Tracklisting:

Frog – American
The Phone Booth – Ballad of Indifference
Spielbergs – 4AM
Neurotic Fiction – Collateral
Neighborhood of Make Believe – Track Names
Pizzagirl – body part
Orchid Mantis – porch song
Gorgeous Bully – patience
Reighnbeau – Trading Heat
Troy Everett – Absent
Amparo – Hounds
REW<< – Victoire Impossible
Okay Embrace – Moving
Young Jesus – For Nana
Vender & The Cobras – Everything is Beautiful
The Lostines – Faith in Love
Haley Heynderickx & Max García Conover – Little Wind
Rivulets – Everything Goes
Balto – Bullshit Dream
Meat Wave – That’s Alright
Docks – Kiosk
Satanic Ritual Abuse – Hurting (Adjective/Verb)
SATU – Growing Up
Anna Tivel – Fenceline
Madison Turner – Richmond, Virgina
Elly Swope – 6.8
Nathan Ball – All or Nothing
Monarch Mtn – canyon blues
Stripmall Ballads – You Were Good (I Was Good For a While)
Katie Mullins – Crocuses
Lisa/Liza – Tea Kettle
free cake for every creature – shake it out
Katy Kirby – Tap Twice
Lung Cycles – hottest day of the year so far (4pm version)

You can find all of our Monthly Roundup playlists here, and peruse a wider range of mixtapes that we’ve put together over the years.

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

As the title suggests, the record focuses on feelings of frustration and weariness, a kind of deep-seated dissatisfaction with the mundanities of daily routines. “I wanted to make [the album] a bit lighthearted, but it really is about burnout,” Turner describes to GayRVA, “and how difficult it can be to keep going when everything is the same, and the same, and the same.”

Not that this is immediately apparent upon hitting the play button. Turner creates a genre-bending melange of spiky pop punk, throaty folk punk, 90s alt-rock and even country, utilizing everything from guitar, drums and keyboard to lap steel, fiddle and trombone. Therefore, despite the subject matter, there’s certainly no lack of energy involved, and many of the songs burn with a cathartic sense of purpose.

‘Sometimes’ is a folk punk song that rattles along in a breathless rush and ‘Our Wild Rage’ follows a similar pattern, Turner delivering her lines with gravelly feeling. ‘Portland, Oregon’ is a pop punk song built on manic fiddle and Turner’s experiences couch surfing across the country, a galloping ode to the joys of making new friends and feeling at home in a new place. “It’s been a stressful stretch of time this past week or so,” Turner sings, “and everything wears down before you know, but this couch in this punk rock house feels like home right now.”

‘Do You Ever Feel Like A Failure?’ is one of many songs on the album that on the surface sounds upbeat, all irrepressible energy and subtle nods to Turner’s precious ska leanings, but dig a little deeper and the lyrics reveal that things are tough. But again things are ultimately redemptive, a reminder that lots of people share feelings, even the negative lonely ones.

maybe we’ve got some things in common
maybe it means nothing at all
(means nothing at all)
at least I guess I feel something

And this sense of redemption is ultimately the overwhelming one. ‘Richmond, Virginia’ is a song about perhaps eventually finding one’s place, a suggestion that the couch surfing days are over, at least for now. “Walking through the rains of Richmond,” Turner sings, “feeling like I might have found a place where I can belong.”

If the album itself wasn’t enough, Side B of the tape has a special live solo acoustic set from Madison Turner that Nancy Kells recorded on her cell phone and mastered later from a Grimalkin Records’ benefit show for the Virginia Anti-Violence Project on June 16, 2018.

Get A Comprehensive Guide to Burning Out on cassette or digital download from the Grimalkin Records Bandcamp page or the Madison Turner Bandcamp page.

The post Madison Turner – A Comprehensive Guide to Burning Out appeared first on Various Small Flames.