“With… tender and confessional vocals, the track paints a vulnerable, open-hearted mood which longs for certainty within the painful fervour of love.” So we described ‘Enough‘, the previous single by San Francisco‘s Bad Tiger. Latest single ‘Obedience’ follows the same mood, but whereas its predecessor bloomed into something brighter, the track fails to break from its atmosphere of understated melancholy. A song somehow both intimate and spacious, as though tapping into the heart of relationship and finding the internal landscape windswept and barren.

All I wanted was a little more time
Before I thought it died
Paranoia, unable to decide
If what we’re holding is alive

‘Obedience’ is out now and available from the usual places.

Con Davison – Look At Me That Way

There’s long been a bittersweet quality to the music of Con Davison, with tracks like ‘Sofa Bed‘ and ‘Postcard‘ marked by the way they use languid pop warmth to explore personal difficulties. Latest single ‘Look At Me That Way’ is no different, its laidback brightness belying the loneliness at its heart. The track “is about my struggle to connect and understand my closest loved ones when life gets hard,” Davison explains. “It’s so easy to isolate and not make an effort when you’re going through some shit. It’s childish and I think LAMTW is my reminder to give it a go at trying to understand and empathize with people, and allow them to understand and empathize with me.”

 Luce Rushton – Night Drive Through

Having risen to prominence under the moniker TV Room, Luce Rushton has now adopted her own name, and single ‘Night Drive Through’ serves as our first impression of what this change might mean. Released via Sad Club Records, the song offers a picture of early-relationship suspicion, as if unable to believe good things might happen, or perhaps anticipating their eventual end right from the beginning. “Being gay, I never thought I would ever find love and so when I did I was convinced at first it was someone playing a prank on me,” as Rushton explains. “Although a love song, I wanted this song to show how every event was clouded by fear.” Watch the video by Amy Ryder and edited by Olly Ryder below:

‘Night Drive Through’ is out now via Sad Club Records and available via the Luce Rushton Bandcamp page.

Middle Priest – Fingernail

Back in July we wrote about Middle Priest, the songwriting project of Raleigh-born, LA-based Colson Dorafshar, describing single ‘Act Your Age’ as “a bright and emotionally charged sound that lands somewhere between the rich, country-inflected rock of the likes of The Wooden Sky and probing resonance of someone like Sinai Vessel.” With EP I thought that I was far away coming soon, Dorafshar has unveiled latest single ‘Fingernail’. Driven by another pressing momentum, the track embraces this style, though within the certainty of its rhythm lies a far more conflicted picture. As though the motion might not be that of impetus but rather the anxious thrashing of a directionless life.

I thought that I was far away is coming soon. Find Middle Priest on Spotify.

Nathan Graham – Somebody Else

With debut album Saint of Second Chances due in October on Pravda Records, Chicago‘s Nathan Graham has released a new single ‘Somebody Else’. It’s a showcase of his signature style, which combines the Blues of Chicago’s South Side with Nashville’s guitar-based Americana to form something both sincere in emotion and smooth in its delivery. Latest single ‘Somebody Else’ is the perfect place to start for the uninitiated, exuding an earnest, soulful confidence despite the uncertainty of its themes. “‘Somebody Else’ is not a relationship song,” as Graham explains. “Well, not in the traditional way. I wrote this to personify the relationship between a person and their art… It’s that pull to keep going and one day you will catch up with your dreams.”

‘Somebody Else’ is out now and is available from the Nathan Graham Bandcamp page.

smol fish – Sweet Taste

A self-described “band of best friends” from Borloo/Perth, smol fish make indie pop that’s at once playful and wryly cutting. They’ve just released their sophomore EP, Crocodile Tears, what they call “a meditation on the themes of childhood nostalgia, showing up for your friends and the anxiety that surrounds both new and old love.” The opening track seems like as good a place as any to start, and ‘Sweet Taste’ delivers right up front. Many a song has taken on the bittersweet nature of life, but smol fish invert the classic view, not finding sadness within the everyday but rather homing in on the good. “Even sour has a sweet taste,” as the song’s refrain states, embracing sensitivity not as some flaw or vulnerability but rather the key to appreciating every day.

I think it’s beautiful the way
that hair turns grey
That nervous feet sway
That eyes full of dust still stare at the day
Still happy in the rain

Teenage Halloween – Getting Bitter

Following on from their self-titled debut, New Jersey punks Teenage Halloween are preparing to release their new full-length, Till You Return on Don Giovanni Records. The act have established themselves as key figures in the contemporary emo/pop punk scene, and latest single ‘Getting Bitter’ shows the new album promises to amp up the emotion and melodies. Bassist Tricia Marshall takes on vocal duties, channelling the love and angst of the Teenage Halloween sound into a picture of addiction in all of its tangled complications. Where a desire to help a loved one struggling with such issues is counterbalanced by an unavoidable frustration. “You grow somewhat resentful of this person who takes family and sobriety for granted,” as Marshall explains, “when in reality it’s not entirely their fault, so you’re left in an uncomfortable crossroad.” Watch the video by Preston Spurlock below:

Till You Return is out on the 20th October via Don Giovanni Records and you can pre-order it now.

There Will Be Fireworks – Classic Movies

“Will this shadow ever leave me? / Does my heart again deceive me?” So asks Nicholas McManus near the beginning of ‘Classic Movies’, the lead single from Summer Moon, There Will Be Fireworks’ first album in a decade. The lines are distillation of the record’s mood. The sense of something starting again, or perhaps the voicing of something which never ceased. There Will Be Fireworks emerged within the noughties golden age of Scottish indie rock, more than holding their own with their characteristically atmospheric and impassioned sound, and the new album is both a continuation of this style and something of an evolution. A collection of songs subject to the elastic nature of time, where the weight of years is always matched by a kind of disbelief that barely a minute could have gone by.

Summer Moon is out on the 3rd November and you can pre-order it now.

Quinn Tsan – Once I had a picture of us

Writing of single ‘Roses‘ back in April, we described how the music of Quinn Tsan has undergone something of a transformation, with the smoky barroom style of her previous work moving towards a more reserved, intimate sound. Latest track ‘Once I had a picture of us’ continues in this new vein, a reflective ode to a relationship fading in time if not the mind. But more than a slice of pure nostalgia, the song matches the wistful reminiscence with a resistant thread too, as though the rose-tinted images are not always welcome, but rather pictures which have slipped through the various defence mechanisms built up in self-protection.

‘Once I had a picture of us’ is out now and available from the usual places.

the world famous – Everyday Fear

The first single from the upcoming the world famous album, totally famous, on Lauren Records, ‘Hollywood Pawn’ “treat[ed] the Californian metropolis with a mixture of derision and delight, both ridiculing its oddities and excesses and riding the crest of its sunny, palm-lined feel-good factor.” The mood is typical for a record which moves through the hardships of modern living—be they emotional, financial or spiritual—with a kind of carefree propulsion. As though maybe refusing to stop will prevent the realities of life weighing you down too heavily. “Afraid, I’m afraid, every single day,” Will Harris exclaims in new single ‘Everyday Fear’, though armed with a pressing momentum he aims to shake off the feeling, or else move fast enough to lift its weight.

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This month sees Con Davison return with a brand new double A-side single, Postcard / Way Back When Before, and the songs follow a similarly bittersweet blueprint. Take ‘Postcard’, which emerged from what was a particularly difficult year for Davison. After relocating to a new place, he lost both his job and any opportunity of touring, and faced a pressing loneliness. The track’s upbeat rhythms might appear in opposition to thee experiences, but ultimately brings another side into relief. “Within all that, it became increasingly clear that bad things are always gonna happen, and for seemingly no reason,” Davison says, “so better to proceed and act accordingly. Change what you can and be who you want.”

Second track ‘Way Back When Before’ ups the rhythm but tones down the brightness, favouring instead a gloomier tone. At least, that is, until it kicks into its chorus and realises a latent pop potential, the background shimmer coming to the fore and sheer movement and the sound’s sheer movement proving infectious.

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After debut EP, Hindsight, in 2018, this month sees Aldrich return with Under A Softened Gleam, a brand new release that further hones this style. The development is principally achieved by self-imposed challenge, Anderson stepping outside of his self-produced comfort to invite Con Davison into the fold. The collaboration pushes Aldrich beyond its previous limitations, utilising a finger-picked style to double down on the sincere tones, and thus get closer to the ultimate goal of communicating something of Anderson’s true heart.

Lead single ‘Find Out’ gives a good indication as to what to expect from the EP. With acoustic guitar emerging from a gentle dawn of ambient tones, the song has a hushed warmth which belies the immediacy of its emotion. For within the quiet intimacy of the sound burns something bright and urgent. A need to share something, to find something, to move beyond the stilted present into something more honest and fulfilling.

The song comes complete with a video directed and produced by Carsten Johnson, and you can check it out below:

https://vimeo.com/497711643

Under A Softened Gleam is out on the 22nd January.

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Adrianne Lenker – cradle
German Error Message – Hopelessness
Jo Schornikow – Incomplete
Grizzly Coast – Half-Light Boy
Taylor Hamilton – Might Say
Porridge Radio – Give / Take
Patio – Scum
Ruthie – Spirit Now Moves
Esther Rose – Don’t Blame It On the Moon
Blood Cultures – Flowers For All Occasions
Puddle-Cuddle – Compost
Mess – Dead Space
Cry Babe – Soft Honk
The Painters – Pieces of Life
Two Meters – Ground
Erin Durant – Take a Load Off
Michelle Blades – Ring
Eric & Magill – Thanks to Sciences
Foundlings – Caught Up on You
Craig Finn – Something To Hope For
JW Ridley – Homesick (Out The Blue)
Pieket – Eternal Recurrence
The Curfews – Rose
Emily Fairlight – Body Below
Raggedy – Brainwash
Barrie – Saturated
Blush – Forever Is a Long Time
Shane Leonard – Empire Builder
Con Davison – Sofa Bed
Gold Light + Snakemusk – The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter
The Chats – Pub Feed
Shutups – Yellowjacket
Izzy Heltai – Stuck In Stone
Adam Ostrar – Take It Back
The Death Of Pop – Last
Toledo – Some Samurai
Yot Club – Japan
Evan Thomas Way & The Phasers – Long Distance
K. Campbell – Heads Up
The Duke of Norfolk – As the Heralds Revere You
Leaky Engine-John Birch Society Blues
naps – treading
Vieo Abiungo – What the Rain Restores
Old Earth – The Friends ∴ The Gods
Good Good Blood & Astral Social Club – Heathen Astronaut

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

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

We’re pleased to announce that this week sees Con Davison return with a brand new single, ‘Sofa Bed’, and we’re lucky enough to be able to share the song a day early. Building upon the previous release, the track leans into the warm, malleable rhythms to lend a distinctively languid aesthetic, though the sound masks less than sunny themes. “Having spent much of the last 2 years on the road, I feel like I’ve really had to get comfortable with constantly being in a state of missing home,” Davison explains. “I’m not sure there’s any way to make being gone feel better or easier, and ‘Sofa Bed’ leaves it at that. It’s miserable to be away from the ones you love.”

Swapping out any trite answers or melodrama in favour of honest self-awareness, the song doesn’t attempt to answer the tensions at its heart, rather sketch them more fully in order to better understand them. Things are hard and likely staying so, so why pretend otherwise? Instead, Con Davison flips the focus on its head, describing the joy and belonging to be found at home through its very absence on the road, forming an indirect testament to that which is familiar and significant.

You can find Con Davison on Bandcamp.

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Song list:

Options – Waiting
2nd Grade – Favorite Song
Alexander – Going to Sleep
Ryan Van Gonten – Fabrique
Haunted Continents – What Were You Born For?
Weakened Friends – Blue Again
Shybaby – Lazy Hazy
Frankie Valet – April
Primo! – You’ve Got a Million
Hypoluxo – Kentucky Smooth
Basement Revolver – Knocking
Dead Painters – Output
HALEY – Infinite Pleasure Part 2
Doe – Heated
Ing – Dust
Benjamin Shaw – Terrible Feelings!
internet boy crush – ghost friend
lowly loverboi – Dumb Phone
Dead Tooth – Liars
Kin Hana – You
Bodega – The Truth is Not Punishment
The Cordial Sins – Not Enough
Indoor Cats – Fun 2
Upstairs – Trust the Process
Sabriel’s Orb – Holding
John Atkinson – Bakwaves // Rye
Fanclub – Leaves
The Chairman Dances – Acme Parking Garage
Con Davison – Talk
Ivy Dye – Diminish
Elizabeth Owens – I Long
The Last Bison – Don’t Look Away
Our Fastest Typist – It’s Nice Outside, but My Head is Killing Me

You can find all of our monthly round-up posts here, and our complete array of mixtapes here.

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

Weakened Friends – Blue Again

Weakened Friends are a trio—Sonia Sturino, Annie Hoffman, and Cam Jones—from Portland, Maine. The band are readying their debut LP, Common Blah, a record that promises to deal with the Millennial despair that label Don Giovanni Records describe as “the feeling of being young, stuck, and settling for less,” through sheer catharsis. The outlet comes via heavy instrumentation and Sturino’s intense vocals, the band looking back at a whole host of bad feelings with the force of a hurricane.

Sturino says lead single ‘Blue Again’ is a song about “how tempting it can be to just follow suit and do what you think others would want from you, in art, life, careers, politics, etc., and all the insecurities, anxiety and feelings of worthlessness that can come with that.” It’s an angry yell in the face of expectations, and one that leaves us the listener feeling empowered, a determination to follow our own path, whatever that might be.

Common Blah is set fro release on the 19th October via Don Giovanni Records and you cab pre-order it from Bandcamp.

Primo! – You’ve Got a Million

Hailing from Melbourne, Primo! are a band who this summer put out a new full-length album, Amici. The trio favour a short, sharp brand of pop punk that nonetheless allows the vocals room to breathe. The result is a sound that dripping in attitude and energy that retains a lyrical clarity, an intersection between pop and punk that focuses not merely on making a racket or melodramatic sincerity, but rather something more interesting and sardonic and strange. Take ‘You’ve Got a Million’ as an example, fizzing into life and kicking into rhythm, the vocals having something of a mantra-like quality.

Primo Amici is out now via Upset the Rhythm an you can get it from Bandcamp.

HALEY –  Infinite Pleasure Part 2

HALEY is the new moniker of the artist you probably know as Haley Bonar. After 15 years of recording, Haley decided to drop her paternal surname (and legally change her name to Haley McCallum, her maternal family name). The decision was explained in detail in a post on Stereogum, but the important thing is that HALEY has a brand new album on the way. Pleasureland promises to be something of a change of direction, a stark and minimal album that features no vocals whatsoever.

Our first taste of the record is ‘Infinite Pleasure Part 2’, what Haley describes as “a requiem for a beautiful world. It represents death, chaos, capitalism, self-imprisonment, and the realization of the self through outer and inner turmoil.” If all that sounds rather grand then wait until you hear the song. HALEY proving that you don’t need a human voice to convey emotion as fuzzed-out guitar burns across the track’s shadowy background like a beacon, creating something as rich and epic as life itself.

Pleasureland is to be released via Memphis Industries on the 12th October, and you can pre-order it now via the HALEY Bandcamp page.

Doe – Heated

This autumn sees London three-piece Doe follow up their previous record, Some Things Last Longer than You, with a brand new full-length, Grow into It. So far we only have one single to go on, though all evidence points to another exercise in ultimately optimistic chaose. Indeed, the record itself aims to be the “antithesis of the overdone trope of male bands singing about rejecting adulthood and wanting to stay young and get wasted with their friends forever.” Instead, Doe confront aging with a sense of hope, what lead Nicola Leel describes as “finding light and freedom in age and finding autonomy in death.”

‘Heated’, the album’s first single, starts poised and tense, but eventually hits periods of pure unrestrained pop punk joy. Talking of which, the accompanying video, directed by Jack Barraclough , sees the band have lots of fun with paint and houseplants and lots of orange.

Grow into It will be released on Topshelf Records (US) and Big Scary Monsters (UK/EU). Pre-order it now via the Topshelf Bandcamp or BSM webstore!

internet boy crush – ghost friend

internet boy crush is a collaboration between Hector from Texas and Carlos from Caracas. Taking inspiration from the bedroom pop classics, the pair make an intimate sound shrouded in melancholy, late-night elegies for what is now lost. ‘ghost friend’ makes this clear, as lonely and intimate a song as you could ever wish to hear, taking on something of a lullabic quality, a hypnotic murmur in the dark.

‘ghost friend’ is available to download via Bandcamp now, and more material is due to be unveiled soon.

Kin Hana – You

Kin Hana is the solo recording project of Aaron Carroll Hodges. After ten years of recording under his own name and the moniker Longshoreman, Hodges has adopted Kin Hana, the name of his Japanese grandfather, a sailor who came to the US in the early 1900s. Hodges recently released a new album, Au Sable, via his own Black Meadow imprint, and ‘You’ is the record’s closing track. Fragile but strangely elemental, it sounds like soundtrack to shifting weather patterns, the ominous sense of an approaching storm. It’s not all gloom though, as Hodges’s vocals glimmering within the murk, lighting it up from the inside.

Au Sable is out now on Black Meadow and you can get it from Bandcamp.

Bodega – The Truth is Not Punishment

Bodega are a post-punk band from New York who, as the title of their latest album Endless Scroll might suggest, are keyed into the peculiar, soul-destroying world that is our own. Rather than facing this with hopelessness or sorrow, Bodega channel all of their fury and dissatisfaction into a frenetic flow, taking shots at anything and everyone who might deserve it, from the obviously soulless bodies of late-capitalism to the banal attempts at protest that end up forming just another boneless arm of the many-tentacled beast. Closing track ‘The Truth is Not Punishment’ is a perfect example of the playful and cutting style, the tone falling somewhere between furious, bemused and sarcastic.

“I visited my mother in a Tampa Bay complex
Klonopin and vodka all day
She was pulling on bottles
No pull to eat
Strapped inside of cathode rays
What was most sad of all is that you didn’t want to leave your imprisonment
You said that ‘I’m happy’
I was arrogant I said that you weren’t”

Endless Scroll is out now and you can get it from the Bodega Bandcamp page.

The Cordial Sins – Not Enough

Based out of Columbus, Ohio, The Cordial Sins combine riot grrrl energy with shoegaze soundscapes and 00s indie rock tendencies. Amidst this lay Liz Fisher’s vocals, equally comfortable in nostalgic croon or impassioned yell, as displayed on new single ‘Not Enough’. The track is more atmospheric and grand than much of their previous release, Only Human, forming something of an anthem by the close and forming a considered exploration of human connection and the search thereof. Still, the newly soaring sound does not negate a sense of intimacy and personality, meaning The Cordial Sins achieve the best of both worlds.

‘Not Enough’ is out now and you can find more info from The Cordial Sins webpage.

Upstairs – Trust the Process

Working out of Cincinnati, Upstairs are something akin to what might result if Protomartyr and Parquet Courts were placed in a blender—a verbose brand of indie rock that can’t quite decide between cynical detachment and sincere shouting. Latest album Our Ass is in the Jackpot Now displays an impressive range of styles and sounds, though its closer ‘Trust the Process’ that best captures the Upstairs spirit, a frantically wordy sermon that veers between hip sing-speak and momentous outpouring, all the while weaving a lyrical monologue that is as urgent as it is amusing.

Our Ass is in the Jackpot Now is out now and you can get it from the Upstairs Bandcamp page.

Fanclub – Leaves

Fanclub are a trio from Austin who make music that combines the heartfelt songwriting of Jay Som or Anna Burch and adorns it with dreamily retro electronics, creating pop that sparkles and shimmers like a valentine-pink neon billboard. Their debut single, ‘Leaves’ displays these traits perfectly, Leslie Crunkilton’s vocals the perfect accompaniment to the honey sweet synths and blissful dream pop guitar, creating a song that sounds like a nostalgically fuzzy digital embrace.

You can buy ‘Leaves’ now from the Fanclub Bandcamp page.

Con Davison – Talk

Having been a drummer for various recording projects like Bad Bad Hats and Dreamspook, Minneapolis’ Con Davison has decided to start recording music on his own terms. Set for release this autumn, Far Off Distant Plans is his debut solo EP, wresting back full control and allowing for a process of artistic self-actualisation that has been a long time coming. New single ‘Talk’ gives some idea as to what shape this might take, a half-paced and expressive brand of indie pop that kicks into insistent rhythms, changes of tone that signal the emergence of a sense of earnestness. Therefore, while remaining fun, the Con Davison sound displays a far wider range, ticking all the boxes within a sweet three minute croon.

Far Off Distant Plans will be released on the October 19th so keep an eye on the Con Davison Bandcamp page for more info.

Our Fastest Typist – It’s Nice Outside, but My Head is Killing Me

Our Fastest Typist is an indie rock multi-instrumentalist from Austin, Texas. Their latest album, Group Therapy For Imaginary Monsters was released last month, a collection of songs that draw on influences both classic (see Bowie and The Rolling Stones) and contemporary (fans of Car Seat Headrest will find a lot to like). Ranging from the intimate bedroom pop of ‘The Day Vacation Saved My Life’, to 11+ minute rock epic ‘Imaginary Monsters (Go to Heaven)’.

The standout is second single, ‘It’s Nice Outside, but My Head is Killing Me’, all grainy lo-fi guitar and witty but affecting lyrics. It’s a song about it being sunny outside but feeling cloudy on the inside, and captures nicely how Our Fastest Typist confronts worries and bad feelings with liberating indie rock.

Group Therapy for Imaginary Monsters is out now and you can get it from Bandcamp.

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