The Fat Angel Sings

Ezra Furman is set to release a new record “Goodbye Small Head” is dropping 16th May via Bella Union Records. The first single from that record is out today, it’s called “Grand Mal,” with a beautiful video directed by Eleanor Petry. Her tenth studio album, “Goodbye Small Head”  Twelve songs, twelve variations on the experience of completely losing control, whether by weakness, illness, mysticism, BDSM, drugs, heartbreak or just living in a sick society with one’s eyes open. These songs are vivid with overwhelm. They’re not about someone going off the rails, they are inside that person’s heart,” Furman explains..

Furman has previously posted about: We are going on tour in various places this year, those tickets are all on sale starting tomorrow.You can pre-order the new record, other new merchandise that’s just been made available, a tshirt, a notebook… Ezra Furman dot com slash merch.

We wanted to make something beautiful in this world and so “Goodbye Small Head” is coming out on May 16th Recorded in Chicago with my band, same bandmates I’ve played with since 2012: Ben Joseph, Jorgen Jorgensen and Sam Durkes

Produced by Brian Deck

“The songwriting here is a revision to William Wordsworth’s famous proclamation that “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity.” I can agree with that, except for the tranquillity part. I wanted somewhere to put my amazement and trembling. My yearning and aching and total bewilderment The experience of complete loss of control in the face of overwhelming beauty and hurt And so “Goodbye Small Head” A phrase lifted from the Sleater-Kinney song “get up” thank you Sleater-Kinney The first single is called “Grand Mal” An outdated term for a major seizure I have never had a seizure but Stephanie told me a lot about hers The song is dedicated to you, Stephanie, and to all who live with epilepsy.

“Goodbye Small Head” will be released on 16th May via Bella Union

Since his neo-psychedelic Green On Red days, Chuck Prophet has been turning out country, folk, blues, and Brill Building classicism.

“Wake The Dead” is the California singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer Chuck Prophet’s newest collaborative album with Cumbia group ¿Qiensave? An extraordinary and unlikely pairing, Prophet and ¿Qiensave? blend seamlessly together as the collection dives headfirst into the world of Cumbia music, which consumed and comforted Prophet during a recent bout with stage four lymphoma and subsequent recovery.

The result is a profoundly adventurous celebration of life that balances hope and fear in equal measure, a rich and exultant meditation on what really matters from an artist who always manages to find the light, even in the face of the most oppressing darkness.

The songs are intoxicatingly rhythmic, all but demanding you move your body while you listen, with arrangements that blur the lines between tradition and innovation, between past and present, between cultures and countries. There are flashes of rock and roll, punk, surf, and soul, all filtered through the streets of San Francisco and wrapped up in the rich legacy of a genre that traces its roots back hundreds of years and thousands of miles.

released October 25th, 2024

Co-founder member of Drive-By Truckers releases his first solo album in over a decade is an expansive but subtle collection of songs. Highly textured, intimate & rich as he reflects on his youth, his most impressive and freshest work in some time.

Patterson Hood’s debut solo record in over a decade was born out of a friendship with producer Chris Funk (The Decemberists). The pair would often perform together for fun and during Hood’s solo tours, making far-off plans to make a record together. They eventually went into Jackpot Studios in Portland. Many of the songs were composed on piano marking a bigger departure from his work with Drive-By Truckers than prior solo efforts. With guest appearances from: Waxahatchee, Wednesday and Lydia Loveless.

Tales steeped so deep and dark you can hear the moss dripping off the cypress trees. And the production is outstanding. The sound…the Sound. I hear this album in the pit of my soul. There is blood on these tracks.

“A Werewolf And A Girl (ft. Lydia Loveless)” is from Patterson Hood’s new album ‘Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams’, out on February 21st.

The new MOJO stars Queen with new Brian May & Roger Taylor interviews. Plus Sex Pistols, The Pogues, Dionne Warwick, Alan Sparhawk, Japanese Breakfast, The Beatles, Rick Buckler, Sly & The Family Stone, Kraftwerk, Bill Fay, Led Zeppelin, Jeff Bridges and a Pogues-inspired CD of rowdy Irish folk’n’roll! On sale Tuesday March 18th.

The multi-day event, renowned for blending world-class live music with an immersive circus experience, will feature James as the headliner on Sunday 31st August, alongside Ocean Colour Scene, Embrace, Cast, Sleeper, The Lilacs, and Girlband, promising one of the standout nights of the summer.

Fresh from a sell-out orchestral tour and celebrating over 40 years in music, James will bring their era-defining hits to Rock N Roll Circus. Fronted by Tim Booth, the Manchester icons have sold over 25 million albums worldwide, with anthems like “Sit Down”, “Laid“, and “She’s A Star” cementing their place as one of Britain’s most beloved live acts.

Also taking the stage are Britpop legends Ocean Colour Scene, whose classic tracks “The Riverboat Song” and “The Day We Caught the Train” remain fan favourites. Embrace, the Yorkshire-born band behind massive singalongs like “All You Good Good People” and “Come Back to What You Know”, will also be part of the spectacular closing night.

A new immersive, boundary-pushing music and arts festival, celebrating & shining a light on Liverpool’s creative underground.

OUTER WAVES Festival is a boundary-pushing celebration of alternative music and visual art, shining a spotlight on Liverpool’s creative underground. Taking place on 24th-25th May 2025 in the North Docks, OUTER WAVES unfolds across Invisible Wind Factory and Make Liverpool, offering a platform for innovative performances and unique audience experiences.

With a dynamic multi-stage programme, the festival brings together internationally-acclaimed artists alongside emerging regional talent. The lineup will span live music, multidisciplinary art, and immersive experiences, all unified by a shared commitment to our alternative creativity community.

Beyond the two-day event, OUTER WAVES will continue to foster artistic growth through year-round programming, artist commissions, and local partnerships.

Hooker’s newly unearthed 1973 recordings for “The Standard School Broadcast Recordings” set to release on February 28th. The album is an evocative collection of Blues brilliance, recorded for an educational broadcast, revealing John Lee Hooker at his most raw and transcendent.

This collection captures Hooker and a hand-picked trio of musicians at their most intimate and inspired. Decades later, the full session has been unearthed, offering fans an unparalleled glimpse into the artistry of one of the Blues’ greatest pioneers. During the original recording session, Hooker, bassist Gino Skaggs, and his son Robert Hooker recorded eight tracks, only three of which were ever broadcast. The remaining five tracks have remained unheard – until now.

Once considered a long-lost (and in most cases, complete unknown) studio recording from John Lee Hooker, “The Standard School Broadcast Recordings” is the first commercial release of a rare 1973 fully electric blues band recording. Performed direct-to-tape at Coast Recorders in San Francisco, the session captures Hooker at a tumultuous and deeply transformative time of his career, accompanied by his reliable standby rhythm section of bassist Gino Skaggs and drummer Ken Swank, plus Hooker’s pianist son Robert. “The Standard School Broadcast”, initiated in 1928, was a multiple-award-winning educational radio series sponsored by Standard Oil (aka Esso, later Exxon). Based in San Francisco, the collections specialized in music appreciation and American history. Copies of some of its shows were also supplied to schools on vinyl LPs. The CD will also contain two bonus tracks – “Sallie Mae” and “Instrumental”.

The set features reimagined versions of Hooker classics like “Sally Mae” and “Hard Times,” alongside spontaneous creations and medleys that exemplify his unique approach to storytelling through song.

“Today!” is the second studio album, but third body of work recorded by folk/country blues musician Mississippi John Hurt. It was released in 1966 by Vanguard Records. This album contains some of the first commercial material recorded after his “rediscovery” in 1963, and is the first he recorded for Vanguard. The album spans several genres and styles of music, ranging from traditional blues and folk songs, to country, to African-American spirituals.Along with Hurt’s two previous releases, “Today!” helped to reveal his work to a wider folk audience. 

it is still difficult to believe that there is just one man playing on the seemingly effortless guitar work … that sound, along with a mellow and heartfelt voice, wizened here by decades, combine to make “Today!” an unforgettable whole. A truly essential album of the folk revival,  The music on the album comes from a variety of different influences, from the fun and poppy “Hot Time in Old Town Tonight” and “Coffee Blues,” to the bluesy standards “Candy Man” (Hurt’s most famous song) and “Spike Driver’s Blues” to the soulful spirituals “Louis Collins” and “Beulah Land.” Hurt’s tranquil guitar work — mixing country, Scottish folk, and Delta blues — strings all of the songs along the same simple and elegant thread. Hurt himself never could explain his guitar playing, as he used to say, “I just make it sound like I think it ought to.”

In 2009, the album was one of the twenty-five selections that were added to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry