Daytime TV – S/T (REVIEW)
(RIYL: indie rock, lo-fi, 80N7)

Debaser – MOOD RING
(RIYL: mixtapes, lo-fi, weird)

Derek – Rookie of the Year
(RIYL: indie rock, lo-fi)

Devon Mello – Constance All Grown Up (REVIEW)
(RIYL: indie pop, lo-fi, bedroom pop)

Dicktations – Words Don’t Love You (REVIEW)
(RIYL: garage rock, Weezer, Black Lips)

Diners – It’s All True
(RIYL: indie pop, Telekinesis)

Diocese – S/T 
(RIYL: garage rock, Krill)

Eerie Summer – The Way I Don’t Understand Anything Anymore (REVIEW)
(RIYL: indie pop, shoegaze, jangle, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart)

EP – Ashland (REVIEW)
(RIYL: indie rock, lo-fi)

Fairweather Currents – Things Get Better (REVIEW)
(RIYL: bedroom pop, folk, acoustic Nana Grizol)

Fanpage – L Y A (REVIEW)
(RIYL: noise pop, shoegaze, Jenny Hval)

Faux Discx – Where We Were (COMPILATION)
(RIYL: indie rock, post-punk, shoegaze)

Fazed on a Pony – Hunch
(RIYL: lo-fi, indie rock)

Field Medic – Light is Gone (REVIEW)
(RIYL: bedroom pop, folk, lo-fi, J. Tillman)

Fog Lake – Victoria Park (REVIEW)
(RIYL: experimental, atmospheric pop, solitude)

Fox Academy – Elsie (REVIEW)
(RIYL: indie pop, summer nostalgia, golden oldies)

Fraternal Twin – s m a l l  w i n d  p o w e r (REVIEW)
(RIYL: gentle acoustics, natural glitches, intimate songwriting)

Free Cake For Every Creature – Moving Songs (REVIEW)
(RIYL: bedroom pop, folk, post-collegiate blues [or, overcoming them])

Furnsss – New Moves (REVIEW)
(RIYL: indie rock, deadbeat disinterest, Abe Vigoda, Hallelujah The Hills)

Gay Angel – Floral (REVIEW)
(RIYL: indie pop, weird, early CFTPA)

Gleemer – No Goobyes (REVIEW) / Moving Away (REVIEW)
(RIYL: pop punk, grunge, Pains of Being Pure at Heart)

GoldFlakePaint – The Human Noise We Sat There Making https://goldflakepaint.bandcamp.com/album/the-human-noise-we-sat-there-making
(RIYL: indie pop, lo-fi, compilations, all the cool stuff GFP write about)

Good, Good Blood – S/T (REVIEW)
(RIYL: indie pop, lo-fi, atmospheric folk)

The Grey Estates Vs Gold Flake Paint – The Pale Light Between (REVIEW)
(RIYL: indie pop, lo-fi, compilations, Gold Flake Paint, The Grey Estates)

Griffin Washburn – S/T
(RIYL: chill indie pop, psych, The Lagoonas)

GRNDMS – Capitol Mill (REVIEW)
(RIYL: bedroom pop, folk, Frankie Cosmos)

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: D-G appeared first on Various Small Flames.

On a related note, things are gradually getting busier for us in other areas – Liam works full-time and I’ve gone back to school – so the old two posts a day routine might not be maintained too often any more. That said, in an effort to keep things ticking over, we’re going to introduce a new ‘Flash Review’ feature where we cover albums in less words than we would otherwise use. It’s not ideal but a short piece is better than no piece. There’ll still be a good smattering of the usual style too.

Tracklisting:

1. Birthstone (Reprise) – Pet Cemetery
   2. Vice – Roundheels
   3. Forever – Boosegumps
   4. So Long – Heavy Boots
   5. Long Walk To All Sorts of Place – Fanpage
   6. Feathers & Leaves – Ocean Floor
   7. Down Predator Souvenirs – Lejsovka & Freund
   8. Vacation – Florist
   9. 2. – Old Earth
   10. Never Good Enough – Eerie Summer
   11. EZ River – Wilder Maker
   12. Thumbs – Claire Cottrill
   13. If I Were A Portal – Evening Hymns
   14. Jenny Come Home – Andy Shauf
   15. Only Friend – Valley Maker
   16. The Flood – Mike Pace & the Child Actors
   17. Close Call (Adderall Anxiety) – Shaky Shrines
   18. Nancy Kerrigan – Frog
   19. Kaleidoscope – Arbes
   20. The Book of Love – ARMS

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

“Three lovely dream pop songs, complete with sweet and lovelorn vocals…[which are] doing a pretty good job of making me feel warm and fuzzy during a particularly cold and grey December day.”

Victoria from Pretty Sad recently got in touch to say that her other project, Eerie Summer, had made an album titled the way I don’t understand anything anymore. The band are a duo, Victoria from St Petersburg joined by Maxim from Finland, and make really great, lo-fi indie pop that sounds sweet but hides a complexity of emotions. It’s the aural equivalent of a sad kid’s Tumblr page, all cuteness and charm at first glance, but with a lot of anxiety and sadness hidden just below the surface.

Opener ‘No Big Deal’ dives straight in to the vibe of the album, a slice of jangly lo-fi pop with sugary vocals delivering a chorus of “It doesn’t matter baby, it doesn’t matter / if I’m almost dead / if I’m almost dying”. ‘Never Good Enough’, my favourite song from the album, is an anthem for the shy and belittled, spiky and catchy and shimmery in all the right amounts:

“I wish I could talk to you
I wish I was louder
I wish I had social skills
I wish I was stronger”

The rest of the album doesn’t let things drop. ‘Not the kind of girl to hang around’ is romantic fuzz pop with defiantly headstrong lyrics (“You don’t have to take me home you can drop me off the road / you can tell your friends to piss off and leave me all alone” & “I won’t change for anybody, I won’t change for anyone”), and ‘i don’t need anybody else but you’ is similar in tone but the lyrical flip side, displaying a total devotion to an other. ‘Weird around you’ is another favourite of mine: Slightly slower and bigger with echoey lo-fi undertones, it sounds like a garage band playing a slow romantic number at their high school dance. As if to reinforce the message, closer ‘Its okay’ is probably the best illustration of the album as a whole – a perky pop song with lyrics more kind and understated than gushing about true love:

“its okay to be sad
its okay to feel bad
i’ve got my life (?)
you’ve got your life (?)
and you’ll never see me try
to win your heart”

It’s a great little album all in all and a must for those who like their romantically fuzzy indie pop with a colouring of angst. You can get the way i don’t understand anything anymore on a pay-what-you-want basis via the Eerie Summer Bandcamp page. I’d suggest you do so right now!

The post Eerie Summer – the way i don’t understand anything anymore appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Doug MacNearney – Rambling Songs

(RIYL: folk, Canada, Tyler Butler, Zachary Lucky, heartfelt lyrics)

Dutch Barn – About Time

(RIYL: indie pop, fuzz, reverb, Teenage Fanclub)

Eerie Summer – S/T

(RIYL: dream pop, Best Coast, Pains of Being Pure At Heart)

Elvis Depressedly – Holo Pleasures

(RIYL: fuzzy pop, melancholy, Coma Cinema)

Eric & Magill – Two Travelers

(RIYL – indie pop, dream pop, long distance relationships)

The Everywheres – Slow Friends

(RIYL: Garage rock, psychedelic, fuzz)

Fiesta Minor – Time Spent Breathing

(RIYL: hardcore, screamo, post rock)

Filbert – Chronographic

(Riyl: indie rock, hip-hop, Why?)

Flow My Tears – I

(RIYL: indie pop, The Smiths, Cygnets)

The Flying Blackbyrds – No. 0

(RIYL: 60s rock, bar brawls, Mike Tod)

Fog Lake – Holy Cross

(RIYL: experimental, bedroom pop, slowcore, melancholy)

Fthrsn – Middle School Swag

(RIYL: glitch hop, dream pop, chillwave, GRL MTN)

Gatsby’s Estate – Intro/Extra

(RIYL: chillwave, synths, indie pop, the lonely life of Jay Gatsby)

Gingerlys – Summer Cramps

(RIYL: lo-fi, dream pop, indie rock)

Glass Vaults – Bright EP

(RIYL – ambient, dream pop, Youth Lagoon)

Goldeen – Off Duty Detective

(RIYL: chillwave, synths, John Maus)

Greatest Month – Herbs

(RIYL: washed out electronics, field recordings, chillwave)

Hand Drawn Dracula – Milkin’ It

(RIYL: grunge, indie rock, Nirvana, Toronto)

HAPPY TRENDY – For Listening Trial

(RIYL: lo-fi instrumentals, hypnagogic electronics, anxiety and chill)

Hog Bucket – Old Mustard

(RIYL: dirty bar-room blues, country, classic rock, drunken lovin’)

Hozier – Take Me To Church

(RIYL: radio-friendly indie, piano, Elton John)

The post Favourite Free Music of 2013 (D-H) appeared first on Various Small Flames.