Spurred by Trump’s election, Brian Cassidy of Wren & Shark Record Collective decided to do what little he could to push us a few precious inches in the right direction. Enlisting the help of a rather impressive array of talented friends, he has assembled a compilation to be sold in support the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC,) one of the US’s leading environmental non-profit organisations. The album comes complete with artwork by John Sabraw, an environmental artist and activist who uses pigments from polluted streams to create his ‘toxic art’ (which you can find out about here). Check out the full tracklisting below:

1. Jonathan Meiburg (of Shearwater) – Reincarnation
2.Will Courtney – I Got Your Back
3. Will Johnson – Nervousness Fangs
4. Mikaela Davis – Pure Divine Love
5. S. Carey – Shiny Shoes (The Pines cover)
6. The Eastern Sea – The Entertainer
7. Reservations – Planet
8. Lowland Hum – We’re All Waiting
9. Brian S. Cassidy – Darkest Doubt
10. Black Before Red – Envy
11. Good Field – Surface Tension
12. Nori – The Garden

With the likes of Will Johnson, S. Carey and Shearwater’s Jonathan Meiburg involved, the release also serves as a timely reminder of the effectiveness of generosity and collaboration, a example of our only way forward – grouping together our talents and energies into something larger and more powerful than any one individual. Trump and his ilk are going to try to convince us that the environment doesn’t matter, that art doesn’t matter, that people of certain colours and genders and backgrounds don’t matter. It’s up to us, not only to resist, but to prove him wrong.

Wren & Shark & Friends is out today and you can grab your copy from the Wren & Shark Bandcamp page for as little as $10, though remember that all profits go direct to the NRDC.

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The compilation is out now and you can grab a copy via the No Dice Tapes Bandcamp page, or get a download on a pay-what-you-can basis (but it’s for a good cause, remember?).

Artwork by Annabel Amin

The post No Dice Tapes – 2016: the year all bad things went away and everything turned out to be fine appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Surely you have all heard of ARMS? We have certainly mentioned them a few times. For the uninitiated, ARMS is Todd Goldstein, the ex-Harlem Shakes guitarist, and a variety of friends. We were honoured and delighted when Todd offered to record a version of ‘The Book of Love’ by The Magnetic Fields.

The book of love is long and boring
No one can lift the damn thing
It’s full of charts and facts and figures
And instructions for dancing

But I, I love it when you read to me
And you, you can read me anything

You can buy Quiet, Constant Friends now via the Wake The Deaf Bandcamp page. Remember, all tapes come with super-limited edition art print postcards. You’d be a fool to miss out!

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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).

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“The work that Casa Ruby is doing for their community is both inspiring and needed. We’re very appreciative of what the work of Ruby Jade Corado and her organization has done for countless LGBTQ+ youth and adults and hope that this compilation is representative of that appreciation from not just us but the community at large from all across world, and hope that, in some way, it will serve as a reminder that, no matter what, no matter who you are, you are not alone, you have an entire community of people behind you, supporting you, every step of the way.”

The compilation features 24 songs from an array of artists, including some we have written about (Adult Mom, Ricky Eat Acid, Unraveler etc.) and some we will probably be writing about in the future. Discovering new music while supporting a very worthy cause sounds like a win-win all round in our book.

You can buy the compilation now on a pay-what-you-can basis via Bandcamp.

P.S. There has a bit of controversy surrounding the inclusion of certain artists, and Garza has addressed this in a statement now available on Funeral Sounds. She also welcomes people to email her should they wish to discuss the issue.

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