The Fat Angel Sings

Italian-bred, London-based punk band Qlowski fall at the interesting intersection of indie rock, art punk, synth-pop and noise rock. Their first album “Quale Futuro?” arrived last year, and it feels like a treasure trove for anyone who loves to geek out about their favourite underground indie or post-punk bands from decades past. And sure, they scratch a lot of stylistic itches, but they always emerge sounding like themselves. Tracks such as “Folk Song” and “To Be True” spill over with euphoric pop thrust, while others like “All Good” and “Ikea Youth Pt. 2” ring out with jolting discordance. Qlowski are also a gem for anyone who loves dual vocalists with clear tone contrasts—Mickey Tellarini has a bold, gothic voice that flickers between tender and moody, while Cecilia Corapi’s is of the delectable indie-pop variety, rife with light-hearted ease and enchanting imperfections.

This is Quale Futuro? their debut LP for Maple Death Records. London based twee-punks Qlowski entered the studio in late January 2020, basically before everything. Crammed in a small studio room in Tottenham Hale with producer Lindsay A. Corstorphine (Sauna Youth, Cold Pumas, Middex) they created a striking, full blown manifesto, where their early post-punk nuances are heightened by an extremely poetic and compelling vision that encapsulates words, imagery and noise.

Propulsive rhythms, a modern spin on kiwi-pop and a weird combination of dark punk, noise rock and flower pop are still the foundation of their sound but it’s the combination of bandleaders Mickey and Cecilia’s voices that creates an eerie effortless sense of familiarity. It’s no wonder they’ve known each other since they were young kids.

Ferocity, heart, art and conviction travel together on Quale Futuro?, placing Qlowski in that beautiful lineage of bands trying to escape the masculine showmanship of borderline rock’n’roll and outsider punk. Martin Newell, Television Personalities, Half Japanese, The Raincoats, The Clean, Killing Joke, Aussie Punk. Music narrating life through all the artistic forms. If concrete-punk was just a fun label thrown around to define Qlowski in the early days, now it has become a calling, a statement defining their future.

If you’re looking for a stylish, versatile guitar band you’ve never heard before, you should catch Qlowski

Dublin band Pillow Queens marry fuzzy guitars with pleading lyrics, often reconciling their Catholic upbringing and their queer identity: “Well, I won’t worry about the gay girls / I pray for them when I wring my hands / Marie, Marie, Marie / Tell me where to find you when I lose my way,” Pamela Connolly sings on “Gay Girls,” off the band’s 2020 self-released debut, “In Waiting“. Shedding guilt and embracing one’s true self has rarely sounded this beautiful. Connolly shares lead vocal, rhythm guitar and bass duties with Sarah Corcoran, with Cathy McGuinness playing lead guitar and Rachel Lyons on bass. The quartet’s second album “Leave a Light On” is due out in April on Royal Mountain Records.

Two years on since the release of In Waiting, Pillow Queens will release their new album Leave The Light On on Royal Mountain Records.

“Leave the Light On” is an exploration of the uncertainty of emotions as they are in process, and an intuitive outpouring of ideas as they form. It’s about being intimately honest with yourself, and as a band. It’s about trusting that this state of vulnerability can be held as it emerges, by you, by us.

But gravitating towards the unknown and the ambiguous can often yield the kinds of sounds and feelings that provide creative certainty, where the art is coming to you, as much as you going to it. “Leave the Light On” fills vast new sonic plains for Pillow Queens. It’s an album that encourages duality; to be soft and hard, delicate, and muscular, intimate and anthemic, alone and together. Collaborating on lyrics, a shared emotional experience fills these songs of hope and home, insecurity and estrangement, songs that track time passing and a sense of reflection grows deeper every day.

New album ‘Leave the Light On’ comes out April 1st.

Oakland quartet Fake Fruit were easily one of my favourite finds of 2021. Their self-titled debut album dropped last year via Rocks In Your Head, and its brand of bouncy, distorted post-punk was a breath of fresh air—and not just because it’s a break from the popular talk-y wing of the genre. Hannah D’Amato has a capital-R rockstar voice, channelling new wave-era greats and cult punk figures alike, and wields it with more finesse and emotion than just about any current rock vocalist.

They also take the broad theme of yearning for reciprocated connection and understanding, and use very few words, but still manage to write songs with charm and artfulness. Perhaps equally as exciting as their first LP was the one-off single that followed it, “I Am the Car.” The track shows a softer side to the group, and although they delve into the crowded field of melancholy classic indie rock, it’s arguably their best song yet, with D’Amato’s vocal melodies harnessing a staggering amount of heavy-hearted beauty. A band with this much personality and this level of song writing chops is not to be missed. 

The single from the debut record of Oakland’s Fake Fruit, available on Rocks In Your Head Records March 5th.

Asheville indie rock band Wednesday have announced a new covers album titled “Mowing the Leaves Instead of Piling ’em Up”. The 9-track collection is out March 11th via Orindal Records and includes their versions of songs by Vic Chesnutt, Smashing Pumpkins, Roger Miller, Drive-By Truckers, and more. Check out a video for the lead cover ‘She’s Actin’ Single (I’m Drinkin’ Doubles)’, originally recorded by Gary Stewart, below.

“Wednesday owes so much to our musical influences,” vocalist Karly Hartzman said in a statement about the project. “The music we love is a big part of what brought us together. My bandmates Margo and Xandy both had infamous Asheville house show venues, Jake was in like a billion different bands which often played in their muggy basements and Alan was usually the one who brought the PA. Our immersion in music predated us trying to make songs together ourselves.”

“Our common interests in noisy ‘90s guitars, good lyrics, and country music was quickly what permeated into our voice as a band,” she continued. “Most decisions in our songs are made by an amalgamation of all five of our inputs, which happens pretty naturally because of this thread of influences that ties us together. So when we got an opportunity for some recording time with Alli Rogers at Betty’s studio in Durham, NC we decided to record covers, and hopefully repay in part the huge debt we are in to the artists who contributed so much to the music we write ourselves.”

Wednesday released their latest album, “Twin Plagues“, last year. Wednesday Announce New Covers Album ‘Mowing the Leaves Instead of Piling ’em Up’

Alex Cameron announces “Oxy Music”, his new album out March 11th on Secretly Canadian, and shares its opening track “Best Life.” Additionally, Cameron announces a spring tour, The album is released this Friday, . 

Cameron has always been a great storyteller, finding his ways into the depths of the places where not many others are looking, and “Oxy Music” continues on that trajectory. It’s filled with stories of people who fall outside the system and exist in the grey areas of life. In its design its music, lyrics and track list – lies the journey a person can take, if the circumstances present themselves down the road of heavy drug and alcohol abuse. Initially inspired by Nico Walker’s Cherry, Cameron was spurred into yet another commentary on American Life, this time about the opioid crisis that has taken over the country. He says about “Oxy Music“: “The album is a story, a work of fiction, mostly from the perspective of a man.

Starved of meaningful purpose, confused about the state of the world, and in dire need of a reason to live a person can, and according to the latest statistics, increasingly will, turn to opioids. This is one of those people.”

While “Oxy Music” could be dark, it’s instead brighter and more buoyant than much of Cameron’s previous work, a shift in mood first seen across 2019’s “Miami Memory“. It’s told from a place of optimism and through the lens of Cameron, in the way that only he can tell it. As with the previously released, “Sara Jo,” “Best Life” gives a context of drug use to distort the confronting nature of contemporary reality as Cameron sings of the feelings of insecurity brought about by life online: “I guess I’m just winning / But I get no reaction / My comments just don’t rank / Or my post tanks.” Directed by Jemima Kirke, produced by Jim Larson and starring Kirke and Cameron, the song’s video explores the idea of what it means to find one’s “best life” by accepting others’ insecurities in this instance, a skin condition such as eczema as loveable qualities.

Released March 11th, 2022

All songs written by Alex Cameron
With contributions by:
Justin Nijssen
Roy Molloy
Lloyd Vines
Jason Williamson

Recorded and produced by Alex Cameron

CD, Limited Edition Opaque Pink Vinyl 

The Districts return with their biggest, boldest and most naturally pop album. It’s upbeat and has a real XTC mid period edge. It’s a bundle of fun and a real surprise. This record is a new era. The desire to create something larger than yourself, that will infiltrate people’s hearts like well oiled machines, to paint pictures that will shake them and create a resounding push forward towards something more. In our pandemic isolation, what we wanted was to play a loud collage of music, unconfined by preconceived notions of what it should be, and to transcend ourselves in a room full of breathing, screaming, vibrating human beings – to let the darkness out in a cathartic squeal of noise, eclipsing it with light.

We wanted to feel it all at once with you and to escape this fucked up world and find our way into a better one together.

Rob Gore (frontman): “The thing I value most in music is when an album expresses some sort of pain or frustration, or hope that I also feel. I hope this album makes people feel like something within themselves is reflected in the wider world, and I hope that makes them feel less alone.”

“Great American Painting’ is a record that is strongest for its instrumentation, featuring The Districts’ typical cross-streams of guitars that amply lamenting vocals, intriguing listeners by making reference to social issues within America. The Districts paint a “Great American Painting” that taps its toes in the pool of social justice without feeling overbearing or holding the holier-than-thou attitude we’ve come to know of some rock bands’ reinventions.” .

I really love this band and have followed their progress since the beginning. They proved over and over again that they can write sonic anthems with big sentiments and big guitar-driven orchestration, and they do it again here. With a more refined sound now – think maybe Band Of Horses – they’ve constructed several tunes where riffs, hooks and licks fall into place like pieces of a puzzle.

Is there a better pairing of kindred spirits than a split seven-inch single featuring Le Butcherettes and Death Valley Girls? We’re hard pressed to think of one. Sure, the interaction is fleeting, but damn is it satisfying. We’ve got Le Butcherettes on side A taking on one of Death Valley Girls’ most cosmic numbers, the kaleidoscopic center-piece off “Under the Spell of Joy” album, “The Universe.” Le Butcherettes’ fearless and charismatic mastermind Teri Gender Bender takes the tune into even trippier territories, replicating the original song’s sonic tapestry of synth, sax, and guitars with layer upon layer of vocals.

Only the sparse accompaniment of acoustic guitar and modest percussion keeps the song from being fully a capella. It’s a perfect interpretation of Death Valley Girls’ communal and choral aims. On side B, Death Valley Girls offer up a new tune—the deliciously ecstatic “When I’m Free.” Like every great Death Valley Girls song, it’s a celebration of life bolstered by fiery rock n’ roll riffage, spiritual organ, dizzying sax, and Bonnie Bloomgarden’s defiant and triumphant vocals. Suicide Squeeze Records is proud to offer up this meeting of mystical minds on vinyl and digital platforms.

The one-time vinyl pressing is limited to 1000 copies (700 on Space Junk Splatter, 300 on Inner Ascension).

Released January 18th, 2022

“Loss and hope, isolation and communion, the cessation and renewal of purpose. Timeless and salient, these themes echo throughout the fifth album from Midlake, their first since “Antiphon” in 2013. Produced to layered, loving perfection by John Congleton, “For The Sake Of Bethel Woods” is an album of immersive warmth and mystery from a band of ardent seekers, one of our generation’s finest: a band once feared lost themselves by fans, perhaps, but here revivified with freshness of intent. From the cover to the title and beyond, a longing to reconnect with that which seems lost sits at the record’s core.

The cover star is keyboardist/flautist Jesse Chandler’s father, who, tragically, passed away in 2018. As singer Eric Pulido explains, “He was a lovely human, and it was really heavy and sad, and he came to Jesse in a dream. I reference it in a song. He said, ‘Hey, Jesse, you need to get the band back together.’ I didn’t take that lightly.

We had already had these feelings with everyone in the band of, oh, this could be a cool thing to do. But the dream was a kind of beautiful depiction of a purpose to reconvene and make music together as friends.”

Midlake’s forthcoming studio album, “For the Sake of Bethel Woods” available everywhere March 18th, 2022.