Which isn’t to say that the individual pieces can’t be simple and personal, rather that they resist the temptation to hone in on one area at the expense of everything else, and thus fail to address the wider system with all of its roots and ramifications. Wild Pink, the debut full-length from the New York band of the same name, feels like an album operating according to such an awareness. Led by songwriter John Ross, the band have pieced together a varied, discursive record on which an almost schizophrenic shifting occurs within even individual songs. But rather than coming off hyperactive or overly complex, Wild Pink feels natural and grounded in reality—realism for the twenty-first century.

Opening track ‘How Do You Know If God Takes You Back?’ sets this out clearly, an intimate song that feels like a vague statement that resonate deeply. “I used to feel guilt all of the time,” Ross sings, “now I just feel guilt about not feeling guilty enough.” This segues directly into ‘Great Apes,’ a far livelier indie rock number which is nonetheless again concerned with deep indistinct issues. It’s book-ended with searching questions and statements that worm their way into the concerns of the record.

“Do you do what you believe in?
And believe in in what you do?
[…]
You don’t think you do less now
But what you do used to mean much more to you”

“You hear about the war,” Ross sings on ‘Broke On’, “and know its not yours,” and while the sentence is cryptic enough to mean a thousand things, it captures a certain sense of removal that’s common to young people in contemporary times. Wild Pink‘s society is one where where identity is flimsy and faint, fundamentally lacking in its ability to bind a life and make it meaningful. Here, the old patriotism has eroded beyond use, leaving nothing but a sort of nebulous discomfort with the state of things that’s difficult to address.

And this isn’t due to Trump—if only it were that simple. It’s to do with consumerism, and mass media, and the geopolitical situation. It’s to do with Western history and foreign policy and plain old psychology, and possibly irony and sincerity and something pushing into eschatology too. Basically, its how we view ourselves and others, and what this means for being ‘American’ in day-to-day existence. “Daily ideas about what it means to have American dreams,” Ross sings on ‘I Used to be Small’, though you get the impression he never finds an answer. “Yes I am embarrassed to be here / I wonder if the next mass shooting will be here?”

‘Battle of Bedford Falls’ feels like a railing against the lack of identity and control, a plea for an autonomous, meaningful experience upon the Western conveyor belt life. “I just wanted to go down / Go down in my own ship,” Ross sings from a Groundhog Day nightmare of waking early and working late, where “good guys with guns” perform hard labour in caps and gowns. From this, ‘Wizard of Loneliness’ plays like an elaborate reassurance, an attempt to centre someone or perhaps everyone, to anchor us to the present and stop us spinning out of control on the hamster wheel. This flip flop between confusion and anger, and the desire or need to comfort others and thus transcend life’s banalities forms the backbone of all these songs. Be it the slow burn emotion of ‘Albert Ross’, the hypnotic, Wintersleep-esque energy of ‘Nothing to Show’, or the flat, wistful ‘Wanting Things Makes You Shittier’.

Taking its title from Bush Jnr.’s summation of terrorism, closer ‘They Hate Our Freedom’ is like the product of everything that has come previously, every irony and incongruity adding up to a suffocating anxiety, plus an unrelenting kindness or humanity which perseveres despite the discombobulation. Indeed, across the entirety of Wild Pink, Ross feels like a narrator dropped into an ongoing narrative, not fully aware of the beginning or end, or even any coherent context, yet haunted by profound sensations of sadness, fear and guilt—an unshakeable, existential dread that suggests we’re going to pay for how this story is panning out. Wild Pink haven’t come to us amidst this chaos with magic cures or quick-fix solutions, but they’ve come to us nonetheless. Right now, that’s probably the most valuable and noble thing any of us can do.

Wild Pink is out via Tiny Engines on both CD and vinyl. Grab it now from the Wild Pink Bandcamp.

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Because we still have a fair amount of tapes left, and obviously want to raise as much as possible for Worldreader, we have decided to run a special holiday offer. So, as suggested below in stylised sans serif, entering the code ‘HOHOHO’ at the checkout on Bandcamp will get you a handsome 40% off both digital and physical copies of the compilation. This will still cover the production cost of the cassette, but remember all profits go to charity, so every extra pound you give will be a pound well spent.To refresh your memory, here’s what you’ll be getting if you put some of your hard earned cash towards Quiet, Constant Friends:

Side A

Danielle Fricke – The Well
Lotte Kestner – Cattleya
Wes Tirey – Akhnilo Blues
Pasture Dog – Everything That Rises Must Converge
Old Earth – Pretty Steep
Salt Altars – Little Big Man
Henry Demos – Not Her
Beat Radio – Mexico City
Sondra Sun-Odeon – Hair

Side B

Nathan Amundson – Haruki Murakami
Windmill – Jim & The Rather Large Nectarine
ARMS – The Book of Love
Oh, Rose & Sawtooth – TV
Free Cake For Every Creature – Don’t Go Away (Ahumpf Acgroof)
John Ross – The Overlook Hotel
Kissing Fractures – I Drank Phosphorus With Aunt Lucy
Nice Legs – Past Lives
Ben Seretan – King of Crumbs
Trouble Books – Oak and Linden Tree Abridged
Lewtrakimou – I’m a Book on Tape
Nadia Reid – Runway

Grab a download or cassette now via our Bandcamp page, and be sure to remember to use the code ‘HOHOHO’ for your discount.

The post Quiet Constant Friends: A Christmas Sale (40% Off!) appeared first on Various Small Flames.

“Have a drink and think about
the way the shrubs just moved
Is this place talking to me?
Or am I crazy?”

Remember that you can (and should) order Quiet, Constant Friends on cassette via the Wake the Deaf Bandcamp page. Each tape comes with a postcard print of one of the original artworks, so it will be a package full of pretty little things. Every penny of the profits go straight to Worldreader so what are you waiting for? Tell your family, friends and enemies too.

The post Quiet, Constant Friends: John Ross – The Overlook Hotel appeared first on Various Small Flames.

“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counsellors, and the most patient of teachers”

So says Charles William Eliot, and I tend to agree with him. And not just because I’ve thrown my lot in with the literary world. Books are where you learn that others share your weirdest thoughts and experiences, and are able to describe them in a way that makes you want to squee with delight or tattoo the words into your skin. What’s more, they let you experience life as someone else, allowing you to get a grip on the unseen forces which batter some while you relax in ignorant shelter. I can confidently say I would be a different person had I not become acquainted with John Singer and Don Gately and Ignatius J. Reilly, with JR from New York and Ruthie from Fingerbone and Oscar Wao from the Dominican Republic, now of Paterson, New Jersey. That’s without mentioning Esther Greenwood or Hazel Motes or the Glass family, nor Mr Small or Spot the Dog or any of the menagerie of Redwall mammals, ie. any of the hundreds of fictional folk who helped build the world as I now see it.

If, then, you cannot read, you automatically miss out on an army* of literary friends to entertain you and hold your hand and generally remind you that you are not alone. You may or may not know that UNESCO estimate there are 757 million adults, including 115 million youths (15-24), who cannot read or write the simplest of sentences. They even have a cool interactive map to give you a better idea of where the problem is biggest.

Worldreader is non-profit organisation dedicated to creating a literate world through digital education. Their Worldreader Mobile app (available on even the simplest feature phones) brings digital books to families around the planet, allowing communities without access to any print books to connect to a library of over 28,500 titles in over 40 languages. And this sort of programme extends far further than helping people gain basic skills. Take the current Ebola outbreak as an example. With such a deadly disease it can be difficult to provide adequate information to those in danger, particularly when moving around increases the risk of transmission and worsens the situation. Worldreader are utilising their mobile reading app to disseminate information to help save lives, from vital health advice to inspiring stories from survivors, while minimising the need for movement on the ground, and thus transmission.

Of course, all this ignores the whole special, reading-as-a-magic-activity side of things that Charles William Eliot was getting at. Books are fun and comforting and inspiring and door-unlocking in so many ways, and I believe quite firmly that increasing the number of young people reading is one of the best ways to deal with current issues and prepare ourselves for future ones. Worldreader actively curates books by African and Indian authors, so rather than just beaming the same dusty classics all over the world, they’ve developed a library representative of the diversity of interests, tastes and subjects seen around the globe. Better still, the mobile aspect will help transform education into an unstoppable force. No longer will your gender or religion or race prevent access to education, nor any disabilities, nor your social standing. With a small amount of help from charities like Worldreader, we can overcome privilege and prejudice by placing education in the hands of the people. We can be each other’s quiet, constant friends.

It’s all pretty inspiring. So much so that I decided to try to help with my own version of community and worldwide collaboration. Quiet, Constant Friends, a compilation of literary-themed songs by some of my favourite artists, will be sold in support of Worldreader, with every penny of the profits going straight into their good work. Some of the songs were recorded especially for this release, some are from upcoming albums and others are old favourites which fit nicely with the theme. You can listen to one new track, ‘I’m a Book on Tape’ by Lewtrakimou, right now:

I’ll be unveiling more songs between now and release, so keep your eyes peeled for that, and check out the artwork and full tracklisting below:

1. The Well – Danielle Fricke
2. Cattleya – Lotte Kestner
3. Akhnilo Blues – Wes Tirey
4. Everything That Rises Must Converge – Pasture Dog
5. Pretty Steep – Old Earth
6. Little Big Man – Salt Altars
7. Not Her – Henry Demos
8. Mexico City – Beat Radio
9. Hair – Sondra Sun-Odeon
10. Haruki Murakami – Nathan Amundson (of Rivulets)
11. Jim and the Rather Large Nectarine – Windmill
12. The Book of Love – ARMS
13. TV – Oh, Rose & Sawtooth
14. Don’t Go Away Ahumpf Acgroomf – Free Cake For Every Creature
15. The Overlook Hotel – John Ross
16. I Drank Phosphorus with my Aunt Lucy – Kissing Fractures
17. Past Lives – Nice Legs
18. King of Crumbs – Ben Seretan
19. Oak and Linden Tree Abridged – Trouble Books
20. I’m a Book on Tape – Lewtrakimou
21. Runway – Nadia Reid

As if collaborating with 20-odd acts wasn’t exciting enough, we’ve also enlisted the talents of a range of artists and illustrators to design special-edition postcards for each song. Again, I’ll be unveiling these as time goes on, but check out the piece for Lewtrakimou’s song by Ji Hyun Yu below:Huge, huge, huge thanks go out to everyone involved. It has been so great to see how nice and enthusiastic people can be about a simple idea, and how it can evolve into something much better than I ever expected. I owe you all.

Quiet Constant Friends is out now. You can buy it from our Bandcamp page, including a limited edition cassette, complete with some super-limited edition art postcard prints (you can browse the complete set of artworks here).We decided against having this as a free download in an attempt to raise as much for Worldreader as we possibly can. Obviously, if you choose to pay more than the suggested amount you are donating more to Worldreader, so feel free to do that. That said, we know times are tough, so if anyone wants a download, just drop us a message/tweet/email and we’ll sort you out, no questions asked.

* I’m taking suggestions for the best collective noun for friends who only exist in books.

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