Much has been said recently about how political turmoil and social instability will provide fertile conditions for great art, and whether or not you subscribe to this idea, we’re pretty sure that paying artists makes for even better soil in which to sow creative seeds. The title to this post says ‘free’ music because it’s snappier than ‘name your price’ music, but really that’s a convenient/attention-grabbing misnomer. Bandcamp provides pretty much the most direct way for us to connect directly with musicians and support their work from all over the world, so why don’t we utilise this tool and ensure that art perseveres in the face of everything else that’s going on?

Anyhow, here’s the first segment of the list, covering artists beginning with A – D. We don’t pretend to be in any way comprehensive, so let us know if we missed your favourite and maybe we’ll add it to the list.Albosel – Container
(RIYL: folk, dream pop, magic woods)

Alexandra Gordon – Rain Songs
(RIYL: bedroom pop, folk, Free Cake For Every Creature)

BB Cream – s/t
(RIYL: pop punk, bedroom pop, lo-fi, grrrl power)

Bedbug – if i got smaller grew wings and flew away for good
(RIYL: experimental, twee, sincerity)

Betty Becky – s/t / All the Boyfriends
(RIYL: bedroom pop, punk, lo-fi)

Blue Smiley – Return
(RIYL: garage rock, fuzz, dream pop)

Bois – Asleep with Songs of Longing
(RIYL: pop, soul, indie rock)

Boy Scouts – Homeroom Breakfast
(RIYL: bedroom pop, folk, self-reflection)

Cabbage/Oxblood – Split
(RIYL: bedroom pop, post-grunge, slacker rock)

Candy – Azure
(RIYL: jangle rock, dream pop, lo-fi)

猫 シ Corp. – News at 11
(RIYL: vapourwave, 90s TV, mass media)

Cayetana – Tired Eyes
(RIYL: indie rock, jangle pop, punk)

Cereal + Sounds & Z Tapes – FRY YR BRN
(RIYL: indie rock, covers, TV theme songs)

Coping Skills – Relatable Web Content
(RIYL: lo-fi, bedroom pop, Millennial angst)

Constant Companion – Curious Design
(RIYL: pop punk, lo-fi, indie rock)

Corvus B. – France, Later
(RIYL: poetry, spoken word, haunting banjo)

Crabapple – Further Out
(RIYL: indie pop, summer jams, lo-fi)

Daytime TV – DAYTIME TV 2
(RIYL: indie pop, lo-fi, rock)

Deer Scout – Customs
(RIYL: folk, singer songwriter, Gregory and the Hawk)

Dogbreth – Second Home
(RIYL: pop punk, Cloud Nothings, Joyride!, rock ‘n roll fun)

Dowsing / Ratboys – Split
(RIYL: indie rock, pop punk, emo)

Dying Adolescence – Dear you, It can’t wait.
(RIYL: bedroom pop, lo-fi, teenage feelings)

The post Favourite Free Music of 2016: A – D appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Tracklisting:

1) Evening Loving – Jenny Gillespie
2) Luxury – Patio
3) Low – Yours Are The Only Ears
4) Either Way – Sorority Noise
5) Home at Last – The Sports
6) Braver – Sally Fowler
7) Chow Chow – FAYE
8) Meant – Spartan Jet-Plex
9) Stained Glass Eye – The Dead Tongues
10) October – These Bashful Claws
11) Bad Vibrations – Naps
12) Baked Goods – Young Jesus
13) Heroine – BB Cream
14) Winona Death Ryder – Boy Problems (No Dice Tapes comp)
15) The Only Other Girl From Back Home – Advance Base
16) When it Feels – Soft Spell (STAY RAD SAV comp)
17) The Unnatural – Claire Cronin
18) Same Old Ocean – Crabapple
19) Diet Coke – Lake Michigan
20) Ferris Beuller – Flatsound
21) See Good – Jobless
22) Anything but Yourself – Tom Greenwood
23) Under the Mountain II – Mermaidens
24) Liars – Gregory Alan Isakov
25) Warning Sign – Mikko Joensuu
26) Candy – Fish Food
27) White Gold – Good Good Blood
28) We Bury Our Dead Alive – Coping Skills
29) Joke/Rope – Haybaby
30) Slacker – Will B & the Teen Creeps
31) Double Bacon Cheeseburger – Yikes
32) All I Have – Derek Ted
33) Try Hard – Hovvdy
34) Dark & Gloomy – Horse Teeth
35) Migratory Birds – Western Skies Motel
36) Endless Wave – Hanging Valleys

The post May 2016 Roundup – A Mixtape appeared first on Various Small Flames.

“No but really, if you put me in a narrow-ass box again I’m gonna step on your face”

This line appears at the end of one of the songs on Relatable Web Content, the new album from Coping Skills. I’ve opened with it because it captures something that otherwise remains implied on the album, a sense of defiant self-belief that feels as much a pep talk as an outpouring by the self-described “post ironic, moderately gay bummer pop” band from Philadelphia.

The album opens with ‘Internet Yardsale’, a short and surreal warm-up before things get serious on ‘We Bury Our Dead Alive’, an emotionally-charged track about losing a loved one.

“look in your room now
you’re not there
worms chew through your bones now
worms eat your hair

i’ve become hypersensitive to every single beat in my chest”

‘Drop Out of College’ is a sloppy pop song filled with deadpan, self-deprecating details of the perils of graduating college, of no prospects and mountainous student loans, “i’ve got $100,000 underneath my bed, piece of paper in exchange for mountains of debt / and i’d mount it on the wall if i could buy a frame, but the interest demands an extra $20 a day”. Follow-up ‘Great, Big’ talks about how our faults can bring us together, how we can help each other through difficult times:

“there’s a great, big hole in my chest
and you crawl, you crawl
inside
when you need, you need, you need
somewhere to hide”

‘I Don’t Feel Good About This’ is a wistful break-up pop song that opens with the great line, “That summer my hair was six different colours / you told me you had found another”, while the caustically ironic ‘4 Days with Me Will Change Your Life (Cool Girl)’ describes the mythical “cool girl” that exists only in Hollywood movies and the heads of men the world over, the manic pixie dream girl who is “effortlessly pretty” and “not ever shy”. The track gives one big finger to large swathes of the male populace, and let’s be honest they’ve had it coming for a long time. As I mentioned at the beginning, the track ends with a break in the sarcasm, small snippets that throw light on the insults and everyday disrespect that are built into the fabric of our society.

“Nothing I think or feel or do or say
needs to be validated by you”

‘Cheap Shots’ is an indie pop song that centres on feelings of isolation, before closer ‘@ me next time’ is about that weird rule of attraction that makes the unobtainable more desirable. Or, as they put it: “aim for the peach / that’s just out of reach / foolishly believe / that it tastes the sweetest”.

Relatable Web Content finds Coping Skills on top form, at turns gentle and abrasive, kind and honest and raging with a righteous belief that people shouldn’t have to put up with a lot of the nonsense they’re subjected to. They are here to reassure you that the old sticks and stones adage has always been absurd, and that people shouldn’t have to wear a polite smile and deaf ears everywhere they go. But it’s also not just angst and anxiety from start to end, it captures perfectly the yo-yoing emotions of the internet age.

You can get Relatable Web Content on cassette or name-your-price download from the Coping Skills Bandcamp page.

The post Coping Skills – Relatable Web Content appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Remember, while it’s always tempting to put a big fat zero for ‘name your price’ releases, you can give a little something. Bands need to eat too, and would doubtless appreciate even the smallest donation for their efforts. You’ll want them to appear in your Bandcamp collection anyway, so you’ll have to give something.

Alanna McArdle – Reticular (REVIEW) / Bedroom/Balloons (REVIEW)
(RIYL: folk, bedroom pop, sad, Sarah Winchester)

Ama Moii – Flown (REVIEW)
(RIYL: bedroom, ambient, lo-fi, soft music)

Andrew Weathers – I Am Happy When I Am Moving
(RIYL: experimental, cosmic Appalachian mountain tunes)

Animal Camera – Aniimal Crackers
(RIYL: noise pop, psychedelic ARMS)

Beverly Tender – Lord Mayor Makes 1000 Speeches
(RIYL: bedroom pop, lo-fi, Baby Mollusk, Whatever Dad)

The Bombshells – Bake Sale Hotties
(RIYL: riot grrl, The Runaways, Le Tigre)

Big Eater – In Between
(RIYL: laidback indie pop, Yo La Tengo, Mac DeMarco)

Blue Smiley – OK
(RIYL: lo-fi, fuzz rock, Alex G)

Bobby’s Oar – The Weeds in Your Garden
(RIYL: folk-punk, Among Giants, The Front Bottoms)

Boosegumps – / B-Sides (REVIEW 1 | REVIEW 2 | INTERVIEW)
(RIYL: bedroom pop, acoustic, Free Cake For Every Creature)

Brightside – The World Reversed
(RIYL: indie pop, pop-punk, The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die)

Brittle Brian – Verisune
(RIYL: bedroom pop, Frankie Cosmos, Bellows)

Broken Beak – Curse Burner
(RIYL: bedroom pop, Modern Baseball)

Bryant Eugene Vazquez – Blue Hours
(RIYL: folk, lo-fi, Wes Tirey, M. Ward)

Captain Samurai – Hey Thanks Goodbye
(RIYL: indie rock, soft punk, LVL UP)

CATAPHANT – Half Dead EP
(RIYL: hip hop, experimental, pop)

Cat Be Damned – Six Songs
(RIYL: ambient, Ricky Eat Acid, the sounds of space)

Catholic Easter Colours – Not the Silence That Was There Before
(RIYL: indie pop, cinematic rock, ambient)

Cemeteries – Barrow
(RIYL: ambient, experimental, dream pop)

Clams – PDA Queen
(RIYL: lo-fi, indie pop, bedroom pop)

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Coffee Pot – &
(RIYL: fuzz rock, psych, lo-fi)

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Colour Me Brittle – The First Bad Man
(RIYL: lo-fi, jangle pop, twee indie)

Coping Skills – Everything is stupid + I Hate it
(RIYL: riot grrrls, bummer pop, Cyberbully Mom Club)

Cuddle Formation – ⊙﹏⊙ ♫･​*​:​.​｡. .｡​.​:​*​･ (demos)
(RIYL: bedroom pop, guitar loops, devotional)

We’ll be sharing a new section of the list every day this week, so be sure to check back for the complete collection. If you find something you like, or think we missed something life-changing, then why not let us know on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr or good old email.

The post Favourite Free Music of 2015: A – C appeared first on Various Small Flames.