Tracklisting:

Mike Pace and the Child Actors – Everyone Out of the Car
Miranda Winters – The Futuristic District
Exam Season – Strawberry Milk
Saccharine – Pumpkin Guts
Tuvaband – Wolfpack
Devon Welsh – Dreams Have Pushed You Around
Mending – Alan after the Fire
Reddening West – Even If
Valley Maker – Light on the Ground
The Washboard Abs – Return to You
Manatree – Brushfire
Miserable Chillers – Horse Opera
Saint Charles – She Don’t Wanna Know
new casino – going for a walk*
Frankie Valet – Why Blue
Goodbye Max – Old Photos
Adeline Hotel – Habits
Joe Kaplow – I Said I Was Going and I Went
Pecas – Tuesdays
Sun Kin – Neglect
Baby Cages – flowers
Crooked Spine – Skinned Knees
Lauren O’Connell – Out of Focus
Mount Goldie – Summer
Harvey Trisdale – Baby
american poetry club – the sum of your parts
Babehoven – Out of the Country
Adam Arcuragi – Low Parade Rain
Jason Bemis Lawrence – Southern Midwest
Campdogzz – Sorceress
Barfoot – A Thin Place Between Worlds

* not on Playmoss

The post August 2018 Roundup appeared first on Various Small Flames.

First singles ‘Southern Midwest’ and ‘How Fast Can You Pack?’ introduced the Jason Bemis Lawrence sound, a cinematic brand of folk accentuated by a number of instrumental accompaniments, from swelling piano and strings to a more electronic ambiance. The latter, which features Heather Woods Broderick on backing vocals, gives a good idea of Lawrence’s writing style too, occupying the dividing line between soulful and haunted to allow for a sound as rich as it is moving. “[Touring] can be disquieting,” Lawrence says, speaking of his inspiration, “but distance can provide the opportunity to reflect on values and beliefs, as well as how we handle change and adapt.”

We’re delighted to share the latest single, ‘Limited Roles’, a song which pushes piano to the forefront to produce a strangely sombre warmth. Lawrence’s vocals are slow and mournful, lending a dark, deserted air that the piano fills with curious meaning, as though within melancholy lies its own counterpoint—the very act of missing something a reminder that there is something worth missing. Something to which we can return.

However, this does not necessarily relate to grand ideas of love and loss, and can instead apply to ideas of identity and character. “This song is not exactly factual but it’s about someone that wants to make their life as dramatic as the theater they perform in,” Lawrence explains. “Daily life is not enough when you can be the center of attention on a stage (or on social media, etc) […] The song’s narrator is lashing out a bit for being brought on stage and not fitting into the world there, and he’s writing something that he himself can control.”

Which is to say, this is a narrator who has built a careful version of life, them as the subject and everyone else as audience. The real world, which obviously butts up against this delusion, only serves to remind them of what they had, and maybe could have still, if only they retreat from every interaction that contradicts this view. If only they retreat from life.

Another Hotel Hallway is set for release on the 7th September and you can pre-order it from the Jason Bemis Lawrence Bandcamp page.

Photo by Bernie Dechant

The post Song Premiere: Jason Bemis Lawrence – Limited Roles appeared first on Various Small Flames.