The Fat Angel Sings

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!

Accompanying the announcement of her second studio album “Everybody Needs A Hero”, “The Hit” is a delicate yet intoxicating piece of indie rock. Orla Gartland finds herself so intertwined with her best friend that it feels supernatural: “It’s some kinda magic / Some voodoo doll shit / You get the cut and I feel the sting” she sings in communion with pulsating drums and a lush acoustic guitar. The confessional nature of Gartland’s songwriting feels extra conversational here, and, subsequently, uniquely authentic. “The Hit” is yet another indication that Gartland is presently at the top of her game.

Once again I am incredibly proud to be releasing this album via my own label, New Friends as an independent artist every risk you take is a trust fall back into your audience and man do I love you all for catching me every time

Released on: 2024-07-24

The fourth studio album by Soft Play (Aka Slaves) is a career-high that holds a sense of love and appreciation for the bond at the front and centre of the band.

The album is the band’s first back as a duo since releasing side projects, baby dave and larry pink the human. recorded over a year between the Tunbridge wells forum, Laurie’s garden studio, on tour, and finished at the libertine’s studio, the songs on ‘Heavy Jelly’ paint specific snapshots of the world around the band and amps up their sound and presence to something bolder and brighter than ever.

“For a good few years, it looked shaky as to whether U.K. duo Soft Play’s Isaac Holman and Laurie Vincent would ever be able to find their way forward to this moment. To say a lot has happened in the intervening years is an understatement: their friendship faltered, their creativity halted, they were rocked by grief and mental health issues, and when they did emerge, it was with side projects: Laurie’s Larry Pink The Human and Isaac’s Baby Dave. Step by step, however — via time, conversation, therapy and a positive new band identity — they got back on track. The result is “Heavy Jelly”, a product of the pair’s new sense of love and appreciation for their singular bond, which is both held front and centre and the defining inspiration behind what is clearly a new career high. Named after a Jiu-Jitsu instructor who told Laurie to act like ‘Heavy Jelly’ by means of explaining how much resistance to give in a demonstration, the turn of phrase also mirrors the duo’s worldview, “life is heavy, but it’s also funny.”

“Heavy Jelly” is out July 19th.