The Fat Angel Sings

“What Do We Do Now” began to come together during the waning days of the Pandemic. Utilizing his own Bisquiteen Studio, J. Mascis started working on writing a series of tunes on acoustic with a different dynamic than the stuff he creates for Dino. Both guest musicians featured (Matthew “Doc” Dunn and Ken Mauri) add beautifully to the songs here, helping to transform them from acoustic sketches into full-blown post-core power ballads

“What Do We Do Now” is the fifth solo studio LP recorded by J Mascis since 1996. This is obviously not a very aggressive release schedule, but when you figure in the live albums, guest spots, and records done with his various other bands (Dinosaur Jr., The Fog, Heavy Blanket, Witch, Sweet Apple, and so on), well, to paraphrase Lou Reed, “J’s week beats your year.”

“What Do We Do Now” began to come together during the waning days of the Pandemic. Utilizing his own Bisquiteen Studio, J started working on writing a series of tunes on acoustic with a different dynamic than the stuff he creates for Dino. “When I’m writing for the band,” he says, “I’m always trying to think of doing things Lou and Murph would fit into. For myself, I’m thinking more about what I can do with just an acoustic guitar, even for the leads. Of course, this time, I added full drums and electric leads, although the rhythm parts are still all acoustic. Usually, I try to do the solo stuff more simply so I can play it by myself, but I really wanted to add the drums. Once that started, everything else just fell into place. So it ended up sounding a lot more like a band record. I dunno why I did that exactly, but it’s just what happened.”

Two guest musicians are playing this time out; Western Mass local Ken Mauri (of the B52s) plays piano on several tracks. Since J himself has some experience with keys, when asked why he needed a hired gun, he says, “Ken is great, and he plays all the keys. I tried playing some keyboards on the first Fog album, but I’m really only comfortable playing the white notes, so it’s kind of limiting. [laughs] Nowadays, I could just turn the pitch on a mini Mellotron to play different sounds, but black keys just seem hard. For whatever reason, I just like banging on the white ones. Seems like it’s harder to figure out how to stretch your fingers around the other ones.”

Mauri has no such qualms and plays all the keys very damn well. He sounds especially great on “I Can’t Find You,” where he is Jack Nitzsche to J’s Neil Young, creating one of the album’s loveliest tunes. The other guest musician, Matthew “Doc” Dunn, is also prominent on this track. Dunn’s steel guitar manages to both widen and soften the musical edges of the music, giving it a full classicist profile. Dunn is an Ontario-based polymath who J met through Matt Valentine. After J played on Doc’s great 2022 Sub Pop single, “Your Feel,” he figured it was time for payback. Both Dunn and Mauri add beautifully to the songs here, helping to transform them from acoustic sketches into full-blown post-core power ballads.

The album ‘What Do We Do Now’, out on Sub Pop Records on 2/2/24

Whether we look for him or not, we all find God somewhere. It could be in nature. It could be in church. It could be in the metaverse. It differs for each and every one of us. In terms of where God might be, The Kills aren’t necessarily saying, but the duo – Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince – certainly sound like they’ve seen him. How else could you explain the primal call-and-response between Alison’s full body blues-soul vocal catharsis and Jamie’s swaggering, guillotine-smooth guitar transmissions on the duo’s sixth full-length offering, “God Games?”

The Kills have emerged as international rock stars, setting the pace for the genre, shaping this era’s sound, and redefining what rock music can be in the 21st century. They’re the rare force of nature who can tour with Queens of the Stone Age or Guns N’ Roses and light up Coachella. Returning home from the road in 2019, Alison and Jamie commenced writing for what would become “God Games”. However, the old adage, “Make plans, God laughs,” couldn’t have been more apropos.

Stretching boundaries, Jamie encouraged Alison to “buy this 100-dollar keyboard and try to write.” She added another creative tool to her arsenal, while he tinkered with textures, sounds and “wrote on guitar less than ever,” opting to primarily compose on piano for the first time. This powerful combination of forces gave the album its own sonic identity, a new path forged in the pair’s creative bond.

The Kills decamped to an old church (a bit ironic now isn’t it?) where they recorded with old friend and Academy and Grammy Award-winning producer Paul Epworth [Adele]. “Paul was our very first soundman in 2002,” recalls Jamie. “Since he was with us when we had two amps, a lightbulb, and a couple of mics in a van, it seemed perfect. He knew how far it had come and could trace the thread back.”

An ecstatic audience has turned out to witness PJ Harvey perform at the Paris Olympia with a combination of old hits and nuggets from her tenth studio album: “I Inside the Old Year Dying”. A magnetic, no-nonsense performance.

PJ Harvey is back with a concert film that captures a performance from this past fall.

Directed by Antoine Carlier and shot by Walter Films in collaboration with Arte Concerts, the concert was filmed at L’Olympia in Paris, France on October 13th, 2023. Over the course of a 22-song setlist, Harvey and her bandmates — John Parish, James Johnston, Giovanni Ferrario, and Jean-Marc Butty run through “I Inside the Old Year Dying” album, as well as a handful of “oldies,” including “Down by the Water,” “White Chalk,” and more.

Throughout the show, Harvey’s distinct artistry is displayed, as the visuals, lighting, costumes, and arrangements seamlessly come together to create an entrancing vibe. The concert film premiered on Arte Concerts’ YouTube channel on Wednesday, November 6th, and, according to press materials, “will be further broadcast on Arte channels” next year.

“I Inside the Old Year Dying” arrived this past July and was Harvey’s first full-length release in seven years. The album is a “masterful rebirth” that “transports listeners through an intensely vivid journey, presenting a different side to Harvey’s creative genius, one that proves profound art cannot be forced.”

This past fall, Harvey wrapped her 2023 dates in support of the album

Setlist : 0:57 Prayer at the Gate 5:40 Autumn Term 9:13 Lwonesome Tonight 13:46 Seem an I 16:56 The Nether-Edge 20:57 I Inside the Old Year Dying 23:01 All Souls 27:38 A Child’s Question, August 31:08 I Inside the Old I Dying 34:32 August 37:18 A Child’s Question, July 40:41 A Noiseless Noise Band Only 45:00 The Colour of the Earth Oldies 47:55 The Glorious Land 51:49 The Words That Maketh Murder 55:50 The Garden 1:01:10 The Desperate Kingdom of Love 1:04:09 Man-Size 1:07:30 Dress 1:11:12 Down by the Water 1:15:35 To Bring You My Love Encore 1:23:20 White Chalk

The Klittens are five musicians on a mission, untrained but unbothered. A band for those who have a knack for happy songs and sad sentiments. Their music is a surprising mix of indie-fuzz and DIY. The result: a repertoire that reaches from dark post-punk to danceable songs about grandma’s.

What initially started as a platform and creative outlet for political ideas, ended up in a group of friends that is growing into a professional band. An adventure that each of the members had always dreamed of, but never dared to make happen.

The girls are slowly crawling out of the Amsterdam underground scene: they toured the UK with York’s indie rock band Bull, supported SASAMI and Tacocat, and played shows with Dutch bands such as Personal Trainer, Pip Blom and global charming.

The band released their first three singles in 2020 which got a lot of recognition, despite the pandemic and limited possibilities. They kicked off with ‘Manic Dixi Dream Girl’ (self-released), followed by ‘Bleeding Gums’ (Permanent Creeps, UK) and ‘Liebe Resi’ (Geertruida, NL).

In April 2022 The Klittens have released their debut EP ‘Citrus’ (digital + vinyl) which included singles ‘Canned Air’, ‘Herkenbosch’, ‘Pristine Blue’ and ‘Benson’.

This new song “Atlas” is written and performed by The Klittens – Yaël Dekker, Katja Kahana, Michelle Geraerts, Winnie Conradi and Laurie Zantinge. Synthesizer by Gabriel de Oliveira.

To celebrate the album’s 25th-year anniversary, The Jesus And Mary Chain reissue their long-sold-out sixth studio album “Munki”. On Fuzz Club Records, the reissue arrives on CD and gatefold double LP. The vinyl has been remastered by Pete Maher (The Rolling Stones, Jack White, Liam Gallagher). Originally released June 2nd 1998 on Sub Pop / Creation Records, “Munki” was – up until the Mary Chain’s reformation in 2007 – an experimental rock’n’roll masterclass turned swan song for the Reid brothers, whose fractious in-fighting culminated in the band’s break-up less than a year after its release. It was perhaps fitting, then, that “Munki” is argued by some as the definitive Mary Chain record in the way it seemed to chart the full array of musical directions the band had ploughed over the five records that came before.

The decision to bookend the album with Jim’s rousing sing-along ‘I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll’ and William’s caustic white-noise anthem ‘I Hate Rock ‘N’ Roll’ perfectly captures the two-fold tension at the heart of the Mary Chain at that time – a tension between noise and melody, and warring brothers.

Across the album’s 17 tracks and 70-minute running time, there are the expected abrasive noise-rock epics ‘Cracking Up’ and ‘Degenerate’ by way of fuzzed-out pop hits like ‘Fizzy’ and the tender acoustic slow-burner ‘Never Understood’. Between the Reid’s Glaswegian snarls and unapologetically insolent lyrics – “I’m a mean motherf*cker now, but I once was cool”, “McDonald’s is sh*t!”, “Children are fools!” being just a few lyrical highlights – “Munki” also features two great guest appearances. Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval returns for another Mary Chain duet on ‘Perfume’, which has a swagger that’s equal parts menacing and bittersweet, and the Reid’s younger sister Linda (Sister Vanilla) sings beautifully on top of ‘Moe Tucker’s motorik proto-punk scuzz.

Suede perform a very special cover of Patti Smith’s, ‘Because The Night’ with the BBC Concert Orchestra. Recorded live from the BBC ‘s legendary Maida Vale Studios for Radio 2’s Piano Room Month. The full set, available on BBC Sounds and BBC iPlayer also includes their classic single ‘She’s In Fashion’ and their new single ‘The Only Way I Can Love You’.

“Roach” is Miya Folick’s clearest and most direct work yet, eschewing some of the lyrical and musical obfuscations she layered onto her 2018 debut album, “Premonitions”. With ear-worm melodies, heart-wrenching poetry, eclectic production and anchored by Folick’s once-in-a-lifetime voice, “Roach” straddles a line between pop and something more experimental.

She enlisted a team of collaborators who she trusted to bring out the grittier side of her artistry, including Gabe Wax (War on Drugs, Fleet Foxes), Mike Malchicoff (King Princess, Bo Burnham), Max Hershenow (MS MR) and a team of some of LA’s best players. The result is an album that sounds as honest and intimate as the subject matter at hand, a candid snapshot of where she is now and what it took to get there.

released December 8th, 2023

IDLES have returned with a new single entitled “Grace” from their forthcoming LP “TANGK”, which will be released on February 16th via Partisan Records. The track features distorted guitar tones and a dirty drum groove built around a hi-hat shuffle. On the downtempo, slow-burning song, frontman Joseph Talbot croons, “No god, no king, I said love is the thing.”

“The song came from nowhere and everything,” the vocalist shared in a press statement. “It was a breath and a call to be held. The only words or singing that came from our sessions with Nigel [Godrich] and I needed it, truly. All is love.”

As with the rest of the upcoming album, “Grace” was produced by Godrich, Kenny Beats, and the band’s Mark Bowen. 

The band’s new album “TANGK” will be released on February 16th via Partisan Records.

Suede return with “Autofiction: Expanded” – a deluxe version of critically acclaimed album ‘Autofiction’, which debuted at #2 in the UK Albums Chart and marked Suede’s highest charting LP since 1999’s “Head Music”. Accompanying the original album on the special limited edition 3CD release are B-sides and additional album session material, as well as an ‘Autofiction’ live album recorded on their March 2023 UK tour.

Originally the lead single from Suede’s ninth album ‘Autofiction’, this track will be included in the expanded release of the album, set to drop tomorrow. The expanded edition includes six bonus tracks and live versions of the original album.

Suede are pleased to announce ‘Autofiction: Expanded’ featuring six bonus tracks and live versions of the original album. Out on 8th December

Big Thief’s Adrianne Lenker has today shared a new song ‘Ruined’, a moving new track that acts as an introduction to her highly anticipated next solo album, which she has confirmed will arrive next year. Her latest single sees Adrianne embrace a piano-led melody, and she’s described the song as “a quiet beacon for me. It may contain the essence of the gift of romantic love but it’s mostly about something much bigger.”

Alongside ‘Ruined’, she has also shared an accompanying, suitably autumnal video – directed by her brother Noah Lenker – as well news of a forthcoming UK and EU tour.

We can expect a new album from the singular artist next year, as well a 2024 tour.