The Fat Angel Sings

A long-lost live recording of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s 1970 show at London’s Royal Albert Hall is finally set for release later this year. When CCR took the stage for two nights in April of 1970, the band members had reached the height of their international stardom and arrived ready to prove themselves as equals to the likes of Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, and the Beatles, who had announced their breakup just days before. Their performance—which included hits like “Born On The Bayou,” “Proud Mary,” “Fortunate Son,” and “Bad Moon Rising”was met with a 15-minute standing ovation and rave next-day reviews in the UK’s top publications.

“Creedence Clearwater Revival at the Royal Albert Hall” features the band John Fogerty, Tom Fogerty, Doug Clifford and Stu Cook performing favourites like “Fortunate Son,” “Proud Mary” and “Bad Moon Rising,” the latter of which can be heard down below.

The original 1970 multitrack tapes were restored and mixed by Giles Martin and engineer Sam Okell. Due on September. 16th, “Royal Albert Hall” will be available on compact disc, cassette tape, digital and vinyl. (Select retailers will also offer a variety of exclusive colour variants too, including Walmart’s “Tombstone Shadow” gray vinyl and Target’s “Green River” vinyl.)

A concert film of the performance titled Travelin’ Band: Creedence Clearwater Revival at the Royal Albert Hall will also be available. The film documents the band’s rise to fame and features previously unseen footage. Directed by Bob Smeaton (The Beatles Anthology and Jimi Hendrix Band of Gypsies) and narrated by actor Jeff Bridges, Travelin’ Band is the only concert footage of the group’s original line-up to be released in its entirety. It will roll out on September 16th, though details on where it can be viewed have yet to be announced.

Confusingly, a decade later in 1980, Fantasy Records released a live album by the band, titled The Royal Albert Hall Concert. However it was quickly discovered that the audio was, in fact, from the aforementioned Oakland Coliseum show. The label did rush to sticker the album to correct the error – and properly renamed the January 1970 performance as “The Concert” for later production runs

A deluxe, 2LP/2CD/Blu-ray edition of the set will be released on November 14th and includes two 45-RPM 180-gram vinyl LPs as well as on compact disc, plus a second CD with music from the film featuring formative recordings from the band’s early years as Tommy Fogerty and the Blue Velvets and the Golliwogs. This package also includes a reproduction of the original 1970 tour program, a 36×24″ poster and a 16-page booklet with an excerpt from Bridges’ voice-over script.

In the film, Bridges marvels over the group’s achievements in 1969, as Creedence Clearwater Revival released “Bayou Country”, “Green River” and “Willy and the Poor Boys”. “In only 12 months,” Bridges says, “the band had achieved five Top 10 singles and three Top 10 albums on the American charts, outselling the Beatles. They had appeared on the legendary Ed Sullivan Show and played to over a million people across America, including the hundreds of thousands gathered at Woodstock. ‘John, Tom, Stu and Doug’ may not have had the familiar ring to it of ‘John, Paul, George and Ringo,’ but Creedence were challenging the Beatles for the title of the biggest group in the world.”

Ahead of the set’s release, you can listen to its first single, “Bad Moon Rising,”

The title of The Stroppies’ newest LP, “Levity“, serves as a creative statement of intent and an acknowledgment of the dichotomy between the music they have made and the conditions in which they were produced. For a group that started over an initial idea to “create open ended music, quickly and haphazardly”, the logistical challenges of creating their second album in the midst of a pandemic, in a city that endured the longest lockdown in the world, created a need to redefine process.

“Levity”, The Stroppies strongest creative statement to date, is the result of this new approach to creative process. Playful yet focused, but broader in scope and experimentation than previous efforts, the ten songs that comprise “Levity” continue the band’s exploration of the pop song as both foil for experimentation and conduit for personal reflection.

Whereas the group’s debut LP “Whoosh!” demonstrated their ability to craft clean, concise jangle pop, “Levity” takes a different route by utilizing a darker pallet of sounds to create its impressionistic whole. Fuzz and distortion are employed to add weight to songs built on tape loops and Motorik drum patterns. Warbling synthesisers and modulated keys add new moods and dimensions to The Stroppies unique brand of pop classicism. Thematically, the band continues their exploration of the personal refracted through the lens of the absurd, though this time around the music feels a few shades darker, a somewhat inevitable consequence of the collective trauma of the past 24 months. The songs still hit with the immediacy that made their debut so engaging, but there’s a creeping cynicism and wistfulness that now permeates The Stroppies sound.

While the narrative around the ‘lockdown record’ is increasingly commonplace, there are unavoidable realities involved in making creative decisions under such circumstances that can’t be overlooked, especially for a band that thrives on collaboration. “The restrictions around COVID really informed the way we made the record’, says Angus Lord, the band’s co-founder and guitarist.

“There was a lot less opportunity to meet and build ideas collaboratively, which is how we’ve worked in the past. Instead, ideas were developed in isolation, then shared digitally, developing slowly over correspondence and only bearing fruit when we were able to be in a room together. I think this had a big effect on the songwriting and execution.” adds drummer Rory Heane . This process even extended to the studio, where The Stroppies found a kindred spirit in John Lee of Phaedra Studios, who mixed the record in isolation, somehow managing to synthesise the band’s pop sensibilities with their penchant for studio experimentation. Furthermore, the addition of new member Zoe Monk to the , known for playing in a diverse array of Melbourne acts (Eggy, Thibault, The Opals) contributed both synthesiser experimentation and a rock solid rhythm guitar style, a huge addition to the band’s developing sound, an infectious combination of the off-kilter 90s US underground, British artpunk ala Wire and a more than generous love of classic Pop song writing.

Reflecting on the making of the record, bassist and co-vocalist Claudia Serfaty understands their shift in approach, noting that, “the world feels strange and in turn making pop music feels even stranger. A healthy dose of levity had to be employed in order to find meaning in the process.” In spite of this light hearted attitude, The Stroppies have managed to craft a record of weight and substance. Through “Levity” the Stroppies have, at least temporarily, found their feet amongst the chaos. 

released May 6th, 2022

The band’s 2018 debut, ”Constant Image“, was a triumph – a set of songs both dizzy and explosive, balancing new-wave lushness and post-punk frenzy. “Love is Yours” steps up the ambition and reaches for the horizon. The record is ablaze with mood, melody, and carefully threaded hooks, finding the band foregrounding the pop sensibilities that had always been present in their previous releases.  The album was written and recorded amid a moment of flux for the band. Now a duo, guitarist Taylor Mulitz and drummer Emma Baker had to reimagine Flasher’s voice. When it was first completed, Mulitz was shy about sharing the album, worrying that old friends would find the new sounds unrecognizable.  “Love is Yours“  is unquestionably made up of Flasher’s DNA, but it’s true that something pivotal has shifted. If Constant Image found the band tightening up and transcending its basement-punk roots, ”Love is Yours” marks another, major moment of ascent, this time toward something that’s easy to embrace, but harder to pin down – still thrilling, but newly illuminated and entirely their own.  

Washington, DC’s Flasher are back with album number two, but things have changed a little bit. They’re down to a duo and their songs don’t shy away from obvious infectious pop. The new LP is full of dancy pop that has saccharine elements of Ultra Vivid Scene and a bit of Unrest obtuseness with an eye to get played on the indie dance floor. Songs like “I’m Better” and “Love Is Yours” certainly deserver to get their chance to make you boogie.

Flasher – “Love Is Yours” from the album ‘Love Is Yours,’ out now on Domino Record Co.

The Umbrellas – Write It In the Sky, This young band The Umbrellas have really outdone themselves this time. After one single and an album, their new single “Write It In the Sky” reaches heights beyond anything they’ve done previously. It sounds like Sunny Sundae Smile era MBV, a dash of the noisier side of Sarah Records and some long lost paisley underground group. The guitars are buzzing, the vocals are breathless and the backing vocals are from the heavens. Singles like this will restore your faith in humanity. It did mine.

Bursting out of the San Francsico Bay Area’s fertile indie scene, The Umbrellas come correct with a sound that fits snugly into a long line of classic pop, from Orange Juice and The Pastels to Comet Gain, Veronica Falls and Belle & Sebastian.

Following up their *super* well-received 2021 debut album The Umbrellas are back with “Write It In The Sky,” an instant-classic that simply demanded to be pressed onto a 7″ single. Clocking in at just under 3 minutes, “Write It In The Sky” is a thrilling pop rush full of fuzz, melody and excitement that will sit easily next to singles by the likes of Talulah Gosh, Shop Assistants, The Field Mice and The Pains of Being Pure At Heart. It’s really that good – a sure thing to enter the canon of perennial indiepop floor-fillers.

Taken from the forthcoming 7″ single, out June 24th, 2022 on Slumberland Records/Meritorio Records/Fastcut Records/Tear Jerk Records.

Light and dark are balanced perfectly on this Louisville trio’s excellent second album. Louisville, KY trio Wombo have created their own appealing, unique blend of post-punk on their perfectly titled second album, “Fairy Rust”, that is dark and light, dissonant and beautiful, complex and immediate all at the same time. These are songs that would bewitch even as an instrumental album; slithering basslines, spiderweb guitar work full of spooky harmonics and jazzy muscular drumming recall a wide swatch of 1981, from The Cure and Siouxsie to Young Marble Giants and The Slits. But guitarist Sydney Chadwick’s vocals — clear and breathy — pull everything into the sunshine.

‘Fairy Rust,’ the new album from Wombo (Sydney Chadwick, Cameron Lowe, Joel Taylor), contemplates the spaces in-between, a meeting of the physicality of the land with the fluidity of the imagination, to uncanny effect. Across twelve tracks, sharpened guitar work, distorted freak outs and downtempo musings see the trio make a sonic leap forward into new and transformative places. Conceived over the course of the last two years, ‘Fairy Rust’ plays on this preoccupation with fantasy (“especially in a time where people are seeming to gravitate towards these kinds of stories”), and the resulting record sounds like no one else.

“Below the House” was inspired by the folklore of Chadwick’s unconsciousness, and is about the intangible ties that ground us in our surroundings. Although the band was inspired by the rust belt and agricultural landscapes that permeate the background of their hometown of Louisville throughout the recording process, Wombo’s music is also imbued with the ephemeral quality of being shaken awake from a dream. There’s unassuming clues and hidden messages scattered across the album, where references to doors, windows and walls play with the idea that while scenery can change, home remains a grounding point. Tracing out melodies before incorporating vocals, bits and pieces of lyrics are gradually assembled creating a framework that transcends a simple bassline or guitar part, Wombo weave together a tapestry of sound that’s both intoxicating and effortless, where one minute it’s all deadpan post-punk energy, and the next Stereolab on a mountain top.

The music functions as their own localized language that feels uniquely out-of-body. “Another time around / another time around and around,” Chadwick intones in “Blackflip,” a dizzyingly propulsive number where the trio’s interlocking instrumentals propelled by Chadwick’s vocals build on top of one another in an exhilarating tailspin.

“Backflip” was inspired by a freeway drive with Chadwick’s grandmother, where she turned to her in the passenger seat and wondered aloud: “we’re all just gonna meet ourselves at the end of this, aren’t we?” The single itself accelerates while Chadwick’s eerie vocals twist and guide the piercing guitar into strange and inviting new sonic explorations. Time itself is a construct that’s constantly revisited during ‘Fairy Rust,’ and many of the songs are set in a fading twilight ambiance that’s ambiguously watercolour, a portal of potential where anything goes. “Evening looms beyond my view,” Chadwick sings in “7 of Cups”, the sprawling final track that gesticulates to a horizon that’s a signpost to an unimaginable future.

Wombo stress that the unknown is key to the ongoing journey of self-discovery. The future cannot be predicted, and ambiguity should be understood as a crucial part of life. According to Chadwick, “endings are always beyond my level of understanding or comprehending, or knowing at all. I wanted to end the album with that kind of message, that the mysteries in life are not to be solved but experienced and respected, to be kept at a distance.” With ‘Fairy Rust’ the band present one moment of fragile time that reverberates throughout human experience. 

released July 29th, 2022

Montreal melodic hardcore/post-hardcore band Spite House are releasing their self-titled debut LP on August 26th via New Morality Zine (pre-order), and today brings second single “Dying Leaves.” It follows lead single “Hope,” which had kind of a Shed-era Title Fight vibe, and this one’s a bit slower and almost has some untitled-era blink-182 vibes in those guitar patterns.

It’s also a very personal, sentimental song for vocalist/guitarist Maxime Lajoie, who says, “It is a song about the morning I last saw my father. I walked to school on November 2nd. A few moment’s later he left our house for the last time. He was wearing the same old clothes for a week (red clothes), I was 16 at the time and knew something was very weird and wrong, but couldn’t or didn’t know what to do about it. I’m not sure I’d go into more details of what happened, but we are releasing the song on what would’ve been his 70th birthday.”

Spite House is one of those bands born out of intuition. Vocalist Maxime Lajoie (guitar and vocals) cites the unexpected death of his mother as the spark to dig into his desire to sing for a band and ignite an old idea between former friend and schoolmate Marc Tremblay (drums). Shortly after, the two had fallen into a cohesive writing rhythm of tracks bearing influences such as Samiam, Jawbreaker and Seaweed with a modern flair. The band’s sonic trajectory was cemented with the inclusion of Nabil Ortega (bass), who also shared a mutual love for the band’s list of influences.

The band has wasted no time. Since their inception they have hit the ground running and have been hungry to create. In February, the band released their “3 Song Promo” that caught mention and interest ranging from casual music fans to the ears of music journalists at places such as BrooklynVegan. What was heard on these promo tracks is reinforced on their upcoming LP, “Spite House”.

The LP boasts 10 full post-hardcore tracks shaped by modern introspection and the curiosities of life. While this is Max Lajoie’s first time fronting a band, lyrically and vocally he delivers. Max’s wide vocal stylings offer listeners a glimpse into the emotions put into each line and driven home by the musicianship of the band as a unit.

releases August 26th, 2022 Debut LP on New Morality Zine

It’s powerful, emotional stuff, 

We started out as a cover band, and we’ve played more songs by @officialgogos than anyone else. And even after we started to write our own songs, we never stopped playing “Tonite.”

About a month ago teenage pop/punk sensation The Linda Lindas released
their mettlesome debut album “Growing Up“, singing/screaming about their (young) generation. Aged 12 to 18, these strong-minded juveniles put all lazy megastar bands in the shadow when it comes to throwing a get-up-and-go party with spiky
power-pop punches.

We’ve become friends with @realginaschock from The Go-Go’s, and she has drummed on the song with us at a few of our gigs. Not only were we onstage with a legend, but it allowed Mila to depart her throne, take centre stage, and show off her moves while singing lead vocals!

Because the cover is such a hit at shows, we decided to record a studio version to pay tribute to the greatest all-female rock band of all time, a crucial part of the L.A. punk scene, and our heroes.

“Tonite” is now streaming everywhere!

Written by The Go-Go’s Produced & mixed by Carlos de la Garza

How you function informs much of what you aspire to do, to be, to strive for. Berries have sieved the last four years of their lives through tight, crunchy guitar lines and puncturing rhythmic patterns. Bold, brave and brandishing their triumph over darker times, this trio had to put together their first cohesive full-length record – ‘How We Function’ – and tell their history shortly after signing to Xtra Mile Recordings in 2020.

“We do grow as musicians as the years go by and so for this album we really wanted to show that side of it,” says Holly – guitarist, songwriter, vocalist. “A lot of people describe us as off-kilter, riffy, jagged rock, which we love but there’s always been an underlying poppy side to us too. So we brought back some of the older tracks we recorded in demo form to see how they fared against the new tracks. Tracks like ‘Siren’, ‘Discreetly’, they’re different to where we’re heading but they still represent us as a band.”

These anthemic songs from 2018, the true inception of the band, weave so deftly around indelible calligraphic single ‘The Expert’ and nestle well with album tracks like the pulsing, wiry ‘Strength in Numbers’ interpreting their incremental, intricate development as a band. There’s been no switch to pop polish on ‘How We Function’ despite others telling them that’s what they should do. Instead, the fierce grip of rapid tectonic layers locking together with crystal clarity imparts all you need to understand Berries and for them to know themselves.

After connecting as friends and musicians, and hastily putting together some full-band songs, Berries really found themselves in 2018 after releasing ‘Discreetly’. In 2019, they released four-track EP ‘Lies’ which felt like the ignition of something significant for them, and then we were all suddenly stuck inside for all of 2020 and some of 2021. In this state of despair for the future, Berries were contacted by Xtra Mile, who signed them shortly after.

As if making up for lost time, in 2021 they released two new singles – ‘Copy’ and ‘The Expert’, the latter on a Flexidisc featuring their cover of Sleater-Kinney’s classic ‘Dance Song ‘97’ recorded for the killrockstars 30th anniversary covers compilation – and the ‘Live Sessions from Big Smith Studios’ EP.

The singles garnered plays on 6Music, BBC London and Amazing Radio as well as a session with supporter John Kennedy on Radio X. After the dead touring year of 2020, they joined Frank Turner’s The Gathering summer shows and Lost Evenings at the Roundhouse and headlined London’s The Grace as we all tentatively returned to life. With their first UK headline tour, a German tour with The Subways and later in the year Carter USM’s Jim Bob, and a debut album release all in 2022, that lost time is being torched in their afterburners.

The articulate and meticulous songs on that album are whittled with precision, revealing a dedication and passion that is bolstered by the words with which they’ve chosen to lace their sounds. An album ostensibly about mental health struggles and the resounding empowerment of overcoming and learning to live thoroughly with them, ‘How We Function’ is highly relatable to most of us.

‘How We Function’ released through Xtra Mile Recordings on July 8th.

Guy Chadwick still sounds in fine, His dramatic voice on this lead single from The House of Love’s first album in nine years.

UK alt-rock / indie greats The House of Love will release “A State of Grace”, which will be their first album in nine years, on September 16th via Cherry Red Records. The first single from the album is “Clouds,” which is about as full-on “rock” as we’ve ever heard from House Of Love, with a big anthemic chorus and frontman Guy Chadwick’s voice in fine form.

House of Love also recently released the “Burn Down the World: Fontana 1989 – 1993” box set, which collects all of the band’s recordings for Fontana Records. Those include most of their best-known songs, like “I Don’t Know Why I Love You,” “Never,” “The Girl with the Loneliest Eyes,” and more.

The official video for the new single from The House Of Love. Clouds is taken from the album The State Of Grace, released 16th September 2022.