The Fat Angel Sings

Florida-born multimedia artist, Ethel Cain, returns with her sophomore album, ‘Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You’.

A prequel to the critically acclaimed ‘Preacher’s Daughter’, this album recounts the story of Ethel’s first love, Willoughby Tucker, and their humid, laden romance. Hayden Anhedonia, the creative force behind the entire Ethel Cain project, has spent the past several years assembling the album in her home studios from Coraopolis, PA to Tallahassee, FL, all the while selling out tours and playing festivals worldwide, cementing herself as a singular artistic voice on the rise.

 Ethel Cain has also shared a new song, “Nettles,” an eight-minute epic. Cain says of the track:

“This song and the last track on the record were both written the same week, the very first week I moved into the house in Alabama where I finished Preacher’s Daughter. In similar fashion to Preacher’s Daughter (specifically ‘A House in Nebraska’ and ‘Strangers’), I wrote what essentially became the beginning and end of the story without realizing it. What were originally just little vignettes of emotion I was feeling at the time ultimately became the tentpoles for a larger narrative. ‘Nettles’ became a dream of losing the one you love, asking them to reassure you that it won’t come true and to dream, instead, of all the time you’ll have together as you grow old side by side. Every once in a blue moon, it feels good to slough off the macabre and to simply let love be.”

banjo, synths, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, piano, vocals engineered by: Hayden Anhedonia fiddle/banjo/pedal steel: Ben Tanner

The project is set for release on August 8th.

Tallahassee’s Pool Kids are turning up the heat with “Easier Said Than Done”, their electrifying new album dropping September via Epitaph Records.

Kicking things off with the punchy, addictive lead single of the same name, the band showcases a sharpened edge to their signature blend of math rock intricacy and indie-pop charm. Following the critical success of their 2022 self- titled album– hailed by Paste, Stereogum, and Consequence–Pool Kids have been making waves on the road with the likes of Soccer Mommy, PUP, Joyce Manor, and most recently on tour with Beach Bunny. “Easier Said Than Done” finds the band levelling up in every way, delivering explosive energy, emotional depth, and undeniable hooks that cement their place as one of the most exciting acts in indie rock today.

Pool Kids are :Christine Goodwyne: Vocals, Guitar Andrew Anaya: Guitar Nicolette Alvarez: Bass Caden Clinton: Drums

the upcoming album ‘Easier Said Than Done’, out on August 15th, 2025

“Volume V” follows on five years after their fourth album “For Your Love“, a record lovingly nurtured but then swallowed up by the Covid pandemic.

The title signifies the latest chapter in the ongoing story of Other Lives, their fifth record of magnificent musical and emotional depth. From the first notes of the opening track and lead single ‘Mystic,’ it’s clear that the cinematic breadth of their arrangements and melodies had risen several dynamic notches, with a fuller orchestrated reach and more towering drama across the album’s eight songs and two instrumentals – evidence of the band’s hunger to keep progressing while retaining the essence of what makes Other Lives so unique and irresistible.  The majority of “Volume V” was recorded in The Sheerar, a former church that is now the Stillwater History Museum.

The Sheerar’s acoustics partly accounts for the album’s more cathedral-esque take on Other Lives’ signature sound, which has the roots in a form of Americana but expanded via classical and post-classical forms, and the influence of iconic composers such as Ennio Morricone and Henry Mancini.   Given the five-year gaps between the last three Other Lives albums, the band plan to follow up “Volume V” more swiftly with a sixth and seventh chapter; a promise of more magic and magnificence to come. “I see “Volume V” as the beginning of Other Lives’ second act,” Jesse concludes. “We’re all getting older, and we have some regrets about not putting out more music – so this might be our Neil Young phase! Releasing more music over a shorter space of time.”

Suede “Antidepressants” new album September 2025 looking forward to this one will buy it what’s everyone else’s opinion?. Suede release their 10th studio album “Antidepressants” via BMG. The album is a milestone achievement that sees the band at the top of their game. It follows the success of their critically acclaimed ninth UK Top 10 album “Autofiction“, released in September 2022, which charted at and was their highest-charting release in over 20 years.

Suede new album, Antidepressants, on BMG. This week they shared its second single, “Trance State.” A press release says the song is “is an anatomy of falling apart, and the unexpected truth that comes with being at your lowest: an unmasking that presents your true, unvarnished self to the world.”

Previously Suede shared its first single, “Disintegrate,” via a music video. The band also previously released a live video for the album’s title track, recorded last year at their show at London’s Alexandra Palace.

Anderson had this to say about the album in a press release: “If “Autofiction” was our punk record, “Antidepressants” is our post-punk record. It’s about the tensions of modern life, the paranoia, the anxiety, the neurosis. We are all striving for connection in a disconnected world. This was the feel I wanted the songs to have. This album is called “Antidepressants. This is broken music for broken people.”

“It is genuinely exciting being in this band. It feels like we’re still pushing creatively,” says Anderson of the new album. Osman adds: “This is a widescreen and ambitious record. It’s a big stage record and it’s taking it up a gear.”

“Antidepressants” is the Britpop band’s 10th album Suede are Brett Anderson (vocals), Mat Osman (bass), Simon Gilbert (drums), Richard Oakes (guitars), and Neil Codling (keyboards).

Suede recorded the album live in the studio with longtime producer Ed Buller, who they first worked with on their debut single, “The Drowners,” way back in 1992. The band recorded at Belgium’s ICP Studios, in London at both RAK and Sleeper Sounds, and at RMV in Sweden.

Anderson says of the Suede Takeover shows: “Expect old songs, new songs, borrowed songs, blue songs, drama, melody, noise, sweat and a couple of surprises.”

Suede also announced four shows at London’s Southbank Centre they are describing as a Suede Takeover. They happen this September. On September 13th and 14th they will perform their hits and new music at the Royal Festival Hall. On September 17th the band will do a show at the Purcell Room that is described as “an unusual and intimate off-mic evening with Suede.” Then on September 19th Suede will perform in the Queen Elizabeth Hall with the Paraorchestra in what is “Suede’s first-ever full orchestral headline show.”

Suede were one of the leading lights of the mid-’90s Britpop movement, releasing a string of heralded hit albums: 1993’s “Suede”, 1994’s “Dog Man Star”, 1996’s “Coming Up“, and 1999’s Head Music, as well as 1997’s two-CD B-sides collection, “Sci-Fi Lullabies“.

Suede initially broke-up in 2003 following the release of their poorly received fifth album, 2002’s “A New Morning“. They reformed in 2010 and made a full on comeback in 2013 with the release of “Bloodsports”, which was their first new album in over a decade and was very well-received by critics. That was followed by 2016’s “Night Thoughts”, 2018’s “The Blue Hour”, and 2022’s “Autofiction”.

The dance floor’s never been the same since The B-52’s set out from Athens, Georgia, on its way to becoming the world’s greatest party band. Now, their early run of classic releases, all featuring newly remastered audio, will be collected in “The Warner and Reprise Years“. 

Two versions will be available: a 9LP set—pressed on a rainbow of colored vinyl and limited to 2,000 copies, exclusively through Rhino.com—and an 8CD edition. Arriving June 20th in celebration of Pride Month, the vinyl collection showcases the band’s kaleidoscopic catalogue in full colour: The B-52’s (yellow), Wild Planet (red), Mesopotamia (blue), Party Mix! (green), Whammy! (smokey), Bouncing Off the Satellites (pink), Cosmic Thing (orange), and Good Stuff (purple), issued as a double LP. The CD version will be released the same day.

Spanning 1979 to 1992, the albums collected here chart the creative and commercial evolution of the B-52’s—an era that saw the band sell over 20 million records worldwide. Five of the eight albums in the set have been certified Gold or higher by the RIAA, including “Cosmic Thing” (4x Platinum), their self-titled debut (Platinum), “Wild Planet”, “Whammy!”, and the Grammy -nominated “Good Stuff” (Gold).

The collection also highlights some of their best-known songs, including “Rock Lobster,” “Private Idaho,” “Mesopotamia,” “Legal Tender,” “Channel Z,” and “Good Stuff.” “Cosmic Thing“—produced by Don Was and Nile Rodgers—remains the group’s biggest commercial success, powered by the back-to-back hits “Love Shack” and “Roam” . At the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards, the band won Best Group Video and Best Art Direction for “Love Shack.” nods followed for “Roam.”

Formed nearly 50 years ago in Athens, Georgia, The B-52’s—Fred Schneider, Kate Pierson, Cindy Wilson, Ricky Wilson, and Keith Strickland—quickly became one of the most distinctive and beloved bands of their era. With a sound that fused surf rock, punk energy, and retro-kitsch cool, they turned party anthems into defining pop culture moments—becoming one of music’s most joyful and enduring bands.

Quite simply, no band sounded or looked like The B-52’s when they exploded on the scene at the end of the ’70s. Formed by siblings Cindy and Ricky Wilson on vocals and guitar, singer/keyboardist Kate Pierson, drummer/multi-instrumentalist Keith Strickland and vocalist/poet Fred Schneider, the women sported beehive hairdos and offered ethereal vocals as a counterpoint to Schneider’s distinctive, animated Sprechgesang, delivered in an oft-imitated shout more than sung. Wilson’s nervy guitar and Pierson’s burbling organ evoked surf rock and post-punk, and the group’s thrift store aesthetic and genuine love of kitsch culture made them a group for all seasons. Their self-titled debut, featuring the minor hit “Rock Lobster” and “Dance This Mess Around,” was hailed by pop critics and generations of musicians from John Lennon to Dave Grohl. The album’s critical success spurred follow-up “Wild Planet” (like its predecessor, recorded at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas) to reach the Top 20 of the Billboard 200, and made a striking appearance as a 1980 musical guest on the variety show Saturday Night Live.

The B-52’s hit their first major stumble with the sessions to “Mesopotamia”, which found them chafing under the ideas of Talking Heads frontman David Byrne, who served as the EP’s producer. (Delays in recording necessitated the release of “Party Mix!” – dance mixes of three tracks apiece from “The B-52’s” and “Wild Planet”.) 1983’s “Whammy!” offered some bounce-back with their third straight gold record But the toughest road was ahead: after completing work on the sessions for Bouncing Off the Satellites in 1985, Ricky Wilson succumbed to AIDS, having only told Strickland he was battling the disease. He was only 32 years old.

With “Bouncing” receiving little promotion and no tour, it wouldn’t have been a surprise if the grieving bandmates called it a day. Instead, one of the decade’s most unlikely comebacks happened. With Strickland switching to guitar full-time and producers Nile Rodgers and Don Was adding production flourishes, 1989’s “Cosmic Thing” became a blockbuster, spinning off the Top 5 hits “Love Shack” and “Roam,” selling more than four million copies in America alone. The band also became darlings of MTV: “Love Shack,” featuring a then-unknown RuPaul, was in heavy rotation, while “Deadbeat Club” paid homage to the band’s hometown of Athens, which had become a hotbed for alt-rock greatness thanks to fellow late ’80s and early ’90s hitmakers R.E.M. (whose frontman Michael Stipe cameoed in the video). 

 Some single-only rarities and exclusive material has been released on two compilations by Rhino in 1998 and 2002; the label has also released a 1979 live set digitally and on vinyl for Record Store Day, and expanded “Cosmic Thing” for its 30th anniversary with single material and concert performances from 1990. The group’s final album, 2008’s “Funplex”, was released by Astralwerks.

“The Warner Reprise Years“, available June 20th, brings together the six albums and two EPs the quirky quintet put together between 1979 and 1992 – a period where they went from cult favourites to unlikely hitmakers.

Wednesday have announced their anticipated new album “Bleeds”, along with the release of second single “Wound Up Here (By Holdin On).” Wednesday recently released their great new single “Elderberry Wine,” then they played it during their TV debut on Colbert, then they announced a tour, and now they’ve finally announced the follow up to 2023’s “Rat Saw God”.

It’s called “Bleeds” and bandleader Karly Hartzman calls it “the spiritual successor to “Rat Saw God”, and I think the quintessential ‘Wednesday Creek Rock’ album,” adding, “This is what Wednesday songs are supposed to sound like. We’ve devoted a lot of our lives to figuring this out—and I feel like we did.”

Produced by longtime collaborator Alex Farrar at his Asheville studio Drop of Sun, it was made with the lineup of Karly, Xandy Chelmis (lap steel, pedal steel), Alan Miller (drums), Ethan Baechtold (bass, piano), and Jake “MJ” Lenderman (guitar)–though MJ Lenderman is no longer touring member with the group. Following the country-leaning “Elderberry Wine,” the album announcement is accompanied by second single “Wound Up Here (By Holdin On),” which is more of an overtly indie rock song, powered by the band’s wall of grungy, shoegazy guitars.

“This song is inspired by a story my friend told me, from when he had to pull a body out of a creek in West Virginia,” Karly says. “Someone had drowned but they took a few days to resurface because of the current. “‘I wound up here by holdin on’ is a line from my friend Evan Gray’s poetry book: Thickets Swamped in a Fence-Coated Briars. He gave me and Jake a copy of it to read on tour once and that line stuck out to me as pure genius so I stole it and wrote the rest of the song in my own words around it.”

‘Bleeds’ on Dead Oceans The album comes out September 19th and the band’s tour begins in October, 

Over the course of a decade playing together and making records as Jeanines, the duo of Alicia Jeanine and Jed Smith have charted a distinctive course through the history of pop, evoking influences as varied as the 60s folk of early Fairport Convention and Vashti Bunyan, the sunshine pop of Margo Guryan and Laura Nyro, and of course indie pop touchstones like Dear Nora, Marine Girls, Dolly Mixture, and the post-Black Tambourine projects of Pam Berry.

Their new album “How Long Can It Last” finds Jeanines grappling with serious themes of personal and professional upheaval, adding weight to their finest set of songs yet. With lyrics that look deeply at time and its reverberations, connections and ruptures, songs like “Coaxed A Storm,” “What’s Done Is Done” and “On and On” combine richly melodic tunes and crisp arrangements to stellar effect. While the themes might be heavy, the melodies and harmonies are simply heavenly, elevating these economical songs and giving each the feeling of a lost classic. Here’s another low-fi earworm from Brooklyn’s Jeanines. New album “How Long Can It Last” is out June 27th.

“How Long Can It Last,” out June 27th, 2025 on Slumberland Records/Skep Wax

The Auteurs‘ Luke Haines and R.E.M.‘s Peter Buck will release their third collaborative album, “Going Down To The River… To Blow My Mind“, on July 25th via Cherry Red Records. (Their previous album was 2022’s awesome “All the Kids Are Super Bummed Out”. They made the album in Portland, OR with their band that includes Peter’s Baseball Project bandmates Scott McCaughey (Minus 5, R.E.M.) on bass and Linda Pitmon (Filthy Friends, Steve Wynn) on drums.

Luke and Peter would like you to fill out the following questionnaire before attempting to listen to the album: 1) Are you absolutely certain that you are currently alive?
2) Do you have the urge to ‘fill someone in’?
3) Would you be willing to die tonight and then be re-conceived?
4) Are you a Witch?
5) Have you ever fantasised about marrying your own father or mother?
6) Does your inner self ever lie to your outer self?
7) Assuming that there is a Supreme Being – do you think that the supreme being likes you?
8) Have you ever owned a VW camper van? (If the answer is ‘no’ go straight to question 10)
9) Have you ever deliberately set fire to yours, or anyone else’s, VW camper van
10) Are you a ‘why’ person or a ‘what’ person? (answer either why or what or yes/know/don’t know)

With that out of the way, you can listen to the album’s trippy single, “The Pink Floyd Research Group,” that features such lyrics as, “Hiding out in the desert in a camper van / Blowing up the compound, sticking it to the man / There’s an awkward silence on the Dick Cavett Show / Up in Chelsea Cloisters we can find our way home.”

The first single from the new Luke Haines & Peter Buck album. “The Pink Floyd Research Group” is taken from the new studio album “Going Down To The River …To Blow My Mind“. Available on CD, vinyl, streaming and download from 25th July 2025.

Genre-bending Tropical Fuck Storm present their highly anticipated fourth album, ‘Fairyland Codex,’ on their new label home Fire Records. Recorded with co-producer Michael Beach at the band’s Dodgy Brothers studio in Nagambie, Australia, the songs on ‘Fairyland Codex’ immerse us in the chaos of a fateful landslide, picking out the characters that litter the impending collapse of society.

Acidic, acerbic, anarchic; Tropical Fuck Storm’s command of wordplay, undercut by snarling guitars, pulsing rhythms, and explosive salvos, populates a hinterland between light and dark. The vocal interplay between Liddiard and the soaring harmonies of Kitschin and Dunn creates a teetering balancing act that’s intensified by the frantic narratives that evolve from their collective psyche.

Tropical Fuck Storm formed when guitarist and vocalist Gareth Liddiard and bassist and vocalist Fiona Kitschin’s previous band, The Drones, went on hiatus in 2016. Joined by guitarist, keyboardist, and vocalist Erica Dunn and drummer Lauren Hammel, the group has released a string of critically acclaimed albums and gained a reputation for their incendiary live shows.

new single ‘Teeth Marché’  glints with gold tooth pleasantries and discordant love as a promise of everlasting affection reverberates alongside a thumping bass line. Accompanying new music video, directed by Alexandra Millen (A Velvet Curtain Production, Melbourne), is a kaleidoscopic adventure down at the pool which has a retro, new wave cinematic flair featuring feminist water ballerinas The Clamms and layered animation from Nespy 5 euro.

“Two languages jammed together clutching at sense like the rest of the world. Marché: market, marché: walk, teeth: les dents, marcia marcia marcia: the Brady bunch. The Teeth Market, the Teeth Walk, our attempt at a laid back wonky jam which contemplates a vision of plunder that is played out in romance, in a climate emergency, in murderous political zeniths- those who take, take, take, lick their lips and want more.” Erica

Neil Young and his new band the Chrome Hearts kicked off their 2025 Love Earth Tour on Wednesday night in Rattvik, Sweden.

The set list, featured a number of songs Young has not performed live for many years. He played a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song called “Looking Forward” for the first time since 2000, as well as a Crazy Horse number titled “Sun Green” that hadn’t been played since 2004. Young’s set also included classics like “Harvest Moon,” “Old Man” and more.

Earlier this year, Young, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada, spoke openly about his concerns with touring in Europe.

“When I go to play music in Europe, if I talk about Donald J Trump, I may be one of those returning to America who is barred or put in jail to sleep on a cement floor with an aluminum blanket,” he said. “That is happening all the time now. Countries have new advice for those returning to America.” “If I come back from Europe and am barred, can’t play my U.S.A. tour, all of the folks who bought tickets will not be able to come to a concert by me,” he continued. “That’s right folks. If you say anything bad about Trump or his administration, you may be barred from re-entering U.S.A. if you are Canadian. If you are a dual citizen like me, who knows? We’ll all find that out together.”

A 79-year-old Neil Young makes his way front of stage to receive a rapturous ovation that echoes across the remarkable meteor crater-like venue from a sell-out crowd of devotees, many of whom have travelled the globe to be here.

Dressed for the cool Swedish evening in grey plaid shirt, charcoal jeans and Casey Jones engineer hat, Young and his bandmates in The Chrome Hearts seem ready for business. This night, a Neil Young show in Europe (the first of 13, including a Glastonbury headline slot and a visit to Hyde Park in July), seemed to be a long way away when, last summer, A tourof last year was aborted, with Young stating latterly that he quit because he was so exhausted and (literally) just couldn’t go on.

So much has happened since Young last came to Europe in the summer of 2019, not least Covid and the return of Trump. Back then, he was joined by Promise Of The Real and they make up the core of this largely much younger Chrome Hearts. They are joined by the masterful Spooner Oldham: the 82-year-old Muscle Shoals veteran who played organ for Wilson Pickett, Percy Sledge, Aretha Franklin and countless others, and whose association with Young goes back decades. Dalhalla feels like the perfect venue in which to begin this latest touring odyssey.

Young’s voracious appetite for getting his house in order got a kick-start in those years post Covid, archival releases coming thick and fast (almost 30 of them) whilst finding time to record three new records with Crazy Horse before his latest release “Talkin To The Trees”. That the new album was entirely absent from the set felt like a classic Neil Young move, as he delivered a group of songs that could define the word ‘random’.

To shift gear from solo acoustic opener “Sugar Mountain”, still such a bittersweet take on adolescence 60 years on, into “Greendale’s” raging eco-hymn, “Be The Rain” was a move few would have predicted. That Young would then lay waste to the electric songs that followed, with the ferocious energy of someone 30 or 40 years younger, was as electrifying as the music he played.

That salvo of songs, dipping back to the very best of prime Crazy Horse, may even have been a bit of unfinished business after that abandoned tour of 2024 – here The Chrome Hearts followed their leader all the way; Corey McCormick’s watertight bass, Anthony LoGerfo’s crisp drums, and Micah Nelson’s second guitar melding into the ether, in a dazzling onslaught (close your eyes and it could almost have been the Horse). Nelson too was at the heart of it all in an early standout, a fierce “When You Dance, I Can Really Love”, stood stabbing at the stand-up piano keys, just as Jack Nitzsche did way back in 1970.

There was a lot of talk beforehand that perhaps, much like Bruce Springsteen’s recent onstage tirades against Trump, But while he returned to “Greendale” for corporate polemic “Sun Green”, barking into his mic-ed up megaphone “there’s corruption on the highest floor”, outside of the songs themselves, Neil Young said little bar a customary “how ya doin’?”

The sheer relentlessness and pace of the opening electric burst could never last, so it was almost a relief to see Young settled down on the drum riser, have a rest with acoustic guitar in hand, for “The Needle And The Damage Done”, followed by “Harvest Moon”, one of the few moments where Spooner Oldham’s lush playing could really be heard and enjoyed.

The sometimes eclectic set veered off into two songs from two reunions with CSNY – from 1988’s “American Dream” album, “Name of Love”, and, for the first time in 25 years, “Looking Forward“, from the largely mediocre album of the same name. Tonight, with double acoustic guitars, the most gentle bass, brushed drums and some heavenly harmonies, this was a song that sounded so very pretty and so very far removed from the ugly album cut of 1999. Muscular, punchy takes on two further Crazy Horse staples dove-tailed into each other, “Love And Only Love” and “Like A Hurricane“, both sounding huge, Neil Young hunched over the ever trusty Old Black, draining every last note he could muster from within the belly of his beloved guitar.

A wistful, thoughtful “Old Man” brought the set to a close after sharp 90 minutes, before the one thing that could be predicted on this sometimes curious opening night, the only encore of the evening: “Rockin’ In the Free World”. It was boisterous and angry, yet, ultimately, triumphant finale and the crowd stood as one, peace signs and raised fists stretching high into the Swedish night. With a wave to the crowd and a warm embrace for Spooner Oldham, Neil Young left the stage, and the first leg of the Love Earth Tour 2025 was done.

In many ways it felt like a bespoke ‘greatest hits’ set, but with enough twists and turns to keep the audience guessing. There’s certainly room to maneouvre a few songs in and out, but Neil Young may stick rather than twist too much as the long summer on the road progresses. Relentless and loud, delicate and soft and yes, ragged and glorious: Neil Young remains a unique yin-yang force of nature.

The Chrome Hearts shine: Micah Nelson, Corey McCormick, Anthony LoGerfo and Neil Young on stage at Dalhalla, Rättvik, Sweden, June 18th, 2025.