

All proceeds benefiting Habitat for Humanity LA. Since the late nineties, Fruit Bats has been the music of Eric D. Johnson. Bloody marys, major 7th chords, Nashville tuning, tibetan singing bowls. Fruit Bats and The Wild Honey Pie have teamed up to release the live recordings from the Pizza Party at Hotel Lilien on July 30, 2023. All sales will go to Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles to help rebuild following the wildfires in Los Angeles. The recordings are available exclusively on Bandcamp and will only be available through March 21st

released March 7th, 2025

Performed by Eric D. Johnson
All songs written by Eric D. Johnson except “I Threw It All Away,” written by Bob Dylan

The iconic punk rock guitarist Brian James has tragically died aged 70. James was a founding member of The Damned, as well as The Lords of the New Church, and will be remembered as a “pioneer and true gentleman.” He wrote almost all the material on The Damned’s first two albums, “Damned Damned Damned” and “Music for Pleasure“, before leaving the group in 1977.

A statement posted on his Facebook account read: “It is with great sadness that we announce the death of one of the true pioneers of music, guitarist, songwriter, and true gentleman, Brian James.

Born in London in 1955, James, was, by his teens, already touring Europe with a hard-nosed, proto-punk band by the name of Bastard. Mostly ignored in the UK, Bastard would dissolve by the mid-’70s, leaving James to return to London. Once back in his home city, James formed – with, among others, Mick Jones, later lead guitarist for the Clash – the controversially named London SS.

Though never successful in their own right, the London SS would spin off multiple bands that played an incalculable role in shaping what would come to be known as punk rock – the aforementioned Clash, and the Damned, which James would eventually co-found after the London SS.

Comprised originally of James on guitar, Dave Vanian on vocals, Captain Sensible on bass, and Rat Scabies on drums, the Damned got their start shortly after the Sex Pistols, but beat the Pistols to the punch in releasing their first single. Written entirely by James, that 1976 single, “New Rose“, is nothing less than a milestone in punk rock history. Relentless in tempo, anarchic in energy, and driven by a haywire rockabilly riff, strains of its DNA can be found in just about every subsequent song with the word “punk” attached to it in any way.

“Founding member of The Damned, writer of the first ever UK punk single, “New Rose”, Brian was the principal songwriter of the band’s debut album, “Damned Damned Damned“, which was released in February 1977. “Parting ways with the Damned following the release of their second album, the Nick Mason-produced “Music for Pleasure”, Brian created the short-lived Tanz Der Youth, before he formed The Lords of the New Church with his friend and fellow rocker Stiv Bators.

Though never reaching the high profile of the Damned, the Lords of the New Church were an indie favourite on both sides of the Atlantic in the early- to mid-’80s.

“In a wave of excitement, headed by the twin powers of Brian James and Stiv Bators, three successful studio albums followed for The Lord of the New Church, spawning singles such as “Open Your Eyes, Dance with Me“, and “Method to My Madness”.“Always looking for new challenges and keen to work with different musicians, over the years that followed, Brian formed The Dripping Lips and guested on different records, while creating the Brian James Gang and working on his solo albums.

“Incessantly creative and a musical tour de force, over a career which spanned more than six decades, with his music also gracing film and television soundtracks, in addition to The Damned and The Lords of the New Church, Brian worked with a plethora of punk and rock ‘n’ roll’s finest, from Iggy Pop to Wayne Kramer, Stewart Copeland to Cheetah Chrome.

“Most recently, more than four decades after the release of the epoch-making “New Rose”, the original members of The Damned reformed for a series of very special and emotional UK shows in 2022.

“With his wife Minna, son Charlie, and daughter-in-law Alicia by his side, Brian passed peacefully on Thursday 6th March 2025.”  

A new concert film and soundtrack surrounding Neil Young’s 2023 solo tour will arrive in the spring. “Coastal” will screen in theatre for one night only on April 17th, and the 11-song soundtrack album will arrive the next day.

The movie was directed by actress Daryl Hannah, Young’s wife, from footage shot during the singer-songwriter’s 2023 solo “Coastal” tour of the U.S., where he performed songs throughout his long career accompanied by guitar, piano and harmonica. “Coastal: The Soundtrack” is a live recording and companion piece to the Daryl Hannah-directed tour documentary .  

The solo album features 11-songs selected from Young’s 60-year career, recorded live on his 2023 tour, ranging from “I Am a Child” to “Vampire Blues,” and featuring Young on guitars, piano and harmonica.   It is as intimate a live album as Neil Young has ever recorded, created at a time when the world was coming out of hibernation from the Covid pandemic. Recorded in several cities, it is an album for the ages as the singer-songwriter finds new emotional power in 11 of his songs.

The album is available for preorder on Young’s site. The movie includes performances and backstage shots. Behind-the-scenes footage shows Young as he prepares for his first post-COVID tour. He performs several classic songs in the film, including early cuts such as “Expecting to Fly” and “I Am a Child” from his Buffalo Springfield days.

Rodeo Boys’ new album “Junior” captures the quiet rebellion of a the blue-collar heart. The Lansing, MI-based band––fronted by guitarist/vocalist Tiff Hannay (they/them), guitarist Caleb Shook (he/him), bassist Taylor “Doty”(he/him) and drummer Christian Urabazzo (he/him)––blends a dirt-under-the-nails grit with campy, sardonic humour in a way that only a group of small-town misfits could pull off. 

Produced by Tom May (The Menzingers), half of the tracks on “Junior” are no-nonsense anthems of revenge, and the other half are tales of desperate gay love and identity. 

First single “All American Man” falls under the latter, and draws its inspiration from the Laura Gilpin poem, Two-Headed Calf. Elsewhere, “Junior” chisels through tales of heartbreak and revenge from a unique perspective, with a ferocity akin to The Pixies, The Breeders, Mannequin Pussy, and Destroy Boys.

Album standouts like “Cowgirl in the Dark” reflect Tiff’s admiration for the often misunderstood Pam Anderson, and “Sam’s Song” captures the emotional weight of witnessing a friend endure predatory abuse––and even references journal entries with permission from the victim. The fired-up onslaught of “Speedway” and “Pump Six” pay homage to The Clash’s “Straight To Hell,” throwing shade at former friends that threw away their potential by being an abusive person.

Across its 14 tracks, “Junior” is a collision of fiery punk rage, salt-of-the-earth passion, and melodic emo; a cathartic soundtrack for anyone still trying to find their place in it all.