Last month we introduced Real Love, the forthcoming album by Beat Radio on Totally Real Records. An examination of personal turmoil against a wider context of intergenerational trauma which “prob[es] into some of the most tender areas in order to address the wound.” The first song Brian Sendrowitz wrote from the record, latest single ‘Radioactive’ not only sets the album’s fuzzed out tone but established the stakes too. “You were radioactive / And its taken its toll,” Sendrowitz sings, “But you’re learning to change / And to make yourself whole / It’s a fight for your soul.”

Real Love is out on 21st October via Totally Real Records and you can pre-order it now from Bandcamp.

Bollards – Crimestopping

Described as a “relentless rush of blood to the head”, ‘Crimestopping’ is the latest track from London outfit Bollards. The song is a blend of post-punk and art rock sensibilities which captures a decidedly urban milieu. Spacious atmospherics coupled with claustrophobic cul-de-sacs and an overarching instability hovering above. This semi-hysterical tone informs the lyrics too, where paranoia about surveillance is matched only by the incessant desire to surveil in turn. A world where you can trust no-one, and no-one trusts you. Check out the video co-directed by Mars Washington and Jonny Dickens:

‘Crimestopping’ is out now and is available from the Bollards Bandcamp page.

claire rousay – wouldn’t have to hurt

LA‘s claire rousay returns this month with wouldn’t have to hurt, a benefit album for the Trevor Project, the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ young people, via Mended Dream Records. Woven from a fabric of field recordings, midi instruments, guitars and piano, as well as guest strings from Theodore Cale Schafer, the title track sees unguarded and forthright spoken word from nurse and Youtuber Madison Van Dine. A discussion of mental health stripped of any mawkish sentiment or quick-fire solutions, just working through things and facing up to every day. An encapsulation, that is, of rousay’s intentions with wouldn’t have to hurt. Still here and communicating to others, no matter how injured, frustrated or flat.

Crooks & Nannies – control

This month saw the return of Crooks & Nannies, AKA West Philadelphia duo Madel Rafter and Sam Huntington, with their first new music in a number of years. Released via Grand Jury Music, ‘control’ is a single which explores the knife-edge of mental health and the often unseen work which goes into maintaining the balance. The gentle progression slowly ramps as discordant noises punctuate the background, soon escalating into a chaotic rhythm. “I wanted to capture the feeling of walking through an art museum and holding all of your muscles tightly because if you don’t, you might give into some crazy impulse and do something really really bad,” Rafter explains, “like pull a painting off the wall and put your foot through it.” Check out the video with art by Sam Huntington and animation by Sarah Alvarez below:

‘control’ is out now via Grand Jury Music and you can get it from the Crooks & Nannies Bandcamp page.

daarling – Metamorphosis

Chicago-based indie rock band daarling are gearing up to release their debut full-length, and new single ‘Metamorphosis’ gives an insight into what to expect. A simmering, brooding number which dwells on the inevitability of change and the friction which results, with lead Erin Lyle riding the peaks and troughs of the instrumentation to find a tone both cutting and cathartic. “Metamorphosis is bullshit / I’ll cultivate my state either way,” she sings. “Your idleness affects no one / You confuse stability for stagnation.”

Kevin Dorff – Impossible Objects

Kevin Dorff is a songwriter and playwright originally from Des Moines, Iowa and now based in Brooklyn, who recently released his debut LP Silent Reply. A record which explores the lasting impact people have on our lives, even after their death, Silent Reply combines elements of folk and Nineties indie rock into a sound that shifts effortlessly from poignant to energetic. Dorff’s style is thanks at least in part to its influences—he cites the songwriting of David Berman and Craig Finn as big inspirations, but also the novels of Rachel Cusk and portraits of visual artist Alice Neel, which goes some way to explaining a tone that’s both sincere and wryly humourous. A standout is ‘Impossible Objects’, possibly the most touching track to ever name check M. Night Shyamalan and Toy Story 3.

Orchid Mantis – Lucid Dreams

The prolific Orchid Mantis is gearing up to release their seventh album via Spirit Goth Records, and first single ‘Lucid Dreams’ gives an indication of direction Thomas Howard is taking on the new tunes. After the newfound optimism of Visitations, an album we described as “an attempt to push beyond the past, keeping a clear-eyed focus on the present and what comes next,” the song finds itself inevitably turning back toward the past, even if just in the night-time visions suggested in the title. “Back out on my friend’s porch / or down by the church,” Howard sings, “feels like a lucid dream / like it was 10pm in 2016”

and nothing feels the same
but nothing really changed
i’m filling up my head
with memories that
i don’t ever want to resurrect
i wake up again

‘Lucid Dreams’ is out now and available from the Orchid Mantis Bandcamp page. How Long Will It Take is out via Spirit Goth Records on the 11th November.

Ross Jenkins – Plain as Day

Writing back in March, we described Free All Day by Vancouver’s Ross Jenkins as a record marked by “a sense of restraint and quiet grace,” which brought to mind “the solo records of Canadian songwriting heavyweights Bry Webb and John K. Samson.” Recorded during the same period as that album, latest single ‘Plain as Day’ embraces this style once more while also leaning into the seventies-era psych sensibilities which also reared their head. The gentle rhythm belies the strength underpinning its intentions, coming off as an assured statement and worthy addition to Jenkins’s catalogue.

Sweetbreads – Out of Range

Led by Melody Stolpp in collaboration with Nick Watt, and featuring a rotating cast of musicians, Brooklyn’s Sweetbreads make a hybrid of alt-country and pop which aims to get your toes tapping and hearts swelling in equal measure. Latest single ‘Out of Season’ follows protagonist June and her quest to resist the thankless treadmill of modern living, opting for an unproductive and entirely more positive way of life. Complete with a “muppet-inspired” background chorus with over forty voices, the song celebrates breaking conventions in the most joyous way possible, and ends up as the perfect antidote to the breakneck bluster of the world we call home.

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Released with the good folks at Totally Real Records, the album represents both a new beginning and a return to the past. As we wrote about the single of the same name, Real Love sees Beat Radio founding member Phil Jimenez return to the fold for the first time since 2006, working along with Kathryn Froggatt to develop “skeletal” demos into “ornate indie rock gems” (to quote Zach Schonfeld’s liner notes). Be it with banjos, saxophone, violin or fine layered harmonies, the pair help to elevate the tracks into the richest and most detailed Beat Radio songs to date, all while retaining the distinctively earnest tone which has long marked the project.

So in that manner, Real Love is perhaps not so much a new beginning as a distillation of the Beat Radio spirit. A new attempt to say the things which need saying. One with extra help, further wisdom, and a clearer sense of what’s important. “There was nothing to hold back anymore,” Sendrowitz explains. “This whole record just feels like the record I was working towards my whole musical career. I went all in emotionally in a deeper way than I was capable of before.”

Today sees the release of the album’s lead single, ‘Family Name’. The keystone of a record which faces up to the difficulties of living and loving across time, confronting loss in its various guises and being open about the significant work required to sustain relationships. The song places Sendrowitz’s struggles into a wider context of intergenerational trauma, probing into some of the most tender areas in order to address the wound. In doing so, it comes to represent the newly unguarded tone of Real Love. Where honesty and acceptance are a mode of healing, and love is a tenacious thing.

I’ll take my time
as the hour gets late
survive this loss
accept my fate
rise up again

Check out the video below, with videography and direction by Mary Kate Gilroy and edited by Bryan Bruchman:

Real Love is out on 21st October via Totally Real Records and you can pre-order it now from Bandcamp.

Photos by Mary Kate Gilroy

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Today, we’re delighted to be able to share a brand new Beat Radio track. The first of a series of singles to be released this autumn ahead of a new full-length album next year, ‘Real Love’ is a continuation of the aforementioned spirit, recommitting to the oldest, most cherished bonds even in the face of struggle and pain. As Sendrowitz puts it, the song concerns “hard work in relationships, committing to moving through the hard times, and grieving over the loss of the versions of yourselves that no longer exist.”

The track includes appearances from ex-Beat Radio member Phil Jimenez and Kathryn Froggatt, the latter lending vocals that help develop the trademark Beat Radio sincerity, and imbue the sound with an urgent emotion. The result is a song that transforms mourning into action, nostalgia into hope. A moment of clear-eyed clarity that sees through the pre- and misconceptions about who we were and who we wanted to be. People change with time, but their relationship need not. For love is a malleable thing, it just takes a little working.

we were so young then
we didn’t know better
maybe there’s still time
build a new dream together
we’ve got a real love
sometimes it ain’t enough
no matter what it takes
i’m never giving up

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Ruth Garbus – Strash
Mauno – Vampire
Outer Spaces – Gazing Globe
Benjamin Shaw – Long Ago and Oh So Far Away
Erin Durant – Islands
Daughter of Swords – Dawnbreaker
Melissa Mary Ahern – Maria, Maria
Oscar Lush – Kind Living
Midwife – Angel
Young Elk – False Paradise
Wilder Maker – Love So Well
Big Joanie – Way Out
Secrecies – Life We Live
Beat Radio – Everyone I Know, Just Holding On
American Poetry Club – pro pic?
So Totally – sike
halfsour – Paper Window
Joyer – Here
Marbling – Wisdom Teeth
High Sunn – Grateful
Slow Pulp – New Media
Molly Drag – Out Like a Light
Van Houten – Moon
Birdspotter – Riverbed
Tender Perennial – Delivered
JR Samuels – In Brend 2
Elly Swope – Habits
Derek Piotr – The Sign
Fighting Kites – Kita Senju
Nathalie Joachim – Papa Loko (Interlude: September 24, 1918)
Kali Malone – Sacrificial Code
Kate Tempest – Holy Elixir
Little Musket – Fever Blister
Gold Baby – 500/1
Tennis Club – Stay
Young Mammals – Lost in Lima
Abe Hollow – Paradise
bdrmm – Question Mark
Briston Maroney – Fool’s Gold

Check out our previous Monthly Roundup playlists, and be sure to read or Reviews and Previews throughout the month.

The post July 2019 Roundup Mix appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Everyone I Know, Just Holding On is very much a product of the conditions in which it formed, on levels both personal and political. Darcy describes how he and Sendrowitz often found themselves discussing dreams not yet realised, actions still to be taken, the unerring tick of time squeezing possibilities. In the face of such pressure, it is easy to throw in the towel. But the record is a call-to-arms against such thinking, a reminder that there is always time to act, to work and fight to make real what feels right.

The cover shows Sendrowitz and his friends on a beach in Montauk, gathered to celebrate his fortieth birthday in 2018 in a country slowly coming to terms with the cultural fight on its hands. “Forty is a benchmark, an over / under,” Darcy continues. “A wrecking ball had recently touched down. That time in Montauk felt like a crossroads. A beach town in winter. Brian and I made a tacit pact—our lives were decidedly still in front of us. Radio daydreams never end.”

Beat Radio’s distinctively hopeful tone is clear from the opening track, ‘Alchemy’. “I know I haven’t been here / and it’s been a hard year / but I’ve got faith in the future,” Sendrowitz sings. “Sometimes it’s hard to find the light / But we’ve still got time to make it right.” If Take It Forever signaled a turn away from the nostalgic, fresh-faced angst of some of the early releases, Everyone I Know, Just Holding On realises the change completely. ‘There’s a Darkness’ consolidates the power of small scale humanity against the mystifying cruelty of the world, while the undeniable brightness of the title track belies the insidious doubt of the lyrics.

Snake in the grass, wolf at the door
We’ve made it through hard times before
It’s getting dark and our dreams are gone
Everyone I know, just holding on

There’s a paternal steadiness to ‘Song for Jackson,’ as though in the aftermath of the previous track lies not surrender but hard-won wisdom, a reflective calm, the ability to sit with the trouble in the world for the benefit of others. The track is a great representation of the record’s focus, recognising the ubiquity of confusion and dissatisfaction and widening the lens beyond one’s own concerns, helping both others and yourself.

Everyone I Know, Just Holding On is out now and you can get it from the Beat Radio Bandcamp page.

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Hallelujah The Hills – A Band is Something to Figure Out
(REVIEW | INTERVIEW)

“This is an album built from symbolism (one of the tags on Bandcamp is ‘hieroglyphics’, to give you an idea) but, like all the best mysteries, a sense of significance floats to the top, independent of any hidden code. Hallelujah the Hills reconstruct the human experience through sheer enthusiasm, using their joyous hooks and choruses as earnest expressions of emotion rather than ironic juxtapositions.  Walsh and Co. aren’t sitting us down to share a smirk and a wink, or to reel off some abstract philosophical theories, but rather taking us by the hand and running through their strange world, leaving it up to us to catch something meaningful in the breathless blur. And what a world this is, one which has been evolving since their first album, an ecosystem based on a strange molecule – twin strands of confusion and intuition tightly bound and swirled into a double helix – the DNA of Hallelujah the Hills.”

Camp Cope – S/T
(REVIEW)

“For those of us that want to hope that maybe everything doesn’t have to be shit forever, there’s an atmosphere of dissent that seeps into every line. Not in that horrible on-the-nose Billy Bragg/Frank Turner way, but more subtle, funny and heartbreaking, with throwaway lines that leave you a bit off-balanced. I think that’s what I like most about Camp Cope – the constant switch between personal and protest, heartache and anger, and all the while feeling completely and utterly helpless.”

Beat Radio – Take It Forever
(REVIEW | INTERVIEW)

“Beat Radio’s fifth album Take It Forever feels like a culmination of ideas, the product of some long, hard thinking… With a large dose of hope and a pervading sense of goodwill, Take It Forever plays like the manifesto of someone who doesn’t know all the answers but finds meaning in asking the questions, the words not of a revolutionary or prophet but an ordinary man striving to make life extraordinary, just as it should be.”

Talons’ – Work Stories
(REVIEW)

“Explores the pervasive disillusionment in a society that hasn’t yet lived up to what it promised, a society run for interests other than those of the people who make up its majority. A society that offers hopes and dreams of resplendent lives in exchange for your hard earned $$$s, education courses that leave people stranded with more knowledge but no money, opportunities or sympathy. These are songs for people who wonder ‘when did it become not okay to do what I want with my life?’ Work Stories is a reminder that it’s okay to occasionally feel afraid or sad, that the things which trouble you are probably not as much your fault as you think, and most of all that, despite how it might sometimes feel you are never, ever, alone.”

Mount Moriah – How To Dance
(REVIEW)

“Mount Moriah push past their troubles into something positive and mysterious, a conglomeration of symbolism, mysticism, universality and other cosmic forces which pretty much equates to Southern Gothic 2.0. How to Dance is crafted from spirit and faith, carved out of a high, wide hope capable of healing any wounds, giving us the courage not just to survive, but to live.”

The Chairman Dances – Time Without Measure
(REVIEW | INTERVIEW)

“The Chairman Dances succeed in bringing characters to life in three dimensions, though on Time Without Measure the feat is even more impressive as the roster of figures are not only numerous but also known to history in decidedly superhuman terms. Now more than ever we should remember that activists and political heroes, for all of their spirit and unimaginable resolve, are as prone to doubt and death as anyone, and not half as powerful without our support and belief. Likewise, we’d do well to remember that villains and bigots are human too, flames that, however fierce and bright, will be snuffed out without the oxygen that is our backing. This album is a reminder that belief and faith can save us. It’s just a matter of choosing the right thing in which to invest our energies.”

Karima Walker – Hands in Our Names
(REVIEW)

“Hands in Our Names sees Karima Walker reconstruct an array of varied elements into something larger and more meaningful than they could ever be alone. Field recordings from her present and found recordings from someone else’s past swirl above and beneath her own words and guitar notes, drones of every pitch filling the background and stretching the songs into worlds of their own. When atomised into separate parts, the album is impressionistic, blurry and strange and difficult to describe, though when listened to as a whole, a blanket of stitches, it becomes something vivid and intuitive. As such, Hands in Our Names is able to convey things normal songs cannot, a freedom not just born of trope-avoiding experimentalism but somehow inherent in the very combinations of sounds, as though arranged into secret patterns or codes, magic spells that trump postmodern convictions. Rather than dying in open air upon leaving her mouth, Karima Walker’s communications bubble from within, stirring that dormant empathy that lies somewhere near the centre of us all.”

Sioux Falls (now Stranger Ranger) – Rot Forever
(REVIEW)

“Sioux Falls’ sound reads like a melting pot of the last twenty years of rock music. Taking the indie rock of the likes of Built to Spill et al., the band add thoughtful emo (like The Hotelier) and smart pop punk vibes (think LVL UP etc.) to create something wonderfully varied and entertaining, cycling through these genres not just between songs but within them. The narrator is centred within the stories of which they sing, sounding like another confused player in violent, unfair game operating to rules outside of anyone’s understanding. In the face of bewilderment they turn to anger and sorrow and joy, feelings easy to recognise, easy to submit to, decidedly non-ambivalent chemical reactions which remind them that they’re still alive.”

John K Samson – Winter Wheat
(REVIEW)

“The Weakerthans frontman’s first release since 2012 is everything we’ve come to expect, exploring his favourite themes of contemporary loneliness and isolation in his uniquely warm manner, his characters not ready to give up hope that connection (that is, real human connection) is still possible in our digital world.”

Nap Eyes – Thought Rock Fish Scale

“Nova Scotia’s Nap Eyes return with a sophomore album of rhythmic, ear-worming slacker folk rock songs, recorded completely live with no overdubs in just four days. Nigel Chapman’s lethargic monotone vocals give the whole thing the feel of a daydream, like the wandering high-brow thoughts of a sleepy philosophy/psychology major.”

Jeremy Squires – Shadows
(REVIEW | INTERVIEW)

“Does what the very best folk music can do, an outpouring from one human being to a multitude of others. It’s a record borne out of legitimate heartbreak, the end of a marriage and the death of a loved one, a brave and honest attempt to deal with big life-changing events. Deft songwriting allows Squires to expand these specific, individual scenes into large, engaging metaphors, in which we can find shards of our own experiences. The beauty of it is that the finished work is not just healing and revelatory for the artist. It can help us too.”

Loone & Paper Bee – Now I Know You and See How Wide You Are to the World
(REVIEW)

“Now I Know You and See How Wide You Are to the World is a terrific album. It’s as rich and as complex as life itself, steeped in passion and poetry, whirring like the universe and everything in it. There’s a line at the end of ‘Ugly, I’m Sorry’ that sums up the whole release rather nicely, capturing its in a handful of words far better than I am able to in this review: ‘And I wanna hold your hand / and go explore the pulsing humming darkness’.”

Spartan Jet-Plex – Get Some
(REVIEW)

“Taken at face value, Get Some is an indistinct album, the themes and meanings wrapped in layers of abstract lyrics and varied instrumentation. However, this vagueness itself curls and contorts and creeps into your head, eluding inclinations to describe and detail and thus bypassing the whole processing machinery most music must enter. As such, Kells’s thoughts and feelings arrive whole, unaltered, meaning that you feel what’s being said, even if it’s impossible to put into words.”

Kyle Morton – What Will Destroy You
(REVIEW)

“While Typhoon’s fourth record is still in the works, Morton last month released a surprise solo album, What Will Destroy You. Again the twin themes of tragedy and pleasure are central, as is the idea of catharsis and release. However, while mortality is an intrinsic element, the album does not tread the exact same ground as previous Typhoon releases. What Will Destroy You shifts the focus onto love, more specifically what Morton describes as “the ambivalence of erotic love,” leading to an intimate, surprisingly honest album which delves into things both more wonderful and mundane than your average love songs.”

CHUCK – My Band is a Computer
(REVIEW | INTERVIEW)

“Playing like a collaboration between Owen Ashworth and Bret Easton Ellis, the CHUCK brand of observant and at times cringe-inducingly honest indie pop will no doubt prove divisive. But there’s far more to My Band is a Computer than drugs and self-pity and empty sex. Like the Frog release that Audio Antihero brought us last year, it crams an awful lot into its run-time, covering everything that’s terrible and everything that’s not about being a young adult in the twenty-first century, somehow managing to tap into the human kernel at the centre of our zombified lurch of nostalgia and regret.”

Monarch Mtn – Everyone is Here
(REVIEW)

“It would be wrong to consider the music of Monarch Mtn as simply a two dimensional mope-fest, with Farmer’s poetic lyrics and warm delivery hint at something beyond the misery. The palette is undoubtedly gloomy, blacks and greys and deep blues, but Farmer’s warm vocals and poetic turns of phrase flicker across this twilight like threads of gold.”

Claire Cronin – Came Down a Storm
(REVIEW)

“The real success of Down Came a Storm is how Claire Cronin and John Dieterich combine to spin stories and landscapes from their combined talents, every element given equal standing to conjure not only folk tales but the worlds in which they exist. Here you can feel the wind on your skin, hear it move in the trees, smell its scent of salt and earth and ozone. You can feel it move the characters too, propelling them into dark, poetic places where nature rules and comfort can be found in the starkest of elements.”

Adeem the Artist – Kyle Adem is Dead
(REVIEW | INTERVIEW)

“The word ‘sincere’ is often taken as synonymous for affectionate or sentimental. With Kyle Adem is Dead, Adeem the Artist strives to be sincere in every sense, finding the bravery not just to declare his love for his wife but to voice his fears, his weaknesses, his exasperation with life as we live it. With everything on the table, no lingering mysteries or secrets withheld, there is nothing left to corrupt the good things. Because, after all, Kyle Adem is dead.”

Mal Devisa – Kiid
(REVIEW)

“Kiid is a personal record and plays like condensed version of life, reaching high and falling low, crackling and bursting and simmering under the surface, at times exploding in urgent streams of consciousness as if the words and thoughts can no longer be held in. This is an album that refuses to be reduced to something easily describable, persevering in it’s complexity against the binarizing forces of anxiety or genre or gender or race. Kiid isn’t a self-doubt record or political record, nor a sad record or a happy record. It’s not jazz or gospel or indie rock. Kiid is everything. Kiid is whatever it wants to be.”

Lisa/Liza – Deserts of Youth
(REVIEW)

“Wonderfully minimal and psych-tinged songs that will doubtless appeal to fans of  soft and sad outsider folk artists such as Sarah Winchester. At times it’s gossamer thin, with Victoria’s vocals little more than hushed murmurs, though even in these quiet moments her words hold a kind of understated magnetism, a power which draws in the instrumentation and in turn becomes augmented by it. Deserts of Youth shows you don’t necessarily need to raise your voice to make a statement, that even quiet songs can be imbued with a blazing energy.”

Old Earth – Lay For June
(REVIEW | INTERVIEW)

“Trying to put Old Earth’s music into words seems futile and kind of besides the point. There’s never going to be a satisfactory way to describe art so fluid and weird and instinctive, so all we can tell you is what it sounds like to us. It’s operating on a deeper level, one not easily outlined, playing on some atavistic region of the subconscious that reacts to fear and beauty, that treats intense wonder and dread as the same emotion. It’s the same area of the brain that tells us to light candles and throw coins down wells no matter how secular our society becomes.”

What were your favourite albums of 2016? Let us know through one of the usual channels – we’re on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram.

The post Wake the Deaf’s Favourite Albums of 2016 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

If you have followed our coverage of Beat Radio then the story might sound all too familiar. We’ve discussed the realities of being a modern artist, coming to the conclusion that only a blend of quiet perseverance and an unquenchable need to create will ever allow musicians to survive the money-less, swamped music industry as it currently exists. Indeed, it was Sendrowitz who put us onto Heaven O’Clock, the result of Tim Lannen’s newfound fervour. The EP, existing as five average-length tracks, feels far more nourishing than your typical short release, the songs displaying admirable variety while remaining bound together by a common energy.

Opener ‘I’m a Solution’ feels like something of an introduction, a re-emergence, a tight melody rising out of a disorientating clatter as though Lannen is finally cutting through the confusing fog and finding his groove. “I feel like I should feel,” he sings in the opening verse. “I feel stranger than ever / I’m wandering tall weeds / I figure out falling”. ‘Same Light’ is more restrained musically, though the lyrics glow with the strange emotions of an important relationship, love and anger and pain brimming beneath the surface, never quite spilling.

“I see you trying
To tear out the pages
Ill throw you down a flight of stairs
Before you can finish

She made an impression on me
And all of it makes sense

I could never get enough

We wake up in the same light
And leave everything behind”

‘A Calm I Don’t Like’ pines for this turbulent passion, a song terrified of inaction, of drifting, of missing out on the highs and lows in favour of some bland median. Whether or not it’s his intention, it’s difficult to not apply the lyrics to Lannen’s musical story, the lines reading like the nostalgic thoughts of some sleepless early-night, the lack of tiredness and disappointment not enough to quell the desire to create, to get out and play. ‘Feel Song’ is an electronic-tinged follow-up, wistful but all the stronger for it. “Do you remember how I made you feel?” Lannen sings over and over, perhaps to himself.

Closer ‘Vein In Train’ bounces along with a garage rock clatter, Lannen vocals growling and soaring behind the raucous percussion. “I wanna scream,” he sings/shouts, “when I don’t see the train coming.” From here the song enters a mellow groove, the instrumentation paring back just so, allowing the wistful hope to appear again. Though from these words Lannen seems to draw energy, because he launches back into boisterous, confident noise once more. Heaven O’Clock is an album about taking chances, about enduring the dips in order to ride the crests, and when the guitar takes over to kick it once more, you understand why. He wants to be in a band again.

“There can’t be anymore ‘one more times’
I forget how good it feels to feel alright”

You can buy Heaven O’Clock, Part 1 now from the Tim Lannen Bandcamp page.

The post Tim Lannen – Heaven O’Clock, Part 1 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Tracklisting:

1. A Hospital + Crucifix Made of Plastic – Florist
2. Richmond – talons’
3. Say – Indoor Voices
4. Aeroplane – House Plants
5. When I Was an Island – David Karsten Daniels
6. The Gentleman’s Apocalypse – JR Green
7. Hitman – Mrs. Hopewell
8. sun drops – ratbath
9. A Cruise – Brian S. Cassidy
10. Orpheus – Matt Kivel
11. Your Love – Jeremy Squires (INTERVIEW)
12. Blood Moon – C.M. Slenko
13. Bake – Broken Beak
14. Brushes Like a Fox – Saint Corsair
15. daniel – francie cool
16. Baby Blue – Mount Moriah
17. For You – Free Cake For Every Creature
18. Have This Dance – Govier
19. Goodness (trailer) – The Hotelier
20. The River Because – Sawtooth
21. why are you so cool? – Dying Adolescence
22. cockroach – tall friend
23. Waiting – Faint Peter
24. Heart Destroyer – Lazy Legs
25. Take it Forever – Beat Radio (INTERVIEW)
26. Every One of Them, Dogs – Quarterly
27. like a feather or a pawprint – Field Medic
28. Lay For June – Old Earth
29. 2 old 2 broke – Gorgeous Bully
30. Funny Man Routine – Table People
31. House & Home – Arlo Aldo
32. Cave Song – Sea Ghost
33. Everywhere (Fleetwood Mac cover) – Boosegumps (from Sugar Rush)

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Take It Forever plays like the manifesto of someone who doesn’t know all the answers but finds meaning in asking the questions, the words not of a revolutionary or prophet but an ordinary man striving to make life extraordinary, just as it should be.

Since Sendrowitz has continued to make great music, we endeavoured to come up with some new questions and pick his brains all over again. I think you’ll agree he did a marvellous job of answering them.

Hello Brian, thanks for speaking with us again! How does it feel to have released Take It Forever? Is it a milestone you are proud of?

It’s my pleasure! I really appreciate the work you guys do with Wake the Deaf. As someone who puts a lot into songwriting and lyrics in particular, I’m grateful that there are people who take to time to listen, dig into themes, and approach our music with a depth of thought and understanding. This record definitely feels like some sort of milestone, and maybe more than usual. I think you mentioned in your review that it felt like a culmination of ideas, and for me it was in the sense that I wanted to address very specific themes, articulate ideas as directly as possible, and then move on from them. My resolution for 2016 is “no more songs about the internet.” I had started writing about the subject way back with our song “Teenage Anthem for the Drunken Boat”, and have revisited it frequently. There’s been such a massive shift in our culture and the way we communicate. It feels generation-defining and to not address it in my art would have felt inauthentic to me. With Take It Forever I wanted to make an entire record dealing with the sort of questions I’m always asking myself: where does art fit into our culture now? What place does music have in my life, as both an artist and a fan? In a way it’s sort of a break-up album, in the sense that it chronicles my coming to terms with letting go of my own careerist ambitions, and also with the concept of music careerism in general. But it also tells the story of me finding my way back to a purely creative motivation, which is how this whole thing started anyway.

You have been making music as Beat Radio for over ten years now. How has your music changed since the early days? And are your reasons for making it still the same?

Looking back on the 5 records we’ve made with Beat Radio, I feel like each one was its own unique adventure with different motivations, goals, and perspective. It usually involves some sort of self-imposed set of rules. For this one I knew I wanted to create a more traditional “band” sounding record, guitar-driven and using primarily organic sounds. I think the earlier albums were more escapist in nature, lyrically. Songs were always a sort of fantasy world I could create and control, and exist in. The last record dealt with more personal subject matter but still mainly in an impressionistic way. Take It Forever is our most direct and autobiographical album. It’s also the first time since our first album that I had a band to rehearse and develop the songs prior to recording them, which changes the feel quite a bit and was a lot of fun. To answer the last part of your question, I think my reason for making records on a fundamental level has always been the same. I have ideas I want to express, and the process of writing songs and ushering them into existence is joyful for me. It gets me out of bed in the morning.

Point three of your Advice For Artists list suggests making your ‘peace with the capitalist yardsticks that you thought would signify creative success’. The idea is echoed in the opening song too, taking stories from television, being haunted by the resulting ambition etc., basically being a prisoner to dreams of greatness. So, assuming you have vaulted the problem (or are at least in the process of jumping), do you attempt to measure your success in any other way? Are there any goals (no matter how small/ludicrous) which drive you on?

Ha, I think to say I’m “in the process of jumping” is probably most accurate, if I’m totally honest. I read somewhere recently that when you’re giving advice, you’re really talking to your former self. I’m including that advice for artists list in the artwork for the new record because I sort of consider it a part of the same body of work. Looking back, I think I kind of believed it was too late to achieve a traditional version of music industry “success” before this band even started. The second song I wrote for Beat Radio was “Mexico” which contained the lyric “the dream I had was beautiful, but I let it get away from me.” For a long time though, I secretly believed that there was some mystical equation or weird alchemy that could bring me to that dream of success – touring, quitting my day job, acclaim and recognition, etc. Like, if I could reach a certain level of honesty in myself, and openness, I could magically overcome all the obstacles in my path. Who knows, maybe that’s still true. It’s strange to admit that now though, because it’s in contrast to so many things I believe on a rational level. We all know that you can’t equate commercial success with artistic success, but on some level we all seem to do it anyway. Like, the Bruno Mars song “Uptown Funk” just won the Grammy for record of the year. Do we know anyone who really believes that is the best record of 2015? I know a lot of musicians and we’re all generally conflicted about this stuff in one way or another. And I know so many brilliant musicians who exist almost entirely outside of the dimension of not only the Grammys but also Pitchfork, Stereogum, Noisey, and everything else.

I guess part of the manifesto of this album is to communicate that it’s okay, and it doesn’t mean the songs are any less meaningful, important, and valuable. It’s just a different dimension. In its own way, maybe a creative life outside of that world can be more authentic and valuable because it’s not compromised by the pressure of capitalism. Either way, the creative process is its own reward, and individuality needs to be celebrated. I believe our culture depends on that. Humanity depends on that. So I measure success by the way a record makes me feel when I hear it, and the degree to which I was able to express the idea or emotion that I set out to express. I’m motivated by a desire to make something beautiful, and feel blessed every day that I have the opportunity to create and share things that may inspire others in some small way. I want to build a great body of work and a legacy. I want my sons to know a father who stayed true to a creative vision, and worked at it. I want them to know what that means.

I’ve recently read Quicksand by Steve Toltz, a rather hyperactive novel in which a teacher has written a book to help creative people. There are lots of quotable one-liners, but one really stuck out. “We make art because being alive is a hostage situation in which our abductors are silent and we cannot even intuit their demands”. Do you identify with this? Would you say your creative process exists in such a desperate, awfully alive situation?

That’s a really powerful image. I think that it gets down to the heart of faith – the question of whether or not we can intuit our abductor’s demands. I’d like to believe that we can intuit their demands, and art is one of the ways we are able to do so. And maybe that’s what the author is implying? Or at least, maybe the implication is that we should ask the question? Art doesn’t feel like a stab in the dark for me. It feels like a healing, or a transcendence of the pain of that uncertainty.

You have a job and a family so this question will probably make you laugh, but I’m interested distractions from working creatively and was wondering if you find a particular thing gets in the way of making music? Like, besides general life stuff? I’ve purposefully not signed up to the internet at the library because I’m genuinely 5x more productive without it. David Foster Wallace lived without a TV in his home. Are there any specific things you have to avoid or deny yourself in order to make musical progress?

The internet is a big thing. It’s always there and it’s irresistible. Netflix is a big thing. Being married too – I love spending time with my wife, and it’s very easy to crash on the couch with her at the end of the day. I find that to stay on task the only thing that works for me is to give myself projects, set goals and a timeline for myself, and commit to a schedule. I write it down in my notebook and do my best to commit to it. I used to be much more manic about it, I’ve gotten better at finding the balance. Also – involving collaborators in the process is always helpful for me, because I feel a sense of responsibility to do my part and send them mixes to listen to, review, give feedback on, etc. The keeps momentum and drives a project forward.

Right, I don’t want to get too deep here but there’s something I often wonder and although it’s vague to the point of rhetorical I want to ask you because the album pokes at similar themes. Is the dissatisfaction and emptiness you battle right across Take It Forever a modern thing? Or is it just the by-product of being aware of our own mortality? I mean, do you think our parents/grandparents felt the same way we do?

I think there is something about the sort of dissatisfaction we experience that is unique to our time. I tried to describe that in the title track, with the lines: “Everyone is casting spells, and building myths around themselves. All we want is everything, and all we find is suffering.” It’s funny we have all these great tools to allow us communicate more easily than ever before, but people are probably more self-absorbed in general than ever before. I’m not religious in any dogmatic sense, but I have embraced and incorporated Buddhist philosophy into my life over the last few years, and that has changed my perspective a lot. I’ve become more aware of my own need for validation. I think every artist has that. Most people in general do. Part of that is the human condition but it’s also exaggerated by a modern need for instant gratification, and a feeling of lack. I think about my grandfather, who for the sake of brevity I will describe as a man who basically had the personality of Gene Hackman’s character in The Royal Tenenbaums. I can’t imagine him checking his Instagram to see how many likes his selfie got. I can’t imagine him giving a damn about any of that. I admire that, but then here I am, carefully curating my personal brand. It’s sort of hilarious. I guess the key is to keep a sense of humor about it, and not take anything too seriously. Nothing matters, everything matters. “How strange it is to be anything at all.”

I asked this last time but it was long enough ago to ask again. Could you name 4-5 bands you are enjoying at the moment? Who do you find yourself turning to?

I was really taken with Hop Along’s Painted Shut LP, and also Sufjan’s Carrie and Lowell. I was a little late getting to listen to Joanna Newsom’s Divers, but got that recently and it’s really something to behold. I dig that Nap Eyes record that everyone is talking about also. They remind me of a band my friend and old guitar player/producer Phil Jimenez produced called The Piltones, back in 2002 or so. I’m also co-producing a new record right now for my friend Tim Lannen, formerly of The Diggs, so I’m pretty engrossed in that. It’s turning out to be amazing.

You can buy Take It Forever now via Beat Radio’s Bandcamp page. Read our review here.

The post Interview: Beat Radio, Part II. appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Brian Sendrowitz’s Beat Radio, an act I previously described as “a band formed upon the notion of art as an undying passion” have always challenged that notion in some way, crafting songs which elevate what could be mistaken for small, mundane things to importance. As we wrote in a preview post back in December:

“[Their songs are] living stories boiled down to key scenes, playing out like small movies – packed with love and loss and life, the sorts of things that happen to everyone yet never fail to feel like the most important things in the world”

Beat Radio’s fifth album Take It Forever feels like a culmination of ideas, the product of some long, hard thinking on this topic. The title tracks opens the record with this very much in mind, diving head-on into the oncoming rush of disappointment and frustration and impossible dreams to offer a hand of comfort. “So take it easy,” Sendrowitz urges, “take it forever. I hope this song makes you feel better.” When the song lists NPR and premières and well-paid publicists it’s not some anarcho-punk cheap shot at our consumerist culture, but rather a warning to other artists that such measures of success (and the constant need for validation they bring) will only lead to the liquor cabinet. What’s more, the song isn’t blaming anyone for feeling such a way but rather explaining it, citing our conditioning through the modern fairy-tales of popular culture and self-improvement as the main source of dissatisfaction and hurt.

‘”We take our stories from television
we’re haunted by our own ambition
and no one’s looking out for each other
when everything is a competition

everyone is casting spells
building myths around themselves

and all we want is everything
and all we find is suffering

the point of everything i guess
is “don’t give in to bitterness”’

‘Lost in the World’, which we we lucky enough to première on WTD,  is what we called “an autobiographical song… [which] becomes a call to arms for creative people”. It offers an alternative to the money/fame malaise, a reminder that art can be justified in other ways. ‘Losing Time’ achieves the difficult task of feeling very much of the now without being ham-fisted, weaving modern references into the fabric of the song rather than having them front and centre. “You could open up your heart,” he sings, “to people that you’ve never met. A poet for the modern age, famous on the internet”. The song also opens up the idea of the art-based messages being applicable to life in general, or maybe that art and life are so entwined that they are one and the same. Either way, it wants you to know that disappointment and darkness are temporary, that small joys are abundant and to be celebrated.

“Build it up and watch it all come crashing down
when its over start to build it up again
Even if its not the life you dreamed about
everything you did was worth it in the end

celebrate the things you love
this is where you’re meant to be
try and keep an open heart
dream a little dream of me”

‘Art is a War, There Are Casualties’ attempts to breathe life into the “If I Manage To Reach Just One Person” truism, a wonderful idea that’s been repeated into cliché by false-modesty, and ‘Song for Camden Power’ follows up with a perfect example. As explained in this post over at Impose, the track is written in memory of Beat Radio fan Camden who kept in touch with Sendrowitz over the internet. Sadly, he lost his life too soon in a road traffic accident, and the song is part-elegy, part-celebration of his life, exploring how human connection brings meaning and value to what can otherwise seem a confusing and arbitrary existence. ‘We’ll Be Forgotten’ plays like an explanation for previous strife (“I was just searching for a feeling, something to keep me from unravelling”) and an attempt to come to terms with our relative insignificance, while ‘Dreaming of the West’ details how companionship can relieve the pressure of this in other ways, both in sharing the existential load and helping us forget it entirely:

“We were brightening the corners
we were dreaming of the West
we were moving over mountains
we were fighting loneliness
feeling was our sickness,
feeling nothing was our guilt
I’m a little lost without you
It’s the simple things you miss”

‘Elizabeth’ continues this idea. Part-apology (“I’m a little hard to read, even though I’m easy going”), part-expression of gratitude (“and sometimes I still wonder if I’m still dreaming”), the song is a bona-fide love song, denying emphatically that romance is dead (Sendrowitz met Elizabeth, his wife, in pre-school) and cementing the idea that the philosophies on Take it Forever extend beyond creative circles. ‘I Dreamed The Internet Ended’ barely breaks the one minute mark, before ‘Invisible Cities’ closes the album, a rousing, stripped-back love letter of a song sent from the edge of nothing, a realisation or admittance that we cannot do it alone, one final insistence that human connection makes it all worthwhile.

“I was in the basement of a bar
I was at the end of a subway car
I was falling asleep on a silver cloud
I was wondering where you are now
And I’m out on the edge of the world
Waiting for you
Looking out for your love”

With a large dose of hope and a pervading sense of goodwill, Take It Forever plays like the manifesto of someone who doesn’t know all the answers but finds meaning in asking the questions, the words not of a revolutionary or prophet but an ordinary man striving to make life extraordinary, just as it should be.

Take It Forever was release on Sendrowitz’s own Awkward For Life Records and you can buy it now from the Beat Radio Bandcamp page.

The post Beat Radio – Take It Forever appeared first on Various Small Flames.