Luckily it wasn’t the end. Four of the new songs became Transplant, a short EP released on Crafted Sounds late last year. What we described in a review as “a record that deals with the prospect of moving across the continent, as well as the wider issues that affected everyone from 2020 onwards,” the EP served to announce a newly-assembled Buddie on the other side of the continent, where they have played festivals, live radio sessions and even opened for Built to Spill.

Now Buddie are back with their sophomore LP, Agitator. Again released on Crafted Sounds, Agitator finds Forrest and co. stronger than ever, an album the label describe as “packed full of earworm choruses, ‘loud-quiet-loud,’ bubblegrunge, and 90s influenced indie rock.” Opener ‘Break of the Sun’ displays almost all of these qualities immediately, opening with patient guitar and vocals that ebb and flow before kicking up a gear at the midpoint into a hefty rock song. ‘Game of Global Consequence’ follows suit, holding back the drums for a cathartic drop after the first verse, while ‘Backwards Beyond’ leans toward pop punk with its bouncy percussion and propulsive chorus.

But, as with previous releases, Agitator is far more than a simple slice of fun and cathartic indie rock. Forrest has always had a wide thematic scope in his songwriting and this record is no different. Crafted Sounds say the album “revolve[s] around healthy communication, trust, anxiety, living in the moment, sense of place, joy in resistance, growth, change, dystopia, classism, mutual aid,” and Buddie explore this tangled web of interconnected themes with a mixture of righteous anger, uneasy disquiet and tender empathy.

Single ‘Class Warfare’ is a good example, both a searing indictment of the actions of powerful nations and a reminder that even the biggest, most institutionalised problems can be overcome. “View from the peak / Clouds float underneath,” he sings in the closing lines, “Winds will blow them away,” hinting that a better, more equal society is possible. “In ‘Class Warfare’, I grapple with the thought of imperialist nations, like the US, Canada, the UK, always putting themselves first, to the detriment of everyone else… from hoarding COVID-19 vaccines to the militarization of police,” Forrest describes. “I aim to draw attention to these problems, but end the song in resolve, trusting that learning, activism, mutual aid, and prefiguration (creating pieces of the society you want) can blow [the problems] away.”

Perhaps the biggest strength of Agitator is how it blends these big social issues with smaller, individual ones, shifting from widescreen views of the world at large to something decidedly more personal. A song Forrest says “is about reassuring someone that you’ll always be there, willing to learn, grow, and change with them,” ‘We’ll Never Break’ sits at the latter end of the spectrum, Great Grandpa’s Al Menne providing harmonizing vocals in what’s a moment of warm reassurance wrapped up in a crunchy indie rock exterior.

Penultimate track ‘Labyrinth’ is similarly intimate, challenging the prevailing societal notion of success in favour of something deeper and more substantial. As Forrest describes:

“Labyrinth” is about breaking away from the dominant western views of ‘the good life’ and embracing ideals that run counter. Where so much of our culture incentives wealth and material consumption, eurocentric ideals of aesthetics, fast-paced lifestyles, constant work, and high achievement, I hope to share my vision of ‘the good life’—where my happiness and fulfillment come from: love, friendship, and community, disconnecting from the overstimulation and embracing the present, finding serenity, and living sustainably.”

The song comes complete with a video by Andrew Silverman and starring Forrest alongside Dana Kluchinski and Lindsay Partin.

Agitator is an album which understands the need to do more than its title suggests. Agitating the prevailing systems of power is the easy part. Having the vision and bravery to imagine a more compassionate way of living is where the true value lies. “Now we know the questions / But the answers do evade us,” Forrest sings on closer ‘Restive Summer’. “Like a serpent they betrayed us / Wondering how we’d ever score more / We worked ourselves up to the point where we broke.” But acknowledging the fact feels like half the battle won, and Agitator moves forward with this knowledge, trusting that perseverance and kindness will bear fruit in the end.

So we take it day by day
Much too fickle to foresee it
To adapt we speak and breathe in
And the little things mean more than we knew

We put the work in to the point where we know

Agitator is out now via Crafted Sounds and available from the Buddie Bandcamp page.

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After the release of Diving, the band hurried back to the studio to record the new songs they had been working on in the meantime. This sense of urgency was with good reason. Forrest was scheduled to move out west to Vancouver to attend grad school and no-one knew if Buddie as a project would survive the move. As it turned out, these worries were unfounded. Forrest found new members to reassemble the band and successfully assimilated into the Vancouver music scene, even earning the opportunity to open for Built to Spill at Sled Island.

But they didn’t know that at the time, and so worked quickly to record all the new material they had written—almost twenty songs in total. Proving too much for one record, Buddie have decided to release a four track EP, Transplant, as a nice surprise to close out the year, before releasing their sophomore LP sometime in 2023. As its name suggests, Transplant is a record that deals with the prospect of moving across the continent, as well as the wider issues that affected everyone from 2020 onwards.

‘Indecision’ is set in the anxious run-up to relocating, a swirl of restless worries and conflicted emotions, while ‘Northern Skies’ has the same sparkly sense of wonder as more recent Wild Pink releases, what Forrest says is “about how traveling can bring out a love for home, for family, for place-based identity, for community.”

The other two tracks widen the scope thematically, although approach these broader themes in very different ways. ‘Sunday Morning’ is a rich and enveloping indie rock song that finds a pocket of cosy contentment in a world that sometimes feels actively hostile to such an emotion. “Waking up early on a Sunday morning,” Forrest sings in an opening line that captures the song’s balance between the intimate and the global, “while the world around us falls apart.”

‘Take What’s Left’ on the other hand moves from the personal to the ideological, a commentary on our neoliberal, hyper-capitalist society, a world in which wealthy lifestyles are built on the suffering of others. “This song is written from the perspective of a utopianist who’s questioning how the rich can live with themselves,” Forrest describes, “knowing that their lifestyles require the exploitation of other people and lead to other peoples’ suffering.”

Transplant is out now via Crafted Sounds and available from the Buddie Bandcamp page.

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Which is not to say they are some tired derivative. In truth, Buddie make music quite unlike anyone else. Diving saw Buddie build on the guitar-centric vibes of previous releases to include elements of folk and pop, its pliable song structures and triumphant loud-quiet dynamics making for something both fun and far-reaching. Urgency and empathy sit side by side, catchy melodies and moments of crunchy catharsis cradling stark and sincere explorations of the tangled web of crises that define our age—from depression and anxiety to our destruction of the planet.

The album’s opening track, ‘Boiler’ is one of Diving‘s weightier moments, lead Dan Forrest’s vocals emerging from a crushing rumble. Though just as the sound threatens to be overwhelming, Forrest manages to climb to the surface, surfing the dense textures if not to safety then at least an end more dignified and thrilling. For this is a song about finding transcendence amid contemporary doom. Freeing oneself from the dreadful confines of the physical moment. Not beating the looming disaster, but submitting to the eventual freedom it might offer.

Drowned in salty black depths
Overworked and gasping for breath
But, as the flames grow
And the water’s almost boiled
Though it seems no different
You can leave this state behind

Pushing towards your critical temp
Molecules break free from their vessel
Free to float upwards and go anywhere you’d like
Free to diffuse into thin air you’ll intertwine

Today we have the pleasure of unveiling a music video for ‘Boiler’. Animated and edited by Philadelphia-area illustrator/sewist/educator Natalia Navarra, the video sees the track’s lyrical themes manifest in monochrome stop-motion. Check it out below!

Diving is out now on Crafted Sounds and you can get it from the Buddie Bandcamp page. There are a handful of cassettes left too, so grab one before they’re gone.

Band photo by Ashley Cordoba

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Soon after, DeLong began work on a follow-up, which resulted in Yeah?, the debut Gaadge full-length, which releases later this month on Crafted Sounds. They have so far released two single to whet appetites, the elastic and jangly pop song ‘Twenty-Two’, and most recently ‘Do What Now?’ a thundering shoegaze number that sees the band throw themselves into fuzzed-out wall-of-sound dynamics.

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Here is a list of songs from 2020 that we liked but didn’t get around to writing about.

If you find something you like, follow the link in the embed to support the artists and labels on Bandcamp. And of course, there is a whole year’s worth of pieces on releases we did manage to write about, so have an explore through our reviews, previews and interviews from 2020.

The post Music We Missed in 2020 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

A new volume will be posted every few weeks and will offer a collection of really great songs that we’re determined not to let slip past our radar.

Sleep Movies – ‘Paper Hat’

Skyler Brimmierer from Pittsburgh, PA records invitingly hazy pop as Sleep Movies. If you like your vocals distorted and your instrumentation something akin to fog-like sedation, then his latest release, EDG will be right up your alley. ‘Paper Hat’ is one such example, playing like a tropical scene projected onto your bedroom ceiling as your sink down into the sheets and imagine the sun’s rays.

EDG is out now via Crafted Sounds on a pay-what-you-want basis, though unfortunately the cassettes have sold out.

Katie Von Schleicher – ‘Paranoia’

The beady-eyed (or eared) amongst you will recognise the voice of Katie Von Schleicher from our recent post on Wilder Maker, though the Brooklynite has a burgeoning solo career. The lead single from Shitty Hits, her debut album out later this summer, ‘Paranoia’ is a lush, woozy song straight out of some earlier, grander time. However, beneath the decadent production and sweet country-pop vibe lies a strange neurotic edge, as though the expansive sound is compensating for something, or else signalling the begin of a weird spiral somewhere altogether darker.

Shitty Hits is set for release on the 28th July via Ba Da Bing and Full Time Hobby (UK/EU), and you can pre-order it now from Bandcamp.

Pip Hall – James

We first wrote about Pip Hall back in November, praising her style of rich pop with added synths. March saw the release of her debut EP, James, building on the above formula to craft a haunting, atmospheric sound that also ticks all the boxes of a potential mainstream radio favourite. The title track displays this perfectly, the subtle synths and half-paced clatter of drums supporting Hall’s vocals as they wax and wane with great emotion.

James is out now on My Little Empire and you can grab it from Bandcamp.

Bradford Loomis – Bravery and the Bell

Washington’s Bradford Loomis creates evocative, earnest music concerned with the classic folk themes―love, death, memories―essentially digging down into what it means to be human. Written in the aftermath of his father’s Early Onset Alzheimers diagnosis, Loomis’ latest album is more personal and heartfelt than ever, the shock and subsequent sense of purpose serving to eradicate trivialities. As Loomis explains, “Bravery and the Bell… is about legacy, both the lineage we are born into and that which we pass on. Whether burdened or buoyed by our generational inheritance, this album confronts the drudgery of simply surviving and sounds a call to stand up to the things that stand in the way of us truly passionately pursuing that which we were made to be.”

Bravery and the Bell is out now and you can get it from Bandcamp.

Lord Youth – Blue Yodel #156

The songwriting project of Queens’ Micah Blaichman, Lord Youth makes music too cinematic for bedroom pop and too gloomy for garage rock, a murky, midnight noir to soundtrack your black and white dreams. Taken from the Lord Youth EP released last year, ‘Blue Yodel #156’ is something of a signature track for the band, slightly discordant and populated by wispy moans, as though behind Blaichman’s dejected lyrics lurk sad spirits of previously blue beings.

Lord Youth EP is out now via BB*ISLAND and you can get it on vinyl or digitally via Bandcamp.

Kazyak – ‘Sundial’

Written during a trip to Alaska as frontman Peter Frey prepared for his upcoming wedding, the themes of facing challenges and the natural world run through Happy Camping, the new album from Minneapolis band Kazyak. But this is achieved not in the harsh and difficult way such topics are usually broached. “It’s after you’ve put your pack on your back and set out walking down an unexplored trail, but before you’ve arrived to the foot of the mountain,” Frey says. “This album is the long walk through the open field to the base of the mountain.” As single ‘Sundial’ shows, Happy Camping is a spring album, where life is in a clear forward motion, the clean optimism of progressive snuffing out any signs of death and decay.

Happy Camping, is set for release on the 21st July and you can stay tuned to the Kazyak website for details.

Dama Scout – Paper Boy

The third single from the London/Glasgow three-piece Dama Scout, ‘Paper Boy’ is varied, hard-to-pin track that starts out woozy dream-pop and ends up somewhere far heavier. Indeed, such a shift is the band’s forte, with us describing a previous single as a “stylistic mutant ” and “a surreal ride through a many-eyed storm.” The languorous opening sees Eva Liu’s dreamy vocals float over choppy instrumentation before both coalesce into something more fluid, though the acceleration continues right through the other side, the song breaking down into chaotic disorder by the second half of the track. Imagine a slowly-rotating kaleidoscope gathering pace minute by minute, clicking into the perfect pattern for just a moment before eventually unravelling or exploding in a burst of coloured shards which rain down around your head.

‘Paper Boy’, and the band’s previous singles, can be found now on the Dama Scout Bandcamp page.

Why a fox – Solstice / ‘Young Trees’

The brainchild of Adelaide native, Fukushima resident Hayden Marks, Why a fox blends folk, pop, punk and emo to create heartfelt songs somewhere between Nana Grizol, Camp Cope and The Hotelier. This spring saw the release of Solstice, a verbose album of ramshackle lo-fi tunes notable for their energetic sincerity and bittersweet spirit. As a follow-up, Marks has also put out a new single ‘Young Trees’, taken from the forthcoming album Old Forest. Young Trees. A piano-driven instrumental, the track is something of a departure from the previous sound, though fits right in to the Why a fox aesthetic with its sincere positivity and emotional weight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CauidHQbkxY

Solstice is out now and available from the Why a fox Bandcamp page. Old Forest. Young Trees is set for release this July, so keep an eye out for that too.

Alanna Eileen – ‘Knowledge’

New Zealand-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Alanna Eileen makes lush music that draws upon both traditional and contemporary folk. With Eileen’s soft vocals and warm guitar backed by country ambience and modest piano, new single ‘Knowledge’ is a gauzy number that envelops you slowly. The possibility of sadness or heartbreak lingers just out of focus, neither the lyrics or instrumentation ever quite slipping from their agreeable vibe.

Alanna Eileen is currently working on a debut full-length album with Adam Selzer. In the meantime, check out her previous releases on Bandcamp.

Coastal Clouds – ‘Wanna Come Down’

California’s Roberto Rodriguez certainly choose an apt moniker when naming his new project, Coastal Clouds. As the latest single ‘Wanna Come Down’ attests, the sound is moulded out of the West Coast spirit of sun and surf, an early evening top-down drive where the clear skies and cool breeze conjure a sentimental edge, as though the knowledge such a carefree existence cannot last. Indeed, the lyrics push this further, dealing with the realisation that we must grow up and move on from even our most golden of days.

Keep up with Coastal Clouds via his Facebook page.

For more posts like this, head to the Best of the Rest tag!

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Field Medic – Flash Tattoo

If you’ve been following WTD for any length of time, chances are you already know all about Field Medic (if not, check out reviews here, here and here), and the way he makes folk music for the Twenty-first Century. The latest Field Medic single, ‘flash tattoos’, is yet another example, what feels like a sincere classic folk song at heart, a quietly confident paean to celebrating your differences, but embellished with warm lo-fi pop stylings that keep things genuine and rooted to the ground.

“it don’t pay to be different right now
but sometime I know someday it will”

The song will appear on a forthcoming EP, so keep your eyes peeled for the full release.

Praything – You’ll Be Mine

Praything, the project of Brooklyn’s Ju Kovacevich, is another artist we’ve featured several times (for example here and here). Praything’s first song of 2017 is ‘You’ll Be Mine’, another slice of lush and anthemic indie pop, Kovacevich’s distinctive vocals delicate and vulnerable against steady percussion and bubbling synths, before the whole thing breaks out into a cathartic wordless chorus. Sometimes you don’t need words to express emotion.

On the Other Side – Lincoln Oak

On the Other Side is the solo project of Dwight Miller from Modesto, California. He has an EP out early next month on CA DIY label Make Anything Records, and has recently released the first track, ‘Lincoln Oak’. The sound is emotionally charged, emo-tinged, indie rock, with shades of Pinegrove and Modern Baseball. The label say Miller tries to make “music that isn’t just escape from his problems, but forces him to tackle them head on”, so expect heart-on-sleeve sincerity behind the throaty barked vocals.

She Was My Ryan is due on the 7th of April, and you can pre-order it now from Make Anything Records.

Cassandra Jenkins – Red Lips

New York’s Cassandra Jenkins is soon to release her debut album Play Till You Win, and has just released the second single ‘Red Lips’. The song is a beguiling mix of Emmylou Harris’s country rock, Mazzy Star’s dreamy lingering pop and the strange and emotional synths of the Twin Peaks Soundtrack. The song deals with the encroachment of the digital realm on our lives, and the subsequent impact on our mental health. There are messages woven into the fabric of the track, as Jenkins explains, “Each verse takes on one color from the RGB spectrum: red for love and desire, green for jealousy, and blue for sorrow.” If this is anything to go by, the album will be one to look out for as it takes pop music to new ruminative and thematic depths.

Play Till You Win will be released on April 7th through Jenkins’s own label Cassandra Complex, which she set up as a means of making “social commentary in a way that is accessible and beautiful”. You can order it now from Bandcamp.

ULTRAS – Team Handed

The moniker of Scottish multi-instrumentalist Gav Prentice (formerly Over The Wall), ULTRAS is a veritable melting pot of influences, from pop, rock and traditional folk to electronica and hip-hop. The self-titled debut album, set for release this April, is therefore a diverse listen, though lead single ‘Team Handed’ finds Prentice practicing a similar style to that of Over The Wall. Warm guitar and background ambience are coupled with detailed lyrics that manage to sound both dejected and alive, giving the whole thing an emotive, empathetic vibe that speaks highly of Prentice’s songwriting capabilities.

ULTRAS is set for release on the 28th April via Hello Thor Records and Instinctive Racoon.

On The Water – Sun Temple

Philadelphia-based experimental folk band On The Water have announced their sixth collection of songs, Superposition, to be released in the middle of April. Written by Fletcher VanVliet and featuring an array of contributors both old and new, the release comprises of unorthodox folk songs which seem to fall somewhere between eccentric and organic, playing like thoughts and feelings presented unfiltered. Single ‘Sun Temple’ is a good example of this, eschewing convention to sound like a direct view inside someone’s head, ending up every bit as immediate and weird as that might seem.

Superposition will be released on the 22^nd April and you can pre-order it now from the On The Water Bandcamp page.

Rosie Tucker – Fault Lines

Rosie Tucker is a musician and songwriter from LA. Her latest single, ‘Fault Lines’ is her first new music since her debut album Lowlight, and provides what she describes as an “indie-rock ode to a particular sort of sun-bleached, So-cal feeling of isolation”. Fans of Waxahatchee and Frankie Cosmos will find plenty to like, especially as the songwriting is so strong. As the title suggests, the lyrics use the geology beneath California as a metaphor for movements of a more personal nature.

“California aches on her tectonic plates
she waits to make the break into the sea”

Keep an eye on the Rosie Tucker website for info on future releases.

Sleep Movies – Paper Hat

Sleep Movies is the recording project of Pittsburgh’s Skyler Brimmierer, who featured recently on the Crafted Sounds compilation, Have a nice day. (of which there are a few copies left, if you’re quick). April sees the release of EDG, a hazy-yet warm collection blissful lo-fi pop that plays like a tropical sea mist descending on your day at the beach. Lead single ‘Paper Hat’ serves as a perfect introduction, the vocals fuzzed to the point of indecipherability, yet losing nothing in their message thanks to the expressive delivery and idyllic vibes. As such, the track is temperate and hospitable, allowing the listener to relax back into its cloudy embrace. As the press release suggests: “Watch TV in your dreams, and flip on Sleep Movies.”

EDG is out on the 13^th April via Crafted Sounds and you can pre-order it now in both digital and physical formats via Bandcamp.

Panther Hollow – Jamie

NYU music composition graduate Bernardo Ochoa writes and performs for Modern Diet, Ackerman, and a variety of other Brooklyn-based bands, though Panther Hollow is his personal recording project. With the help of Matti Dunietz (drums), Dan Hemerlein (bass) and Evan Lane (trumpet), Ochoa has put together an EP, People Synesthesia, which pulls inspiration from all directions to form what the press release describes as a “stylistically diverse collection of portraits and transient feelings.” While lead single ‘Office’ was a fuzzy slice of grungey garage rock, second single ‘Jamie’ uses banjos and mandolins in support of Ochoa’s gentle, wistful lyrics to create something altogether more pacifying.

People Synesthesia is set for release on the 31st May.

The Saxophones – New Tradition

You may remember us writing about The Saxophones back in August, when we reviewed their debut EP, If You’re On the Water. Excitingly, the 3-song single is now getting the release it deserves on Full Time Hobby. To celebrate, the band have released a video for ‘New Tradition’, a track we described in our review as a “slow dream pop song, like a sad croon in a sparsely filled dance hall, Alexi Erenkov’s sax snaking around and conjuring an almost Lynchian, noirishly romantic vibe”. The video takes a slightly different tack, setting the song to footage of a bright summer day, and one man’s attempts to shake off a sense of gloom.

You can get If You’re on the Water now on 7″ vinyl or digital download from Full Time Hobby.

Day Joy – Fumbling

A few months back we featured ‘Florida’s Warm’, the new song (after a three year hiatus) from Michael Serrin’s Day Joy project. We described the track as, “[not] hopeful so much as hopeful of hope, the narrator holding on to the image of a brighter day, homesick and half-tortured by the slim possibility of the chance the sun might rise once more, bringing a thaw that might allow some sensation to return to frost-bitten limbs”.

Making good on his promise to release the album single by single, Serrin has now unveiled ‘Fumbling’, our second taste of the direction Day Joy will take on the new record. The track is a slow burning ballad, Serrin’s plaintive vocals laid on top of melancholy piano, gentle percussion and winding atmospherics. It’s a stunningly accomplished piece of work that’s wrought with emotion and certainly has us eagerly anticipating the rest of the record.

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