Dying Adolescence Archives - Various Small Flames

Favourite Free Music of 2016: A – D

Jon Doyle — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 19:28:00 +0000

At the end of each year we like to collect our favourite ‘name your price’ music on Bandcamp (or free ones elsewhere). 2016 was another year chock full of great, financially flexible releases, so over the next week or so we’ll be sharing the list in alphabetically arranged segments.

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)

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February 2016 Roundup – A Mixtape

Jon Doyle — Wed, 02 Mar 2016 14:00:31 +0000

That’s right, February 2016 is a thing of the past. We think it’ll live on in our ears though, because there was some exceptional music floating around that we’ll be going back to all year. Here’s a playlist featuring every act we wrote about, hosted on the brand new (at least to us) Playmoss platform. As ever, click on the artist’s name in the tracklisting to be beamed off to the specific post.

Tracklisting:

1. A Hospital + Crucifix Made of Plastic – Florist
2. Richmond – talons’
3. Say – Indoor Voices
4. Aeroplane – House Plants
5. When I Was an Island – David Karsten Daniels
6. The Gentleman’s Apocalypse – JR Green
7. Hitman – Mrs. Hopewell
8. sun drops – ratbath
9. A Cruise – Brian S. Cassidy
10. Orpheus – Matt Kivel
11. Your Love – Jeremy Squires (INTERVIEW)
12. Blood Moon – C.M. Slenko
13. Bake – Broken Beak
14. Brushes Like a Fox – Saint Corsair
15. daniel – francie cool
16. Baby Blue – Mount Moriah
17. For You – Free Cake For Every Creature
18. Have This Dance – Govier
19. Goodness (trailer) – The Hotelier
20. The River Because – Sawtooth
21. why are you so cool? – Dying Adolescence
22. cockroach – tall friend
23. Waiting – Faint Peter
24. Heart Destroyer – Lazy Legs
25. Take it Forever – Beat Radio (INTERVIEW)
26. Every One of Them, Dogs – Quarterly
27. like a feather or a pawprint – Field Medic
28. Lay For June – Old Earth
29. 2 old 2 broke – Gorgeous Bully
30. Funny Man Routine – Table People
31. House & Home – Arlo Aldo
32. Cave Song – Sea Ghost
33. Everywhere (Fleetwood Mac cover) – Boosegumps (from Sugar Rush)

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Dying Adolescence – Dear You, It Can’t Wait

Liam Doyle — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 18:23:59 +0000

Dying Adolescence is the recording project of Syndney’s Michael Barker and his friends. His latest release Dear You, It Can’t Wait, charts Barker’s experiences upon finishing high school and turning eighteen, and offers a glimpse at that very awkward stage of late-adolescence, a stage in which pining over pretty girls and contemplating universal mysteries go head-to-head for the brain’s attention. The album is made up of lean indie pop songs with vocals reminiscent of recent artists such as Alex G, as well as British bands from a few years ago such as Let’s Wrestle. The songs have a slightly twee romantic lyrical aesthetic which captures pefectly that feeling of sitting at the back of a classroom thinking about a girl that doesn’t even know your name.

The album begins with an ending. ‘End of High School’ describes that hazy, dream-like moment of leaving the school gates for the final time, a moment rich in contrasting emotions of conclusion and promise. ‘Last Night’ is a song about another classic young person worry, this time an unrequited crush (“you don’t know me but its alright / and i’ll never be the guy you like”). But it’s not all doom and gloom, the song itself is actually pretty catchy and fun, especially when the drums get all cymbal-crash when he sings “I’ll never be the guy you liiike” in the chorus.

‘Walk Home’ opens with one of those deeply philosophical daydreams that I’m sure we all have when walking around alone “i question my life / here on planet earth / what my existence is worth”, while ‘Why Are You so Cool?’ is sunny and lovelorn, about a trip to the beach, eating ice cream and laughing and saying bye bye to your sweetheart when its time to go. ‘Coast (Beach Life)’ is another beach song, describing what I can only assume is what everyone in Australia does every day (“we go out to the beach / you take me out to the sea / we sit down and eat some chips / we make out on the sandy seats”). At the halfway point is ‘Dying’, the track which approaches the album’s themes head-on, the sound of adolescents determined to appreciate and enjoy things while they’re still bright and young. As the title suggests, ‘Sartre’ is an existentialist bedroom pop song (“everybody is all alone / living this life its all unknown / all the love you feel and get / that’s all an illusion”), and ‘Thoughts’ has a surf rock vibe with a peppy drum machine and offers a moment of clear-eyed contentment:

“i fell asleep last night without a thing on my mind
my eyes start to hurt from those bright stars in the sky
when the moonlight hits the floor it shows the way
and i’m stuck on planet earth and its okay”

‘Scared of Life’ is pretty self explanatory (“i’m just a little bird don’t let me out into this world”), before the album closes with ‘Flowers’ and its big reverby guitars and declarations of devotion. Dear You, It Can’t Wait is an examination of a period of life that is conflicted in many ways, and Dying Adolescence’s sunny pop sensibilities and sometimes less-than-happy vocals are a great representation of this. Press play and feel like a blissfully free and incredibly terrified 18-year-old once more.

You can get Dear You, It Can’t Wait on cassette or a name-your-price download via the folks at Z Tapes.

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