The Fat Angel Sings

Futurismo proudly present the release all hardcore Devo fans have been waiting for: “Art Devo 1973-1977”, a lovingly packaged box set housing rare, unheard and obscure mind blowers sourced directly from the vaults of The De-Evolution Band. This anthology takes you from the bands initial conception in Akron, Ohio to the moment before the world woke up, in a collection of sonic and visual art that captures Devo at the dawn of industrial death.

“Art Devo” showcases the mesmerizing evolution of a band on the brink of discovery, mining irony, wit and dark humour from the madness of a distorted modern world still coming to terms with aftermath of a collapsed economy and the Vietnam war. From 1973-1977 Devo would transform from an art project, pop art in the literal sense, into the group David Bowie would declare “the band of the future”. Here you will find the audio mutations of a band at the edge of greatness, initial concepts that gave birth to a new aesthetic that continually challenged preconceptions about music, art, performance, culture, composition and consumption…it was also the birth of Booji Boy. While the songs here may not be fully grown, raw even, these are the seeds of subversion that kickstarted Devo’s fifty year legacy.

Spanning 3 LP’s and a 7”, this collection draws purely from that integral early history, garnered from unearthed basement recordings, original demo tapes, unfinished montages and rare live audio, all taken from the bands personal archive. The music is set against rare imagery, photos and personal artwork, with liners penned directly from the hands of founding members Jerry Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh and packaged in a gold foiled archive box containing separate art cards, to evoke a pseudo auction house art catalogue. Did we mention one of the images is also Scratch ‘N’ Sniff!

This is a one-time only, strictly limited edition box set, never to be remade, showcasing why Devo was, and is still is, one of the most important bands in American history. De-evolution is real. The art of Devo is real. Here is the evidence.

The set has a tracklist that has been curated by the band, housed in a gold foiled archive box, and contain a set of double sided art cards – including a Scratch ‘N’ Sniff image.

Bleachers, the musical project helmed by eight-time Grammy Award-winning musician/producer Jack Antonoff, debuted a new music video for the recent single, “Alma Mater.” It’s the second single so far from the band’s new self-titled album, which is scheduled for release on March 8th, 2024.

The new Bleachers album is described officially as expressly being “Jack Antonoff’s distinctly New Jersey take on the bizarre sensory contradictions of modern life, on his position in culture, and the things he cares about. Sonically, it’s sad, it’s joyful, it’s music for driving on the highway to, for crying to and for dancing to at weddings. There’s something reassuringly touchable and concrete about its sentiment: exist in crazy times but remember what counts.”

The video for the song, which was directed by Alex Lockett and finds Antonoff driving alone through a city at night:

“Alma Mater” is the second song from the new album that showcases Antonoff’s passionate songwriting and knack for epic, memorable anthems. 

Noah Kahan made his debut on Saturday Night Live last night (December 2nd), performing ‘Dial Drunk’ and ‘Stick Season’ from his third album, “Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever)”. Watch a replay of the performance below.

Following the release of his sophomore album, Noah continued to write and record, unlocking a new level of himself as an artist and songwriter. Rife with fluttering guitar melodies, inviting vocals, and homey imagery of the Northeast on the verge of changing seasons, it represents a massive turning point for him. Kahan’s relationship with his career was altered, his conviction for storytelling and a pursuit of a more organic sound that aligned with the folk music of his upbringing had firmly arrived.

Back in June, Kahan released an expanded version of “Stick Season” featuring seven additional tracks, including a version of ‘Dial Drunk’ with Post Malone. Last month, he was nominated for Best New Artist at the 2024 Grammys.

Released 09/06/2023

In just two years, Brooklyn quintet Geese have exploded onto the scene with daring, auspicious rock ‘n’ roll that so many folks have become obsessed with. With an artillery of post-punk, stadium anthems and energetic, Y2K garage rock, Geese perfected a sound that is as meticulous as krautrock and as titanic as cowboy chords set ablaze by 10-foot-tall amplifiers. While their recent sophomore album, “3D Country”, Geese returned soon after with an EP of extra portions. The five songs on “4D Country“, which include a slightly re-imagined version of the OG title track, are all vignettes of a grandness that cannot—and could never be—contained within the confines of one singular album.

Geese are, all at once, vicious, theatrical, heartfelt and awing. Tunes like “Jesse” and “Art of War” capitalize on the experimental, seismic chaos the five-piece have perfected, while “Space Race” finds vocalist Cameron Winter going absolutely bonkers on the upswing. Predictable textures and tones are just not in the cards for Geese; every song they make is meant to put you in a tailspin.

Brooklyn 5-piece Geese have detailed their anticipated sophomore album “3D Country”, via Partisan Records. Co-produced by the band and James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Depeche Mode, Shame), the album’s 11 tracks are an explosion in both scope and vision for the group.

The new album “3D Country” out now on Partisan Records and Play It Again Sam:

I don’t think anyone was doubting it, but Beach House’s leftovers are, somehow, better than most folks’ first choices. After putting out their magnum opus “Once Twice Melody” last year, they couldn’t let 2023 ride through without placing some kind of imprint on it. Hence the release of “Become”, a collection of five outtakes from the “Once Twice Melody” sessions. They don’t arrive like demos, though, as Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally are just as moving, captivating and cosmic as ever. EP centerpiece “Holiday House” goes toe-to-toe with 95% of “Once Twice Melody“, while “Black Magic” is some of the best guitar-focused dream pop Beach House have ever made.

Of course, the duo doesn’t reinvent the wheel with “Become”. To be a Beach House appreciator is to understand that they are firmly in their own lane and are dominating the road ahead. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is a cliché for a reason, yet Legrand and Scally always seem to make it feel gorgeously fresh.

Four decades into their career, Yo La Tengo have such a sprawling and versatile discography that it’s no surprise their most beloved records, from 1997’s “I Can Feel The Heart Beating As One” to 2013’s “Fade”, are ones that make an effort to streamline their sound while eloquently fusing different styles. Aside from it being their first album of wholly new material since 2018’s “There’s a Riot Going On”, that’s another reason why “This Stupid World” feels like another pivotal moment in a career full of them. On paper, a lot of “This Stupid World” sounds doomful, or at least weathered by the passage of time. But more often than not, it’s a record that’s thrilling in its aliveness: “This stupid world, it’s killing me,” goes its enveloping mantra. “This stupid world is all we have.”

With its innate energy and some of the group’s strongest song writing in years, “This Stupid World” is the band’s heaviest and most immediate album in years. Back are the chugging bass line and feedback-laden theatrics that have made the trio such a beloved staple in the indie American fabric where they continue to defy rock and pop construction norms.

Ratboys’ 2020 LP “Printer’s Devil” marked the first time the group’s current line-up of Julia Steiner, David Sagan, Sean Neumann, and Marcus Nuccio – wrote an album collaboratively from start to finish, though the entirety of their first headline tour was then cancelled due to COVID. Now for their fifth studio album, the Chicago band recruited producer Chris Walla, who helped realize the widescreen ambition of their tenderly infectious and heartfelt brand of so-called “post-country.” Though “The Window” deals with themes of grief and isolation, the music’s joyful aliveness radiates through not only the band’s tight performances but Steiner’s lyrics, whose unflinching honesty and immediacy spins the white noise of confusion into pure love. “I love this feeling,” she sings looking back on the band’s early days on ‘I Want You” (2010)’. “Burning all my blank CDs never meant so much to me.” In the present, it somehow still feels like the start of forever.

Ratboys “No Way” sounds immediately familiar, as though it’s a song I’ve known for 20+ years but haven’t heard in about 17 years. It’s brand new, but the “it all comes rushing back” happens anyway. I’m not sure what song or songs I’m trying to remember. Is it a particular chord change, something specific about the guitar tone, something about how it swings from loose and casual to emphatic and cathartic? The Ratboys are working firmly within genre here – indie rock with a little alt-country flair – so this kind of mild deja vu is par for the course. The charm of “No Way,” and certainly what makes it interesting beyond mere recognition, is in how the band sound very excited to have written this kind of song.

A song this catchy, a song this easy to click into emotionally, a song that sounds like it’d be fun to play for an audience who knows the words to the chorus. It’s a song that approaches a breakup from two valid positions at once, gracefully moving from befuddled shrug to bold declaration that this sort of thing won’t happen again, or at least with them.

released August 25th, 2023

Written by Ratboys