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.

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Ben Seretan Group

“I wanted these recordings to sound huge. I wanted them to sound massive, gravitational, full of a swirling largeness that could eat up large portions of iTunes libraries” – we previewed Yellow Roses, a new release from Ben Seretan Group.

Yucatan

“Ethereal, celestial ambient post-rock” inspired by the Welsh landscape – we reviewed Uwch Gopa’r Mynydd, an album from Welsh band Yucatan

Benjamin Shaw

“comfortably sad and vividly alive, like watching rain fall onto a city from the window of a train” – a few words about ‘Pylon Pile-on’, the first song from Guppy, the upcoming album from Benjamin Shaw.

Long Neck

“Captures that feeling of creeping slowly over that threshold into adulthood and the revelation that it turns out not to be the whole new room you always thought” – Heights by Long Neck offers candid and reassuringly familiar thoughts on the plight of post-collegiate life.

Cyberbully Mom Club

“Music that feels like the words of an old friend, the sort of person who requires no formalities or effort and is happy to just sit and shoot the breeze” – a few thoughts on ‘For Luck’, the first song from a forthcoming EP by Cyberbully Mom Club.

Estan

“Raging against the pompous nature of professionals and academics…how ridiculous we are to think we can assign logic to a universe of chaos far too big for our tiny heads” – Our review of The Vanity of Reason by Estan.

Trenton Point

“Imagine John Maus teaming up with Small Black and The Cure to soundtrack a melodramatic 80s teen movie where the misunderstood hero finds herself walking home alone from the disco time and time again” – The three-song EP by Brooklyn’s Trenton Point, out on Vacant Magic.

The Wandering Lake

“Part indie rock and part psychedelic folk, all weaved together with Kupillas’ distinctive vocals, which are not quite a warble and not quite a croon and sometimes drawn out landscape-scale without a hint of breaking.” – we reviewed A Wend to Why, the new album from The Wandering Lake.

Ylayali / Lung Cycles

“enclosed in a sense of everyday melancholy…that feeling of long afternoons in gloomy rooms, when the rest of the human population seem faraway and indistinct, like figures from barely remembered dreams.” – Another great split cassette release from Lily Tapes & Discs.

Damien Jurado

“Jurado writes songs that reflect what it is like to be alive in the years either side of the millennium, songs for a landscape both cruel and kind, everyday and surreal, songs that can be sad and exciting and slightly scary and sometimes weird as hell” – We selected our very favourite Damien Jurado songs for our latest Through the Archives feature.

Mike Comite / Hop Along

“When I think about new rock idols, I don’t envision sold out arenas. I don’t hear Top 40 singles or perfect pitch, and I don’t think about stage personas and attitude. What I do think of is transparency, and a struggle” – Not quite last week, but Mike Comite of Old Best Friend wrote a fantastic piece about Hop Along for Property of Zack.

Coke Machine Glow / Jenny Hval

“Have you had breakfast? I was just about to make some eggs and huma—forgive me, I meant to say ham. Wink wink” – Coke Machine Glow presented a conversation about Jenny Hval’s Apocalypse, Girl between Hannibal‘s Hannibal Lecter and Will Graham, suggesting that I’m not the only person in the world who finds the show a little… overblown. All we need now are some meaningless close-ups of food and we’ll have an ‘intellectual’ TV hit.

Grantland / Jason Isbell

“It’s hard to keep up a James Dean type of facade if you’re thanking somebody for your salvation. But when you’re writing the kinds of songs that I do, I think your job is to try to be as honest as you possibly can and write about those things that make you uncomfortable sometimes.” – Stephen Hyden of Grantland talks through a list of Jason Isbell’s most gut-wrenching songs with the man himself.

Aero Flynn

We liked Aero Flynn’s self-titled album an awful lot. That’s why it’s so cool to see the band perform this live session for Audiotree.

Distant Records

“An hour of radical ladies influenced by that vintage surf rock reverb because, you know, it must be summer or something.” – Joanna, the face behind Distant Records, has a show on KPSU called The Muse in Music. This week’s show, ‘Must Be Summer or Something’, is all about… you guessed it, summer! Stream below or download this and previous shows over on the KPSU website.

Nice Legs

Seoul-based band and all round good eggs Nice Legs put together a video diary of a recent tour, featuring some lovely shots of the pair doing pretty much everything besides playing music. Check out their Youtube channel for other visual goodies.

And Finally… the 8tracks Playlist of the Week:

Heartbreaking Bravery‘s roundup of the best 2015 has had to offer so far is pretty comprehensive.

2015: Halfway Home from heartbreakingbravery on 8tracks Radio.

The post Week in Review: #7 (22nd – 26th June) appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Huck Notari

Earlier this year Portland’s Huck Notari completed a successful Kickstarter campaign for his third album, Huck Notari and the River. Now released, the LP does not disappoint with Notari’s trademark wistful strumming and stirring lyrics. If you are new to the artist, check out ’Wall Around Your Heart’, one of my favourite songs.

Tiny Ruins

Haunts is the latest EP from Auckland’s Hollie Fullbrook, AKA Tiny Ruins. This is organic music, with simpe instrumentation supporting the main attraction – Fullbrook’s incredible vocals. It feels like she is singing in an empty room for you alone, her voice filling the space and bringing to life the tales she is telling.

Old Haunt

An offshoot of The Gertrudes, Old Haunt is a haunting blend of traditional folk and more experimental genres like electronic and drone. Herohill’s write-up states that front man Lucas Huang described the project as ‘Tim Hecker unearthing a box of Townes van Zandt demos’, which makes us very excited for the full album coming this November.

<a href=“http://oldhaunt.bandcamp.com/track/ghost-town” data-mce-href=“http://oldhaunt.bandcamp.com/track/ghost-town”>Ghost Town by Old Haunt</a>

Jason Isbell

Southeasten, the new album from the former Drive-By Truckers man, is an exceptional collection of songs. Listen to a few of them here thanks to Garden and Gun (kudos to Songsfortheday for the find).

Suntrapp

The press release accompanying the first single by Newcastle’s Suntrapp states that it intends to capture the human conditions, being ’impulsive, celebratory and cathartic in equal measure’. I think this is a perfect summation of what indie-folk-rock (or whatever) should be all about.

Glass Cake

Glass Cake aren’t particularly folky but the idea behind this series was to let us post about more good music, not constrict ourselves with rules. Lunar Caustic is like a Sharon van Etten x Twin Sister x Scout Niblett hybrid playing a raucous garage rock. It’s great.

Ben De La Cour

Ben De La Cour is a singer-songwriter based in Nashville. He has recently released his third album, Ghost Light, a really nice collection of acoustic folk songs and some country rockers. I’ve seen comparisons to Leonard Cohen and Townes van Zandt and I think these are fair. He certainly has the pedigree to be considered an oldtime-style wandering man, having travelled the world as an amateur boxer, a bartender, a janitor and farm worker. You can download the album for however much you like over at Ben’s bandcamp page.

Wes Tirey

We have featured Wes a few times recently, with a review of his EP I Stood Among Trees, and last week’s interview about his music and writing, and he has a new 3-song EP out now. False Idols is another collection of superbly written earthy songs from some old vision of America and is available for as little as $1. All funds will go towards Wes’ Indiegogo campaign to get him to Italy.

We’ll be seeing you next month.

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