The Fat Angel Sings

Los Angeles based Militarie Gun have signed with Loma Vista Recordings and announced the deluxe edition of “All Roads Lead To The Gun set to be released on October 21st.

Formed in 2020, Militarie Gun is defined by the musical restlessness of vocalist Shelton. The band–whose lineup has expanded to include guitarists Nick Cogan and William Acuña, drummer Vince Nguyen, and bassist Max Epstein–draw on a wide range of influences to make something that sounds combative yet accessible, and undeniably their own.

There’s the unhinged guitarwork of Born Against, the propulsive cadences of hip hop, the up-front bass of Fugazi–and most importantly, the hooks. Militarie Gun’s songs are instantly memorable, employing a melodic sensibility that’s just as informed by the work of Robert Pollard and Paul McCartney as it is by Black Flag.

Militarie Gun have shared the visuals for “Let Me Be Normal,” which is directed by frontman Ian Shelton and animated by guitarist William Acuña portraying the band performing in an 8-bit world.

The 12-track project will include four brand new songs, including the new single “Let Me Be Normal” out today, and house the previously released tracks from the first two “All Roads Lead To The Gun” EPs, including the standouts “Ain’t No Flowers,” “Don’t Pick Up The Phone,” and “Big Disappointment.” An exclusive vinyl variation of each of the previously released EPs along with a t-shirt will be launching at the Loma Vista store today as well. Act quickly, as the special editions are limited to 500. Alongside the aforementioned new single,

Militarie Gun is Ian Shelton, Max Epstein, Nick Cogan, Vince Nguyen and William Acuña All Songs Written by Ian Shelton Except “Fell On My Head” By Ian Shelton, Max Epstein, Nick Cogan, Vince Nguyen

released October 21st, 2022

2022, © 2022 Alternatives Label.

Soul music is in Bruce Springsteen’s DNA. If you’re lucky enough to have been at a concert where he has performed “Sweet Soul Music” or “634-5789,” you know that. Even if haven’t, you’ve probably figured it out anyway, by the way he sings some of his own songs, such as “Tenth Avenue Freeze-out” and “Mary’s Place” (or, for that matter, the largely forgotten “Human Touch” song “Soul Driver”). And so, on “Only the Strong Survive” (which will be released on November 11th), he takes a deep dive — as he did on 2006’s “We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions” — into a genre that means the world to him.

It’s telling that after the title track (was there ever a more Springsteenesque phrase than “Only the Strong Survive”?) kicks off the album, the second and third songs, “Soul Days” and “Nightshift,” are tributes to soul music itself. “Nightshift,” already released as a single, lauds Marvin Gaye and Jackie Wilson (who both died shortly before The Commodores had a big hit with it in 1985). And “Soul Days” is a nostalgic paean to the singer’s “first love” (i.e., soul music) and “those sweet summer soul days.”

At the end of the song, Springsteen and guest backing vocalist Sam Moore — the Sam & Dave singer who was one of Springsteen’s biggest influences — engage in a little call-and-response.

Springsteen: I wanna hear some Wilson Pickett. And some Joe Tex! I wanna hear some Sam & Dave. Hey, Sam, I wanna hear some Aretha.

Moore: I wanna hear some Ray Charles.

Springsteen: And some soulful Sam Cooke now … I wanna hear some Arthur Conley.

Moore: Well, what about Edwin Starr?

Springsteen: (laughs) Oh, yeah!

“Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)” (also previously released as a single, and embedded below) is the most feverish song on the album, while “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore” boasts its most glorious production: a Phil Spector-style wall of sound. Spector was a big influence on Springsteen’s “Born to Run” album, of course. I listen to Springsteen’s “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore” and I imagine that’s what the song would sound like if The Righteous Brothers were singing it and Spector was producing, in the mid-’60s. It is amazing.

Which brings us to the album’s production: Springsteen and Ron Aniello co-produced, and do a great job of re-creating the vintage sounds of Motown, Stax and less celebrated record labels. Aniello also plays all the drums and bass himself, plus most of the guitar and keyboards; Springsteen contributes on guitar and keyboards as well. On top of the basic instrumentation are a horn section (trumpeters Curt Ramm and Barry Danielian, trombonist Clark Gayton and saxophonists Bill Holloman, Ed Manion and Tom Timko), backing vocalists (Soozie Tyrell, Lisa Lowell, Michelle Moore, Curtis King Jr., Fonzi Thornton and Dennis Collins), a 16-piece string section, and extra percussion by Aniello.

No matter how intricate and busy the arrangements get — and, really, you could listen to songs such as “Turn Back the Hands of Time” and “When She Was My Girl” many, many times and still hear new things each time — Springsteen’s raw voice soars above it all.

Moore is featured on one song besides “Soul Days”: “I Forgot to Be Your Lover.” It’s great to hear the two men’s aching voices, merged together, on lines that Springsteen could have written himself, catching up with one of his young characters, now older and wiser:

I’ve been workin’ for you, doin’ all I can
But workin’ all day don’t make you a man
Oh, I forgot to be your lover
And I’m sorry
But I’ll make it up to you somehow

When I first heard that Springsteen was doing a soul covers album, I assumed he would include some of the songs that he’s covered in concert in the past. He didn’t. He’s never performed live versions of any of these 15 songs.

Some, I knew previously (“Someday We’ll Be Together,” “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted,” “I Wish It Would Rain”). Others, frankly, are new to me (“Hey, Western Union Man,” “Any Other Way,” the breathtakingly melodramatic “7 Rooms of Gloom”). Needless to say, it’s a good thing that Springsteen will be introducing this genre to fans who may have little previous exposure to it, all over the world.

“Only the Strong Survive” grows on me with each listen, as most Springsteen albums have. Would I have preferred a collection of new, original songs? Sure, I can’t deny that. But “Only the Strong Survive” is still quite enjoyable in its own right: Not quite a revelation, perhaps, but a journey through the past that Springsteen had to take, executed with great musical precision and undeniable vocal passion. (And, interestingly, it’s a journey that he probably couldn’t have taken when he was younger: He needed the gravity of age to do these songs justice).

Here is the album’s track listing, along with the original artists (click here to hear the original or, at least, an earlier version of each song).

“Only the Strong Survive,” Jerry Butler
“Soul Days” (featuring Sam Moore), Dobie Gray
“Nightshift,” The Commodores
“Do I Love You (Indeed I Do),” Frank Wilson
“The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore,” The Walker Brothers
“Turn Back the Hands of Time,” Tyrone Davis
“When She Was My Girl,” The Four Tops
“Hey, Western Union Man,” Jerry Butler
“I Wish It Would Rain,” The Temptations
“Don’t Play That Song,” Ben E. King (also recorded by Aretha Franklin)
“Any Other Way,” Jackie Shane
“I Forgot to Be Your Lover” (featuring Sam Moore), William Bell
“7 Rooms of Gloom,” The Four Tops
“What Becomes of the Brokenhearted,” Jimmy Ruffin
“Someday We’ll Be Together,” Diana Ross & the Supremes

“Myself In The Way” is the Turnover’s fifth full-length album, and it follows their first pause in consistent touring in almost 10 years.  Returning to Pennsylvania to track with longtime friend and producer Will Yip, vocalist & guitarist Austin Getz cites Quincy Jones, Chic, and Dark Side Of The Moon as influences in the way that songs like the infectiously-rhythmic “Ain’t Love Heavy” and the trippy, disorienting “Tears Of Change” feel wider, deeper and more whole than anything in the band’s catalogue to date.

“Myself in the Way” was born out of Turnover’s desire to continue evolving their sound, making each body of work more exploratory than the last, but it’s also a byproduct of the band’s growth both as individuals and collectively. Armed with a flurry of new ways for the band to express themselves creatively, they challenged themselves to make their most ambitious body of work to date. Co-produced by frontman Austin Getz alongside frequent collaborator Will Yip, “Myself In The Way” sounds more expansive than anything they’ve done, intently honing in on sound design this time around, and yet it’s wholeheartedly more intimate and self-reliant on their vision and execution. Bassist Danny Dempsey painted the cover artwork himself, and longtime touring guitarist Nick Rayfield contributed songs to the album to lend an additional spark.

The Virginia based band Turnover releases their new album “Myself in the Way“. The band’s fifth full-length album includes the previously-released singles “Tears of Change,” which the band shared a new video earlier this week, “Ain’t Love Heavy” featuring Bre Morell, “Mountains Made of Clouds,” “Wait Too Long” and the album’s title track featuring Brendan Yates of Turnstile.

Turnover is also embarking on their headline fall tour run to celebrate the album’s release. The tour features support from George Clanton, Yumi Zouma, Horse Jumper of Love, Video Age, Temple of Angels and Riki on select dates,

Turnover – Myself In The Way CD/LP (Run For Cover Records)

On Voids, composer and producer John Mark Lapham turns his recording project Old Fire into a sprawling mural illustrating the isolation and decay that defined growing up in West Texas, and the losses and frictions he has endured amid such a bleak backdrop. A largely collaborative album, “Voids” employs the talents of featured vocalists Bill Callahan, Emily Cross, Adam Torres, and Julia Holter, along with a myriad of musicians, across half of the 12 genre-fluid, yet impressively cohesive tracks. Combined with the additional instrumental songs, the album spans baroque dream-pop, filmic ambient, raga-like drones, avant-country, and even spiritual jazz—all imbued with poetic heft and seared by the West Texas sun. It was beneath this same sun that, over the past five years, Lapham lost both of his parents, mourned two withering relationships, and shouldered the fallout of the pandemic, before turning his life experiences into the rusted-out scraps that built “Voids” from the ground up.

In the age of remote collaboration, features can easily feel glued-on; the disparities in recording locales, artistic visions, and sensibilities sometimes compound inside each psychoacoustic detail to the point of disproportion. “Voids” makes clear, however, that one of Lapham’s many talents is selecting contributors whose timbres and temperaments soak effortlessly into every atom of his sonic sculptures. “I usually send a collaborator a piece of music with some general ideas of what I’m looking for, and let them develop it as they see fit. I give them some preliminary lyrics I’ve written, or at least some themes of what the song is about, then they write lyrics and ideas based around that,” he explains. “Sometimes there is a lot of back and forth before we get it right, and almost always there are unexpected turns in the process where it ends up being something very different from what we started with. I bring it all together, but the album exists because of their contributions.”

Lapham’s music and visual art—he doubles as a video editor and animator, and has made music videos for bands such as Goat, Throwing Muses, Night Beats, Moon Duo, Jane Weaver, and many others—are stitched with threads spun from the dissonance between his identity and the doggedly conservative cultural atmosphere in which he was raised, ventured away from by adulthood, and ultimately returned to in 2013. As evidenced by the alternating apprehension and expansion on “Voids”, Lapham wields his creativity as a covert weapon against his once and future surroundings as if the act of creating something, anything, is in itself defiant of the cultural, structural, and even climatic deterioration of many West Texas towns. Across the album, and through the concept of Old Fire as a project, he builds a mythical, noir-ish version of his home state and its wide open spaces, painting these fictional narratives with the music.

There is no better narrator for Lapham’s story than fellow Texas resident Bill Callahan, whose iconic delivery personifies the core themes of “Voids”. By the time Callahan appears, he does so over a saw-blade drone that sounds like machinery echoing off corrugated steel walls and out into infinity. “In June, the red rose blooms, that’s not the flower for me,” Callahan intones on the album’s reinterpretation of the traditional song “When I Was In My Prime,” before the hum breaks open into a loose, yet pained confluence of violin and upright bass that recalls Joe Henderson’s 1974 spiritual jazz album, The Elements. Like many on the album, the track dovetails seamlessly into the next, “Corpus,” as Callahan resumes with a baritone recitation of an oblique yet vivid mantra: “Hey Mack, can you bring that boat back?”

The instrumental “Love is Only Dreaming” resolves in a deluge of organic textures that climb over one another until they are abruptly cauterized by the album’s centerpiece, “Dreamless.” Two sides of the same coin, “Love is Only Dreaming” was born out of parts of “Dreamless” (many Old Fire songs begin this way), expanding on its textures, and together creating a small world. “Voids” crystallizes into its most straight-ahead moment on “Dreamless,” a song born spontaneously from some improvised guitar recordings from Alex Hutchins, cut and sequenced by Lapham into a brilliant piece of pop songwriting. Featured vocalist Adam Torres soars to anthemic and gently psychedelic consequence over Lapham’s punctual arrangement of stomping drums and rapturous string-work.

The sombre “Don’t You Go,” a John Martyn cover and the final joint effort with Callahan, features an elegant and evocative piano part, arranged and performed by Thomas Bartlett, and haunting cello by Semay Wu. Icy and glistening, “Window Without a World” stands as “Voids’ most unconventional collaboration, as it began with a sample Lapham took from Julia Holter’s song, “World.” Unable to sort the timing to work together directly, he eventually lifted the musical backing from “Don’t You Go,” rearranged the samples, and then added transposed woodwind parts from the instrumental closer “Void IV: Circles” to create the stirring song. Combined with Cross’ beautiful, beguiling “Blue Star,” these initial six songs share a strong link, like different chapters of the same book.

The instrumental latter half of “Voids” stands in equal stature to the album’s vocal moments. In fact, it’s even heightened by a poignant absence of voices after such a compelling round of hosts. Tracks like “Void I: Uninvited” hover and shift like clouds in the Texas sky; steel guitar by Bob Hoffnar, and other soft sirens like clarinet by Thor Harris, guitar textures by ambient composer Wayne Robert Thomas, and saxophone by Joseph Shabason—all of who appear at times across the album—slip in and out of existence.

In this subtler quarter of the album, the listener is walked through a calm and tragic valley indicative of the author’s life while making “Voids”. “I was feeling the brunt of a relationship ending, and the emptiness it left behind,” says Lapham. “Over the course of compiling the album, I lost both my parents, and the pandemic started. These recordings were born out of that loss, and that isolation. The title “Voids” was a natural fit.”

The album concludes with the pleasant clatter of “Void IV: Circles,” wherein Lapham throws all his ingredients into a pot of celebratory catharsis. Drum sets collide with one another gleefully, and harmonized textures scatter and roll about the floor like ornate marbles. Lapham’s collage-work, which up to this point has been smartly restrained, comes unglued as he transmutes grief into relief within a moment-of-death montage of aural imagery.

Across “Voids”, that same awareness of tragedy and loneliness is made palatable by the album’s exciting and varied topography, which stands insubordinately against Lapham’s real-life surroundings. The settlers who established West Texas towns like the one he calls home, Abilene, must have done so with a sense of hope despite the hostility of their surroundings, however inevitable the withering. Similar spirits speak through Lapham’s work, and he welcomes them as fascinating old friends. “That more than anything inspired a lot of what I try to express through Old Fire—faded memories, former glories, places lost in time,” he discloses. “Whatever I was trying to express wasn’t finished with the first album, like a story that was only half-read. It seemed like that was only the beginning, and there was a lot more ground to cover.” If there is ground still uncovered for Old Fire after “Voids”, it’s sure to be lush in spite of—or perhaps because of—the dusty soil beneath it. 

released November 4th, 2022

“Milk Teeth” EP features five songs from Waterhouse’s early career plus one new track “Neon Signs”.

“It means the world that Milk Teeth is getting a vinyl release,” Waterhouse says. “These songs were like secrets to me. They were witness to a time when I felt like I was drowning and I needed to connect on a profound level in order to stay afloat. I share them with everyone who collaborated me on this record. I’m so grateful for the guidance and permission they gave me to explore.”

“The Milk Teeth” EP compiles singer-songwriter Suki Waterhouse’s various non-album singles onto a physical release for the first time. It includes the song “Good Looking”, which, in mid-2022, exploded on Tik Tok and hit #1 on the global viral chart.”

released November 4th, 2022 Suki Waterhouse – Milk Teeth CDEP (Sub Pop)

If you’ve been to the movies you’ll know that they often have music playing while the actors drive around or have a gunfight or go to a funeral or fooling around or winning or losing. Just about wherever the director thinks some certain music would be nice.

Where does all that music come from? Hollywood probably, but not every song is from there. Sometimes they ask for a song you already have and sometimes they ask you to write one.This record is the latter. All this music, mostly instrumentals was stuff I wrote for movies but was never used. They used other music which was not great, but show biz is like that. The first 8 songs were for a movie called ‘The Last Word’ directed by my friend Mark Pellington.

One of the songs was supposed to have been used when Shirley Maclaine was walking into her house or something. That would have been a thrill. The rest are a lot of ideas I though up after watching some scenes Mark sent me. Songs 9-15 are from a movie called ‘Spring Forward’, written and directed by my very good friend Tom Gilroy. It’s a wonderful movie w/ Ned Beatty & Liev Schrieber. It takes place in Connecticut and even has a guy wearing a Miracle Legion t-shirt.Solid continuity. Most of the songs didn’t make it, but this is the demo for “A Cup of Tea“. Tom ended up using a re-recorded version as the credits song. Sweet success. A bunch of misfit songs that sat in a drawer. Til now.

MJ Mulcahy – Writer, performer and recorder

Now you know the rest of the story……Released November 4th, 2022

Jesse Malin has announced plans to reissue his celebrated 2003 debut, “The Fine Art of Self Destruction”. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the acclaimed release, the artist has shared details about the impending material that will be released on February 17th via MNRK Heavy. 

According to a press release, the rocker will present his fan with the opportunity to snatch his inaugural album, which has been reimagined and re-recorded by Malin and his long-time band. The bonus album was produced by Geoff Sanoff, whose past work includes Malin’s “Sunset Kids” (2019) and “Sad and Beautiful World” (2021). 

Along with today’s announcement, Malin has also shared a revitalized rendition of “Brooklyn,” now slated as “Brooklyn (Walt Whitman in the Trash).” Directed by Catherine Popper and Vivian Wang, the video sets out to honor the bones of old New York. 

Malin also added a statement on the new video: “‘Brooklyn’ is about beginnings, those early days of innocence and big dreams that often collide with irreversible mistakes and regret. We try and find ways to accept the mistakes and look back with laughter, forgiveness, and love.” 

The artist also dug into the song writing process behind the initial album. He stated: “[At the time] I was still learning how to sing and tell stories. These songs were written in a little apartment downtown, without a record deal, a manager, or any expectations of anything coming of it–just a need to write them.”

Viagra Boys were the musical guests on last night’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, where they performed their single ‘Troglodyte’. A band like Viagra Boys do not get mentioned enough in the discussion of today’s punk, but last night (November 2), the six-piece infiltrated homes across the world with a high-octane performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live. 

The Swedish punkers performed “Troglodyte”, a popular track from their latest release, 2022’s “Cave World”, and with barely enough room to fit the full band on the stage, Viagra Boys still managed to replicate the energy of the original recording and bring it to life in front of the world. This was the band’s official late-night television debut.

Viagra Boys have been slowly crawling their way up the reigns of punk since their 2016 debut EP, “Consistency of Energy”. Their brand of punk pulls from all eras of the genre and breaks them down to their most minimalistic form, they used what’s left and built a sound all to their own, a sound that has been evolving since their first release. With each release Viagra Boys tighten up their sound and their new album is no different, “Cave World” is an immersive experience that puts the band’s world view through a kaleidoscope of colors and personalities. 

Viagra Boys frontman Sebastian Murphy stood shirtless at center stage with a chest full of tattoos while his trusty band packed onto whatever real estate was left for an unforgettable performance of “Troglodyte”. Everyone sounded tight throughout the song but the most impressive aspect of the band’s performance was their energy. Without much room to move around on stage, Murphy was still able to captivate the audience while the band never missed a step. 

‘Troglodyte’ is taken from the Viagra Boys’ latest LP, “Cave World”, which arrived earlier this year. Ahead of its release, the Swedish post-punk band also shared the singles ‘Punk Rock Loser’ and ‘Ain’t No Thief’.

Viagra Boys perform the song “Troglodyte” on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Wild Pink appeared on CBS Saturday Morning earlier today to perform three songs: ‘See You Better’ and ‘Hold My Hand’ from their new album “ILYSM“, and ‘Die Outside’ from last year’s “A Billion Little Lights”. Wild Pink headed by frontman John Ross, frontman John Ross.

The phenomenal “ILYSM”, out on Royal Mountain, avoids being exclusively about cancer but reflects the ways in which it imbued his life with urgency and meaning. Ross went on to record the album with a host of collaborators, including co-producers Justin Pizzoferrato and Peter Silberman (The Antlers), bassist Arden Yonkers, drummer Dan Keegan, and pianist David Moore of Bing & Ruth, as well as enlisting contributions from Julien Baker, J Mascis, Ryley Walker, Ratboys’ Julia Steiner, Samantha Crain, and Yasmin Williams, among others. And while the sound of the album is as lush and full-bodied as you would expect, there’s a surprising heft and at times deafening beauty to the arrangements, which are balanced out by moments of understated candor and intimacy.
“ILYSM” is Wild Pink’s fourth studio album, came out last month via Royal Mountain.

Wild Pink began playing together in 2015 and have since released three albums. The indie rockers are now on the move, playing a world and American tour that will last into December. For Saturday Sessions Wild Pink performs “Hold My Hand.”

Wild Pink released their latest project (and among our best album of the year) “ILYSM” only a couple of weeks ago, so they’re still in promotion mode. As they prepare to tour Europe, the UK, and the US, Wild Pink stopped by CBS Saturday Morning to perform a few songs: “See You Better,” “Hold My Hand,” and “Die Outside.” The first two are from “ILYSM“, and “Die Outside” is taken from last year’s “A Billion Little Lights”. 

“CBS Saturday Morning” co-hosts Jeff Glor, Michelle Miller and Dana Jacobson deliver two hours of original reporting and breaking news, as well as profiles of leading figures in culture and the arts.

Often described as the first Southern rock album, the Allman Brothers Band’s self-titled debut album was first released on November 4th, 1969. The album features a number of the band’s most well-known songs, like “Dreams”, “It’s Not My Cross To Bear”, and “Whipping Post”. It still looms large as the defining moment that the Allman Brothers were born.

From 1965 through 1969, brothers Duane Allman and Gregg Allman went through a number of band line-ups—both separate and together. It took four years for the siblings to travel the world and get back to the basics in the South, putting together a major jam session that featured all of the band’s initial players: Berry Oakley, Jaimoe, Butch Trucks, and Dickey Betts. This would be the lineup for several years until Duane’s untimely death.

In August 1969, the band was just cutting their teeth in the South when record executives enticed them to make the album. Between a few blues numbers and some originals penned by Gregg Allman, the band made their way from Macon, GA to New York for a recording session.” The Allman Brothers Band” was recorded in just two weeks and quickly turned around for a release a few months later.

The album initially flopped on a national level, as the band’s Southern-influenced rock sound failed to take hold, but it had turned Macon from a sleepy town into a vibrant musical community. That’s when the band knew they were onto something. “They wanted us to act ‘like a rock band’ and we just told them to f*ck themselves,” remembered Trucks.

Now, we can look back at this album to see a wildly talented band in its earliest days. The Allman Brothers Band may have had a lot of drama over the years, but at the heart of it all is its undeniable thirst for authentic Southern rock and roll. That’s what you hear on “The Allman Brothers Band”, musicians who take their craft seriously but also know how to let loose and rock out. It’s a great record.

The Allman Brothers first few albums are essential for collectors of blues-based rock music. The band blow hot from the first searing notes of lead guitar on ‘Don’t Want You No More’. This instrumental segues into ‘It’s Not My Cross To Bear’, with virtuoso cameos shared out. What is most impressive is how they maintain a compelling intensity and seething energy across the album. ‘Trouble No More’, the album’s halfway house provides a little relief from this, but the last three tracks pick up the mood again, each distinctive from everything else. The organ-led ‘Dreams’ is strongly atmospheric and ‘Whipping Post’ tops everything off superbly. At just thirty-three minutes, this album leaves you hungry for more,