The Fat Angel Sings

Having originally been born as a solo drum machine project by Bert Hoover, Hooveriii (pronounced “Hoover Three”) has now evolved into it’s true final form – a six member band adept at creating their own brand of psychedelic space rock. And after almost a decade in, the band is set to release their sophomore album and debut for The Reverberation Appreciation Society, “Water For The Frogs”. Influenced by Iggy’s The Idiot, Bowie’s Berlin records, and Soft Machine, the LP sees the band creating their own version of prog rock, circa 2021.

In 2019, Hooveriii took their live show to Europe for the first time. Bert Hoover shares, “seeing all the old cities and beautiful landscapes while becoming closer as a band had a huge impact on this album. A lot of our favourite music came from the Krautrock scene in Germany from the late 60’s-70’s, and when we had a day off in Furth, Germany, we spent most of it writing the record,” he continues, “we were able to rehearse in an old German bunker that has been converted to rehearsal space. It definitely had a strange energy that helped give this album light.”

Pretty much everything I like in a band

Released April 9th, 2021

The debut album by Emma-Jean Thackray feels exactly like the sort of thing we’ve been longing for over the last 12 months: a transcendent, human, shared experience. Across its 49 minutes, Yellow draws glowing lines between ‘70s jazz fusion and P-Funk, the cosmic invocations of Sun Ra and Alice Coltrane, and the gorgeous orchestration of the Beach Boys.

“I wanted the whole thing to sound like a psychedelic trip,” explains Thackray. “You put on the first track, it takes you through this intense experience for almost an hour, and then you emerge on the other side transformed.” The result is an album that speaks the language of positivity, as rich lyrically as it is musically. You might best understand what Thackray does through reference to auteur figures like Brian Wilson or Madlib, who straddle instrumentation, arrangement and production in order to bring the sound in their head to fruition.

British jazz musician Emma-Jean Thackray makes music that’s transcendent, with an album that explores spirituality in all of its variations. On her debut album Yellow, Thackray’s dance-aligned interpretation of jazz is a psychedelic foray into the subconscious, guided by her incredible vocals that nestle deep into the crevices of our minds. Her intention is written all over the album as she dances around her skilled backing band in a gentle unification of their ideas, digging deep into the meanings of dualism and human connection. This pursuit is something to be reminded of, and Thackray nudges the audience with care.

As a composer, producer, singer, multi-instrumentalist and DJ, Emma is just as at home working with the London Symphony Orchestra as she is hosting her show on Worldwide FM. Production credits and collaborations include the likes of Squid, Makaya McCraven, BLU and Pinty.

The Lovely Eggs are a psych-punk rock duo from Lancaster, England who have teamed up with the legend himself, Iggy Pop, on their new single, “I, Moron.”

The slice of punk and garage rock has a classic chugging anthemic punk feel to it that is perfectly suited for the occasional vocal contributions of Iggy. The song is perfectly timed considering the state of the world these days.

The Lovely Eggs release their brand new single “I, Moron” featuring Iggy Pop on Egg Records. The vinyl comes with eye watering art-work by illustrator Casey Raymond. Backed by a B Side cover of Iggy Pop’s “Dum Dum Boys” from his 1977 album ‘The Idiot’. Being in The Lovely Eggs we’re kind of used to surreal experiences but collaborating with Iggy Pop takes the biscuit,” exclaims singer/guitarist Holly Ross. “It’s actually unbelievable. For him just to say nothing but “moron” over and over again fitted in with the sentiment of the song perfectly. He just Got it. We are all morons. In a world of moronic things. In a world of moronic ideas. You are moron. I am Moron. We are Moron.”

I, Moron. The new single by The Lovely Eggs Featuring Iggy Pop Out July 9th, 2021

The Sasami -produced third album by Los Angeles musician and a member of Kevin Morby’s band Meg Duffy is a breakthrough, touching on everything from rangy Americana to Robyn-indebted dance pop. Meg Duffy’s new album as Hand Habits radiates un: It’s unburdened, unbridled, unhurried, unashamed, unfamiliar, unfussy; it unearths, unravels, uncovers, understands. And — although this is one of music writing’s most pathologically overused uns — it’s unprecedented.

Unlike 2019’s spare, gorgeously still “placeholder”, “Fun House”, out October 22nd on Saddle Creek Records, is lush, bright, in constant forward motion, in a constant state of change. Duffy’s third and best record, it possesses some grimy, earthen magic — the result of hard work, to be sure, but also of their seemingly alchemical connection with producer Sasami, who pushed Duffy to find a more daring, more truthful place within their music. “For this record, I was allowing myself to shine a light on memories and experiences that I’ve had,” Duffy says, “Rather than running away from them.”

Hand Habits, the project of Los Angeles-based musician Meg Duffy (they/them), is back with their new album Fun House is the most ambitious Hand Habits album to date. Produced by Sasami Ashworth (SASAMI) and engineered by Kyle Thomas (King Tuff), the record was not intended as a reaction to the pandemic, but it was very much the result of taking a difficult, if much-needed, moment of pause. Emboldened by going into therapy and coaxed by Ashworth to push the songs into unexpected new shapes, the resulting music is more acutely personal and stylistically adventurous than anything you’ve heard from Hand Habits before. The push/pull of styles, paired with songs that move deftly between the present and past, give the record a wildly diverse, hall of mirrors quality that befits its name. Where previous Hand Habits records could be fairly insular affairs, Fun House feels ebullient, lush, a fully-realized conversation.

Although Duffy stresses that Fun House is decidedly not a pandemic record — and with its blushing synths and rangy solos and grandiose acapella breaks, it certainly doesn’t sound like one — they say that the seeds of the album began as the pandemic took off. After years of touring and session work, both as Hand Habits and in the bands of  Sylvan Esso and Kevin Morby, among others, Duffy was worn out. “I had been touring for a very long time, and not addressing kind of, like bare minimum self care, and emotional responsibility. And I think I started getting really angry. And I couldn’t really understand where that anger was coming from,” they say. Therapy was a good start in addressing their emotional discontent, as was a new, more honest, more trusting record. “I couldn’t continue to not address the unease I think that I had been experiencing for a long time. I think it would have been easier. But maybe not in the long run.”

Hand Habits – “Aquamarine” from Fun House out October 22nd, 2021

Allison Ponthier has a thing for miniatures and dioramas. The 25-year-old singer/songwriter the main attraction in her apartment is undoubtedly Ponthier’s desk, a workspace adorned with an eclectic mix of handmade figurines and small-scale sets—some Ponthier has made herself, others she’s acquired from like-minded enthusiasts. “I don’t know what it is but tiny versions of actual real-life things, I love them,” she says. “There’s something about tiny things that just make serotonin in my brain.” At one point Ponthier grabs a nearby piece and holds it up an intricately crafted diorama of a dilapidated shack located in the middle of nowhere, the kind of dusty, forgotten outpost likely frequented for the chance of late night UFO sightings.

This kind of eerie trinket, of course, ties into Ponthier’s other obsession—if given the option of her own genred origin, Ponthier would likely choose campy sci-fi horror. “I wasn’t really allowed to watch scary movies when I was a kid,” she admits. “The first horror movie I ever saw was the 2005 remake of House of Wax and I was sold. I’d never seen anything like it, and from then on I’ve always loved scary movies. And then the B-movie, camp elements I think came from also really loving movie musicals as a kid: West Side Story, Oklahoma!, and Little Shop of Horrors. I think the movie-musical-to-campy-film-addict pipeline is strong. There’s something really special about movies that don’t have a huge budget, that are obviously one person’s passion project. I’m really invested in people that kind of DIY their own alternative universes. I love Barbarella it has maybe the best set design and costume design I’ve ever seen. There’s something so bizarre about it. Nothing makes sense. The plot is not very strong, but it’s so captivating the whole way through. As an artist I’m just trying to recreate the feeling I had watching that film for the first time.”

This week Ponthier will be making her first official effort in this endeavor with her debut EP “Faking My Own Death“. A beautiful collection of country songs that evoke the rainbow-colored pop of Kacey Musgraves and Lana Del Rey’s cinematic glamour, the songs’ confessional conviction are poised to make Ponthier a regularly mispronounced name this year (for the record, it’s “pon-tee-ay”)

Raised just outside of Dallas, Texas, Ponthier spent her youth growing up in a suburb not all that dissimilar to the football-centric environs seen on Friday Night Lights. Ponthier was a bit of an outlier. Shy, introverted, and ADHD, she says she had trouble relating to other kids. “I always felt a little bit different from other people because I was processing things in different ways. I didn’t always know how to handle my emotions, and I would often get sucked into whatever my hobby or interest was at the time. So I would just hang out by myself watching movies, making music, drawing weird creatures.”

This outsiderness only deepened when Ponthier found herself feeling attracted to other girls. “When it comes to my sexuality I think I just didn’t know what that was,” she recalls. “I truly thought that I had invented the idea of being gay because I didn’t know any other gay people until I got older. I also think that even if I wasn’t surrounded by violent acts of homophobia all the time, being silent about it—or viewing it as something that you should hide as a courtesy—was really harmful in itself because it almost felt like I would be inconveniencing other people by coming, or I would be a burden I came out.”

Initially going to the University of North Texas to study music, Ponthier left to make a life as an artist in New York City. “Something broke in my brain,” she says. “I just thought to myself, ‘All I want to do is write songs.’ So I dropped out of school and I moved. It just felt right. I’m not an impulsive person, but something just said, ‘You need to be somewhere else.’” Working a variety of jobs that included modelling, selling jewellry, and even doing social media for the American Museum of Natural History, Ponthier continued to develop her song writing skills. It was also during this stretch of time that she met her girlfriend and came out of the closet. The vulnerability of the experience ultimately inspired Faking My Own Death’s first single, “Cowboy.” 

“I think that a lot of people go through that experience when they grow up,” says Ponthier. “A lot of the things that they’re ashamed of, or feel like they should hide, are the best parts of them when they get older.” Opening with the lines, “It took New York to make me a cowboy / Now everybody knows,” “Cowboy” proved to be a breakthrough moment for Ponthier, who had been restricting her more personalized point of view up to that point. With the help of her managers Ponthier soon found herself workshopping new material with the likes of Ethan Gruska—best known for his production work with Phoebe Bridgers—as well as veteran songwriters such as Rick Nowels, Adam Melchor, and Semisonic’s Dan Wilson, exploring subjects such as social anxiety (“Hell Is a Crowded Room”), self-doubt (“Harshest Critic”), and reconciling one’s past (“Tornado Country”). 

“The most difficult relationship you’ll probably ever have is with yourself,” says Ponthier. “I’ve changed so much. I think this EP has honestly changed my life. I’m really comfortable in my own skin, I embrace the things that I used to hide from other people. I’m more comfortable expressing myself in the ways that I’ve wanted to forever. I’m still a really sensitive person, and in a weird way I think the reason that a lot of my songs are about me being nervous, or having a complicated relationship with myself, or having anxiety, is because it takes away the power it holds over you. If you’re honest about your anxieties and fears, I think that there’s a lot of people that feel the exact same way and would echo that. It’s something that has always helped me—just being more honest about how I feel in a moment.”

Unlike so many new artists who released their debut records last year at the height of the global pandemic, Ponthier is actually poised to introduce herself to all manner of live audiences this fall supporting Lord Huron on her first-ever tour. It was on Lord Huron’s latest album Long Lost that listeners likely first heard Ponthier when she dueted with frontman Ben Schneider on the ballad “I Lied.” “There really was no strategic business decision to picking me, but I heard through the grapevine that Ben had liked [the demo I recorded for him], and the next time it was safe to travel I went to LA to Whispering Pines. I felt like I was gonna throw up. I had never worked with another artist before, especially not an artist as successful as Lord Huron. I was convinced that I was doing a bad job in my head. I was like, ‘I’m messing this up.’ But I finished recording and I went into the control room, and Ben was so sweet. He said, ‘Would you ever want to perform this live with me?’ And I thought, ‘Oh my god, I think I got it.’”

As Ponthier moves into a new stage of recognition with the release of “Faking My Own Death” and performing her songs live, she says she’s still hard at work completing her debut full-length. For the moment, however, she’s quite comfortable keeping things on a relatively reduced scale—miniature, even. “I’m literally always writing,” she says. “And the goal is, yeah, to eventually do a full-length album. But I love the idea of doing an EP, because I think when you’re just introducing yourself to the world, you want to have that kind of smaller project to show people. You have to practice before it’s your big day.”

Tom Morello has announced a new album and he is certainly doing it with some fanfare, sharing a cover of an AC/DC cover “Highway To Hell” with some of his friends joining in as collaborators. 

The legendary guitarist – who is the co-founder of Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave and Prophets Of Rage – has today released his cover of AC/DC‘s classic 1979 track with Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam‘s Eddie Vedder joining in. the original is one of the greatest, most powerful, kick ass rock n roll records of all time. This album, and particularly the title track, are an apex moment in rock history.

“Our version of Highway To Hell pays homage to AC/DC but with Bruce Springsteen and Eddie Vedder, brings this legendary song into the future,” said Morello of the cover.  It’s one of the greatest rock’n’roll songs of all time sung by two of the greatest rock’n’roll singers of all time. And then I drop a shredding guitar solo. Thank you and good night. While this is the first officially recorded version of the track, it’s not the first time the trio have gotten together to perform it. 

Back in 2014, Vedder joined Springsteen and Morello (who was touring as part of Springsteen’s E Street Band at the time) on stage at Melbourne’s AAMI Park to surprise fans with a version.
The track is the first taste of Morello’s forthcoming The Atlas Underground Fire album. The release is the follow-up to 2018’s The Atlas Underground and sees Morello collab with a stack of big names on tracks including Bring Me The Horizon, Chris Stapleton, Damian Marley, Mike Posner and more. 

During lockdown I had no access to an engineer so I had to record all of the guitar parts on the voice memo of my phone,” said Morello of making the album.  

This seemed like an outrageous idea but it lead to a freedom in creativity in that I could not overthink any of the guitar parts and just had to trust my instincts.”

This record was a life raft in a difficult time that allowed me to find new ways of creating new global artistic connections that helped transform a time of fear and anxiety into one of musical expression and rocking jams.”

The Atlas Underground Fire is due for release on Friday 15th October,

Singer Songwriter Holly Humbertsone has announced details of her second EP, ‘The Walls Are Way Too Thin’. The EP, which follows the singer-songwriter’s debut effort from 2020,  “Falling Asleep At the Wheel” will come out on November 5th.

I wrote The Walls Are Way Too Thin about a time in my life where I felt like I’d lost control of where I was heading and struggling a little with finding my place in the world. It was a very strange period, I’d just moved to London away from my family and all of a sudden everything that I knew to be normal had changed completely. I moved on a whim into this little dingy room. I met some cool people but this place was pretty lonely and claustrophobic. I’m such an awkward person and even though I really liked my housemates I still felt worried about small talk in the kitchen or passing each other in the corridors. I had some fun times there, but I felt like I was mostly confined to my room whilst chaos was going on in the flats or streets around us. To avoid confronting how I was feeling I’d sneak out of the flat and go on train journeys to see my mates, get drunk, then come back hungover through the night or morning. I wrote most of Walls and the songs that come next on those trains. It was my place of therapy, in the middle of nowhere. I wanted the music video to reflect how I felt stuck in my room with my own internal anxiety rising. The idea of being trapped in an air vent in a burning building came from that feeling of claustrophobia and panic that I felt throughout my time living in the flat. Shooting the video was chaotic, my elbows and knees look quite different now after 8 hours of crawling back and forth. The fire blast in the vent was totally real too !!

Ahead of the release of the EP, Humberstone has shared the official version of new single ‘Please Don’t Leave Just Yet’, a song co-written by the 1975’s Matty Healy that she recently debuted at Tramlines Festival.

“The song is about wanting someone to stay so badly, even if only for five more minutes, because you know how much it’ll hurt when they leave,” Humberstone says of the new track. “I think the desperation in the words really sums up how I was feeling at the time and how so many people must’ve been feeling last year when we were all completely starved of human connection!

“I often write songs with a bit of a visual in my head, and I kept picturing solitary places, like drifting far out to sea, so far that you can’t find a way back, or old deserted cargo shipping yards with all the lights at the edge of the city.”

Elaborating on the meaning of the upcoming EP, the singer added: “This EP represents a feeling of being lost. It’s the kind of lost that makes you question who you are and where you belong. So lost that someone might need to find you again because you can’t find yourself. That’s how it felt to move to Liverpool, then London, and be in transit between cities and never settling.”

The leader of the Los Angeles band Love can rightly be considered one of classic rock music’s stars who should have been, admired by such other artists as Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Neil Young, to name but a few. A native of Memphis, TN who grew up in Los Angeles, Arthur Lee played in a number of bands and wrote songs recorded by other artists before Love emerged onto the mid-1960s Sunset Strip scene that also yielded such legendary acts as The Doors, Byrds and Buffalo Springfield. Love’s sound was a diverse mix of folk-rock, psychedelia, proto-punk and more.

The group featured both Lee and Bryan MacLean as singers and songwriters and guitarist Johnny Echols, and was the first rock band signed to the folk label Elektra Records. Its 1966 self-titled debut album included its single of Burt Bacharach’s “Little Red Book” that remains a cult favourite but was not liked by the song’s writer. The second Love album, “De Capo“, contained the band’s highest-charting single, “7 and 7 Is” , a precursor of the punk movement a decade later. The group’s third release in 1967, “Forever Changes”, was a commercial flop on release but has come to be considered a visionary masterpiece of late 1960s rock.

First of 3 songs performed by Arthur Lee and Love in 2003. This song and “You Set The Scene” are from a US presentation of “Later.. with Jools Holland” Love, an LA integrated band recorded “Forever Changes” one of the greatest LP’s that you’ve probably never heard in 1967.    “Alone Again Or” features strings and mexacali horns as in the original mix by Bruce Botnick.  This video is from a 2003 TV appearance by Arthur Lee. It did not help Love’s popularity that Arthur Lee (founder and co-front man along with former Byrds roadie Bryan MacLean) refused to tour. “Forever Changes” is now ranked among the greatest LP’s of all time (No. 6 by the UK’s New Musical Express and No. 40 by the U.S.’s Billboard).

Being a friend of Hendrix, I think it unlikely that Arthur had any concerns with regards race or skin colour (back in the 60’s). Infact he makes numerous references to ‘colour’ throughout Forever Changes. It is also known that it was Arthur who recommended The Doors to the Elektra label. He himself later stated that at that time in 1967 he didn’t think he had long to live (ironically) and remembering that after the Summer of Love the concept of dropping out was a central point of the ‘counter-culture’ I think that may have influenced his decision not to tour this album which was recorded at a time that Love were actually considering splitting-up. He did, of course, perform many tracks from this album in a number of gigs throughout the 70’s.

Lee led a variety of versions of Love following the dissolution of its primary original line-up after Forever Changes and also recorded and performed under his own name. He did a five-and-a-half year stint in prison after being convicted on a weapons charge in 1996. Lee enjoyed a bit of a career revival when he toured after his release from jail in a new version of Love that included Echols. He suffered from acute myeloid leukemia for a number of years before he succumbed to the disease in his hometown of Memphis.