The Fat Angel Sings

Florist are back with a new song. “This Was a Gift” follows the New York quartet’s self-titled 2022 album. Listen to the track below. Florist have also announced a handful of October and November concerts.

In a press release, Florist singer Emily Sprague said, “‘This Was a Gift’ is a love song about enduring difficult seasons of life with the people that we keep close.” She continued, “It is a musical push and pull that mirrors and describes the process of becoming vulnerable to heartbreak and loss that leads to the acceptance of eventual endings and appreciation of community.

The band developed and grew with this song over the course of two years of live touring before committing it to recording, further deepening the roots of its meaning.”

In 2021, Steve Miller once again dug deep into his archives and found a never-before-heard-or-seen, full-length concert recording from 1977. “Steve Miller Band Live! Breaking Ground: August 3rd, 1977”, featuring such classic rock staples as “The Joker” and “Rock’n Me,” arrived via Sailor/Capitol/UMe.

The recording captures Miller’s legendary 1977 line-up at the beginning of the band’s turn from playing ballrooms and theatres to arenas and football stadiums.

Of the performance, the guitarist, multi-platinum-selling singer-songwriter, bandleader, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, and Songwriters Hall of Fame member says, “This show at the Cap Center in Landover, Maryland, captures the band right at the peak after “The Joker“, and in the middle of “Fly Like an Eagle” and “Book of Dreams”, a stream of hit [album]s… We decided to call it “Breaking Ground” because that’s exactly what we were doing.”

“Steve Miller Band Live! Breaking Ground: August 3rd, 1977 includes original liner notes by music journalist David Fricke who says – “Breaking Ground” captures the Steve Miller Band on stage in one of their biggest years, 1977. They were at a perfect crossroads of psychedelic zeal and progressive, popcraft while staying true to Miller’s first love, the blues.”

Miller’s “The Joker” became his first (of three) #1 singles, when it reached the top of the Hot 100 on Jan. 12, 1974. The album was recorded on multi-track tape and newly mixed and mastered by Miller and his veteran audio engineer Kent Hertz.

Michael Stipe & Jason Isbell performed at the ‘Get Out The Vote’ Concert/Rally at Schenley Plaza at the University of Pittsburg, Pittsburg, PA. Stipe and Isbell were introduced by Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff, and Stipe, ahead of ‘The One I Love’, said: “It’s been a while since I’ve sung these songs, 16 years in fact, but I’m really happy to be here with Jason and with the soon-to-be First Gentleman ever of the United States of America,”

A 4 song acoustic set, with ‘The One I Love” & ‘Driver 8’, with Michael on lead vocals & Jason on acoustic guitar & backing vocals, & Michael sang backing vocals on Jason Isbell’s two songs. The two musicians collaborated on Isbell’s ‘Traveling Alone’ from 2013 album ‘Southeastern’ and ‘Hope The High Road’ from Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit’s ‘The Nashville Sound’ from 2017.

(Last time Michael sang ‘Driver 8’ was in Lima, Peru on 14 November 2008)

Set: The One I Love / Traveling Alone / Hope The High Road / Driver 8

 R.E.M. recently shared ‘We Are Hope Despite The Times’, a digital compilation of songs to mark National Voter Registration Day.

The compilation features 18 hand-picked R.E.M tracks by the band from their career-spanning discography, highlighting themes of activism and social responsibility. The songs include ‘World Leader Pretend’, ‘Fall On Me’, ‘Welcome To The Occupation’, ‘Drive’, ‘Finest Work Song’, ’Turn You Inside-Out’, ‘Pop Song ’89’, ‘Stand’ and ‘Its the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)’.

The Sherlocks return with a brand-new album following the release of last year’s “People Like Me and You” – representing a bold evolution intheir sound,the record was the best set of their career to date.

On the first single from the album, ‘Death Of Me’, The Sherlocks capture the excitement of their live energy.

Over recent years The Sherlocks have become one of the most exciting live bands in the UK. Selling out tours across UK and Europe, the band have also achieved chart success with x3 Top #20 albums. Yorkshire brothers Kiaran and Brandon Crook joined up with band members Alex Proctor and Trent Jackson. With an incredibly passionate, loyal fan base, their fans have followed the band’s journey from pubs/clubs to selling out venues out all across the world, as well being asked to tour in arenas/stadiums with the likes of Liam Gallagher, Kings Of Leon, Kaiser Chief, The Libertines and many more.

On the first single from the album, ‘Death Of Me’, The Sherlocks capture the excitement of their live energy.

When Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Ronnie James Dio and Vinny Appice reunited in 2006, they did so under the band name Heaven & Hell so as to avoid confusion with the Osbourne-led Black Sabbath line-up. They released one studio album, 2009’s “The Devil You Know”, and then two live albums, 2007’s “Live From Radio City Music Hall” and 2009’s “Neon Nights: 30 Years of Heaven & Hell”. The name of the group is derived from the 1980 album “Heaven and Hell”, the first Black Sabbath album to feature Dio as lead vocalist. According to Iommi, the name change was made to avoid confusion between the two different line-ups of Black Sabbath, so that fans at concerts “would not expect to hear ‘Iron Man’ and ‘War Pigs’ and all that… it’s none of the old stuff, it’s none of the Ozzy period. It’s all Dio stuff. So by calling ourselves Heaven & Hell, it’s revisiting that period.”

Even though this is Black Sabbath in all but name, because they focus exclusively on Dio-era material. That said, these are essential listening for fans of that era, particularly “Neon Nights”. These seasoned veterans revisit their past (including 1992’s underrated “Dehumanizer”) The band showcase their new material with unmatched panache. This line-up may have only worked together sporadically over the years, but listeners should consider themselves lucky these metal masters crossed paths at all.

The four members of Heaven & Hell had recorded and toured together as Black Sabbath from 1980 to 1982 and from 1991 to 1992. Dio had replaced founding Black Sabbath vocalist Ozzy Osbourne and Appice had replaced founding member drummer Bill Ward. The decision to call the group Heaven & Hell was made to differentiate the project.

After “Heaven & Hell” reunited to record three new songs for the 2007 compilation album, “Black Sabbath: The Dio Years”, they embarked on a 2007–2008 tour.

 The band released the studio album “The Devil You Know”, containing the single “Bible Black”. The subsequent promotional tour, the Bible Black Tour, spanned from May to August .

The posthumous live album “Neon Nights: 30 Years of Heaven & Hell” was released in November, recorded in Germany at the Wacken Open Air festival on July 2009 Dio had been diagnosed with stomach cancer the band planned further activity following a brief period of rest for the singer. They were slated to tour in support of Iron Maiden in Europe from July to August, but the tour was cancelled due to Dio’s ill health. Dio died from this illness on 16th May 2010 at 67 years old.

This session features Adrianne Lenker. The session was shot on 16mm in a private home outside of Copenhagen. Adrianne always gives me chills. I can’t articulate what her music and songwriting does to me. It’s very special spiritually. Known for her raw, poetic, and honest song writing, and work with Big Thief, we are proud to present Adrianne Lenker for the first time as a solo artist in Denmark. The American artist performed songs from her critically acclaimed 2024 album, “Bright Future,” encapsulating fundamental human feelings like love and longing.

As Lenker puts it herself towards the end of the session, “I feel like we are in a spaceship… In a good way.” In its entirety, this session feels like being on a spaceship piloted by Adrianne Lenker, heading towards a bright but delicate future.

Alongside Nick Hakim, she performs “Vampire Empire”, “Sadness As A Gift”, “Donut Seam” and “No Machine”.

Guitar and vocals: Adrianne Lenker Piano and vocals: Nick Hakim

TRACK LIST: 00:37 Vampire Empire 04:25 Sadness As A Gift 08:02 Donut Seam 10:50 No Machine

Former Girls frontman Christopher Owens will release his new solo album “I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair” on October 18th, and he’s announced a few shows to promote it, hitting Philly, Brooklyn, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco . Owens co-produced his new album in San Francisco with Doug Boehm. He also worked with producers Ariel Rechtshaid and Jacob Portrait on the album’s “This Is My Guitar.” In a statement, Owens referred to “I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair” as “a record about a journey back to the centre of myself.”

In related news, Girls’ three albums 2009’s “Album”, 2010 EP “Broken Dreams Club” and 2011’s “Father, Son, Holy Ghost”  are getting vinyl reissues on December 6th via True Panther. 

Written and Performed by Christopher Owens

releases October 18th, 2024

Weather Station returns with new album in 2025, “Humanhood”,  following up 2021’s Critically acclaimed album, “Ignorance”, and its companion piece, “How is it That I Should Look at the Stars“.  

In the fall of 2023, Tamara Lindeman gathered six musicians at Canterbury Music Company, where she had recorded “Ignorance” and “How Is It That I Should Look at the Stars”. Several of these players—drummer Kieran Adams, keyboardist Ben Boye, percussionist Phillippe Melanson, reed-and-wind specialist Karen Ng, and bassist Ben Whiteley—had worked together but never in this specific arrangement or context.

Much of “Humanhood” is a riveting and real document of what it means to be lost, to be hamstrung by confusion, unease, and grief for a period so long you begin to wonder if there is an end. The Weather Station will tour globally in support of “Humanhood“

Here’s the first single from The Weather Station’s forthcoming album “Humanhood“

The Weather Station’s previous album, “Ignorance“, was No#1 AOTY at The New Yorker, UNCUT, The Globe and Mail, The Observer and top 10 at New York Times, The Guardian, PItchfork, PASTE, Exclaim, Rolling Stone Germany, Magnet, The Quietus, Sunday Times, Stereogum, and many more. 

“Neon Signs” off of The Weather Station’s upcoming album ‘Humanhood’ out on Fat Possum, January 17th, 2025.

If “Funeral for Justice” was the sound of outrage, “Tears of Injustice” is the sound of grief. Mdou Moctar’s new album is “Funeral for Justice” completely re-recorded and rearranged for acoustic and traditional instruments. It is an evolution of the band’s critically-adored breakout – the meditative mirror-image to the blistering original.

In July of 2023, Mdou Moctar was on tour in the United States when the president of Niger, Mohamed Bazoum, was deposed by a military junta who made him prisoner at the presidential residence. They ordered the nation’s borders closed, leaving band members Mdou Moctar, Ahmoudou Madassane, and Souleymane Ibrahim unable to return home to their families. Plans to record a companion to “Funeral for Justice” then still many months from release had been in the works already, but the idea now took on new urgency and gravity. Two days after the tour wrapped in New York City, the quartet began tracking “Tears of Injustice” at Brooklyn’s Bunker Studio with engineer Seth Manchester.

“We wanted to make a separate version of “Funeral” for people to hear,” explains the band’s US-based bassist and producer, Mikey Coltun. “We’re always playing around with arrangements at shows. We wanted to prove that we could do it on a record, too. And there’s a whole other side of the band that comes out when we play a stripped down set. It becomes something new.”

On “Funeral for Justice“, anger at the plight of Niger and the Tuareg people is plainly expressed in the music’s volume and velocity.

They chose to track Tears sitting together in one room, keeping the session loose, stripped down, and spontaneous. “We didn’t really work on the arrangements prior to going in,” recalls Coltun. “We’d just play, find the feel, and do the song.” Things came together quickly, with principal recording wrapped in only two days. The hypnotic 8-minute take of ‘Imouhar’ is actually two distinct passes through the song performed in quick succession – Moctar didn’t stop playing long enough to split the takes apart. After a month, the band was able to return home to Niger and, when they did, Coltun gave Madassane a Zoom recorder to take along. The rhythm guitarist used it to record a group of Tuaregs performing call-and-response vocals, which were later added into the final mix.

On “Tears“, the songs retain that weight sans amplification. They are steeped in sadness, conveying the grief of a nation locked into a constant churn of poverty, colonial exploitation, and political upheaval. It is Tuareg protest music in raw and essential form. “When Mdou writes the lyrics, he typically writes them with an acoustic guitar. So you’re getting closer to that original moment,” says Coltun. “It retains heaviness, but it’s haunting.”

Taken from Mdou Moctar’s upcoming album ‘Tears of Injustice’ out on Matador Records February 28th, 2025.

Dean Wareham, his partner Britta Phillips, and frequent collaborator Sonic Boom have teamed up to make a holiday album. It’s titled “A Peace of Us” and will be out November 22nd via Carpark Records. The recordings took place Sonic Boom’s studio in Portugal: all three sang, Dean played guitar, Britta played bass and keyboards, and Sonic provided the psychedelic effects and mixed the album. Britta says it’s “like Bing Crosby…on acid,” which means a little more when you’re talking about something involving Sonic Boom.

“Pretty Paper” is a single from Dean & Britta & Sonic Boom’s album ‘A Peace of Us’ out November 22nd, 2024 on Carpark Records.