With its lazy drum beat emerging through lonely ambience, ‘Do You Have Anything to Add?’ opens restrained and casual, though a certain energy glows like the embers of a forgotten fire. By the first chorus, this flickers into something more conspicuous, with Blaichman’s vocals joined by those of Ella Rae Peck to possess more assertion and bite. Hints of a more playful side appear across the second verse, conjuring the likes of Nap Eyes, though the track never shakes its leisurely aesthetic, as though a blanket has been thrown over it, masking the true emotions within.

I was dreaming when I wrote this
That’s no excuse
And I don’t want to play remember when
Cos’ sometimes the facts just obscure the truth
Especially when the truth is so bad

Do you have anything to add?
Make our music dreamy and sad.

Raising the tempo, ‘Hungry Ghosts’ is the more upbeat of the two, though there is still an atmospheric stillness in the spaces between the notes. The song almost has something of a western feel, indie rock dragged through some dusty frontier town in search of water, hallucinating a spectral presence while the mind still burns with something, or someone, left far behind.

Do You Have Anything To Add?/Hungry Ghost is out now via BB Island and Soul Step Records and you can get it from Bandcamp.

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A new volume will be posted every few weeks and will offer a collection of really great songs that we’re determined not to let slip past our radar.

Courtney Marie Andrews – May Your Kindness Remain

Last year we spoke with Courtney Marie Andrews about Honest Life, the record that seems to have been her breakout success, despite being in the business for over ten years. Hot on the heels of this newfound recognition, Andrews is back with a brand new album, May Your Kindness Remain, to be released this spring. So far we only have the title track to go on, but the signs suggest Andrews expanding her sound beyond acoustic folk, with strong elements of soul, rock and gospel, giving the song a spirit that seems lifted from some bygone time, and likely cementing Andrews amongst the very best songwriters working today.

May Your Kindness Remain will be released on the 23rd March via Loose (UK) and Fat Possum Records/Mama Bird Recording Co. (North America), and you can pre-order it now.

inning – Feels Like It Did

“Last night, I taught viola to aliens in dreams.” Not many songs aim for territory as weird as this, and even less manage to weave it into such a sad and serious mood, but Virginia-based inning does so with aplomb. The track was inspired by one of those soul destroying college entrance questionnaires, albeit a relatively cool one, which asked “If you could send one thing to aliens that represented human life, what would it be?” inning decided that an instrument might be a good choice, in the hope that, should the contact ever develop into something more face-to-face, we might have something in common, and a way to communicate. Which maybe explains the kind of desperate loneliness that seems to smoulder behind this track, a metaphorical viola solo aimed skyward, not knowing if they could figure out how to play the thing, or even got the package in the first place.

Après​-​Ski EP is available now from the inning Bandcamp page.

Rosie Tucker – Spinster Cycle

Taken from an upcoming EP, Rosie Tucker’s ‘Spinster Cycle’ is a break-up song based, of all places, in a late-night laundromat. Picture the scene: your most treasured relationship failing amidst artificial lighting and a constant mechanical whirr, while muted TV screens try to sell you stuff as an awkward audience of semi-attentive strangers look at their feet. Here is a classic tale of miscommunication and banal distraction, the impossibility of truly knowing another person working its way into the cracks of even the most promising pairings, meaning that instead of trying to talk it through, they just lie back and let the drift carry them apart, even while their clothes share the same hot water, the dyes leeching and mixing into one dull shade.

“My parents met in a laundromat parking lot
I almost tell you but then I think not to
We focus on pulling our lights from our darknesses
We separate even though we’ve got sparks
While the colors bleed”

‘Spinster Cycle’ is available now from the the Rosie Tucker Bandcamp page, and be sure to keep your eyes peeled for the EP.

Why Bonnie – Made of Paper

Ahead of their debut EP on Sports Day Records, Austin band Why Bonnie have unveiled lead single ‘Made of Paper’ to get us suitably excited. Fuelled by a loose sound which belies the surprisingly insistent tempo, lead Blair Howerton explores vulnerability and perseverance through the lens of history and image, challenging preconceptions and expectations in search of some deeper truth. As such, ‘Made of Paper’ feels like a motivating call from Why Bonnie, helping us all shake free of a clinging inertia, or at least urging we test its grasp in preparation for a future escape.

“I never knew my great grandmother,
but I’m always told i have her skin.
although I think I’ve talked to her,
I know I can’t escape the skin I’m born in.

Reading my fortune
in the mess I’ve made in the kitchen
dirty spoons
to show that I’m still going”

In Water is set for release on the 16th February via Sports Day Records and you can pre-order it now from Bandcamp.

Sonny Baker – Comfortable

At the very end of 2017, Buffalo’s Sonny Baker put out a new record, steady hands, dead tired via Admirable Traits, following up an EP, easier, which came out in April. Don’t let the late release date slide under your radar amidst all the end of year lists, because this is an energetic, at times furious, slice of indie rock. Single ‘Comfortable’ serves as a good taster, railing against the chains of routine and comfort zones, the frenetic tempo aiming to shock you from your tracks, scrub the grey film from your eyes.

“I’m at the point
to set it all
on fire

dump the rest
into a garbage can”

steady hands, dead tired is out now via Admirable Traits Records and you can snag it from Bandcamp.

Andrew Goldring – Lost in the Motion

Following up last year’s EP Morning Light, Salt Lake City’s Andrew Goldring is back with a brand new single, ‘Lost in the Motion’. Pitched somewhere between the gruff melancholia of Water Liars and psych-tinged rock of The War on Drugs and The Wooden Sky, Goldring ticks both boxes—managing to represent a clear-eyed stride forward while remaining haunted by lingering images of the past. As such, the single serves as both a confident driving song and introspective examination, and should be a regular in your headphones on just about any occasion.

‘Lost in the Motion’ is out now and you can get it from the Andrew Goldring Bandcamp page.

Field Report – Summertime Songs

Finally, Milwaukee band Field Report have unveiled a new single, ‘Never Look Back’ ahead of their forthcoming record, Summertime Songs. Those unfamiliar with Chris Porterfield’s writing are well advised to check out their previous releases, with both their self-titled debut and 2014’s Marigolden up there with our favourite albums of the decade (no exaggeration). As we wrote in our review of the latter, “Porterfield’s writing is humble, real, able to be all shades of sad and beautiful. He leaves it to the listener to decide what they take from it, be it comfort or disturbance.”

Summertime Songs was written pre-election, and also in the run up to the birth of Porterfield’s first child, and the anxiety and fear of the unknown allows the songs to form “a dialogue about the fragility of America” and it’s various ideals. With that said, the press release leaves us with the promise that “Field Report will grab you by the short hairs and make you see yourself,” which sounds just like the Field Report we know. The record is out via Verve Forecast on the 23rd March, and you can get more information from the Field Report site.

‘Never Look Back’ is streaming now over at Stereogum.

That’s all folks. If you’re still not sated, why not check out previous editions of Bright Sparks?

The post Bright Sparks: Vol. 8 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Loverboy Wanderers – Big Boy

Philadelphia’s Loverboy Wanderers put out their self-titled debut earlier this month and welcomed us to their chaotic brand of indie pop music. Opening track ‘Big Boy’ serves as the perfect introduction, starting out as a half-paced rock number, the track gradually unravels into disorder. The vocals and lyrics are the first thing to go, lead Emmett Drueding growing increasingly unhinged as the music follows suit and descends into joyous commotion, resulting in a strangely uplifting finale filled with the kind of conviction unique to those who’ve stopped caring about conventions.

You can get Loverboy Wanderers now from Bandcamp.

Julia Lucille – Eternally

‘Eternally’ is the second single and opening track from Julia Lucille’s upcoming album, Chthonic. As the title suggests, the album is concerned with the underworld, more specifically descending into as a mode of growth and rebirth (a la Persephone), and ‘Eternally’ shows off the interplay between shadow and light that constitutes the record’s aesthetic.

“Call but I don’t answer
I long to be eternally free
Not like my mother
Not like my father
But what feels good to me”

Chthonic is set for release via Keeled Scales on April 7th and you can pre-order it via Bandcamp.

The Wooden Sky – Swimming in Strange Waters

Toronto band The Wooden Sky have long been putting out exemplary indie rock albums, and this spring sees the release of their fifth and perhaps most impressive. Named after a quote from Frank Herbert’s Dune (“Survival is the ability to swim in strange water”), Swimming in Strange Waters finds the band battling their own unfamiliar currents, traversing barroom barrages, acoustic eddies and psychedelic squalls in what is their most experimental and visceral record to date. The result is cacophony in the best sense, loud and fiery, personal and political, seemingly always on the verge of veering out of control. Pretty much the perfect album for our current times.

We’ll leave it there in order to keep our powder dry for the full review, but there are two singles currently available, with the lush, wistful ‘You’re Not Alone’ premiering over on Clash and the rousing title track hinting at the true sound and fury on the record.

Swimming in Strange Waters is out on Nevado Music on the 7th April and you can pre-order it now.

Idan Altman – Expiration Date

Israel-born, Berlin-based producer and songwriter Idan Altman creates organic folk music with an electronic twist, blending traditional, technical guitar work with ambient flourishes. The opening track from a forthcoming concept album, ‘Expiration Date’ sets out Altman’s themes of impermanence and continuity, his vocals finding wonder in the ephemeral, the background instrumentation like a flowing river, constant and repetitive yet never quite the same.

You can grab the album from the fairydust Bandcamp page.

Nnamdi Ogbonnaya – dOn’t turn me Off Ft. JD AKA ThrashKitten & Mal Devisa

Aside from being associated with projects such as Monobody, Itto and Teen Cult, Nnamdi Ogbonnaya also has a burgeoning solo career. His latest album, Drool, comes out this March, and as if to start firing on all cylinders, the first single sees Ogbonnaya joined by JD/Thrash Kitten and WTD-favourite Mal Devisa for ‘dOn’t turn me Off’, a verbose experimental track that combines rapid wordplay with a big chorus to tick all boxes.

DROOL is out March 3, 2017 via Sooper Records and Father/Daughter Records.

Winter Coat – Into The Blue

Winter Coat are a four-piece from Cardiff who make “swirly sonic soundscapes…inspired by movies, Mr Whippy and their over-active imaginations”. Their latest track, ‘Into the Blue’ is a lush dream pop song in the vein of Cocteau Twins or The War on Drugs, all gauzy atmospheric guitars and epic, percussion-heavy crescendos.

Listen to the song on Soundcloud and check out the Winter Coat website for previous releases and future new material.

Lord Youth – Gray Gardens

Lord Youth is the songwriting project of Micah Blaichman from Queens, NY, who is all set to release his debut self-titled EP this spring. If lead single ‘Grey Gardens’ is anything to go by, the release will sound something like the midnight mourning of a half-drunk ghost, too caught up with cheap whiskey and past regrets to move on to the other side.

The Lord Youth EP is out on the 24th of March on 10″ vinyl via BB*Island. Pre-order it now.

Lady Pills – Old Song

Finally, Boston punk band Lady Pills went to Berklee Internet Radio Network to play a version of their (assumedly new?) ‘Old Song’. Those familiar with last year’s album Despite will recognise the attitude and energy on show, the track opening with an insistent clatter before mutating into great swells of noise which rise and recede beneath increasingly unhinged vocals.

Keep an eye on the Lady Pills Facebook page for news on shows and new material.

The post Best of the Rest: Things We Have Missed #9 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Paddy Neill – Widow’s Town

The debut EP from New Zealand’s Paddy Neill, Widow’s Town is a four-song blend of heartfelt folk and toe-tapping country, more suited to the Great Plains than the middle of the Pacific. You can download the EP via Neill’s Bandcamp page.

She Keeps Bees – Eight Houses

Jessica Larrabee and Andy LaPlant are back with a new She Keeps Bees album, Eight Houses. It may push the folky limits of Feet on the Ground, but the ten tracks of slow, sad music warrant inclusion. Our friend over at Slowcoustic described it as ‘gritty and fragile’ which, although rather paradoxical, is maybe the perfect way to capture the mood of this album. A glass hammer, a steel spider web, Eight Houses is no one thing, and to limit itself to fragile, or gritty or happy or sad, would be limit its ability to depict believable stories and emotions. The narrator is vulnerable, but knows everyone else is too. Eight Houses is out on Future Gods (US) and BB Island (EU) on the 16^th September.

Noah Young – Colorado

Noah Young is a folk artist from Boston. There isn’t all that much information about him on his Bandcamp, so I’ll spare you the details. What I do know is that he has recently released an EP called Colorado and I really like it. Fans of Bright Eyes or Blind Pilot will love this. Listen to the title track in the player. He also has three other releases from the past few years which are well worth checking out.

Kris Ellestad – ‘Surrender’

Next we have a brand new track from Calgary’s Kris Ellestad. ‘Surrender’ is really lovely, a sort of dreamy, ethereal folk song, backed up with Ellestad’s trademark croon. You can download the track for however much you like on the Kris Ellestad Bandcamp page. Also, in case you missed it, Ellestad released a wonderful album of covers earlier this year. Get it for nothing here.

Field Medic – P E G A S U S T H O T Z

Last but not least we have Field Medic, aka Kevin Patrick from San Francisco. He released his latest EP P E G A S U S T H O T Z back in June and it’s really good. My current favourite track is the imaginatively titled ‘i swallowed five silver dollars and was a prince painting flowers for an evening’, which sounds a little bit like Frontier Ruckus and has some pretty despondent lyrics which detail (another) break-up. Listen below and then head over to Bandcamp to buy the EP as a digital download or on cassette.

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