<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>Eli Carvajal Archives - Various Small Flames</title>
	<atom:link href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/eli-carvajal/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/eli-carvajal/</link>
	<description>New and independent music</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Thu, 08 Jan 2026 15:11:35 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en-GB</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>
	hourly	</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>
	1	</sy:updateFrequency>
	<generator>https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4</generator>

<image>
	<url>https://i0.wp.com/varioussmallflames.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/cropped-finalwhite-e1490809629909-1.jpg?fit=32%2C32&#038;ssl=1</url>
	<title>Eli Carvajal Archives - Various Small Flames</title>
	<link>https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/eli-carvajal/</link>
	<width>32</width>
	<height>32</height>
</image> 
<site xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">88787050</site>	<item>
		<title>Weekly Listening: September 2025 #3</title>
		<link>https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2025/09/16/weekly-listening-september-2025-3/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jon Doyle]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 16 Sep 2025 18:06:15 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[New Music]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Weekly Listening]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Angel Tapes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Audio Antihero]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[boston]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[brooklyn]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Charlottesville]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Eli Carvajal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fire Talk Records]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[First City Artists]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fulton Lights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Leilani Patao]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Little Angry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[london]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Los Angeles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LUCKY]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mint Records]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Night Teacher]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Perish]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ribbon Skirt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Royal Oakie Records]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Seattle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Starcharm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tiberius]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/?p=46447</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>Eli Carvajal &#8211; Forever In recent months we&#8217;ve been following London-based songwriter Eli Carvajal as he prepares to release new full-length Eyen Forever in October via Safe Suburban Home Records. After singles like &#8216;Stretch Marks&#8216; (which “manag[es],&#8221; we wrote, &#8220;to evoke the ways in which love elevates the ordinary into something wonderful, and creates the possibilities of new myths and dreams before us&#8221;) and &#8216;Scar&#8217; (&#8220;welcom[es] the audience into the mundane details of everyday existence in order to gesture towards themes more poignant [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2025/09/16/weekly-listening-september-2025-3/">Weekly Listening: September 2025 #3</a> appeared first on <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk">Various Small Flames</a>.</p>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h3 style="text-align: center;">Eli Carvajal &#8211; Forever</h3>
<p>In recent months we&#8217;ve been following <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/London">London</a>-based songwriter <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/eli-carvajal/">Eli Carvajal</a> as he prepares to release new full-length <em>Eyen Forever</em> in October via <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/safe-suburban-home-records/">Safe Suburban Home Records</a>. After singles like &#8216;<a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2025/03/21/eli-carvajal-stretch-marks/">Stretch Marks</a>&#8216; (which “manag[es],&#8221; we wrote, &#8220;to evoke the ways in which love elevates the ordinary into something wonderful, and creates the possibilities of new myths and dreams before us&#8221;) and &#8216;Scar&#8217; (&#8220;welcom[es] the audience into the mundane details of everyday existence in order to gesture towards themes more poignant and sweeping&#8221;), Carvajal has returned with the album opener, &#8216;Forever&#8217;. Another emotive, tender track, the song finds Carvajal at perhaps his most intimate, the arrangement stripped right back to its bare necessities and possessing the kind of wistful fondness only accessed when one finds themselves far away from home. As he explains: &#8220;&#8216;Forever&#8217; was inspired by my two years&#8217; teaching English in Tokyo, Japan. In the song, I play with the language we use around romance, reframing love and loss with poignancy as well as humour.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><iframe style="border: 0; width: 350px; height: 470px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3908539124/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/track=3619128259/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://elicarvajal.bandcamp.com/album/eyen-forever">Eyen Forever by Eli Carvajal</a></iframe></center><em>Eyen Forever</em> will be released on the 3rd October via Safe Suburban Home Records and you can <a href="https://elicarvajal.bandcamp.com/album/eyen-forever">pre-order it now</a>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Fulton Lights &#8211; Hold That Thought</h3>
<p>Recording under the moniker <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/fulton-lights">Fulton Lights</a>, Andrew Spencer Goldman last put out new music in 2018, when album <em>Moonwalking into the Future</em> highlighted the ambition and invention of his work. New EP <em>Well the Night Has Come </em>shows the hiatus has done nothing to dampen his creative energies. Take single &#8216;Hold That Thought&#8217;, a song concerned with the very process of making art in a world of distraction. Along with guests TJ Lipple (Aloha) on drums, John Davis (ex-QandNotU/Georgie James/Title Tracks/Paint Branch) on backing vocals and Tony Maimone (Pere Ubu) on percussion, Goldman crafts a sound layered and languid, though the laid-back rhythm belies the urgency and depth of feeling present in the delivery. Because this is a track about &#8220;trying to remain open to those moments where creativity is born,&#8221; as Goldman explains. &#8220;Capturing and releasing them before they dissipate. It can be an act of resistance against all of the things conspiring to distract.”</p>
<p><center><iframe style="border: 0; width: 350px; height: 470px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1972245523/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/track=3149090474/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://fultonlights.bandcamp.com/album/well-the-night-has-come">Well the Night Has Come by Fulton Lights</a></iframe></center><em>Well the Night Has Come</em> will be released on the 7th November and you can pre-order it now.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Leilani Patao &#8211; Cut</h3>
<p>Starting in 2021 at the tender age of seventeen, <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/Brooklyn">Brooklyn</a> (via <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/los-angeles">Los Angeles</a>) based songwriter <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/leilani-patao/">Leilani Patao</a> put out a series of DIY self-releases, culminating in the acclaimed 2024 album <em>But What If?</em> which earned, among other things, a feature on <em>The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon</em>. But despite this success, Patao grew disallusioned with the biz, not an unfamiliar story within a contemporary music scene which demands not only on hard work in an artistic sense but an even greater degree of effort (and luck) be spent on self-promotion, algorithmic appeasement and any number of equally soul-destorying things. Many criticize this system but few take concrete action against it, which makes Patao&#8217;s new EP <em>daisy</em>, forthcoming this autumn via <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/audio-antihero/">Audio Antihero</a>, all the more notable. A release which promises to shun streaming services, playlists and social media in order to focus on what really matters, and thus an experiment to judge what exactly is possible within the conditions of the twenty-first century. “Is it possible to share my music properly, pay everyone who was involved, get paid myself, and not have to interact with the many systems in place that make me dread music?” Patao asks. Lead single &#8216;Cut&#8217; is out now for an early glimpse at a release we&#8217;re rooting for in more ways that one.</p>
<p><center><iframe style="border: 0; width: 350px; height: 442px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/track=1538484590/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://leilanipatao.bandcamp.com/track/cut">Cut by Leilani Patao</a></iframe></center><em>daisy</em> will be released on the 7th November via Audio Antihero and you can <a href="https://leilanipatao.bandcamp.com/album/daisy-2">pre-order it now</a>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Little Angry &#8211; Outerside</h3>
<p>You might know Evan Hashi as part of acts like The Hive Dwellers, Mega Bog, <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/twig-palace">Twig Palace</a> and Flying Circles, but the <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/Seattle">Seattle</a>-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist has also long recorded under the moniker <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/little-angry">Little Angry</a>, blending pop, punk and psych influences with an experimental, DIY spirit. Set for release next month via <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/antiquated-future-records/">Antiquated Future Records</a>, the fourth Little Angry album <em>Screamin&#8217; Inside Your Heart!!!</em> is the first to see the project become a full band, and thus a slightly new name—Little Angry &amp; The Sweets—though the spirit remains the same. With Jen Weisberg (bass guitar, vocals) and Joseph Kuta (guitar, vocals), Little Angry sound better than ever, Hashi using the album&#8217;s title (taken from COVID-era safety instructions provided to riders of roller coasters in Japan) to explore the idea of being a &#8216;good immigrant&#8217; in the US, a notion reinforced through generations. Listen to opener and lead single &#8216;Outerside&#8217; for an idea of the drama and playfulness of the record.</p>
<p><iframe title="Little Angry &amp; The Sweets - Outerside" width="1170" height="658" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/V6ONNImKBSA?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>Screamin&#8217; Inside Your Heart!!! </em>will be released on the 2nd October via Antiquated Future Records and you can <a href="https://antiquatedfuture.bandcamp.com/album/screamin-inside-your-heart">pre-order it now.</a></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">LUCKY &#8211; Olden Goldy</h3>
<p>We&#8217;ve been following Bay Area supergroup <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/lucky/">LUCKY</a> (that&#8217;s <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/half-stack/">Half Stack</a>‘s Peter Kegler and Andrew St James alongside Marika Christine and Zach Elsasser of Affectionately) in recent months as they gear up to release their self-titled album, with songs like &#8216;<a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2025/08/19/lucky-friends/">Friends</a>&#8216; embodying the buoyant rhythm and wistful edge of the project. With the album out now via <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/royal-oakie-records/">Royal Oakie Records</a>, LUCKY have shared new single &#8216;Olden Goldy&#8217; to win over anyone not yet on board. The album&#8217;s closer, the song encapsulates everything that makes the outfit so special. &#8220;Out in the big olive groves / where the warms wind blows / I&#8217;m a young man who&#8217;s getting old,&#8221; go the opening lines, though again the reflection of the lyrics and delivery is slightly at odds with the upbeat, swaggering style of the sound itself. As though understanding, for all of the slow realisations and dawning regrets, life will go on kicking yet.</p>
<blockquote>
<h5>Up in the lonely pines<br />
the wind haunts my mind<br />
I spent days just losing time.<br />
The sky&#8217;s is getting long,<br />
the night is looking cold<br />
and I&#8217;m still a young man who&#8217;s getting old</h5>
<h5>But I can&#8217;t let go</h5>
</blockquote>
<p><center><iframe style="border: 0; width: 350px; height: 470px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=434915944/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/track=1502290518/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://lucky4lyfe.bandcamp.com/album/lucky">LUCKY by LUCKY</a></iframe></center><em>LUCKY</em> is out now via Royal Oakie Records and you can get it from <a href="https://lucky4lyfe.bandcamp.com/album/lucky">Bandcamp</a>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Night Teacher &#8211; New Cage</h3>
<p>Consisting of multi-media artist and singer-songwriter Lilly Bechtel and drummer, writer and producer Matt Wyatt, <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/night-teacher">Night Teacher</a> sits somewhere between indie rock, chamber pop and doom folk in its style, a sound tied together by Bechtel&#8217;s emotive, often haunting delivery. Ahead of new album <em>Year of the Snake</em>, coming this autumn via <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/first-city-artists">First City Artists</a>, Night Teacher have shared new single &#8216;New Cage&#8217;. The song utilises the <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/Charlottesville">Charlottesville</a> duo&#8217;s evocative and thoughtful style to meditate on pernicious influences of social media in contemporary culture, positioning such forces as a kind of imprisonment we enter on our own volition. &#8220;I was reading Naomi Klein’s brilliant book <em>Doppelgänger</em>, where she writes about the original surveillance system as the concept of God, which in many ways has been replaced by the concept of the idealized self,&#8221; Bechtel explains. &#8220;Social media may be doing a very old thing in a new way: getting people to run surveillance on themselves in order to become better commodities for the marketplace.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><iframe style="border: 0; width: 350px; height: 442px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/track=2413171704/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://nightteacher.bandcamp.com/track/new-cage">New Cage by Night Teacher</a></iframe></center><em>Year of the Snake</em> will be released on 31st October via First City Artists and you can pre-order it now.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Perish &#8211; God I&#8217;m Freaking Out</h3>
<p>&#8220;A vivid slice of folk-inflected rock which sounds at once wistful and affirming, a combination which looks to be a signature of the Perish sound,&#8221; we wrote of single &#8216;<a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2025/07/15/weekly-listening-july-2025-3/">Cool Guys</a>&#8216; back in July when previewing <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/Brooklyn/">Brooklyn</a> outfit <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/perish/">Perish</a>&#8216;s new self-titled album. &#8220;Because while [Katie] Callihan’s delivery is thoughtful, her lyrics probing beneath the surface of things, the sound retains an upbeat, exultant air. As though there’s some energy to be found in the act of being open and honest to the point of vulnerability.&#8221; With the record out now via <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/rue-defense/">Rue Defense</a>, Perish have shared new single &#8216;God I&#8217;m Freaking Out&#8217;. The song started life as something of a slow ballad when Callihan was playing solo, but the new version is altogether different, the full band adding extra groove and charge to a track all about the push and pull of solitude in the face of stress.</p>
<p><center><iframe style="border: 0; width: 350px; height: 470px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2917914908/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/track=2357893845/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://p3rish.bandcamp.com/album/perish">Perish by Perish</a></iframe></center><em>Perish</em> is out now via Rue Defense and is available <a href="https://p3rish.bandcamp.com/album/perish">via Bandcamp</a>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Ribbon Skirt &#8211; LUCKY8</h3>
<p><span data-olk-copy-source="MessageBody">Principally consisting of Anishinaabe musician Tashiina Buswa and guitarist Billy Riley, Montreal&#8217;s <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/ribbon-skirt/">Ribbon Skirt</a> won acclaim earlier in the year with the release of their debut <em>Bite Down</em> on <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/mint-records/">Mint Records</a>, an album which explored ideas of memory and heritage with a raw, stark style of post-punk. Fast-forward a few months and Ribbon Skirt are back with <em>PENSACOLA</em>, a brand new EP intended as something of an epilogue to its predecessor. One which seems to exist in the wake of <em>Bite Down</em>, powered by the still-charged air and smouldering heat. Lead single &#8216;LUCKY8&#8217; welcomes listeners into this space, a track of woozy layers and surreal, dreamlike imagery which nevertheless holds a pulsing urgency beneath the surface. Like a memory bathed in the feedback and distortion of time yet still possessing its serrated edge.</span></p>
<blockquote>
<h5><span data-olk-copy-source="MessageBody">One day you’re gonna wake up crystalline and mountain-clear<br />
Left her hanging on a word in Thunder Bay the 15th year<br />
You lift your shirt up and then tell me you’re the chosen one<br />
The family knew back then that god made you the lucky one<br />
You make it easy to believe that you’re so strong like that<br />
It’s not a promise and believe me<br />
he could con like that</span></h5>
</blockquote>
<p><iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2763013583/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=3448332715/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://ribbonskirtband.bandcamp.com/album/pensacola">PENSACOLA by Ribbon Skirt</a></iframe></p>
<p>Watch the visualizer by Rory Stobart below:</p>
<p><iframe title="Ribbon Skirt - LUCKY8 (Visualizer)" width="1170" height="658" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CEctknZthC4?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>PENSECOLA</em> will be released on the 3rd October via Mint Records and you can pre-order it from <a href="https://ribbonskirtband.bandcamp.com/album/pensacola">Bandcamp</a>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Starcharm &#8211; The Color Clear</h3>
<p>The <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/fire-talk-records">Fire Talk</a> imprint <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/angel-tapes/">Angel Tapes</a> has been unearthing emergent artists for a number of years now, introducing the likes of Retail Drugs and Jawdropped to audiences, and their latest addition <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/starcharm">Starcharm</a> is another act you will want to get to know. Featuring Elena Buenrostro (vocals, guitar), Jasmin Feliciano (bass) and Amaya Peña (drums), the <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/chicago/">Chicago</a> trio has risen from the ashes of Buenrostro’s defunct project Soft and Dumb with all the confidence and energy of new beginnings. Debut single &#8216;The Color Clear&#8217; displays both pop and noise sensibilities, pairing off-kilter post punk vibes with a rising intensity so that everything feels a little odd and unreal. The song “is inspired by a time when I lost all faith in love and felt like men were seeing me as a projection instead of a real person,&#8221; Buenrostro explains. &#8220;I was going through a bit of nihilistic mania during this time which I think you can definitely hear. An avoidant attachment anthem if you will.”</p>
<p><iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3804419043/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://starcharm.bandcamp.com/album/the-color-clear">The Color Clear by Starcharm</a></iframe></p>
<p>Watch the video directed and produced by Peña themselves below:</p>
<p><iframe title="Starcharm - The Color Clear (Official Music Video)" width="1170" height="658" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PrDs7ZmNXHE?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&#8216;The Color Clear&#8217; is out now via Angel Tapes and available from <a href="https://starcharm.bandcamp.com/album/the-color-clear">Bandcamp</a>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Tiberius &#8211; Moab</h3>
<p>With the release of new album <em>Troubadour</em> edging nearer via <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/audio-antihero/">Audio Antihero</a>, <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/boston">Boston</a> farm emo band <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/tiberius/">Tiberius</a> have shared latest single &#8216;Moab&#8217;. After &#8216;<a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2025/07/18/tiberius-sag/">Sag</a>&#8216; and &#8216;<a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2025/08/18/weekly-listening-august-2025-3/">Felt</a>&#8216; introduced the conflicted, searching and cathartic style of the record (&#8220;ebbs and flows across its runtime,&#8221; we wrote of the former, &#8220;pulled in all directions by competing emotions. Uncertainty, doubt, desperation, a recurrent yet skittish determination to embrace some inner truth&#8221;) the new song highlights a different dimension. A track more farm than emo, leaning closer to alt country in its warm twang and compassionate delivery, though one no less cathartic for its more relaxed approached. “&#8217;Moab&#8217; was a song I wrote about trying to let go. At the time I was defining myself by expectations of a strained relationship. I was feeling pretty insane—like the kind of insane you feel back in 8th grade where you come home crying all of the time because you have absolutely no sense of self,&#8221; explains lead Brendan Wright. &#8220;Writing ‘Moab’ offered catharsis. Looking back, I feel a lot of embarrassment around those feelings, but it was how I felt at the time and that was the place I was in. I wish I had acted differently, and I strive to now.”</p>
<p><center><iframe style="border: 0; width: 350px; height: 470px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2707179563/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/track=2636973552/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://tiberiuswright.bandcamp.com/album/troubadour-2">Troubadour by Tiberius</a></iframe></center><em>Troubadour</em> will be released on the 14th November via Audio Antihero and you can pre-order it now from the Tiberius <a href="https://tiberiuswright.bandcamp.com/album/troubadour-2">Bandcamp page</a>.</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2025/09/16/weekly-listening-september-2025-3/">Weekly Listening: September 2025 #3</a> appeared first on <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk">Various Small Flames</a>.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
					
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">46447</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Weekly Listening: August 2025 #1</title>
		<link>https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2025/08/04/weekly-listening-august-2025-1/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jon Doyle]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 04 Aug 2025 21:11:03 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[New Music]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Weekly Listening]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Eli Carvajal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hildegard von Bingen]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Joyer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Julia's War Recordings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MacGregor Burns]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Minus The Bear]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[My Generation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Noele Flowers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[OK Cool]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Post Present Medium]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Safe Suburban Home Records]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Suicide Squeeze Records]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Take a Hike Records]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The New Eves]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Transgressive]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/?p=46024</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>Donner Party &#8211; Halo Back in 1987, San Francisco alt rock outfit Donner Party released a self-titled debut full-length, a record which drew on the strange, macabre imagery behind the project&#8217;s name (the Donner Party was a group of American pioneers who alleged became murderous cannibals when stranded in the Sierra Nevada) to explore themes of anxiety and death with a tone both playful and esoteric. Hence tracks titled &#8216;Godlike Porpoise Head Of Blue-Eyed Mary&#8217;, &#8216;John Wilkes Booth&#8217;, &#8216;The Owl [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2025/08/04/weekly-listening-august-2025-1/">Weekly Listening: August 2025 #1</a> appeared first on <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk">Various Small Flames</a>.</p>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h3 style="text-align: center;">Donner Party &#8211; Halo</h3>
<p>Back in 1987, San Francisco alt rock outfit <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/donner-party">Donner Party</a> released a self-titled debut full-length, a record which drew on the strange, macabre imagery behind the project&#8217;s name (the Donner Party was a group of American pioneers who alleged became murderous cannibals when stranded in the Sierra Nevada) to explore themes of anxiety and death with a tone both playful and esoteric. Hence tracks titled &#8216;Godlike Porpoise Head Of Blue-Eyed Mary&#8217;, &#8216;John Wilkes Booth&#8217;, &#8216;The Owl Of Minerva&#8217; and more. Fast forward nearly forty years and Donner Party are re-releasing the album via <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/trussed-recordings">Trussed Recordings</a>, with the tracks remastered by Melbourne-based musician and engineer Mikey Young. Single &#8216;Halo&#8217; serves as an introduction to a whole new generation, its racing rhythm and country twang embodying the band&#8217;s mischievous spirit and infectious energy. &#8220;There&#8217;s a halo on my head,&#8221; as the chorus goes, &#8220;though it sometimes fades, I would sooner lose my life than trade my halo away.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><iframe style="border: 0; width: 350px; height: 470px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2477339132/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/track=2744786209/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://donnerparty.bandcamp.com/album/donner-party">Donner Party by Donner Party</a></iframe></center><em>Donner Party</em> will be re-released on the 19th September via Trussed Recordings.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Eli Carvajal &#8211; Scar</h3>
<p>&#8220;Manag[es] to evoke the ways in which love elevates the ordinary into something wonderful, and creates the possibilities of new myths and dreams before us.&#8221; That&#8217;s what we had to say about &#8216;<a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2025/03/21/eli-carvajal-stretch-marks/">Stretch Marks</a>&#8216; by London-based songwriter <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/eli-carvajal/">Eli Carvajal</a> back in March, a song &#8220;simple in execution and all the more convincing for it,&#8221; as we continued, which &#8220;marks Carvajal as a songwriter to watch as we move further into 2025.&#8221; Well, now we&#8217;re further into 2025, the wait to hear more is almost over, as Carvajal is preparing to release new full-length <em>Eyen Forever</em> in October via <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/safe-suburban-home-records/">Safe Suburban Home Records</a>. Latest single &#8216;Scar&#8217; is every bit as observant and tender, welcoming the audience into the mundane details of everyday existence in order to gesture towards themes more poignant and sweeping. &#8220;I wrote this song on my 29th birthday, while I was living in Tokyo, when I cut my finger while cutting garlic,&#8221; Carvajal explains. &#8220;A symbolic spilling of blood over the last year of my twenties. I imagine the drops of blood as rubies springing up; this theme of transformation continues as I reflect on everyday life in Japan and my feelings around approaching thirty.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><iframe style="border: 0; width: 350px; height: 470px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3908539124/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/track=550789085/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://elicarvajal.bandcamp.com/album/eyen-forever">Eyen Forever by Eli Carvajal</a></iframe></center><em>Eyen Forever</em> is out on the 3rd October via Safe Suburban Home Records and availble to <a href="https://elicarvajal.bandcamp.com/album/eyen-forever">pre-order now</a>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Joyer &#8211; Cure</h3>
<p>Nick and Shane Sullivan, the sibling duo behind <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/joyer/">Joyer</a>, have gone their separate ways since the release of previous record, <em>Night Songs</em>, each moving to a new city and having to grapple with the distance and loneliness when going through the already challenging post-tour blues. But if new full-length <em>On the Other End of the Line&#8230;</em> is anything to go by, the experience has only strengthened their resolve to utilise Joyer as a force for connection and meaning. Forthcoming via <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/Julias-war-recordings">Julia&#8217;s War Recordings</a>, the full-length sands down the shoegaze scale of the previous record while maintaining its pop melodies, as well as pushing the Joyer arrangements into newly ambitious territory. Lead single &#8216;Cure&#8217; gives a hint at what to expect, detailing how we search for small moments of connection within the isolation of the contemporary world.</p>
<p><center><iframe style="border: 0; width: 350px; height: 470px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=4040286871/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/track=3563886600/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://joyer.bandcamp.com/album/on-the-other-end-of-the-line">On the Other End of the Line&#8230; by Joyer</a></iframe></center><em>On the Other End of the Line&#8230;</em> is out on the 24th October via Julia&#8217;s War Recordings and you can <a href="https://joyer.bandcamp.com/album/on-the-other-end-of-the-line">pre-order it now</a>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">MacGregor Burns &#8211; What I&#8217;ve Been Looking For</h3>
<p>&#8220;Through a number of singles in recent months, LA songwriter <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/macgregor-burns/">MacGregor Burns</a> has established a style at once emotionally resonant and idiosyncratic,&#8221; we wrote back in June, with songs like ‘<a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2024/09/26/macgregor-burns-silent-answers/">Silent Answers</a>&#8216;, ‘<a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2024/11/26/weekly-listening-november-2024-4/">Can’t Go Back</a>&#8216; and &#8216;<a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2025/06/09/weekly-listening-june-2025-2/">I&#8217;m Not Supposed to Be Here Anymore</a>&#8216; falling somewhere on the spectrum between slacker rock and folk. Latest offering &#8216;What I&#8217;ve Been Looking For&#8217; both continues this style and nudges it in new directions. Relatively sparse and slow-moving, there&#8217;s a slightly forlorn tone to the track, though as a subtle R&amp;B groove establishes itself and Burns&#8217;s vocals rise in conviction, the result is romantic rather than lonely. The spacious arrangement revealed to be not the product of stark solitude but rather a burgeoning clarity, the delivery aching with the knowledge of having stumbled upon that which he so keenly desires yet had previously proved elusive.</p>
<p><center><iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/2126367735&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=true&amp;visual=true" width="100%" height="300" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></center></p>
<div style="font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc; line-break: anywhere; word-break: normal; overflow: hidden; white-space: nowrap; text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif; font-weight: 100;"><a style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" title="MacGregor Burns" href="https://soundcloud.com/macgregorburns-music" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MacGregor Burns</a> · <a style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" title="What I've Been Looking For" href="https://soundcloud.com/macgregorburns-music/what-ive-been-looking-for" target="_blank" rel="noopener">What I&#8217;ve Been Looking For</a></div>
<p>&#8216;What I&#8217;ve Been Looking For&#8217; is out now and available from <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/0xVDM2ci1UwCsLQFhqFVPv?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaeaWKEI2U0Z8d4R62QnbhrUZyp8NbMMlM6xQ4mvSuTkBO8eFZTggu7c9ePK0g_aem_VmcJ6GbrPYlsvtMBlp7jgg&amp;nd=1&amp;dlsi=ed9532c5fbfc4c7d">the usual places</a>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Minus The Bear &#8211; Drilling</h3>
<p>Back in July <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2025/07/15/weekly-listening-july-2025-3/">we wrote</a> of how <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/suicide-squeeze-records">Suicide Squeeze Records</a> are putting out a deluxe edition of <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/minus-the-bear/">Minus The Bear</a>&#8216;s seminal album <em>Menos el Oso</em> to celebrate its twentieth anniversary this month, with the original album expanded with a number of demo versions of some of the most beloved tracks. After &#8216;The Pig War&#8217; a few weeks ago, the band are now back with a brand new video for &#8216;Drilling&#8217;, directed/edited by Cheyne Smith and produced by Minus the Bear and Do Better For Artists. Check it out below, and be sure to catch Minus The Bear on their North American tour this autumn if they pass a town near you. All the dates are available <a href="https://www.minusthebear.com/tour">here</a>.</p>
<p><iframe title="Minus The Bear - Drilling (OFFICIAL VIDEO)" width="1170" height="658" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ChZIfC0Bniw?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Suicide Squeeze Records will release <em>Menos el Oso (20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)</em> on 22nd August. Get a copy now from the Minus the Bear <a href="https://minusthebear.bandcamp.com/album/menos-el-oso-20th-anniversary-deluxe-edition">Bandcamp page</a>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">My Generation – Want It</h3>
<p><a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/my-generation">My Generation</a> are a new band from LA, who recently unveiled themselves to the world with debut single ‘Want It&#8217;. What label <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/post-present-medium">Post Present Medium</a> describe as “a sparse yet lambent meandering jam,” the track is a great intro to the trio, that is N.A.S. (P22, Purity) Sara Mayako (Mayako XO, Behavior Mayako XO) and Sophie Weil (Syko Friend, Pink Trash Can). It’s oddly timeless, the raw guitar, subtle percussion and detached drawl of vocals sounding could be modern or fifty years old, like some unearthed long-lost 7” gem that has lost none of its electric verve.</p>
<p><center><iframe style="border: 0; width: 350px; height: 442px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/track=3027219069/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://mygeneration.bandcamp.com/track/want-it">Want It by My Generation</a></iframe></center>‘Want It is out now via Post Present Medium and is available from the My Generation <a href="https://mygeneration.bandcamp.com/track/want-it">Bandcamp page</a>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">The New Eves – The New Eve</h3>
<p>On the first day of August, Brighton-based quartet <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/The-New-Eves">The New Eves</a> released their debut album <em>The New Eve Is Rising</em>, via <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/transgressive">Transgressive</a>. The record captures the band’s theatrical and ritualistic live performances and their distinctive “Hagstone rock” style that combine mystical freak folk, reckless punk and poetic radical feminism. It’s the product not of a superstitious or occult past, but rather something altogether new, a self-created mythology. As the label put it: “It’s a boundless, uninhibited kind of magic that feels completely new; that’s writing its own rulebook for how to exist &#8211; as a band, as women, as humans in the world &#8211; from the ground up.” The opener and title track is (unsurprisingly) the best place to start, something like a mission statement of the project as a whole.</p>
<p><center><iframe style="border: 0; width: 350px; height: 470px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2848254323/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/track=2772958893/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://theneweves.bandcamp.com/album/the-new-eve-is-rising">The New Eve Is Rising by The New Eves</a></iframe></center><em>The New Eve Is Rising </em>is out now via Transgressive and available via The New Eves <a href="https://theneweves.bandcamp.com/album/the-new-eve-is-rising">Bandcamp page</a>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Noele Flowers &#8211; Ricky, you are a vision</h3>
<p>Back in 2023 <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2023/02/15/weekly-listening-february-2023-2/">we wrote</a> about Massachusetts-raised, Hudson Valley-based songwriter <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/noele-flowers/">Noele Flowers</a> and her EP <em>Wait For Me</em>, explaining how the title track existed in a strange liminal space, where shoots of possibility were shaded by the still looming past. A love song, but one flavoured by a blend of hope and anxiety. Flowers is now preparing to release debut full-length <em>Historically Close Friends </em>to build upon this style, and has unveiled lead single &#8216;Ricky, you are a vision&#8217; as a preview. Recorded with the help of her former choir, Khorikos, the track is what she describes as &#8220;an imagined love song,&#8221; where she puts herself in the shoes of a historical figure in order to write. Namely twelfth-century abbess, writer, and composer Hildegard von Bingen (who you might remember as the focus of <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/larum/">Larum</a>&#8216;s <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2025/03/13/larum-o-orzchis-ecclesia/">recent release</a>), addressing likely lover Richardis von Stade. A track not without a certain sense of hesitancy in it gentle warmth, yet imbued with an encompassing fondness with furthers the patience which Flowers set out with the previous release.</p>
<blockquote>
<h5>If history remembers us as lovers, they won&#8217;t be quite wrong<br />
Cause I wrote you into every remedy and every song<br />
You are a vision</h5>
</blockquote>
<p><iframe title="Ricky, you are a vision" width="1170" height="878" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Yk_WBn9_ey0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>Historically Close Friends</em> is coming soon.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">OK Cool &#8211; Last</h3>
<p>&#8220;Combines emo confession with an infectious forward motion to create something genuinely cathartic despite its dark tone.&#8221; That&#8217;s how we described &#8216;Waawooweewaa&#8217; from <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/ok-cool/">OK Cool</a>&#8216;s new full-length, <em>Chit Chat</em>, back in May. A track which served as the ideal introduction to Bridget Stiebris and Haley Blomquist Waller&#8217;s fresh style, reaching across the spectrum of indie rock, math and shoegaze and combining the influence into something new. With the album out now via Take A Hike Records, the Chicago outfit has shared closer &#8216;Last&#8217; as a new single. Another emotionally charged number which pairs vulnerability with layers of energy and reverb, feeling far larger than its relatively short runtime thanks to its equal embrace of heart and heft. &#8220;Sweetness will you be my last / all my lives have come to pass,&#8221; goes one typically conflicted verse, &#8220;I can’t see it, i don’t know is my driving way too slow.&#8221; Yet for all of the uncertainty, the overarching result is again catharsis, as though OK COOL have found a way to not so much solve life&#8217;s problems but power on through regardless.</p>
<blockquote>
<h5>one day you’ll believe me<br />
one day i’ll believe me too</h5>
</blockquote>
<p><center><iframe style="border: 0; width: 350px; height: 470px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1984625251/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/track=374100474/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://okcool.bandcamp.com/album/chit-chat">Chit Chat by OK Cool</a></iframe></center><em>Chit Chat</em> is out now via Take A Hike Records and available from the OK Cool <a href="https://okcool.bandcamp.com/album/chit-chat">Bandcamp page</a>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2025/08/04/weekly-listening-august-2025-1/">Weekly Listening: August 2025 #1</a> appeared first on <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk">Various Small Flames</a>.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
					
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">46024</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Eli Carvajal &#8211; Stretch Marks</title>
		<link>https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2025/03/21/eli-carvajal-stretch-marks/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jon Doyle]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 21 Mar 2025 12:14:26 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Previews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Eli Carvajal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[folk]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[london]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[UK]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/?p=44655</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>Back in February we introduced the work of London-based songwriter Eli Carvajal and his &#8220;markedly unguarded, earnest style,&#8221; appreciating his ability to &#8220;combin[e] folk and pop sensibilities into something at once playful, curious and heartfelt.&#8221; After the release of album Eat Shiitake Now in 2024, Carvajal is sharing a number of new singles to preview his next release, starting with &#8216;Fear of Love&#8217;. &#8220;A song of two halves,&#8221; as we put it, &#8220;which emerged from a period of transition which in [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2025/03/21/eli-carvajal-stretch-marks/">Eli Carvajal &#8211; Stretch Marks</a> appeared first on <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk">Various Small Flames</a>.</p>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Back in February <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2025/02/24/weekly-listening-february-2025-4/">we introduced</a> the work of <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/london">London</a>-based songwriter <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/eli-carvajal/">Eli Carvajal</a> and his &#8220;markedly unguarded, earnest style,&#8221; appreciating his ability to &#8220;combin[e] folk and pop sensibilities into something at once playful, curious and heartfelt.&#8221; After the release of album <em>Eat Shiitake Now </em>in 2024, Carvajal is sharing a number of new singles to preview his next release, starting with &#8216;Fear of Love&#8217;. &#8220;A song of two halves,&#8221; as we put it, &#8220;which emerged from a period of transition which in turn suggests his next direction.&#8221; Written between time spent at home in Watford during the pandemic and then after moving to Higashikitazawa in Tokyo, it channels uncertainty and longing into something compassionate, overcoming frustration with a tender patience.</p>
<p>Now Eli Carvajal is back with &#8216;Stretch Marks&#8217;, a brand new single which furthers this sincere mood. Recorded in his bedroom in Higashikitazawa as snow melted on Mt. Fuji out the window, the song is every bit as intimate and gentle as its predecessor, managing to evoke the ways in which love elevates the ordinary into something wonderful, and creates the possibilities of new myths and dreams before us. The result is simple in execution and all the more convincing for it, and marks Carvajal as a songwriter to watch as we move further into 2025.</p>
<p><center><iframe style="border: 0; width: 350px; height: 442px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/track=3867864424/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://elicarvajal.bandcamp.com/track/stretch-marks">Stretch Marks by Eli Carvajal</a></iframe></center>&#8216;Stretch Marks&#8217; is out now and available from the Eli Carvajal <a href="https://elicarvajal.bandcamp.com/track/stretch-marks">Bandcamp page</a>.</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2025/03/21/eli-carvajal-stretch-marks/">Eli Carvajal &#8211; Stretch Marks</a> appeared first on <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk">Various Small Flames</a>.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
					
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">44655</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Weekly Listening: February 2025 #4</title>
		<link>https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2025/02/24/weekly-listening-february-2025-4/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jon Doyle]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 24 Feb 2025 19:52:26 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[New Music]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Weekly Listening]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Berlin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BOAT]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Breakfast Records]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[canada]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cici Arthur]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[D. Crane]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dusty Lucite]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dwi Riana]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Eli Carvajal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fime]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Germany]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indonesia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Julie Meunier]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[leoblu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lex Records]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Los Angeles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mumble Tide]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[naya mö]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Oh Boy Records]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Palmyra]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sweden]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[toronto]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Triathalon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[UK]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[usa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[western vinyl]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Winspear]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wishy]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/?p=44159</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>Cici Arthur &#8211; Way Through &#8220;Highlights how grand need not equate to ostentatious.&#8221; So we wrote of &#8216;Cartwheels For Coins&#8216;, a recent single from Way Through by Cici Arthur, the new collaboration between Toronto artists Joseph Shabason, Chris A. Cummings and Thom Gill. &#8220;Because for all of the richness of the [project&#8217;s] sound, there’s a grounded quality to it too. A kind of attention to detail which allows each track to become its own little slice of life.&#8221; With the album out now via Western Vinyl, [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2025/02/24/weekly-listening-february-2025-4/">Weekly Listening: February 2025 #4</a> appeared first on <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk">Various Small Flames</a>.</p>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h3 style="text-align: center;">Cici Arthur &#8211; Way Through</h3>
<p>&#8220;Highlights how <em>grand</em> need not equate to ostentatious.&#8221; So we wrote of &#8216;<a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2025/01/29/cici-arthur-cartwheels-for-coins/">Cartwheels For Coins</a>&#8216;, a recent single from <em>Way Through</em> by <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/cici-arthur">Cici Arthur</a>, the new collaboration between <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/toronto">Toronto</a> artists <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/joseph-shabason/">Joseph Shabason</a>, <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/chris-a-cummings/">Chris A. Cummings</a> and <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/thom-gill/">Thom Gill</a>. &#8220;Because for all of the richness of the [project&#8217;s] sound, there’s a grounded quality to it too. A kind of attention to detail which allows each track to become its own little slice of life.&#8221; With the album out now via <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/western-vinyl">Western Vinyl</a>, Cici Arthur are back with the opener and title track as a final single. The perfect encapsulation of the record&#8217;s ability to exist as something both cinematic Technicolor and drably human. &#8220;What good are dead ends when I’m looking for a way through?” as Cummings sings. &#8220;“When the miracle you’d hoped for never comes it’s hard to take, but it’s your fault for hoping.”</p>
<p><iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1628378330/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=2308863680/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://ciciarthur.bandcamp.com/album/way-through">Way Through by Cici Arthur</a></iframe></p>
<p><iframe title="Cici Arthur - &quot;WayThrough&quot;" width="1170" height="658" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/h8iE8yW7iYQ?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><em><br />
Way Through</em> is out now via Western Vinyl and you can get it <a href="https://ciciarthur.bandcamp.com/album/way-through">from Bandcamp</a>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Dusty Lucite &#8211; Old Feelings (feat. D. Crane)</h3>
<p>Led by H.L Stratton-Kuhta, <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/Portland">Portland</a>, <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/Oregon">Oregon</a>-based indie outfit <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/Dusty-Lucite">Dusty Lucite</a> reach across a whole myriad of genres to bring to life a sound as colourful and idiosyncratic as it is fun. Latest album <em>Normal Harder</em> serves as the ideal introduction for the uninitiated, pitching the listener into a singular world carved from psych-inflected pop and folk. The album is something of a grab bag, mixing raucous garage rock numbers with sedate, dreamy croons, and thus no one single can quite capture the experience, but standout &#8216;Old Feelings&#8217; is perhaps the best place to dive in. It&#8217;s a song which embodies both the playful spirit and emotional depth of the Dusty Lucite sound, enlisting D. Crane (of <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/boat/">BOAT</a>, <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/unlikely-friends">Unlikely Friends</a>) to add to the swirl of melancholic contemplation.</p>
<p><iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3994767522/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=1193763209/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://dustylucite.bandcamp.com/album/normal-harder">Normal Harder by Dusty Lucite</a></iframe></p>
<p><iframe title="Dusty Lucite - Old Feelings (feat. D. Crane)" width="1170" height="658" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eeHEe7oUimc?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><em><br />
Normal Harder</em> is out now and available from <a href="https://dustylucite.bandcamp.com/album/normal-harder">Bandcamp</a>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Dwi Riana x Julie Meunier &#8211; Elsewhere</h3>
<p>Back in 2023, songwriters <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/dwi-riana/">Dwi Riana</a> and <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/julie-meunier/">Julie Meunier</a> teamed up for single &#8216;<a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2023/04/27/dwi-riana-julie-meunier-world-war-x/">World War X</a>&#8216;. &#8220;An exchange between lovers which begins as a seemingly innocuous conversation but ratchets up with every sentence,&#8221; as we wrote, &#8220;soon precipitating into an argument which draws the relationship’s tensions out into the open.&#8221; Now the pair have reunited for brand new track &#8216;Elsewhere&#8217;. What they describe as &#8220;a love song for winter,&#8221; the single celebrates those cold days that send you into cosy refuge, as well as the self-reflective peace which descends along with the snow. &#8220;When it snows here in <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/toronto">Toronto</a>, I can&#8217;t help but think of where I come from,&#8221; Dwi Riana explains. &#8220;As each snowflake chaotically float along in the air, I think about all the little choices I&#8217;ve made in life to end up here.&#8221;</p>
<p><iframe title="Elsewhere (feat. Julie Meunier)" width="1170" height="878" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/acZkeRF3qls?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>&#8216;Elsewhere&#8217; is out now and available from the usual places.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Eli Carvajal &#8211; Fear of Love</h3>
<p>Across a number of albums, London-based songwriter Eli Carvajal has made a name with a markedly unguarded, earnest style, combining folk and pop sensibilities into something at once playful, curious and heartfelt. Following on from 2024 release <em>Eat Shiitake Now</em>, Carvajal is kicking off 2025 with a new single &#8216;Fear of Love&#8217;. It&#8217;s a song of two halves which emerged from a period of transition which in turn suggests his next direction. &#8220;The first [half] came in March 2022, isolated at home in Watford, aching to start a new life in Japan,&#8221; as Carvajal explains. &#8220;The second came a year later in Higashikitazawa, Tokyo, surfacing for air after a year afraid. This is a bridge between my last life and this one, my last album and the next. Hydrangeas were harmed.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><iframe style="border: 0; width: 350px; height: 442px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/track=1868805779/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://elicarvajal.bandcamp.com/track/fear-of-love">Fear of Love by Eli Carvajal</a></iframe></center>&#8216;Fear of Love&#8217; is out now and available from the Eli Carvajal <a href="https://elicarvajal.bandcamp.com/track/fear-of-love">Bandcamp page</a>. London-based readers can head to Next Door Records W12 in Shepherds Bush on <a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bryony-lloyd-eli-carvajal-tickets-1247276420349">Sunday March 16th</a> to catch him live.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Fime &#8211; Better Half of a Dollar</h3>
<p>Having made waves with 2019 EP <em>Sprawl</em>, the rise of Fime was in many ways derailed just as it was beginning, the LA outfit suffering the consequences of 2020 and everything that time brought with it. A period of mourning and self-reflection followed, before they teamed up with Melina Duterte (Jay Som) to record full-length <em>Sweeter Memory</em>, an album which grappled with nostalgia as the bittersweet, counterproductive force it can so often be. With this context in mind, new single &#8216;Better Half of a Dollar&#8217; feels like the dawning of a new era. One which has decided to lift itself from beneath the past and all of its unrealised dreams to contend with the present on its own terms. A song as searing and intense as anything Fime have written to date, with lead Beto Brakmo declining the temptation to retreat into nostalgia, instead staring the precarious, volatile present dead in the eye and refusing to blink.</p>
<p><iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/track=1204576913/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://fime.bandcamp.com/track/better-half-of-a-dollar">Better Half of A Dollar by Fime</a></iframe></p>
<p>Watch the video directed by Hailey Ruffner below:</p>
<p><iframe title="Fime - Better Half of A Dollar" width="1170" height="658" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IA5xGnKDVLk?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>&#8216;Better Half of a Dollar&#8217; is out now and available from <a href="https://fime.bandcamp.com/track/better-half-of-a-dollar">Bandcamp</a>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Leoblu &#8211; livingroomfloor</h3>
<p>&#8220;An indie pop song filtered through a digital prism, it combines synths, beats and Carlsson’s signature vocals to create something at once emotional and oddly mesmerising.&#8221; So we wrote of &#8216;PEACHES&#8217; by Åland-born, <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/berlin/">Berlin</a>-based producer <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/leoblu/">Leoblu</a> last year, the song continuing the artist&#8217;s willingness to test genre expectations to reach new ground. Latest single &#8216;livingroomfloor&#8217; is no different, evoking the intimate space of its title to explore the immediate experience of love, Leoblu creating a beguiling pop soundscape which is at once grounded and ethereal, alluring and strange. “Love is full of contradictions,” as Leoblu puts it. “It can be overwhelming yet fragile, euphoric yet filled with doubt. &#8216;livingroomfloor&#8217; is about letting yourself feel it all, and trying to stay present in these feelings.”</p>
<p><iframe title="Leoblu - livingroomfloor" width="1170" height="658" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fdoWzrCLpzE?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>&#8216;livingroomfloor&#8217; is out now and available from the <a href="https://www.submithub.com/link/leoblu?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaZvRIcvzUiClfiJLVPzUX1DQBMqyWzZKTu2TmI6GF6S5RoM_rUK_V1mMaY_aem_0Y4DVvZzQNfErAR5uk2CDw">usual places</a>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Mumble Tide &#8211; Pea Soup</h3>
<p>&#8220;Grounds both the style and theme of the album, offering a sound undeniably sad yet reaching towards something more uplifting.&#8221; That&#8217;s how we described &#8216;Mawpao&#8217; from <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/mumble-tide/">Mumble Tide</a>&#8216;s forthcoming full-length <em>Might As Well Play Another One </em>on <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/breakfast-records">Breakfast Records</a>. The song typified a release written as duo Gina Leonard and Ryan Rogers moved through a break-up to genuine friendship. Latest single &#8216;Pea Soup&#8217; embraces this space in all of its contradictions, juxtaposing bright power pop tones with morose bedroom pop reflection to emerge with a picture of a moment with all the dark, light and undecided future left intact. &#8220;&#8216;Pea Soup&#8217; is one big lumpy splurge, Leonard explains, &#8220;scribbled down on a hot day hiding away in my bedroom. It’s a bit of throwback to OG Mumble Tide with a chorus too big to slurp in one go.&#8221;</p>
<p><iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=280932048/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=3761781835/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://mumbletide.bandcamp.com/album/might-as-well-play-another-one">Might As Well Play Another One by Mumble Tide</a></iframe></p>
<p>Watch the video by Mumble Tide, with colour and title card by Steph Dutton, below:</p>
<p><iframe title="Mumble Tide -  PEA SOUP (Official Video)" width="1170" height="658" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Pmh0ux0YsDg?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><em><br />
Might As Well Play Another One</em> will be released via Breakfast Records on the 1st May and you can pre-order it now from the Mumble Tide <a href="https://mumbletide.bandcamp.com/album/might-as-well-play-another-one">Bandcamp page</a>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">naya mö &#8211; reverb boy</h3>
<p>We&#8217;ve featured a number of singles from <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/naya-mo/">naya mö</a>&#8216;s forthcoming debut EP <em>Dealing With Ghosts</em> in recent months, with &#8216;<a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2024/11/18/weekly-listening-november-2024-3/">wanderlust</a>&#8216; &#8220;draw[ing] on the grunge and alt-pop of the nineties and the soaring indie rock of the mid 00s [to create] something that sparkles with possibility despite being coated in gritty fuzz and shadowy reverb&#8221; and &#8216;<a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2025/01/16/weekly-listening-january-2025-1/">outsider</a>&#8216; &#8220;tap[ping] into a gauzy shoegaze style to create an enveloping sense of loneliness, though [one] charged with enough energy to face this darkness with a steely defiance.&#8221; Latest track &#8216;reverb boy&#8217; continues the dreamy aesthetic to offer a picture of the titular character—a figure adrift from everything yet able to make his voice heard around the world. &#8220;The EP is about the ghosts that haunt my mind and body—good and bad, dark and light, love and fear,&#8221; Mö explains. &#8220;Shadows of memories, ideas, regret, and people linger in my head. I wrote songs about them and drenched them in distortion, reverb, and fuzz.&#8221;</p>
<p><iframe title="naya mö - reverb boy (video)" width="1170" height="878" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XFjbSxSMxow?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>&#8216;reverb boy&#8217; is out now and available from the usual places.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Palmyra &#8211; Arizona</h3>
<p>Emerging from the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, Palmyra is a folk rock outfit consisting of trio Teddy Chipouras, Mānoa Bell and Sasha Landon. Next month sees the release of new full-length album <em>Restless</em> on Hey Boy Records, and the band have shared new single &#8216;Arizona&#8217;. Described as &#8220;a little dose of summer in the dead of winter,&#8221; the song evokes the affirming joy of a road trip with a fresh, vivid Americana style, where everyday worries seem to evaporate within the languid rhythms of easy forward motion. &#8220;I was in a haze in Arizona come back won’t it come back,&#8221; as the opening lines detail:</p>
<blockquote>
<h5>Hours felt like days and I was happy for the first time in a while<br />
I was at a payphone in Sedona calling someone falling<br />
Up over my head and back to Boston leave me in the desert please</h5>
<h5>Leave me open<br />
Arizona</h5>
</blockquote>
<p><iframe title="Palmyra - &quot;Arizona&quot; (Lyric Video)" width="1170" height="658" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1x94qM15Ewo?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><em>Restless</em> is out on the 28th March via Hey Boy Records and you can <a href="https://palmyratheband.bandcamp.com/album/restless">pre-order it now</a>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Triathalon &#8211; RIP</h3>
<p>It is not every day you come across an album built around the maxim &#8216;play this at my funeral,&#8217; but Triathalon&#8217;s forthcoming full-length <em>Funeral Music</em> is exactly that. The New York trio (Adam Intrator, Chad Chilton and Hunter Jayne) thought long and hard about what might soundtrack their respective requiems when writing their fifth record, and the result is perhaps their darkest and most unguarded collection of songs to date. Ahead of its release in May on Lex Records, Triathlon have shared single &#8216;RIP&#8217; to give an indication of the mood. A song so shadowy and dramatic is sounds almost sublime. “The aim for ‘RIP’ was to kick start feelings on what it felt like to listen to a late 90s rock song for the first time as a kid in your parents car in the backseat and asking to hear it louder,&#8221; as Intrator explains. &#8220;‘RIP’ has a double meaning; it’s about both dying and being reborn.”</p>
<p><center><iframe style="border: 0; width: 350px; height: 470px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3544137476/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/track=1207299311/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://triathalon.bandcamp.com/album/funeral-music">Funeral Music by Triathalon</a></iframe></center><em>Funeral Music</em> will be released on the 16th May via Lex Records and you can <a href="https://triathalon.bandcamp.com/album/funeral-music">pre-order it now</a>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Wishy &#8211; Fly</h3>
<p>Back in January we featured &#8216;Planet Popstar&#8217;, a single by <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/wishy/">Wishy</a> from the <em>Triple Seven</em> sessions which saw Kevin Krauter&#8217;s vocals &#8220;[land] somewhere between impassioned and laconic, while supporting harmonies from Nina Pitchkites work to leaven the heavy thicket of guitar to create something almost ethereal,&#8221; <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2024/11/01/wishy-planet-popstar/">as we wrote</a>. &#8220;And this otherworldly tone is a fitting match for the track’s themes, something of a message beamed into space into the hope it might be received, no matter how far away from earth the recipient might be.&#8221; The Indianapolis outfit have now announced the <em>Planet Popstar </em>EP, coming this spring on <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/winspear">Winspear</a>, and latest single &#8216;Fly&#8217; is everything fans of the band have come to love. This time Pitchkites takes lead vocals for a song that looks to move beyond heartbreak with a mix of affirming energy and wistful longing.</p>
<blockquote>
<h5>Someday, babe, I don’t wanna feel the way<br />
I don’t need to know the taste<br />
Of not being with you</h5>
</blockquote>
<p><iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=4257174335/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=38622447/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://wishy.bandcamp.com/album/planet-popstar">Planet Popstar by Wishy</a></iframe></p>
<p>Watch the video below, filmed by Wishy themselves with editing, color grading and title card by Bobby Sheppard:</p>
<p><iframe title="Wishy - Fly (Official Video)" width="1170" height="878" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/v-JV3dyxvoM?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><em><br />
Planet Popstar</em> is out on the 25th April via Winspear and you can <a href="https://wishy.bandcamp.com/album/planet-popstar">pre-order it now</a>.</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2025/02/24/weekly-listening-february-2025-4/">Weekly Listening: February 2025 #4</a> appeared first on <a href="https://varioussmallflames.co.uk">Various Small Flames</a>.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
					
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">44159</post-id>	</item>
	</channel>
</rss>

<!--
Performance optimized by W3 Total Cache. Learn more: https://www.boldgrid.com/w3-total-cache/

Page Caching using Disk: Enhanced 

Served from: varioussmallflames.co.uk @ 2026-04-21 04:03:46 by W3 Total Cache
-->