The Fat Angel Sings

What’s on the other side of the well? Inside the tunnel of change, or this life, we can either feel intimidated by the darkness of uncertainty, or excited by the possibility of nourishment. Songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist Jess Shoman wonders, “what the hell,” why don’t we go for the excess of love we deserve? Tenci’s album “A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing” becomes a gathering and collection of well-like vessels – cups, puddles, fists – to hold tight to this love and newfound joy.

Tenci shares newly-announced spring dates, a long run that has the band visiting cities they haven’t played before. On record and live, Jess Shoman is joined by Curtis Oren on saxophone and guitar, Izzy Reidy on bass (Izzy True), and Joseph Farago on drums (Joey Nebulous).

“A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing” is Tenci’s second album, coming after their 2020 debut “My Heart Is An Open Field”, which introduced Jess Shoman’s music explorations to the world. Shoman admits that their first album dealt with letting go of painful life experiences, resulting in emptiness. In this recent collection of wiser years and distance from that former grief, Tenci carries an opposite feeling, a celebration of self-rejuvenation. “A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing” shows Shoman steering their inventive music further and wilder, spilling over with 12 fable-like songs. In a combination of milk, coins, glass, water, and light, each song forms a spell to “fill my heart back up,” Shoman says, “by reframing complex feelings by turning my head sideways and seeing them in a different way.”

From the close-knit Chicago scene, Shoman is joined by Curtis Oren on saxophone and guitar, Izzy Reidy on bass (Izzy True), and Joseph Farago on drums (Joey Nebulous). The years following “My Heart is an Open Field” saw the band playing shows together all over the country before regrouping in Chicago to record “A Swollen River” with engineer Abby Black. While the themes of Tenci shuffle around a serious pool of thought, trying to understand life’s calamities, their live sets often feature an ample amount of goofy light-heartedness.

Their playful interplay of loose drums and bass, huffing sax, and vocal waterfalls leave us warmer than before. The songs on “A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing” weave together like twigs to create that fire, a burning message to keep going.

The album begins with “Shapeshifter,” which Shoman says is about “piecing yourself together, shape-shifting into someone new,” and finding power in this new form. Setting the tone for the rest of the record, the brief song appears like a glimmering poem in darkness, unveiling an undeniable newness to their sound. “I’m a diamond ring / in a thick lagoon / Butterfly with clay-sewn wings,” sings Shoman. Like the transformation Shoman sings of, the track grows and morphs with stacked guitars and the harmonies of bandmates’ voices.

Tenci’s sonic evolution is further reinforced by the upbeat immediacy of “Vanishing Coin.” Shoman’s soft and trilling vocals fuel the song’s imagery as a friendship vanishes and another well appears, as a wish from a coin tossed into that well never comes to fruition.

“Two Cups” continues this interplay between folk and rock genres, as a tough and sweet guitar solo converses, “I won’t wait,” fizzling towards freedom. Unlike a public fountain, a personal cup can be filled on your own terms towards abundance.

Tenci’s songs on “A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing” often appear simplistic at first, then split off to unruly places of boiling self recognition. On “Sour Cherries,” the band starts simple and slow, introducing the brutal fruit of love and the theme of wanting excess: “don’t you think you’ve had enough?” As Tenci gets deeper and huskier, they dip into one of the album’s most exciting and unexpected sections.

Shoman explains the idea behind “The Ball Spins” as “watching the ball spin – as in the world – but also as mundane as a ball on the ground. The world burns with so much sadness and destruction and I am witnessing it in a very desensitized way.” Living during an ongoing pandemic, dangerous nationalism, and climate change, to name a few, can feel so painful, it’s numbing. Tenci attempts to create art out of that metaphorical car on fire outside. Instead of disassociating, Shoman hopes to find commonality in communal care.

Just as the band name Tenci comes from Shoman’s grandmother Hortencia, the legacy of family is woven into the album. “Swallow Me Whole, Blue” comes from Shoman’s mother’s memory of her childhood dog, Blue, who was poisoned by the neighborhood kids: “They threw a poison bone / it cast a spell on you.” Perhaps Shoman’s longing to protect and know Blue is the same longing to protect their family’s memories. The album closes with “Memories”: in a bare folk song, their guitar, and their memories, echoed by the audio of an old family video. The voices of parents, grandparents, and children filter in and out, fuzzy against the assertion of a “crystal clear picture.” “Memories” captures the feeling of “knowing that at the end of your life, you will have your memories to fill your heart,” Shoman says.

Tenci has traveled through a spout that leads to a restorative lake, finding a new place of compositional and lyrical complexity on “A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing”. All of this fullness bursts forth from words and ideas jotted in Shoman’s journal. The notebook’s cover is made from a repurposed children’s book titled “Great Big Elephant.” Shoman’s own writing often feels like a nursery rhyme, a naming of animals and clowns under your bed, a recipe for understanding life, and hopefully, each other.

““A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing] is one of the most compelling indie releases of the rest of 2022.”– Uproxx

“A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing” is a pure understated delight that hits the head, the heart and the gut in equal measure.” – NARC Magazine

the new album ‘A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing’ out November 4th, 2022 via Keeled Scales

Tropical Gothclub is the new project from renowned musician and multi-instrumentalist Dean Fertita – has released its self-titled debut LP, out now via Third Man Records at all DSPs and streaming services. An official visualizer for “Needles” premieres today at YouTube. Dean Fertita has been at the heart of American rock ‘n’ roll for almost two decades, from his role as an invaluable member of Queens of the Stone Age and The Dead Weather, touring keyboardist with The Raconteurs, and backing musician on records by Jack White, Karen O, Iggy Pop, Brendan Benson, The Kills, Beck, and more.

While Fertita’s own music had been the focus in his role as lead singer, guitarist, and founder of The Waxwings and on recordings as Hello=Fire, Fertita began Tropical Gothclub with no clear mission for a solo album under his own name. In early 2020, he put up a small A-frame in his Tennessee backyard to use as a writing and recording space while stuck at home during the looming pandemic. With rare time on his hands, Fertita set to work recording demos of the many musical ideas he had accumulated over the years, building upon songs and fragments written during different stages of his busy career. Fertita then enlisted his old friend Dave Feeny – a veteran Detroit musician and owner of The Tempermill recording studios in Ferndale, MI – to help develop the recordings even further, pushing the original demos in deliberate new directions to create a showcase for his wide-ranging songcraft and visionary imagination.

“The Tropical Gothclub songs are like concept cars,” says Fertita. “They were meant to be put into future production once they were reimagined and redesigned so everything is tightened up. Creatively things changed and my options weren’t just black and white. They were also fluorescent. “I’m hoping the framework is in place with Tropical Gothclub that I can experiment with releasing art and music in the future without following the conventional cycles. My focus has been on other projects the last few years and really, this is no exception. But I unexpectedly found more time than I thought I had and was able to move within the space I was given, veer off course, and speed towards the cliff.”

“Tropical Gothclub” also includes the acclaimed new single, “Double Blind,” available now for streaming and download. An official visualizer is streaming now at YouTube. “Double Blind” was greeted by praise from such outlets as mxdwn, which raved,

“A beautifully eccentric track, ‘Double Blind’ makes use of guitars, pianos, and slow drums to create an atmosphere that is simultaneously eerie and cheery. Sprinkled throughout the track are subtle guitar melodies and phrases that feel slightly out of tune, contributing to the unique texture of the lighthearted song.

Taken from the album ‘Tropical Gothclub’, out now on Third Man Records:

Our 4 classic BBC sessions on 10’ vinyl,

There are also two double packs (under merch) splitting them up into 2x John Peel and 2x Janice Long. I’d expect to be able to ship in early December so not too long to wait. Oh, nearly forgot – these sessions are bloomin’ fantastic. Plenty of unreleased songs, different versions, cover versions… plus of course the usual sets of postcards and download codes.

What’s more, the Soup Dragons have all been closely involved. All the songs have been mastered for vinyl by Sean and Ross has been involved with the images – we’ve got Steve Double and Bleddyn Butcher, plus Splash One flyers/posters reproduced – while all four members of the group have penned sleeve notes.

Look, the truth is I’m beyond excited – so here’s hoping you like ’em.

Never before released on vinyl, this is the Soup Dragons’ very first session for John Peel, back in the legendary Scottish popsters’ formative days when they were indie kids finding their way via a barrage of spiky two-minute adrenaline-filled punk pop of a distinctly Buzzcocks-y vintage – and all the better for that. Features an early version of blistering single “Whole Wide World”, plus “Learning To Fall”, the single that never was – never even recorded again – with the Shop Assistants on backing vocals. NB – there are 4 Soup Dragons sessions altogether .

Songsheet:
Too Shy To Say, Whole Wide World, Learning To Fall, Just Mind Your Step Girl

So what do you do when you’ve had a run of BBC sessions and fancy trying something different? How about a session of cover versions, with each member of the band choosing a song? The Soup Dragons were changing before our ears – one listen to their version of “Purple Haze” tells you that. Also features a six-second arthouse prank that reportedly did not entirely amuse John Peel.

The Soup Dragons’ status as indie-dance pioneers is often overlooked; first, though, came a more rocky sound, as evidenced on their fourth session for the BBC (and the second for longtime supporter, the much missed Janice Long). Can’t Take No More, however, was actually one of their earliest songs; a re-recorded version went to No.1 on the indie charts and just missed the Top 50 in the UK. Session includes another future single in “Kingdom Chairs” and the instrumental “Cow Nest”, never before released, plus the gorgeous “Turning Stone”.

The Soup Dragons’ second BBC session (this time for the band’s longstanding friend Janice Long) reveals a group on the verge of change – as witnessed by the fact that most of these songs were never released in any shape or form. “Make My Day” is a prototype of the single “Head Gone Astray”, while “Lindy’s Realised” was named in tribute to the Go-Betweens’ drummer Lindy Morrison. It has never before been released. Sleeve notes by Jim McCulloch; mastered by Sean Dickson. Includes download codes and a set of postcards.

Boyracer session is due up in November, by the way, with The Orchids early in 2023 – and then The Bodines, One Thousand Violins, The Dentists and plenty more besides.

Wellington, New Zealand four-piece Hans Pucket writes nervy but effortlessly danceable rock songs about feeling bad. Their second full-length album, “No Drama”, which is out November 4th
via Carpark Records, gleefully captures the all-too-common twenty-something anxieties of talking too much and then being unable to find the right words to say.

When frontman Oliver Devlin sings, “I’m surfing a constant wave of alarm” on the title track, it’s a compass for the other nine tracks. This is inviting and relatable music for people who, despite their best efforts, feel uncomfortable about themselves, the state of the world, and their place in it.
Both lyrically and sonically, “No Drama” is a departure for Hans Pucket from their 2018 debut “Eczema”. “I realized I didn’t want to write any more real heartbreak songs,” says Oliver Devlin. “We were and still are a live band. We’re still trying to make music that’s catchy and people can dance to, but also really interesting to us: songs about growing up and finding how you exist in the world.” Songs like “My Brain Is a Vacant Space” with its blistering guitars and ebullient hooks hone in on the feeling that you have nothing to offer while “Bankrupt,” a fuzzed-out punk track, boasts lines like “I don’t know if I’ll always feel like / I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.”

Recorded with the band’s good friend and former tour mate Jonathan Pearce of The Beths at his Auckland studio, “No Drama” is full of big leaps, immaculate arrangements, and a ton of immediate grooves. “We were very ambitious when we first started recording this,” says bassist Callum Devlin. “Intentionally we left heaps of space in the track so we could add strings and horns. Because we were very measured and quite deliberate with the parts we had. It was a really fun process filling in the gaps.”
“No Drama” came together over several years and during its creation, the band added multi- instrumentalist Callum Passels, who provided all the horn arrangements on the LP. With Pearce producing, his other Beths bandmates like Benjamin Sinclair added string arrangements while singer Elizabeth Stokes provided backing vocals.
Overall it’s a remarkably eclectic record where the smooth pop of a track like “Kiss the Moon” can coexist perfectly with the Abbey Road freakout of “Some Good News.” “We didn’t want to be afraid of our 15-year-old self’s influences,” says Oliver Devlin.” We really wanted to make an album that teenage us would just be amazed by.”
The result is Hans Pucket’s most sparkling and confident collection yet. While it’s danceable and fun, it’s also a thoughtful exploration of anxiety, a call for empathy in a turbulent time, and a relatable reminder that it’s hard to figure things out. 

Released November 4th, 2022

All songs written by Oliver Devlin

JEFF: Laura and I have known each other since we were teenagers skankin’ our buns off in the same VFW halls, church basements and high school auditoriums sorry. We’ve played in each others’ bands on-and-off throughout this marvelous millenium and under the immense stress of the music industry and oh boy, let’s not forget these difficult times, our friendship has not collapsed. It is strong, like a sicky thicky beam of steel!

LAURA: May I interject here and state for the record that I did not skank? I was merely a spectator. But I will agree that our friendship began strong and it remains very strong.

JEFF: Much like our friendship, Neil Young’s songs have existed for a long time – some would argue, they’ve existed for even longer. For a while, I knew I was supposed to like Neil Young but a lot of the “standards” admittedly are not for me*. Eventually I asked Laura and her husband Mike to get me started somewhere, and months later, I would spend nights traveling alone on tour with “After The Gold Rush” on repeat in my headphones, simultaneously allowing me to feel grounded and as if I was floating away.

As I dove deeper into his catalogue, more and more records of his would bookend my days – giving my band buds something chill to sleep to on a morning drive or slowing me down at night as I space out in front of my record player.

LAURA: I’m so glad Jeff finally got sucked in. For me, Neil Young was playing in my house for as long as I can remember. My favourite record being “Comes A Time” which I think for sure influenced my love of harmonizing. But it’s kind of a hard task to get someone to love something as much as you do when it’s just this thing you’ve always known and appreciated. I’m happy it worked!

JEFF: Seth from Polyvinyl has joked that I like “sad Neil” and I have claimed on multiple occasions that “I hate it when Neil rocks.” But I don’t. I love it when he does anything, because no matter what the project is it always feels honest and pure. He is a famous-as-fuck songwriter that could sell out a basketball arena at the drop of a hat even though he’s always sticking his middle fingers up at the world, his audience included. That’s the kinda shit we’re into.

LAURA: I think it’s just so different when he rocks. I get that the two are such opposite ends of the spectrum but they still have the same underlying emotional content. I feel like Jeff and myself, as songwriters who grew up in punk rock, have a similar thing, where you can be very sweet and beautiful, and then at times, kind of ugly and heavier, but it’s always the same voice and the same intention at the end of the day.

JEFF: Laura and I have been talking about doing a few EPs of Neil Young covers for years. It’s an excuse to have fun making music together and we both like fun and music in case you missed it. It’s also nice to hang out and create (sorry) instead of just talking about “oh my god did you hear what this stupid dipshit did on tour? I hope their band takes us out.” We finally both had time away from the road this summer, Laura heroically made the trip down to my apartment in Brooklyn a few times and we’d feverishly lay down a bunch of tracks. I like hearing Laura play guitar and she convinced me to sing quieter than I ever have. We had a few friends fill in some details and we quickly had this EP you’re listening to. I hope it’s not too long before we make another!.

Originally released November 12th, 2019

Two best friends separated by a global pandemic, a couple years time, and the entirety of the continental United States reunite in a LA basement and what do you get? A New EP of Neil Young Covers, Of course!

.Ahead of their co-headline tour, Jeff Rosenstock and Laura Stevenson surprise release the follow-up to “Still Young“, their 2019 collection of Neil Young covers, with yet another collection of Neil Young covers, “Younger Still“. Did we mention Jeff Rosenstock and Laura Stevenson covered Neil Young… again?

The project features twists on classics ” Listen now and catch the duo on tour this winter playing the hits! 

Following 2019’s “Still Young”, frequent collaborators and friends Jeff Rosenstock & Laura Stevenson have returned with “Younger Still”, their 2nd 4-song EP of Neil Young covers. This time, the duo put their spin on classics “Comes a Time,” and “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere,” alongside deeper cuts like “Razor Love” and “Hey Babe.”

The duo originally started working on a new EP in 2019, recording two of its four songs in Rosenstock’s apartment in Brooklyn before moving to Los Angeles. As the events of 2020 & the global pandemic unfolded, the EP was never fully realized and both musicians focused on their respective solo projects. Rosenstock released the critically acclaimed album “No Dream” and not-critically-acclaimed 2020 “Dump” in 2020 and continued focusing on writing and recording music for the Emmy-nominated Cartoon Network series, Craig of the Creek. While across the country in NY, Stevenson meanwhile was busy as well. She gave birth to her first child and released her beautiful self-titled sixth album in 2021. Prior to this, Stevenson has been featured in outlets such as Pitchfork, SPIN, and NPR (Tiny Desk) and has toured with artists such as Lucy Dacus, The Hold Steady, and others.

As soon as both of their intense schedules allowed, Stevenson hopped on a plane in the summer of 2022 and the duo got back together at Rosenstock’s home in Los Angeles to record four different songs for a whole new EP in the basement. Rosenstock & Stevenson will be hitting the road for a handful of intimate shows together in November and December, playing Neil Young covers and selects from both of their vast catalogs. 

“Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere” is taken from Jeff Rosenstock & Laura Stevenson’s new Neil Young covers EP, “Younger Still”, out November 3rd, 2022 via Polyvinyl Records.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ legendary 20-night run in 1997 at The Fillmore in San Francisco will be the subject of a new deluxe box set. The title, “Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Live at The Fillmore 1997”, arrives November 25th, 2022, via Warner Records. The collection is available as a 4-CD or 6-LP deluxe edition, as well as on 2-CDs, and 3-LPs. Six of the shows were professionally recorded and the editions contain numerous previously unreleased performances. The 4-CD edition includes 58 tracks, 35 of which are covers. Much of the band’s well known repertoire such as “American Girl,” “You Don’t Know How It Feels” and “Runnin’ Down a Dream” is included, with often re-arranged and distinctive versions.

The band always enjoyed playing a choice selection of classic songs on their setlists and the new release offers plenty, paying tribute to the artists that Petty and the band had been influenced by. Highlights include the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” as well as spirited versions of “Louie Louie” and “Gloria,” plus “You Ain’t Going Nowhere” featuring guest Roger McGuinn, are among the set’s ample track listing.

Listen to the performances of Petty classics “Listen To Her Heart” and “I Want Back Down (acoustic),” as well as a rollicking cover of J.J. Cale’s “Call Me the Breeze,” below.

Tom Petty, was born October. 20th, 1950, was 47 years old at the time of the concerts. To put the timeline in perspective,  Petty had released his great solo album, “Wildflowers”, in 1994 and the band had released the music for the feature film, “She’s the One”, in 1996. Of the concerts, Petty said, “We all feel this might be the highpoint of our time together as a group… It’s going to be hard to get us off this stage tonight.”

Since Petty’s death in October 2017, his Estate and bandmates have carefully mined his archives. 2018’s “An American Treasure” set which included “I Won’t Back Down” from the Fillmore run. 2020’s “Wildflowers & All the Rest” also featured music from those concerts. Multiple tracks also appeared on 2009’s The Live Anthology set. The new Fillmore set is a collaboration between the Estate and Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell.

The 4-CD set includes a 32-page booklet (with previously unseen photographs), three custom guitar picks, a replica All Access laminate, and an embroidered patch (“The Fillmore House Band” – a term that was bestowed on The Heartbreakers during the shows at the Fillmore).

The numerous covers include Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door,” J.J. Cale’s “Crazy Mama” and “Call Me the Breeze,” The Rolling Stones’ “Time is On My Side” and more from The Kinks, Everly Brothers, Bill Withers, Ray Charles, Chuck Berry and Booker T. & the M.G.’s. John Lee Hooker guests on “Boogie Chillen.”

Mike Campbell said, “Playing the Fillmore in 1997 for a month was one of my favorite experiences as a musician in my whole life. The band was on fire and we changed the set list every night. The room and the crowd was spiritual… AND… we got to play with some amazing guests. I will always remember those nights with joy and inspiration.”

Did someone say ‘Heartbreakers beach party’?”

NEIL YOUNG’s fourth solo album remains one of the most beloved in his catalogue and is dense with songs that have long-permeated radio waves. The 50th Anniversary Edition Harvest Box Sets will be released on the 2nd December on vinyl, CD and to stream, boasting the original album, three studio outtakes on CD/7” vinyl, an unreleased live 1971 BBC solo performance on CD, LP and DVD. The film “Harvest Time” is a previously unseen two-hour documentary filmed in 1971, documenting the “Harvest” sessions. Also included in the package is a hardbound book and fold-out poster. The vinyl box sets include a lithograph print. HARVEY KUBERNIK spills the beans with the help of some major-league key-players

According to the press release announcement, “fans of the record will receive a new glimpse into I through the two DVDs included in the box set. The first is “Harvest Time“, an unreleased two-hour film shot during the making of “Harvest”, with footage from Young’s Harvest Barn sessions in Northern California, recording sessions in Nashville and London.

The second is a film of the unreleased solo BBC Concert recorded on 23rd February, ’71. Also included are three unreleased tracks from the original “Harvest” sessions: ‘Bad Fog Of Loneliness’, ‘Journey Through The Past’, and ‘Dance Dance Dance’. Additionally, the hardbound book will include never-before-seen photos along with extensive liner notes by photographer Joel Bernstein.”

On 23rd February, ’71 at the BBC Television Centre in London, producer/director Stanley Dorfman filmed Neil Young for BBC’s In Concert. It was a pivotal UK small screen exposure for Young, who previewed some un-recorded material that would later surface on his epic ’72 album, “Harvest”.

Stanley Dorfman: “At the time I was co-producing/directing Top Of The Pops with a guy called Johnnie Stewart. We started it in ’64. Around ’68, I had the thought of having a show of singer-songwriters. And the first was with Leonard Cohen and Julie Felix. We then called them “BBC In Concerts” and the first one was with Randy Newman.

“When we started this thing, BBC2 had just gone colour. And the head of BBC2 was David Attenborough. And he liked folk music a lot. So I said, ‘Let’s do singer songwriters. Great.’
So, he sent me to California to find acts. And I met [David] Geffen and [Elliot] Roberts. It wasn’t a hard sell at all. The artists couldn’t get on television in England unless they had hit records. The reason Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and the others connected very strongly with the English audience was because they were folk music oriented. British love folk music. The Scottish, the Welsh, the Irish. Plus, Neil Young citing Bert Jansch and The Shadows in his interviews didn’t hurt.

“I loved the singer-songwriters of the time. To me they were the poets. Laura Nyro. Brilliant songs last forever. With all these acts, I never dictated what they should do anyway. They’d come over and we’d have a lunch and a chat. We had marvellous lighting and they lit these things like portraits.

“The other thing that I said to them before doing the program was that the editing would be very minimal. We had four cameras, five if you were lucky, no hand-held, so the only editing you would do was cut tunes out. Or put them in. So I told Neil and all the others, if they wanted to they could come to the editing room the next day and kind of decide how to structure the show. And they all liked doing that. Neil came. He was charming, lovely and delightful. Neil was not elusive in any of my dealings.”

In February ’71, Neil Young travelled to Nashville to tape The Johnny Cash Show. An ABC-TV national broadcast. Neil Young had a star turn on the Campus episode, performing ‘The Needle And The Damage Done’ and ‘Journey Through The Past’.

“One reason country music has expanded the way it has is that we haven’t let ourselves become locked into any category,” Johnny Cash assured me during a ’75 interview I conducted with him in Anaheim California for the now defunct Melody Maker. When I asked Johnny about his bold policy of booking established country artists and mixing relative new comers to his TV program artist lineup, he replied, “We do what we want.” Guesting around Young’s screen stint Cash spot were James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt. Huddled around a microphone, these three blossoming talents gave a taste of the burgeoning singer-songwriter movement in rock.

While in Nashville Young took time to record some new material. Serendipity played its designated role as always; a chance encounter with an acquaintance of Elliot Roberts, veteran producer/engineer Elliot Mazer, introduced Neil to a new set of musicians who would influence his sound from this point on. With Mazer handling the console at Quadraphonic Studios, Young laid down the tracks for what would become “Harvest”, his biggest seller and, for many, his most enduring work. Elliot Mazer engineered and co-produced the Area Code 615 band. An album of highly respected Nashville session musicians, including Wayne Moss, David Briggs, Mac Gayden, Charlie McCoy, and Kenny Buttrey. (The BBC music program The Old Grey Whistle Test used their ‘Stone Fox Chase’ as the opening theme.)

Elliot Mazer: “I had a friend who smoked a lot of weed, which I wasn’t then, who played nothing but “After The Gold Rush” a lot. That was the first time I heard of Neil Young. I was interested in the voice. All of a sudden we read about Neil coming to Nashville to tape The Johnny Cash Show. I said, ‘We need to host a dinner.’ Neil, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor and Tony Joe White attend, have dinner, and I get introduced to Neil. ‘You work with these Nashville guys. Can I get the studio tomorrow to mess around?’ ‘Sure.’ I moved a session to accommodate him. And called some musicians.’”

The future Stray Gators, a bunch of good ol’ boys covered all the musical bases: rascally Tim Drummond on bass, the timekeeper from Dylan’s immortal “Blonde on Blonde”, Kenny Buttrey, on silky smooth drums, pianist John Harris, guitar player Teddy Irwin and Ben Keith, Neil’s future right-hand-man on yowling steel guitar. They would set the table for their irascible leader on countless gigs and studio sessions. For now, it was time to bring in their first harvest, and they all knew it was something special.

Elliot Mazer: “I knew ‘Heart Of Gold’ was a hit when Neil played it. His songs are generally an overpowering feeling. Kenny, Drummond, Ben, Teddy and I are in the control room. Small space. Twelve feet by 20 feet. And Neil plays ‘Heart Of Gold’ and I look up and Kenny and I both at the same time put our fingers up as #1. We knew it. From then it was only a matter of time to get the thing done properly and out. Neil’s singing and playing on it was magnificent. His tempo was perfect. It was great. All we had to do was make sure we didn’t mess him up. I used a Neumann U67 or 87 microphone on his voice and rode his sound levels.

“Neil played ‘Old Man’ and sang it beautifully. I knew that was the take. I would know very early with Neil if it would be a take or not. I remember after that take, Neil came into the control room and saw Linda and James there and said, ‘Let’s record the backing vocals.’ And we did the backing vocals right in the control room. James played six-string banjo on it.”

Linda Ronstadt: “I sang in Nashville with Neil [at Quadraphonic]. We were doing The Johnny Cash Show and Neil was there. James Taylor was there. After we got finished with the TV show, Neil said, ‘I’m going to go record. Will you guys come along?’ So we recorded ‘Old Man’ and ‘Heart Of Gold’.  It took all night long. We didn’t get there until midnight. It was just before dawn, we came out of there and it had begun to snow.

“I remember I had to be on my knees for most of the session because James and I were singing together. But James was so tall, he had to sit in a chair, then I’d have to bend over to sing, so I knelt on my knees. I could just reach the microphone. (laughs) James was bent over and I was kneeling. So I was really tired by the time we finished. Because it took hours. But we loved the music. It was so good. James was playing a banjo. Actually, it was a guitar with a banjo head on it with six strings. That’s James playing banjo that you hear on ‘Heart Of Gold’. Two of the most beautiful, poignant songs. Neil is just the best. He’s my favourite writer from that time. I was a huge Neil Young fan. We didn’t think in those terms about those songs having an impact. I just went, ‘This is the best thing I’ve ever heard. I wanna be on it.’ I was glad that I got to sing on it. I had sort of learned how to do or how Neil’s harmonies go by listening to them on the radio. (laughs). I was just glad to be part of it.”

Elliot Mazer: “Neil and Jack Nitzsche went to London and did ‘A Man Needs A Maid’ and ‘There’s A World’ live with The London Symphony. Neil recorded ‘The Needle And The Damage Done’ from a [30th January, ’71] concert at UCLA’s Royce Hall. We did other tracks that were taped with The Stray Gators in California inside a barn on Neil’s ranch. We used a mobile truck with a UREI tube mixer. ‘Words’, ‘Alabama’ and ‘Are You Ready For The Country’. Nitzsche was on these sessions.”

Finally released in March, ’72, “Harvest” raced to #1 a defining moment for Neil Young.

“More than anyone in rock ’n’ roll, Neil Young has the guts to be romantic… If ‘Heart Of Gold’  is an admission, ‘A Man Needs A Maid’ is an outcry… “Harvest” also sounds better than any other Neil Young album.”  – Jimm Cushing, University Of California Santa Cruz, The City On A Hill Press, 13th April, ’72.

Back in 2020, former Auteurs frontman Luke Haines and former R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck teamed for the excellent album “Beat Poetry for Survivalists”, and now they’ve announced a follow-up. The awesomely titled “All The Kids Are Super Bummed Out” is a double album, and will be out October 28th on Cherry Red Records.

Across all the 17 tracks, Haines and Buck attempt to find out why all the kids are super bummed out, in their own twisted, surrealist, acid-fried way. The album features regular Buck collaborators Scott McCaughey and Linda Pitmon, as well as Patti Smith Group’s Lenny Kaye.

Luke Haines would eventually make four albums with The Authors. They are all excellent albums, but “New Wave” stands out for me.

Luke Haines, together with former R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck, shakes
the excellent songs on All The Kids Are Super Bummed Out out of his sleeve again and does so again without compromise Luke Haines could have easily become one of the greatest in British music history, but before that the British musician, after the great albums of his band The Auteurs, just a bit too much what he wanted himself. Luke Haines’ solo work therefore perhaps had just a bit too many sharp edges, which were filed off a bit on the album he made two years ago with former R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck, who has been involved in hobby projects in recent years. The collaboration between the British and the American musician gets this week a sequel to All The Kids Are Super Bummed Out, which contains songs that are as brilliant as they are uncompromising.

For more details on the album, Haines offers this:

There are mantraps at the bottom of the garden for falling fighter pilots. Richard Dadd’s dad saw it all; Richard Dadd murdered his dad (chanted the children) then hid in the maze. Marshall Applewhite was wearing a Guy Burgess mask and trading naked videos of Anthony Blunt. (Given to him by a passing gang of apes and angels) I tuned into the sound of North Korean cheerleaders being blasted out over the speakers on the outer perimeter of the maze and found my way to the sun dial, where I would bide my time doing drawings of the flying children until the helicopter arrived. I was finally bundled inside the cockpit by a Branch Davidian. ‘We are under constant aerial attack,’ said someone claiming to be a Brigadier. ‘No shit, Sherlock,’ I said, gazing up at the embassy roof. “Are you still a psychedelic sitar casual’? said the shrouded mourner, who had spent the last half century mourning Valentino. “I will let you know,’ I shot back, and carried on drawing the flying children.

You can listen to the delightfully demented rock n roll fever dream “Psychedelic Sitar Casual,” which references Boys from Brazil