Christmas Archives - Various Small Flames

Young Elk cover God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

Jon Doyle — Mon, 19 Dec 2016 19:22:18 +0000

Without wishing to come across the resident scrooges, we weren’t planning on posting anything Christmas-related. No festive cover albums. No holiday mixtapes. No insufferable reworkings of insufferable songs. If this says something about our psychology, then we dread to think what the song that caused us to break this stance might signify.

We wrote a short piece about the Portland’s Young Elk back in November. The backstory of lead Ezekial J. Rudick is suggestive of something weighty, and the title track confirming this with its bleak atmosphere and strong song writing. As we described in our post:

Imagine taking the slow-burn bitterness of Bazan, adding the sinister undercurrent of Water Liars and sprinkling an almost Berningerian knack for imagery both mundane and melodramatic

If the ‘edgy’ person in the office requests ‘Fairytale of New York’ at the Christmas party, then Young Elk’s take on ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’ is the song wanted only by the guy who didn’t show up because he’s driving aimlessly across the night, chain smoking and thinking about doing things he might regret. Rehearsed, arranged and recorded in under 48 hours at Holiday Breath Studios, the track sees Kendall Sallay add her voices for the haunting refrain:

“will you keep me company?
(tidings of comfort and joy)

will you keep me company?
(tidings of comfort and joy)”

Young Elk’s excellent debut album The Dark Side of the Holy Ghost is out now and you can get it from Bandcamp.

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Z Tapes – Christmas Benefit Compilation

Liam Doyle — Mon, 21 Dec 2015 17:59:14 +0000

We’re big, big fans of Z Tapes here at Wake the Deaf. If you’re new to the Bratislava-based label, I’d highly suggest checking out the Z Tapes tag here. Imagine our excitement then when we heard Filip had a benefit compilation planned for Christmas. Simply titled Christmas Benefit Compilation, the album brings 14 festive tracks by some of the Z Tapes roster. There are some killer covers, including those by Fox Academy, Dying Adolescence and The Washboard Abs (who provides one of two covers of Advance Base’s ‘Christmas in Dearborn’, a great track from his latest album Nephew in the Wild). We love The Washboard Abs and we love everything Owen Ashworth does, so we were particularly excited about this one.

There are also some original tracks, for example from Pet Cemetery, Real Swell and EP. The latter’s track, ‘Such a Clatter (No Christmas)’, a slightly hyperactive-sounding lo-fi casio track. Check it out below:

This being a benefit compilation, you can rest assured that all profits go to a good cause. As Filip explains:

“This year we wanted to do something special for Christmas and give something back to people that need help. We created this Christmas compilation to support a small, but amazing Slovakian organization running a shelter for battered women and helping kids without proper families in a small town, not far away from the place where I grew up. I met them this summer, and from that point on I wanted to help them financially. They need a lot of money. Therefore all profits from this compilation will go towards their honest work. Please help this organization build a better home for people in need.”

You can get the Z Tapes Christmas Benefit Compilation now via Bandcamp. You’ll get some great festive music in time for Christmas and you’ll help out some people who really need it. What have you got to lose?

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Advent Calendar [17th]: The Pollyanna Band – Silent Night

Jon Doyle — Tue, 17 Dec 2013 15:09:16 +0000

Songwriters Annie Dressner and Polly Paulusma have teamed up to take on the monstrosity of commercial Christmas, forming The Pollyanna Band. We have featured Annie a few times here at WTD (e.g. here and here) and are delighted to have her fronting a campaign for all that is good and proper (i.e. not controlled by Simon Cowell).

The Pollyanna Band have released lovely renditions of ‘Silent Night’ and ‘Christmas All the Time’, which you can get here.

The Telegraph has them at 250/1 for the Christmas number one spot. Why not help them out?

(P.S. I made myself sit through some of the alternatives… I wouldn’t want anyone else to go through that.)

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Advent Calendar [12th]: Fyfe – We Three Kings

Jon Doyle — Thu, 12 Dec 2013 13:17:54 +0000

An advent calendar wouldn’t be much without a Christmas cover! Doing the honours this year is Fyfe. Equal parts haunting, striking and gorgeous, Fyfe’s acapella cover of Ella Fitzgerald’s We Three Kings does the equally brilliant (if somewhat jazzier) original justice.

It’s available for free download on Fyfe’s soundcloud, so grab it, light some candles and get snuggled under a blanket to really get into the Christmas spirit.

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Wake The Deaf’s Advent Calendar 2013

Jon Doyle — Sat, 30 Nov 2013 19:04:00 +0000

What better way to count down to Christmas than with good music? With no festive theme in particular, we’ll be sharing a song a day in the lead up to the 25th. We hope to feature a variety of genres so there is something for everyone.

Check back each day in December to find a song we think you will enjoy.

1st – Ages and Ages
2nd – Ricky Eat Acid
3rd – Nate Connelly
4th – Jess Williamson
5th – River Tiber
6th – Damien Jurado
7th – Palehound
8th – Whirr
9th – Glass Vaults
10th – House By The Lake
11th – Lyndsie Alguire
12th – Fyfe
13th – Princess Reason
14th – Water Liars
15th – Frog Eyes
16th – Sirs
17th – The Pollyanna Band
18th – Kalle Mattson
19th – Netherfriends
20th – Wake Owl
21st – Beat Radio
22nd – Emily Reo
23rd – Donovan Woods
Christmas Eve – Polyvinyl Compilation

Merry Christmas!

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WTD’s Advent Calendar – 22 – The Holidays Don’t Have To Be So Rotten Volume 3

Jon Doyle — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 12:13:00 +0000

More Christmas music today. The Holidays Don’t Have To Be So Rotten is a Christmas charity compilation put together by the good people at Flannelgraph Records. All profits go to Middle Way House, a crisis shelter for women affected by domestic abuse and rape. The idea is that this Christmas album raises funds for Christmas presents for the children currently staying at the shelter with their mothers (but I’m sure donations are welcome all year round). The album itself is entirely instrumental and features 34 different artists, including Owen Ashworth’s Advance Base, Candy Claws, DM Stith, Bro. Stephen and The Parade Schedule. The compilation covers a huge diversity of genres from electronic to mathy rock and roll, post rock to weird avant-garde psychedelics.

You can buy a digital copy of the compilation via Bandcamp, and you can also get a download code plus a themed Christmas card from the Flannelgraph Records website. If you like what you hear, I would also recommend checking out the two previous volumes (Volume 1 and Volume 2), which feature bands such as Dolorean, Dirty Beaches, Drekka and Sleeping Bag. This really is a good cause and certainly a very good way of making someone else’s holidays a lot less rotten.

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WTD’s Advent Calendar – 20 – Old Ugly’s Christmas With Friends

Jon Doyle — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 11:12:00 +0000

Only five days until Christmas so I thought I’d share another festive release. Edmonton’s Old Ugly label have put together a Christmas album featuring some talented folks from variety of genres. The collection of songs is a combined effort between Old Ugly and their Cabin Songs offshoot so while there is your fair share of beautiful acoustic music there is also some nice ambient/experiemental stuff too. just compare the two selected tracks below to see the kind of variation on this release. It’s a lovely change from the usual awful covers that surface at this time of year.

Chris Tenz – Glimpses by OLD UGLY

Butterbones – Golden Rivers II by OLD UGLY

Download it for free on Bandcamp and enjoy while wrapping presents or cooking your turkey.

Tomorrow’s post won’t be from Canada, promise.

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WTD’s Advent Calendar – 15 – Loraine

Jon Doyle — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 16:23:00 +0000

Loraine are a new instrumental post-rock band out of Atlanta. Their EP, An Autumn Evening, was self-recorded and produced in several bedrooms but you would never guess it from the full encapsulating sound. I’m not an expert of the intricacies of post rock but this sounds very nice to me; gradual build ups, soaring guitars, crashing cresendos, all of which manage to invoke whatever it is in the human brain that reacts to this sort of music with goosebumps and that familiar soaring feeling. What more could you want? Listen below to see what I mean.

After Everything, More Than Anything by Loraine

The EP is available on a pay-what-you-can basis over at Bandcamp. The lovely artwork is by Leonid Afremov.

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WTD’s Advent Calendar – 9 – Portage

Jon Doyle — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 10:20:22 +0000

Portage are back with their second* LP, Landings. I’ll admit now that this is the first I’ve heard of the Minnesotans (kudos to Adam for changing this), and I like what I’m hearing. If you enjoy rock & roll that is sometimes bluesy, sometimes contemplative, and sometimes finger-clicking-foot-stomping, I think you will too.

Check out the first track from the album below and buy the whole thing on Bandcamp.

Getting Easier by Portage

*Be sure to check out their debut too, also available on Bandcamp.

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WTD’s Advent Calendar – 8 – Sam Moss

Liam Doyle — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 17:00:07 +0000

Today’s feature is on an album which was released over a year ago but which escaped my attention until now. It is also the first (and quite possibly the last) Christmas music to feature in our Advent Calendar. The record, entitled ‘Tree and Star: A Christmas Album For Solo Electrified Guitar’, is courtesy of Vermont’s Sam Moss (who I previously wrote about here). The title serves as a pretty accurate description of the album, it’s just Moss on his guitar playing sparse instrumental interpretations of everyone’s favourite Christmas songs. I’m not sure it’s going to kickstart a Christmas party but it’s simple and reserved and very good. If you hurry (as there’s only 3 remaining as I’m writing this) you can get a CD of the album for $10 (£6.25) or download it for just $4 (£2.50) over at Moss’ Bandcamp page.

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