The Fat Angel Sings

“Summer at Land’s End” is the 4th LP from The Reds, Pinks & Purples, Glenn Donaldson’s solo kitchen pop “band” (though he has recently debuted a 5-piece live band he hopes to take on the road). Since 2019 The Reds, Pinks & Purples has built an obsessive, ever-growing following by combining a traditional vinyl-oriented release schedule with monthly drops of new songs on Bandcamp and live streams on Instagram. 2021’s “Uncommon Weather” was something of a breakthrough, getting actual radio airplay and even reaching #7 in the UK indie album breakers chart. Hitting a wildly prolific phase, Donaldson is back in less than a year with the brilliantly ambitious “Summer At Land’s End.”

Like the blossoming flower-themed sleeve might imply, it’s bursting with heart-ripped-open vocals, ringing guitars, and warm reverberations. There are still plenty of concise indie-pop songs, but the album expands on the formula of the first three LPs into hazier acoustic sounds and some extended mood pieces. Even with the lush textures immediately evident on album opener “Don‘t Come Home Too Soon” there’s a gorgeous intimacy at work here, with every guitar note and vocal harmony existing in perfect service to the song. Similarly, “Let’s Pretend We’re Not in Love” is an exercise in pop economy that sounds so immediately ‘right’ that it seems destined for a thousand mix tapes.

Dreamy instrumentals like “Dahlias and Rain” and the title song work on an even deeper level, showing another side of Donaldson’s writing that is as at home with atmospherics and mystery as his pop songs are with harmony and melody. Indeed, the initial vinyl pressing features an entire bonus LP of shimmering instrumental pieces that wouldn’t be out of place on certain Durutti Column or Roy Montgomery records.

The album title refers to “Lands End,” a park vista in Donaldson’s neighbourhood in San Francisco but also a metaphorical precipice, maybe the cliff’s edge the world is on right now. “For better or worse, this is the ‘love’ record. All the songs are about love in its different forms, all the shelter and pain that comes from it,” says Donaldson. You might hear ’80s and ’90s influences in the echoing guitars, Creation, Teenbeat, 4AD, or even the radio pop of your youth, but more so, you might hear melodies and words that resonate someplace deep down as you journey through “Land’s End” and move the needle back to the beginning again.

 A limited edition double vinyl version that’s pressed on yellow vinyl, comes in a gatefold sleeve, and includes a bonus album of instrumental songs. These are not instrumental versions of the album; they’re all new songs. The double album version will only be available in the US directly from Slumberland (ONE PER CUSTOMER, PLEASE) and select indie retailers.2. A green vinyl single LP version that comes in a single LP jacket with a printed inner sleeve. This version will be available mail order and from all retailers.

The dream of Olympia, Washington, is alive in the form of the wonderful Ribbon Stage. The New York trio harken back to Nineties cuddle-core gods like Tiger Trap and the Shop Assistants. “Hit With the Most” is 11 songs in 19 thrilling minutes, quick little shots of blurry noise, pretty, careworn singing, and tumbling drums. Titles like “It’s Apathy,” “Nowhere Fast,”  and “No Alternative” set the emotional tone. But even when their songs sound like they might collapse before the band hits the finish line, Ribbon Stage always power through their angst and boredom to hit the twee-punk sweet spot. 

Ribbon Stage are a trio from NYC that created a debut album which is a compact earworm of noise pop. “Hit With The Most” is a 20 minute joyride of tight drums, fuzzed out distorted guitar and the floating vocals of Anni Hilator which cuts through it all. With 11 songs being covered in 20 minutes, there is absolutely no filler on “Hit With The Most”. Within these short numbers, you can find moments of shoegaze, alternative rock, post-punk and new wave but Ribbon Stage only stay there for a blink making “Hit With The Most” even more infectious with its exciting familiarity but yet bringing your ear something new rapidly. Ribbon Stage have created a noise pop dream.

“Crackdown” is the third LP from blues, roots-rock, and country revival trio GA-20. The album expanded on their previous sound and blows out your speakers with a modern electric blues that honours the past but feels imaginably modern. What GA-20 are good at is making the blues spread across other genres. Soul, rockabilly, delta-blues and indie rock are all included on “Crackdown”. The album shows the progression of GA-20’s songwriting as it is their first LP without a cover track and features 9 original songs. The record not only is the band’s best to date but could easily inspire others to join in the modern revival of blues with GA-20 sitting as one of its leaders!.

GA-20 clearly is on to something big. It’s a movement, a new traditional blues revival. The dynamic, throwback blues trio are disciples of the place where traditional blues, country and rock ‘n’ roll intersect. “We make records that we would want to listen to,” says guitarist Matt Stubbs. “It’s our take on the song-based traditional electric blues we love.” Stubbs, guitarist/vocalist Pat Faherty, and drummer Tim Carman have been at the forefront of this traditional blues revival since they first formed in 2018. It’s
no wonder they skyrocketed to the top of the Billboard Blues Chart.

According to Stubbs, “Since we started the band we’ve focused on the story, the melody, and on creating a mood. Playing live as much as we do, we’re finding more and more that people are discovering how cool it all is. Traditional country, soul and funk music have all had these massive recent revivals, but traditional blues so far has not.” With their new Colemine album, “Crackdown“, and an intensive tour schedule, that’s all about to change.

On “Crackdown”, GA-20’s third full-length release, the band creates an unvarnished, ramshackle blues that is at once traditional and refreshingly modern. Expanding on their previous releases (2019’s “Lonely Soul” and 2021’s “Try It…You Might Like It!” GA-20 Does Hound Dog Taylor) GA-20 finds inspiration on the edges of the genre, where early electric blues first converged with country and rock ‘n’ roll. The album’s nine original songs include the loping, Louisiana-flavored “Dry Run”, the dirty, and bare-bones “Easy On The Eyes” and the melodic, garage-tinged “Fairweather Friend”. With tight, propulsive performances and a brevity and punk energy reminiscent of The Ramones, “Crackdown” is rowdy and fun, filled with instantly memorable, and well-crafted songs. 

released September 9th, 2022

Ty Segall’s new album “Hello, Hi” sounds just like Southern California. A heady mix of sun-drenched folk and exuberant psych-rock, it materialized at his home-based Harmonizer Studio—a brimming lab where vintage and custom outboard gear, 2″ tape, a classic top-end microphone, and plenty of coffee helped fuel his giddy return to the acoustic guitar.

On a much-needed break from the first leg of his current tour with his road-tested Freedom Band, Ty Segall takes a seat in his mood-lit studio control room, mug of hot java in hand, and looks around with a visible expression of what can only be described as wonder. “You know, to have my own place to work on stuff is just pure joy,” he says. “I’m often like, ‘How did this even happen?’ It’s a great place to hone my skills and to get weird ideas going, with no pressure. The clock’s not running. We’re not burning a budget here. You get to do whatever you want. It’s just totally insane.”

Segall has made a career out of being prolific, so it was probably inevitable that he’d pool his resources into designing the three-room complex he calls Harmonizer, named for the album it spawned after he put the finishing touches on the studio build-out, completed in early 2021 at his home in the Santa Monica Mountains just outside Los Angeles. Compact but state-of-the-art, Harmonizer not only stands as testament to the long hours Segall has logged on his way to becoming an A-list producer, but it also plays a key role as an instrument in Segall’s arsenal that’s just as crucial to his sound as his trusty Travis Bean TB1000S or, more recently, his vintage Martin D-35 acoustic.

All three figured prominently, in fact, into the making of “Hello, Hi”—Segall’s latest studio realization of what he calls a “back to basics” album. “It was about coming back to the acoustic guitar, to be honest,” he clarifies. “I think a lot of the records I make have to do with my relationship to songwriting at that time. And I hadn’t really played the acoustic or written on it since probably “Freedom’s Goblin”, which at this point is maybe five years ago. So, to me it was really like falling back in love with the acoustic guitar. It was a very nice experience to have.”

If there’s a modern California sound—a throwback to the late-’60s Laurel Canyon “freak folk” vibes of the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and many more, but infused with a wild and rambunctious onslaught of psychedelic garage rock—then Segall’s music radiates it, and “Hello, Hi” might be the closest he comes to creating a West Coast “concept album” without openly admitting it.

From the lovely waking dissonance and pastoral colors of songs like “Good Morning,” “Blue,” and “Looking at You” to the thick, hard-knocking grooves of the title track and the sublime coda, “Distraction,” Segall touches on themes of reflection and connection that feel immediate, palpable, and deeply moving. It can be a bit of a nostalgia trip, but he pulls off the balancing act with well-wrought songs that convey a sense of longing without a trace of schmaltzy artifice.

At the heart of that authenticity is the Martin, which inspired Segall not only to write with renewed vigour, but also spurred him to get his hands on a microphone that could do it justice. “For all the records that I’ve done, I try to get one piece of gear, and that’s the expense of the record,” he explains. “This one was pretty crazy. I got a [Neumann] U67. That’s basically the guitar sound on the whole record.”

Among studio heads, the U67 is a legendary, and legendarily expensive, microphone that has been central to the sound of classic albums from the ’60s and ’70s, perhaps most notably Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde. The mic can harness a huge arc of low end without distorting, but it can also preserve an elusive and intimate “proximity effect” on vocals and acoustic instruments that has made it one of the most desirable, and essential, pieces of gear in any major studio.

Segall tried a few different approaches to capture the richness and resonance of the Martin, but in the end he found that simplicity was the best rule of thumb to fall back on. “I would try to put some room mics on it and stuff,” he says, “but the U67 just changed the feeling of everything. I always ended up going back to pointing it at the 12th fret, usually somewhere between six-to-eight inches away. Sometimes if I wanted a bit more of a room sound, I would set it to omni, but it was mostly on cardioid. I just kept it simple. That mic is so good, you can put it anywhere and it’ll sound amazing.”

The album’s closing suite of songs, beginning with the whimsically titled “Saturday (Part 1),” probably best signifies how Segall was able to use the U67 to his advantage. The opening acoustic filigree and Segall’s hypnotic vocal combine to recall vestiges of White Album-era Beatles, but with a startling presence and stereo imaging that creates a real under-the-skin sensation.

“Saturday (Part 2)” brings in the Freedom Band’s Charles Moothart on drums and Mikal Cronin on saxophone, with Segall on bass and electric guitar, gradually stoking a psychedelic heat that would take the Doors to task. When Cronin crashes into the mix with a horn solo that consists of two stacked takes, the in-your-face blast suddenly elevates the song to a completely different level.

Clocking in at under twenty minutes, Posmic’s “Sun Hymns” feels like watching an old Super 8 home movie found at the thrift store, unknown people and scenes flashing by, wrapped in nostalgic film grain and warm colours. Comprising of members of several Baltimore and Washington DC bands Posmic was formed by David Van and Emily Ferrara (both of Post Pink) with Zach Inscho (Wildhoney) and DC native Luke Reddick (Ultra Beauty) in late 2019.

Like many other artists, the global pandemic put a halt on playing live music but it created an opportunity for the group to log several home recording sessions. Those sessions turned into the group’s debut “Sun Hymns”. The 18-minute record is full of indie rock that jams together a perfect mix of guitar feedback, lo-fi jangles and hazy psych, the outfit make music that collides grungy nineties guitar rock and sixties psych weirdness, resulting in something that feels both fresh and strangely familiar. There are noisy alt-rock jams, incense-scented folk numbers and sunny, easy-going pop, the whole thing adding up to a brief but oh so welcome escape to some other time or place. “Sun Hymns” might be the sleeper hit of the year, so load it up and bask in its glow.

The longest song on the album is the closer “Black And Blue,” which comes to a scorching conclusion as Ferrara vocally shines with a bolstering finish. Posmic’s nonchalant approach and niche for good indie rock provides an excellent listen all the way through. “Sun Hymns” ending too quick is the only let down from this album so just really has me looking forward to what the band releases next!

David – Guitar, Vocals
Emily – Vocals
Zach – Drums
Luke – Bass

Released March 11, 2022

Born and raised in small Texas towns, the members of Good Looks met and began playing together in Austin.

Songwriter Tyler Jordan grew up in a South Texas coastal town dominated by the petrochemical industry, his childhood steeped in the tension between nature and industry, exploitation abundantly present and the wealth gap on full display. His father’s church, described by Tyler as “cult-like in its intensity,” was homebase and where he learned to sing.

Tyler eventually met lead guitarist Jake Ames in the late-night song-swap circles of the Kerrville Folk Festival campground (where they would also meet Buck Meek and Adrienne Lenker pre-Big Thief). They shared their mutual love of the Texas hill country canon (Blaze Foley, Townes Van Zandt, and Willie Nelson), a love of cheap diner food, thrift store baseball caps, and a healthy dose of harmless shit-talking.

They began playing in bands together, backing up other songwriters and taking turns in the spotlight. They sought out producer Dan Duszynski (Loma, Cross Record, Jess Williamson) to engineer their debut album.

What would form was Good Looks, a blue-collar political indie-rock band with healthy doses of Replacements swagger and shimmering, desert rock riffs not unlike The War On Drugs.

Tyler Jordan – Rhythm Guitar and Lead Vocals // all songs
Jake Ames – Lead Guitar // all songs
Anastasia Wright – Bass Guitar // all songs
Phillip Dunne – Drums // all songs
Paige Renee Berry – Back-up Vocals // all songs except Vision Boards

Released April 8th, 2022

There are certain albums that make very specific time periods in my seem to glow a little extra in my memory. this summer I’m sure every little thing I do while listening to this album will have that special memorable glow that I’ll look back on in years future with extra human fondness. Having established themselves as one of the favourite contemporary acts with “Shock out of Season” and “Dreamin’, both on Orindal Records, Friendship‘s first LP for the Merge label is a continuation of their distinctive brand of introspective, country-tinged, slices of life. The songs again centre on lead Dan Wriggins’s plaintive vocals and everyday poetry, ably supported by the careful attention and creative flair of Michael Cormier-O’Leary, Jon Samuels, and Peter Gill. Be it distracting yourself with nature documentaries or a peek at the moon, Wriggins examines small, seemingly mundane details for their loaded meaning. Searching if not for answers then at least reasons to get up every day and keep looking. A way, in other words, to live and love when “gripped by a fear of no discernible beginning.”

Released July 29th, 2022

PETER GILL: guitar, pedal steel, keyboard, vox
MICHAEL CORMIER-O’LEARY: drums, percussion, keyboard, piano, guitar, organ, vox
JON SAMUELS: bass, programming, keyboard, organ
DAN WRIGGINS: vox, guitar, keyboard, melodica, organ, accordion

“What’s the Move” vox by JESS SHOMAN
Additional vox: MEGHAN CORMIER-O’LEARY and BRADFORD KRIEGER

True to its title, A.O. Gerber’s “Meet Me at the Gloaming” invites the listener into a world between day and night. A space in which the binaries of light and dark are muddied, complicated, ultimately dissolved into insignificance. To inhabit such a place, Gerber shows us, is to confess new feelings and relinquish old shames. To move beyond ideas of good and bad in order to exist on your own terms, and heal from the years in which this was not the case. Because if anything emerges from the nuanced folk rock of the record, it is the sense that strict boundaries are counterproductive and often imaginary, fencing off the rich confluences in which life is truly lived.

On her new album, “Meet Me at the Gloaming”, Los Angeles-based singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer, A.O. Gerber carefully grapples with the constraints she was taught as a child to reach for the flourishing that comes when we look past the black and white, and into the gray gauze of the in-between. “I was thinking about how damaging it can be to exist in that binary space of good and evil,” Gerber explains. “When we see everything in either/or’s, we lose the nuance and complexity that make life rich enough to be worth living.” By interlocking memory and imagination, Gerber crafts a gleaming future, where the light and the dark don’t just coexist––they create a new colour entirely.

“Meet Me at the Gloaming” is certainly an album that pierces grief head-on but it’s not without hope or certainty. Like curtains strong enough to block the view, but thin enough to let in the light, Gerber is reclaiming the meaning of goodness, where the harsh overwhelming brightness is dimmed to a beautiful, iridescent blue. During the gloaming we are between two spaces, two worlds, two selves and it’s here that we can fully embrace everything that we are. 

released October 14th, 2022

Alexandra Sauser-Monnig and Amelia Meath have been yodeling together for upwards of fifteen years – in the backseat of a Prius while on their first cross-country tour, on back porches and backstages. It’s what led them to “Fruit”, their debut release as The A’s – a joyous ten-song collection spanning genre and decades, with interpretations of traditionals, lullabies, and an original song, it weaves between the weird and the wonderful.

“Why I’m Grieving,” originally recorded by the DeZurik Sisters, was the inspiration for the A’s existence. The A’s reach into the past to hold hands with the DeZurik Sisters, two farm girls from rural Minnesota who taught themselves to yodel amongst all their animals, in a continuing celebration of the tradition of folk eccentricity and whimsy.

The A’s played their first show together in 2013 after Sauser-Monnig first moved to North Carolina, where Meath had been living at the time, but it wasn’t until summer 2021 that they thought seriously about making “Fruit”. They decamped to Sylvan Esso’s Chapel Hill studio, Betty’s, for two weeks in the midst of a balmy and blooming Carolinian summer. They rehearsed during the day, deconstructing yodeling parts phonetically and staring absurdly into each other’s eyes as they practiced tongue twisting harmonies – and recorded in the nighttime, candles lit, a flickering glow against the windows framing the violet twilight outside.

Across the record, the A’s employ a bizarre-o ghost orchestra of strange noises that are percussive and melodic. The credits include nylon shorts, string (singular), hair, shoes, ice chunk, gravel, frog sample, and shoelace, among other unexpected makeshift instrumentation. The backing band is built out by a more traditional group of players: saxophone from Sam Gendel on “Copper Kettle,” backing vocals from Jenn Wasner (Flock of Dimes, Wye Oak) on “When I Die,” string arrangements from Gabriel Kahane on “He Needs Me,” and more.

Fruit is made up simply of songs the A’s love to sing – there are lullabies and love songs; “He Needs Me,” written by Harry Nilsson and first released by Shelley Duvall in the 1980 Popeye film; traditional ballads like “Swing and Turn Jubilee,” “Copper Kettle” and closer “Buckeye Jim,” a multiplying song about frogs and nature.

The sole original track to appear on the album is the penultimate “When I Die,” written by Meath. It contains both wishes and instructions for the celebration of her death, a low synth bubbling beneath Sauser-Monnig and Meath’s voices.

It’s a collection of ten seemingly incongruous songs, but with the throughline of Sauser-Monnig and Meath’s vocals and sense of humor working in tandem, they fit together into a cosmic yodeling-folk masterpiece. “Fruit “feels like blowing the dust off a precious artifact of decades past, but also winking and modern. Sauser-Monnig sums up their ethos on the project succinctly: “If it doesn’t make you cackle or cry, it doesn’t belong.”

released July 15th, 2022

Produced by Amelia Meath, Nick Sanborn and Alexandra Sauser-Monnig