The Fat Angel Sings

Bright Eyes released the second batch of their Companion EPs reissue series. Today’s installment is made up of complementary EPs for 2002’s “Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground” and 2005’s acoustic “I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning” and electronic “Digital Ash in a Digital Urn”. The Companion releases see the band going electronic for “I’m Wide Awake” and acoustic for the “Digital Ash” bonus tracks. Bright Eyes recruited a number of guests for the Companion EPs, including Becky Stark (of Lavender Diamond), Gillian Welch, Dave Rawlings and Maria Taylor. Among the new tracks are covers of Azure Ray’s “November,” Townes Van Zandt’s “Fare Thee Well, Miss Carousel” and The Faint’s “Agenda Suicide.”

“It’s a meaningful way to connect with the past that doesn’t feel totally nostalgic and self-indulgent,” Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst stated. “We are taking these songs and making them interesting to us all over again. I like that. I like a challenge. I like to be forced to do something that’s slightly hard, just to see if we can.”

“The first three are innocent in a way, because we didn’t have an audience when we were making them,” Oberst says. “But from “Lifted” on, I was definitely aware of an audience. “Lifted” was well-received right away, and then everything happened with “Wide Awake” and “Digital Ash.” Those two albums came out simultaneously. And their lead singles – “Take It Easy (Love Nothing),” from the austere, remote “Digital Ash”, and “Lua,” from the warm, folky “Wide Awake” – debuted in the top two slots on the Billboard Hot 100. “First Day of My Life,” also from “Wide Awake”, would later be voted the Number One love song of all time by NPR Music’s reader’s poll.

Bright Eyes had officially broken through. It was a heady, exciting time, but also fraughtand tense, both because of the band’s careening new fame, and because of the state of the world. When Bright Eyes made their Tonight Show debut in 2006, they chose to perform none of their shiny new hits, instead delivering a searing, harrowing rendition of their caustic anti-Bush anthem, “When The President Talks To God.”

These days, Oberst is still amusing himself by messing with the extremes Bright Eyes baked into this era’s releases, extremes that reflected the polar, with-us-or-against-us, fractious feel of the times. The reworked “Digital Ash” tracks, originally so clean and elegant, are, on the companion EP, full of “harmonica and mandolins – folky vibes,” Oberst says. While the analogue sweetness of the “Wide Awake” songs have been put through a detached nihilism filter. 

“LIFTED or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground” (2002)

released November 11th, 2022

Exactly 11 years ago today, on November 11th, 2011, MGMT performed at New York City’s famed Guggenheim Museum. The performance was the second of two consecutive evenings of performances at the visually appealing museum. Recorded during those concerts on November 10th and 11th, 2011, “11.11.11” is a newly released live album documenting the exhibition. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum approached MGMT’s Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser in Spring 2011 to craft a set of music for the Maurizio Cattelan retrospective titled All.

The band wrote the all-original music as a reaction to the 130 pieces in the exhibit and performed it at both private and public events at the Guggenheim in November 2011. According to press materials, “MGMT’s live production featured a variety of LED lighting strips (a technology that was cutting edge at the time) lining the entire legendary spiral to the top of the museum.” The performances were also notable for being the “first time the Guggenheim had ever allowed art to be suspended from the ceiling” and “an event like this to take place amid the inner ring of the spiral.”

“We’re creating a musical experience that works for the building and for the construction and presentation of the Cattelan exhibit,” MGMT said back in 2011. “It’s an art exhibit done in a completely original way, so it deserves music which is completely original.”

Watch the band tear through three songs from their ‘Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms And Lava’ album.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard celebrated the release of their “Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms And Lava” album on October 7th by stopping at the Seattle studios of public radio station KEXP for a live session. The Australian rockers weaved through three cuts from the LP and spoke with host Cheryl Waters.

“Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms And Lava” marked the first of three new albums King Gizz issued last month. “Can anyone in the band actually name all the records?” Waters joked with the prolific band before they unreleased a raucous extended take on “Ice V.” Guitarist/vocalist Stu Mackenzie then led the group through “Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms And Lava” single “Iron Lung.” Wailing guitars and funky keyboard riffs were infused throughout the “Iron Lung” jam.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard went on to perform “Magma” for their third and final song of the set. Once again, Mackenzie, Joey Walker, Ambrose Kenny-Smith and Cookie Craig let it rip while bassist Lucas Harwood and drummer Michael “Cavs” Cavanagh steadied the beat. Members of the group discussed their busy 2022, marathon concerts and more with Cheryl Waters to end the session.

King Gizzard & The Wizard Lizard performing live in the KEXP studio.

Songs: Ice V Iron Lung Magma

The Band:Stu Mackenzie – Guitar / Vocals Joey Walker – Guitar / Vocals Ambrose Kenny-Smith – Saxophone / Keyboards / Vocals Nicholas “Cookie” Craig – Guitar / Keyboards Lucas Harwood – Bass Michael “Cavs” Cavanagh – Drums

Recorded October 7, 2022.

New Order are delighted to announce the release of the definitive edition of their 1985 studio album “Low-Life“. The collection includes an LP (180g), x2CDs, x2DVDs, a book and features unreleased rare material across the different formats and new sleeve designs. As with previous box sets, New Order will release the singles on vinyl 12-inch. These are ‘The Perfect Kiss’, ‘Sub-Culture’ and ‘Shellshock’. ‘The Perfect Kiss’ will come in mirror board sleeve “an idea at the time that was not realised”, according to designer Peter Saville.

For some New Order fans, 1985’s ‘Low-Life’ was the point at which they perfected their art, laying out a gorgeous synthesis of sophisticated post-punk and grimy, synth nocturnes. 

CD 2 contains previously unreleased mixes and alternative versions, including Love Vigilantes and Sub-Culture instrumentals, Sooner Than You Think Full Length Unedited. The two DVDs include an unreleased performance from The Manhattan Club, Belgium and rarely seen footage from Rotterdam Arena (Netherlands), International Centre (Toronto, Canada) and a BBC filmed Special Whistle Test at The Hacienda, 1985.

The 180g vinyl LP will be wrapped in its original ‘heavyweight tracing paper’, designed by Peter Saville. In addition the CD will also be wrapped in the same way for the first time ever. Also included in the set is a beautifully presented hardback book featuring rare photos and a new interview with all band members.

Marketing to promote the release include:

National press and radio promo campaign – reviews, features, and interviews TBC.

Organic and promoted content from the New Order official socials and Warner Music owned socials.

Promotion of singles pre-release with BBC 6 Music support.

Far-reaching online advertising campaign.

LP 180g Vinyl Track Listing:

Side one: Love Vigilantes, The Perfect Kiss, This Time of Night, Sunrise,

Side two: Elegia, Sooner Than You Think, Sub-Culture, Face Up,

CD1: Love Vigilantes, The Perfect Kiss, This Time Of Night, Sunrise, Elegia, Sooner Than You Think, Sub-Culture, Face Up

CD2: Extras Love Vigilantes – TV Pitch Instrumental Edit (mono), The Perfect Kiss – Writing Session Recording, Untitled no. 1 – Writing Session Recording, Sunrise – Instrumental Rough Mix **, Elegia – Full Length Version *, Sooner Than You Think – Album Session Unedited Version, Sub-Culture – Album Session Early Instrumental Version, Face Up – Writing Session Recording, Let’s Go – Album Session Instrumental, Untitled no. 2 – Writing Session Recording, Sunrise – Writing Session Recording, Love Vigilantes – Writing Session Recording, Sooner Than You Think – Writing Session Recording Skullcrusher – Demo

All tracks previously unreleased except * and ** (previously unreleased on CD and Digital)

DVD1: Live in Tokyo The Koseinenkin Hall, Tokyo, Japan 1985

1. Confusion, 2. Love Vigilantes, 3. We All Stand, 4. As It Is When It Was, 5. Sub-Culture, 6. Face Up, 7. Sunrise, 8. This Time Of Night, 9. Blue Monday,

Live in Rotterdam The Rotterdam Arena, Netherlands 1985

10. As It Is When It Was. 11. Everything’s Gone Green*, 12. Sub-Culture*, 13. Ceremony*, 14. Let’s Go*, 15. This Time Of Night*, 16. The Village, 17. The Perfect Kiss*, 18. Age Of Consent*, 19. Sunrise, 20. Temptation*, 21. Face Up*

Live in Manchester Whistle Test, The Hacienda 1985

22. As It Is When It Was, 23. Sunrise, 24. Face Up – Restored version using available footage from The Hacienda Dec ‘85 and July ‘85.

DVD2: Live in Leuven The Manhattan Club, Leuven, Belgium 1985

1. Let’s Go*, 2. The Perfect Kiss*, 3. Age Of Consent*, 4. State Of The Nation*, 5. As It Is When It Was*, 6. The Village*, 7. Sub-Culture*, 8. Atmosphere*, 9. Blue Monday*

Bonus Tracks

10. Thieves Like Us*, 11. Temptation*, 12. Confusion – Restored version from damaged tape with mixing desk audio.*, Live in Toronto Filmed by Paul Boyd The International Centre, Toronto, Canada 1985

13. Elegia*, 14. Sub-Culture*, 15. The Village*, 16. Sunrise*, 17. We All Stand, 18. As It Is When It Was*, 19. Love Vigilantes*, 20. 586*, 21. Age Of Consent, 22. Temptation, 23. Ceremony*, 24. The Perfect Kiss*, The Perfect Film

Rehearsal Room, Cheetham Hill, Manchester 1985

25. The Perfect Kiss, *unreleased

The “Low-Life” box set will be released on 27th January 2023, via Rhino.

Dream Wife have returned with their “unapologetic” new single ‘Leech’. ‘Leech’ is the first piece of new music Dream Wife have shared since the release of 2020’s second album ‘So When You Gonna…’. vocalist Rakel Mjöll said it is “definitely kickstarting a new era” for the trio.

“It was really important that ‘Leech’ was the first song we shared because it’s such a heavy statement,” she explained. “The lyrics are incredibly truthful and personal. It’s a collective shared experience between the three of us, as we look backward as well as forwards.”

A press release explains how Dream Wife “wanted to write something that feels like letting an animal out of a cage” with ‘Leech’. “It’s an anthem for empathy,” the statement from the band continued. “For solidarity. Musically tense and withheld, erupting to angry, cathartic crescendos.” They added that the “push and pull” of the track “calls out the double standards of power”, noting that “nobody really wins in a patriarchal society – we all lose”.

“When we write, it’s very intuitive,” guitarist Alice Go said. “The anger that the lyrics encapsulate, we all felt that, and we channelled those feelings into the song. The contrast and tension in the song come from us simmering on things, then letting it out.”

Mjöll added: “The lyrics were all written in one go. It’s one of those songs where it’s been sitting inside of you for a while and everything then just comes pouring out. There’s a lot of anger in that song, but it also champions the idea of being empathetic towards each other and yourself.

“It’s about allowing yourself to feel anger, feel solidarity and feel giddiness. The song goes through such a range of emotions – it was never going to be bubblegum pop. It’s an honest and raw rock banger.”

‘Leech’ poured out during the first wave of post-pandemic festivals Dream Wife played last year, with the band inspired by “the excitement of the scene starting up again and being around the beautiful community atmosphere that is a music festival”.

“As a live band, there was a real euphoria that came from coming back to festivals again,” Go said. “It reminded us that this is what we do, and we were suddenly able to reconnect with people after such a long time away. It gave us context again. We’d been missing that for so long.”

With their “swaggering” second album – released at the start of the pandemic, Go said it “definitely felt important to re-establish” the band and to “come back with an unapologetic heavy-hitter”. “We’re going back to what this band is about, which is those primal elements,” the guitarist – who also produced the track – explained. “This track is about doing the live show proud but elevating it as well.

“There’s a confidence to how we’re manifesting our music now. It’s something that had to come from within rather than externally. It took being away from the live scene for us to realise that that’s what it’s all about for us. It’s a moment of return on a lot of levels for us, but it really does feel like a new era.”

“The song is about community,” Mjöll continued. “It’s about taking care of that community and looking inwards.”

“Fuck those who call themselves a friend and don’t lift a finger,” she sings towards the end of the song. “If we’re not upholding our community, if we’re not showing up for community, then who are we?” the singer said of that line. “We’re not here to point fingers either. It’s shared healing. It’s empathy.”

‘Leech’ takes influence from PJ Harvey’s 1993 album ‘Rid Of Me’ as well as the work of punk poet Patti Smith. “The lyrics had been written for ‘Leech’, but we didn’t know how to really emphasise their power,” Mjöll said. Then it turned out all three of us were separately listening to ‘Rid Of Me’ when the track was being formulated. That whole album is very raw. PJ Harvey’s music never takes over the words, but the words never take over the music either. It always has this beautiful balance, and that’s what we wanted for ‘Leech’.”

According to the band, ‘Leech’ feels “different” to other Dream Wife songs, and it certainly doesn’t pull its punches with lyrics like, “Do you use and abuse your power to the young women that listen to what you say?”. Still, the band have no nerves about sharing it. “I think it’s so exciting. It’s true, it’s raw, and it’s rock,” explained Mjöll. “I’ve had it with being polite.”

She continued: “You have to be excited about what you do and also a little bit timid. That’s when you know it’s a good song. I remember I was definitely timid when we released ‘Somebody’ just because of the lyrical content, but that song has given us so much in return.” ‘Leech’ is something of a spiritual follow-up to ‘Somebody’, as the band take their own personal experiences to create a “call for solidarity”.

The band can’t say anything yet about a possible third album, but they’re “really excited” about what happens next. “Vague, ambiguous, exciting things to come,” promised Go.

Earlier this year, Dream Wife supported The Rolling Stones at Hyde Park, which the guitarist described as being “quite surreal”. “I’m still in awe,” added Mjöll. “They played for two-and-a-half hours and were doing high-kicks for most of that. I was amazed by the energy. It was almost superhuman – we need to step up our game!”

When Dream Wife first came onto the scene, there was a real lack of female, queer and non-binary voices in rock and the industry surrounding it at the time. When their second album ‘So When You Gonna…’ charted, it was the only album in the UK Top 20 produced solely by a female-identifying person, producer Marta Salogni.

Now, acts like Witch Fever, Cassyette, Crawlers and Nova Twins are all breaking through. “There’s more of a platform for artists who aren’t necessarily part of a major label to have a voice and say what they want to say without that being filtered,” Mjöll said. “Nova Twins started around the same time as us, but they’re finally getting the attention they deserve. Their place on the Mercury shortlist was such a cool, impactful thing.”

“It is amazing to see other artists openly talking about what it is to be a woman or a non-binary person in music,” Go added. “It’s amazing that that conversation can be elevated and continued.”

“Community is everything,” continued Mjöll. “If you’re doing this alone, how incredibly boring would that be?”

Dream Wife’s ‘Leech’ is out now via Lucky Number. 

“The first three are innocent in a way, because we didn’t have an audience when we were making them,” Oberst says. “But from “Lifted” on, I was definitely aware of an audience. “Lifted” was well-received right away, and then everything happened with “Wide Awake” and “Digital Ash.” Those two albums came out simultaneously. And their lead singles – “Take It Easy (Love Nothing),” from the austere, remote “Digital Ash”, and “Lua,” from the warm, folky “Wide Awake” – debuted in the top two slots on the Billboard Hot 100. “First Day of My Life,” also from “Wide Awake”, would later be voted the Number One love song of all time by NPR Music’s reader’s poll.

Bright Eyes had officially broken through. It was a heady, exciting time, but also fraughtand tense, both because of the band’s careening new fame, and because of the state of the world. When Bright Eyes made their Tonight Show debut in 2006, they chose to perform none of their shiny new hits, instead delivering a searing, harrowing rendition of their caustic anti-Bush anthem, “When The President Talks To God.”

These days, Oberst is still amusing himself by messing with the extremes Bright Eyes baked into this era’s releases, extremes that reflected the polar, with-us-or-against-us, fractious feel of the times. The reworked “Digital Ash” tracks, originally so clean and elegant, are, on the companion EP, full of “harmonica and mandolins – folky vibes,” Oberst says. While the analogue sweetness of the “Wide Awake” songs have been put through a detached nihilism filter. 

I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning (2005) – A Companion EP (2022)

released November 11th, 2022

When Dominic Angelella sings, “Know that it never was my goal to play a supporting role,” he means it. The Philadelphia-based singer-songwriter’s claims to fame include stints in Hop Along, touring with Lucy Dacus and MewithoutYou, and session work on a few notable hip-hop records. But before all that, he maxed out a credit card to chase his own dreams of rock stardom in several bands he led. Gear, studio time, and traveling all add up.

Those ambitions didn’t quite pan out to the level he might’ve hoped when he was younger. It took time, but Angelella, 36, is cool with that. He’s a little older now, and he realized his definition of success has evolved. So, in early 2020, he grabbed a guitar and penned another song, “Supporting Role,” about accepting his lot. “There’s a pressure in our society to monetize everything,” he tells MTV News. “Sometimes, you gotta eat, but looking back on that era with a new perspective is really what that song’s about.”

A new perspective like, “I’m living a life and it’s special,” as he says, can be healthy for any musician who’s grinded away for years as Angelella has. His latest album, “Silver Dreams Don’t Move Me”, is out Friday (November 11), full of character studies, rural travelogues, and nostalgic meditations on precisely that kind of special life. He took the LP’s title from a lyric by Daryl Hall, of Hall & Oates fame, from a tune in the artist’s more obscure, experimental back catalogue, where two halves of the brain speak to each other.

Released November 11th, 2022

The Orielles have shared the video for ‘Darkened Corners’, the latest track to be taken from their recently released album “Tableau” which was released last month.

A tempo shifting, autumnal slice of super mellow motorik pop music, the band said about ‘Darkened Corners’:

“Darkened Corners” is one of the collective favourites of the album for us. Its musical narrative best describes emotionally what creating this record felt like for us. We wanted to create this kind of Krauty, super rigid and formulaic first part where everything happens in these repeated cycles. Then as the song starts to turn darker we created this spiralling passage where you should feel like you don’t really have a sense of time of where home is moving into this intense manic phase as Sid puts it the drums try to break free from the old ways into this blissful new world.

With “Tableau”, The Orielles are now three albums into their career, three albums that sound like they were made by three completely different bands. On their newest offering the gang from Halifax ditch the solar-powered cosmic funk of “Disco Volador”, for shadowy experimental pop, where their influences melt, mutate and merge until they’re completely unrecognisable, like visions from a dream

A lot of this tune had to be thought about thoroughly, we spent hours in Sid’s living room counting beats and tried to go really heavy with motiffing and ostinato. The lyrical inspiration comes from content comes from a Lee Friedlander exhibition Ez went to whilst in Berlin.”

The track is accompanied by a stunning video co-directed by the band with regular collaborator Neeam Khan Vela.

Bass, Vocals, Farfisa, Synths, Percussion, and Lyrics by Esme Hand-Halford Drums, Vocals, and Percussion by Sid Hand-Halford Guitar, Vocals, Percussion, and Wurlitzer by Henry Wade String Arrangement by Isabella Baker

The Orielles, released on Heavenly Recordings.

Uncut magazine also goes deep into a trove of rare and unreleased Hunky Dory material
in the company of David Bowie’s friends, bandmates, and collaborators. All copies
of the issue also come with two exclusive Hunky Dory art prints.

First new Country Westerns’ song since their 2020 Self titled debut, which Pitchfork included in their Top 35 Rock Albums of 2020 list.
Country Westerns are a three-piece band with a two-man engine: Joseph Plunket is an Atlanta hardcore kid turned singer-songwriter whose first solo gig was opening for Cat Power. He went on to lead Brooklyn alt-country legends The Weight during the height of NYCs mid-00’s garage rock bonanza and played bass for King Tuff and Gentleman Jesse. Brian Kotzur is a swaggery metronome who drummed for Silver Jews and was a close collaborator of David Berman.

released November 10th, 2022