Now, aside from certain misgivings pertaining to the diversity and focus of such events, there’s also a long and likely important discussion as to what degree protest alone can change (see Micah White’s case in The Guardian, citing the relative failure of Occupy). However, there is little doubt that activism is as or more important than it’s been for years. The tricky part will be maintaining this level of enthusiasm and commitment to equality beyond single marches or petitions. As White writes at the end of his piece: “The Women’s March on Washington has a role to play in this unfolding drama, but only if we cultivate a few moments of detachment from the thoughtless excitement to truly take time to consider this question: what happens on the day after the women march?”

The answer, I think, should be a doubling down on listening to women, non-binary folks and people of colour. Like, truly listening. Allowing them not only a voice but also the respect/power/position that will enable such a voice to enact social and political change. This can and should start at the smallest levels, equating to nothing more than a commitment to seeking out non-male/white opinions and voices and considering them with equal weight. Look for female journalists and authors and thinkers, PoC musicians and artists and film-makers. Heck, even just read The Le Sigh and Swell Tone and The Grey Estates, anything to shift your perspective away from the dominant voices. Do this until your bookshelf and record collection and Twitter feed look a little different, and the worldview that’s being beamed to you will look a little different too.

We’re under no illusion that our blog posts and mixtapes will solve anything, or that we’re preaching to the converted in this cool little echo chamber. So consider this as us shutting up for a few minutes, both to give space to voices that need it and a reminder that we’re standing by, on your side. You’ve lit the match, it’s time the void went flash. Never think that what you are doing is too small, and never assume that you are doing enough.

Tracklisting:

1. Jenny Hval – Untamed Region
2. Oh Rose – Running
3. Camp Cope – Jet Fuel Can’t Melt Steel Beams
4. The Breeders – Hag
5. Screaming Females – Mothership
6. BB Cream – Heroine
7. Shannen Moser – A Funeral, A Friend, My Sanity
8. Tanukichan – Enough
9. Noname – Reality Check
10. Patti Smith – Kimberly
11. Sammus – Perfect, Dark
12. Vagabon – Fear & Force
13. Diet Cig – Tummy Ache
14. Jay Som – The Bus Song
15. Haybaby – Her
16. Betty Becky – Telegraph Ave
17. Suburban Lawns – Janitor
18. Heavens to Betsy – Nothing Can Stop Me
19. Tacocat – Dana Katherine Scully
20. Colour Me Wednesday – Two Fifty For You Girls
21. Allison Crutchfield – Dean’s Song
22. Cherry Glazerr – Nuclear Bomb
23. Mal Devisa – Dominatrix
24. Nicole Dollanganger – American Tradition
25. Angel Olsen – Sister

P.S. This seems a good time to remind you that Nancy Kells of Spartan Jet-Plex recently put out Friends For Equality, a compilation in support of the Southern Poverty Law Center, ACLU and Planned Parenthood. In addition, she has arranged a benefit show in Richmond, VA in support of Forward Together and Sister Song (full details here).

There have also been similarly great releases like Wren & Shark and Friends, Don’t Stop Now (featuring covers by the likes of Lisa Prank and Augusta Koch of Cayetana) and Our First 100 Days. Oh, and some specially written songs by Hip Hatchet and Adeem the Artist.

Photo by Benjamin Lovell

The post Lit a Match, the Void Went Flash: A Playlist for Moving Forward appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Much has been said recently about how political turmoil and social instability will provide fertile conditions for great art, and whether or not you subscribe to this idea, we’re pretty sure that paying artists makes for even better soil in which to sow creative seeds. The title to this post says ‘free’ music because it’s snappier than ‘name your price’ music, but really that’s a convenient/attention-grabbing misnomer. Bandcamp provides pretty much the most direct way for us to connect directly with musicians and support their work from all over the world, so why don’t we utilise this tool and ensure that art perseveres in the face of everything else that’s going on?

Anyhow, here’s the first segment of the list, covering artists beginning with A – D. We don’t pretend to be in any way comprehensive, so let us know if we missed your favourite and maybe we’ll add it to the list.Albosel – Container
(RIYL: folk, dream pop, magic woods)

Alexandra Gordon – Rain Songs
(RIYL: bedroom pop, folk, Free Cake For Every Creature)

BB Cream – s/t
(RIYL: pop punk, bedroom pop, lo-fi, grrrl power)

Bedbug – if i got smaller grew wings and flew away for good
(RIYL: experimental, twee, sincerity)

Betty Becky – s/t / All the Boyfriends
(RIYL: bedroom pop, punk, lo-fi)

Blue Smiley – Return
(RIYL: garage rock, fuzz, dream pop)

Bois – Asleep with Songs of Longing
(RIYL: pop, soul, indie rock)

Boy Scouts – Homeroom Breakfast
(RIYL: bedroom pop, folk, self-reflection)

Cabbage/Oxblood – Split
(RIYL: bedroom pop, post-grunge, slacker rock)

Candy – Azure
(RIYL: jangle rock, dream pop, lo-fi)

猫 シ Corp. – News at 11
(RIYL: vapourwave, 90s TV, mass media)

Cayetana – Tired Eyes
(RIYL: indie rock, jangle pop, punk)

Cereal + Sounds & Z Tapes – FRY YR BRN
(RIYL: indie rock, covers, TV theme songs)

Coping Skills – Relatable Web Content
(RIYL: lo-fi, bedroom pop, Millennial angst)

Constant Companion – Curious Design
(RIYL: pop punk, lo-fi, indie rock)

Corvus B. – France, Later
(RIYL: poetry, spoken word, haunting banjo)

Crabapple – Further Out
(RIYL: indie pop, summer jams, lo-fi)

Daytime TV – DAYTIME TV 2
(RIYL: indie pop, lo-fi, rock)

Deer Scout – Customs
(RIYL: folk, singer songwriter, Gregory and the Hawk)

Dogbreth – Second Home
(RIYL: pop punk, Cloud Nothings, Joyride!, rock ‘n roll fun)

Dowsing / Ratboys – Split
(RIYL: indie rock, pop punk, emo)

Dying Adolescence – Dear you, It can’t wait.
(RIYL: bedroom pop, lo-fi, teenage feelings)

The post Favourite Free Music of 2016: A – D appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Tracklisting:

1) Evening Loving – Jenny Gillespie
2) Luxury – Patio
3) Low – Yours Are The Only Ears
4) Either Way – Sorority Noise
5) Home at Last – The Sports
6) Braver – Sally Fowler
7) Chow Chow – FAYE
8) Meant – Spartan Jet-Plex
9) Stained Glass Eye – The Dead Tongues
10) October – These Bashful Claws
11) Bad Vibrations – Naps
12) Baked Goods – Young Jesus
13) Heroine – BB Cream
14) Winona Death Ryder – Boy Problems (No Dice Tapes comp)
15) The Only Other Girl From Back Home – Advance Base
16) When it Feels – Soft Spell (STAY RAD SAV comp)
17) The Unnatural – Claire Cronin
18) Same Old Ocean – Crabapple
19) Diet Coke – Lake Michigan
20) Ferris Beuller – Flatsound
21) See Good – Jobless
22) Anything but Yourself – Tom Greenwood
23) Under the Mountain II – Mermaidens
24) Liars – Gregory Alan Isakov
25) Warning Sign – Mikko Joensuu
26) Candy – Fish Food
27) White Gold – Good Good Blood
28) We Bury Our Dead Alive – Coping Skills
29) Joke/Rope – Haybaby
30) Slacker – Will B & the Teen Creeps
31) Double Bacon Cheeseburger – Yikes
32) All I Have – Derek Ted
33) Try Hard – Hovvdy
34) Dark & Gloomy – Horse Teeth
35) Migratory Birds – Western Skies Motel
36) Endless Wave – Hanging Valleys

The post May 2016 Roundup – A Mixtape appeared first on Various Small Flames.

If you need convincing that this is true, first track ‘Mother Nature’ serves as the perfect introduction. It sounds like it was made for kids to freak out to in their bedrooms, to bop around and forget that they didn’t get invited to that party before their parents start yelling to kill the volume. The lyrics also establish the deeper themes of the album, namely bored and lonely young people falling in love with each other – “wednesday night with nothing to do / I got a bottle of wine and few screws loose, it’s cool / cause honey you do too”. ‘Narcissus’ is pretty self-explanatory, a riff on C21st vanity which opens with the line “I am obsessed with myself, cos no one else is”. The shuffling instrumentation on ‘Heroine’ is understatedly infectious, eventually smashing into life with a kick against the follies and fallacies of men:

“he thinks slumming it is where it’s at
asks if I’ve read Kerouac
hand on thigh, the line is blurred
‘you’re so cute, you don’t need words’
I guess that’s why I don’t trust men
because it’s always about the hero
not the heroine”

BB Cream know how to write a smart pop song, the balance between spiky and catchy is consistently pitch-perfect. ‘Good Girl’ is both a college love song and a lament on the difficulties of being a girl (what Why describes as “the brunette nice girl glasses curse”), and ‘6 Dog’ is about having a crush on an older indie rock star “my friend says you look like how listening to Weezer sounds, and I get so excited when your band plays in my town.”

‘See You in the Next Life’ sees Grunsky pass the drums to Brownlee, pick up a guitar and join in with vocals, the track a love song that refuses to be unrequited, even if it takes several lifetimes to work out. ‘Pool Hall’ blooms like a long lost classic pop song, less hectic than much of the record, the lyrics dealing with the miscommunication of young love/unlove. “And I know you think I hate you, but I don’t / I’m just learning how to love myself”. The whole slow and considered thing doesn’t last long though, as next up is ‘Do U Wanna’, a bona fide pop gem. Brownlee’s tambourine gives things a jangly clap-a-long feel, the lyrics following the by-now familiar theme of pining for somebody’s affections, wrapped up in a sweet naivete and a jagged punky edge.

“And its getting kinda late
and I think you’re kinda great
do u wanna
are you gonna
dance with me
like I wanna”

Closer ‘Marc Bolan’ is slightly slower and more sedate, a song that transcends the crushes referenced on the other tracks, unveiling a sense of pure devotion. It eventually gathers in pace, as if its brakes have failed, the whole thing careening downhill to a manic finale.

BB Cream is a really great album, it’s fun and infectious and has enough sloppy  rock ‘n roll to still sound super cool turned way up on headphones. It’s not exactly pure escapism either, not shying away from anxieties but rather confronting them head-on, suggesting jiving around like the awkward idiot you probably are as the perfect cure.

You can get BB Cream on a name-your-price basis via Bandcamp.

The post BB Cream – s/t appeared first on Various Small Flames.