The Fat Angel Sings

The last time the War on Drugs released a new song, it was 2022 and the band was taking a victory lap for its well-received album “I Don’t Live Here Anymore“. Four years later, we haven’t heard a peep from singer-songwriter Adam Granduciel and co. — but that’s changing today with the release of “Who’s That.”

The band’s big return delivers everything a War on Drugs fan might be hoping for, especially if you’ve caught this song at one of their recent concerts. Granduciel, who wrote and produced the song at his studio in Burbank, California, layers all kinds of six- and 12-string guitars, a Mellotron and other vintage synths, and more into a sweeping vision that’s largely his own handiwork. Bandmates Anthony LaMarca, David Hartley, Robbie Bennett, Jon Natchez, and Eliza Hardy-Jones, plus additional contributors Alex Fischel (of Spoon) and Lily Honigberg, join him to create a backing track that feels like the reason the word “anthemic” was first introduced to music journalism.

Over that majestic backdrop, Granduciel delivers a set of characteristically vulnerable lyrics, singing about deep emotions (“It’s only my depression, baby”) and asking big questions (“Where do I belong?” “Did I blow it?” “Would it be so wrong to be on the take?”) in his Dylanesque drawl.

In a statement, Granduciel describes the song as a product of his daily life in L.A. “‘Who’s That’ was written in 10 minutes somewhere between first coffee and school drop-off. It’s a song about trying to love yourself despite things we can’t always control, like the anxiety, depression and self-doubt that may stand in the way of living the life we truly desire.”

Granduciel has hinted that the band may have something bigger on the way. “I’m almost done making a record, and we’re close to the end,” he said this spring. “I wanted to do something that’s not different, necessarily, in terms of the way it sounds, but something that’s trying to get back to the first couple of records I made. So it’s basically fully homemade.”

In the meantime, the War on Drugs are about to hit the road for a run of fall shows and festivals.

Our new album “Future Nausea” is coming on November 6th, 2026. Following their 2025 EP “A Brief Intermission in the Flattening of Time“, Spanish Love Songs return with a vengeance. Produced by ex-Death Cab For Cutie guitarist Chris Walla and Illuminati Hottie’s Sarah Tudzin, “Future Nausea” sets itself in direct opposition to the nostalgic American mythology that originally inspired the record.

“When I first sat down to work on the record, I basically told everybody I just wanted to make a big rock record, whatever our version of something like “Born in the U.S.A.” would feel like if it could exist,” frontman Dylan Slocum shares. “But as much as I wanted to make a major-key-sounding album, I wanted it to be as angry politically as it could be. More angry than sad. I actually think this is the least sad record we’ve ever made.”

“Good American”, the first single, is out now. Video made with Eric, Mitchell & the NYC dream team is up on YouTube. Song produced by Chris Walla & mixed by Sarah Tudzin.

Their lead single “Good American” personifies this definition. Bombastic guitars drive the track towards a melodic yet uneasy chorus about America’s treatment of veterans. “Brought you home to die out in the street/Like a good American,” Slocum belts on top of a flurry of kicks and a pounding bass riff. 

“The military complex is a complicated, terrible thing that preys on economic instability and desperation, all under the guise of patriotism and making people feel like they belong to something greater than themselves.” says Slocum.  “With Trump’s re-election I started seeing stories of Trans soldiers, including some career soldiers my own age, being tossed aside even more callously. It brought back the memories of the vets I met all those years before. From there, the story emerged in each successive verse. A story of what life looks like after the institution you believed in deems you surplus to needs.”

Slocum describes the track as possibly “the angriest song I’ve ever written,” with its recording following suit. “We wanted to keep it minimal. Loud. It sets the tone for the album and this era of the band. We wanted to keep everyone dancing and shouting,” he continues.” As the United States’ escalates its war with Iran, it’s hard not to see where Slocum is coming from. “Good American” understands this dilemma and presents it with catchy riffs and denim jackets galore.

Spanning 1978 to 1995, ‘Downside Up’ collects 49 B-sides by Siouxsie and the Banshees, offering an alternative route through the band’s catalogue. Originally compiled in 2004, the collection stretches from their earliest recordings to their final years, bringing together songs that often found the group at their most experimental and unpredictable. The recordings have been remastered from the original tapes.

Siouxsie And The Banshees “Downside Up” is a long-awaited re-appearance for the band’s chronologically sequenced collection of B-sides from 1978 to 1995, its vinyl debut as a 5LP boxset and also as a 3CD set. “Downside Up” is an alternative history of Siouxsie And The Banshees’ audacious and uncompromising work, highlighting the more experimental side of the band who pioneered a daring aesthetic which continues to be influential and yet still, somehow underrated.

This new version of the collection has been remastered from the original tape sources and cut to lacquer by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios. Speaking about “Downside Up” at the time of its release, Siouxsie was quoted as saying, “It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long, long time. To me, the B-sides are very spontaneous. The singles are very definite; we know what their purpose is for, but the B-sides I always think allow something spontaneous to happen to complement the A-sides.”

Both formats of “Downside Up” contain detailed booklets, 68 pages for the CD, 32 pages for the LP set, featuring an introduction by Siouxsie, song lyrics, and commentary from founder members Siouxsie and Steven Severin and additional imagery drawn from their original single sleeve artwork.

The fourth CD in the original set, the four-track “The Thorn“, is being lined up for a stand-alone reissue. The two live tracks that were included on the CD single of ‘O Baby’ have been removed to reinforce the studio-only nature of the set.

“I always want to be moving forwards,” she says “But there’s always that link to your past.” Looking back on the band’s catalogue, she adds: “Reappraising it. Re-evaluating it. It’s a great thing to do. Otherwise it would be like being on a treadmill.”

Elsewhere, Siouxsie discusses the relationship between music, imagery and empowerment, reflects on the pressures and freedoms of life inside one of Britain’s most distinctive bands and hints at work on new material. “When I’m ready, I’ll talk about some new material,” she says.

Meanwhile, Severin recalls the spontaneous circumstances under which many of the recordings were created. “The shackles were off,” he says of the B-sides. “It didn’t matter what we put on them because we didn’t have to reproduce it live.” Reassessing the material today, Severin estimates that the collection amounts to “something like 50 songs. That’s five albums’ worth of material. Five extra albums that we crammed into those 20 years.”

5LP box set on UMR. Remastered from the original tapes and cut to lacquer by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios. Includes 32-page booklet.

Due 20th November 2026.

The new issue of UNCUT magazine looks like a good one! “SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES: In her first major interview for more than a decade, Siouxsie Sioux joins First Banshee Steven Severin to trace their band’s evolution from abrasive punk outsiders to one of Britain’s most singular and influential groups. Along the way: hidden gems, inner demons and the challenges of starting over. ‘It’s got that black magic thing’.

Bound together by a love for Cocteau Twins and the Jesus and Mary Chain, the members of the short-lived band Chapterhouse laid down an early and enduring model of shoegaze with their 1991 release, “Whirlpool”. On their debut, the young group stood at the center of all the trends happening with British alternative music at the time. It had the effects-driven guitar lines and mystique of early My Bloody Valentine, the acid-tinged danceability of the Stone Roses, and touches of electronic elements in line with the fast-developing electronic scenes popping up on the island at the time.

Highlights include ‘Pearl’, featuring Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell, while the album later earned a place among Pitchfork’s 50 best shoegaze records. Dreamy, melodic and danceable, ‘Whirlpool’ remains one of the era’s distinctive albums.

That’s not to say there’s a lack of furious stringed explosions that define shoegaze. On “Autosleeper,” the group ramps up into barrages of noise and drum fills with an electronic freakout happening simultaneously. Later, on “Something More,” the chorus is propelled by a powerful, distorted guitar riff that swallows the vocals and floods the speakers.

For all their glory, though, Chapterhouse only released one other album, “Blood Music” in 1993, a more polished record that didn’t hold as much underground cred as its predecessor. Still, like the heyday of the genre, they burned fast, but they burned bright.

Gnoomes reshape their sound on “Losey”, a record born from upheaval, migration and creative reinvention. After leaving Russia and settling in Slovenia, Sasha Piankov and Masha Piankova channel personal and political turbulence into music full of momentum and possibility.

Moving beyond the skygazing psych textures of earlier work, the duo embrace motorik rhythms, electronic experimentation and club-driven intensity. Opener ‘Foreign Agent’ tackles the pressures of the Russian state through hypnotic grooves and psychedelic colour, while ‘Satan’s Ball’ twists EBM and acid textures into something strange and compelling.

Described by the band as “rave as therapy, pop as resistance”, “Losey” is a bold, shape-shifting record that turns dislocation into possibility and finds light in uncertain times.

Confronting 2026, hope can seem in short supply, as the most divisive and toxic voices worldwide are amplified amidst an ever-rising temperature of conflict and alienation, yet hope is abundant in “Losey”, the latest release on Rocket Recordings from the mercurial duo Gnoomes. Just as this couple have taken a bold step into the unknown by leaving Russia and moving to Slovenia, so their music has thrown off all shackles to flourish in a defiant show of vibrant and revivifying colour.

“The life of an immigrant is a strange thing.” says the bands Sasha Piankov “But luckily, that glow music brings us has never faded, even though the emotional landscape has definitely shifted.” Yet whilst the music that Sasha and his creative and life partner Masha Piankova came up with is testimony to a liberating triumph against oppression and adversity, it also goes beyond.

What has emerged is a kaleidoscopic collision of styles which sends the ‘skygazing’ realm of their previous work spinning into electronic orbit. Whilst the opener ‘Foreign Agent’ explicitly tackles the pressures of the Russian state, it also throws a Stereolab-style motorik meditation through an in-the-red psychedelic prism. Elsewhere we can behold Bulgakov and Chris and Cosey as bedfellows amidst the mesmeric, 303-fried EBM of ‘Satan’s Ball’.
“Rave as therapy. Pop as resistance.

Love as endurance. ADHD as a production technique.” These are the primary ingredients of “Losey”, by the reckoning of the band themselves. This is an album that exists purely on its own distinct frequency, driven by defiance and positivity. “Losey” is a soundtrack to set fire to the old order, the better to dance in the glow.

Taken from the album ‘Losey’ (Launch440) which is released on 4th September 2026

Born from Jack Ogborne (aka Bingo Fury), with help from Naima Bock, Finlay Burrows and members of Belishas, The Cindys chase surrealist imagery and irresistible hooks at breakneck speed. Their self-titled debut album,, tracked between Falmouth, Rockfield and Bristol’s Louisiana cellar, arrived via Breakfast Records and Ruination, earning tours with Shame and Getdown Services.

Bristolian outfit The Cindys united through a shared love of Alex Chilton, The Clean and Beat Happening. Birth child of Jack Ogborne (aka Bingo Fury) and with help from Naima Bock, Finlay Burrows and members of Belishas, the group fronts surrealist imagery and infectious hooks at a pace that’ll give you butterflies.

Their debut album was recorded across the west country, between the vault of the Cornish Bank in Falmouth, Rockfield studios in Wales and the cellar of legendary venue The Louisiana in Bristol throughout 2024. The album includes production and engineering contributions from Joe Jones (Aldous Harding, The Cure, Teenage Fanclub) and Sam Stackpool of Holiday Ghosts, who also features on 12 String.

Tony Iommi, founding member of Black Sabbath and the godfather of heavy metal, is back with his first new solo music in 21 years. It is also his first full-length studio release since Black Sabbath‘s final album, “13”.

The first single from the new album, “World Alone”, is a fast-paced, guitar-driven track packed with Tony‘s signature monster riffs. Heavy but catchy, it gets an uplifting edge from lyricist and vocalist Jorn Lande.

This is classic Iommi, with all the hallmarks of his legendary guitar work and a contemporary twist. Available on 7″ vinyl single, with the instrumental version on the B-side.

My new single, “World Alone,” featuring Jorn Lande, is available now