The Fat Angel Sings

Peel Dream Magazine are releasing their 2025 mini-album, “Taurus”, on vinyl via Topshelf on November 11th. This week he shared one of its bonus tracks, “Blind Faith.”

Frontman Joe Stevens had this to say about the song: “This is another track I was working on during the time I made “Rose Main Reading Room”. Like a lot of those songs, I recorded it a few times over, but I couldn’t get a particular sound I was looking for, and the structure kept changing. I decided to put down the pen and didn’t revisit the song until earlier this year. I was inspired by Thom Yorke’s “The Eraser”, The Books, and some other minimalist, glitchy music from that time.

The song is kind of about wandering the maze of your own head, trying to escape the habits that lead nowhere.

British four-piece The Big Moon are releasing a new album, “Forever”, on  October 30th via Fiction Records. This week they shared the album’s sort of title track, “F.O.R.E.V.E.R.”

The band collectively had this to say about the song in a press release: ““F.O.R.E.V.E.R” is about comparing the interconnectedness of everything in the universe with our tiny lives here on earth and remembering that however small you feel, you still have an effect. You are still part of something much bigger than you and your body and whatever you might be wrapped up in.”

Four years on from last LP “Here Is Everything” and a further eight since frontwoman Juliette Jackson first laid the foundations for the band – the London-formed four-piece find themselves in a very different, if similarly challenging, headspace. Where that record was conceived in the context of COVID and found Jackson processing the life-altering experience of new motherhood, “Forever” examines what’s left when you’ve already checked off many of the major milestones, and is tempered by a first-hand understanding of life’s fragility.

The truth is, the past couple of years have been a big readjustment for Jackson. In 2024, she was diagnosed with a cholesteatoma – a benign but destructive cyst inside the eardrum which has to be removed with surgery. Jackson explains, “I permanently lost most of the hearing on one side, which was pretty much existential, because writing songs is my job and my identity.” Stoic by nature, Jackson forged forward with songwriting regardless but found herself faltering. “I couldn’t hear properly, everything sounded out of tune and I was just struggling to find a point at all, just writing these miserable songs I couldn’t really hear.”

The answer was to shift her outlook completely, manifesting “a happy ending that didn’t exist yet.” “I just decided to write songs for this imaginary time, one or two years in the future, when I would be all healed and happy again. I didn’t know if I would ever get to that point but, by projecting and almost tricking myself into it, it actually became a really nice way of writing.” It proved an extremely fruitful approach, producing some of the brightest songs of The Big Moon’s career to date. Recorded over three weeks at Norfolk’s Bam Bam Studios, with Kevin Morby-collaborator Sam Cohen co-producing alongside the band, “Forever” is brimming with hook-heavy alt-pop gems, not least because Jackson had fallen out of love with writing verses.

“Over the years I’ve got more impatient with music,” Jackson explains with a grin. “I just like getting straight to the point.” As bandmate Celia Archer explains, they hope the album proves uplifting. “They’re not trivial songs lyrically or thematically or musically, but Jules has shown us you can face all this stuff and choose to be hopeful and find power from it. Hopefully other people can apply that to their own lives.”

Texas-born/Los Angeles– and Marfa-based singer/songwriter Jess Williamson released a new album, “A Mile South of Heaven“, today via New West Records Williamson shared its latest single, “Hum of the City,” via a music video.

Williamson had this to say about the song in a press release: “I’m kind of a wanderer by nature, and this song is about my complicated relationship with the idea of home. I’ve spent years feeling pulled between the excitement of life in the city and the peace of a more rural life, never quite sure where I belong.

“There’s a romance to being in hotels alone. I love checking into my room, going down to the hotel bar, and talking with the bartender. I once checked into a hotel and realized I was staying in the very same room I’d been in years earlier (room 12, from the song), during a completely different season of my life, right before a major life change. There’s something uncanny about the anonymity of a hotel room holding such a personal memory.

“The song imagines a conversation with the hotel bartender, asking him to change the music. Sometimes contemporary music feels a little weird if you happen to have history with the person singing it. But old country music always hits.”

Shooter Jennings produced “A Mile South of Heaven“, recording it at Sunset Sound in Hollywood.

“Depending on your outlook, a mile south of heaven may sound sad, or it may sound hopeful,” Williamson explains of the new album’s title. “We’re always a mile south of the impossible goals we set for ourselves, and my point is, maybe that’s ok, because a mile is pretty close. It’s about appreciating where we are now, because there is no finish line. There is always more work to be done.”

Father John Misty (aka Josh Tillman) has released a new single “The X-panded Universe,” a six-minute epic that tackles the multiverse, crossover events, and angels. It’s out now on Sub Pop. Father John Misty is on tour his current live band is well worth seeing.

“The X-panded Universe” follows “The Old Law,” The latter track was previously known to Father John Misty fans as “God’s Trash” and debuted as part of the live set in the fall of 2024.

All three singles follow the release of “Mahashmashana”, Father John Misty’s acclaimed sixth long player in twelve years, released in November 2024. a new song Father John Misty released back in January and “The Payoff,” a new song shared in April .

Drew Erickson and Tillman produced “The X-panded Universe,” which was written and composed by Tillman and arranged by Erickson. Michael Harris mixed and engineered the song at Fivestar Studios in Topanga, CA, and it was mastered by Adam Amyan at Ayan Mastering. 

‘The X-panded Universe‘ by Father John Misty out now on Sub Pop Records

“Felice County Fair” features more than two dozen tracks from The Felice Brothers’ decades-long discography covered by friends and fans of the band, amounting to a who’s-who of 21st century Americana and folk music. It is a fitting homage for a group whose catalog has served as an aspirational touchstone for a generation of artists. The project follows a collaborative performance at the band’s Newport Festival after show, which brought together Jade Bird, Dawes, Deer Tick, Brandon Flowers, Nathaniel Rateliff, Wesley Schultz and Bebe Stockwell.

A note from Ian Felice. “Wonderful Life” by Bright Eyes and “The Kid” by The Lumineers are out now. Felice County Fair releases in full on October 16th.

A companion documentary about The Felice Brothers, directed by Tiller Russell and produced by Gabriela Hearst, Love and Squalor Quarterly, and Sony Music Nashville, is scheduled to premiere alongside the album.”

“Tropical Fuck Storm revisit the live album concept on “Inflatable Graveyard Vol. 2“, their second live album and the follow-up to the critically acclaimed “Fairyland Codex“. Recorded over three nights during a sold-out residency at New York venue TV Eye, the album finds the band at the height of their incendiary powers, turning already combustible songs into something even more ferocious and unpredictable. TFS have built a catalogue worth obsessing over, but their live show is where the band’s brilliance really breaks open, and “Inflatable Graveyard Vol. 2 catches that chaos in the act.”

Fine-tuned and road-tested through heavy touring, songs from ‘Fairyland Codex’ are stretched into new forms. Ballad “Stepping on a Rake” takes on heavier undertones, “Irukandji Syndrome” becomes a launchpad for a guitar solo worthy of the Velvets’ “I Heard Her Call My Name” and “Moscovium” sounds more urgent than ever.

The band also revisit back catalogue favourites including “Who’s My Eugene” and “You Let My Tyres Down”, alongside a cover of Australian punk heroes The Saints’ “This Perfect Day”.

Tropical Fuck Storm is Gareth Liddiard, Fiona Kitschin, Lauren Hammel and Erica Dunn

Fontaines D.C.’s fifth album ‘Dopamine Chamber’ finds the Dublin band moving away from their earlier guitar sound towards colder electronics, samples, marching drums and flashes of 1960s Italian pop. Several songs dispense with guitars entirely as the band pursue what guitarist Conor Curley describes as music that points towards the future.

The sound of a band moving decisively away from the guitar language of their early records into something colder, stranger and more synthetic. “Dopamine Chamber” arrives like a constellation behind undulating sighs of smog: Potent balladry, anthemic melodies glinting through the murk. In a world tipping towards collapse, it asks how pleasure mutates amid peril — and what our pursuit of it reveals about us.

Across the album, Fontaines D.C. — Grian Chatten, Carlos O’Connell, Conor Curley, Conor Deegan and Tom Coll — move between gratification and dread until the two meld together, reflecting the overwhelm of artificial intelligence, environmental collapse and political violence all riding the same algorithms as memes, jokes and celebrity culture. “The album itself is a dopamine chamber,” says Chatten. 

“Tongue” is taken from Fontaines D.C.’s new album “Dopamine Chamber”, out 16th October:

Released in October 1975, ‘Rock of the Westies’ is the tenth studio album by Elton John. Recorded at Caribou Ranch in Colorado and produced by Gus Dudgeon, the album captures the sound of Elton and his band having fun at the height of their mid-’70s success. It was, as Elton says today, “The most genuine rock and roll record that I’ve ever made.”

Five decades after its original release, Elton John’s raucous and freewheeling album “Rock of the Westies” will receive a 50th Anniversary Edition reissue, out on 20th November.

‘Rock of the Westies’ made history by entering the US Billboard 200 at No.1, where it remained for three consecutive weeks, and also reached the Top 5 of the UK Albums Chart. The album includes fan favourites “Grow Some Funk Of Your Own” and “Dan Dare (Pilot Of The Future)”.

This special 50th Anniversary expanded edition is presented as a 2LP coloured vinyl set (Sea Blue and Electric Blue) featuring the original album, plus a bonus disc of previously unreleased Piano & Vocal Versions from the album sessions. Housed in a gatefold sleeve, it also includes a 16-page booklet containing new sleeve notes and archival imagery.

This Fab new issue of Uncut Magazine is now on sale! Stars George Harrison, Amy Winehouse, a 13-track Brian Eno & friends CD, Shane MacGowan, John Prine, Radie Peat, Tony Iommi, Roky Erickson, Queens of the Stone Age, Butthole Surfers, Bill Withers, Bob Dylan, Fontaines D.C. & more. 

The only studio album by the American rock band Mad Season, released on March 14th, 1995 through Columbia Records. The album has been certified gold by the RIAA in the United States. Featuring members of Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains and Screaming Trees.

During the production of Pearl Jam’s “Vitalogy”, guitarist Mike McCready went into rehabilitation in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he met John Baker Saunders, In 1994, when the two returned to Seattle, they formed a side band with Screaming Trees drummer Barrett Martin. Immediately the trio set up rehearsal time together and began writing material. McCready then brought in friend and Alice in Chains frontman Layne Staley to round out the line-up. McCready had hoped that being around sober musicians would push Staley to get himself sober too.

“It’s hard to describe the album. Martin plays some vibes and Layne plays guitar. There’s some jazzy stuff, some blues, some arena rock. I bought a Gibson Jimmy Page double-neck for the sessions. I look like an idiot with it, but it sounds so cool.

The music for “Wake Up” and “River of Deceit” came from group rehearsals before Staley had joined. “Artificial Red” came together at the band’s show at the Crocodile Cafe in October 1994. “Lifeless Dead” and “I Don’t Know Anything” were premiered on Pearl Jam’s January 1995 Self-Pollution satellite radio show – a four-and-a-half-hour-long pirate broadcast from Seattle that was available to any radio stations that wanted to carry it

“We did all the Mad Season music in about seven days,” McCready said. “It took Layne just a few more days to finish his vocals, which was intense since we only rehearsed twice and did four shows. So this has been the most spontaneous thing I’ve ever been involved in. 

Layne Staley also did the album artwork on the cover.