The Fat Angel Sings

Liverpool post-punks Clinic shared a new song, “Fine Dining”  via a video for the song. The band have also announced some new UK tour dates, which are their first dates in nine years .

Clinic seem like a band well suited for the pandemic, only in that they have long worn hospital facemasks in their press photos and live performances. But it seems as though things have changed a bit over the course of COVID-19 and the quartet is now a duo, with Ade Blackburn and Jonathan Hartley listed as members in the press release, but no mention of Brian Campbell or Carl Turney. The line-up had remained the same since the band’s 1997 formation, until now. And in the new press photo, only one member is wearing a facemask, with the other in a gasmask.

The single is out now via Domino Recordings. Emily Evans directed the “Fine Dining” video.

Amidst pulsing synths and a disco drum, Clinic’s new track folds in a sense of 1970’s American Fantasy Drama that adds a poppier element to their distinctive sound.

In the press release, Clinic collectively had this to say about the new song: “Fine Dining is a slice of dancefloor fun, combining the band’s love of the exotic and having a good time.”

Clinic’s last album was 2019’s “Wheeltappers and Shunters”, which was their first new album in seven years

Wolf Alice follow their Mercury Prize winning ‘Visions Of A Life’ with this exclusive Blood Records lenticular blue-marble edition of their third studio album ‘Blue Weekend’. Featuring a shape-shifting cover that changes when moved, the record comes hand-numbered on a first-come-first-served basis.

“Whereas in the past [Ellie] Rowsell has hidden her feelings behind metaphors and ambiguity, Blue Weekend sees her penning some of her most direct and personal lyrics to date. And perhaps this has given her a sense of release because vocally throughout the album she soars and produces a stunning performance ranging from dreamy half-spoken internal monologues to towering celestial beauty. On the gorgeous ‘Delicious Things’ she muses on the seductive promise of fame, with tales of unsuitable suitors and blaggers in Hollywood where she ends up bored with the thin veneer of glamour and phoning her mother. ‘How Can I Make It OK?’ is bittersweet dream-pop perfection, as Rowsell tries to salvage a relationship that is going awry, giving herself ‘a moment to change it all’ while she laments ‘how can I make it OK? I just want you to be happy.’ It’s a moment of shimmering beauty on an album that demonstrates how far Wolf Alice has come, and indeed how much more they have to give.”

Wolf Alice had previously shared a video for Blue Weekend’s first single, “The Last Man On Earth”, Then they shared the album’s second single, the bass-heavy version in “Smile”. They performed “Smile” on The Late Late Show with James Corden, where they were also interviewed. The album’s third single was the dreamy and understated “No Hard Feelings”, The band also shared one last pre-release single from the album, “How Can I Make It OK”. 

The first glimpse of the band’s new work came in the form of lead single “The Last Man On Earth”, premiered recently as Annie Mac’s Hottest Record in the World on BBC Radio 1, and blurs the lines between classic song writing, graceful atmosphere and their signature pin-sharp choruses. The band played a massive 187 shows on the Visions Of A Life world tour – including a sold out Alexandra Palace, 2 sold out dates at Brixton Academy, and a set on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury.  

Britain’s Wolf Alice released a new album, “Blue Weekend” last week via Dirty Hit/RCA. Since then they have shared new videos for the album’s “Delicious Things” and “The Beach.” They have also shared a live video for recent single “How Can I Make It OK?”

Jordan Hemingway directed the videos for “Delicious Things” and “The Beach.” The former features frontwoman Ellie Rowsell sharing a black taxicab with various couples (some of them other members of the band) and the latter features her in her bedroom and in the bath.

The band decamped to an Airbnb in Somerset, and it was here that they reconfigured who they were together, far away from festival stages, tour buses, awards shows, and fans. They cemented their friendship and set to work on some fledgling demos in a converted church. These demos evolved into Blue Weekend, a record produced by Markus Dravs (Arcade Fire, Björk, Brian Eno, Florence + The Machine) who has aided the band in refining their sound to an even sharper point. Rowsell’s personal storytelling is at the core of Blue Weekend, an album that sees Wolf Alice embrace a newfound boldness and vulnerability in equal measure. 

The band’s full line-up is Ellie Rowsell (vocals, guitar), Joff Oddie (guitar, vocals), Theo Ellis (bass), and Joel Amey (drums, vocals). The band stayed in an Airbnb in Somerset, England and worked on some demos in a converted church. Markus Dravs (Arcade Fire, Björk, Brian Eno, Florence + The Machine) then produced the final album.

Please note that Blood Records is a pre-ordering platform and this record is due for release on June 11th, 2021.

Blue Weekend is the band’s third album and the follow-up to 2017’s “Visions Of A Life” which won them the coveted Mercury Prize. Wolf Alice released their debut album “My Love Is Cool” back in 2015.

The band’s full line-up is Ellie Rowsell (vocals, guitar), Joff Oddie (guitar, vocals), Theo Ellis (bass), and Joel Amey (drums, vocals). The band stayed in an Airbnb in Somerset, England and worked on some demos in a converted church. Markus Dravs (Arcade Fire, Björk, Brian Eno, Florence + The Machine) then produced the final album.

Really happy to be able to share this live video we made for “In the Stone” a few months back. Given the events of the last year or so it felt really important to us to still document the live element of the album and our band in this moment. We ended up making a few videos like this which we’ll keep sharing.

Once we started rehearsing a set again we realised In the Stone is probably the hardest song off our album to replicate live because it requires simple things to be done so counterintuitively – the tune to which hairs were pulled! When we recorded the album version in Bristol we’d intended to play to a drum machine but the song felt better loose, changing pace a bit, so we ended up doing it with live drums and then triggered the drum machine from Riley’s hits.

This version in turn is us playing along with that drum machine track, triggered from the drum take Riley did in Bristol last year lol. The tempo is very emotional so playing it right doesn’t mean playing metrically in time, or getting over excited and ahead. I ended up really enjoying that this song forced us more so than ever to tune into the rhythm of our past selves – or more specifically Riley’s self last year – not to fight it, but…feel it! So yeah, this is that!

Also an enormous thank you to the amazing team both here in Brisbane and in London who helped us put this lil vid together: Marly Lüske for recording and mixing,Tom Carroll (DOP) and Hugo Nobay (1st AC) Madeline Randall for SFX Marisa Gesualdi for editing and James Caswell for producing the whole damn thing. And to our sweet sweet Al of course whose on lead guitar here, we love you!.

“In the Stone” is taken from the upcoming album ‘Mirror II,’ out on Matador Records

Delta 5 were formed in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, UK 1979.

There was a Leeds music scene at the time that revolved around the Leeds University Art Department, and local bands The Gang of Four and The Mekons were doing well. Kelvin had briefly replaced Hugo in The Gang of Four and was recommended to Delta 5 as a drummer. Kelvin and I played in a band in York together so I went along to audition and joined in May 1979.

First release “Mind Your Own Business” / “Now That You’ve Gone” – 1979. The Gang of Four were recording their album, Entertainment, in the WorkHouse in the Old Kent Road and they decided that they could help us out at the same time. We stayed with them on a houseboat on the Thames at Cheney Walk, Chelsea and their manager Rob Warr arranged for us to go in and record whilst they were out at a Madness/Specials gig in Camden.

“You” was supposed to be the first recording but it wasn’t happening so we changed tack and recorded both songs in about 8 to 10 hours. We had only been together a few months and done about 3 or 4 gigs by this time. Rob took the tapes to EMI who were paying for the studio but they passed – no surprise there – so Rob went to Geoff Travis at Rough Trade. Geoff came to see us at The Global Village (later Heaven) and we met him afterwards and agreed to a deal on a handshake.

The single came out in December.

John Peel was given a pre-release copy and he decided to play it twice that night. The next day we got a call asking if we’d like to do a session for him – yes please!! Then, we were off and running.

“Delta 5” and “Make Up” included on this CD are from that session of February 1980. We recorded a follow-up, “Anticipation” / “You” in February 1980. We were gigging more often at this point and “You” turned out pretty well. More gigging in Europe and the UK; around 1980 – 81, we played quite a bit at The Lyceum in London and shared the bill with The Gang of Four a few times, Echo and the Bunnymen, B52s, Specials, Teardrop Explodes and U2 to name a few. We toured with The Gang of Four and Pere Ubu in 1980.

In September 1980 we did our second Peel session, which included “Triangle,” which is included on this CD. Later in September 1980 we went to the USA.

We played New York and all along the East Coast. Then we went West, and “Shadow,” “Circuit,” and “Journey” are all from a show we did at the Berkeley Square in Berkeley, CA. Back to England in October and we recorded “Try”/ “Colour” with the Bad Manners horn section who we had met at a festival In Finland. In February 1981 we toured Holland and Belgium. In March 81 we signed with the Pre record label in April we went into Rak Studios in St John’s Wood to record an album. Rak was Mickie Most’s studios and The Animals, Hot Chocolate and Sweet had recorded there.

We experimented quite a bit on the album and perhaps we should have just recorded the songs as they were – the session versions included here are more a reflection of how we were live as they were all recorded quickly in one or two takes.

None of us really liked the title of the album but it was a compromise – I think we argued quite a lot back then. We did a UK tour culminating in a headline gig at The Venue London. We even had a horn section including Rico on trombone.

We went back to the USA for a few shows on the East Coast in May and came back to England in June. We recorded “Innocenti,” “Train Song,” “Final Scene” and “Singing The Praises” for a Richard Skinner session in July 1981.

The album came out somtime late in 1981 and we went to Holland in October – I decided it was time to leave when we got back – I think Julz and then Kelvin left and Bethan & Ros made one more single with new personnel before calling it a day in 1982.

The early days were the best and although we did argue a lot, (what band doesn’t!), we also had a lot of laughs – for a couple of years we got to play live and make some records, and then that was enough. Alan Delta 5

Indie pop hopefuls The Academic have just unleased The anthem if the summer! “Kids (Don’t End Up Like Me)” has the timeless quality and joyous feel which is going to get stuck in your head for a very long time!

“Kids (Don’t End Up Like Me) is one of the first songs I remember writing back when I was a teenager. It was the first time that lyrics had come very easy to me. It’s written about the fear of not getting out of your hometown and amounting to anything. Thanks to the lockdown, I had plenty of time on my hands, but nothing to write about, so I started looking through all my old notebooks and found this song fully written. I had a gut feeling that it might come to life now with a few more years of living behind me since it was originally written.” – Craig Fitzgerald

“Kids (Don’t End Up Like Me)” is taken from the forthcoming “Community Spirit” EP, which is scheduled for release on July 9^th 

A 6 song special release featuring: Deerhoof, Nels Cline (of Wilco), Shutups, Dave Depper (of Death Cab for Cutie), and Shaylee. 

Part of: Kill Rock Stars 30th Anniversary covers series, Who have put out 8-11 Deerhoof albums, depending on what you count as albums. We love Deerhoof forever. And each of these artists do, too – this is a very special ‘for the love of Deerhoof’ sandwich and we’re so happy to share it.

Also this is the best sandwich I’ve ever had, so listen yr hearts out.  Deerhoof: “KRS has an enormous catalogue. How do you choose? Something about the Sleater-Kinney song though, we had to try it. We wanted to celebrate one of these magic moments when they sounded like they didn’t quite know what they were doing…when emotions were revelations, and dissonances collided in some mystery universe between intention and accident. We relate to that part of us that works just like a child. We wanted to take a question mark of a song and not answer it.”

“This is to celebrate 30 killer years of Kill Rock Stars and is a love letter to our friends Deerhoof for being eternally inspiring.” says Wilco’s Nels Cline:

Shutups: “This track rips. It’s somehow the loudest and quietest song, like stadium rock in a pillow fort. I love how comfortable it makes me feel despite its flurry of time signature changes. We also couldn’t pass on the opportunity to cover a fellow Bay Area band, especially one with such nostalgic weight as Deerhoof.”

On “The Tears and Music of Love”, Shaylee’s second cover on Kill Rock Stars’ 30th anniversary compilation, Shaylee brings Kynwyn Sterling on board. With Kynwyn’s powerful, expressive drumming and sweet vocals providing a solid backdrop, Shaylee fills up the sonic spectrum with analogue synths, glockenspiel, and thick multi-tracked guitars to create a bristling and anthemic tribute to one of the most iconic bands ever signed to Kill Rock Stars.

Dave Depper:  Kill Rock Stars. An iconic name, linked inextricably with my formative music-discovery years as a teen and young twenty-something, greedily gobbling up new sounds, feelings, and ways of looking at the world. Unimaginable that I’d someday have the honour of releasing something on the label, and yet, dear reader, here we are. What a world.Deerhoof freaked me out when I first heard them and they still kind of do – lightning-in-a-bottle kind of music, simultaneously so random and chaotic yet deeply composed and expertly played. It really shouldn’t work but nearly always does. “Twin Killers” is merely one amazing song out of an embarrassment of them, and picked because it’s one of the handful that I could possibly hope to recreate without calling in favours from additional musicians who are far shreddier than I.”

Tracklisting:

1. Deerhoof “Don’t Talk Like” Sleater-Kinney cover
2. Nels Cline feat. Yuka & Ches “Jagged Fruit ” Deerhoof cover
3. Shutups “Milk Man” Deerhoof cover
4. Shaylee feat. Kynwyn Sterling “The Tears and Music of Love” Deerhoof cover
5. Dave Depper “Twin Killers” Deerhoof cover
6. Deerhoof “Hitch-hike” LiLiPUT cover

Canadian indie rockers Echo Beach will return with their new album Salted on June 11th, which is described as an album that, “throws shade on societal norms and the unequal world in which we find ourselves”, and “keeps people dancing through their troubles and compels listeners to seek their truth.

They recently shard the vibrant and high energy single “Freakshow” a song that has sharp angular riffs and a 80s art rock vocal delivery that suites it strangely well. The song is described by the band as follows: rollercoaster of an evening out partying. A commentary on how people turn into rampaging creatures of the night, and how sometimes all you want to do it go home.

released May 14th, 2021
Written, recorded and produced by Echo Beach.

Mac – vocals
Russ – bass
Mark – drums
Emilio – guitar

Back in 1996, Chris Swanson, Ben Swanson, Eric Weddle, Jonathan Cargill founded the Bloomington, Indiana-based label Secretly Canadian. Indie music fans know the label well, of course, as it has been home to many era-defining artists, like The War On Drugs, Whitney, Jason Molina, and plenty of others. Now that the label has been around for 25 years, they are celebrating in a number of ways. In a backyard in Bloomington, Record label Secretly Canadian’s physical and spiritual home, Jason Molina once jammed part of a broken guitar into a maple tree. Rather than break the tree or shatter the neck, the maple absorbed this shrapnel, frets and all, patiently forming an unexpected and unlikely totem for Secretly Canadian’s own story.

That story is the story of a label with an otherworldly mind and midwestern heart: Avante-garde and Americana, high art and high plains, patient growth b/w wild leaps of faith. Unexpected partners and unlikely pairings, all. SC25 celebrates Secretly Canadian’s story through a campaign articulating the label’s senses of purpose, place, and imagination. At the center of SC25 is a campaign to raise $250,000 for New Hope For Families, an organization that provides housing and other services to families experiencing homelessness in Bloomington and Monroe County,

IN. A donation on this scale will provide enough money to serve 20 to 40 families. The goal is not just to give back, but to find measurable meaning in what is ultimately an abstract, if impressive, milestone. What does it mean to celebrate one’s work when that work is in many ways an act of service? What good is it if it isn’t generous, ambitious, artful and useful? SC25 will feature reissues of a sprawling set of the label’s classics, as well as an exciting new singles collection. Limited merchandise, creative partnerships, and other surprises will arrive along the way. And, crucially, SC25 will connect Secretly Canadian’s past and present to its future, linking what’s known and loved to what’s newly imagined — for us, our artists, and our home.

The first set of SC25 Editions, a collection of 12 classic titles reissued as limited-edition LPs with exclusive colour variants and essays from artists. The first run includes various albums The War On Drugs’ Wagonwheel Blues and Whitney’s Light Upon the Lake, to be released June 4th.

In addition to the reissues is SC25 Singles, a series of 25 rare, unreleased and new songs from various artists both on and off the Secretly Canadian roster. The first two singles, Stella Donnelly’s cover of Jen Lekman’s “If I Could Cry (it would feel like this)” and Porridge Radio’s reimagining of “Wet Road” by Scout Niblett, is out now future songs being released digitally over the course of the year.

Releases June 4th, 2021

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Chicago became the first non-classical group to perform six nights in a row at Carnegie Hall 50 years ago. Between April 5th-10th, 1971, the band played eight shows at the celebrated venue (including two matinees) and recorded every show. In October of that year, performance highlights were featured on the band’s first-ever live album, the four-record set, Chicago at Carnegie Hall.

For their 50th anniversary of Chicago’s historic concerts, the band will release all eight Carnegie Hall shows in their entirety for the first time in a new 16-CD deluxe boxed set. “Chicago at Carnegie Hall Complete” will be available on July 16th, 2021, exclusively at Rhino web page.

Chicago founding member and trumpeter Lee Loughnane and engineer Tim Jessup spent nearly a year meticulously going through more than 40 concert tapes at Loughnane’s new studio in Arizona to remaster each concert. Their hard work paid off with eight fantastic-sounding shows.

Chicago at Carnegie Hall Complete is presented in a white folio that’s embossed with the group’s trademark logo. The set beautifully commemorates the event through memorabilia that includes replicas of the three posters that accompanied the original vinyl release and images of the original concert program, tickets, and other memorabilia from the historic run. The collection also comes with a 28-page booklet illustrated with photos from the concerts, plus new liner notes with contributions by Loughnane; archivist Jeff Magid, writer/producer David Wild and comedy icon/Chicago fanatic Jimmy Pardo.

When Chicago arrived in New York City in April 1971 to play eight shows at Carnegie Hall, the band was at the peak of its early experimental period and riding high on the success of the group’s third consecutive platinum album, Chicago III. For these historic shows, the band played a cross-section of classic rock hits from their first three studio albums, including “Beginnings,” “Questions 67 and 68,” “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” and “25 or 6 to 4.” The set also includes the previously unheard first songs from the first show, “Someday” (August 29th, 1968).”

The performances showcase memorable contributions from every band member, including Terry Kath’s stellar guitar work, heartfelt vocals by Kath, Robert Lamm, and Peter Cetera, the vibrant horn work by Loughnane, James Pankow, and Walt Parazaider, as well as the jazz-influenced drumming of Danny Seraphine.