The Fat Angel Sings

Kim Gordon released a digital deluxe edition of “The Collective“, which was her second solo album that was released near the start of this year. The updated version of the LP includes two additional tracks: June’s “ECRP” and the brand new “Bangin’ on the Freeway.” Check out the music video for the latter, which was directed by Gordon’s daughter, Coco Gordon Moore,

The deluxe edition of “The Collective” will also be available on vinyl, “Bangin’ on the Freeway” is the second single from it , following “ECRP.” Other videos were helmed by Clara Balzary (“Bye Bye”), Alex Ross Perry (“I’m a Man”), and Vice Cooler (“Psychedelic Orgasm”), the first two of which actually starred Coco Gordon Moore in front of the lens.

On “The Collective”, Kim Gordon’s second record for Matador, she extrapolates on one of the myriad ideas present on “No Home Record”, the intersection of whisper-rap and hyperreal modernity. Gordon was inspired by The Candy House by Jennifer Egan, a Thouron Scholar, adding a layer of metafiction already entrenched in Egan’s body of work. The Candy House is a sequel to Egan’s previous novel A Visit from the Goon Squad, each chapter focusing on a different character and being written in a different style exploring the fallout of tech companies,

Since touring in support of “The Collective”, which included a stop on Jimmy Kimmel Live!—marking Gordon’s solo live debut on late-night television—where she and her band played “Bye Bye,” Gordon has also found time to record with Model Home. The two teamed up on the track “Razzamatazz” along with Justin Raisen, who worked with Gordon on “The Collective” and 2021’s “No Home Record”.

The limited edition, deluxe version of the vinyl record includes a 7” with the 2 bonus tracks housed in the LP sleeve and is pressed on silver vinyl. Featuring two new songs,

‘Only God Was Above Us’ is the fifth studio album from Vampire Weekend. The group has shared a trailer for their first full-length album since 2019’s “Father of the Bride”, which will arrive in April.

The album is inspired by and infused with the essence of the band’s birthplace of New York City, though recorded all over the world, from New York to Los Angeles to London and Tokyo. The album was produced by Ezra Koenig, and longtime collaborator Ariel Rechtshaid. The album title is lifted directly from the album artwork, which is a photo taken from a subway graveyard in New Jersey in 1988 by photographer Steven Siegel.

‘Only God Was Above Us’ includes universal themes ranging from the urge to question the world in which we live, and the quest for peace that can only be found through acceptance. The album is equal parts as direct yet complex as anything the band has ever released, as beautiful and melodic as they’ve ever sounded but also at their grittiest.

Vampire Weekend have announced that their new album, titled “Only God Was Above Us“, According to a press release, the record was “Inspired and haunted by 20th Century New York City” .

 It’s at times darker and weirder, but it’s not depressing. It’s like getting older: Strange and sometimes sad discoveries appear around every corner, often exposing more questions than answers, but with them comes time-earned satisfaction. One of those questions that might come with age is what mark are we leaving on this world. Koenig doesn’t seem to be all that concerned with individual legacy, but throughout “Only God Was Above Us”, he spends a good deal of time playing with the idea of generational imprints. 

New singles “Capricorn” and “Gen-X Cops” are both very pretty tunes with noisy elements that come and go from the detailed, intricate arrangements. They both come with videos showcasing a gritty, retro side of New York City.

“Only God Was Above Us” was primarily produced by Koenig and longtime collaborator Ariel Rechtshaid. It was mixed by Dave Fridmann and mastered by Emily Lazar. The collection features 10 tracks, and while the group hasn’t unveiled any new music from the project, they have shared lyrics from the album closer “Hope”. All told, the album is as good as anything the New York City-formed rockers have ever made (which is to say, very good), and it features a little DNA from everything they’ve ever put out: a sibling to their self-titled debut, a cousin to “Contra” and the rebellious nephew of 2013’s “Modern Vampires”. 

This has been the Year of Redd Kross—a celebration that’s been long-overdue. Nearly half a century after forming one of the most important bands to ever hail from Los Angeles (and “one of the most underrated band of their generation,” according to Variety), in 2024 the power-pop/bubbleglam/hardcore band released their most ambitious album yet, the 18-song, two-disc “Redd Kross”, plus a delightful memoir, “Now You’re One of Us“. And now the year wraps with the release of their documentary “Born Innocent: The Redd Kross Story“, directed by former Friends writer/showrunner/executive producer Andrew Reich. The movie opens at the TCL Chinese Theatres in Hollywood this Thursday, with additional screenings around the country scheduled through next year.

Hawthorne-born, Hollywood-raised Jeff and Steven McDonald, who started the band when they were, respectively, ages 15 and 11—bring us deeper into their world. 

Genre: Quirk Wank, or more concisely Quank! A repetitive kind of dance punk
which might take a sharp turn into dissonant prog when everyone is least expecting it.
File under Art Rock, No-Wave, Indie. With Influences from Captain Beefheart, Can, Eno, Gong, The Contortions, The Fall, The Soft Boys, The Rapture, Parquet Courts
Gets Compared To: Devo, Wire, Talking Heads, XTC, Gang of Four, Electric Six, Squid,
Warmduscher
Venice Treale are based in the Southwest of the UK.

Venice Treacle was an ancient concoction of roots, minerals, honey, opium and snake organs designed to cure all ills. This new formulation provides a modern elixir for modern ills – combatting contemporary ennui and lifting the soul. The Act: Four transformed personalities competing for attention and overspilling the stage. The guitarists prance and hypothesise, the drummer howls and shakes. The
singer is convinced that there are sing-along melodies in choruses and breaks but he
may be deluded.

Side eHects: The audience is entranced. For those confused by sudden discord, a
dramatic loss of consistency or wild imaginings of the End of the World, there is always
(nearly always) the Irresistible Groove. Some jiggle as they concentrate on the words, or
attempt to grasp incompatible riffs before they morph into different ones. Others yield
and throw themselves into the fray. Lookout for their album “Modern Elixir”

Vocals/guitar: Cathartic Nick Guitar/vocals: Mondel Plasmid Drums: J Circus Bass: Professor Ritalian

Their debut album “Modern Elixir” due soon recorded at Rockfield Studios Monmouth

“Slab” was a EP released by the Louisville-based band Wombo available digitally on Fire Talk Records. With past accolades from Bandcamp, Brooklyn Vegan, the FADER, Pitchfork, Paste & Flood, “the band’s expertly executed art-rock sound is complete with droning guitars, frenetic chords, and angular melodies that make it impossible not to get up and move to” (Uproxx). “Slab” continues their perchance for mesmerizing dreamscapes and eerily addictive refrains on this homespun, transitional EP.

Originally released June 9th, 2023

The guitar work may sound uncomplicated at first blush, but that’s only because it’s so effortless. Haley Heynderickx is a true triple threat—vocalist, lyricist and guitarist—and her genius arrangements unfold upon repeat listens. Opener “Gemini” is a frantic self-takedown that features some of the most seductive strums of the album. The chords on “Jerry’s Song” pleasantly burble up over the smooth stones of bass, cello and layered vocals. And “Spit in the Sink” is a poem—about how we all try to create in spite of a tech-sick world that tells us creativity isn’t useful—that thanks to a sinewy melody proves itself as a song over and over again.

There are too many other whip-smart lyrical strands to follow in one review, but one of “Seed’s” noteworthy themes is the miracle of a new day. Each new morning is “an offering,” as Heynderickx declares on “Sorry Fahey,” whose title is likely a nod to primitive guitar great John Fahey. Or, as she puts it on “Swoop,” “[t]here’s an artistry in the day to day.” And this kind of creativity isn’t found in a Zoom meeting or a social feed. It’s more likely in “free time” and “a hand next to mine,” both of which Heynderickx longs for on the title track.

As she did on her first album “I Need to Start a Garden”, Heynderickx shows us that meaning can just easily be found in big existential questions and experiences as it can in the most minute details, down to a seed or a bug (her fixation on “The Bug Collector,” from her debut).

When John Rossiter isn’t telling a character’s story, he turns the focus on his own interior life. The songs on “The Fool” are honest at their core, and often quite heavy, dealing with serious topics. The record is an impressive and engaging work but not an easy listen. Its centerpiece, “Rich,” may well be Rossiter’s masterpiece, but you’ll want to take a moment after finishing it. There are a few different ideas held in the song, and while they are all distinct, they are also tangled together—but Rossiter does his best to parse them. Most strikingly, he sings bluntly about his own mental health struggles, and how mental illness and suicidality are passed down genetically. As he holds this idea in one hand, he also holds the inherited nature of generational wealth in the other—pondering how, though it can’t save people from all struggles, it affords them privilege. 

People who have family money are more often free to pursue careers in fields like the arts, and he acknowledges the open secret of it all. Song to song, there isn’t much sonic variation, and after the throw-everything-at-the-wall approach he took on Shepherd Head, the bare-boned arrangements here are refreshing. It’s unlikely that Rossiter will make another record like The Fool, but Young Jesus was already an unpredictable project before it, anyway. Though it can often leave you with a sense of discomfort, it’s remarkable that there isn’t a confrontational edge to The Fool. You don’t get the sense that Rossiter is trying to provoke you, necessarily, and you aren’t being asked to give him brownie points for being in touch with his own emotions. Rossiter has, instead, made something open—something that he needed to make, even if he didn’t know he ever could.

released October 25th, 2024

Dan Bejar of Destroyer says: “It’s hard to talk about Rosali’s music. Songs that reach outward like this, but then constantly disarm with their intimacy. What do you call such inner searching that is hellbent on rollicking? Songs that long for a sense of peace and songs that want romance, all on equal footing in the same plot of earth? Performed wild, but always centered around the incredible lyrical calm that is Rosali’s voice.

 “Sandy Denny jamming with Crazy Horse on a late night in the mid-1970s,” so I won’t attempt to try, but I will add that it’s pretty remarkable how well Rosali captures that vibe 50 years removed from this imagined scenario. The North Carolina/Philadelphia singer/songwriter (whose full name is Rosali Middleman) has been releasing albums of warm, earthy folk music for nearly a decade, and on this one—her Merge Records debut—her Crazy Horse-esque backing band is the David Nance Group, whose rugged jams couldn’t work more perfectly with her transportive voice.

“Bite Down” is packed wall to wall with tunes that are unsettled but unhurried, generous with melody, wandering but never lost, and reliably steady despite the never-ending twists and turns of an earthly existence. But above all, they are beautiful, broken and built around the kind of raw emotional uncertainty that will resonate with anyone who has ever lived, loved and/or lost. “Bite Down’s” highlights include “My Kind,” a kinetic, country-blues stomper that serves as evidence that Rosali is perfectly capable of a Waxahatchee-style arc if she chooses to pursue it, and “Hills on Fire,” a triumph of room-sound atmospherics and squirrelly guitar-isms that feels like watching a lightning storm crawl across a vast flatland, or perhaps childhood trauma streaking through an adult body. And while “Bite Down” has more approachable peaks, it ends with two tracks that echo both its stylistic range and its recurring themes of pain, self-reflection, healing and hope.

“Bite Down” makes me think about singers and bands that throw themselves hard into the storm, the way the Rosali quartet does. … The calm of her voice over top of the band’s raging it is the emblem of songs that live to put themselves in harm’s way. But it’s not harm. It’s just that you have to play hard to get at these goods. The calm of Rosali’s voice, the straight talk of her inner search vs. the wildness of the band, the sonic storm she rides in on. That’s their sound.”

released March 22nd, 2024

All songs written by Rosali Middleman

Montreal’s Feeling Figures are aging in reverse. “Everything Around You“, excellent follow-up to last year’s sleeper underground hit “Migration Music“, is actually their first album—at least in terms of when it was recorded. Who knows what internal math pushed this one to the back of the line, but it was a smart call—it’s actually a stronger, deeper, and richer LP (and other comparatives, even), and one of the better underground rock records of the last few years. And you can be excused for just assuming the band’s from Australia, as they’ve been schooling the rest of the world on this kind of stuff for a couple of decades now. If you’re well-versed in the wayward permutations of unpopular music, you’ll know the score here immediately.

Two guitars, bass, drums as trad a line-up as possible playing rock music, but not that kind of rock music; i.e., not something you would ever hear on classic rock radio, no matter how much time passes (those stations still exist, and they’re probably playing Vampire Weekend even as I type).

Think White Light / White Heat, Wire’s second record, Sonic Youth, early Dinosaur Jr., and a ton of New Zealand and Australian bands, from The Clean all the way up to whatever new group Jake Robertson formed today. Feeling Figures fit squarely into that legacy, and “Everything Around You” is a fine addition to that canon.