Medosch says the album is a tribute to and celebration of the “absurd yet strangely dignified world” that Berman created in his music and writing. As she goes on to say:

In every piece of his writing at any point you might stumble upon the most stunning view of the miraculous beauty of decaying American life. Every line had the same opportunity to blow your mind with it’s brutal and transformative honesty, achingly encompassing a landscape of tragedy-turned-comedy and vice-versa.

The roster of artists plays like a who’s who of contemporary bedroom pop, Florry and Fog Lake and Cormier joined by twenty four other artists who each provide their own unique and respectful take on one of Berman’s songs. There are too many to describe in detail, but rest assured that filler is nowhere to be found. Chad Maheny dials back the usual manic intensity of his Emperor X project with a version of Bright Flight’s ‘Horseleg Swastikas’, while Molly Drag provides a suitably melancholic take on ‘Suffering Jukebox’, a lament of a lonely artist playing to themselves in the corner of an otherwise happy room.

Greta Kline (of Frankie Cosmos fame) covers ‘Death Of An Heir Of Sorrows’ under the moniker Franz Charcoal, transforming The Silver Jews original into their characteristically simple and subtly emotive bedroom pop. Pickle Darling’s contribution is even more of a departure, turning ‘Nights That Won’t Happen’ into a stripped-back contemporary pop song. There are some louder moments too, notably as Joyer play ‘Night Society’ and The Funs share a wonderfully scrappy and lo-fi take on ‘Trains Across the Sea’. Final track ‘We Could Be Looking For the Same Thing’ by Hothead and the Baby also has a nice depth of sound, fittingly capturing Berman’s countrified indie rock.

All proceeds from the compilation will go to Shatterproof, an American nonprofit that takes an empathetic and evidence-based approach to combating the devastating effects of addiction. They work to remove the stigma around addiction, campaigning to Congress that it should be regarded like any other disease. It’s incredibly important work and a fitting tribute to the life and legacy of David Berman.

You can get Late Homework – The Songs of David Berman from the Dear Life Records Bandcamp page. And if you haven’t listened to Purple Mountains yet, now seems like a good time.

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The album, In My Dreams: Songs of Bill Vuono is a personal project. Bill Vuono is Bellissimo’s great-grandfather, who wrote songs “back when you had to sell sheet music to sell songs,” producing a series of 78s before stopping his writing career to raise a family. Several years ago, Bellissimo inherited the records and became invested in the music,  covering ‘Think of Me’ on the first Gay Angel album places i’ll eat, people i’ll meet, before several of tracks appeared on their epic floral project. To celebrate the third anniversary of Drunk With Love Records, Bellissimo decided to revisit the records and curate an album of their favourite songs, a Best of Bill Vuono, and plans to release it as an album accompanied with modern covers, featuring the likes of Emperor X, Devon Mello, Karen Walker (of The New Tarot) and Bellissimo themself.

In My Dreams will be released this month, and Drunk With Love have put out a video of the first single in preparation. Check out the video below. It uses footage from the wedding of Jake Bellisssimo’s grandmother Rachel, and features Bill Vuono playing the piano, set to one of his songs, ‘Think of Me’. The song captures Vuono’s 1940’s style perfectly, the gentle piano supporting vocals that quaver with love and emotion, feelings that if anything seem advanced when beamed 70 years into the future.

“In my dreams
I see a face sleep can’t erase”

As the project is such a special, personal endeavour, we decided to speak with Jake Bellissimo and their grandmother Rachel in order to get a better understanding of the music and the man behind it.

Have you always been aware that your great-grandfather / father was a musician? When was the first time you heard his music?

Jake: I can’t remember exactly when I learned he was a musician, but my grandmother shared a CD of his recordings when I was in high school and later gave me the original 78s. I don’t think I really processed/appreciated the music until I started playing the songs, after which I covered “Think of Me” on the first gay angel album (places i’ll eat, people i’ll meet).

Rachel: My father used to play them on the piano, in fact. Growing up I would sing them in exchange for a quarter, which I would then take to the park to spend on a Creamsicle ice cream.

Rachel, how do you feel when listening to them? Do they bring back specific memories? Does the voice you hear have a resemblance to the man you remember?

Rachel: Well, he never sang his songs, but on the album in places you can hear his voice in the background. These songs in general make me sad—years ago I couldn’t listen to them, but as time goes by I enjoy listening to them and they remind me of him. In the song “Dreaming at the Keyboard”, I can hear my brother Irving talking with my father in the background.

Jake, you never met him, so the closest you get to him as a person is listening to these recordings. How do they make you feel?

Jake: It’s weird, because I feel a connection to him through his music, despite having never met him. His songwriting, and the way he (and his wife, Barbara, who wrote lyrics sometimes) made songs all resonate with me. When I first heard his music I was surprised at how similarly I aligned with it despite starting my own songwriting with no prior knowledge of it.

How has his music influenced your own?

Jake: I started diving deeper and deeper into the recordings (about 1.5hrs worth) when I was making the 100 piece album floral, and I’m sure that influence was running through. There are also two songs that were just put on the album (‘I Have a Flower’ and ‘Dreaming at the Keyboard’) after unsuccessful tries to re-record them.

Why do you feel that now is the right time to release Bill’s music? What about them do you think appeals to a twenty-first century audience?

Jake: Drunk With Love Records was started with Bill’s music in mind, that it would be published when the time was right. Since over the past few years DWL has come to represent a celebration of emotion in many facets, beginning with a connection between the melodrama in modern emo music and early 20th century pop, it’s always made sense. I also think it’s a shame how long-lasting these songs feel as opposed to how few people knew of them, so to publish them for the first time is a pleasure. And, based on the people who have talked to me about him when I cover his songs at shows, it seems that other people want to hear them as well.

How do you feel about Jake re-releasing Bill’s music to a modern audience?

Rachel: I’m thrilled that Jake is releasing these songs, as now that they’re published people have an opportunity to hear Bill Vuono’s music, giving (at last) his songs a chance to live on.

Would you like to say something about the covers album? How did you recruit the bands? And how did they choose which songs to cover?

Jake: All songs on the covers album are either artists who are associated with Drunk With Love or close friends. The songs were chosen through a list I gave that included all of the songs on the album plus some outtakes ranging from songs to lyrics without music to just abandoned song titles. The goal was to not just re-record the songs but re-interpret them, so I feel grateful to have such wonderful musicians and friends as collaborators who more than added beauty to this release with their covers.

You can find more info on the Drunk With Love website and pre-order In My Dreams: The Songs of Bill Vuono now via the Drunk With Love Records Bandcamp page. Each album comes with a super cool calling card from the late 1800s/early 1900s

It’s worth noting that 50% of all proceeds will be donated to the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America and the other 50% to Bill’s family for the preservation and storage of related mementos and sheet music. So what are you waiting for?

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Various Small Flames’

Songs of 2017

Anamon – Kneel Old
Android Automatic – Dark Roads*
Angie McMahon – Slow Mover
Basement Revolver – Johnny Pt. 2
Baxter Roy Long – Paribanou
Bea Troxel – Let Them Know
Big Thief – Mary
Black Belt Eagle Scout – Soft Stud
Bully – Running
Cayetana – Mesa
Charly Bliss – Percolator
Chastity Belt – Different Now
CHUCK – Happy Birthday
The County Liners – Maria
The Courtneys – Tour
Craig Finn – God in Chicago
Crumb – Locket
Crushing – Emery Board
Cut Worms – Like Going Down Sideways
David Bazan – Care
Distant Reader – First Try
Emperor X – God Save Coastal Dorset
Fits – Ice Cream on a Nice Day
German Error Message – 2017*
Gleemer – Soothe Me
Great Grandpa – Favorite Show
Haley Heynderickx – Oom Sha Lala
Hiccup – Teasin’
Horse Culture – Texaco
Illuminati Hotties – ‘(You’re Better) Than Ever’
Japandroids – No Known Drink or Drug
Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit – If We Were Vampires
Jay Som – The Bus Song
Jeremy Squires – Night Cars
Katie Ellen – Drawing Room
Lizzie No – Monuments
Lomelda – Bam Sha Klam
Mike Pace and the Child Actors – Audits & Surveys
Meursault – The Mill
Mount Eerie – Crow
Nice Legs – Mighty Three
Oceanator – Nowhere Nothing
Ohyeahsumi – Daisy
Old Earth – Pit Dynamics
PASTEL – Stammer
Peter Silberman – New York
Phoebe Bridgers – Motion Sickness
Pope – Talk Me Out of It
Protomartyr – Windsor Hum
Rainwater – Place
Ratboys – Elvis is in the Freezer
Rick Rude – Bald & Fat in Houston, TX
Roadkill Ghost Choir – Classics (Die Young)
Rose Dorn – Dirt
See Through Dresses – Lucy’s Arm
Shannen Moser – A Funeral, A Friend, My Sanity
Sinai Vessel – Died On My Birthday
Slaughter Beach, Dog – Phoenix
SOAR – Fort Funston
Soft Fangs – Jordan // Jackson Elementary
Spartan Jet-Plex – We Believe
Strange Ranger – House Show
Strawberry Runners – Garden Hose
Timid, The Brave – Alice
Us and Only Us – Bored of Black
Vagabon – Cold Apartment
Viewfinder – Instant Moonlight
The Washboard Abs – Veil
Waxahatchee – Never Been Wrong
Wild Pink – Albert Ross
William Ryan Fritch – In Our Blood
The Wooden Sky – Swimming in Strange Waters
Ylayali – Cherry Tomatoes

*Strictly released in 2016, but barely, and we covered it in Jan. 2017.

If you missed it, you can see our Favourite Albums of 2017 list here. Also, the curious can find such lists from previous years here.

The post Favourite Songs of 2017 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Tracklist

1. Boat – The Tallest Tree
2. Lonely – Rivergazer
3. I Think I’m Old Enough – Adult Mom
4. Thought u were better than that – Cyberbully Mom Club
5. Way Gross – Aunts
6. Fierce Resource Allocation – Emperor X
7. Dark Arts – Baby Cages
8. Stranded (On My Own) – Titus Andronicus
9. Singapore – Reid
10. Attak (ft. Danny Brown) – Rustie
11. Gold (Chet Faker re-work) – Flume
12. Duals – Bonobo
13. Ongoing Thing (ft. Oddisee) – 20syl
14. Animal – The Acid
15. Heirloom Luna – Chemists // 化学者
16. Triumvirate – Lewis & Clarke
17. Holly Would – Benjamin J Woods
18. Terrified – The Rural Alberta Advantage
19. Friday Night – The Parade Schedule
20. Falling Stars – Jacob Furr
21. Red Thread – Spark Alaska
22. Blood – Ahava
23. Stars Pt. 2 – Psalmships
24. Goodbye Letter – Adieu Caribou

You can also listen over at Minilogs.

July Mix from Wake The Deaf on 8tracks Radio.

The post July 2014 Roundup – A Mixtape appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Matheny’s style is as distinctive as ever, his hyperactive methods of delivery perfect for lyrics that attempt to capture the information buzz of contemporary culture. What better way to represent the world today than words in short, sharp statements, bursts of information that are gone before they sink in, replaced by something equally transient? Apologies for the lengthy quote here but the first track ‘Fierce Resource Allocation’ is a perfect example of what I mean:

“Pushing out to pass the parking lots,
loaded down with crates of surplus fuel cells,
we drained the pennies from our purchase cards,
our credit cards,
our debit cards,
our cash,
EY!

We spent our money,
but we kept your trust.
The universal individual attraction,
the biological delirious value:
we don’t weigh the same.

We die young.
We die fearless.
We die with resources.
We die with integrity.
We die young
and stunned
to die with integrity,
to die young,
to die fearless,
to die with resources,
to die with integrity.
to die young,
to die fearless,
to die with resources,
to die with integrity.
(DIE DIE DIE DIE
DIE DIE DIE DIE
DIE DIE DIE DIE
DIE DIE DIE DIE
DIE DIE DIE DIE
DIE DIE DIE DIE
DIE DIE DIE DIE
DIE DIE DIE DIE!)
O!
Resources.
Resources.”

This sort of thing is repeated across the album, with songs such as ‘Caricom’ and ‘Ring 3A/B’ consisting of hurried lyrics (in >1 language) and frenzied yelps. ‘Ring 2A’ (‘Ring 2A: Proving the Politburo Right’ to give the full title) sounds like three political speeches occuring simultaneously in a nightclub. ‘Ring 3D’ is especially weird, with the unsettling repetition of ”Franz Kafka goes to Primark, Franz Kafka shops at Primark,“ complete with super-commercial vocals, that always-smiling-an-empty-smile sort of voice. 

The whole thing is swamped in political, historical and literary references, and the album can be overwhelming if you try to go too deep into it too quickly. Don’t let that stop you from trying.

You can buy The Orlando Sentinel now over at Bandcamp, either as a digital download or on vinyl.

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Anyway, Longest Winter, the second full release from Spark Alaska, came out this year. It is self-described as bedroom pop, although its not as lo-fi as you might expect from such a description. His sound draws upon a range of influences: ‘Cleveland is for Leaving’ has a alt-folk/emo-y feel, tracks like ‘Serendipity’ bring to mind Blind Pilot, and songs such as ‘Flowers Along the Highway’ and ‘Portuguese Voices’ have an impassioned roughness that brings to mind Daniel Johnston or Emperor X. The thread that runs through the album is the sad, intelligent lyrics that deal with home and nostalgia in a way that is somewhat akin to Bright Eyes or The Mountain Goats.

You can get the album on a pay-what-you-can basis via Bandcamp. It was released on tape by Shammy Tapes, but they have now sold out.

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Our January 2014 mix is a little light on numbers as during the first fortnight or so we were busy with our year-end lists and whatnot. But there are still thirteen great tracks for you to check out. As always, there’s a variety of genres so you should find something you like.

January Mix from Wake The Deaf on 8tracks Radio.

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There was also a festive Emperor X EP, Jetzt Christmas, which certainly offers a unique take on Christmas. Current highlight is ‘The 2013th Noel’ which begins as a spoken word electronic piece before morphing into a “cover” of ‘The First Noel’, substituting the line “…born is the king of Israel.” with a whole host of references (ranging from the general of the new Free Syrian Army to the captain of FC Porto). It’s less a Christmas song than a 2013 version of Billy Joel’s ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’, and worth your time even now Christmas has gone.

Much earlier last year, Emperor X also released a live album, Nineteen Live Recordings, a compilation of excerpts recorded between 2008 and 2013. Maheny traveled between venues by bus carrying only his guitar and a bag of effects pedals and the results are amazing.  The album was released on Plan-It-X Records.

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The title is taken from The Pharmacist’s Mate by Amy Fusselman, where she is describing that almost miraculous nature of music. She sums up by saying:

“And how even though the vibrations are invisible, I can feel them in the air. I can feel them, they are there, they are as there as I am.”

A song is a strange thing. The way in which the writer captures it and builds it up to what we find on our records and CDs is unique to each artist. A whole host of changes are possible from that first spark of inspiration, be it a certain lyric or series of notes. What we hear on studio albums may be an evolved version of the original. It may have been sped up or toned down, altered to sit with the other nine or ten songs with which it shares the album. Conversely, what we hear during live performance may itself be the evolved state, an shift of empahsis or tone to better suit the context.

Whatever changes occur, live songs are different to their recorded counterparts, and this mix contains songs that are different and/or special when performed live. Sometimes there are obvious differences from the recorded track (such as the frenzied ending to ‘Wolves’ by Phosphorescent) and other times it is subtler, increased emphasis on just a word or two. Sometimes there is nothing obviously different apart from some sense of  purity, something organic in the single take delivery.

I’m sure even the most seasoned concert goer will be able to point to two or three moments where a live song somehow transcended normal experience, becoming something so inherently personal it’s hard to believe others were in the room. For me, great art is about the trading of emotions to some empathetic goal, the artist allowing the listener/viewer into themselves to see something pure, something to which everyday labels and descriptions do an injustice. In truly great art, seeing inside another is not fascinating in a some voyeuristic way but instead because it stirs a recognition in the listener. The indescribable feelings within us are given voice, they are painted for us by the artist and shared so that others can see. In this way, the song becomes as much about us as it is about the artist (something which much prove difficult for musicians, which is another debate entirely).

Adam wrote about his choices for the mix in his own blog post, so be sure to go and check that out too.

Hopefully the tracks below contain some sort of spark, that indesribable magic that Fusselman describes.

I Can Feel Them In The Air (Wake The Deaf Side):

1. A Few Kind Words (Live at the Queen’s Hall) – Meursault
2. Tapes (Live at WMSE) – Conrad Plymouth
3. When My Time Comes (Live at the R&R) – Dawes
4. Dead Letter & the Infnite Yes (iTunes Session) – Wintersleep
5. Lately (Live on KEXP) – BOAT
6. Something, Somewhere, Sometime (Daytrotter Session) – Ben Sollee
7. Last to Swim (Weekender Session) – Strand of Oaks
8. Medication – Damien Jurado
9. Mountain Song (Live in Munich) – Evening Hymns
10. Red (Live at Schubas) – Okkervil River
11. Allahu Akbar (Daytrotter Session) – Emperor X
12. The Twist (Quietly Now) – Frightened Rabbit
13. Wolves – Phosphorescent
14. Blood Bank (Live at Glastonbury) – Bon Iver
15. Wasp Nest (Black Session) – The National
16. Jeanne, If You’re Ever in Portland (Daytrotter Session) – Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
17. Down in the Valley (Live on KEXP) – The Head and the Heart
18. Wake (Live at the Bowery Ballroom) – The Antlers
19. First Night (A Positive Rage) – The Hold Steady
20. Robots (Live at Shorefest) – Dan Mangan

I Can Feel Them In The Air (Songsfortheday side):

1. Years/Cleo’s Song (Daytrotter Session) – JBM
2. Grown Ocean – Fleet Foxes
3. Ghost of the Beast – Kelli Schaefer
4. Ocean Open Wide – Hoots & Hellmouth
5. First Sight – These United States
6. Nobody But You – Langhorne Slim
7. Yellow (Piano Version) – Coldplay
8. Blackout (a capella) – Pickwick
9. Everything Trying (Fuel/Friends Chapel Session) – Night Beds
10. I Won’t Be Found – The Tallest Man on Earth
11. To Sing For You/Brand New Colony – Ben Gibbard
12. Kathleen (Live from Dublin Castle) – Josh Ritter
13. Outfit – Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit
14. Acuff-Rose – Jeff Tweedy
15. Catapult – Counting Crows
16. Evening Kitchen – Band of Horses
17. Always on My Mind – Iron & Wine/Calexico
18. Born to Run – Bruce Springsteen
19. Since I Fell For You (ft. Mike Noyce & Justin Vernon) – Eau Claire Memorial Jazz I
20. I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me) – Jay-Z

You can find both mixes here as a collection.

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Alright so his songs are well-crafted and thought out but why is he inspirational? Well he dropped a master’s degree in physics to pursue what I presume are his real interests (something which takes an admirable amount of guts) and self-releases his albums. Not only that but Matheny has shunned the modern techniques of promotion and relies on live performances and word of mouth to gather attention. Once you have found him however, you discover that his blog is an entertaining read and is far more than the usual self-promotion blurb. He recounts tales of shivs and bleeding armpits and considers the effects of architecture on human behaviour. He also buries master tapes in various locations when touring, a ‘geocoded cooperative exercise’ as he calls it, which fans can find and dig up in a global treasure hunt. Cool huh?

I’ve arrived quite late to his music and therefore haven’t really experienced it chronologically, which probably means I’ve missed some real gems somewhere in his discography (some of which dates as far back as 1998). That said, the newer releases are proving more than enough to be getting on with for the time being, with certain songs (I’m looking at you Allahu Akbar) being stuck in my head for days at a time. I look forward to delving deeper. Emperor X will be touring the US and coming to European shores for the first time this summer so get out and see him. You may also find a tape or two near you.  Full tour dates are here (on the right hand side).

A new record is in the pipeline, with ‘Nap Time for Tom Coughlin’, a mix of numerous songs, available now over at The Bomber Jacket’s page.

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