Henoheno – I Made These Songs Before I Moved (REVIEW)
(RIYL: Bedroom pop, Elvis Depressedly, Alex G)

Henry Demos & Lewtrakimou – I Was trying to Get There But it Was Hard to See From the Balloon (REVIEW)
(RIYL: experimental, psychedelic, lo-fi, incredibly cool/nice people <3)

Hermann Doose – Hawaii Was Beautiful
(RIYL: pop, surf rock, ARMS)

High Bloom – Haloed
(RIYL: ambient, electronic pop, Orchid Tapes)

Honeyuck – very tiny songs (REVIEW)
(RIYL: bedroom pop, twee folk, Frankie Cosmos)

Isabel Rex – American Colloquialisms/Two Hexes (REVIEW)
(RIYL: lo-fi, garage rock, Olive Drab)

The Island of Misfit Toys – I Made You Something
(RIYL: emo, indie folk, hardcore)

Jake Rollins – Spend a Few, Make a Few (REVIEW)
(RIYL: lo-fi, summer pop, slacker rock)

JANK – Awkward Pop Songs
(RIYL: power pop, emo, Algernon Cadwallader)

Jay Som – Untitled
(RIYL: dream pop, woozy rock, dreaming of summer)

Joplin Rice – Low Hum (REVIEW)
(RIYL: indie rock, lo-fi)

Katie Dey – asdfasdf
(RIYL: bedroom pop, experimental, lo-fi)

The Kickstand Band – In the Sun
(RIYL: indie pop, surf rock, )

Kip McGrath – S/T EP
(RIYL: lo-fi, bubblegum pop, twee)

Kitten Crisis – Have a good summer
(RIYL: pop punk, summer days, Radiator Hospital)

Lady Paw – Long Shadow

(RIYL: dream pop, experimental, Twin Sister)

Laurence – Happy Town
(RIYL: bedroom pop, folk)

The Le Sigh – Vol. II (close enough to 2015!)
(RIYL: bedroom pop, compilations packed with goodness, female-identified/non-binary artists)

Letters From Bummer Camp – Vol. 1
(RIYL: punk, Boosegumps/Long Neck/other NJ-indie artists, helping good causes)

Long Neck – Heights (REVIEW)
(RIYL: bedroom pop, Two White Cranes, Cyberbully Mom Club)

Kizzy Hall – one last shame spiral
(RIYL: scrappy rock, basement pop, Coma Cinema)

Mike Pace and the Child Actors – The Flood
(RIYL: box-office music from the 80s/90s, Oxford Collapse)

Miniature Philosopher – Leaving ‘Bula
(RIYL: Paul Baribeau, Nana Grizol, Talons’)

Mini Dresses – FOUR
(RIYL: dream pop, laidback vibes)

The Modern Folk – Surround Me / Leather Jacket (REVIEW)
(RIYL: lo-fi, DIY, shambling rock n’ roll)

Morning River Band – Abyssal Channeling (REVIEW)
(RIYL: folk, country, bar-room rock)

We’ll be sharing a new section of the list every day this week, so be sure to check back for the complete collection. If you find something you like, or think we missed something life-changing, then why not let us know on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr or good old email.

The post Favourite Free Music of 2015: H-M appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Tracklisting:

1. By My Side – Valley Maker
   2. Shadow Play – Tierpark
   3. West Texas – PWR BTTM
   4. Console – Joplin Rice
   5. Lightning Dream Shuffle – Will Stratton (for Genius Loci)
   6. Dazed By You – PINS
   7. Y U – Fanpage
   8. The Rest – Alex Bleeker and the Freaks
   9. I’m Not – Hoshifo
   10. Nothing, Just Looking at the Moment – Lejsovka & Freund
   11. Stole Ur Bike – Boosegumps
   12. Our Headache Years – Nudes
   13. Worry, Glory – The Silence Set
   14. Sand – Frankie Cosmos
   15. xplodineyez – Field Medic
   16. Walking The Line – Sam Moss
   17. Bedroom – Alanna McArdle
   18. Tired – Captain Samurai
   19. Birds – M Caridi & The Glow
   20. Gardensong – Funeral Advantage
   21. Snow Bird – Ama Moii
   22. So Long, Suzie (The Damage is Done) – Morning River Band
   23. Cracks in the Sidewalk – Naomi Pop
   24. Burn This – Mauno
   25. What Coast – Grubs
   26. Pulled Over – Generifus
   27. EZ River – Wilder Maker

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

“at once pensively miserable and unhurriedly easygoing…heightened by Rice’s tragically wry way of writing about life’s woes”

Now Rice is back with a new record, Hurricane Alaska, one which sees a marked departure from his previous releases. Formerly a primarily bedroom folk sorta guy, he has decided to plug in his instruments and go electric, utilising his knack for melody to make some pretty killer lo-fi garage rock songs. The result turns out something like a fun blend of classic rock and lo-fi slacker, complete with folk and country undertones, languid guitars licking around the collection of twelve songs which are alternatively catchy and energetic and swayingly cool.

‘Console’ is perhaps the stand out track, with its squealing sunshiney guitars and twitchy lulls of verses, which build and build into carefree bursts.

“If you ask me how I am I’ll probably lie.
Just because I’ve never been the kind of guy
to share the weight of his problems”

‘Eight Stories’ is so laid back its pretty much sprawled on the ground (“What’s the point in sleeping ’til the afternoon? What’s the point in waking so soon?”), while ‘Destroy’ is a change of pace with its acoustic guitar and is more akin to previous Joplin Rice releases. ‘Catapult’ has an easygoing summery vibe, with breezy guitar lines and flowing melodic vocals, and ‘Clear & Present’ has restrained lulls and bursts of stormy lo-fi guitars. Penultimate track ‘Rocket’ sees some pretty impressive shredding, before ‘Brothers’ closes on an acoustic note, with passionately earnest vocals and lyrics which are pretty gloomy before a slight chink of something in the final lines:

“but if you look close enough
there’s a pull behind the push
and a gentle certainty
that existed before me”

The whole thing has an endearing homemade feeling, which is not to say the production values are poor, just that it sounds warm and fuzzy and close. You can get Hurricane Alaska on a pay-what-you-want basis via the Joplin Rice bandcamp page. Also, if you haven’t already then grab a cassette of his precious album via the folks at Practice Records.

The post Joplin Rice – Hurricane Alaska appeared first on Various Small Flames.

“The goal of my site is to feature what i think of as “folk music”, which is music made by people who are trying to get by leading lives in our modern world who love to express themselves through music”

That sentiment resonates with us here at WTD, and it should with you too. Folk songs don’t require banjos and fiddles, it’s something a little deeper than that. You’d be a fool not to follow that link above and spend all evening trawling through the (sometimes rough) gems that get posted on a regular basis.

But! This post isn’t all about singing the praises of The Modern Folk Music of America. What I really want to tell you about is that J. Moss, the guy who runs the site and Practice Records, also makes music of his own – under the moniker The Modern Folk. The last six months has seen three releases from The Modern Folk, each of which represents a slightly different approach to making DIY music. Surround Me is an album of gutsy, lo-fi garage rock, recorded in warehouse spaces with a drummer and everything turned up to eleven, whereas Leather Jacket is much more reserved, recorded at home with the aid of an “ancient” drum machine. The album has this great swaggering, half-soaked coolness about it, all mumbling vocals and lazy guitars – basically exactly how a record called Leather Jacket should sound. The final release is American Sewer, which was reportedly recorded on a cellphone under a bridge in Portland in the space of just two hours. It kinda sounds like it too, all blown-out rumbling blues rock guitars and yelpy vocals, the sort of thing they play in bars frequented by tough guys (I’d imagine).

This is bona fide DIY music. Don’t let the lo-fi tag deceive you, a lot of hard work has gone into these recordings, right down to the artwork, which Moss produced himself. Check out a few of my current favourite tracks below:

You can get each of the releases on a pay-what-you-want basis via The Modern Folk’s Bandcamp page. There are also plans for physical releases so keep your eyes peeled and ears to the ground!

The post The Modern Folk appeared first on Various Small Flames.

March has gone and Spring has sprung. If you were too busy trying to top up your vitamin D levels with every weak little sunbeam then fear not, we have collected everything featured on Wake The Deaf in one handy little playlist. Follow the links in the tracklisting to be whisked away to the relevant pages.

We are taking a short break over Easter to gather our thoughts and hopefully return with something shiny and new. No promises just yet but keep an eye here, Twitter or Facebook for developments. Until then!

Tracklisting:

1. i. – Danielle Fricke
2. Dk/Pi – Aero Flynn
3. Summering – Summering
4. Chapter 1 – Human Behavior
5. Dogs 1 – Vio/Miré
6. A Home Just Over Yonder – Frankie Duff
7. M.M.G.A.T.M – Field Medic
8. Broken Necks – Eskimeaux
9. Maybe I’m Wasting My Time – Jake Rollins
10. God is Laughing at Me – Butterfly House
11. Hold Me Like a Child – GOOD, GOOD BLOOD
12. Invisible Cities – Beat Radio
13. Somebody Kill Me Please – LVL UP
14. The Plane – Andrew Hung
15. Roles Reversed – Kid In The Attic
16. Floral Mattress – Naps
17. Tennis – Derek Piotr
18. The Day is Past and Gone – Jean Ritchie
19. The Day is Past and Gone (Variations) – Sarah Louise
20. Buffalo Bones – Wes Tirey
21. Don’t Go – Radical Dads
22. Lucky Man – Joplin Rice
23. Billy Madison Victory Song – Krill
24. Demise – Psalmships

March 2015 Roundup from Wake The Deaf on 8tracks Radio.

The post March 2015 Roundup – A Mixtape appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Joplin Rice is a musician from Lexington, Kentucky who makes personal bedroom folk meets lo-fi indie pop. His latest (and first ever physical) release is called Low Hum, an album which is at once pensively miserable and unhurriedly easygoing, something heightened by Rice’s tragically wry way of writing about life’s woes. Take for example ‘Lucky Man’, with its cool and laidback guitars and lyrics such as “I’m lit up like a burning car”, or the acoustic strum of ‘Perfect Coils’ in which he sings, “Hating myself now just ain’t the same“.

He’s capable of changing things up too. ‘Coffee’ is a fuzzed-out rocker which tells a sad little story of seeing a lost love around the town with someone new:

“I saw you buying records with your boyfriend
I just hid behind the shelf, started crying to myself.
I saw you drinking coffee, you were laughing
Was he telling you a joke? Did you see me leave alone?

Whereas ‘Haunt Me’ is more towards the folk side of the spectrum and centres on a pretty morbid question, “Would you haunt me if you died today?”, and finale ‘Parking Lot Waltz’ is a shuffling lo-fi rock song, with lines that bleed into one another, creating a stream-of-conciousness style vocal delivery – e.g. “i blow smoke back home i take ticking time bomb tambourine crescendoes endocrine releases into shaky muddy puddle people”. 

Low Hum is being released by Practice Records, a label run by the good folks at The Modern Folk Music of America, which is one of the best music sites around and a champion of home-recorded, DIY music like this. You can get the album on limited edition cassette via Practice Records or as a pay-what-you-want download via the Joplin Rice Bandcamp page. Take note that if you pay $5 or more you’ll receive a bonus EP of demos that didn’t make the album.

P.S. Why not dig into the Practice Records back catalogue while you’re at it?

The post Joplin Rice – Low Hum appeared first on Various Small Flames.