Swim Camp – Pretty Bird
Black Belt Eagle Scout – Indian Never Die
Pedro The Lion – Quietest Friend
Cat Clyde – Anymore
She Keeps Bees – Coyote
Cartwheel – Nothing
Tempertwig – Comfort Blanket
Downhaul – Wires / Enough
Witching Waves – Eye 2 Eye
LISA – Primitive Us
Yamachan – Rose Gold Blue
Spelling Reform – The Second Coming
Faith & Majesty – Summer Fling
Caroline Lazar – Georgia
Jeffrey Silverstein – Easy Rider
Ronnie Rogers – Leaning On
Nanami Ozone – Alone Too
Fresh – Willa
Perfume V – Perfume Homes Movies
Hand Habits – Can’t Calm Down
MUNYA – Benjamin
LUNCH – Forget Everything
Control Top – Chain Reaction
Prudence – Euphoria
Cult Film – Bored to Death
Walking Bicycles – Fat Cat
Lost Dog – DFT
Sharkmuffin – Serpentina
Bandy – Trying to Reach You
Gold Connections – Like a Shadow
AllegrA – Spoon or Fork
Parkway & Columbia – Wondering and Wandering
la loye – to live underwater
Kitchen – Claws
Spectator – Waves
Sailor Boyfriend – The Battle of Sugarhill
Ladada – My Van
The Exbats – 2027
Adir L.C. – Reacting
minihorse – Drink You Dry
Trevor Stott – Halfway in the Night
Tyler Burkhart – Waiting For You
Or Sobre Blau – Mártires

Like what you hear? Catch up with the rest of our Monthly Mixes!

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

The EP opens with ‘Georgia’, a song co-written with the album’s producer Reed Gaines that crafts a a tale of heartbreak from dreamy nostalgia. Sashaying through old memories and painful longing, the song is loss in its warmest, most translucent form, Lazar’s vocals a spoken croon that conveys a true sense of intimacy.

Stirring to life in the same hushed tone, ‘Parking Lots’ develops into something altogether more urgent, the slow-burning mood eventually catching as Lazar’s vocals stretch into a yell. ‘Chicago’ sees the energy increase further, knitting into an insistent rhythm that barrels forward with a sense of hope, making for a marked change from the backward-looking position of the previous tracks. Still, that’s not to say the track is without a certain sadness. “‘Chicago’ is a sad girl’s attempt at an optimistic love song,” Lazar explains, hinting at the shade of anguish that lurks beneath the wishful romanticism.

Could you let me just
See you, reach you
One more time and then I’ll know how to
Leave you, keep you
Off my mind on the plane home
I’ll let myself fall apart
For one more ride in your car
Wherever you want to- I do

The dreamy textures return on ‘Only One’, though the hazy atmosphere hides a set of teeth, before the leisurely soul of ‘Fill’ arrives, the track denaturing across its short length as guitar skitters across its face. All that’s left then is the title track to close, a piano-led ballad that strips away everything but the simplest emotion and Lazar’s vocals. The track’s lo-fi nature masks the richness at its heart, serving as a fitting conclusion to what is an impassioned and intimate release.

Honey is out now and available from the Caroline Lazar Bandcamp page.

The post Caroline Lazar – Honey appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Tracklisting:

Dear Nora – White Fur
Lawn – 2000 Boy
Pearl Crush – True Blue
Dead Painters – Fool On Fire
Slowcoaches – Found Down
Two Meters – Left Behind
Kerem Atalay – Winter 2
Pat Moon – I Belong
Blood Hype – Not Too Good
Talons’ – Driving Home From Shows
The Nova Darlings – I Like Crashing My Car (Into Yours)
Dead Sullivan – Swallow
Onlyness – Comfortable
Of the Valley – Italy
Nice Knees – Backout
Suburban Pets – Candy
Minor Moon – It’s Okay
Caroline Lazar – Georgia
Heatwarmer – American Dog
Jacob Furr – Life Comes At You Fast
Deux Trois – Dave
Grace Turner – Dead or Alive
Britton Patrick Morgan – Southern Drawl

The post June 2018 Roundup appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Of The Valley – Italy

Of The Valley is the recording project of Canadian-born, Copenhagen-based songwriter Brian DellaValle. Ahead of a debut full-length that is set for release soon, DellaValle is currently releasing stand-alone singles, beginning with ‘Quiet and Curious’ back in March. The track was a good introduction to the Of The Valley style, a slow, sad and atmospheric brand of folk which supports DellaValle’s affecting baritone vocals.

His latest single, ‘Italy’ follows a similar pattern, wrapped in warm melancholy that brings to mind a later-era Mark Kozelek. Thematically, the track charts a relationship and its slow evolution across time, change as a shaping force, capable of builing and destroying in equal measure. As the press release describes:

“Italy is a voyeuristic slice into a moment between two people. Beauty in such situations can certainly be found between those two, but also between the lines. When something important comes apart, it takes courage and time to find if you can build it back again.”

Slowcoaches – Found Down

London’s pop punk trio Slowcoaches have been putting out tunes as ferocious as they are catchy for a good while now, with 2016’s album Nothing Gives followed by a series of singles. The latest of which, ‘Found Down’, is the lead track from a new two-song release on Sonic Unyon Records. A boisterous, squally listen, the track races around the throaty vocals of Heather Perkins, demanding you join in with the hollered chorus. “on the dirty ground, I gotta grow up, grow up,” she shouts, “you say you want to be around, you never show up, show up.” However, the words are secondary to the sheer energy and attitude bursting from their delivery in cathartic release, a furious shedding of all of life’s soul-destroyingly banal frustrations in a two-and-a-half-minute storm.

The Found Down 7″ is out on the 30th June via Sonic Unyon Records and you can pre-order it from the Slowcoaches Bandcamp page, including on vinyl.

Minor Moon – It’s Okay

We first wrote about Sam Cantor’s Minor Moon back in 2016 when we covered A Whisper, A Shout, an album we described as “fuelled by the insistent dread of self-doubt and bad feeling to [become] something keenly honest and cathartic, yet always coloured with wry self-referential lines about that very process.” This was followed by an EP What Our Enemies Know, and now Cantor and co. are back with ‘It’s Okay’, a brand new single ahead of a future full-length album.

Don’t let first impressions deceive you. The instrumentation of ‘It’s Okay’ is something of a Trojan horse, housing a keen existential anxiety that flourishes in the lyrics. Therefore, while the sound evokes a timeless rock vibe, the themes of the track are actually far more contemporary, detailing the sense of alienation and dread that comes with the creeping ubiquity of technology and mass media. The song sees something of a fight back against this, preaching the idea that any form of resistance and human connection is valuable, and any attempt to be okay is at least some way closer to realising the wish. As Cantor explains: “I can be very cynical and take a dark view of things, but that cynicism is rooted so much in a desire for hope and for a better world.”

You can grab ‘It’s Okay’ from the Minor Moon Bandcamp page, along with the previous releases.

Caroline Lazar – Georgia

Caroline Lazar is a songwriter from outside Atlanta, so new single ‘Georgia’ is aptly named. The track is the first taste of a new EP to be released on My Little Empire Records, and shows off Lazar’s melancholic mix of bedroom pop and folk. The basis of the track is a languorous flow, a slow summer heat that ripples the vocals into a sedated, less immediate form of heartbreak. But heartbreak this track is, detailing a lost love and conflicted hopes of its return. “Why am I hoping that you might be holding someone else?” Lazar laments, “need a better reason to replace your picture on my shelf.”

Caroline Lazar’s EP is to be released soon via My Little Empire Records, so keep an eye on Bandcamp for further news.

Heatwarmer – Here Comes The Band

Heatwarmer are three piece from Seattle, Washington, who put out their latest album, Here Comes The Band last autumn. The record layers rich retro-pop with tongue-in-cheek humour, something like Mike Pace and the Child Actors taken to the next level of irony. ‘American Dog’ is the prime example, a smooth backwards-looking love ballad, though the focus of this emotion is not a beautiful woman or dark and handsome man, but a small, canine US national. Yes, really. The chorus makes it pretty clear:

“Oh oh oh oh my god
I didn’t know I’d feel this way about a little dog

American dog, American dog
I fell in love with an American dog
Good God, I fell in love with an American dog”

Here Comes The Band is out now and you can get it from the Heatwarmer Bandcamp page.

The Nova Darlings – I Like Crashing My Car (Into Yours)

Hailing from Los Angeles, The Nova Darlings are a garage rock four-piece described by their bio as “equal parts violent and tender.” Their sound draws upon influences from either side of the millennium, mixing the 90s guitar of Built to Spill and 00s vibes akin to The Shins with a more contemporary bedroom pop aesthetic that brings to mind The Washboard Abs. As a result, they manage to live up the the bio’s promise, capable of earnest emotion and ramshackle rocking within the very same track.

Since their EP Songs for Felix back in March, the band have been putting out a series of singles. The latest of which, ‘I Like Crashing My Car (Into Yours)’ is the perfect example of the sound we describe above, the tenderness of the vocals juxtaposing with the violence of the title and lyrics, and the carefree rhythm of the instrumentation managing to serve both.

You can grab ‘I Like Crashing My Car (Into Yours)’, as well as the other singles, from The Nova Darlings Bandcamp page.

Jacob Furr – Life Comes At You Fast

We’ve written about Texan songwriter Jacob Furr a few times in the past, first in 2014 upon the release of his debut album Trails & Traces, and then again in 2017 in a belated review of his sophomore record Sierra Madre. The conclusion of the latter post functions as a neat summation of what Furr’s music is all about: “Hope doesn’t have to be a sentimental act or retreat from reality, rather a considered and consistent refusal to give in. [Furr] finds strength in weathering storms, and, what’s more, wants to share that notion with you too.”

Last month saw the release of a brand new single, ‘Life Comes At You Fast’, and again a similar sense runs through the track. The nostalgic Americana sound is the ideal medium to capture the wistful attitude, and the whole thing is dressed in fondness too, as though any sense of melancholy is not so much regret but rather a reminder to feel.

“Running like a river through your dreams
down into the ocean, where nothing is as it seems.
And you watch the seasons change, you listen to the rain,
see the wind that’s tied up in the trees.

And you know just how that feels
Wishing you were free”

‘Life Comes At You Fast’ is available now from the Jacob Furr Bandcamp page, along with his previous releases.

Deux Trois – Dave

Working out of Kingston, Ontario, Deux Trois is something of a Canadian super group, featuring Nadia Pacey (Konig) Benjamin Nelson (PS I Love You) and Ben Webb (Carvings). Ahead of a new eight-song release, Health, the three-piece have been unveiling some singles to get the anticipation up. Following on from the hypnotic and salacious ‘Late Night Girls’, latest song ‘Dave’ moves on to unrequited love and the invisibility it casts over its suffers. The song has something of a dual perspective, the present pining for the titular Dave, but also one positioned ahead of the moment, looking back, free from the clutches of the once consuming conviction of love.

“Dave, I feel like an infant
Dave, just tell me I’m human
you look so sad but didn’t age that bad
drop the glass and struggle hard but
it’s all gone to waste.

At the time I was just a kid
you said you loved me but you never did”

Health will be released on the 8th June in a variety of formats, so keep an eye on the Deux Trois Bandcamp page.

Grace Turner – Dead or Alive

Utilising elements of folk, rock and country, Australian musician Grace Turner crafts songs at once energetic and emotional, the charged sound allowing her to delve into intimate and honest personal difficulties without ever coming off as trite or overwrought.

Latest single ‘Dead or Alive’ is a case in point, the persistent momentum of the drums leading Turner into a haunting exploration of internal suffering and the comfort that human connection can bring in the face of such turmoil. “The lyrics in the chorus are literally transcribed from [a] conversation,” Turner explains. “[A friend] called and said, ‘I didn’t know if you’d be dead or alive’. The whole song was written in about an hour after the phone call.”

“That was so sweet just the other night
You called me just to see if I was alright
You said you didn’t know if i’d be dead or alive
You said you worry so much about me sometimes”

‘Dead or Alive’ is out now and you can snag it at the Grace Turner Bandcamp page.

Britton Patrick Morgan – Southern Drawl

Britton Patrick Morgan is a multi-instrumentalist based in Kentucky who has recently put out his debut album, High Lonesome Throne. The record is rooted in the folk traditions, with Morgan using a 1947 Gibson LG2 parlour guitar to evoke a timeless quality to his sound, despite loving his Huss & Dalton guitar enough to give it the name Jane. “Instruments,” he explains, “much like people, have their own distinct personalities.”

‘Southern Drawl’ is a great welcome into this warm and wistful world, a song drawn forth from an age old existence in the American south, where the landscape colours the essence of life and a kind of patient longing seeps into the fabric of things. Fittingly, the song is pitched somewhere between plaintive and hopeful, a kind and compassionate word into the air in the hope that others might hear.

“I’d try to catch you if you had a fall
nobody’s perfect, we’re all flawed
If you ever need me you can call
And I’ll always love you
with a southern drawl.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYc45eO2pFw

High Lonesome Throne is out now and you can get it from iTunes.

You can find all of the previous instalments of Bright Sparks here, and be sure to check back in a few weeks to see what makes the next edition.

The post Bright Sparks: Vol. 13 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Ohyeahsumi – Daisy

Ohyeahsumi are Rena and Lena Vernon from California, a pair who describe their journey as going “from wombmates to bandmates to your mates.”  Their album, Your Friends Are Looking For You, is due out at the end of the month on the ever reliable Sports Day Records, and you can hear the first single, ‘Daisy’ right now. Dark and languid, the track plays like the midnight meandering of some city river, dreamy and dappled with light yet mildly dangerous, as though beneath the fascinating surface lies something altogether more strange and ominous.

“Scared of being pretty
Room is dirty, mind is filthy
My dress curves clearly
At the waist”

Your Friends Are Looking For You is to be released on the 31st March and you can pre-order it now via Bandcamp, including a special edition cassette complete with cards designed by Bronwyn Walls.

Lizzie No – Crying Wolf

Lizzie No is a songwriter and harpist based in Brooklyn who is set to release her debut album, Hard Won, this spring. Written during a “lonely night shift at the box office of a midtown venue in NYC”, lead single ‘Crying Wolf’ is energetic-yet-dark folk song. No’s vocals, led by the music or else leading, possess a repetitive cadence which suggests an almost trance-like quality, a gradually dawning delirium from which wisdom is channelled.

Hard Won is out this spring, so keep on eye on Lizzie No’s Bandcamp page.

Amanda Glasser – Bed

Amanda Glasser is a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter from Baltimore. Not content with her output with her band Purrer, Glasser is set to release her solo debut album, Caelesti Radio, an album which she says “is a light that shines on the difficult emotions surrounding trauma, love, fighting to be heard and moving on.” ‘Bed’ is our first taste of the album and has certainly whet our appetite, a superior slice of bummed out, downbeat indie rock. It’s reminiscent of Low in its use of plaintive melancholy and A Weather in the way it melds the sad and insular rainy-day vibe with swelling instrumentation, primarily throaty guitar and galloping drum beat.

It’s a great introduction and has me anticipating the album impatiently. Keep an eye on the Amanda Glasser Bandcamp page for details.

Batwings Catwings – Sky Blue Haze

LA’s Batwings Catwings make what they describe as “Inspired radio-friendly noise pop with no pretences”. On a recent tour of Japan, the band made a video for the three minute blast of infectious noise that is ‘Sky Blue Haze’, the standout track from last year’s Coast to Coast. The video captures visually what the song does aurally, just a rollicking, no-frills good time that highlights the raw energy of a band with a growing reputation for their live shows.

You can get Coast to Coast now via Broken World Media or the Batwings Catwings Bandcamp page.

Caroline Lazar – Nevermine

Taken from a forthcoming EP of the same name, Caroline Lazar’s ‘Nevermine’ introduces her pop/folk fusion, all built up around striking vocals which gather in slow intensity, the energy and intent inching forwards with fluid force like an approaching tide. By the finale Lazar seems barely held together, her voice positively exploding with a depth and energy beyond her years.

Nevermine is set for release on the 24th March and you can pre-order it now from Bandcamp.

Why a fox – Cleland

Why a fox is the recording project of Australian-native, Japan-based songwriter Hayden Marks. With his debut LP Old forest. Young trees. set for release this April, opening track ‘Cleland’ sets the tempo with a pacey, lyric-filled two-and-a-half-minutes, like a cross of Camp Cope and the Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 soundtrack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsCi5wtlAt8

You can pre-order Old forest. Young trees. now from the Why a fox Bandcamp page.

Brice Randall Bickford – Paro

Brice Randall Bickford made his name with the folk-country band The Strugglers back in the 2000s, before moving back to North Carolina in 2011 and starting to record under his own name. His latest album, Paro, released recently on Keeled Scales explores “themes such as humanity’s tendency toward greed, control over others, systems of government, and the consequences of the adoption of agriculture”. Standout ‘The First Grain’  makes good on this promise, what at first appears a pleasant country-rock song slowly revealing its world-weary literary edge.

“When you cut your teeth on
Whatever you were handed
The first time thinking, I don’t belong
You didn’t know the half of it”

You can get Paro now from Keeled Scales webstore and the Brice Randall Bickford Bandcamp page.

Lizzie Kent – EP

Lizzie Kent is a singer-songwriter from Vancouver, BC, who released her debut self-titled EP last summer. Luckily for those of us who missed it the first time around, the songs are probably more suited to these grey windy days than August’s sun, so now is a great time to right the wrong and get to know Kent’s sound. ‘Secrets’ is a good place to start, a melancholy, nostalgia-filled song where the vocals take centre stage while guitar plucks at the surrounding silence.

“Take me back to just last spring,
when the flowers bloomed and the birds would sing
Take me back to the time in our lives
when all things lost were bound to survive”

You can buy the Lizzie Kent EP now from Bandcamp.

Mt. Doubt – Tourists

Edinburgh-based Leo Bargery, AKA Mt. Doubt, has teamed up with Dunfermline band Foreignfox to put out an AA-side single Tourists / Lights Off, Carry Me Home, out the end of the month on Scottish Fiction. Mt. Doubt’s ‘Tourists’ is best described as a happy collision between The National and The Twilight Sad, Bargery’s baritone vocals and joined by insistent drums and sizeable guitars which sweeps you up within its heft, even possessing a manic Berningerian on-the-verge-of-losing-it shouty finale.

The single is out on the 31st March and you can pre-order it now, though it’s also the first single from a forthcoming EP The Loneliness of the TV Watchers, which judging by the title is a record that’s going to be right up our alley.

The post Best of the Rest: Things We Have Missed #10 appeared first on Various Small Flames.