The Fat Angel Sings

Los Angeles psych-rock band Hooveriii (pronounced “Hoover Three”) have announced the July 29th release of their new album “A Round of Applause”.

Today the band shares the first take of the album by way of “A Round of Applause” opening track, “See.”  The band’s Bert Hoover notes, “‘See’ is about trying not to take life for granted. Some things are easier said than done. It’s our first song to feature Anna Wallace singing along with us and it came together rather seamlessly. It was a pretty bare bones jangle jam until the band filled it with ear candy.”  The video was filmed on 16mm at the Trona Pinnacles in Trona CA. Conceived and co-directed by the mighty Nikki Houston and Owen Summers it features aliens stranded on earth try to find their way home until things go very wrong.

Though created in large part by founder Bert Hoover, Hooveriii has grown to include Gabe Flores (lead guitar and vocals), Kaz Mirblouk (bass and synths), James Novick (synths), and Owen Barrett (drums).  
Prior to delving into “A Round of Applause” Hoveriii’s second album through The Reverberation Appreciation Society —the band had stuck to a routine of issuing about two releases a year (including singles, live albums, etc.).  After the rise of a certain five-letter word that starts with a C, they realized that time really shouldn’t be taken for granted. Finding additional inspiration via Nick Cave, who once said that dabbling with new ideas continues to fuel his near-50-year career, the band decidedly took a different approach with their new album and gave themselves the freedom to explore in the studio.  

The end result is “A Round of Applause”, an expansive and even, at times, experimental record. Whereas 2021’s “Water for the Frogs” was akin to a jam-band record most of its seven songs are about five minutes long (including a closing track that lasts nearly 10) — “A Round of Applause” could be considered their “pop” album. Occasionally paying homage to the Canterbury scene, the band consider it to be a palette cleanser of sorts. “I am not really a playlist guy or a singles guy,” Hoover admits. “I’m really into the album experience. … So yeah, we made a pop record. But also, to me, this record is very progressive as well, and I think that that provides a nice balance.”  He previously referred to “Water for the Frogs” as the band’s equivalent of Iggy Pop’s The Idiot. Playing with that idea he says “A Round of Applause” is the kindred spirit of Lust For Life.

Hooveriii derived the album title from the late-‘80s Roky Erickson song “Click Your Fingers Applauding the Play.” “That’s too much of a mouthful,” Hoover qualified. “My title, “A Round of Applause”, just came one day, and we were like, ‘Yo, that sounds like a Gentle Giant record.’”

Reflecting the mostly lighthearted and uplifting record, “A Round of Applause” closes cheekily — but not sarcastically — with the sound of people clapping. Hoover adds graciously: “We’ve been lucky so far. I don’t think we really have a, you know, ‘bad song.’ ” Maybe one will, someday. But Hoover doesn’t dwell on that; after all, his band has more records to make — and time is of the essence. 

The Wave Pictures bring to an end a four year hiatus with a double LP ‘When The Emperor Spreads His Purple Wings’. Lead single ‘This Heart Of Mine’ is a beautifully gentle, autumnal tune, inspired by Neil Young’s country-tinged output and features lyrics about memories, space and time travel. The band are known for playing a variety of styles from garage rock to jazz and blues.

With a nuance of autumn, ‘This Heart Of Mine’ references time and space travel & memory all rolled into one. Musically inspired by classic Neil Young, ‘This Heart Of Mine’ witnesses The Wave Pictures going full-on country and features cowboy harmonica from Dominic ‘Hotdog’ Brider, Franic Rozycki on mandolin, alongside Dave Tattersall’s gentle acoustic guitar strum. The first of four seasonal videos made by Nina Garthwaite for “When The Purple Emperor Spreads His Wings” album, ‘This Heart Of Mine’ is Autumn: “The week I made it autumn was at its best, sunny and cold with long shadows. The best thing about autumn is that the days somehow feel like they contain all the autumn days that ever were, just right for a song about memories and time. I’m still exploring animation and this is much more multimedia in style than I’ve done so far – there are mono-prints, photos, paintings and photocopies and I probably got over-excited about the flicker technique! It is also inspired a lot by the bonkers collage posters Franic likes to do. Towards the end, when when the band appears as if inside a planet, brings to mind how long it’s been since they have been able to tour properly. Hopefully by the time the album is released they’ll be back, rocking, doing what they love.”

The Wave Pictures, industrious and prolific as ever, return today with ‘This Heart Of Mine’, taken from the forthcoming double album “When The Purple Emperor Spreads His Wings”, out in 2022:

Leeds art-rock group Mush return with album “Down Tools” via Memphis Industries. The new record marks the prolific band’s third album in as many years, following hype-building early singles ‘Alternative Facts’ and ‘Gig Economy’, 2020’s debut LP “3D Routine” and 2021’s acclaimed “Lines Redacted”, which pushed their sound further.

On “Down Tools“, this voice grows again into a more brilliantly singular sound. It sees Mush getting loose, moving away from the defined moods and textures of “Lines Redacted” with a musical openness, straddling genres while avoiding pastiche. Hyndman says of the lyrics on ‘Down Tools’ that “there was a conscious decision to retreat further from an observational approach” with vocals being ad-libbed lending the record a more abstract feel. Hyndman continues: “this album is less dark than the previous one. The Armageddon obsession has eased, or at least the symptoms have become milder due to saturation. Musically there’s a lot more chill on the record – there’s a few more mellow tracks out there and the most astute listener may even be able to decipher some of the words, fingers crossed.”

While grief and work balance form themes on the record, Hyndman’s approach is largely made up of abstract, disconnected streams of consciousness and lines liberally taken from books, paintings, films and beyond. On “Human Resources”, Hyndman dramatically retells a battle he had with an HR department at a job in a David and Goliath style. The song ‘Group Of Death’, a phrase chillingly familiar to any football fan, is emblematic of the turn towards softer, more considered sounds.

Hyndman says: “In my warped imagination it just sounds like a Paul McCartney song, but it won’t to others. I initially had the idea of doing a World Cup song called ‘Group of Death’, but by the time it was written nothing beyond the title had any relevance to football. Anyway, the next World Cup is in Qatar so fuck that shit.” Northern Safari meanwhile is a song about the way the North of England has been portrayed in the media and used as a mirror to reflect some of the nastier elements of what’s going on in society, in particular vox pops around Doncaster, portraying a particular narrative of the collapse of the red wall and the disgruntled ex-miners.

“Down Tools” then sees Mush idiosyncratically ping-pong from finger picked looseners to noise-rock bangers to brilliantly entertaining effect, avoiding post punk saturation with an easy style and wit.

From the album “Down Tools” out 8th July, The band perform at Nottingham| Rough Trade instore 10th July

Canadian songstress TESS PARKS released new album ‘And Those Who Were Seen Dancing’ last April. The title refers to a quote by philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche:
“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear
the music.”

Following years of international touring and a lengthy list of critically-acclaimed collaborations with Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Anton Newcombe in recent years (most recently the duo’s self-titled 2018 LP), the new album will be Parks’ first full-length solo offering since her much-loved debut album, ‘Blood Hot’, was released back in 2013. Trailing the highly-praised singles ‘Happy Birthday Forever’, ‘Brexit at Tiffany’s’ and ‘Do You Pray?’, ‘And Those Who Were Seen Dancing’

A new video for my favourite track  “I See Angels”

‘Brexit At Tiffany’s’ is out now the second single from the new album ‘And Those Who Were Seen Dancing’ which came out May 20th on Fuzz Club and Hand Drawn Dracula

Thanks to my friend Robert Ascroft for the video, which was as planned and thought out as its namesake. Robert was in London with a day to spare, so last minute we rallied up some friends who were graciously willing to spend an afternoon wearing these horrible masks.

German psych-blues duo Pretty Lightning are today releasing ‘The Slow Grinder’, lifted from their new album ‘Dust Moves’, out July 29th on Fuzz Club Records. A piece of hypnotic, swirling desert blues, ‘The Slow Grinder’.

Since forming over a decade ago, the Saabrücken-based band are now on their fifth full-length, have toured around the UK and Europe on numerous occasions and shared stages with the likes of Moon Duo, Clinic, Kikagaku Moyo and Night Beats, among many others. Arriving following their 2020 LP ‘Jangle Bowls’, ‘Dust Moves’ is the band’s first fully instrumental record and offers up a cinematic journey through meandering desert blues, strung-out psych-rock and widescreen, hypnotic drones. 

“We´ve been thinking about recording an instrumental album for a while because we particularly like the fluid movement it can create”, Sebastian Haas says, citing contemporary instrumental artists like 75 Dollar Bill and Bobby Lee as influences alongside library music and the experimental synths of Mort Garson or Syrinx. “Even if these can be considerably different in genre or style, they can share a similar mood, it’s somehow about ‘sound’ rather than ‘song’.” 

“Making this record always felt a bit more like sound explorations, less like writing songs”, he continues: “We focused on using new instruments like the mellotron, a self-made box of creepy tricks and making guitars sound like they were actually not guitars. Words or lyrics would have just had a restrictive effect here and that wasn´t what we were aiming at. In this manner, the songs on this record resulted from jams and evolved into repetitive and simply flowing instrumental pieces. It was a tonne of fun to make.”

On the new single out today which follows last month’s ‘Gewgaw For Beginners’, Haas says: “The Slow Grinder” was the first song that emerged when we had started fiddling around with the idea of an instrumental record and I think it laid down the base or structure of the entire album. Everything that happened afterwards is somehow following the same formula of repetition and sounds that build-up, swell and spread while remaining on the path. Simple music, easy to follow and to dig in, if one is up for it.”

Brooklyn post-punk/synth-pop duo The Vacant Lots are today announcing their fourth album ‘Closure’, due out September 30th .You can pre-order the new record and stream the amazing new single ‘Chase’ here: thevacantlots.lnk.to/closure, ‘Closure’ is the fourth album from the Brooklyn, The Vacant Lots and is Jared Artaud and Brian MacFadyen’s most fully realized work to date.

The record packs 8 minimal is maximal salvos into 23 minutes that coalesce into a stun-blast soundtrack for today’s shattered society. Laced with evocatively concise and lacerating lyrics delivered detached and deadpan, ‘Closure’s spine-chilling onslaught of towering guitar shrapnel, ethereal metallic synth melodies and cold electronic turbulence comes infused with shades of New Order and Jesus And Mary Chain; the kind of modern disco and post-punk grooves that pillaged New York clubs in the 80s. Inevitably, the penetrating spirit of New York electronic trailblazers Suicide haunts the new record with its subterranean gravitational pull, having previously manifested physically when the two-piece befriended the late Alan Vega – leading to collaborations, support spots and Artaud now co-curating the ‘Vega Vault’ of unreleased material and co-producing and mixing the 2021 lost ‘Mutator’ LP.

There are exclusive vinyl editions available Rough Trade and Levitation, and we’ve got some merch bundles up on our store too! The band are also now announcing November/December UK & EU tour dates alongside their September/October North America run with The Black Angels : thevacantlots.lnk.to/tickets

Deploying a minimal disco on downers sound, Jared Artaud says of the new single: “Chase” has this duality that strikes a balance between wanting to dance and taking a pill that plunges you on the couch.” Brian MacFadyen adds: “Chase” is a song about longing, about the struggle of love across time zones. It’s about the desire to close that gap of separation, but also the anticipation and excitement that builds between each encounter. It’s about a sense of knowing how it should be before it is.”

Out Sept 30th on Fuzz Club Records

Canadian shoegazing band Living Hour shared a video for their new single, “No Body.” It is the latest release from their forthcoming album, “Someday Is Today”, which will be out on September 2nd via Kanine Records. The band’s Sam Sarty directed the video.

In a press release, Sarty states: “This song is about dissociating at a restaurant and feeling completely isolated and alone in the experience. Close friends all around but you can’t reach out, you can’t say anything, hands numb, mind far away and foggy. Trying to ground myself with observations and saying my middle name; focus on something small like the rainbow floating through the glass. The background voices are calming, more positive thoughts pushing the mind into a softer world. A diner is a diner, your friends love you, the sky is still out there.”

Upon announcement of the album in May, the band shared the album track “Feelings Meeting,” featuring Jay Som. “No Body” is from Living Hour’s new album, “Someday Is Today”, out September 2nd on Kanine Records & Next Door Records.

Nightlands is the solo project of The War on Drugs’ band member Dave Hartley shared a video for his new song “Stare Into the Sun.” It is the latest release from his forthcoming studio album, “Moonshine”, which will be out on July 15th via Western Vinyl Records.

“The spark for this song started when I heard ‘Human Nature’ (from Thriller) at a gas station,” states Hartley in a press release. “The chords in the intro of that tune activated something in my heart and I wanted to write something with similar modulating chords. There’s some surrealism happening here. Hundreds of vocals overdubbed creating an uncanny, fractured gospel vibe. The lyrics stand in contrast to the overall vibe, though: it’s a lush, melancholy song about pure anger. I love the arpeggiating synth solo in the break and I’m proud of the way the lyrics poured out. It didn’t feel like composition, it felt like therapy.”

Upon announcement of the new album back in April, Hartley shared the title track, “Moonshine.” He later shared a further track “No Kiss For the Lonely.”

Even in light of the album’s vocal emphasis, Hartley’s history as a bassist brilliantly beams through “Moonshine”, giving effortless and sprightly movement to songs like “Down Here,” which also features an extended section of saxophone lent by his Western Vinyl labelmate, Joseph Shabason. In addition to Shabason, the album hosts a short list of remote collaborators including four of Hartley’s bandmates from The War on Drugs, Robbie Bennet, Anthony Lamarca, Eliza Hardy Jones, and Charlie Hall, as well as exotica virtuoso Frank Locrasto (Cass McCombs, Fruit Bats), and producer Adam McDaniel (Avey Tare, Angel Olsen). Hartley was forced to keep the guest list small out of the necessity of pandemic isolation, coupled with his move to a smaller city, all of which challenged him to do most of the album’s heavy lifting right down to the mixing duties, resulting in the most independent effort of his career. By that measure, “Moonshine” is also the clearest image yet of Dave Hartley as a person and creator.

Hartley’s last solo album, “I Can Feel the Night Around Me“, came out in 2017 via Western Vinyl.

Releases July 15th, 2022 

Stella Donnelly the Australian singer/songwriter is releasing a new album, “Flood“, on August 26th via Secretly Canadian. She has shared its second single, title track “Flood,” via a video for the song. Donnelly co-directed the video with Nick Mckk and Grace Goodwin. In it Donnelly and her bandmates rescue an exercise machine from the trash.

Donnelly had this to say about “Flood” in a press release: “This song feels like a sad little adventure. I wrote it in the dark depths of a Melbourne winter lockdown where it had been raining for consecutive weeks. Everyone around me was falling into their own version of depression at different times. It felt like a flood of trauma yet at the same time, we were given an opportunity of time to work through stuff that we’d been distracting ourselves with for so long prior to the pandemic.”

Of the video, she says: “This clip is pure ridiculous play, like going to your grandparents house where you and your cousins would get up to the most elaborate film projects. We always ran around the house making home movies that tried to re-enact other films and much like this clip here, they always ended in some sort of minor catastrophe. With this video for ‘Flood’ we have made a very feeble attempt at recreating the legendary OK GO video clip for ‘Here it Goes Again’ and we failed gloriously.”

Previously Donnelly had shared “Flood’s” first single, “Lungs,” via a video. “Flood” is Donnelly’s second album, the follow-up to 2019’s debut full-length album, “Beware of the Dogs”. Donnelly co-wrote songs with her bandmates Jennifer Aslett, George Foster, Jack Gaby, and Marcel Tussie, and the previous press release says the process “at times felt like experimental kindergarten play.” Donnelly co-produced “Flood” alongside Anna Laverty and Methyl Ethyl’s Jake Webb.

The album was partially written during her time in the rainforests of Australia’s Bellingen, where she took up birdwatching. During her time writing new songs she also lived in Fremantle, Williams, Guilderton, Margaret River, and Melbourne and in total she wrote 43 new songs.

Stella Donnelly‘s ‘How Was Your Day?‘ was the lead single from her beautiful album “Flood”, a skilful, tuneful song laden with pathos, juxtaposing skippy percussion, glistening guitars and a bright melody with Stella’s deadpan poetic delivery vocals in the verses, that nod back to her superb 2019 debut album, “Beware of the Dogs”.

“Level-headedness has made way for a disastrous love”, she drops casually. “I know it, you know it.” 

Of the track, Donnelly says: “This is my attempt at building a song out of a very specific dynamic between two monogamously involved people. The verses are just excerpts from real conversations, fragments of what two people talk about when they both know they need to have a real talk but neither wants to be the one to bring it up. This song came out of lockdown and seeing a lot of friends break up or get married.” 

“I had so many opportunities to write things in strange places,” Donnelly said. “I often had no choice about where I was. There’s no denying that not being able to access your family with border closures, it zooms in on those parts of your life you care about.”

Stripping away the artifice of being a musician, taking time to breathe and reassess. On her superlative second album “Flood”, Stella Donnelly displays a voice of rare clarity that can crystallise her emotions investing her deft songs with previously uncharted depths: exploring her inner child, her place in the world and the boundaries of her and others’ relationships, capturing moments of brevity in songs that reveal themselves over multiples plays. In the process, with Welsh heritage and based in Perth, Australia, Donnelly offers a gentle arm on the shoulder, a guiding light out of the dark, in a time of uncertainty and fear.

As well as being sophisticated and layered, “Flood” is also a vulnerable and empathetic record. More subdued but no less powerful, there are fewer instant hooks than her debut, but it’s actually better for it. The arrangements have a subtle openness that stretches out like a warm embrace; this is a tapestry, produced by a new perspective of experimentation and thoughtfulness forged with her band. “Flood” is overflowing with both. It’s simply a gorgeous record, drink in every moment, it’s positively a revelation. Astounding.

‘Flood’, out August 26th on Secretly Canadian.

Swedish sister alt-country/folk duo First Aid Kit (Klara and Johanna Söderberg) shared a video for their new single, “Angel.” It is the duo’s first release of new music since the release of their 2019 song “Strange Beauty.”

First Aid Kit state in a press release: “It feels special to release a song after such a long hiatus. Today we’re so thrilled to finally share our new track ‘Angel’—a hopeful tune for these crazy times about accepting other people even if you don’t always see eye to eye. It’s also about being kinder to yourself. We wanted it to feel really big, but vulnerable at the same time, something you can cry to and dance to as well.”

First Aid Kit is a Swedish folk duo consisting of the sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg, born in 1990 and 1993, respectively. When performing live, they are today accompanied by a drummer, a guitarist and a keyboard player. In 2008, they gained some Internet popularity for their cover of the Fleet Foxes’ song “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song”. Rolling Stone magazine chose their song “Emmylou” as the number 10 “Single of the Year” in 2012. They have released four albums, four EPs and several singles. In 2015, they were nominated for a Brit Award as one of the five best international groups. They were nominated again in 2019.

At Glastonbury 2022, Swedish folk duo First Aid Kit took to the Pyramid Stage. With a performance that brimmed with energy and excitement, sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg showed us exactly how it’s done.

In 2021, First Aid Kit shared their Leonard Cohen cover album “Who by Fire“.