If my appreciation of Young Jesus’ last album, Grow/Decompose teetered on the edge of outright gushing, then it was only because the LA-based band are one such example, at least for me. While I’m not suggesting they deserve to be placed alongside the artistic giants of our day quite yet, there’s something about John Rossiter’s writing and vocals that captures the essence of today as I understand it. At once earnest and detached, devoted and deranged, his characters exist on the leading edge of our secular society, a wild, shapeless frontier whose inhabitants are paralysed by confusion yet subject to the age-old primitive brain-twitch that screams for transcendence.

Void as Lob is a new two-song EP from Rossiter and his updated line-up of Eric Shevrin (keys), Marcel Borbon (bass) and Kern Haug (drums), a release which demonstrates quite perfectly what we’re getting at with the whole important/relevant thing. The A-side ‘Baked Goods’ finds the narrator (and/or his brother, Steve) rising from a melancholic daze with a desperate logic, incoherent or too-coherent for us to grasp, demanding and willing and throwing himself wide open for the chance to raise above our meat-based animal existence. As on G / W‘s ‘Milo’, here the characters are delving deep into a pool of confusion with vigour, as if hoping they might break the surface on the other side and emerge into clarity.

“There is a logarithm entered backwards that acts to repeat
the right amount of existential crises from my brother Steve
the holiest of home made baked goods levitating in the street
the Steve-y cadence of losing control to access ways to see”

“I’m pretty sure I’m a kind of collection of things
scattered throughout the backyard
under the moon
pulling weirdo slow dance moves
maybe always losing it a little
I am ashamed to believe in myself!”

Young Jesus tell of a world where the capital-G God has been removed yet atheism remains a flimsy myth, its inhabitants left locked in a desperate search for something to believe in. Some manage to achieve a wide-eyed fanaticism in created powers, collapsing their existential worries into a bright white point, while others are doomed to shuffle around the fractured world, detached and ennui-filled, looking for themselves in fragments of televisual dreams.

Void as Lob is out today via the Young Jesus Bandcamp page, or on tape from Funeral Sounds. The band are about to head out on a pretty extensive tour (see below), sharing dates with Pope (marked with *) and Alaska (^), and will be bringing along a zine/experimental tape called Conceptual Beach in addition to the EP.

5/21 — Los Angeles @ The Smell
5/28 — San Diego @ Che Cafe
5/29 — Fullerton @ Intimate Warehouse
5/30 — Tucson @ Gary’s Place
5/31 — El Paso @ Boomtown
6/1 — Denton @ Rubber Gloves
6/2 — San Antonio @ Imagine Books and Records
6/3 — Austin @ Cheer Up Charlies
6/4 — Houston @ TBA
6/5 — Lafayette @ Wild Salmon *
6/6 — New Orleans @ Heavens Gate *
6/8 — Nashville @ Two Boots *
6/9 — Raleigh, NC @ Slim’s Downtown *
6/10 — Washington, DC @ Everglades *
6/11 — York, PA @ Skid Row Garage *
6/12 — Philadelphia, PA @ TBA *
6/13 — NYC @ Aviv w/ Very Fresh, Spit, Pope
6/14 — Providence, RI @ Aurora *
6/15 — NYC @ Silent Barn *
6/16 — Boston @ Ol Yeller *
6/18 — Columbus, OH @ Misfit Manor *
6/20 — Chicago @ Subterranean *
6/21 — Madison, WI @ Mickeys *
6/22 — Rock Island @ Rozz Tox *
6/23-25 — Yorkville, IL @ Summer Solstice Fest
6/26 — Kansas City @ House Show ^
6/27 — Denver @ Juice Church ^
6/28 — Albuquerque @ Dog House ^
6/30 — Las Vegas @ The Warehouse ^
6/01 — Los Angeles @ Roach Motel ^

The post Young Jesus – Void as Lob appeared first on Various Small Flames.

“Meet me in between
the cities we grew up in
the places we have loved”

So opens the first part of a new double-header release from Anchorage-based songwriter The Washboard Abs, who we first featured when covering his great release WHATEVERLAND put out by our buds at Z Tapes. These six new songs, spaced over two releases (the beaming & the beaming pt. 2), are a welcome addition to his catalogue of gentle and reflective bedroom pop. The rest of first track ‘dust’ is just lovely, with gentle poetic lines such as:

“Take me far away
to forests with no ceiling
to bridges made of sand.
By the time that we awake
our legs have turned to cedars
we won’t need them to stand”

‘ghosts’ sounds a shade darker somehow, still delicate and sad but bruised purple and green rather than the cool blue-grey of the opener, and the lyrics have a lovely flowing melody that washes through the song (walking alone through the dark / i feel your weight, i see a spark / but i don’t miss you anymore”). ‘fall’ sounds kind of like a stripped down JBM, which is high praise indeed.

“Go to sleep
dream of me
and I will try to do the same”

pt. 2 begins with a cover of Mount Eerie’s ‘Goodbye Hope’ which (thankfully) remains pretty faithful to the original. ‘fall two’ has a blustery autumnal feel, while ‘ladder’ is pretty and gentle and incredibly sad, detailing those quiet moments of remembrance after the death of a loved one.

“and I wanted you to know
that every time it snows
the frost
spells out
your name”

Both releases are really, really good, I can’t recommend them highly enough. My only complaint is that the whole thing is infuriatingly brief. We want more more more! Get the beaming and the beaming pt. 2 on a name-your-price download via The Washboard Abs Bandcamp page.

The post The Washboard Abs – The Beaming pt.s 1 & 2 appeared first on Various Small Flames.