And, of course, being comprehensive is impossible these days, so let us know if we missed your favourite and maybe we’ll add it to the collection.

Emily Yacina – Nice Try
(RIYL: bedroom pop)

Evening River Band – EP5
(RIYL: country, folk, psych rock)

Ever – But I Am
(RIYL: bedroom pop, dark rooms)

Exam Season – Mostly Homely
(RIYL: indie rock, emo, Trust Fund)

Family Video – Places To Sleep
(RIYL: indie rock, lo-fi, longing)

Field Medic – that beer called becks reminds me of a haiku i wrote
(RIYL: lo-fi, indie pop, modern folk)

Fish Food – For Shadow Hurts
(RIYL: indie pop, lo-fi, weird lyrics)

Folktale Records – Folktale Sampler (COMPILATION)
(RIYL: experimental, folk, indie pop)

Fossil Jane – will you?/you will.
(RIYL: bedroom pop, singer songwriter, )

Free Space – Ahead of Myself
(RIYL: bedroom pop, lo-fi, Trace Mountains)

Generifus – Peace Sign Rising
(RIYL: indie pop, indie rock)

Georgia Maq – Brain Studio Session
(RIYL: acoustic, bedroom pop, Camp Cope)

Ghost Camp – Great Lakes
(RIYL: indie rock, psych pop)

Glider – Demos
(RIYL: lo-fi, psych pop)

GoldFlakePaint – Too Far From Town To Learn
(RIYL: indie pop, lo-fi, Gold Flake Paint)

Good Good Blood – O Belong / Motion Sickness
(RIYL: ambient, dream pop, folk)

Gorgeous Bully – Better Demons
(RIYL: lo-fi, indie rock, fuzz)

Govier – Predator
(RIYL: indie rock, lo-fi, “alien folk”)

High Sunn – i will never learn
(RIYL: chillwave, lo-fi, dream pop)

The post Favourite Free Music of 2016: E – H appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Tracklisting:

1. Fire – Mal Devisa
2. wild fire/flowers – Trust Fall
3. Home Alone – Max Gardener
4. Your Love – Jeremy Squires
5. Veins – Camp Howard
6. How To Dance – Mount Moriah
7. Good Evening – Adeem the Artist
8. Shallow – Candy
9. Francie Cool – Francie Cool
10. Bad Vibes – Zebrafi
11. Piece of Ivy – Jake Bellissimo
12. Snow Day – Julia Brown
13. Alive – Dear Tracks
14. Ted the Radical Westy – Ravetank
15. ft1 – naps
16. We Have The Perimeter Surrounded – Hallelujah the Hills
17. Bullet in a Broken Gun – Oscar Lush
18. Color Peels – The Wandering Lake
19. Nowhere Nothing – Oceanator
20. Suagr Skull – The Washboard Abs
21. Of Wandering – Littler
22. bicycle – Twelve Gardens
23. Ya Ya Ya – You Won’t
24. Find You – Family Video
25. Jack Campbell (Quick Jammer) – Dingus.
26. Candy – Fish Food
27. It May Very Well Do – 100 Watt Horse
28. Life – Whim
29. Meg – Hovvdy
30. Piano Player – The Hotelier
31. Calvary – Chris Bathgate
32. Postman – Sam Moss

The post March 2016 Roundup – A Mixtape appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Places to Sleep opens with ‘You in the Night’, whch begins as slow motion lo-fi rock but picks up momentum as it goes, becoming increasingly dynamic with ringing guitar and slapped drums, King’s vocals slow and troubled:

“i like you lying
your knees and shoulders bare
like a wild animal
in the shade resting”

‘The Attic’ is on the quiet and unassuming end of the indie rock spectrum, with background oohs and lyrics about pining for someone, full of “whats?” and “woulds?”. ‘Find You’ is a similarly heartsick lo-fi rock song, all mumbled happy memories and unfulfilled wishes, closing with the lines “i’d like to come home and find you in my bed / rather than watching movies alone instead”. Tales of cold and lonely nights litter ‘Empty Bed’, the repetition of the line, “nights just go so slow when you’re in an empty bed / and the snow trucks keep you up / like how your shadows used to”, suggests such feelings are not uncommon, that each night plays out like a bad memory of the one just gone. ‘Winter Shadow’ comes at the halfway mark and feels like the album’s focal point, with its crunchy guitar and King’s dreamily sad and lonely lyrics about life in a small and icy Northern town, about missing someone far away. But despite the longing and the gloom, the chorus is almost catchy and hints at hope, at hidden reserves of strength and patience in the narrator.

“i just close my eyes and think about all the nights i’d like to be with you
while i’m just painfully here lying on the floor”

King’s vocals get a chance to soar on ‘Aaron in the Basement’, perhaps the most cathartic track on the record, all lo-fi grumble and dreamy vocal effects as King sings, “says he’s staying at someone’s house i wouldn’t know / says he’s named greg and i don’t have his telephone / nobody sees him he hides all alone on his own”. ‘Together in the Darkness’ is much more sedate, like an electrified take on the typically acoustic bedroom pop formula, building in intensity until it billows like dry ice across an almost empty basement. ‘My Sisters House’ feels brighter with crashing drums and noodly guitars, as does ‘The Rocking Chair’ which almost has a stomp-along air behind King’s introverted vocals. “tell me that we’re not doomed” she sings, “i just wanna hear your voice in my ear”.

‘Videos of You’ has chugging guitars and cymbal-heavy percussion, before closer ‘Winter Shadow (Revisited)’, a stripped down take on the earlier song and the album’s only acoustic track. It feels like a distillation of all of the thoughts and feelings on the album, the lo-fi fuzz cleared away allowing the sentiments to stand front and centre, a clear-eyed profession of both desire and devotion. Places to Sleep is DIY rock ‘n roll for the hordes of people pining for someplace (or someone) else.

You can get Places to Sleep as a name-your-price download via the Family Video Bandcamp page.

The post Family Video – Places to Sleep appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Earl Boykins – FRIENDS / Everybody Likes Dogs

(RIYL: indie rock, punk, jangle)

E.L.M.H. – Life Is Super

(RIYL: experimental, bedroom pop, ambient)

Emily Hope Jacobsen – Passenger EP

(RIYL: folk, acoustic, Sarah Winchester)

The Emptiness – Sadie, Hawaii

(RIYL: pop, VH1, Arrange)

Eric Funn – No More Blue Tomorrows 

(RIYL: anti-folk, outsider, Daniel Johnston)

Family Video – Too Short, Too Long / Maybe This Summer

(RIYL: lo-fi, pop, indie rock, Standard Fare, Waxahatchee)

Fairweather Currents – Truesdale

(RIYL: bedroom pop, lo-fi, Small Wonder)

Fanpage – Trip

(RIYL: indie rock, experimental, noisy clamour, Sweden)

Free Cake For Every Creature – “pretty good”

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

Florist – 6 days of songs

(RIYL: bedroom pop, sad, lo-fi, Frankie Cosmos)

Flower Face – Homesick / Funeral Kid EP

(RIYL: bedroom, sad girl, sincere folk)

Fog Lake – Virgo Indigo

(RIYL: Ambient, dream pop, experimental)

Frankie Cosmos – affirms glinting

(RIYL: bedroom pop, sad, lo-fi, Adult Mom)

Garrett Walters – At the End of South Washington

(RIYL: punk, folk, Ghost Mice)

Geology – Our Intertwined Worlds

(RIYL: folk, indie rock, The Tourist, mewwithoutyou)

German Error Message – Haunts

(RIYL: ambient, bedroom pop, folk, The Microphones)

German Error Message & Lung Cycles – s/t

(RIYL: experimental, ambient, folk, The Microphones)

Girl Valley – June/July II

(RIYL: bedroom acoustic, lo-fi)

Ghosting – Virtual Saxophone Transmissions

(RIYL: vaporwave, smooth jazz, 80s movies)

Gleemer – Holyland USA

(RIYL: shoegaze, dream pop, Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine)

Globelamp – Star Dust

(RIYL: dream pop, psychedelic, lo-fi)

The Goodbye Party – Silver Blues

(RIYL: bedroom pop, power pop, Radiator Hospital)

Gorgeous Bully – Smiling, Laughing

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

Hands and Knees – American Cheese

(RIYL: indie pop, Constantines, Born Ruffians)

High Pop – Holy Smokes

(RIYL: punk, fuzz pop, Wavves)

Home Alone – There’s a Light Coming Through

(RIYL: bedroom pop, ambient, dark lonely nights)

Favourite Free Music of 2014 (E-H) from Wake The Deaf on 8tracks Radio.

The post Favourite Free Music of 2014 (E-H) appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Tracklist:

1. She Reminds Me – Family Video
2. Jean Skirt Mystique – Naps
3. Sail – Swim Lessons
4. Mirror Threat – Waiters
5. Tibetan Clouds – Chips Calipso
6. Smokesquare – Fanpage
7. This City Will Eat Itself – Blush Response
8. Undone – Phoria
9. Lungs – Pixel Fix
10. Ancient Ways – Interpol
11. Have You Seen My Son – Benjamin Booker
12. Ballad of Big Nothing (Elliott Smith cover) – Arms
13. Stupid Boy – Owl John
14. Memento Mori – Hollow Wood
15. It’s the End of the World As We Know It (R.E.M. cover) – Free Cake For Every Creature
16. Youth – Thad Kopec
17. You Belong – Lucas O’Connell
18. Knives – The Meanest Creature Ever Known
19. Accept That the Mark Will Outlast You – Old Earth
20. If I’m – Sea Oleena
21. Joni – Old Amica
22. Autumn in the New Canaan – Lejsovka & Freund

August Mix from Wake The Deaf on 8tracks Radio.

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

The label’s next release will be, Maybe This Summer, the third album from Canadian lo-fi popsters Family Video, an album of lovely, summery pop gems, all shot through with a double helping of casio keyboards and wistful longing. I first listened to this album sitting on a train, and among my scrawled notes and initial impressions I wrote the words “Languid Lethargic Lovelorn”. I think that pretty much nails it.

The album opens with ‘Ten Years Will Pass’, a tale of summer romance which opens with the line, “All I know is ten years will pass so fast, you just wish that you could slow down or stop here for a while”. Next up is’She Reminds Me’, a small-town summertime jam, complete with awkward romance, dreams of moving away and a catchy little woo-ooh chorus. Check it out:

‘Sitting In My Room’ is an indie rock paean to self-doubt and fear of the future, opening with the line “And I think about everything too much all of the time”. Lead Jam King voices this doubt directly in the chorus, singing, “Oh my God, I don’t know, the path of the future and what it holds”. Another standout is ‘Pour Warm Water’, with it’s chorus of, “It’s okay to feel that way sometimes, it’s okay to make mistakes sometimes”.

The band have perfectly captured the spectrum of emotions of long hot youthful summers. At one moment they sound like an exuberant get-together with friends and the next they’re the hazy evening sun slanting through your faded bedroom curtains as you cry into the phone because Johnny doesn’t love you. It’s about being young in the hot eternity of summer, about the joy and heartache that vie for your consciousness as the sun sets and the insects buzz and somewhere beyond your small town, the whole world continues to spin.

Maybe This Summer is due for release on the 1st of September. Pre-order the limited edition cassette via the GoldFlakeTapes. The album is also available for download on a pay-what-you-want basis over at the GoldFlakeTapes Bandcamp page.

P.S. Amazingly, this is the band’s second album of the year (the first already holding a place on the draft for this year’s Best Free Music list). So after you have finished listening to this, check out their previous albums.

The post Family Video – Maybe This Summer appeared first on Various Small Flames.