November 2014 Roundup – A Mixtape

Jon Doyle — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 18:18:00 +0000

If you haven’t been following our posts in the last month, check out this handy mix to be sure not to miss a ton of great artists.

Tracklist:

1. Deserter – Siskiyou
2. Pill – Ought
3. There’s a GIrl In the Corner – The Twilight Sad
4. Kill What You Love – Scotdrakula
5. PS You Still Do This To Me – Kissing Fractures
6. Walls – Two White Cranes
7. Lifetime Warranty – Cyberbully Mom Club
8. The Great Big World – R.L. Kelly
9. Misery Loves Company – Gorgeous Bully
10. Blah Blah Blah – Girlpool
11. My Song – Spencer Radcliffe
12. Summer Lawns – Mike Pace & The Child Actors
13. Crossroads – Sally Fowler
14. Sweet Isolation – Nathan Reich
15. Home At Last – John Statz
16. Our Town – Chalk
17. Mole – The Mountain Goats
18. Easy It Goes – Eric & Magill
19. Slow Thickening – German Error Message
20. Cabin Lights – Lung Cycles
21. The Day is Past and Gone (Variations) – Sarah Louise
22. Holding – Grouper

November 2014 Mix from Wake The Deaf on 8tracks Radio.

The post November 2014 Roundup – A Mixtape appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Chalk – How to Become a Recluse

Jon Doyle — Mon, 17 Nov 2014 19:49:00 +0000

Chalk is Brighton’s Steven Stride. He makes music that is somewhere between folk, indie rock and 90s emo. His music is also rooted in the UK, brimming with the decidedly British conundrum thinking ill of your hometown while also feeling a pride or something akin to it.

Let’s get things straight, How to Become a Recluse is a pretty morose album. The aforementioned pride is not allowed to dwell in broad daylight but is instead hidden in some gloomy corner of what is already a rather gloomy scene. But, this ‘resignation’ can’t be real resignation. Real resignation would be an acceptance of things just the way they are and writing an album bemoaning the situation does not really qualify as that. No, this ‘resignation’ is the opposite, this ‘resignation’ is a bitter and pessimistic and frankly pissed off brand of hope. A refusal to accept the situation while acknowledging it never will.

‘Our Town’ and ‘Slept with a Knife’ capture this sort of thing perfect. Bringing to mind the stripped-back offerings from the sadly missed Tubelord, the instrumentation here is strange and slightly off-kilter, the vocals clear and prominent and focused on the relationship between people and their hometowns, a weird sort of disappointed innocence or innocent disappointment.

“Retching up the ground
morons get the crowd
you’re not what you say you are,
your bulked up body won’t get you far.”

You can buy How To Become A Recluse now from Bandcamp.

The post Chalk – How to Become a Recluse appeared first on Various Small Flames.

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November 2014 Roundup – A Mixtape

Chalk – How to Become a Recluse