Though led by poet/fiction writer Mike Young, Clementine Was Right is far more than a solo project. With Young now joined by fellow poet Gion Davis, as well as a core group of musicians based between Denver and Arkansas, the project is one always moving and always changing, adapting to each present moment to best convey the stories which feel most pressing at that given time. So while ‘Dreaming of Dancing in a Different Town‘ offered nostalgic country rock and ‘Takes Tall Walks‘ pushed towards Killers-esque indie polish, latest track ‘There Are No More Almond Trees’ adds a scrappier immediacy. Still falling under the wider ‘Western emo’ tag they’ve made their own, the track is full of the wistful fondness we’ve come to expect, but balances this with a newfound playfulness.

Heartrunner – Faltering

‘Faltering’ is the debut single from Toronto indie rock band Heartrunner. Lead vocalist & songwriter Adina V is supported by Eric Bernhardt (guitar), Chris Parnis (bass), and Aidan Lucas-Buckland (drums), who together craft a lush sounds that’s tinged with sadness or longing. The track opens with sedate acoustic guitar and measured percussion, eventually swelling with electric guitar into a rich and emotionally charged finale. The band say the single “takes listeners through the dissociation, slipping relationships, and failing drive that comes with substance abuse,” and this helplessness and loss of self-confidence is captured in the loaded final lines.

Good God I’m faltering
I’m no good at anything

Jeremy Ferrara – Darkness Is A Bright Sound

Next March,  Portland, Oregon-based songwriter Jeremy Ferrara is putting out a brand new full-length, Darkness Is A Bright Sound via American Standard Time Records and A For Effort Records. Though continuing what we’ve previously called a practice centred “on openness and sincerity” which “conjures warm and welcoming songs within which he invites the listener,” the album sees Ferrara adopt a full band arrangement for the first time, resulting in his richest sound to date. The title track and album opener serves as the door through which the audience can enter this world, highlighting the sense of subtlety and control which marks the Jeremy Ferrara sound.

Mal Not Bad – AP

“Drawing the analogy of an athlete going through the highs and lows of competition to ask how one continues to push forward when exhaustion and disappointment have sapped all will to carry on.” That’s how we described ‘Sports’ from Mal Not Bad‘s Continuous Short Feature Film last year. But push forward the LA-based musician and visual artist did, as new single ‘AP’ attests. The first glimpse of a new project due in 2024, the track displays a newfound depth within the Mal Not Bad sound, leaning further into electronic sensibilities while simultaneously interrogating the impact of technology, resulting in a nuanced exploration of the human experience within the digital present.

The song comes with a video co-directed by Hauser and Seannie Bryan, a solo dance-performance created in collaboration with choreographer Alyssa Allen:

‘AP’ is available now from Bandcamp.

Mia Joy – 4th of July

Mia Joy‘s 2021 album Spirit Tamer utilised a dreamy style to form “a chronicle of [Mia] Rocha’s history,” as we put it in a review. “A way of collecting the seemingly disparate pieces that make up a life in the hope of making sense of them, and learning more about the resulting whole.” Again released via  Fire Talk Records, new EP Celestial Mirror sees the Chicago artist continue this exploration, digging into the way people and events can come to shape your sense of identity. Single ‘4th of July’ fashions a safe haven from its hazy sounds, giving space to drop the armour of self-protection in favour of a more vulnerable, open state. “Time is a teacher,” as Mia Joy sings in the opening lines, “so teach me how to love / without the fear of its cost.”

Moselle – Pesticides

“I think I accidentally / smoked pesticides or PCP  the year before I left for college,” sings Moselle on their new single, ‘Pesticides. “Everything looked like a deep fried meme / I think somebody laced my weed / I didn’t do it to myself I promise.” The first taste of an EP coming sometime next year, the track positions the Ozarks folk punk project alongside contemporaries like Pacing, where deadpan delivery and playful details are fashioned into an image of a specific moment and frame of mind. Self-deprecating perhaps, but full of wry humour too. “What if I broke this stupid glass over my dumb head?” as the chorus asks:

Let all the blood run down my arms ’til the garden’s fed
Wait til the flowers bloom in the same place that I bled
Make a bouquet hoping I’m half as useful when I’m dead

Rosie Tucker – Unending Bliss

Following recent “mini visual album” Tiny Songs Volume 1, LA’s Rosie Tucker is back with a brand new single, ‘Unending Bliss’. Packed with power chords and crashing percussion, the single is a fervent and furious treatise on the power of forgiveness and resistance in a society which seems hellbent on pitting people against one another. “’Unending Bliss’ is about petty personal beef,” Tucker describes, “and, simultaneously, about my fury at the material conditions that encourage us to treat each other like crap in order to survive.”

I want nothing but unending bliss for my enemies

Watch Vanesa De La Mora’s animated video below:

‘Unending Bliss’ is out now via Sentimental Records.

Sonya – God Save Your Soul

With new album At What Cost? on the horizon, California-based alt pop act Sonya has shared the first single, ‘God Save Your Soul’. With a sound that flits between chilled and urgent sensibilities, the song offers the sultry pop soundscapes of the late 00s buzz bands and adds a through line of energy. What results might be buried in a sun-kissed haze, but nevertheless possesses a tangible immediacy, Sonya’s vocals emerging from within the hypnotic atmosphere as though looking to shake you from its hold.

‘God Save Your Soul’ is out now via streaming services.

Sophie Gault – Christmas in the Psych Ward

Having previously recorded as Sophie & the Broken Things, Nashville-based songwriter Sophie Gault is releasing new album Baltic Street Hotel on Petaluma Records next spring, and single ‘Christmas in the Psych Ward’ gives an indication what to expect. The record was produced by Ray Kennedy, collaborator with folk royalty including Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams and Patty Griffin, and the single very much follows such a lineage, delving into highly personal experiences of bipolar disorder with a tone both steely and wry.  “There’s a guitar they give you if you’re doing good / It’s got four strings and it’s made of plywood,” as Gault sings. “I’m gonna go write down some songs and take them to Nashville / ‘That’s funny, honey, just swallow a few of these pills’.”

Baltic Street Hotel is out via Petaluma Records on the 12 April 2024.

Trinket – Silver Thread

Trinket might have originated as the solo project of Madison Kate Proffitt, but soon welcomed Basil Lee (drums), Nara Avakian (bass) and occasionally Sean Camargo into the fold and evolved towards a jangling, eighties-inflected pop style. Debut EP New Hobby is coming soon on Sad Club Records, and single ‘Silver Thread’ highlights why audiences should be anticipating their potent blend of lush nostalgia and serious self-reflection. “This song is about idealization, getting to a point with someone important in your life who sends you mixed messages,” Proffitt explains. ‘Maybe you want them to be someone they aren’t, maybe you’re projecting onto them […] It’s about stopping that cycle and letting yourself move forward.”

‘Silver Thread’ is out now via Sad Club Records and available from the Trinket Bandcamp page.

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“There is a cathartic element to it, in a lonely late night headphones kind of way, but also in a freaky psychedelic, shamanistic campfire sort of way”

The good news for fans of The Wandering Lake’s earlier releases is that our friends at Z Tapes are re-releasing two of the band’s release on cassette. The A-side is From James’ Garden, which was released late last year in what felt like a period of organic respite after the grooving indie rock of Wend to Why. This becomes clear within the first seconds of opener ‘Field Notes (Variations on a Theme)’, which is all fluttering guitars and Kupillas’ distinctive vocals (which our buds at Cereal and Sounds described succinctly as “akin to a grief-stricken Hamilton Leithauser”). ‘Seven Sisters’ tends more towards a traditional folk song, before ‘When Thinking Long’ begins with a rattling lo-fi ambience and quiet, subdued vocals which have a creeping understated quality, like listening to an old crooner singing sad songs from the lonely apartment below yours. ‘Color Peels’ is similarly subdued, before ‘I Think I’ll Take a Walk’ feels like a marriage of every element from the other tracks, the moment Kupillas brings everything together. It is pretty and odd and heartfelt, a recipe for success in any folk song in my opinion.

The side still has two more lush acoustic tracks to offer, before the B-side of Ashame, first released in 2012. This was the release which first put The Wandering Lake on my radar, and is probably remains my favourite of his releases. First track ‘Horses’ captures the album’s free-form nature, its sense of nature and spiritualism. Kupillas utilises his vocal abilities to their soaring limits, giving the song the panoramic atmosphere of the barren, scrub-strewn landscape on the cover. ‘Water Patting’ is winding and glimmering, as Kupillas sings, “life’s so damn hard for so long”, gathering as it progresses into something that sounds almost celebratory. ‘Ubi Sunt Qui Ante Nos Feurunt?’ sounds intensely devotional (The title translates roughly as ‘Where are those who were before us?’), Kupillas’ voice reverberating around as if sung within a cathedral of natural stone structures, his background coos like the yips of coyotes on the plains.

There’s a similar atmosphere on ‘Laughing Friend’, a song which proves that it’s possible to be both passionate and meditative, the peaks of thrashed acoustic guitar rising from the eerie, cave-like foundation. ‘Little Light’ is piano-based, the keys low and reverbed, the vocals slower and more considered, before the album finishes with ‘Starry Night’ reintroduces the guitar and sounds somehow kind and gentle.

This release is one you really don’t want to miss, particularly if Ashame passed you by first time round. Kudos to Filip and Z Tapes for getting it back out there! You can get the double album on cassette or as a digital download via the Z Tapes Bandcamp page.

The post The Wandering Lake – From James’ Garden / Ashame appeared first on Various Small Flames.

We covered Henry Demos, the solo project of Mark Lentz of Seoul-based Nice Legs, back in April, writing about his split release with Lewtrakimou on Fox Food Records and utilising superlatives such as ‘kinda weird” and “thoroughly original & enjoyable”. ‘Not Her’ is a slight departure from the semi-psychedelic rock of I Was Trying To Get There…, a swirling, mostly-instrumental track that sounds positively cosmic, which is perhaps unsurprising as the finale contains what is allegedly the world’s oldest poem (although don’t hold us to this fact):

“Your eyes

The stars

Ten thousand years

Your eyes

The stars”

The artwork is by Wake The Deaf’s resident artist Erika (who also designed the album cover), drawing upon the mewling of the opening.

You can pre-order Quiet, Constant Friends now ahead of its release on the 17th October, including some rather pretty cassettes (even if I do say so myself).

The post Quiet, Constant Friends: Henry Demos – Not Her appeared first on Various Small Flames.

The EP consists of four songs, all of which represent quite a departure from the otherworldly experimentalism of previous releases. The sound here is more immediate, more confident, a step towards psych tinged folk rock. They sound more like super-chill campfire jams than shamanistic campfire wails. The good news is that each track is great! Check them out in the player below.

I suppose it’s important to bear in mind that what we’re listening to is not quite the finished product. As Kupillas says on his Bandcamp page, “Here is a moment, imperfect as it was, captured and dressed for you. This isn’t all of it. This is a first glance of what was. There is more to come.” I for one am certainly excited for what comes next.

P.S. Here are The Wandering Lake’s upcoming tour dates. If any of the shows are near you, why not go check them out?

Thurs. Jan 29th – Nashville, TN @ The East Room
Fri. Jan. 30th – Lexington, KY @ The Green Lantern
Sat. Jan. 31st – Athens, OH @ The Pink Mattress
Sun. Feb. 1st – Murray, KY @ Terrapin Station
Mon. Feb. 2nd – St. Louis, MO @ FOAM
Tues. Feb. 3rd – Iowa City, IA @ Trumpet Blossom
Wed. Feb. 4th – Kansas City, MO @ Harlings
Thurs. Feb. 5th – Lawrence, KS @ The Replay Lounge
Fri. Feb. 6th – Fayetteville, AR @ JR’s Lightbulb Club
Sat. Feb. 7th – Little Rock, AR @ White Water Tavern

The post The Wandering Lake – Tour Support EP (Album Demo) appeared first on Various Small Flames.

His Bandcamp page currently has two releases, last year’s In Passage and Ashame, which was released in April of this year. Both come highly recommended and are available on a pay-what-you-like download basis.

The post The Wandering Lake appeared first on Various Small Flames.