However, as latest single ‘Human Bean Instruction Manual’ demonstrates, this new era of Pickle Darling does not jettison the idiosyncratic charm which has won the project so many fans. Nor does a commitment to forthright communication elide any sense of ambiguity. Indeed, this is a song all about such ambiguity, and how learning to embrace the doubt inherent within growing up in this strange present. “I just turned thirty and there’s no damn manual for this,” as Mayo explains. “Transitioning out of being a young adult in 2025 is like suddenly landing on a hostile planet our bodies haven’t adapted to.”

As if to mirror this tangle of uncertainty, the song sprawls to near seven fuzzy minutes. A track perhaps not direct in terms of style, but every bit as forthright as its predecessor when it comes to the message it carries. As Mayo concludes: “Everything we thought was important doesn’t mean shit. Everything is out to attack us, so all we can do is form our alliances and hang on tight.”

Watch the visualiser by Christiane Shortal below:

‘Human Bean Instruction Manual’ is out now via Father/Daughter Records and available from Bandcamp.

Photo by Nick Robinson

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With album yoyo coming next month on Grind Select, New York‘s A Beacon School has unveiled new single ‘Alone’. Following on from the frustrations of previous track ‘KITM‘, the song offers dawning light, ramping up the rhythm within the shimmering air as if to chase after the feeling. “‘Alone’ is about the moment when you feel like your luck is finally turning,” Patrick J. Smith explains. “Nothing’s been going your way, so when you catch the faintest glimmer of hope you grab on to it as tight as you can.”

Bret Mosley – Wayside

Bret Mosley’s new album Through the Fire is a product of a personal journey across many years. “After arriving in Australia, I was excruciatingly alone—contending with life-threatening abuse and battling to hang on,” explains the Melbourne-based songwriter. The record might have started as a way of processing this trauma and isolation, but ultimately became a vehicle to help Mosley escape from it. Single ‘Wayside’ captures this catharsis in all of its heartfelt authenticity, channelling the likes of Uncle Tupelo and Will Johnson in its earthy, often stark lyricism, and building towards a searing conviction.

And here I hang by the wayside
Gladly the man ordained
The dark red reign
Long weathered was not in vain, and
I’m fine to hang by the wayside

Corrine Sharlet – Belief and Imagination

“A woozy, cosmic atmosphere, like a message of devotion beamed across the void of space from the lunar surface referenced in the title.” That’s how we described ‘Pink Summer Moon‘ by Portland‘s Corinne Sharlet back in 2021. The title track from new EP Belief and Imagination, Sharlet’s latest single might be more grounded in earthly emotions, though is no less devotional in tone. Built on subtle instrumentation and Sharlet’s arresting vocals, it’s a song which draws inspiration from working as a therapist to champion the fundamental importance of storytelling within the human experience.

telling lies just to say something real
choose to hide or you choose to reveal
what do you know you only know what you feel

Daffo – Poor Madeline

The recording project of Philadelphia‘s Gabi Gamberg, Daffo is preparing to release an EP, Pest, next month. Latest single ‘Poor Madeline’ serves as the perfect introduction, a portrait of a title character down on their luck, where every small pain only serves to bring back memories of a larger one. The sound captures the mood in its gradual transformation. What begins as an intimate folk song escalates into something altogether louder, as though there’s a fire lit beneath the sound that slowly grows, before going up in a blaze in the final minutes.

‘Poor Madeline’ is out now and you can find Daffo at all the usual places.

Deau Eyes – Legacies

Following the release of album Legacies via subflora last year, Deau Eyes (AKA Richmond‘s Ali Thibodeau) has returned with a brand new video for the title track, made with brother and collaborator Michael Thibodeau. “Our whole lives, Michael has followed me around with a camcorder and I used to create songs on our karaoke machine tape deck,” Thibodeau explains, and the ‘Legacies’ video feels like the culmination of the practice. “We spitballed on awkward bits of our childhood, the beautiful melodrama of tradition, and all the unlikely characters that we have crossed paths with over the years.”

Legacies is out now via subflora and available from Bandcamp.

Fazerdaze – Bigger

The recording project of Christchurch‘s Amelia Murray, Fazerdaze made waves back in 2017 with debut album Morningside on Flying Nun Records, introducing a distinctive blend of dream pop and alt rock sensibilities. Now signed with Partisan Records‘ section1, Murray has unveiled new single ‘Bigger’, a song which continues this style to draw the audience into an interior world. It explores the strange sensation of passing into adulthood as a touring musician, where the alluring pull of stardom distorts real life. As the refrain puts it: “We’re caught between this life and dream.”

Watch the video filmed by Tom Lynch below:

‘Bigger’ is out now via section1 and available from the Fazerdaze Bandcamp page.

Ian Davies – Still Hurts

‘Still Hurts’ is the first single and title track from a forthcoming album by Montreal-based songwriter Ian Davies. We’ve previously described Davies’s work as “at once laid back and fatalistic,” and the new song offers a similarly conflicted tone. He calls it “a full blown country rock smash that contemplates the art/pain paradox in the hopes of striking gold at rock bottom,” like a downtrodden country ballad where even the worst of things holds a curious promise. It might be dumb hope, persistent optimism or just the effects of some chemical help, but even the cold floor of your lowest point might just hold a speckled shimmer of precious metals.

Julie Arsenault – Tiny Beam of Light

This autumn, Canadian singer-songwriter Julie Arsenault will release her second album, Nothing Sweeter, via Son Canciones. But despite the release date, lead single ‘Tiny Beam of Light’ is very much a summer song. Wrapped in the golden romanticism of 50s and 60s pop, the song swoons and sways in the melancholic rays of the late afternoon sun. The opening verse sees the protagonist emerge from the depths of winter (“like a vampire, my body pale and cold”) and stretch their limbs in the enveloping warmth of summer, opening themselves up to the promise of brightness of many forms.

I emerge like a vision, a tiny beam of light
Shining in through your curtain
asking you how you slept last night
When you emerge from a dream, like an angel on my screen
‘Cause it’s summertime
Time to look on the bright side

Virgo Rising – Tristan

The second single from sophomore EP Vampyre Year, ‘Tristan’ is the latest track from Winnipeg indie pop band Virgo Rising. What lead Emily Sinclair calls “a loud, cathartic rock song, almost like a messy chant about the boy I would’ve been,” the song has been a fixture of the Virgo Rising live set for a while, where its singalong chorus has made it a fan favourite. In comparison to the gentle folkiness of lead single ‘Nail Biter, ‘Tristan’ has a heavier 90s alt-rock vibe, something accentuated by the decision to record the EP version largely live. It’s big and stormy and emotive and builds to a cathartic denoument.

Volunteer Department – Old Friend

Writing about Volunteer Department‘s Clean Living last year, we noted the “mixture of elegance and ugliness that forms the essence of the Volunteer Department aesthetic.” The Nashville-based project has returned with new single ‘Old Friend’ on Like Your Mean It Records, the track using LA as the back-drop to a similarly ambivalent atmosphere. “Is it safe to drink the dream in LA? / And whatever else they’re pumping it with?” as Oliver Hopkins asks. “Is it safe to drink the dream in LA? / Or is everyone living off promises?” But beneath this lies a picture of love and loss, specifically with a cat named Old Friend, and offers the most heartfelt picture of feline friendship since Virtute.

The post Weekly Listening: September 2023 #3 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Bo Milli is the recording project of Emilie Østebø, who is based in the Norwegian city of Bergen. Her debut single ‘At The Wheel’ caught the attention of the management firm who also look after Sigrid and AURORA and sent her on a trajectory toward indie rock stardom. New single ‘How is it’ makes good on the first’s promise, a “power-chordy” number that’s a very youthful mix of apathy, anxiety and self-confidence. Think Soccer Mommy meets The Beths, telling tales of hungover bus rides, dancing to The Strokes and a lingering unease that persists despite everything. “It was the second day in a row on the verge of crying,” Østebø sings. “And I had no idea as to why.”

Buggs – Mother

Following on from the success of previous single ‘Flaws‘, a track which landed on Killing Eve no less, London-based outfit Buggs are back with a brand new song on Sad Club Records. With its volatile tempo and nods to Greek myth, ‘Mother’ is full of the idiosyncratic personality of the previous releases. An examination of motherhood and femininity which doubles as both ode and urgent question. “It’s a cry out to my mother/women of the world,” lead Alice Western explains, “asking ‘how do we do this! How do you do this? How do we get through it!'”

Deniz Cuylan – Hidden Language Of Four

Back in 2021, Turkey-born, LA-based guitarist and composer Deniz Cuylan released No Such Thing as Free Will with Hush Hush Records, an album of which fused classic guitar, jazz and minimalist ambient styles into something playful and unique. Never one to settle, follow-up album Rings of Juniper sees Cuylan build this foundation, aiming for a more direct approach which allows his guitar and compositional work to test the line between natural spontaneity and an almost automated efficiency. The result, as shown by single ‘Hidden Language of Four’, is both of those things, possessing an organic sense of order akin to the inner workings of biology.

Gloria de Oliveira & Dean Hurley – Something to Behold

Next month sees the release of Oceans of Time, a collaboration between Gloria de Oliveira and Dean Hurley on Sacred Bones Records. Those familiar with Hurley’s work will recognise the ethereal, suggestive quality of the atmosphere, dreamscapes across which de Oliveira’s vocals play, though amid the intangible shimmer lies something more direct too. An understanding of the elastic strangeness of time, an appreciation of deep emotional truths. Single ‘Something to Behold’ sets the tone, its immersive, Lynchian blend of alluring and eerie all the more impressive for having been crafted between two people who have never met or spoken.

Mim Jensen – Germaphobe

Based in Ōtautahi (Christchurch), Mim Jensen makes soaring indie rock that rides the highs and braves the lows of love and loss. A prolific member of the local scene for a number of years, Jensen has just released her debut single, ‘Germaphobe’. It’s a song about that difficult point in a relationship when it becomes clear things are not working out. “Germaphobe was the result of some uncomfortable emotions and self-reflection,” Jensen explains. “It’s about navigating an incredibly hard time in your life but ultimately learning how to stand in your own power.” But despite its awkward subject matter, the song is delivered with gusto, growing from a quietly turbulent opening into a rock song full of energy and emotion.

Sister Gemini – Scooter Song

Sister Gemini is the indie pop project of Los Angeles-based songwriter Remy Gassman. A vehicle for songs both sharp and sweet, turning toward the rosy past in an effort to flee a difficult present. Latest single ‘Scooter Song’ deals with the process head on, presenting a series of images and events from childhood, remembering them fondly while mourning the inability to return. “Now that I’m older I still see things the same,” Gassman sings, “look back and wonder if you’ve grown into your face / and I’d give everything to go back to that place.”

Swamp Dogg – Soul To Blessed Soul

Back in February, Don Giovanni Records released I Need A Job​.​.​.​So I Can Buy More Auto​-​Tune by legendary soul/R&B artist Swamp Dogg (the musical alter ego of Jerry Williams). The album felt like a celebration of a long career, and proved that there is plenty life in the old Dogg yet, bursting at the seams with his characteristic risqué humour and irreverent persona. Fresh from celebrating his eightieth birthday with a sold out show in LA and a festival appearance in Berlin, Swamp Dogg has recently released a new video for the track ‘Soul To Blessed Soul’, the album’s swaying slow-burner that’s a genuine heartfelt love song beneath the smooth, suggestive surface. Take a look at the typically eccentric video, directed by MoogStar Clemon below:

I Need A Job​.​.​.​So I Can Buy More Auto​-​Tune is out now via Don Giovanni Records and you can get it from the Swamp Dogg Bandcamp page.

Tommy Lefroy – Dog Eat Dog

Based between London and LA, Tommy Lefroy is the project of Wynter Bethel and Tessa Mouzourakis, who make literate and pop-tinged indie rock in the vein of Phoebe Bridgers or Lucy Dacus. Latest single ‘Dog Eat Dog’ is a song that takes aim at the patriarchy from a position of dogged strength, full of the tenacious determination to live on one’s own terms. Check out the music video, which sees Bethel and Mouzourakis channel Joan of Arc and don literal armour in preparation for this fight, below:

‘Dog Eat Dog’ is out now via LAB Records and available via Bandcamp.

Why Dogs Why – List of Fears

The music of Why Dogs Why has caught our eye in the past with what we’ve called its “tongue-in-cheek humour and razor sharp commentary on the banality of contemporary life.” Yet none of the previous releases have been quite as sharp as new single ‘List of Fears’, a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it slice of hyperactive panic delivered without even a pause for breath. Dying alone, answering phones, spinal injury, tall stacks of loans… all your worries are catered for, but they’ve never sounded like so much fun.

The post Weekly Listening: August 2022 #3 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Now, three years later, Ben Woods has returned with a sophomore effort, Dispeller, a record that promises to be even darker, stranger and more entrancing. Created in Woods’ hometown Lyttelton across the duration of year, the record is occupied with the ordinary and the extraordinary, the harmonious and the dissonant. It takes the sounds of the familiar, right down to the background rattle and clicks of the recording space, and weaves them into songs both gloomy and oddly beautiful. “I found my voice in trying to make atonality croon,” Woods describes. “With Dispeller it was less about harmony — the blend was capturing the songs very honestly in the room, and still making each of them to transport you somewhere different.”

Latest single, ‘Wearing Divine’ captures this feeling perfectly. A slow and shaky duet with Lucy Hunter (of Opposite Sex and Wet Specimen), the song has the tenuous fragility of a dream. The surreal atmosphere blossoms just beyond the midpoint with the onset of Marlon Williams’s tape-degraded choral vocals, like a wordless divine message recorded to an antique answerphone in the dead of night. Check out the video, directed by Woods and Julian Vares, below:

Dispeller will be released on 15th June on Meritorio Records (EU/UK), Shrimper (US) and Melted Ice Cream (NZ). Pre-order it now via the Ben Woods Bandcamp page.

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A few weeks ago we wrote about Stolen Time, the upcoming album by Abigail Lapell on Outside Music, an album “built on solid 70s folk rock foundations while retaining the freedom to get experimental and expansive.” Ahead of its release, Lapell has unveiled new single ‘Land of Plenty’, a track that explores themes of escape and refuge to evoke both history and the contemporary moment. Lapell’s own family fled the Holocaust to North America, and the song’s mournful clarity plays like a hymn offered to those seeking their own safety and place to belong. Check out the video by Sam Tudor below:

Stolen Time is out via Outside Music on the 22nd April and you can pre-order it now.

Constellation Myths – Young Lions (Constantines Cover)

Massachusetts trio Constellation Myths are hard at work on a follow-up to last year’s debut Everything and Time, but found a moment to record a take on the Constantines classic, ‘Young Lions’. The Constellation Myths version strips the taut menace from the original in favour of a half-paced country tone. What was gruff fervour is recast as wistful reflection, though the track is no less emotive as a consequence. Listen to the cover below:

Drench Fries – Out My Window

The recording project of Seattle-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Levi Nattrass, Drench Fries made a splash back in 2019 with EP Ballad Salad, a record which combined retro pop polish with a folk rock twang. Ahead of follow-up Being Silver which arrives later this month, Nattras has unveiled the single ‘Out My Window’, a track which builds upon the previous release to realise its fond examination of friendship and love. Think classic country regret made hazy by the sea mist of the West Coast, with dollops of indie rock fuzz and playful pop synths adding an idiosyncratic charm.

If I need you would you come through, if I called would you pick up?
When the going gets a-rough I’m tired of trying my luck
Six white horses on the hillside, seven ravens in the sky
coming towards me as I turn away and try to insist
on leaving tonight

Emma Geiger – Flock

Ahead of a new EP Haven on Ghost Mountain Records this spring, Durham, North Carolina-based songwriter Emma Geiger has unveiled her latest single, ‘Flock’. Written at dawn amid the aftermath of a relationship and cross country move, the song’s gentle rhythm embraces the strange halfway quality of crepuscular light. The fleeting moment between night and day that carries its own inherent stillness. Geiger’s vocals emerge within this space neither soft or stark, their tone caught somewhere between hesitant and assured in their reflective mood, though always swelling with the promise of change.

Haven is out via Ghost Mountain Records on the 1st April and you can pre-order it from the Emma Geiger Bandcamp page.

Jess Williamson – Texas Blue

Now based in LA, but a Texas native, Jess Williamson‘s latest release is an ode to her home state. A two song cover EP, Texas Blue features a take on Townes van Zandt’s ‘Loretta’ and the ‘Texas River Song’, a traditional song of unknown origin which Townes also made his own. Williamson is joined by Ben Schwab (guitar, bass and organ) and Noah Jeffries (mandolin and fiddle) to flesh out both tracks into timeless folk songs, and in doing so, as the press release puts it “reckons with a state, and state of mind, that feels so close but so far away, and breaks a spell that these songs, and Texas’s big, starry skies, have held over her for so long.”

Mousey – Pudding and Pie

Based in Christchurch, Mousey is the recording project of Sarena Close. Described as “the cold, damaged heart” at the centre of the record, ‘Pudding and Pie’ closes the book on a toxic friendship with all the ups and downs such a process entails. Over six minutes the track shifts from quiet fury to racing energy and back again, the elastic rhythm relaxing outward before snapping to taut attention and eventually rising into a big spacey crescendo. “I think this song is the longest because the torture this person put me through meant there was so much emotional fuel to burn and so much to say,” Close explains. Little could survive such a burning, a wound cauterised in the heat and light.

I won’t be your patsy schmuck
I won’t be your spitting cup
I won’t be your dumping truck
Flags up, don’t push me no more
I’m tired, I’m tired

Steven Lambke – Every Lover Knows

Speaking of Constantines, their very own Steven Lambke has a a brand new solo record Volcano, Volcano coming later this spring on You’ve Changed Records. Described by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson as “an invitation, an exploration of potential, an opportunity for listening and thinking and relating that holds space for otherwise thinking and shared meaning-making,” the album feels like the essence of Lambke’s career distilled into a collection of songs. A record built on trust, community and experimentation, fuelled by those small, fleeting moments of joy amid an otherwise difficult world. Lead single ‘Every Lover Knows’ introduces the style, acknowledging ever-present hardships but bursting with life.

The truth is
every truth is tested
by the world
until it’s busted, twisted, or frayed,
as every lover knows

Young Prisms – Outside Air

Later this month, San Francisco‘s shoegaze outfit Young Prisms return with Drifter, their first record in a decade on Fire Talk Records. Latest single ‘Outside Air’ shows a band transcending the throwback pastiche of the genre and realising a sound fully their own. Described as a song about “about the struggles and difficulties in modern marriage, monogamy, and parenting at a young age,” the track draws on the Californian wildfires that blazed during recording to evoke the suffocating damage resentment can wreak within a relationship. But in reflecting on these truths, the oppressive forces are challenged by a commitment to perseverance and quiet improvement. Check out the video directed by Gio Betteo below:

Drifter is out on the 25th March via Fire Talk Records and you can pre-order it now from the Young Prisms Bandcamp page.

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