“Richard Manuel was a fearless original. Sweetly soulful as a vocalist and endearingly creative as a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, he was a vital part of some of rock ’n’ roll’s pivotal moments, including Bob Dylan’s controversial move to electric music, the original Woodstock festival, and the legendary Last Waltz. Through thoughtful research and analysis, this book places Manuel’s troubled yet inspired spirit within a musical and historical context. For the first time, Manuel’s compositions and performances are critiqued with expert commentary — alongside new interviews with family, friends, and fellow musicians, including Eric Clapton and Van Morrison. The story traces Manuel’s journey from Stratford, Ont., to Woodstock, N.Y., and beyond, beginning with his first band, The Revols, then singing the blues with Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Rick Danko and Garth Hudson in The Hawks, the group that would later become The Band. Manuel’s influence was profound, his distinctive vocals infusing songs with emotion and depth. His song writing flourished in classics like “Tears of Rage”, cowritten with Dylan, and “We Can Talk”. His keyboard work added a lovable funkiness to the Band’s sound, blending elements of rock, folk, country, and blues into what would become the genesis of Americana. Despite The Band’s successes, Manuel struggled with personal demons, battling addiction and inner turmoil. Looking beyond his human frailty, this book celebrates Manuel’s immeasurable contributions to music, ensuring that memories of his voice and artistry endure.”
Having penned over 200 songs in the last six years, The Reds, Pinks and Purples release a collection of tracks, previously unreleased on physical format, that continues to romanticise the wonders and woes of the world.
Set to a soundtrack that swerves between the dark days of Television Personalities and Byrdsian twang to the Jarvis Cocker-styled rhetoric and vocal tenderness of ‘Richard In the Age Of The Corporation’ with hints of everything from Husker Du’s fuzzed splendour to the chiming majesty of The Chameleons, it’s an empowering listen.
The pathos and irony of the glorious track, ‘The World Doesn’t Need Another Band’, sets out the band’s store – it’s a measured and quietly outspoken rant at lacklustre opposition peppered with a gorgeous guitar break. Meanwhile, ‘I Only Ever Wanted To See You Fail’ rumbles with an Eddie And The Hot Rods pre-punk riff before dissolving into a tale of self-doubt and remorse, bemoaning others’ good luck. ‘Toxic Friend’ is from the book of the TVP’s Daniel Treacey with an upbeat chorus that smacks of all that was good in old school indie in a hail of fuzzy logic and guitars.
The Reds, Pinks and Purples “Donaldson’s best work hides allure within a bigger picture, like a jangle-pop egg hunt” Pitchfork.
Returning with ‘caroline 2’, the eight-piece collective embrace a bolder, more expansive sound. Going beyond their debut’s explorations of repetition, slowness and space, the new album pushes further into dynamic contrasts — organic and electronic, raw and refined. Launched with the striking single ‘Tell me I never knew that’, featuring Caroline Polachek’s unmistakable vocals, “caroline 2” showcases a fearless interplay of layered instrumentation, warped vocal processing, and moments of both euphoria and melancholy. Intentional and immersive, this next chapter solidifies caroline as one of the most innovative voices in contemporary music.
Due: ‘caroline 2’, out 30th of May via Rough Trade Records
To be released in July, Panic Shack’s self-titled debut album represents a serious level up. Linking up with producer Ali Chant (PJ Harvey, Perfume Genius, Yard Act), it finds the band expanding their gutsy punk sound into fuller territory, packed with vocal harmonies, synths, electronic experimentation, and even a trumpet at one point.
f there’s one thing Panic Shack know, it’s how to have a good time. Comprised of Sarah Harvey (vocals), Meg Fretwell (guitar/backing vocals), Romi Lawrence (guitar/backing vocals), Em Smith (bass/backing vocals) and Nick Williams (drums), the band formed in 2018 as a middle-finger to the “members-only club” atmosphere of indie and punk scenes – not just because they’re male-dominated, but because they make playing music seem out of reach or, even worse, boring. “Boys make it look so hard,” Em says, rolling her eyes. “Whenever I see someone on the floor fiddling with their pedals with a face like a slapped arse I think, you’re making this look so unattainable and it’s actually so fucking easy.”
This carefree approach gives Panic Shack’s music the same effect as popping a bottle of Prosecco – explosive, intoxicating, and delightfully chaotic. With barely any music available online, they built a word-of-mouth following off the back of their live shows, which have been praised for fusing “thrashy early LA-style punk with choreography that owes something to the Go-Go’s and Iron Maiden all at once” (The Guardian). That quickly snowballed into tours with the likes of Bob Vylan and Soft Play, and festival appearances at Glastonbury, Reading & Leeds, Green Man, End of the Road, SXSW and more.
Released in 2022, their acclaimed “Baby Shack EP” bottled the lightning they have on stage, cementing their ability to blend killer hooks with a contagious sense of humour. The first vinyl pressing – splattered pink, obviously – sold out almost instantly.
Over 11 breakneck tracks, Panic Shack never lets up or loses momentum. It opens with the rising sound of chatter, glass clinking and laughter, most of which was recorded in the beer garden at an Amyl & the Sniffers gig. Fizzing with the anticipation of walking into a club at the start of a night out, it feels like party-punk’s answer to the intro of Spice Girls’ ‘Wannabe’. From there, the bouncy bass line and blistering guitars of ‘Girl Band Starter Band’ kick in, and the band pulls you into their world the way a friend would grab your hand and drag you onto the dancefloor. “Four iced lattes / Sit outside / Smoke a rolly / Sun is shining / People watching / Things are moving / Got us talking…” Sarah chants, the pace ramping up like a heartbeat beginning to race.
Across the album, the lyrics are conversational, often stemming from in-jokes, while the subject matter spans the full range of the feminine experience. Whether it’s everyday stuff like browsing Hinge (‘Unhinged’) and remembering everything you need to stick in your bag because your dress has no pockets (‘Pockets’), or broader societal issues like the impact of toxic tabloid culture on body image (‘Gok Wan’) and sexual harassment (‘SMELLARAT’), no topic is too frivolous or too vast. There’s no point-scoring or political commentary to be made here, though. The songs spring naturally from the way they live their lives, which is, more often than not, with a great deal of enjoyment.
Irresistible because of their simplicity and charming because of their familiarity, Panic Shack are the answer to a question that, quite frankly, isn’t asked often enough: what if the funniest girls you know started a band? The sonic equivalent to a coming-of-age film unfolding over a single night, Panic Shack takes the shape of a bender, beginning by approaching a bar and ending with an impassioned speech at sunrise about how much you love your friends. Swerving the expected topics of sex and romance, the entire album revolves around the ionic bond between the four girls.
“This band has taken us on the most mental journey that nobody else will fully understand,” says Meg. It’s only right, then, that their debut marks a celebration of that as much as it does the start of a new journey entirely. “We’ve always wanted people to come in and be part of our world, and this album is every part of who Panic Shack are. The party side, the angry side… It’s a story about us, really,” Sarah explains. “That’s why we named it after the band. We can’t help but be ourselves.”
With an openness that feels singular, Indigo De Souza sings of heartbreak that feels beyond reason, of love that defies all odds, of unabashedly living in truth, speaking up for yourself, protecting your energy, of being afraid of the world but facing it anyway.
I wrote “Heartthrob” as a way to help process something that is often hard to talk about—the harmful ways I’ve been taken advantage of in my physical memory. ‘Heartthrob’ is about harnessing anger, and turning it into something powerful and embodied. It’s about taking back my body and my experience. It’s a big fuck you to the abusers of the world. A sarcastic, angry cry for all bodies that have ever been touched in harmful ways. Big thanks Elliott Kozel for making this music with me and showing up every day as a friend and collaborator. Thank you Jesse Schuster, Jonathon Smith and Landon George for playing on this song. Ya’ll are sweeties. Thank you Neta Ben Ezra and Seth Dunlap and the whole team and all our lovely actors for bringing this music video to life. I had so much fun goofin around with everyone.
‘Precipice’ takes the unafraid self-expression that has already earned Indigo an army of devoted fans and backs it up with deeper explorations of melody and pop influence without ever sacrificing depth or intention.
“I feel constantly on the precipice, of something horrible, or something beautiful–something that will change my life for better or for worse. This is about change, and how we can accept it, or push it away, but it is always there, carrying us in some direction, and cannot be stopped.” — Indigo De Souza
With a room full of fine pickers and a set of Hollywood orchestral cues to kill for, Cory Hanson proclaims ‘I Love People’. On his 4th solo album drills down (baby) on a dryly parallax worldview, with songs about all those people he loves and all the crazy things they get up to. As ringmaster for a circus show of classic folk and rock tropes, Cory tugs at our heartstrings with expert misdirection, embracing tradition by throwing it out, into the wind. Followers of Cory’s twin arcs as solo singer and Wand member will be intrigued to learn that the line-up here is the same band that recorded last year’s “Vertigo”. Yep, Wand — their Masters of Unbounded Space robes traded in for Wrecking Crew trucker’s caps, as they reel out licks both tasty and smooth, like chops-meisters of yore. That’s Robbie Cody co-producing behind the desk, Evan Backer playing bass and arranging strings and horns, Evan Burrows on drums and percussion and Cory on piano, guitars and voices and songs.
Travelin’ light and puttin’ up dry, ‘I Love People’ bugs out to the what-the-fuck?-ness on the edge of town spied now and again on Cory’s previous solos, “Pale Horse Rider” and “Western Cum”. Here though, the simmering shades of Rider’s quiet horror and the bursts of Cum’s cartoonish, gun-slinger bravado have given way to an ever-more impartial view of life on the ground, tinted in gossamer sepia and other nostalgic tones. Written over the past several annums, Cory’s songs ensnare the 70s singer-songwriter in a feedback loop, drawing additional inspiration from the indelible everyman melodies of the American Songbook. With gilded threads and emboldened needling, ‘I Love People’’s songs are rendered with immediacy and a deep-pile Hollywood production sound that radiates affluence and comfort, even in the darkest and coldest nights way out beyond the range of any signal.
Placed and displaced among gorgeously outfitted musical arrangements, ‘I Love People’’ people are kin to their threadbare folk forbears. Song by song, their occupations, social positions and dispositions unravel like silk into the wind.
While they perform, Cory loiters backstage, gently pulling at the curtain to reveal silly details hidden in plain sight inside America’s broken heart. It doesn’t come as a surprise, and it’s not strictly funny, either: a giddy mash of the two, the delirium that comes from finding what you think is “true” is someone else’s “false.” When maps won’t help you find out where you are anymore, you’re as normal and horrible as the next person, playing out your days in a place of constant activity with your parallax view progressing invisibly into a limbo beyond the horizon. That’s your freedom for you, and it might be more sad, more terrifying — if it weren’t so much fun! Even though their subject won’t stop squirming, Cory and his merry men have constructed a timeless still life with ‘I Love People’, simply by living for the fun and love of it all. Just like the rest of us!
“I Love People”, available on LP/CS/CD/Digital on July 25th, 2025, from Drag City.
The Black Keys have confirmed that their 13th studio album, “No Rain, No Flowers”, will be released on August 8th. The duo also launched the title track from the follow-up to 2024’s “Ohio Players“. It’s available below, along with the complete track list.
Its title may refer to Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney’s dramatic experiences of 2024, when they were force to abandon a badly organized tour and fired their management as a result. Carney later observed: “Shit happens, and you just have to move through it.”
They collaborated with songwriters Rick Nowels, Daniel Tashian and Scott Storch on the 13-song collection.
“I had worked with Rick Nowels on Lana Del Rey’s Ultraviolence,” Auerbach said in a statement. “We’d never really collaborated with a keyboard player or someone who writes on piano the way he does, but it clicked immediately.” Carney added: “We wanted to go straight to the source – into the room with people known for their songwriting. Daniel Tashian was one of the first people I met after moving to Nashville, and we’ve been fans of Scott Storch forever.”
Their 13th studio album delivers an eclectic sound shaped by the energy and spirit of the band’s wildly popular Record Hangs: dance parties where Auerbach and Carney take turns spinning rare, but truly potent, cuts from their impressive collection of vinyl 45s for baying crowds of longtime fans and new converts alike. More than two decades into their career, The Black Keys consistently continue to create music on their own terms, fueled by instinct, passion, and a refusal to settle. ‘No Rain, No Flowers’ is a testament to the band’s deep commitment to their craft and their enduring creativity.
The band’s Dan Auerbach said: ““This whole album was really laboured over with a lot of love. We hope you feel that.”
These New Puritans have dropped a striking new album, “Crooked Wing“, via Domino. Haunting yet radiant, the group’s first LP in six years was produced by Jack Barnett and Bark Psychosis pioneer Graham Sutton and executive produced by George Barnett. “This album is both more surreal & somehow more direct than anything we’ve ever done,” George commented. “A crooked wing is an ear, you have one on each side of your body, and they have a rippled shape. Maybe if you’re lucky they can help you fly.” Caroline Polachek is there to aid in the effort on the standout single ‘Industrial Love Song’.
The cult duo returns with one of 2025’s boldest and most immersive records, shifting from the brutal to the beautiful. “Crooked Wing” cements TNP’s status as visionaries—defying genre, rejecting convention, and delivering their most moving, powerful work yet.
“Crooked Wing” is These New Puritans’ long-awaited fifth album—their first in six years. Produced by Bark Psychosis pioneer Graham Sutton and Jack Barnett, and executive produced by George Barnett, it features an unpredictable line-up of collaborators, from Caroline Polachek to veteran jazz bassist Chris Laurence.
The cult duo returns with one of 2025’s boldest and most immersive records, shifting from the brutal to the beautiful. “Crooked Wing” cements TNP’s status as visionaries—defying genre, rejecting convention, and delivering their most moving, powerful work yet.
Wombo have two albums and a handful of EPs under their belt, and 2021’s addictive “Dreamsickle” proved them to be a promising band. Today, the Louisville trio is announcing their third LP “Danger In Fives” and releasing the eerie, alluring title track.
’Danger In Fives’ has something to do with loops and cycles and the comfort I get from walking around a peddlers mall,” vocalist and bassist Sydney Chadwick explains. Along with Chadwick, Wombo has Cameron Lowe on guitar and Joel Taylor on drums. The song has the band’s signature quirky guitar work underneath Chadwick’s airy soprano. It comes with a purple-tinted music video directed by Cameron Lowe that mirrors the tune’s off-kilter feeling.
The title track from Wombo’s new album out August 2025 on Fire Talk Records.
“Find El Dorado” is a deeply personal new album of reinterpretations, that sees Paul Weller revisit songs that have long lived in the back of his mind – now reimagined with fresh meaning and a sense of reverence. Less a covers album and more a map of his emotional and musical DNA.
Produced by Steve Cradock, the album includes further guest appearances from Declan O’Rourke, Noel Gallagher, Amelia Coburn, Seckou Keita, Robert Plant and more.
Paul Weller began his career fronting The Jam, fusing punk with mod influences and leading the late-’70s revival. In the ’80s, he formed The Style Council, embracing soul, jazz, and house. After a brief hiatus, he launched a solo career in 1992, blending soul, rock, and psychedelia. His 1995 album “Stanley Road was a Britpop-era triumph, followed by acclaimed records like “22 Dreams, On Sunset, and “Fat Pop Vol. 1. Constantly evolving, Weller has remained a vital figure in British music, celebrated for his innovation, artistry, and influence across decades. His latest album, “66”, was released in 2024.
Paul Weller’s latest album of covers, “Find El Dorado”, will include a cover of the Bee Gees’ 1968 tune “I Started a Joke.” While the LP won’t be available until July 25th, he dropped his version of the Bee Gees’ “Idea” tune as part of the LP’s promo.
In the hands of Paul Weller, the tune has a decidedly pluckier intro, full of melodic and coy piano lines. This sounds segway into a older-and-wiser verse. Organ backs up the texture, which morphs into a massive chorus laden with strings. Something about this cover is as effortless “I Started a Joke” is taken from the release of “Find El Dorado“, a deeply personal new album of reinterpretations,. “Find El Dorado” – a new album of reinterpretations by Paul, available on July 25th.
Recorded, produced and arranged by Steve Cradock at Kundalini studio Devon.
The Fat Angel Sings 