The Fat Angel Sings

Hippo Campus were sitting in the green room of a sold-out amphitheater show at the start of the Summer of 2023 when they realized they had a major problem. Their fourth LP simply wasn’t good enough. Singer Jake Luppen had been listening to the band’s work as they rolled around the country, trying to tease out how much work remained. All of it, he soon decided. The soul wasn’t there, obfuscated by the need to sound sophisticated and the overwhelming ambition to make the best Hippo Campus LP ever, a deeper and more profound record that reflected how their lives were changing.

They’d committed to that vow with long time producer and collaborator Caleb Wright a little more than a year earlier, soon after a party where they celebrated the release of LP3. That very night, the call came that a long time friend had unexpectedly died. They started this band as kids and enjoyed quick momentum, their thrill-a-minute live shows and charismatically experimental pop albums creating almost-instant, avid attention. But this was Hippo Campus’ first close brush with death; as adulthood encroached, the actual call of mortality reminded them of the stakes of art, friendship, and life.

So they committed to doing something major, even if it meant taking five years to do it. They took the task seriously, too: getting sober for an entirely improvisational session at North Carolina’s Drop of Sun months later, regularly attending therapy as a full band, writing more than 100 songs in only a year. That was all well and good, until Luppen and, really, all of Hippo Campus decided they didn’t actually like what they were making. Life and work had been dark in their orbit for a second—death and dejection, addiction and anxiety. This uneasy epiphany wasn’t helping.

So that night, in the dressing room, they called an audible. They were going to start over. Three months later, the four-member core of Hippo Campus rendezvoused with Wright and producer Brad Cook at Sonic Ranch, a playground-like studio complex on the Texas border. They gave themselves 10 days to cut the tracks they liked best, to make something to which they could commit at last. And Cook, in turn, gave them an edict of no second guessing or listening back, only forward momentum. Less than two weeks later, they emerged with what they’d given themselves half a decade to make—“Flood”, or the best album Hippo Campus has ever made.

You can immediately hear as much in a pair of wondrous songs toward the end, when the love-lost-and-found sing-along “Forget It” fades into the bittersweet and beautiful ache of “Closer,” a gem about trying and maybe failing to surrender your trust to someone else. This is a band that has learned to grow up by learning to let go. When Hippo Campus finally stopped trying to force the issue of making a masterpiece, they tapped intersecting veins of vulnerability and urgency, walking away with 13 tracks that reckon with their uncanny lives through at least that many totally absorbing hooks.

During the last several years, Hippo Campus has had to navigate the tougher wages of success. They are, of course, grateful that a pop band they named on the lark of some psychology lesson blew up, but it certainly eliminated the segue from adolescence to adulthood that most of us enjoy in relative privacy. How could they survive inside and alongside this thing they had created and had outgrown them? And what’s more, how could they endure the vagaries of the music industry, so that they didn’t let a disappointing tour or disspiriting release demoralize them? Or, to ask the cumulative question, how do four people connected so intimately for so long grow as individuals while preserving the bond that makes what they do so special? Or is that actually too much to ask?

For a minute there, the answer seemed possibly like yes. But soon after that improvisational session, the band returned to its own Minneapolis studio and dug in.

They stumbled upon “Everything at Once,” with Nathan Stocker’s tricky little guitar lope becoming the basis for the slowly rising rhythm of drummer Whistler Allen and bassist Zach Sutton. Stepping outside for some space, Luppen quickly penned a thesis of self-criticism and self-forgiveness. Being less than the expectations of an industry, a family, or a faith are totally normal, he suggests in an anthem of empowerment that is almost casual. He gives himself the grace of being human: “You gotta lay down sometimes, be patient sometimes,” Luppen sings, layers of lean vocals crisscrossing one another like light beams. “And feel everything at once.”

That is precisely what Hippo Campus do best on “Flood” feel everything and transmute it all into songs that are inescapable. Take “Brand New,” three minutes of brilliantly coiled pop, its spring-loaded rhythm lifting a guitar line built from pin pricks skyward. It’s about being ruined by the letdown of a failed relationship and then finding a way forward, toward something so good you haven’t even imagined it yet. It sounds that way, too.

There’s the completely compulsive “Tooth Fairy,” a quick-moving meditation on the confusion of interpersonal dynamics. Hippo Campus smear bits of gentle psychedelia around a rhythm, riff, and hook that have the sleek lines of a sports car; the result is a dynamic wonder, a song that feels emphatic at the start but reaches full triumph by the end. Inspired by staring down cycles of addiction too long without taking steps to break them, “Corduroy” finds the space between a bummer country blues and a sweetly devotional waltz. Its vows of love, trust, and doubt are buoyed and also undercut by its slow rises and falls, a musical portrait of trying to take that difficult next step.

The sentiments on “Flood” are raw, real, and unguarded, a testament to Hippo Campus dropping preconceptions of how they had to sound after so many failed attempts to re-record these songs. They wiped the slate clean, starting over without beliefs about what Hippo Campus or this record needed to be. Still, sophistication lurks in subtle key and tempo changes, in the almost innate shifts that a band of long time best friends can tap after so much time spent helping to shape one another’s musical language. Flood doesn’t need to tell you it’s important or interesting; it simply is, just by virtue of how it’s written, built, and rendered, a map of what it’s like to feel everything at once. This rebirth is accompanied by a crucial career shift for Hippo Campus, too, as they exit the traditional label system to issue LP4 via Psychic Hotline, a truly independent imprint run by peers and pals. If you’re working to let go of expectations, why not jettison them all? There’s a bravery to that, and you can hear its revivifying spirit in every second of LP4.

Early into the endlessly propulsive “Paranoid,” where stunted acoustic strums undergird an inescapable jangle, Luppen asks an existential question: “Is there something waiting out there for us at the finish line?” For the next three minutes, the band cycles with him through his woes, from the title’s overwhelming worry to notions of dislocation and loneliness.

(Also, is there any other refrain ever that manages to make the phrase “so god-damned fucking” sound so catchy and natural?) But in the final verse, with his voice breaking through a scrim of distortion, he stumbles upon a new credo: “Wait, I wanna give this life all that I have in me.” That is precisely what Hippo Campus have done with “Flood” after realizing it doesn’t take a lifetime—or, well, five years—to do just that. 

releases September 20th, 2024

Christopher Paul Stelling’s latest album, “Forgotten But Not Gone & Few and Far Between,” released in 2024, has been well-received for its emotional depth and raw storytelling. This double LP was written and self-produced by the singer songwriter Stelling at home, following a painful divorce from his partner of 13 years The album is described as a life-raft, capturing the essence of his personal struggles and growth

The album spans a variety of genres, including folk, blues, and indie rock, showcasing Stelling’s versatility as a musician Tracks like “Better Days” and “Fire On The Moon” highlight his poignant lyrics and intricate guitar work. Critics have praised the album for its authenticity and emotional resonance, making it a standout in Stelling’s discography

Live Performance of “Lay By Your Side” by Christopher Paul Stelling from the Double LP “Forgotten But Not Gone & Few and Far Between“. Shot in the artists living room in Atlanta Georgia by filmmaker Ethan Payne.

 Forgotten but Not Gone & Few and Far Between  released March 22nd, 2024

On October 25th, Songs: Ohia’s album originally released in 2000 “Protection Spells” will see a vinyl release from Secretly Canadian for the first time ever, after years being out of print in other formats. Featuring nine entirely improvised pieces, the album is considered a fan favourite for many and an irreplaceable part of the Jason Molina back catalogue.

Of “Protection Spells” album, Molina had this to say:
“The Protection Spells” is a collection of songs recorded over a period of several Songs: Ohia tours. Presented here are nine entirely improvised pieces. The approach to these songs involved no rehearsals, no second takes, no additions and no going back. What you have here are songs that just happened in real time. The many musicians on these recordings were friends, bandmates, and, at times, total strangers. I have long hoped to offer the listener a chance to have some of these great accidents on record. It is a direct look at my songwriting process, only a little more risky, and nobody has any idea what direction we are going until we all start working on it together. I think that the years of improvised music I played in the past helped to strengthen the risk-taking with these songs.

Here the goal was to still have basic songs without falling into long freak-out noise experiments, saving that kind of exploration for live settings. You will notice the appearances and disappearances of ideas that could never be recreated, not that they are all brilliant, but they are certainly not forced. The seemingly arbitrary moments of strange repetition the lyrics, the clear lack of a preconceived system of established song parts, all are the marks of improvised songwriting. Since even the singing had no idea what the floorplan of the song was to be, there were some unanticipated troubles and some shy steps taken, but I have preserved these mappings of the dangerous musical byroads that Songs: Ohia has always depended on. I hope you enjoy this.” — Jason Molina, July 10th, 2000

Secretly Canadian is proud to reissue a limited run of Songs: Ohia’s “Protection Spells“, a collection of some of the most precious time capsules in the greater Molina Vaults. 

“Protection Spells” has a spotty release history, with long periods out of print and limited formats. It returns to print now for the first time in  over a decade (possibly two) and for the first time ever on vinyl.

How often do we hear from the outsider’s perspective? For rising new artist Gia Ford, those figures on the fringes of society are by far the most fascinating. Her songs tell the stories of the downtrodden to the down right dangerous. And through them, we begin to hear familiar, uncomfortable truths about ourselves. 

“Transparent Things” is Gia Ford’s debut album, and first album release with Chrysalis Records. Produced by Tony Berg (Phoebe Bridgers) at Sound City Studios in LA. Since the release of her first single at the end of 2023, Gia has been championed by a number of taste maskers, including being chosen in The Independent’s Ones To Watch for 2024.

“Transparent Things” is about alienation. “Most of the characters in these songs are outcasts, all with unique ways of feeling on the periphery, somehow,” Ford says. “I’ve discovered, through the grouping of these songs, that I’m drawn to this sort of story.” While each song operates in its own realm, their subject matters create a throughline of eccentricity that turns “Transparent Things” into a kind of odyssey of outcasts. 

“Transparent Things” isn’t a concept album, but I think I have always been drawn to darker subject matters,” she says. “We’ve all gone through a period of not understanding why we feel a certain way, or having the sense that something is missing in our lives. We’ve all felt like outsiders.” – Gia Ford

Debut album “Transparent Things” out 13/09/24:

The Newport Folk Festival was never strictly limited to folk music, but the 2008 festival expanded the musical diversity more than ever before. Perhaps taking a cue from the massive success of younger festivals like Bonnaroo, the 2008 roster included bigger ticket artists like The Black Crowes right along with the folk, bluegrass and blues troubadours that usually topped the bill. Despite some weather issues, this approach turned out to be a resounding success and all of the headlining acts turned in memorable performances that often conveyed the influence of the traditional styles that originally launched the festival.

One of the most surprising and highly anticipated groups to appear was The Black Crowes, who closed out the Saturday schedule, following a torrential downpour that significantly reduced the size of the festival audience. When they hit the main Fort Stage shortly after 5:00 PM, those that remained were treated to what many considered the highlight set of the festival. The performance was tempered in a way that paid tribute to the festival and its history, while still featuring plenty of the group’s trademark guitar driven rock, heavily influenced by groups like The Stones, The Faces and The Allman Brothers Band, which the Robinson brothers had grown up on.

At this time The Black Crowes were 18-year veterans of the road with thousands of concerts behind them, and a true force in modern rock music. The band had weathered internal struggles in the preceding years and had just completed their seventh album, “Warpaint”, their strongest in over a decade. Just prior to the sessions, two personnel changes had taken place, with the addition of keyboard player Adam MacDougall and former North Mississippi Allstars guitarist Luther Dickinson being brought on board.

The “Warpaint” album revealed a more seasoned band with a newfound sense of solidarity. Without changing their basic sound and dynamics, “Warpaint” conveyed a more original and distinctive band, while still drawing on the influences that initially drew listeners in.

The Black Crowes’ set began during a vibrant sunset, just as the storm had cleared. Well aware that much of their music would easily plow over most acoustic troubadours, the Robinson brothers initially hit the stage alone, armed with acoustic guitars.

Paying tribute to the stripped down folk music that initially launched the festival, they begin with a rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Girl From The North Country.” Following this, Luther Dickinson joins the brothers on stage, adding mandolin embellishments to “He Was A Friend Of Mine,” the 1960s anthem that conveyed the sense of loss following the assassination of President Kennedy. Both of these numbers are extremely well received and convey a sense of respect for the festival and its history.

With MacDougall (whose birthday it was) and the rhythm section joining the other members onstage, the first number off the new album, “Whoa Mule,” is next. A bluesy number that begins a capella and then builds its intensity gradually, this song has a thrust that cannot be denied. With Dickinson contributing slide and a striking vocal from Robinson, this conveys a band more comfortable and confident than ever before. Two well-chosen covers surface next, first in the form of “Polly,” a country flavoured obscurity written by ex-Byrd Gene Clark, recorded for the second (and more obscure) Dillard & Clark album in 1969.

However, it is the medley of Delaney & Bonnie songs that follows that is one of the true highlights of this performance. Rich Robinson starts it out with some strident acoustic rhythm as they kick into a wonderful rendition of “Poor Elijah.” This cooks from the get-go and quickly builds into a soulful romp with Dickinson seemingly channelling Duane Allman (who played on the original). Like the Delaney & Bonnie recording, it then gets even bluesier, with Robinson belting out the “Tribute To Johnson” section, but rather than concluding there, they toss in a bit of “Things Get Better” before wrapping it up. This is a superb performance that rivals the originals.

With MacDougall organ swells serving as a segue, they next ease into a confident reading of “Wiser Time,” the single from the 1994 album, “Amorica”. Dickinson’s slide work and MacDougall’s electric piano underpinnings are both notable here. As this progresses over twelve minutes, longtime listeners will recognize a newfound chemistry emerging between these musicians. The Crowes could always jam, but here there are no aimless improvisations. Instead, there is focused soloing and a collective sound that can only occur when musicians are carefully listening to each other. Two fine new songs from “Warpaint”, “Movin’ On Down The Line” and “Goodbye Daughters Of The Revolution,” are prime examples of this chemistry. Even on “Jealous Again,” the hit that first brought the band recognition, Dickinson and MacDougall’s contributions add freshness, while losing none of the Faces-influenced flavour that made it so fun in the first place.

The final 25 minutes of the set is a two-song tour de force beginning with the “Warpaint” ballad “Oh Josephine,” which gradually ratchets up the intensity level over the course of 8 minutes. One of the band’s most compelling songs, this is a slow-rolling burn that builds to a blazing close. A spacey organ interlude from MacDougall follows, before the band segues into the opening of “Thorn In My Pride.” Expanded well beyond its original incarnation, this is engaging from the start and doesn’t let go for its 15-minute duration. Within a few minutes, the band is deeply engaged with Rich Robinson’s overdriven guitar cutting through like a knife. Just when they’ve reached a major crescendo (at exactly the six-minute mark), everyone drops out, leaving Chris Robinson to begin a blues harp solo. With Robinson leading the way, the band builds into a menacing jam that is quite inspired. At times this bears a striking resemblance to the snaky grooves of “Midnight Rambler” and is every bit as intense as The Stones in their 1969 prime. Under tight time restrictions as the final act of the day, no encore was possible, but by the time “Thorn In My Pride” winds to its soulful conclusion, the audience erupts with applause having witnessed one of the hardest hitting Newport Folk Festival performances ever.

They were sensational – and each on-stage album from CSN&Y feels sensational too. Not that there were too many of those releases capturing David Crosby, Graham Nash, Stephen Stills and Neil Young in their prime: only 1971’s “4 Way Street” would count as such, with “CSNY 1974” from 2014 documenting the quarter’s second coming, with a few moments in the “Woodstock” and “Journey Through The Past” soundtracks rounding off the foursome’s officially available early-era concert recordings.

Here’s why “Live At Fillmore East, 1969” which will be out on October 25th is a historic thing.

The platter that Neil Young hinted at as early as in April of this year and that he and Stephen Stills mixed from the original eight-track is much more interesting than its predecessors not only because it comes from a single venue and a single date, September 20th – although there were two shows performed there but also because it leans on the players’ solo material to a lesser extent.

Comprised of two sets, acoustic and electric, the band’s repertoire on the night included “Our House” and “4 + 20” which would surface on “Déjà Vu” in 1970 – the former addressing Joni Mitchell, who inspired the song and was in the Fillmore to hear Graham Nash serenading her – and “Find The Cost Of Freedom” which would appear later as a B-side of the “Ohio” single. Factor in Buffalo Springfield’s “I’ve Loved Her So Long” and pieces from the ensemble’s debut LP, and the significance of the forthcoming release becomes impossible to overestimate.

After famously playing their second show at Woodstock in August 1969, David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, and Neil Young spent the rest of the year touring and writing songs for what would become Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s 1970 debut, ‘Déjà Vu’. A newly discovered multi-track recording of the band’s September 20th, 1969, concert at the historic Fillmore East in New York City captures an early moment from that first tour. The setlist spotlights soon-to-be classics from CSN’s self-titled debut and Young’s Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere with “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” “Helplessly Hoping,” and “Down By The River.” 2xLP and CD are out everywhere on October 25th.

“Live at Fillmore East, 1969” contains an acoustic portion—featuring performances of “Helplessly Hoping,” the Beatles’ “Blackbird,” Buffalo Springfield’s “On the Way Home ” and “Broken Arrow,” Déjà Vu’s “4 + 20,” and more—and a shorter electric portion featuring “Sea of Madness,” “Down by the River,” and more.

In a statement, Graham Nash said, “Hearing the music again after all these years, I can tell how much we loved each other and loved the music that we were creating. We were four people revelling in the different sounds we were producing, quietly singing together on the one hand, then rocking like fuck for the rest of the concert.”

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young 

So similar in name to Dr Hook but don’t be alarmed this is something completely different. It has been voted one of the rarest records of all time and was released in an edition of less than a hundred back in 1972.  Instead what we have is another one of those 1970s private press LPs unearthed by Numero Group.

D.R. Hooker was a robe-clad hippy going through a midlife crisis and made this wonderful spiritual album which showcases a rare songwriting talent mixing acid-rock, folk and on ‘Falling Asleep’ something that sounds like Syd Barrett meeting Love. Hints of Rodriguez too, certainly on the opening ‘Forge Your Own Chains’ which leads off an album that is way more sophisticated than it has any right to be and rightly deserves a larger audience.  

“The Truth” is somehow out of time and very of its time—it’s very, very 1972. Washy, psychedelic grooves drift along, occasionally dipping into electronic processing and heavy guitars, while Hooker make attempts to come to terms with the psychedelic movement. The songs are fuelled by this tension between psychedelia and religion. After the carefree 1960s, and the prevalence of free love, be-ins, and LSD, the 70s took a decidedly darker, more paranoid turn. For some, drugs clearly were not the answer, and “The Truth” is clearly rooted in Hooker’s desire to find something more concrete and less fleeting. In the title track, he asks “Does it seem to pass you by / Or do you try to change your mind”, as if giving voice to the inner turmoil highlighted in songs such as ‘Forge Your Chains’, a discussion about hedonism, and whether “the hard stuff ain’t so bad”. 

“The Truth” is a tantalising prospect. Much like its namesake, the album is elusive and amorphous. For a start, it was a private press—a very private press. Only ninety-nine copies were ever made, which made it something of a Holy Grail for collectors.

As the final studio album to feature guitar virtuoso Michael Schenker before his temporary departure from UFO, “Obsession” holds a special place in the band’s storied history.

“Obsession” was released at a pivotal time for UFO. It was the band’s seventh studio album and followed the success of “Lights Out” (1977), which firmly established the band as a force to be reckoned with in the hard rock and heavy metal scenes. While “Lights Out” broke into the UK Albums Chart “Obsession” continued this momentum, further cementing UFO’s reputation as one of the leading rock acts of the late 1970s.

On “Obsession”, UFO showcased a more atmospheric and darker sound, signaling the deepening collaboration between vocalist Phil Mogg and guitarist Michael Schenker. The album features iconic tracks like “Only You Can Rock Me” and “Cherry,” both of which became staples in the band’s live performances. The album’s production, handled by Ron Nevison, helped give it a polished yet powerful sound, one that would stand the test of time.

The 2024 Remastered Deluxe Edition: of “Obsession” has been crafted with great care, using the original production tape transfers and remastered at AIR Mastering.

One of the standout features of this deluxe edition is the inclusion of a previously unreleased 2024 mix of “Live At The Agora Ballroom, Cleveland“. While parts of this performance originally appeared on UFO’s legendary “Strangers In The Night” live album, this new mix—engineered by renowned producer Brian Kehew—offers the best version to date, straight from the original multi-track tapes. This live set captures UFO at their peak, with Schenker’s blistering guitar work and Mogg’s commanding vocals on full display.

In addition to the remastered album and live material, the 2024 Remastered Deluxe Edition also includes four bonus tracks. Notably, the set features an alternate version of “Cherry,” giving listeners a fresh perspective on one of the band’s most beloved tracks.

Two of the bonus studio tracks were recorded at The Record Plant during sessions for “Strangers In The Night”, adding another layer of historical significance to this release. These tracks highlight UFO’s creative energy in the months following “Obsession’s” release, offering a glimpse into the band’s dynamic during one of their most productive periods.

Upon its original release, “Obsession” was met with critical acclaim for its blend of hard rock, intricate melodies, and atmospheric elements. The album’s success further solidified UFO’s standing in the rock world, and Michael Schenker’s contributions were particularly praised. Schenker’s innovative guitar work on “Obsession” became a key influence on future generations of guitarists, with tracks like “Hot ‘n’ Ready” and “Pack It Up (And Go)” showcasing his remarkable technical ability and creativity.

Although Schenker departed the band shortly after the release of “Obsession”, the album remains a defining moment in UFO’s discography. It bridged the gap between their earlier, more straightforward rock sound and the more complex, progressive elements that would follow. “Obsession” is regarded as a landmark album, not just for UFO but for hard rock and heavy metal as a whole.

The deluxe packaging includes a poster booklet with liner notes by esteemed music journalist Michael Hann, featuring interviews with key band members Phil Mogg, Andy Parker, and Michael Schenker. This detailed insight into the making of “Obsession” offers fans a deeper understanding of the album’s creation and its lasting impact.

UFO – Obsession [Deluxe Edition] available on 2CD with poster booklet + 3LP vinyl. Includes a new previously unreleased 2024 mix of “Live at the Agora Ballroom”, Cleveland, 16th October 1978, plus 4 bonus tracks (CD format only), new liner notes, and new interviews.

The “Obsession” (2024 Remastered Deluxe Edition) will be released on November 8th, 2024,