Now, aside from certain misgivings pertaining to the diversity and focus of such events, there’s also a long and likely important discussion as to what degree protest alone can change (see Micah White’s case in The Guardian, citing the relative failure of Occupy). However, there is little doubt that activism is as or more important than it’s been for years. The tricky part will be maintaining this level of enthusiasm and commitment to equality beyond single marches or petitions. As White writes at the end of his piece: “The Women’s March on Washington has a role to play in this unfolding drama, but only if we cultivate a few moments of detachment from the thoughtless excitement to truly take time to consider this question: what happens on the day after the women march?”

The answer, I think, should be a doubling down on listening to women, non-binary folks and people of colour. Like, truly listening. Allowing them not only a voice but also the respect/power/position that will enable such a voice to enact social and political change. This can and should start at the smallest levels, equating to nothing more than a commitment to seeking out non-male/white opinions and voices and considering them with equal weight. Look for female journalists and authors and thinkers, PoC musicians and artists and film-makers. Heck, even just read The Le Sigh and Swell Tone and The Grey Estates, anything to shift your perspective away from the dominant voices. Do this until your bookshelf and record collection and Twitter feed look a little different, and the worldview that’s being beamed to you will look a little different too.

We’re under no illusion that our blog posts and mixtapes will solve anything, or that we’re preaching to the converted in this cool little echo chamber. So consider this as us shutting up for a few minutes, both to give space to voices that need it and a reminder that we’re standing by, on your side. You’ve lit the match, it’s time the void went flash. Never think that what you are doing is too small, and never assume that you are doing enough.

Tracklisting:

1. Jenny Hval – Untamed Region
2. Oh Rose – Running
3. Camp Cope – Jet Fuel Can’t Melt Steel Beams
4. The Breeders – Hag
5. Screaming Females – Mothership
6. BB Cream – Heroine
7. Shannen Moser – A Funeral, A Friend, My Sanity
8. Tanukichan – Enough
9. Noname – Reality Check
10. Patti Smith – Kimberly
11. Sammus – Perfect, Dark
12. Vagabon – Fear & Force
13. Diet Cig – Tummy Ache
14. Jay Som – The Bus Song
15. Haybaby – Her
16. Betty Becky – Telegraph Ave
17. Suburban Lawns – Janitor
18. Heavens to Betsy – Nothing Can Stop Me
19. Tacocat – Dana Katherine Scully
20. Colour Me Wednesday – Two Fifty For You Girls
21. Allison Crutchfield – Dean’s Song
22. Cherry Glazerr – Nuclear Bomb
23. Mal Devisa – Dominatrix
24. Nicole Dollanganger – American Tradition
25. Angel Olsen – Sister

P.S. This seems a good time to remind you that Nancy Kells of Spartan Jet-Plex recently put out Friends For Equality, a compilation in support of the Southern Poverty Law Center, ACLU and Planned Parenthood. In addition, she has arranged a benefit show in Richmond, VA in support of Forward Together and Sister Song (full details here).

There have also been similarly great releases like Wren & Shark and Friends, Don’t Stop Now (featuring covers by the likes of Lisa Prank and Augusta Koch of Cayetana) and Our First 100 Days. Oh, and some specially written songs by Hip Hatchet and Adeem the Artist.

Photo by Benjamin Lovell

The post Lit a Match, the Void Went Flash: A Playlist for Moving Forward appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Tracklisting:

1) Evening Loving – Jenny Gillespie
2) Luxury – Patio
3) Low – Yours Are The Only Ears
4) Either Way – Sorority Noise
5) Home at Last – The Sports
6) Braver – Sally Fowler
7) Chow Chow – FAYE
8) Meant – Spartan Jet-Plex
9) Stained Glass Eye – The Dead Tongues
10) October – These Bashful Claws
11) Bad Vibrations – Naps
12) Baked Goods – Young Jesus
13) Heroine – BB Cream
14) Winona Death Ryder – Boy Problems (No Dice Tapes comp)
15) The Only Other Girl From Back Home – Advance Base
16) When it Feels – Soft Spell (STAY RAD SAV comp)
17) The Unnatural – Claire Cronin
18) Same Old Ocean – Crabapple
19) Diet Coke – Lake Michigan
20) Ferris Beuller – Flatsound
21) See Good – Jobless
22) Anything but Yourself – Tom Greenwood
23) Under the Mountain II – Mermaidens
24) Liars – Gregory Alan Isakov
25) Warning Sign – Mikko Joensuu
26) Candy – Fish Food
27) White Gold – Good Good Blood
28) We Bury Our Dead Alive – Coping Skills
29) Joke/Rope – Haybaby
30) Slacker – Will B & the Teen Creeps
31) Double Bacon Cheeseburger – Yikes
32) All I Have – Derek Ted
33) Try Hard – Hovvdy
34) Dark & Gloomy – Horse Teeth
35) Migratory Birds – Western Skies Motel
36) Endless Wave – Hanging Valleys

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The release opens with ‘Stupid’, a song shot through with a pervasive bass line which heralds the slightly off-kilter guitars, the whole track packing a creepy, Krill-esque edge, feeling somewhat volatile, as if it could explode in your face at any moment. ‘Joke/Rope’ is a song which, although poles apart in terms of sound, brings to mind a line from talons’ Work Stories which we reviewed a few weeks back. “When I stopped laughing and tried to grow up” Tolan sang, “I just saw the stupid and the sad, and I got cold and lost inside my head.” Here you get the sense that Hong has come to a similar realisation and is clinging to humour, no matter how black, because she’s afraid of what might leak into the vacuum should she stop.

“All I can see
Is the joke or the rope
That cruel, cruel joke
And that sweet, tight rope”

‘Kramer/Dreams’ sees reverb rumbling like some some far-off storm threatening to come your wayapproach, a fear made good two thirds of the way through, while ‘What It Is’ is a snarling maelstrom of vocals and guitars which sucks you in and spits you out, though only once its all done chewing. From this emerges closer ‘Pig’, a monolithic monster of a track which brings to mind Sondra Sun-Odeon‘s heaviest work. With ever-building intensity, the song lurches forwards in great seismic steps, leaving Hong to shout her vocals in the background, as if screaming at the feet of some great mechanical being.

Blood Harvest is out on cassette via Tiny Engines. You can also get it as a download via the Haybaby Bandcamp page.

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