The Fat Angel Sings

The Vypers from Toronto, Ontario, The soundtrack to your Saturday night just dropped – “Nighttime” The Toronto psych rock wizards have returned with the blessing of new material. Today, they share the first we’ve heard from them since February’s “Welcome to the Gutter: Selected Demos 2020-2023“.

The group have also announced plans for their last-ever performance, which will be presented by Dan Burke at Expo 1978 on November 16th, with visuals by the Oscillitarium.

The show will also function as a release party for their upcoming self-titled LP, which is due to arrive the week prior on November 8th. Further album details, including tracklist and art, are still under wraps. They previously described the effort as “a massive hi-fi record.”

released November 2, 2024
Written and Performed by Vypers

Huw Stephens presents an exclusive and intimate session from The Cure.

Recorded at the BBC Radio Theatre in London’s Broadcasting House the band perform songs from their acclaimed back-catalogue, as well as tracks from their upcoming album “Songs Of A Lost World”. This session will also be available in vision on BBC iPlayer, alongside a performance for BBC Radio 2 In Concert.

Initially formed in 1978, The Cure has sold over 30 million albums worldwide, headlined the Glastonbury festival four times and were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. They are considered to be one of the most influential bands to ever come out of the UK.

“Songs Of A Lost World” sees the band release their first new music in sixteen years. The album was produced by Smith and Paul Corkett, who co-produced The Cure’s 2000 album “Bloodflowers”. The album features contributions from Robert Smith, Simon Gallup (bass), Jason Cooper (drums), Reeves Gabrels (guitar) and Roger O’Donnell (keyboards).

Robert Smith of The Cure, says: “It’s not often we perform such intimate shows, so we’re really looking forward to this, and to sharing more tracks from the new album for the first time on 6 Music and Radio 2.”

As they begin the European leg of their autumn tour, Indianapolis band  Wishy have shared a previously unheard track from the sessions that produced their new album “Triple Seven”. About “Planet Popstar,” Kevin Krauter says, “This song is about the feeling of longing for someone or something which, by all accounts, seems entirely out of reach. You could call Wishy’s story a lucky one. After prior monikers and iterations, Wishy was born as a kaleidoscope of alternative music’s semi-recent history, with traces of shoegaze, grunge and power-pop swirling together. On “Triple Seven”, Indiana songwriters Kevin Krauter and Nina Pitchkites’ musical synergy proves itself to be a rare one–the kind that sounds like someone striking gold. Part sly wink and part warm gratitude, it’s only fitting their much anticipated full length debut is titled “Triple Seven”, where Wishy’s penchant for indelible hooks is couched equally in pillowy atmospherics and scathing distortion.

By day Krauter works as a music teacher, giving drum and guitar lessons to students, while Pitchkites is a seamstress by trade and often makes embroidered merch for the band. Coming up in a scene defined by hardcore and emo, Krauter and Pitchkites instead found themselves writing melodies in their heads while driving to work, pulling music from the air and arriving at a blearier, more ethereal interpretation of Midwest expanse. Initially, their music oscillated between hazy dream-pop and heavier alt-rock.

They say distance makes the heart grow fonder. We recorded this song during the “Triple Seven” sessions at the end of last year, but the song ultimately didn’t make it onto the album.”

“We recorded this song in Los Angeles in November 2022 with a bunch of other songs that ended up on “Live Laugh Love,” says Chastity Belt’s Julia Shapiro of “That Guy,” which is being released on a split 7″ with Austin band Holy Wave. “It didn’t quite make the cut, but I’m excited to release it now! I really love Lydia’s meandering lead guitar line. I remember her having so many different ideas of what she could do, and we were like, do them all! I wrote the lyrics after Chastity Belt had just come back from doing a bunch of touring, and I had to go back to normal life.

It’s always a rough transition for me. I feel so alive on tour! There’s this one line in the song about this habit I have with music where, when I find a new song that I love, I listen to it on repeat until it no longer makes me feel anything. Like I’ve drained all the blood from it.”

“That Guy” out February 7th, 2025 on Suicide Squeeze Records

Iggy Pop is an avant-garde icon and a punk pioneer. The Montreux Jazz Festival is a boundary-pushing event that brings the best of all musical genres to one gorgeous location every year.
“Live At Montreux Jazz Festival 2023” captures the dazzling Iggy Pop performance that could only happen here. First in a series of earMUSIC releases from the festival, this concert marked Iggy’s third appearance at the 57th edition of Montreux.

Rock icon Iggy Pop’s performance at the 2024 Montreux Jazz Festival is now being released as a live album on January 24th via earMUSIC. You can listen to “Five Foot One” (A track from 1979’s “New Values” album. Iggy says, “I give something extra every time I do Montreux Jazz set. In ’23 it was deep cuts like ‘Mass Production,’ ‘Endless Sea,’ ‘Five Foot One’ and a hell of a lot of sweat.”

Backed by a seven-piece band, Iggy breathes new fire into The Stooges classics like “I Wanna Be Your Dog” and “T.V. Eye” and ignites the adoring crowd with visceral run-throughs of “The Passenger” and, of course, “Lust for Life.”
The year 2023 marked Iggy’s return to the top 10 in major territories with his album “Every Loser.”
It was the perfect moment to showcase his classic songs and share new ones (“Modern Day Ripoff,” Frenzy”) at the venerated Stravinski Auditorium.

Frank Black was once voted Teenager of the Year in his youth hence the title of his second solo album. After putting the Pixies on hold he embarked on a solo career beginning with a workmanlike 1993 self-titled debut. 

Teenager of the Year came along not long after and was a dizzying and often inspired effort containing twenty two tracks of varying quality but when it wsas good it was very good indeed.  

This double LP set on gold-coloured vinyl has been remastered from the original tapes by Kevin Vanbergen and cut at 45 RPM for maximum fidelity. It also comes with a gatefold sleeve featuring new liner notes by Frank and keyboardist/co-producer Eric Drew Feldman.

“Teenager of the Year”, which will be out January 17th via 4AD.

Cindy is to release a new six song EP called “Swan Lake” on 4th October via Tough Love. The title isn’t a nod to the folktale or ballet in any real way, but to the fact that it all has ended up in the collective imagination as an object, vaguely recognizable, a little suggestive, and mostly blank. Karina Gill, Cindy’s songwriter, likes to make use of that kind of resonance to connect sound and experience.

The six songs on this EP continue the stripped-down habits of previous Cindy releases, while adding a few departures and left-turns. Cindy likes to work at the essentials and the elements here say exactly what’s needed. In other ways, these songs present a soft filigree that’s unusual for their recordings. Oli Lipton (Now, Violent Change) on guitar and Will Smith (Now) on bass play counterpoint melodies to Gill’s structures. Staizsh Rodrigues (Children Maybe Later, Almond Joy, Peace Frog) sings vocal harmonies that both offset and deepen Gill’s voice and delivery.

There are playful drums by Mike Ramos (Tony Jay, Sad Eyed Beatniks) and coolly elaborate guitar lines from Stanley Martinez (Famous Mammals, Violent Change, Non Plus Temps).

Gill’s songs strike this balance too: almost nonchalant reporting tied up in unexpected knots. A ride in an elevator connects up with questions about peace and/or the nature of things; the title track wonders about associative thinking and associative feeling; The Bell is an account of one of those times when everything makes sense but you can’t explain it; and there’s the scene of a party viewed with admiration for how friends can love each other. As Gill herself says:

“People have told me that they can’t quite identify my influences. Me neither. The foundational layers of music of the past and my past have been metabolized like breakfast and turned into more me, sorry to say. But I experience the music of people I’m connected with and it impacts me in the moment. There’s the music I’m around – April Magazine, Sad Eyed Beatniks, Violent Change, Katsy Pline, collaborating with Mike on Flowertown – that I can feel a direct line from. Then there’s music that is being made far away but feels close, like Lewsberg, specifically, for this EP. “

The exact relationship between Henry (T-Bone Burnett) and Howard Coward (Elvis Costello) remains ambiguous. They often referred to themselves as “One and a Half Brothers,” which might hint at their height difference or imply they were not actually siblings but were involved in an elaborate ruse.

Their musical partnership, known as The Coward Brothers, was initiated by Smiley “Doc” Snipson, who discovered Henry Coward in 1956 and signed him for a UK tour. The brothers’ hit single, “My Baby Just Squeals (You Heel),” was followed by less successful records and a controversial Cold War-themed song. To preserve their fading fame, Snipson orchestrated their supposed death in a plane crash, but they were actually in hiding on a Caribbean island, secretly recording music and sending it back to Snipson.

When their funds ran out, they returned to Miami and made sensational claims about writing famous songs, leading to a brief stint as songwriters for Bill Bogguss. They later resumed recording, but their partnership eventually fractured, leading to years of estrangement.

Their music, from early rock and roll hits to later, more introspective songs, is compiled in the album, “The Coward Brothers“. After years of silence, their story was explored in a radio program, revealing the complexity of their relationship and their enduring bond. Despite their tumultuous history, their music remains a testament to their unyielding spirit.

The Coward Brothers are Elvis Costello and T-Bone Burnett. The Audible Original radio play, “The True Story Of The Coward Brothers“, is directed by Christopher Guest, and stars Howard Coward, Henry Coward, Harry Shearer, Edward Hibbert, Rhea Seehorn, Stephen Root, and Kathreen Khavari.

‘The True Story of The Coward Brothers’, a three-part scripted Audible Original audio series – referred to by the author as a “wireless drama” – that recounts the history of Henry and Howard Coward, a pair of delightfully deluded pop practitioners and conjurers played by Elvis Costello and T Bone Burnett. Adding to the lore of these rock and roll charlatans comes an all-new, 20-track album from Costello and Burnett, who first worked together as The Coward Brothers forty years ago. To learn more about the mysterious origins of The Coward Brothers, head to https://www.audible.com/Coward

Released on 15th November

This month the cover stars are Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr of U2. Inside, over 14 pages, there is a veritable U2-fest, with specific reference to the band’s 11th studio album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb: Bono writes RC a letter about that 2004 LP and offers his “unreliable recollections” of the sessions and writing process; The Edge explores the events and emotions behind the making of the album; Adam Clayton looks beyond it for a freewheeling conversation about the past, present and future of the band, 45 years since their debut release; and John Coleman compiles a discography of U2’s recordings of the century so far.

Elsewhere in this issue we continue with RC’s ongoing celebration of our 45th anniversary with a special feature on the 45 best singles ever released by Manchester artists. Mike Batt proves he is the Zelig of pop. Redd Kross offer ample evidence that they may be the punk-rock Osmonds. The Chesterfields reveal themselves to be quintessential C86 indie popsters. Cherie Currie remembers the halcyon days (phrase used advisedly) of The Runaways. Brand New Heavies put the funk’n’soul into acid jazz. Joey Santiago of Pixies chooses the records that have soundtracked his life to date. We spend 33 1/3 minutes with Leo Sayer. And we offer the ultimate overviews of new albums and reissues from The Cure, New Order, Queen, Phil Manzanera and more.