The Fat Angel Sings

MJ Lenderman writes songs that are amorphous and elastic, rising to fill the venue they’re in, generous to accommodate the number of players on stage, less concerned with replicating the studio version than they are with meeting the crowd where they’re at On “And the Wind (Live and Loose!)” the Asheville-based MJ Lenderman handles most of the playing, but with The Wind, it’s a multi-headed beast.

This isn’t just MJ Lenderman playing songs from his “Ghost of Your Guitar” (2021) and “Boat Songs“ (2022) live as they appear on the album; this is the breakthrough Asheville singer-songwriter giving extra vigour and vitality to those songs on stage through energetic re-imaginings and a hearty backing band that includes fellow Wednesday bandmates Ethan Baechtold (bassist) and Xandy Chelmis (pedal steel guitar/tamborine).

His often sparse and lo-fi songs are now caffeinated, full-band jams and grooves that rollick from one to the next. There’s a whole new dimension to the distorted, whisper-quiet “Live Jack”, while the sober “Catholic Priest” works better with its added instrumental expression.

Never once does this collection of amped-up performances, recorded in Chicago’s Lincoln Hall and Los Angeles’ Lodge Room in 2023, feel anything other than ‘in the moment’. This is a very present live album worth not only hearing but also owning.

This live album is culled from sold-out summer 2023 shows on a brief headline run during what some might call a wild-ass couple of months. It captures a near-euphoric moment in time – dizzying and exhausting and, most of all, having some real true-blue fucking fun with your best friends. It’s 90s college rock meets Americana hootenanny, an electrifying piece of the MJ Lenderman lore that needs to be experienced live with a light beer in-hand but in the interim, “And the Wind (Live and Loose!)” does its best to commit the scene to tape.

Anyone who was enrapt in the widespread critical acclaim of 2024’s breakthrough indie hit LP “Manning Fireworks” will no doubt want to check out the ragged glory of Lenderman’s 2023 live album, previously available only as a limited-edition cassette and making its debut on vinyl for RSD. Recorded while on tour in support of his 2022 studio debut “Boat Songs”, this 15-song set bristles with pure electricity and spirit. And in addition to his own original tunes that reference Jack Nicholson, Lightning McQueen and Dan Marino, Lenderman delivers a righteous rendition of the seminal murder ballad “Long Black Veil” that’s more Pavement than The Band.

Coming this Record Store Day, Saturday 12th April! Ronnie Wood “Live At Electric Ladyland“, a live album of a legendary performance, is exclusively available in a limited edition coloured vinyl! Record Store Day 2025

For the first time ever on vinyl: Ronnie’s legendary Slide On Live Band “Live at Electric Ladyland” radio music hall performance. Including blistering renditions of Ronnie’s biggest and best-loved songs, now packaged with stunning brand-new artwork. This limited-edition release is pressed on exclusive colour vinyl. Ronnie Wood “Live at Electric Ladyland” is a welcome archival addition to Wood’s extensive discography. Circulating for several years as a “unofficial” recording, it has been recently released in a refurbished official edition. Wood’s long career is full of enduring melodies and confident rockers. This remastered collection spotlights a cross-section of some of his best. The set is comprised of Rolling Stones, Faces, solo cuts, and off course a bit of the blues.

Wood said on his website, “I recorded the album “Live at the Electric Ladyland Studio” in New York on the 2nd November 1992, and I’m so happy it’s finally officially released for the very first time! This special, fully remastered, live recording includes 9 of my favorite tracks, and my Slide on Live band of all stars!”

Ronnie Wood and his Slide on Live band: Bernard Fowler on vocals, Faces band mate Ian McLagan on keyboards, Johnny Lee Schell on guitar, Shaun Solomon on bass, Wayne P. Sheehy on drums, and the legendary Chuck Leavell on additional keyboards.

Originally broadcast on WNEW FM US radio on November 12^th, 1992, in the intimate confines of Electric Ladyland, Woody and his rough and rowdy band play an hour-long set. You can always count on Woody to put forth a rollicking performance of straight-shooting rock and roll. At the time of this performance, it could be argued that his band of all stars was performing at a level that may have equaled that of his “other group.”

Titled ‘The Killers & Bruce Springsteen Encore At The Garden’, the 12″ pressing will be available on April 12th at shops participating in Record Store Day. The track-list is comprised of the three-song encore the band and the boss performed together on October 1st, 2022 at the iconic New York arena.

During the show, Bruce Springsteen came on stage to perform the pair’s 2021 collaboration ‘Dustland’ as well as his hits ‘Badlands’ and ‘Born To Run’, joined by his bandmate Jake Clemons, the saxophonist nephew of the late and legendary E Street Band member Clarence Clemons.

“That’s a hell of a band,” Springsteen told Brandon Flowers of his admiration of The Killers and their live show in 2020. “Recently when I caught you, it may have been Glastonbury, the band was so good. You guys have developed such an incredible live show. Really something to be proud of.”

Coming in April for Record Store Day 2025: a limited-edition (only 5000 copies in an “RSD First” pressing) 12-inch vinyl single, containing officially released versions of all three songs performed by The Killers with special guests Bruce Springsteen and Jake Clemons at the band’s October 1st, 2022 concert in Madison Square Garden, NYC

SIDE A: 1. Badlands (Live) 2. Dustland (Live) SIDE B: 3. Born To Run (Live)

The legendary Keith Richards releases a Limited Edition live EP for Record Store Day 2025, featuring three previously unreleased live tracks recorded in 2022 with the X-Pensive Winos at the sixth annual Love Rocks NYC benefit concert in New York City. Includes the songs “999″, “You Got the Silver“, and “Before They Make Me Run” on Side A, pressed on red vinyl with an etching on the B Side.

For the first time in 30 years, Keith Richards and the X-pensive winos perform live on stage for a charity in New York at the Beacon Theatre on 3/10/22. Last night’s sixth annual Love Rocks NYC benefit concert for God’s Love We Deliver at The Beacon Theatre featured this rare performance from Keith Richards & The X-Pensive Winos. The three-song mini-set from The Rolling Stones guitarist was just one of many highlights in New York City that also included Warren Haynes, Mavis Staples, Melissa Etheridge, Hozier and many others.

The X-Pensive Winos features guitarist Waddy Watchel, drummer Steve Jordan, keyboardist Ivan Neville and bassist Charlie Drayton. With Drayton busy backing Bob Dylan on tour, Richards recruited Will Lee to hold down the bottom end. Love Rocks NYC is typically filled by incredibly tight performances. However there was a much appreciated greasiness and loose feeling as Keef led the group through “999,” “You Got The Silver” and “Before They Make Me Run.”

Last night marked the group’s first performance of a Winos original song (“999”) since 1993 as pointed out by Rolling Stone magazine. Both “You Got The Silver” and “Before They Make Me Run” are Rolling Stones classics recorded for 1969’s “Let It Bleed” and 1978’s “Some Girls” respectively. It was tough to find any audience members sitting down during Keith Richards & The X-Pensive Winos’ performance.

Tracklist
1. 999 (Live), 2. You Got the Silver (Live), 3. Before They Make Me Run (Live)

First time availabe on vinyl, previously only a limited CD release in 1996. Following the departure of Wire’s drummer Robert Grey in 1990 WIR had risen phoenix like from the ashes of the acclaimed UK post-punk band after and were created to fulfil the final phase of Wire’s Mute Records contract

With a more sequence based sound, WIR saw the band breaking all their own rules by creating a new sparse electronic music with Graham Lewis singing most of the vocals and even cannibalising their own catalogue by sometimes sampling their own older material

WIR was, however, not a long-term project and besides completing their only album, “The First Letter”, their only other activities were a very small number of gigs and two multi-artist “conceptual happenings” under the name I Saw You One of these was in Clapham in April 1992 on election night and the other in Vienna in Feb 1993

On that Vienna trip, in addition to playing the gig, the band recorded a radio session for the Austrian national broadcaster ORF which was organised by Peter Rehberg – later the person behind MEGO & sadly no longer with us. This was released in 1996 by Touch on CD and consisted of two long tracks with a running time of almost 25 minutes. Once the short run of CDs had sold out, the rights technically fell to the band, and pinkflag released it – digital only – in 2007 and now released on vinyl for the first time. The remastered 2025 vinyl / CD / digital edition adds a newly recorded, Taylor Swift style re-recording of what is undoubtedly WIR’s most pop moment, the dark brooding shadows of “So and Slow“

The version released here is based on how the band played it live, so, in spite of being instantly recognisable, it does not follow the arrangement of any previously released version

Douglas Dulgarian of the band Tagabow launched his label project, Julia’s War Recordings, with its very first cassette release. The debut was a collaborative EP by friends Jake and Karly, released under their pseudonyms MJ Lenderman and Wednesday.

Wednesday and MJ Lenderman have announced a reissue of their 2021 collaborative EP “Guttering” via Julia’s War Recordings. The six-track project be available on vinyl for the first time on June 20th. Its cover of Greg Sage’s ‘Sacrifice (For Love)’ was later included on Wednesday’s 2022 covers LP “Mowing the Leaves Instead of Piling ’Em Up”.

“Life is filled with a lot of events that don’t seem as initially important as they turn out to be,” Julia’s War label head Douglas Dulagrian said in a press release. “Sometimes, I’ll look back at a chance encounter or passing interaction years later and realize, ‘Wow, that event was the catalyst for all this change.’ Every journey begins with one step, sure, but I don’t think we ever really realize how much of a journey that little step will cause. It’s funny to think how much “Guttering” changed my life.

It’s a blessing that, for the past ten years, all my favourite bands have just been my friends, and even more of a blessing that, in the past four or five, they’re willing to work with me. I’m proud that this record was the first Julia’s War release four or five years ago. Crazy to think about that. And these days, all these years later, records like “Guttering” and many more have allowed the thing to grow into what it is today: a label of all my favourite bands, and it’s still just all my f*cking friends.

With both artists garnering rabid fanbases over the last four years, the release of this early collaborative EP demonstrates just how far the two have come and showcases the magical spark they had in those early days before the world was watching.

Each release is this little chapter in the book of it all. And that little guy on the cover is the first page.”

“Jellywish” is the fifth studio album from New York indie-folk quartet Florist. Bandleader Emily Sprague explained in a press release that “Jellywish” presents a world where magic is a daily possibility. The LP includes the singles “Have Heaven,” “This Was a Gift,” “Gloom Designs,” “Moon, Sea, Devil,” and the quasi-title track, “Jellyfish.”

“Jellywish” follows Florist’s 2022 self-titled record.

Three years after their excellent self-titled album, and one of our favourite records of the decade so far, New York indie folk quartet Florist are releasing their new album. The group describes it as a “gentle delivery of something chaotic,” with songs that deal with the bigger existential concerns as well as elements of fantasy intertwined. Their sense of delicate beauty remains intact on what was the album’s first single, “Have Heaven,” another wonderful example of their intricate song writing sensibility.

Florist is:
Emily Sprague, Rick Spataro, Felix Walworth, Jonnie Baker All songs written by Emily Sprague

Released April 4th on Double Double Whammy

Allo Darlin’ are back with their first new music in almost a decade, the breezy, wide-eyed ‘Tricky Questions’. It finds vocalist Elizabeth Morris recalling living in Florence having left her home of London. “There’s a piazza, Piazza della Signoria, not far from where I used to live, where the Palazzo Vecchio is. You used to be able to go and walk right up to the sculptures in the Loggia, but I think now they are roped off and a guard watches over them. The city was full of tourists during the day, but after 9pm, they would all go back to their hotels. That’s when the city came alive to me, and it felt like it was just for us.”

Morris added: “I was really thinking about that place when I wrote this song. I wanted to go back there and soak it all up again. Writing about it helped me feel like I was back there, in a place that is timeless. But of course, more than being about a specific place, this song is really about a relationship and how it makes me feel.”

S.G. Goodman has teased a new album, “Planting by the Signs”, with the catchy, propulsive new song ‘Fire Sign’. “After touring relentlessly for 2 years, ‘living like the sun don’t shine / on the same dog’s ass everyday,’ as the song puts it, I came off the road questioning my purpose and choices,” Goodman explained. “People are quick to tell you that you are not working hard enough, but slow in telling you that you are working hard enough. That seems to be up to you, as well as your ‘why?’.

Despite this burnout and other personal setbacks, I found the fire to keep pushing and to make what I believe is my best record yet. ‘Who’ll put the fire out?’ The only person who can put my fire out is myself.”

Goodman recorded “Planting By The Signs” at the Nutt House in Sheffield, Alabama, alongside co-producer Drew Vandenberg (her co-producer on 2022’s Teeth Marks) and guitarist/songwriter Matt Rowan. Bonnie “Prince” Billy appears on a duet, “Nature’s Child”.

“Fire Sign” is taken from S.G. Goodman’s upcoming album ‘Planting by the Signs,’ out June 20th  Slough Water Records / Thirty Tigers

When his cover of This Is Lorelei’s ‘Dancing in the Club’ was released, MJ Lenderman revealed that “Box for Buddy, Box for Star” was the album he listened to the most in 2024. By inviting him to take on the track for the record’s deluxe edition, Nate Amos expresses his own admiration by way of trust: someone like MJ Lenderman could only bring the song’s lonely desparation higher up the surface. Lenderman understands that fucking up your guitar means fucking up your heart, not just the other way round. He’ll slow down the song and draw out the lyrics to make their dissociation feel more personal than situational.

And he will, of course, take pleasure in singing the words “A loser never wins/ And I’m a loser, always been,” lifted as they seem from his own “Manning Fireworks“. More than self-lacerating, though, the cover arrives as a source of comfort, too: being your own worst enemy doesn’t mean you can’t be seen, or find yourself a little less alone.

This Is Lorelei announces “Box for Buddy, Box for Star” Deluxe, a new expanded version of prolific NYC artist Nate Amos’ (Water From Your Eyes, My Idea) critically acclaimed 2024 breakthrough record. The deluxe edition, out April 25th on Double Double Whammy, features collaborations with friends and family. 

Alongside the announcement, This Is Lorelei shares “Dancing in the Club (MJ Lenderman Version)” a reimagining of the album cut that Lenderman has been performing live in recent shows. “Box For Buddy” was by far the album I listened to most in 2024. I had a great time re-recording ‘Dancing in the Club’ with Nate back in December.” says Lenderman. Amos adds “I really loved working on the MJ version of ‘Dancing in the Club’ – Jake is chill af and mad talented. More so than any other song I’ve written this one was dreamt up for others to sing, so it was pretty freaky watching it fall into place with someone like Jake handling lead vocals.”

“Box for Buddy, Box for Star” (Deluxe) is out April 25th, 2025 on Double Double Whammy