The Fat Angel Sings

“Hawthorne Heights shows time and time again their ability to form a current sound while staying true to their own sound. The band are adaptable while recognizing where their music lies. This is bundled with passion making fans feel validated as they enter new eras of their favourite band.

Ohio band Hawthorne Heights are set to drop their newest record, The Rain Just Follows Me, via Pure Noise Recordings ,

Title track “The Rain Just Follows Me” delivers a fast-paced yet serene sound. Using descending melodies, the track feels whole. While adding elements of piano and isolated vocals gives fans a moment of relief.  “Holy Coast” manifests that early-2000’s emo anthem that is easy to fall in love with. The track takes listeners on a nostalgic ride while still incorporating the new era that the band is leading fans into.

Following “Holy Coast” is “Tired and Alone;” the track is full of a swinging chorus that is impossible to forget, making this song an easy one to leave on repeat. The intro to “Thunder In Our Hearts” introduces itself on an aggressive note but ascends into a melodic verse. The chorus is hooky laced with infectious screams, making for an ear pleasing contrast.

On a more solemn note, “Spray Paint It Black,” the word “winter” is articulated, releasing the feeling of the frigid season. Lead vocalist J.T Woodruff stresses vocals with raw growls, emphasizing the band’s ability to create a refreshing sound.

Leaning on their more pop-punk sound, “Palm Canyon Drive” and “Seafoam” fit perfectly together. These tracks engulf listeners into their catchy euphoria, leaving an everlasting impression.

Exhibiting crisp dynamics comes “Words Can’t Hurt,” showcasing a swift back-and-forth between clean and screaming vocals and a punching decline throughout the bridge.

As the record ends, listeners are greeted with a heavy beginning that swiftly transitions into steady beat within “Bambarra Beach (The End)” adding cinematic dramatics highlighting whispering vocals alongside crashing music.

Hawthorne Heights forms emotional connection with their fanbase as they continue on their career as iconic inspirations. Leading single “Constant Dread” puts forth an aura of familiarity that lures listeners into a certain kind of comfort. The band recognizes the evolution that emo-alternative music has taken throughout the years and applies that to this track.

released September 10th, 2021

On their new album “Good For You”, Houndmouth share a collection of songs set in places as far-flung as the Alamo and the Hudson River, each populated by a motley cast of characters: fairy-tale princesses and vampires, parking-lot lovers and wanna-be beauty queens. The fourth full-length from the Indiana-bred band—vocalist/guitarist Matthew Myers, drummer/vocalist Shane Cody, and bassist/vocalist Zak Appleby—the result is a lovingly gathered catalogue of those wild and fleeting moments that stay lodged in our hearts forever, taking on a dreamlike resonance as years go by.  Good For You bears a hi-fi minimalism that beautifully illuminates its finespun storytelling.

For Houndmouth, the making of Good For You allowed for a major leap forward in their song writing and sound while recalling the pure abandon of the band’s early days. “I remember the first time I ever came to the Green House and saw what was happening here and I thought, ‘I’m never leaving this place,’” says Myers, who met Appleby and Cody in high school and started collaborating with them in college. “This album felt like being back in that time again, only now everything’s a little more dialled-back and cared-for. It was like a return to the way we fell in love with playing music together.”

Houndmouth’s new record “Good For You”, out November 5th, 2021.

Courtney Barnett is prepping to release her album “Things Take Time, Take Time” on November 12th. We’ve gotten to hear a couple singles, including “Rae Street” and “Before You Gotta Go.” Now, Barnett has released a video for the latter directed by Claudia Sangiorgi Dalimore. It finds her becoming an ethnographer, looking for a response from just about everything—caves, the edges of cliffs, lush forests, tiny houses, a horse, a dog that does not want to be bothered, bright red mushrooms. The visual becomes more surreal as it progresses, with, notably, a gigantic copy of Barnett’s head popping up amidst landscapes.

“Making this clip was an interesting experience for me,” Dalimore said of the video. “I love how brilliantly simple Courtney’s idea was, it brought real joy shooting part of it together, just me, her, and my DOP with the other part being two long days directing over Zoom across the Tasman Sea. I watch it now and feel that sense of peace, that potent calm you can only get immersed in the beauty of nature.”

On top of the new video, Barnett has also launched an interactive website for users to play around with stems for the different vocal parts and instruments from Barnett’s recordings. “The listener can (for example) listen to Barnett’s dry vocal harmonies as an a capella, or focus on the rhythms of drummer Stella Mozgawa, or Barnett’s beautiful and sensitive finger-picked electric guitar,” read the press release.

My Morning Jacket have announced a new album and shared its first single, “Regularly Scheduled Programming” via a video for it. “My Morning Jacket” is due out October 22nd via ATO.

My Morning Jacket’s frontman Jim James had this to say about “Regularly Scheduled Programming” in a press release: “This song really hits home for me after what we’ve gone through with the pandemic. But even before then, it felt like so many of us were trading real life for social media, trading our own stories for the storylines on TV, trading our consciousness for drugs. We need to help each other wake up to real love before it’s too late.”

Signalling that things are back on track for the group. It may have been only a year since their last album release, but it’s been six years since they recorded a new one. Now they’ve shared another single that really gets down the the simplicity of things—love, man.

“Love Love Love” is a rumbling Americana jam session that has a hints of Magical Mystery Tour–era Beatles and The Doors to it. The track’s premise is as straightforward as its title: “The more you give, yeah, the more you get now,” frontman Jim James quickly declares. “Go tell it to the world.” James explained: “‘Love Love Love’ is trying to steer the ship away from everything I’m talking about in ‘Regularly Scheduled Programming,’ and speak toward positivity and pure love, finding truth within yourself and in the world around you.

James produced and engineered “My Morning Jacket” over two multi-week sessions at Los Angeles, CA’s 64 Sound. A press release says that the band almost called it quits prior to recording the album, but were inspired by performing four shows in summer 2019, in particular two nights at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, that encouraged them to make a new album and keep going as a band.

“I hope this album brings people a lot of joy and relief, especially since we’ve all been cooped up for so long,” says James in the press release. “I know that feeling you get from driving around blasting music you love, or even lying in bed and crying to the music you love. The fact that we’re able to be a part of people’s lives in that way is so magical to us, and it feels really good that we’re still around to keep doing that.”

My Morning Jacket released a new album “The Waterfall II”, just last year via ATO after announcing it only a few days earlier. The album was the long-awaited follow-up to 2015’s  “The Waterfall” and was recorded at the same time as that album. When The Waterfall was released it was said to be part one of a two-part album and five years later they delivered on that promise. While no pre-release singles from the album were shared, when the album was released “Feel You” and “Wasted” .

Their upcoming shows will be My Morning Jacket’s first full on headline tour in five years. Brittany Howard as support for some of the dates and support will also come from Flock Of Dimes, Bedouine, and Durand Jones. The band are partnering with PLUS1 so that $1.00 from every ticket “will go to support non-profits working for environmental justice, racial equity, and securing access to mental health care for all.”

In 2019, James released “The Order Of Nature” live album recorded with The Louisville Orchestra in collaboration with conductor/arranger/composer Teddy Abrams, via Decca Gold.

With “A Southern Gothic“, Adia Victoria continues her journey through the conflicts of the American South and the troubling resonance of its past. Sonically, the album is full of frequent juxtaposition. It is equal parts historical montage and modern prophesy, dark and light, love and loathing. 

When they asked what I wanted the first single to be off “A Southern Gothic” I knew “Magnolia Blues” was how I wanted this record introduced to y’all. It is high praise of black southern abundance, black like prayer meeting at the river, black like white fans on brown skin in church, black like my grand-mama’s watermelon patch, black like our hands patting atop our thighs and alway’s on beat, black like their eyes always watching god.it is a reclaiming of the magnolia tree from the hands of white supremacy. It is an ode to every black southern woman who remembers her girlhood spent in the shade of her magnolia tree. High praise to my brother Joshua Asante for shepherding my vision of our folk from my mind and into reality.

The 14 tracks are the musical embodiment of the relationship that so many people, especially Black women, have with the South. During the writing process, Adia listened to Alan Lomax’s old field recordings and the sounds became the heartbeat of her new music, upon which she and creative partner Mason Hickman later layered other parts. And in many ways, the story of working with Hickman to write and produce A Southern Gothic is as critical to the project as the stories Victoria tells across the album. “I would say that the philosophy behind this record is, ‘Necessity is the mother of invention,’” Victoria says. “It’s also, ‘When you don’t have excess, when that’s all stripped away, what you gon’ do with that?’ What art can you make from walking through your mother’s garden?”

Adia’s upcoming album “A Southern Gothic” available 17th September:

Instantly recognizable with her raw, varied vocal talents and tangible charisma, Marianne Faithfull has been a long-time friend of the Montreux Jazz Festival, appearing there five times over a nearly 15-year period: 1995, 1999, 2002, 2005 and 2009. The first live album of Faithfull in over 10 years, Marianne Faithfull: “The Montreux Years” opens with an enchanting rendition of Van Morrison’s “Madame George“, recorded live at Auditorium Stravinski on July 10th, 1995, where Faithfull’s powerful range and unfaltering dynamism was instantly apparent.

Enjoy Marianne Faithfull’s enchanting rendition of Van Morrison’s “Madame George” recorded live at Auditorium Stravinski on 10th July 1995 where her powerful range and unfaltering dynamism is instantly apparent. ‘Marianne Faithfull: The Montreux Years’ a live album featuring captivating performances from her multiple appearances at the Montreux Jazz Festival Released on CD Double LP and Digital formats on August 27th.

The singer’s fans can immerse themselves in these unique recordings, which include several songs from her celebrated album Broken English, such as an electrifying, guitar-heavy performance of the title track, the soaring Guilt and John Lennon’s rousing anthem Working Class Hero. Meanwhile, the haunting sensitivity of Strange Weather, recorded live at Casino Barrière on July 6th, 2005, captures the bottomless depths of Faithfull’s brutal and ragged beauty.”

Enjoy Marianne’s beautiful homage to Nico during her performance at the Festival in July 2002. The full version of Song For Nico is available to stream now as part of her upcoming live album “Marianne Faithfull: The Montreux Years”, out August 27th.

The Montreux Jazz Festival takes place for two weeks every summer in Switzerland, drawing 250,000 music lovers to the shores of Lake Geneva. Since 1967, the Festival has celebrated all genres of music and generated countless legendary performances. Artists who have graced the stage of Montreux include Aretha Franklin, David Bowie, Prince, Bob Dylan, Lauryn Hill, Kendrick Lamar, Leonard Cohen, Marvin Gaye, Miles Davis, Nina Simone and many more.

“One Way Out” is a collection of music written by Melissa Etheridge in the late 1980s and early 1990s that never made the cut. Until now. Etheridge stumbled upon these decades old songs/demos years ago while gathering materials for a box set. As she went through the songs, it brought her back to the start of her career and how they just weren’t right for that particular time or album.

Some of the tracks were written before she had even come out and never felt comfortable releasing them. In 2013, the singer found herself back at Henson Studios in Los Angeles with her original band (Fritz Lewak, John Shanks, Kevin McCormick) and would give these songs a new life.

Shortly after she finished the records, she would part ways with her label and the box set was shelved. Melissa would begin working on new material and once again, those songs were set aside. That is, until 2020 when the time was finally right.”

This release celebrates the rich creative period surrounding Dylan’s albums Shot Of Love, Infidels, and Empire Burlesque with previously unreleased outtakes, alternate takes, rehearsal recordings, live performances and more. Vault #49 is pressed on gold, violet, orange and purple discs at Third Man Pressing facility in Detroit, the set includes a 16-page booklet of liner notes and track notations, as well as individual LP sleeves all housed together in an impressive slipcase. The songs on the Third Man Vault will be the ONLY vinyl release of those 42 songs. 

“The latest chapter in the highly acclaimed Bob Dylan Bootleg Series revisits an often-forgotten, rich vein in Dylan’s vast and complex catalogue, shining fresh light on the provocative new musical directions Dylan was taking as a songwriter and a recording artist from 1980 through 1985. In the early 1980s, while the music industry was grappling with the arrival of new trends and technology, from MTV to compact discs to digital recording, Bob Dylan was writing and recording new songs for a new decade, creating an essential new chapter in his studio catalogue. Springtime In New York (1980-1985) celebrates the rich creative period surrounding Dylan’s albums Shot Of Love, Infidels and Empire Burlesque with previously unreleased outtakes, alternate takes, rehearsal recordings, live performances and more. The deluxe 5CD edition of the album presents 57 rare Bob Dylan recordings, 54 of them previously unreleased in any format.”

Third Man Records, in conjunction with Sony/Legacy Recordings, is humbled to release a limited edition 4LP vinyl collection of Bob Dylan – “Springtime In New York: The Bootleg Series Vol. 16 (1980-1985)” as their 49th Vault package. Pressed on gold, violet, orange and purple discs at the state-of-the-art Third Man Pressing facility in Detroit, the set includes a 16-page booklet of liner notes and track notations, as well as individual LP sleeves all housed together in an impressive slipcase.

Bob Dylan – Springtime In New York: The Bootleg Series Vol. 16 (1980-1985) is also available in a deluxe 5xCD boxset as well as 2xCD and 2xLP 12” vinyl highlight packages. The songs on the Third Man Vault will be the ONLY vinyl release of those 42 songs. There is NO material overlap between the 2xLP version from Sony/Legacy and the 4xLP release from Third Man.

LP One of Bob Dylan – Springtime In New York: The Bootleg Series Vol. 16 (1980-1985) was recorded in 1980 and 1981 and finds Dylan rehearsing a variety of his own catalogue compositions (“Señor (Tales of Yankee Power)”), rearranging some traditional folk tunes (“Jesus Met the Woman at the Well,” “Mary of the Wild Moor”) and revving up a selection of surprising covers (“Mystery Train” featuring Ringo Starr, “Fever,” “Abraham, Martin and John”) with a group of musicians including Frank Fred Tackett (guitar), David Mansfield (mandolin), Willie Smith (keyboards), Tim Drummond (bass), Jim Keltner (drums) and background vocals by Clydie King, Carolyn Dennis, Gwen Evans, and Regina McCrary.

LP Two and Three of Bob Dylan – Springtime In New York (1980-1985) is devoted to outtakes and alternate takes of recordings, produced by Chuck Plotkin for “Shot of Love”, as well as material Bob Dylan wrote for “Infidels”, performed by the all-star band assembled for the album, produced by Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler, which featured Knopfler (guitar), Mick Taylor (guitar), Alan Clark (keyboards), Robbie Shakespeare (bass) and Sly Dunbar (drums).

LP Four of the album includes live tracks (“Enough Is Enough” from Slane Castle, Ireland, and “License to Kill” from Late Night with David Letterman, March 22nd, 1984) alongside alternate takes and outtakes from the “Empire Burlesque” sessions, produced by Bob Dylan, including the premiere of the new song “Straight A’s in Love.”

According to the Producer’s Note in the album: “The alternate takes selected for this set are different than the ones released on previous volumes of The Bootleg Series. They are included here to illustrate the musical journey Bob Dylan undertook during these years.” 

In his liner notes for Bob Dylan – Springtime In New York, Damien Love writes, “And that’s the real story of this gloriously untrammelled collection. The songs. The songs stripped free of trappings, tampering, passing tastes, and judgements. The songs broken down to the sound of people really doing this, right now, acting on instinct. The songs rough and rowdy, bruised and tender, joking and crying, nagging and striving and yearning. The songs were always there, and here they are still, keeping pace with us.”

“Buffalo Daughter are a three-member group consisting of Sugar Yoshinaga, Yumiko Ohno and MoOoG Yamamoto, often augmented by a drummer and other guests. Their sound is heavily influenced by German progressive rock and techno pop, but also includes bits of dub, club, shoe gaze and post-rock influences. Given their mix and match style, and that they emerged in the mid-90s, they are often considered as part of the Shibuya-kei movement.

This versatile group has collaborated with a wide range of artists including the French ambient pop group Air, former member of techno-pop pioneers The Plastics, idol Ami Suzuki, veteran Mari Natsuki, Takako Minaka, Cornelius, Naoko Yamano of Shonen Knife and Cibo Matto. Sugar also sometimes plays in the side project band Metalchicks, and has toured the States and Europe with them. While keeping themselves busy with the tour life, Buffalo Daughter also find it interesting to collaborate with the visual artist such as graphic artists and painters. The band has the history of having close relationships with the artists and that gave them some opportunities to perform at the gallery and museum in the past.”

First single “ET” (Densha) from upcoming album “We Are The Times”.