The Fat Angel Sings

During the London Virtual Weekender in March 2021, we performed a special Heaven is Whenever set during soundcheck. It was a way of reimagining the HIW record as if we had we recorded it with Franz and Steve. It’s not a track by track recreation- it includes some b-sides and other material written around the record, and leaves a few out. Basically, a re-thinking of Heaven is Whenever. Performed live in front of an empty Brooklyn Bowl, we are now offering this special archival release on Bandcamp. We really love how it turned out, we hope you will enjoy. Stay Positive.

On Monday, June 19th, from midnight to midnight PT, we’ll echo Bandcamp by participating in their fourth annual Juneteenth fundraiser, where we’ll also donate 100% of our share of sales to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, a racial justice organization with a long history of effectively enacting change through litigation, advocacy, and public education.

Released June 19th, 2023

The Hold Steady are: Bobby Drake, Craig Finn, Tad Kubler, Franz Nicolay, Galen Polivka, Steve Selvidge

Speaking about ‘Birds’, the band’s vocalist and guitarist Felix Mackenzie-Barrow has said, “The core of this song came out in about half an hour of writing. I followed the first idea that came through me when I sat down with the guitar. I was carrying a lot of insecurity that felt like it was piling in on me from all angles but this song was an attempt to reshape those feelings into something positive. I wanted to remind myself and all of us in the band how much belief we have in each other and in the truth of what we’re doing together.”

the news that the band have signed to Gravity/EMI Records. Divorce will also be heading out on a headline UK tour this November, with tickets going on sale at 10am on 15th June. The four-piece will also play a string of dates supporting Willie J Healey.

The Band:

Vocals and guitar by Felix Mackenzie-Barrow
Vocals and bass by Tiger Cohen-Towell
Vocals, guitar and synths by Adam Peter Smith
Vocals and drums by Kasper Sandstrøm

“Angels & Queens – Part I” was released back in September, picking up widespread acclaim across the globe. Its release was governed by the band’s desire to push through the release of new recordings this year, and release the record in two distinct chapters. The second chapter now concludes the full album’s track-listing for a Spring 2023 release.

Gabriels nowl release of their debut album, “Angels and Queens”. The 13 track record released via Atlas Artists/Parlophone Records and was produced by the Grammy winning and fellow Compton local, Sounwave. “Angels and Queens – Part I” was originally released back in September, picking up widespread acclaim across the globe. Its release was governed by the band’s desire to push through the release of new recordings this year, and release the record in two distinct chapters. The second chapter now concludes the full album’s tracklisting for a Spring 2023 release.

“Angels and Queens” incorporates a brand new recording of the band’s seminal debut single, “Love and Hate In A Different Time”, and songs that have already become staples of the band’s live set; “Offering, Glory”, and “Great Wind”.

CD+ – Deluxe CD version with eight additional recordings, featuring four tracks from the band’s seminal Glastonbury set earlier in the Summer, a BBC Maida Vale session recording of “Spanish Harlem”, and a Greg Wilson and Che Wilson remix of “Love and Hate in A Different Time”.

Palehound are releasing their new album “Eye On The Bat” next month. We’ve already written about its lead single “The Clutch” and then the follow-up “My Evil.” Today, Elen Kempner is back with another album preview called “Independence Day,” 

“The ending of a relationship that spanned the majority of my twenties illuminated a forked road that daunted me,” Kempner shares of “Independence Day.” “In the aftermath of our breakup, I found myself dwelling on what that other life would have been like and who I would have become had we chosen differently, or even if circumstance or tragedy had chosen for us.”

Featuring El Kemper, Lara Brogan, Jamie Pompei and Miles Toth. Also featuring Shannon Wiedemeyer, Greg Rutkin and Chance Williams.

“Independence Day” is taken from Palehound’s upcoming album, “Eye On The Bat” – out July 14th, 2023.

“Three Hours” is an album cut from Nick Drake’s debut album “Five Leaves Left”. It’s one of the tracks on that record that most shows off Drake’s deft finger-picking. It is not only the longest track on the album but the longest track in his entire, brief oeuvre. It’s a little bit different than your standard Nick Drake track.

PJ Harvey-collaborator John Parish and New Zealand singer-songwriter Aldous Harding have teamed up to record a version of “Three Hours” for the new Nick Drake tribute “Endless Coloured Ways”. And their muse appears to be Wilco or Krautrock bands such as Neu! as much as it is Drake himself.

From the opening drone, it’s clear that Parish and Harding have something very different in mind that a vaguely progressive folk song. The drums and throbbing bass kick But Harding’s and Parish’s voice are much folkier, and much closer to Drake’s in tone, And the looped electric piano and chugging organ dispel some of the similarities.

It’s an interesting take that both recalls the original in its vocal line but sounds utterly divorced from the original in terms of the rest of the sonic palette. “The Endless Coloured Ways” is a collection of songs by the legendary singer/ songwriter, Nick Drake, performed and recorded by over 30 incredible artists from a range of different backgrounds, genres, age groups and audiences. From Fontaines D.C. to Guy Garvey, Aurora to Feist, and Self-Esteem to David Gray, each artist has offered their own incredible take on a timeless classic.

“‘Cello Song” is one of the more distinct cuts on Nick Drake‘s debut album “Five Leaves Left”. Shockingly, it features a prominent cello part, in addition to congas, augmenting Drake’s guitar and voice. For the rest of the album, Drake is accompanied usually by a string section or a bass instead. It’s one of his more frequently covered songs, perhaps because of its distinctness within his catalogue or perhaps because it’s just very pretty.

Irish rock band Fontaines D.C., who we last saw Cover another song with a version of U2’s “One,” have decided to mostly omit the cello from their version of “‘Cello Song.” That’s hardly a surprise given their post-punk-influenced sound, but it still makes the title a little funny. (Perhaps Nick Drake should have properly named his song.) They’ve recorded their version as part of the upcoming tribute to “Drake, The Endless Coloured Days”.

There is some feedback or other ambient noise at the very beginning, before the drums kick in, that vaguely resembles a cello, but it’s there only for a moment. And then the drums kick in and you know this is not your typical Nick Drake cover. The (electric) guitars are angular and vaguely twangy. And the vibe is much more early ’80s than late ’60s.

But then Grian Chatten starts humming the refrain melody, as Drake does in the original, and things calm down considerably. When Chatten starts singing the actual lyrics, around the 1:40 minute, the song actually starts to resemble the original a little bit, with an acoustic guitar roughly approximating Drake’s own guitar part. The drums kick back in for the hummed refrain but otherwise, the feel is more of a rocked up, vaguely hazy version of the original, rather than a complete rethinking. A cello, or perhaps a viola, does eventually come in at the very end.

“The Endless Coloured Ways: The Songs Of Nick Drake” available soon.

So the intro actually is a bit of a misdirection, setting us up for a radical revision but then revealing a reasonably faithful version of the song, albeit with more drums and way more electric guitar. 

“Girl with Fish” is the sophomore LP from Pittsburgh’s Feeble Little Horse, and it turns the intriguing qualities of 2022’s “Hayday” into something altogether mesmerizing. Unlike similarly-minded indie acts, the band doesn’t search for the sweet spot between hooky melodies and ambitious experimentation; stickiness is their whole deal, whether it comes in the form of something delicate, fuzzy, or idiosyncratic. Their synergy warps and mangles and compresses a swathe of influences until they’re barely identifiable, but the musical and emotional dynamics are laid out in such a way that it leaves you with something to ponder latch onto.

There’s a mix of humour and vulnerability in bassist/vocalist Lydia Slocum’s lyrics, which perfectly match the playful chaos of the music. Sometimes, it seems to suggest, it’s more fun to just get lost in the maze.

The song was recorded at Real World Studios, Bath, The Beehive and British Grove, London and High Seas Studios, South Africa. ‘I’m working on a project which is partly a story focused around the brain and how we perceive things and this song connects to that. It deals with near-death experience and locked-in syndrome situations where people are unable to communicate or to move. It’s an amazingly frustrating condition. There have been some great books and films about this subject, but at this point in our story the people looking after our hero manage to find a way to wake him up. So, it’s a lyric about coming back into your senses, back to life, back into the world.’ The song is one of the last tracks to emerge for the “i/o” record, but it has some DNA from an earlier project; ‘It was actually very late in the record that we got to this. There had been a song that musically I’d started, I think, around the OVO project called Pukka. It was very different to this, but it was actually the starting point for coming back to this song. I just felt there was a good groove there, and I wanted something else with rhythm and so we tried a few things when I was working with Brian Eno. The excitement and energy in the song was something that I was getting off on. I felt we didn’t have enough of that for this record.’ As with previous full moon releases, “Road to Joy” comes with an artist of the month, and for this June release that artist is Ai Weiwei and his work ‘Middle Finger in Pink’. ‘I’m a big fan of Ai Weiwei, both as an artist, as a designer and as a human rights campaigner. He’s an incredibly brave man and regularly risks the wrath of the Chinese government. But his work is exceptional, often political and quite extraordinary. When I was hustling him, I think he had absolutely no idea who I was, so it was an uphill battle at first, but he was open to talking and we got to know each other and hang out a little bit. I was delighted when he agreed to being a part of the “i/o” project and generously sent us three designs. He has this middle finger image that he uses a lot in his work, and it is often directed to those in power. He’s definitely been at the root end of power, as his father was before him. So that’s an important symbol for him and I guess in the context of the story I am now working on, death is the dominant power, and the hero is coming back to life and raising his finger to death.’

Written by Peter Gabriel and produced by Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno, “Road to Joy” features Soweto Gospel Choir, a string arrangement from John Metcalfe and contributions from a number of Gabriel’s current touring band; long-time collaborators Tony Levin (bass), David Rhodes (guitar) and Manu Katché (drums) as well as two newer members Don E (bass keys), ‘he did the funkiest bass line that you can imagine’ and Josh Shpak (trumpet), ‘beautiful playing, a super musical guy.’

“Road to Joy” is the sixth track to be released from Peter Gabriel’s his forthcoming album “i/o”. This is the Dark-Side mix, by Tchad Blake.

Comprised of Cameron Wisch (Cende, Porches) and Justin Jergens (Sirs) this brand new band delivers fast sugary punk in the style of Texas heroes The Marked Men. From the moment we pressed play on the first track “Nothing In My Head” we were sold. The unrelenting groove intertwines with Jurgens’ passionate vocal performance and raw punk guitars with a 60’s sparkle. The songs that follow resemble everything from a bootlegged copy of Neil Young’s Live Rust to a glowing Brian Wilson B-Side. “Open Up That Heart” takes a stab at finding hope and love in the face of recent heartbreak, outdated familial expectations, depression, and a world in turmoil.

“Nothing In My Head” is the first ever song released by the power-pop / punk band Dust Star of Joshua Tree, California. Their debut album “Open Up That Heart” is out August 5th on Lame-O Records.