The Fat Angel Sings

In the summer of 1973, Genesis re-signed their contract with Charisma Records. Manager Tony Stratton Smith said they got “a much-improved deal” despite their being able to get a better one with a bigger label, but the group were loyal and trusted Charisma with their careers. With a new agreement in place and thus a green-light for a new album, Genesis recorded “Selling England by the Pound” at Island Studios in August 1973, It was the second Genesis album that John Burns co-produced. Peter Gabriel contributed lyrics based on the idea of commercialism and the decline of English culture and the rise in American influences. Its title refers to a UK Labour Party slogan to make it clear to music critics who may have thought Genesis were beginning to “sell out” to the US.

The record was released in October 1973 to a positive critical reception, though slightly more muted than for “Foxtrot“. The “Selling England by the Pound” tour visited Europe and North America between September 1973 and May 1974. Their six shows in three days at The Roxy in Los Angeles were well received by audiences and critics. The success of the tour earned the group the “Top Stage Band” title by readers of NME.

“I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)” was released as a UK single with “Twilight Alehouse”, a non-album track recorded in 1972; its release in February 1974. Its success led to an offer for Genesis to appear on BBC’s national show Top of the Pops; the group thought this would not suit their image, and they declined the offer. The setlist is complete and features all five of the main songs from the “Selling England” album.

One of the very best shows Genesis played during the North American leg of the tour took place at the University of Montreal in Canada, on 21st April ‘74. A stunning performance this superb concert was also recorded for live FM radio transmission across Canada, and synched too in the USA and across Europe. Tracks: This recording is probably one of the most widely circulated Genesis bootlegs.

It’s particularly great to hear a live version of ‘The Battle Of Epping Forest’ which surely must have been one of the most difficult songs to play live that Genesis ever had. Peter Gabriel takes on all the individual characters very well and gives them an individual voice and it is a brilliant version.
Closing with an excellent version of “Supper’s Ready” where Gabriel again implements his vocal armoury, whereby, he’s virtually telling a story within a story.

Setlist:1 Watcher Of The Skies 8:54 2 Story Of Britannia 1:45 3 Dancing With The Moonlit Knight 8:51 4 Story Of Romeo And Juliet 1:59 5 The Cinema Show 11:18 6 I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) 6:29 7 Story Of Five Rivers 1:25 8 Firth Of Fifth 10:01 9 The Story Of Henry And Cynthia 1:49 1 The Musical Box 11:03 2 Horizons 2:09 3 The Battle Of Epping Forest 12:31 4 The Story Of Old Michael 3:02 5 Supper’s Ready 24:37 6 Outro 0:37

Live FM broadcast recorded at Centre Sportif De L’Université De Montréal, Canada, 21st April 1974.

Crack Cloud has always been something beyond a rock band: both profound and grand, vaporous and elusive.

The first iteration of Crack Cloud was formed nearly a decade ago as a proxy-rehab outlet on the fringes of Calgary. Over time, two EPs and accompanying visual pieces were produced out of the residence known as “Red Mile”. By 2017, several members had relocated to Vancouver, working out of harm reduction centers and low-barrier shelters. Sobriety, self-reformation and the idealism of their work further formed an ethos for Crack Cloud. It was during these years that the band produced their astounding 2020 album ‘Pain Olympics’. At once, their vision became expansive, cinematic.  

Now, ‘Red Mile’ is a bit of a homecoming. Members have returned to Calgary. But Calgary/home has become a liminal space, a place of flux. After a decade of personal and collective growth, what does home even mean? ‘Red Mile’ is, for them, something like samsara: a return and a rebirth.

‘Red Mile’’s sound breathes expansive energy into the circuitous, street bound sonics of Crack Cloud’s prior material. Fizzling synths intertwine with chiming pianos. Songs layer like Russian nesting dolls; one may find a Ramones chorus set within a desolate Western prog soundtrack only to watch it erupt into a joyous anthem. Real-ass guitars — alternately lilting, scuzzy and soaring — ring out across wide sun-bleached spaces. In 2024, the cumulative effect is (in rock instrumentation terms) naturalistic. Any whiff of embalmed nostalgia is absent. Even the close of the album – a winding, alllllmost Jerry Garcia guitar noodle that leads us out of ‘Red Mile’ – is delivered without sentimentality. 

Principal songwriter Zach Choy’s lyrics are cutting but merciful, with a sharp self awareness that never slides into self-satisfaction. Crack Cloud as artists are critical — and ultimately as forgiving — of themselves as they are the melting world around them. The songs balance an easy charm and cathartic power: affirming life without denying death.

This is the definitive history of Sarah Records; the Bristol-based label that signed the acts no major label would touch but who you wanted to hear.

Sarah put out a board game, produced cut ‘n’ paste fanzines and stuck two fingers up to the mainstream music industry. Sarah was your secret world and it was located in the heart of Bristol. Sarah Records lasted for seven years, nine months and 11 days.

In These Things Happen, those who were there at the beating heart of the indie-pop world reveal the deepest, darkest secrets of what really went into making Sarah’s pop masterpieces. Featuring almost 130 interviews, including at least one member of every single band (as well as the world exclusive first interview with Christine of Christine’s Cat fame), this book is an oral history of a defining moment in pop history.

Who stripped naked on stage to another band’s drum solo? Why did Julian Knowles sleep with his boots on his stomach in Hull? Whatever happened to Mr James C Urchin? All of these burning questions and more will be answered in this book. With no tatty old gig flyer left unturned in the pursuit of exposing the true political pop pandemonium that went on in the wonderful world of Sarah Records.

Fireflies. June Bugs. Cicadas. Menthol Lights. Heirloom Tomatoes. Duke’s Mayonnaise. Cherokee Purples. American Aquarium frontman and songwriter BJ Barham knows that the smallest details often make for the most vivid memories.

For nearly two decades, American Aquarium have pushed toward that rare form of rock-and-roll that’s revelatory in every sense. On “The Fear of Standing Still”, the North Carolina-bred band embody that dynamic with more intensity than ever before, endlessly matching their gritty breed of country-rock with Barham’s bravest and most incisive song writing to date. As he reflects on matters both personal and sociocultural—e.g., the complexity of Southern identity, the intersection of generational trauma and the dismantling of reproductive rights—American Aquarium instill every moment of “The Fear of Standing Still” with equal parts unbridled spirit and illuminating empathy. 

Recorded live at the legendary Sunset Sound in Los Angeles, “The Fear of Standing Still” marks American Aquarium’s second outing with producer Shooter Jennings—a three-time Grammy winner who also helmed production on 2020’s critically lauded “Lamentations“, as well as albums from the likes of Brandi Carlile and Tanya Tucker. In a departure from the stripped-down subtlety of 2022’s “Chicamacomico” (a largely acoustic rumination on grief), the band’s tenth studio LP piles on plenty of explosive riffs and hard-charging rhythms, bringing a visceral energy to the most nuanced and poetic of lyrics.

Mixed by four-time Grammy winner Trina Shoemaker (Queens of the Stone Age, Emmylou Harris), “The Fear of Standing Still” shares its title with one of the first songs Barham wrote for the album—a soul-baring look at how raising a family has radically altered his priorities and perspective. In the process of creating what he refers to as “a record about growing up and growing older,” Barham also found his songwriting closely informed by his ten years of sobriety, as well as his ever-deepening connection with American Aquarium’s community of fans.

Produced by Shooter Jennings, features Katie Pruitt and Jamie Lin Wilson and songs co-written with Lori McKenna, Hailey Whitters, Stephen Wilson Jr., and Pruitt. 

released July 26th, 2024

Tony Iommi has unveiled an epic new instrumental song called “Deified” to coincide with a new perfume of the same name, released in partnership with Xerjoff Group. The Black Sabbath riff-monger coproduced “Deified” with keyboardist and longtime collaborator Mike Exeter. Additional personnel includes Karl Brazil on drums, Laurence Cottle on bass and orchestration by Ben Andrew.

“Deified” marks Iommi’s second joint venture with Xerjoff behind the 2021 fragrance Monkey Special, which was also accompanied by an instrumental song called “Scent of Dark.” “I’m really excited about our new perfume and after the success of our last one [Monkey Special],

I hope that you’ll like “Deified” as much as I do,” Iommi said in a statement. “We’ve gone through the same process of trying different samples of perfume over the last year until we came up with this one, and I really like it.”

Guitar, Producer – Tony Iommi Keyboards, Producer – Mike Exeter Drums – Karl Brazil Bass – Laurence Cottle Orchestration – Ben Andrew

Sliding between the bodies in the street, cutting across the contrails that bisect our sky, Wand find melody and the anxiety beats as they hum the soundtrack for a new gravitational center. Seeking connections against the plan of niche interest and anonymity, Vertigo is the sound of slippage, rocks of contradiction (in soft focus); feet lost, regained, lost again, a multi-chromatic swaying, more automatic, associative, directed, in time.

Wandies – and all conceivable others! New album release bonus offer for the hardcore among yer: now, you can Turn On, Turn Off, and Tune Into the Vertigo Bundle – your choice of format on the new Wand record (LP-CD-or-CS),

Wand’s album “Vertigo” out on Drag City Records on July 26th 2024,

“Wish On The Bone’ is Why Bonnie’s sophomore LP and debut for Fire Talk. It’s untethered from any landscape or genre, propelled by this freedom and resulting in Why Bonnie’s most catchy, hopeful body of work to-date. Ranging from twangy country infused rock jams to more intimate and lo-fi arrangements, ‘Wish on the Bone’ is wide-eyed and waiting. It’s a coming of age film in which the protagonist rejects the forces that have tried, and failed, to shape her into something other than herself. It leaves you with a hard-fought sense of hope, which is among songwriter Blair Howerton’s greatest gifts.

The best Why Bonnie song yet, “Rhyme or Reason” has a tonal weight that rests on that of Blair Howerton’s long, complicated relationship with spirituality, something she explored on “90 “in November“, too (including the story of Genesis 19 on “Lot’s Wife”; “Looked like we had just won, but you’ll turn all to salt if you ever look back”).

“The disappearing warmth of love, like Halley’s Comet, I’ve only heard of it,” she sings. “I’ve never seen its streak, but I have heard it comes fast and you’ll miss it if you blink.” Those lines, like many in the Why Bonnie catalog, were inspired through Howerton’s grief of losing her brother Bristol (whom the band’s first EP was dedicated to in 2018) to drug addiction in 26. “I don’t want to harden through grief; I want to stay curious and stay hopeful,” Howerton said earlier this year. “All of these things that I love, I’m eventually going to lose one day. 

There’s no reason not to love them. It’s all the more reason to love them, because it’s a really powerful thing to love someone who’s gone and to piece the world back together yourself.” With that context, the “Just tell me when and I’ll be waitin’” refrain in “Rhyme or Reason” is about 10 pounds heavier.

From Why Bonnie’s sophomore album ‘Wish On The Bone’ out August 30th on Fire Talk.

Sunflower Bean are taking complete control for their new EP “Shake“—their first self-produced and self-recorded record ever. The title track reaches back into the New York trio’s DIY roots for a gutsy rocker that displays the maturity of a studio-adept band blended with the grit of their raw, unpolished past. “Happy couples make me sick,” vocalist/bassist Julia Cumming and guitarist/vocalist Nick Kivlen groan out over fuzzy riffage and pummeling percussion from Olive Faber. “Shake” is a glorious grunge nostalgia trip with an electric Sunflower Bean twist. 

releases September 27, 2024

Written by Nick Kivlen, Julia Cumming, and Olive Faber (Sunflower Bean)

This week, Spirit Of The Beehive dropped two new singles from their forthcoming album, “You’ll Have To Lose Something” “Something’s Ending” and “I’ve Been Evil.” The former is more of interlude than a full-bodied song, though the “they pulled another one out of the river, it looked like you” couplet will stick with you long after the track is over. “I’ve Been Evil.” however, is just as disarming, disorienting and tortured. “A splinter buried a hole, a cavity you can’t control,”

Zach Schwartz sings. 

“Someone is scratching at your skin, begging the house to buy you in.” Rivka Ravede’s backing harmony slowly corners Schwartz’s vocal, as a brutality shows its teeth in-between the beats of Spirit Of The Beehive rock ‘n’ roll. “I’ve Been Evil.” is like softness rupturing into a bruise.

The guitars are metallic, the percussion sounds like a hiccup. Listening to “I’ve Been Evil.” is like staring at an eclipse without glasses; there’s a straightforward romanticism coupled with violence. A co-worker brings a gun to work. You keep scratching your wound. There’s a mortgage being taken out on your mouth. You’re precious about things that weren’t yours to begin with. 

Zack Schwartz: Lead Vocals, Guitar, Drums, Keys, Samples Corey Wichlin: Lead Vocals, Guitar, Bass Guitar, Keys, Samples Rivka Ravede: Lead Vocals

The second single from Peel Dream Magazine’s forthcoming album “Rose Main Reading Room”, “Wish You Well” is just as intoxicating as “Lie in the Gutter” was earlier this summer. It’s as soothing as a balm, but its lyrics gnaw at something far more mournful—climbing social ladders and the “eat or be eaten” mentality thrown onto us by capitalism. “Netherworld destroyer, leave it at the foyer,” Olivia Bubaka Black sings. “I was sent to bore you, obviously. Get yourself a piece, a brand new kill to feast.” Multi-instrumentalist Ian Gibbs fill the Peel Dream Magazine sound palette with gauzy, cosmic electronica that meanders like a krautrock opera, while Joe Stevens and Black repeart “I wish, I wish, I wish you were well” over and over until it becomes a hypnosis trick. “Wish You Well” is lush and commanding, offering you a conscious lullaby that has two feet in the door of unrest always

,“Rose Main Reading Room“, is out September 4th via Topshelf Records!