The Fat Angel Sings

San Francisco rockers Pardoner might make music that sounds like Wire or The Replacements, but spiritually the band’s beer-soaked cynicism is in line with the wonderful chutzpah of a corny arena rock act like Thin Lizzy. Where the albums released before “Came Down Different” toed the line between DIY favorites Toner and Ovlov, the band’s third effort finds them coming into their own as the most captivatingly goofy guitar act since Viagra Boys. Snarky and self aware, depressed but electrifying, Came Down Different’s heady song writing contains multitudes.

Coming to life in the wake of guitarist/vocalist Max Freeland’s relocation to Canada, Came Down Different was recorded in just two days. Enlisting the help of Jack Shirley, a producer who’s worked with artists like Deafheaven, Joyce Manor, and Jeff Rosenstock, these songs feel frenetic but never rushed. Came Down Different doesn’t play like the work of a band cutting corners to maximize their time in the studio, but instead captures the energy of a wonderfully sloppy live set. Where Pardoner’s first two records evoked Sister-era Sonic Youth, these cockier, sweatier tracks dwell in the same vein as more straightforward groups like New York Dolls and The Modern Lovers. It’s not hard to imagine songs like “I Wanna Get High to the Music” and “Totally Evil Powers” being laid to tape at four in the morning after a full day of putting down as much material as possible. The tracks’ wired arrangements sound like the work of musicians railing shitty coffee to stay attentive as a late night turns into an early morning.

The components of Pardoner’s songs are simple, but Came Down Different finds the band embracing a formula that feels absolutely massive. Scuzzy rhythm guitars ride atop pounding drum grooves. Meanwhile, spastic lead parts fill up the background, embracing sounds that are simultaneously vile and extremely satisfying. “If you need me / I’m watching TV in the oven with a gun to the back of my head / Fuck,” Freeland hoarsely bellows on the single “Bunny’s Taxi” over broken-sounding noodling that threatens to blow out the high end of your speakers. If Pardoner weren’t so convincing at playing the part of a shaggy post-punk band, these songs could pass as a parody of a CBGB staple like Richard Hell or Television.

A Bay Area sleeper favourite who chose to cut their teeth in a small scene rather than tour extensively, Pardoner have always kept a low profile. Because of this, it can be surprising that Came Down Different oozes both talent and personality. “Malkmus, Springsteen, McCartney, Mackaye / Getting all my wisdom / From a dumb old guy / I hope the apple falls far,” Freeland sings on closer “Fuck You!” For a band who’ve chosen to relegate themselves to Oakland warehouses and Mission District dives, the venom that courses through Came Down Different could be potent enough to stop the entire punk scene in its tracks if the band wanted it to.

The past few years have been full of reasons to fall apart, and San Francisco Bay Area rockers Pardoner very nearly went that way. Max Freeland (vocals, guitar), Trey Flanigan (vocals, guitar) and River van den Berghe (drums) bonded over Yo La Tengo and Polvo in the San Francisco State University dorms, and formed Pardoner, and released a pair of warm and fuzzy guitar-rock records. But when Freeland relocated to Vancouver, it appeared the band was also on its way out. Fortunately for us, Pardoner wobbled, but didn’t fall, adding an old friend in Colin Burris (bass), and reuniting in San Francisco to record “Came Down Different”, their third album and Bar/None Records debut, in a two-day spree with veteran hardcore producer Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Jeff Rosenstock).

Opener “Donna Said” melds rock of the noise and jangle varieties while documenting the draining demands of the music-industry rat race (“When you got feelings and guitar / You wanna trade it for cash”), while “Spike” moves a mile a minute to reflect its anti-exploitative sentiments (“Step up on some grapes / They want wine / They want twice the results / In half of the time”).

These are songs about being cash-strapped, anonymous and squeezed dry by society, but somehow having the last laugh all the same. “I’ve been destroyed by life / and I feel fucking good,” Freeland sings on “Broadway,” and you believe him on both counts. Throughout Came Down Different, Pardoner deliver barbed guitar rock that’s apocalyptic, yet nonchalant, like lighting a joint with a burning world.

Los Angeles’ band The Velvet Starlings are 2021’s answer to psychedelic, gritty garage rock that sparked elation in the 1960s. The band was founded by guitarist and organist Christian Gisborne at the age of 15. Now three years later,  Velvet Starlings are a four-piece—featuring brothers Foster and Hudson Polling along with Ashton Minnich—that’s prepping to release their debut album “Technicolour Shakedown”. The first single off their upcoming full-length—which was written, produced, engineered and mixed by Gisborne—is the unrelenting rocker titled “Back of the Train.”

“Back of the Train” recalls ’60s garage rock forebear like their LA ancestors The Standells and The Seeds, along with their blues predecessors that relented about the passing of time and life’s heavy toils. The track is anchored by Gisborne’s howling vocals—a timbre in the same kin as Roky Erickson’s eerie croon.

Gisborne tells us the inspiration behind the new single: “The song is about struggling as a musician while taking nothing for granted. ‘Back of the Train’ centres around a sneaky low note ’60s guitar riff and drums so over-compressed it would make The Sonics cringe. I think it’s awful in the best way possible.” He further describes it as the story of “paying dues and making sacrifices, while making sure to enjoy the ride along the way.”

“Technicolour Shakedown” is out August 27th via Sound x 3 Records/AWAL/The Orchard.

This year, the well established roots and folk label Dualtone Records is celebrating two decades on this planet. Dualtone was founded in 2001 by Scott Robinson, Dan Herrington, and later with Paul Roper. “From the very start, we’ve tried to build this safe, encouraging space for artists to experiment and create,” said Robinson, “and it’s just so cool to see how deeply these bands have connected with each other and to hear the influences and friendships that stretch across the whole history of the label.”

In celebration of their 20th anniversary, the label has put together a covers album with artists reimagining cuts from their label mates titled Amerikinda: 20 Years of Dualtone. Singer Songwriter Angie McMahon shares her cover of Oh Pep’s “Tea Milk & Honey” and the Wild Reeds’ take on Mt. Joy’s “Younger Days”.

Angie McMahon says of her label home, “Dualtone are my treasured American family. They took us under their roof, out for dinner, out to karaoke, wore my merch, gave us hugs and stories of Nashville, the warmest and most beautiful welcome to the US music industry. It was such an instinctive decision to sign a record deal with these beautiful people. They have supported my music from the day they heard it. I love all their faces. With precious people from this label, I have shared a karaoke stage to sing 9 minutes of Meatloaf’s Bat Out of Hell, I have eaten huge pizza slices and pasta bowls everywhere from Nashville to New York to San Francisco to Austin, I have buzzed backstage at festivals and theatres and dirty band rooms, I have experienced America through the lens of a warm and loving family, and I have felt so supported to sing my songs.

“Oh Pep! are one of my biggest song writing inspirations, as well as being beautiful friends of mine. I used to sit in the car outside my house after working long late night shifts, processing another day by listening to the magical words of ‘Tea, Milk and Honey.’ This song is like medicine to me.”

The Wild Reeds added, “Dualtone creates a familial environment for the artists they work with. They’re hands on and make sure their artists feel attended to while pushing for their success. We have always been fans of the DT artist family. Some of them have taken us on tour, became our friends, confidants, collaborators, and teammates. We got to watch Mt. Joy rise in their successes and were honoured to play a couple shows together pre-pandemic. ‘Younger Days’ feels like the perfect choice for a future on-stage song-along when we meet again. Xoxo.”

Lukas Nelson returned with his band Promise of the Real to deliver the band’s “Perennial Bloom (Back To You)”. The track will appear on the band’s forthcoming album, “A Few Stars Apart”, due out on June 11th via Fantasy Records.

Recorded with producer Dave Cobb at Nashville’s historic RCA Studio A, “A Few Stars Apart” was tracked live by the full band on eight-track tape over the course of three weeks. The album comes as the group’s first since the double-shot of 2019’s “Turn Off The News” and its 2020 companion, “Naked Garden”. On A Few Stars Apart, Nelson took his inspiration from the initially uncomfortable stillness he found at the beginning of quarantine. Like many affected by the pandemic, however, Nelson settled into this newfound homebound life and let the transition seep into his art.

“I’m from what one might say is the ultimate road family—I’ve been on the road my entire life,” Nelson said in a press release. “I’ve never been anywhere longer than three months, and suddenly here we are, the four of us together. And thank god we were together. I can’t remember the last time we had that much time together as a family. We had a lot of really important bonding that happened during that time. And I have to say, as terrible as the pandemic has been in so many ways, for my inner peace, I was able to take a lot of good from this time. I was able to pause and reflect.”

On the album’s lead single, “Perennial Bloom (Back To You)”, Nelson and the Promise of the Real share a dose of optimism as they hopefully await the inevitable bloom that has shrouded our dormant lives since March 2020. The song combines the diverse influences that define the group, from Nelson’s acoustic leanings that open the song to the driving Americana-rock rhythms that have made the band beacons of a country revivalist movement sweeping across popular music.

“It took me a really long time to come back to the home in my heart,” Nelson said. “In a physical sense, that’s Texas and Hawaii. But in a spiritual sense as well—I think I finally decided not to run from who I am and who I am destined to be. First and foremost, that’s a songwriter. That’s what this record means to me. There’s a story being told through the whole record. A story about connection and coming home.”

Listen to “Perennial Bloom (Back To You)”, the lead single from the Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real album, “A Few Stars Apart“.

James McMurtry new effort, “The Horses and the Hounds”, the acclaimed songwriter backs personal narratives with effortless elegance (“Canola Fields”) and endless energy (“If It Don’t Bleed”). This first collection in seven years, is due August 20th on New West Records, spotlights a seasoned tunesmith in peak form as he turns toward reflection (“Vaquero”) and revelation ( closer “Blackberry Winter”). Familiar foundations guide the journey. “There’s a definite Los Angeles vibe to this record,” McMurtry says. “The ghost of Warren Zevon seems to be stomping around among the guitar tracks. Don’t know how he got in there. He never signed on for work for hire.” The Horses and the Hounds is a reunion of sorts. McMurtry recorded the new album with legendary producer Ross Hogarth (Ozzy Osbourne, John Fogerty, Van Halen, Keb’ Mo’) at Jackson Browne’s Groove Masters in Santa Monica, California, a world class studio that has housed such legends as Bob Dylan and David Crosby as well as Browne himself.

McMurtry and Hogarth first worked together 30 years ago, when Hogarth was a recording engineer in the employ of John Mellencamp . Hogarth recorded McMurtry’s first two albums, “Too Long in the Wasteland” and “Candyland“, for Columbia Records and later mixed McMurtry’s first self-produced album, “Saint Mary of the Woods”, Another veteran of those three releases, guitarist David Grissom returns with some of his finest work. Accordingly, the new collection marks another upward trajectory: The Horses and the Hounds will be McMurtry’s debut album on genre-defining Americana record label New West Records.

“I first became aware of James McMurtry’s formidable song writing prowess while working at Bug Music publishing in the ’90s,” says New West president John Allen. “He’s a true talent. All of us at New West are excited at the prospect of championing the next phase of James’ already successful and respected career.” McMurtry perfectly fits a label housing “artists who perform real music for real people.” McMurtry — who’s not prone to autobiographical tales — credibly inhabiting characters from all walks of life.” “ wry, literate observations about the world with the snarl of barroom rock,” 

The result is at times sardonic, subversive and funny, but often vulnerable and always poignant.” His lauded storytelling — check out songs such as “Operation Never Mind” and “Ft. Walton Wake-Up Call” on The Horse and the Hounds consistently has turned heads for decades now. “James writes like he’s lived a lifetime,”

James McMurtry is one of my very few favourite songwriters on Earth and these days he’s working at the top of his game,” says Americana all-star Jason Isbell. “He has that rare gift of being able to make a listener laugh out loud at one line and choke up at the next. I don’t think anybody writes better lyrics.”

The former earned McMurtry his highest Billboard 200 chart position in two decades (since eclipsed by “Complicated Game“) and notched Americana Music Honors & Awards nominations. “Childish Things” spent six full weeks topping the Americana Music Radio chart in 2005 and 2006, and won the Americana Music Association’s Album of the Year, with “We Can’t Make It Here” .  

McMurtry tours year-round and consistently throws down unparalleled powerhouse performances, reflected in the release of two live discs: the universally lauded Live in Aught-Three on Compadre Records, and 2009’s Live in Europe, which captured the McMurtry band’s first European tour and extraordinary live set. Along with seasoned band members Ronnie Johnson, Daren Hess, and Tim Holt, Live in Europe features special guests Ian McLagan (Faces) and Jon Dee Graham (True Believers, Skunks).

“Lyircally gritty, musically gutsy, go tell ‘em all…we need James McMurtry bringin’ us more.” —Andrew Farrris, INXS“James McMurtry may be the truest, fiercest songwriter of his generation” ‑—Stephen King

From the new album ‘The Horses and the Hounds,’ out August 20th on New West Records.

In the decade-plus since their formation, Montreal three-piece Suuns have established themselves as one of Canada’s most respected purveyors of avant-garde rock music. On September 3rd, they’ll release “The Witness”, the follow-up full-length to 2018’s gorgeous Felt, and now the band is premiering the music video for the band’s new single “The Witness.” The song taps sounds that have been present throughout the band’s catalogue — krautrock wound tight to the verge of snapping, gossamer electronics, and serene vocal melodies — for a compelling reintroduction to the world of SUUNS. In Antoine Dasseville’s music video, a woman passes the time in a hotel room, her movements and surroundings capturing the unreality of isolation amid the barrage of images from a screen.

“Witness Protection” by SUUNS off their album ‘The Witness’ out on Joyful Noise Recordings worldwide and Secret City Records in Canada

From the corner of a tree-shaded porch at her North Carolina, home singer songwriter Angel Olsen performed four songs for NPR’s Tiny Desk (Home) Concert, kicking off with the title track from 2020’s “Whole New Mess” album.

Olsen also plays “Iota,” from her 2014 album “Burn Your Fire for No Witness“, a song she tells viewers is about wishing “that all the world could see something for what it is at the same time.”

Angel Olsen is sitting on the porch of her new Asheville, N.C., home singing “Whole New Mess.” She wrote it long before she bought this house. The song is actually about addictions, defining her “home” amidst a life of touring that kept her on the road for large chunks of time. Much like this Tiny Desk performance, the original recording is just her stunning voice and guitar (minus the birds and the trees), recorded in a church-turned-studio a few years ago.

Angel Olsen also plays “Iota,” a song that wishes “that all the world could see something for what it is at the same time.” I’ve always thought of this as a hopeful song, and hearing it a half-dozen years after its release, the hope feels beyond her reach; nevertheless, for the handful of minutes she’s singing, I feel comforted. Angel leaves us with “Waving, Smiling,” a farewell song. She says goodbye to the sounds around her, the birds, the chainsaws, and leaves us with a theme of acceptance, bittersweet but without regret.

Angel Olsen: guitar, vocals

The Tiny Desk series is working from artists home for the foreseeable future.

Introducing NPR Music’s Tiny Desk (home) concerts, bringing you performances from across the country and the world. It’s the same spirit — stripped-down sets, an intimate setting — just a different space.

SET LIST: “Whole New Mess” “Iota” “What It Is (What It Is)” “Waving, Smiling”

Deahheaven have announced their new album, “Infinite Granite” with a song called “Great Mass of Color.” Due out August 20th via Sargent House the Justin Meldal-Johnsen–produced LP is largely absent of George Clarke’s trademark black metal vocals, and complements its guitars with synthesizer tones. The album was recorded at long time Deafheaven producer and engineer Jack Shirley’s Atomic Garden East studio in Oakland, California.

Check out “Great Mass of Color” below.

After having to postpone their 2020 Tour, Deafheaven released a live album called 10 Years Gone. “Infinite Granite” follows 2018’s “Ordinary Corrupt Human Love“, 2015’s “New Bermuda”, and 2013’s release “Sunbather”.

“Great Mass of Color” – the first single from our new album ‘Infinite Granite’ out 8/20/21 on Sargent House Records.

Lucy Dacus new forthcoming album Home Video is looking to be one of the most anticipated albums of the year. The follow-up to her sophomore album Historian from 2018 is coming at the end of June. She’s already released a few singles including the immensely affecting “Thumbs,” “VBS,” and “Hot & Heavy.” Lucy has dropped another one titled “Brando,” and it’s a dreamy dig on fuckbois who think they’re a suave actor from the ’50s.

“You knew you were uncool / But you thought you could fool me,” Dacus poignantly sings in the second verse, letting us immediately know that this is no intoxicating romance.

“‘Brando’ refers to a very dramatic friend I had in high school whose whole personality was the media he consumed,” Dacus revealed in a press statement. “He showed me a lot of amazing movies and music, but I think he was more interested in using me as a scrapbook of his own tastes than actually getting to know me. He claimed to know me better than anyone else but I started to feel like all he wanted from me was to be a scene partner in the movie of his life.”

Additionally, Dacus has soke about the track’s upcoming music video, which you can be in if you submit footage of yourself dancing or skateboarding or rollerblading or hanging with a pet. She seems pretty open!

The single is off of her forthcoming album Home Video, which is out June 25th via Matador Records.