The Fat Angel Sings

Chicago rockers, Ratboys, have announced their sixth studio album, “The Window”, and the band have shared a music video of its new single, “It’s Alive!” The Window is due out August 25th via Topshelf Records. The music video was directed by John TerEick.

This album from quartet Ratboys is by far their best to date. “The Window” is not just an ambitious, poised masterwork; it’s the product of a decade-old band being so far in their own bag that they can’t do anything but sock certified dingers. Early singles like the title track, “It’s Alive!” and “Black Earth, Wi” are some of the best rock tracks of the year already, but album cuts like “Morning Zoo” and “I Want You (Fall 2010)” are so gorgeous and layered that you’d think a 10-piece band made them. Orchestral in attitude and precise in execution, “The Window” is a record that demands your attention and excitement. It’s vocalist Julia Steiner’s strongest outing to date, and the rest of the band—Dave Sagan, Marcus Nuccio and Sean Neumann—have never felt more in-sync with each other. 

“We didn’t get bogged down in technical terms, and he never placed pressure on us in that way. With Chris steering the ship, we were free to go off on little creative expeditions and come up with parts and ideas we’d never imagined,” Nuccio says in a press release.

The spontaneity of the instrumentals are matched with the songwriting and lyricism of the band. “The album is sonically diverse, shifting wildly from track to track and flexing everything from fuzzy power pop choruses to warm country twang to mournful folk,” according to the press release.

Ratboys—composed of members Julia Steiner (guitar, vocals), Dave Sagan (guitar), Marcus Nuccio (drums), and Sean Neumann (bass)—ventured to Seattle to work with producer Chris Walla (Death Cab for Cutie, Tegan and Sara, Foxing) when making “The Window”. The album was almost fully crafted before heading into the studio, but Walla pushed the band to expand their vision, adding unexpected instruments such as rototoms, talkboxes, and fiddles.

“The Window’s” opening track, “It’s Alive” is an ode to “the overarching feeling of the world spinning on beneath you while you’re stuck in one place,” according to Steiner.

The album includes “Black Earth, WI,” a new song the band shared in March 

The cassette-only release marks the duo’s first new music since 2016’s “Ugly Laugh” LP.

On their new EP “No Fun”, Crooks & Nannies make music for people who like seeds in their watermelon and orange juice with plenty of pulp. It’s Madel Rafter and Sam Huntington’s first release in seven years (since their 2016 LP “Ugly Laugh”), and the West Philly duo make their comeback with six fresh-squeezed, emo-tinged songs with gobs of texture and twang, all about transformation and interpersonal connection, with all the beauty and messiness that comes with it. 

When Rafter sings about intrusive thoughts on the crunching, careening “control,” you can feel the fine line between composure and chaos in every blown-out beat of the drums. Then there’s “Sorry,” which Huntington wrote in one sitting in the midst of coming out as trans; the version that appears on the EP builds on vocals from her original demo, captured in a moment of deep vulnerability. The two know their way around a hook and a quiet-loud dynamic, and as singers, they’re not afraid to wring the raw emotional juice out of a breath until their voices shake.

In addition to those songs and the title track, “No Fun” includes three cassette-exclusive songs that showcase the duo at their most exploratory; “Liquor Store,” for one, with its synths and wind chimes, and “3am,” which descends from guitars and double vocals into a scramble of skronky horns and dance-punk drums. You can stream the non-cassette-exclusive tracks below, and read through a track-by-track commentary by Rafter and Huntington, who were kind enough to take us through all the nooks and crannies of the latest Crooks & Nannies.

1. “Liquor Store”
Madel Rafter: When I was 21 I was at the liquor store with a person I was dating, when they got a gnarly nosebleed. The security guard wouldn’t let them leave until they showed their ID, I guess to make sure we weren’t pulling some kind of elaborate on-command nosebleed scheme in order to drink underage. I thought it was really silly, so I wrote a song about it. 

2. “control”
Madel Rafter: I wrote “control” in 2017 while struggling with consistent intrusive thoughts. I wanted to capture the feeling of walking through an art museum and holding all of your muscles tightly because if you don’t, you might give into some crazy impulse and do something really, really bad, like pull a painting off the wall and put your foot through it. The lyrics talk about wearing a mask for the world to conceal internal negative thoughts, and worrying about being “bad to the bone” and ugly inside. On the façade, the song feels humorous, but I often use humour as a way to soften the blow of darker sentiments. Sonically, we took an approach that feels almost sing-songy at the top, but gets progressively more chaotic, fast, and emotionally blown out as the song progresses.

3. “Sorry”
Sam Huntington: “Sorry” is the first and only song I’ve written entirely in one sitting. I recorded a demo immediately afterward, and the final vocal is still the take from that demo. It came to me in 2018, at an incredibly overwhelming and unstable time in my life—I had recently made the decision to stop ignoring the fact that I was transgender, but was struggling to grapple with what that meant for me personally, and was feeling a lot of frustration toward myself for not having figured it out. Simultaneously, I found myself single for the first time in years and without the self-understanding to forge structures and supports I had, until that point, found in other people. I was in over my head, looking for strength in the wrong places, and having an increasingly difficult time seeing a future for myself.

4. “Cantaloupe”
Madel Rafter: Every day I thank god for autocorrect, because I can’t possibly remember how to spell the title of this song. “Cantelöpe” has been arranged and recorded in a number of different ways. It started with only acoustic guitar and vocals, and despite our best efforts to add other instrumentation, this song always feels best with a lonelier arrangement. It’s about longing. Wanting to feel softer and kinder. To break down walls, to accept love and affection others are trying to give. This is the last song I recorded before my voice changed from HRT. It’s funny and special to listen to a past, sadder me, who feels like a different person in many ways.

5. “3am”
Sam Huntington: I wrote “3am” a couple years back, shortly after our previous single “Sorry,” and they deal with similar themes. In both, I hear myself struggling to stay afloat—grasping frantically for confidence in the face of what felt, at the time, like an impossibly hostile world. In “3am,” however, I hear a shift away from isolation and toward community.

As I pulled myself out of desperation and reconnected with friends, I began to see my own value reflected back at me through those relationships. The anger and frustration I had been directing inward was beginning to shift toward a more deserving—if incredibly vague—target: the world in general, with all of its cruelties and injustices. I had not yet learned to care for myself, but had found a buoy in my care for others and felt fiercely determined to protect them.

Madel is one of the first people I came out to, and hearing their voice on “3am” makes so much sense to me. I wrote all the lyrics, but the song has a conversational quality and we wanted to lean into that by trading lines. As far as sound, we went for a mixture of punk and disco, hoping to simultaneously emphasize the visceral frustration, as well as the warmth and communal focus of the lyrics. The cherry on top was a raucous horn duel in the bridge, between Madel on sax, and their dad, John, on trumpet.

6. “No Fun”
Madel Rafter: There was a man I saw a few years ago at an arcade in Philadelphia, sitting with an unwavering gaze on a Jurassic Park pinball machine. He had a big plastic cup half full with quarters on a stool next to him. He was set up before I got to the arcade and still staring at the game when I left. When I wrote “No Fun,” I was feeling really checked out of the world. It’s about feeling insular and lonely, rejecting other people’s attempts at connection but not being quite sure why.

The newest solo effort from Big Thief guitarist Buck Meek is a truly wondrous sight to behold. As a follow-up to his 2021 album “Two Saviors”, “Haunted Mountain” is a wide landscape of rock ‘n’ roll. Meek might not be the centre of attention while sharing a stage with his Big Thief bandmates, but on “Haunted Mansion” he has the legs to explore every type of mood he can conjure. With three teaser tracks out already, the singer/songwriter has already proven that his solo work is daring, contemplative and spiritual. From the bluesy guitar leads on “Haunted Mountain” to the pensive balladry of “Paradise,” Meek is on another level. Beyond August, as far as folk-rock records in 2023 go, “Haunted Mountain” is the one we’re most excited about. 

“Paradise”, was the second single from Buck Meek’s record “Haunted Mountain”, is out now Buck says, “Sometimes when you half-hear something spoken, something unspoken inside the words is revealed. Your mind fills in the blank, finishes the sentence, infers deep meaning – though you still can’t fully explain it. Jolie Holland sent me some of the lyrics for this song, about feeling in awe of the vastness within a loved one, and I wrote it thinking about how love often feels too big to comprehend, like death, or life after death, or space.”

“Paradise”, the second single from Buck’s record “Haunted Mountain”,

Slowdive’s 5th record is exactly what the title suggests: an exploration into the shimmering nature of life and the universal touch points within it. while there are parts of this record that could sit neatly next to the atmospheric quality of 1995’s ‘Pygmalion’;

Slowdive’s “the slab” is the latest addition to a new era which has seen the band rocket into the 21st century with as much panache and grace as their self-titled did six years ago. The third single off of “Everything Is Alive” is typically—and delightfully—woozy, an aura of quiet suspension permeating its rhythmic bones. “the slab” was intended to be heavier than many of the songs on the record, and it has a notable pull to it; deeper instrumentals and thick sonic textures add weight to the track, creating a loud, prowling soundscape. Over five, sprawling minutes, the song’s intensity increases to a distorted pinnacle before fading quicker than it came. It’s a spacey, moody closer to the eight-track album set to arrive next month.

‘Everything Is Alive’ also manages to break down the boundaries of what’s come before it. spanning psychedelic soundscapes, pulsating 80’s electronic elements and John-Cale-inspired journeys, the album lands immediately as something made for 2023 and beyond.

For a genre that is often thought of as divisive, and often warrants introspection, here Slowdive show their craft as the masters of it by pushing it outwards, beyond the singular; the end result being a record which feels as emotional and cathartic as it is hopeful.

Slaughter Beach, Dog released a folky new single “Strange Weather” today. It comes with backing vocals from Erin Rae. Slaughter Beach, Dog have released a new easygoing indie folk song, “Strange Weather,” alongside the announcement new tour dates coming up in the fall. According to band leader Jake Ewald, “Strange Weather” is about “doing your very best to disappear from yourself. Hiromi Kawakami and Jason Molina live in here. I think Jia Tolentino, too. Trying to hold light in your hand. Certainly as a bad prank that unfolds across decades. Sometimes all I get is sha-la-la. Thanks to Erin Rae for lending us her amazing voice here – I remember listening to Putting On Airs in the van after a show some years ago and the whole tour melted away for a minute. An honor to finally share the mic with you, ER. If I saw the light, would I know?”

“Strange Weather” by Slaughter Beach, Dog Lame-O Records 2023

The fifth song to arrive from Ratboys’ forthcoming record, “The Window”, is, possibly, the very best. “Morning Zoo” is the post-country masterpiece that will surely become a definitive track of 2023 when it’s all said and done. The violin that Abby Gundersen injects into the instrumental is mesmerizing and unreal, and it perfectly compliments vocalist Julia Steiner’s twangy, precise and zoomed-in vocals—as she examines her own anxieties and the weight of being in a band at a time when it’s becoming harder and harder to find successful longevity. “How long does it take to find the peace that I want?” she sings. “And how long must I wait to decide that it’s over? Well, I don’t know.” Though it juxtaposes greatly with the epic, mountainous unfurling of “Black Earth, Wi,” “Morning Zoo” glitters just as brightly, perhaps even more so. 

Written & Performed by Ratboys Produced by Chris Walla “Morning Zoo” is taken from Ratboys’ ‘The Window’, out August 25 via Topshelf Records

Last month, MJ Lenderman released one of the song’s of the summer, “Rudolph.” Cut to a few days ago, and the Asheville singer/songwriter is giving his own accolade a run for its money with “Knockin.” The track is a perennial live show favorite that appeared on his 2021 EP of the same name but, this time around, it’s a hi-fi update of a not-so-new song, and it’s just as good as anything Lenderman has made, maybe better—depending on who you ask. “Knockin” is a blistering country-rock stunner that puts one thing at the center of attention: Lenderman’s uncanny ability to absolutely shred. With Xandy Chelmis’ pedal steel and a mountain of percussion backing him up, “Knockin” takes on a life of its own.

Lenderman’s lyricism is at an 11 here, too, as he makes a play on Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” while keeping up his trademark fusion of earnestness and poetic humor. “Loneliness is simple, not much else is,” he waxes. “Her love for me is real, she gives me what she has to give. She gave me wings and I caught blight.” 

Title track from MJ Lenderman’s brand new EP ‘Knockin,’ out August 20th via Dear Life Records Digital Editions

When Bad Moves’ David Combs released “Ride the Vibe” under the moniker Dim Wizard earlier this year, he was tapping into a deep bag of momentum. He’d tapped Jeff Rosenstock, Illuminati Hotties’ Sarah Tudzin and superviolet’s Steve Ciolek to round out the track and, even then, it felt like an all-time guest list. Fast-forward to this week, and Combs has done it again. The latest Dim Wizard track, “X-Games Mode,” calls upon Mike Krol and Ratboys’ Julia Steiner, while Tudzin is tagged as a co-producer. “X-Games Mode” is a shredding delight. Catchy riffs and overblown guitars aplenty, Krol and Steiner pierce through the walls of distortion to form a pretty perfect alt-rock track with power pop inflections.

Dim Wizard Released on: 2023-08-08

Though Courtney Barnett has her own record, “End Of The Day”, due out next month, the Australian singer/songwriter took some time to release a cover of Chastity Belt’s all-time track “Different Now.” Originally appearing on their 2017 album “I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone”, it remains the one Chastity Belt song I return to more than any other—because it’s just one of the most beautiful songs ever written. The only person in the world who could cover it and do the record justice is Barnett, who called upon Warpaint’s Stella Mozgawa to play drums and synths. Barnett’s vocals take a subdued, scaled back route, as she morphs the song into an ‘80s pop soundscape—all thanks to Mozgawa’s intricate yet bubbly contributions.

This version matches the undeniable catchiness of the original by carving out its own space without stealing the thunder of Chastity Belt’s OG vision. That’s what the best covers do, and Barnett has constructed a perfect homage to the Washington band’s reflective and intimate classic.

Written by Chastity Belt Guitars and Vocals by Courtney Barnett Drums and Synths by Stella Mozgawa

“Different Now” out August 7th, 2023 on Suicide Squeeze Records

“Grandma’s Garden,” is the second single from Al Menne’s forthcoming album “Freak Accident”, is short and softly insistent; a rearview-mirror childhood recollection told with all the diaristic vulnerability of youth. It shakes and glimmers with triumphant guitar and rich backing instrumentals, a synesthetic description of late summer and days long gone. With, as always, impeccable guitar playing from Hand Habits’ Meg Duffy, “Grandma’s Garden” is a hypnotic, nostalgic slice of sharp nostalgia—as Menne conjures memories of running through their grandparents’ pastures. “Petulant kid playing silent treatment, doubling down ‘cause you know I’m stubborn,” Menne sings. “Obvious where I could’ve got that from. Am I not who you thought I would be?”

“Freak Accident” is the debut album from Al Menne. Menne came up in the music scene as the lead singer of Seattle-based rock band Great Grandpa. In this outfit, Menne’s remarkable voice—capable of quicksilver flicks between vocal registers—was on full display. Aside from the occasional posting of half-finished demos on Bandcamp, “Freak Accident” marks their first official foray as a solo artist. 

“Freak Accident” is available everywhere on LP/CD/digital September 22nd on Double Double Whammy.