The result is inherently personal yet larger than any one life, lead Sara Mae Henke evoking the true dimensions of their interior with songs that can be televisually glitzy (‘Twos‘) or as intimate as a home movie (‘Grenadine‘), and moreover songs unafraid to delve into the most individual of subjects in order to locate more universal truths (as with ‘Nightshade‘ and its examination of difficult relationships). The superstitious ‘Ballerino’ and its Suspiria-inspired video by Ewan Hill collect all of these ideas together into under two minutes, celebrating all sides of an identity while working through memories and learning to love the past while focusing on what is to come.

With a focus on costume, bodies and performance, not to mention a clear taste for horror movies, we thought The Noisy would make for the ideal people to create a digital mixtape of songs to soundtrack your Halloween. Sara Mae kindly obliged, so read on below to get your fill of everything camp and creepy.

‘Picture You’ by Chappell Roan

“Draw the blinds / light every candle…” Okay we’re getting ready for the blood ritual… “It’s ritualistic / counting lipstick stains where you should be…” Chappell has said this is a peek into her alternate life as an indie rock singer. I think it’s so hot and also scary!!! I love the idea of getting to see so many different sides of an artist you love, that this is sort of her Jekyll / Hyde song…

I got to go see Chappell this week for the Damsels & Other Dangerous Things tour, and it was a good reminder of why I make the music I make. Japanese Breakfast was opening for her, and those two divas are quite literally my two favorite artists of all time. It was so emotional for me seeing them so happy, and for all of my time I spend emulating their work, it was also really cool at this moment in my life as a musician to see them enjoying what they do.

‘Friend’ by Trace Mountains

Speaking of Japanese Breakfast, this record was produced by Jbrekkie drummer, and Philly icon, Craig Hendricks. I love the practical effects in the music video, and the production throughout has a real kinship with Jubilee–less guitar-driven and more airy and synthy. Enjoy this wolfy music video

‘Happy’ by Mitski

Besides this song being emotionally gutting and so musically beautiful, it is incredible horror writing. I love how she personifies Happy as an ominous, eerie he/him. A masterclass in lyric writing and storytelling and translating music to a surprising narrative in a music video. There is so much real true dread in the production, that by the time the brass comes in, it’s jarring and sort of out-of-place in its brightness. Brilliant.

‘Half to Death’ by Magana

Mitski’s bassist Magana is my labelmate! This song is somewhere between dread and whimsy, and the production reminds me of “Happy” but also of New York band The Cradle, who I think of as cold weather music. It’s smart and wistful and you can listen to it while you look up at the gray sky and see your breath leave you, just when it’s getting dark enough for the trick or treaters to come out. They sing “I hear you sleep; I’m still drowning in dread.” We’re studying all the affects of scary-ness on this playlist!! We’ve got horror, dread, camp, and…

‘Incinerator’ by Daniel Sohn

“It’s an embarrassment I’m taking care of it it’s my favorite technique for rainy days and losing sleep just take the lighter off the shelf and set a fire to yourself incinerator” Embarrassment! Terror! Daniel is my bandmate and I’m always humbled when I listen to his music. I got to sing backup for him this year and this was my favorite one to learn. Some really fun parts on piano and I always appreciate how seriously he takes harmonies. I learn so much from him!

(In lieu of Nick Drake’s “Pink Moon” which to me is an autumn necessity, listen to Daniel’s “Alkali Moon.”)

‘Allston’ by Twin Princess

I feel like this is a missing song from the Knife + Heart soundtrack. Twin Princess frontperson Pauli is also a Philly musician and she’s got such a beautiful and haunting voice. She’s also a stunning frontperson and with her white blonde hair could absolutely be a compelling Bride of Frankenstein. As a sidebar in my personal music history, Allston is a neighborhood in Boston where all the DIY happens, and where I saw a lot of my own early punk shows!!

‘Louise’ by Tuft

I knew the singer when I lived in Boston, (we worked next door to each other in Porter Square!) and my friend Zenaida and I became obsessed with this EP they put out. I inevitably visit Zenaida every fall when the leaves are changing, and this remains our road trip music across Massachusetts. “Guide me through the dimlit alley / cracked glass and crystal honey” They’re singing to the late poet Louise Glück. What’s more, sit in a graveyard reading Poe, type of Halloween than that?

‘Get Disowned’ by Hop Along

I fell in love with this album in the fall of my senior year of high school so it’s a lot of good nostalgia for me, and I associate it with the seasons changing and getting colder. I think some of the wishing on hurtling stars and genuine dysphoria of this song, “Meteor, make me young, make me young” brings another affect of scary-ness to the playlist!

‘Lace Up’ by Wax Jaw

I got to model for this album art Something to listen to as you put your costume on and get ready to get out to the big party at the old haunted manor!

Honorable Mentions

‘Love That Burns’ by Fleetwood Mac
‘Unholy’ by Kim Petras
‘Our Way to Fall’ Yo La Tengo
‘Unexpected Guest’ by Gia Greene
‘Make You Smile’ by Dear Nora
‘Adeline’ by Dr. Dog
‘Dead of Night’ by Orville Peck
‘Not Your Prey’ Squirrel Flower
‘Baby Don’t Believe’ by Tennis
‘My Name is Carnival’ by Jackson C. Frank
‘Mayonnaise’ by Smashing Pumpkins

So there you have it. A veritable bounty of spooky tracks to soundtrack any festivities over the coming weeks. Though we do have one more song to mention. Because while Sara Mae might be too polite and humble to include one of their own tracks among this digital mix, no Halloween playlist can be complete this year without The Noisy’s ‘Twos’. A narrative driven number which adds glamourous pop and sludgy rock into its cauldron and stirs everything up. Sam Cush further brings the story to life with a fantastic video. What Henke describes as “Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Grey Gardens meets two dates to the prom.”

The Secret Ingredient Is Even More Meat will be released on the 24th October via Audio Antihero and you can pre-order it now from The Noisy Bandcamp page.

Black and white photography taken from the video for ‘Twos’ by Sam Cush

The post Address to a Meteor: A Halloween Mixtape from The Noisy appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Following 2020 full-length you are not a morning person, Magana began a three-release cycle which more than fulfils this description. Each release represents different moods rendered in varying shades, though all look to delve into the emotional complexities which sit behind any scene or story. Out now via Audio Antihero and Colored Pencils, Bad News is the closing part of this triad. An EP which uses narrative-based songs to effectively close the loop of the previous releases, following a seasonal pattern so that the releases can be enjoyed as an endlessly repeating cycle.

“This EP is the last of what I think of as an interconnected trio of releases,” Magaña explains. “Teeth was made for spring, a period of growth. It was expansive and exploring. Dreams was made for fall. It was about dusk, the dawning of the restful months. Bad News is made for that period of time between the end of winter and the beginning of spring. Stillness before movement. Each song is about the period of time right before a transition: the realization that change is coming or that it needs to come. As the most lyrically driven of the releases, it is mostly about storytelling. I think of each track as a vignette of a moment in time for four different stories.”

To further develop this sense of narrative within the EP, Magaña has written four pieces of fiction to accompany the release. Small vignettes which pick up threads within the songs and breath extra life and colour into the scenes. Read on below.

Half to Death

The bedroom is almost pitch black. Only a tiny sliver of the curtain moves above the radiator, letting in flashes of warm light from the lamppost outside. Susan is in bed, listening to the sound of her husband’s breathing and trying to sync her breaths to his. She, too, wants the blissful oblivion of sleep. But her husband had the advantage of going to bed very drunk, and she has been stuck with the unfortunate position of being the one filled with dread and existential anxiety.

What can a few hours change? Potentially, everything. Her mind spins. It doesn’t seem fair that one action can undo years of built trust in a relationship, but she knows better than anyone that one action can easily turn into more than one. Her husband’s arm is draped over her chest. It’s so heavy. The room seems to be smaller than normal, and the heat radiating from his body is making her dizzy. Slowly, so carefully, Susan moves her body toward the edge of the bed. Down the side, onto the floor. He has not stirred. It is dry and hot and scary inside the bedroom that she once called cozy. Her throat is raw and dry. In the dark, her hand searches for her glass of water on the bedside table. Empty. 

Her husband turns onto his other side, breathing through his mouth now. Susan puts her hands on the wall and pushes up against it. She glides her hands along the wall to orient herself. She slides her body along the wall until she reaches the door. And then, she walks through the door and leaves.

Hold On

Charlie,

Yesterday your mother forgot how to add. We were at a restaurant and she was paying the bill and adding a tip when she stopped and just looked at me. It was just for a moment, but I think I saw a flash of something new in her eyes. 

This morning she lost her keys. We were going to the grocery store and she insisted that we take her car, but the keys were nowhere to be found. You know that this is not new. For as long as I have known Gwenyth Miller, the location of her cell phone has been a renewed mystery each day. But this time, she was so distressed. I didn’t want her to be embarrassed and so I asked her to make me a cup of coffee and I searched frantically behind her while she was in the kitchen. In the plants, in her closet. I found them in her jewelry box.

Earlier tonight she asked me to undress her. I have done so before, of course, otherwise you wouldn’t have been born. But now she can no longer manage the movements. Her head was lowered and her voice so soft. And I thought to myself again, I am ready for this. 

Even so, it is a privilege to be married to your mother. It always has been. And so I peeled off each layer of her clothes slowly and reverently. A kiss was placed where each button was undone. She giggled softly as I pulled her collar down her shoulders, and I swear I have never loved her more. She held my gaze as I pulled her fleece pajama pants up each leg, stopping to kiss each knee. We laid in bed and laughed and fell asleep holding each other.

Charlie, I do not believe I will send this letter. This is not information you need right now. But I will keep it because one day, when we are both gone and you are looking through our belongings deciding what to keep and what to throw away, I want you to know that when everything seemed to be falling down around us, there was this moment. And we were happy. 

Shower Song

Chelsey steps quietly into the bathroom and closes the door with a soft click. The cacophony of sound behind the door mercifully muffles to a dim roar. Dan knows that she is tired from the move and will want to go to bed early. He’ll handle dinner for himself. Maybe he’ll order takeout. And he probably understands why she has locked herself inside the one room in the house that can afford her privacy. He’ll leave her alone for now. Her little tiled cell of blue and white. She starts the shower and then examines the glass trinkets on the shelf beside her as she removes her clothing. A piece of old wallpaper is framed on the wall. A single bar of soap sits on the sink. She is standing naked on the white plush rug. 

It is an odd feeling to be so exposed in a stranger’s home, even if the door is locked and no one is nearby. We do everything we can to armor ourselves around other people, and yet here she stands stripped bare in more than one way. There’s a movement in her periphery and as much as she doesn’t want to, Chelsey can’t help glancing up toward it. A mirror. The woman in it is a stranger. There is a foreign slope to her shoulders and wrinkles on her face. Her hair is dull with broken ends. Her eyes are just as dull as her hair. What has this woman been through to look so weary?

Several minutes pass, but eventually the steam from the shower starts to obscure her view. Not ready to handle this new version of herself, Chelsey turns off all the lights before she steps into the shower. It is too dark to see that her hands are chapped and cut from carrying all of the moving boxes, so she is unprepared for the sudden stinging of the hot water on them. Surprised, she cries out in pain. And then, as if drifting down a river with a strong current, Chesley finds that she cannot stop the cry that she has started. She is drowning in it. The water from the showerhead mingles with the tears and runs onto the floor. She is alone and it is dark and she is covered by the sound and the feel of the water. In this space, and only in this space, Chelsey takes a deep breath and admits to herself that this is not the life she dreamt of. Then she washes the admission away, and steps out of the shower when the water begins to run cold. 

I’m Not Doing Anything

James was always considered an odd kid. He preferred to play alone, and act out characters to himself for his own amusement. He read and he drew and he socialized well with other children, so no one had any reason to demand that he change. He got good grades and showed no outward signs of depression. He went to parties hosted by his classmates, but never stayed over and never indicated that he wanted to throw any parties of his own. 

When James went to high school, he was labeled “mysterious” which was a good deal more acceptable to his parents than “odd”. Mild popularity was bestowed on him because he was amiable, all the girls liked him, and because being so mysterious meant he was unlikely to gossip about anyone. His parents were given no cause for worry. But they were worried anyway, because that’s what parents do. 

When James went to college, he did what many of us do and had a small group of friends that he would then keep for life. That is to say, a few gregarious and outgoing people decided that they liked James and befriended him. Then they decided they were going to keep him. This suited James quite well. 

James graduated and stayed in San Diego with the rest of his friends. He wrote a book about them. The book became a bestseller. James, who refused to do any press, was heralded as an enigmatic author. Everyone became interested in the life of James Holland: the Banksy of Books. Someone bought the rights and made a movie out of the book.

One day, James was walking down the street in San Diego with a coffee in his hand when a child stopped him. He signed the autograph and took the photo and then the child leaned in and whispered

“What is your secret to success? I want to be just like you.” 

“There is no secret.” James replied in just as small of a whisper. “I’m not doing anything.”  

Bad News is out now via Audio Antihero and Colored Pencils and available from the Magana Bandcamp page.

The post Magana – Bad News appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Following on from 2023 full-length Painting of My Time—which used, as we put it, “layers of additional instrumentation to combine cathartic rock ‘n roll directness with post-punk atmosphere and the creative flair of art pop”—Melbourne‘s Floodlights have announced a brand new album, Underneath. The outfit have made a name through a willingness to engage with wide cultural themes, though the new record sees them tending further than ever towards the personal, paring back the layers of its predecessor to allow for a more unguarded, intimate sound. Single ‘The Light Won’t Shine Forever’ shows the sense of forward motion inherent within this unburdened style, pressing forward with an affirming momentum.

Watch the video, with concept, direction and animation by Ava Clifforth, below:

Underneath will be released on the 21st March via [PIAS] Recordings and you can pre-order it now from Bandcamp.

Frog – MIXTAPE LINER NOTES
VAR. VII

Not resting on their laurels after the success of 2023 full-length GROG, everyone’s favourite New York duo Frog are returning next month with new album, 1000 Variations on the Same Song. The record, to be released on Audio Antihero and Tapewormies, runs the gamut between indie rock, alt country and smoky lounge cool, and packs the expected density and diversity of references from a Frog release. But beneath the surface, it lives up to its title. “1000 Variations on the Same Song is a theme and variations,” as Daniel Bateman explains. “There are times in your life as a songwriter where you’ll start a bunch of stuff that all sounds alike, which can be a problem, something that you want to excise from yourself. This time I decided to embrace it and take it as far as it could go.” Latest single ‘MIXTAPE LINER NOTES
VAR. VII’ lands on the folky side of the album, though embodies the spirit of the release quite nicely.

Half Gringa – Glacier Walker

Writing of Half Gringa‘s Ancestral Home back in 2023 we described how “it is tempting to view the end of the world as a singular event, a doom unique to the generations living today. But the truth is there is nothing special in our turmoil. People have always confronted loss on an unimaginable scale. With [single] ‘Sevenwater’, [Isabel Olive] affords this truth the reverence and mourning it deserves.” Described as addressing “mythology, mortality, and everything in between,” Half Gringa’s latest full-length Cosmovisión is in many ways a continuation of this project, and, inspired by the glacial melt Olive witnessed during a trip to Iceland, lead single ‘Glacier Walker’ again takes on the climate catastrophe through the prism of anxiety and all of its associated emotions.

Cosmovisión is out on the 28th March via Teleférico Records and you can pre-order it now from Bandcamp.

Kristin Daelyn – Patience Comes to the Bones

“I used to hurry everywhere, / and leaped over the running creeks. / There wasn’t / time enough for all the wonderful things / I could think of to do / in a single day. Patience / comes to the bones / before it take root in the heart / as another good idea.” So wrote Mary Oliver in her poem ‘Patience’, the principle inspiration for the lead single of Kristin Daelyn‘s forthcoming record, Beyond the Break. ‘Patience Comes to the Bones’ introduces a collection of songs which looks to carve a space of reflection and peace within the tumultuous present, approaching the dissatisfaction and suffering common to us all from a decidedly compassionate angle. Supported by guest appearances from Dan Knishkowy (Adeline Hotel), Danny Black (Good Old War, Gregory Alan Isakov) and Patrick Riley, Daelyn’s soulful vocals and intricate, intimate guitar welcome the audience into the space so that we too might re-examine our lives from new angles and come to appreciate the fellowship to be found in the universality of longing.

JPW & Dad Weed – It’s Happening

This April sees the release of Amassed Like a Rat King, a collaborative album between JPW (Jason P. Woodbury) and Dad Weed (Zachary Toporek) which sees a long held mutual admiration precipitate into a collection of songs neither artist could have created on their own. “These songs were born out of a lot of tender moments and connection, weekends spent indulging in unguarded joy and musical energy,” Woodbury explains. “There was a special thing that seemed to happen between us, which felt distinct from our individual projects — a shared ‘third mind’ situation.” The resulting album covers a vast stretch of stylistic ground, moving through seventies soul-rock and nineties alt-pop with an exploratory intuition, but latest single ‘It’s Happening’ highlights the psych-inflected cosmic folk which underpins everything.

Magana – Half to Death

Magana‘s new EP Bad News is the closing instalment of a loose triptych based upon the seasons of the year. If Teeth represented spring and Dreams autumn, then Bad News occupies the tail end of winter. That period of stillness where life is building up the conviction to spring forth once again. The resulting sound, as highlighted by opener ‘Half to Death’, is a restrained brand of pop which strips away some of the adornment of previous Magana releases in favour of something more direct. Putting the narrative-based lyrics front and centre and amplifying a mood that proves at once warm and starkly emotive.

quickly, quickly – Enything

The recording project of Portland, Oregon’s Graham Jonson, quickly, quickly might have originated as a vehicle for hip hop beatmaking, but soon evolved far beyond such confines. Debut full-length The Long and Short of It offered an endlessly inventive sound which reached for everything from folk and jazz to psych and electronic influences and never once stayed still. Now preparing to release follow-up I Heard That Noise via Ghostly International, quickly, quickly has released new single ‘Enything’, and the evidence suggests the project is still undergoing its perpetual evolution. Upbeat rhythm is matched with a reflective air, the tone wistful, the groove playful, the delivery perhaps as earnest as anything Jonson has offered to date. “I wrote this song from a fictional place of dumb love,” he explains. “There is a place you can find yourself in where you are so infatuated with a person you would do anything to impress them, even to a fault, drastically changing yourself to match the idea of someone you barely know.”

Watch the video below, directed by Graham Jonson and filmed by Anthony Sims with animations by Benny Bursell:

I Heard That Noise is out on the 4th April via Ghostly International and you can pre-order it now.

Robert Ascroft – Devil Opens The Door (feat. Kid Congo Powers)

In recent months. we’ve covered a series of singles from Robert Ascroft‘s forthcoming album Echo Still Remains, each track seeing the Rochester-based musician, producer, director and artist collaborate with different guests to bring his seductively shadowy style to life. After Ruth Radalet (on ‘Faded Photographs’), Zumi Rosow of The Black Lips (‘Empty Pages‘) and Britta Phillips (‘Where Did You Go?‘), now is the turn of Kid Congo Powers. A member of The Cramps, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and The Gun Club as well as a solo artist in his own right, Kid Congo Powers is the ideal match for the album’s tone, imbuing new single ‘Devil Opens The Door’ with all the dangerous allure and dread its title suggests. Watch the video directed by Ascroft himself below:

Echo Still Remains is out the 14th February via Hand Drawn Dracula and you can pre-order it now.

(T-T)b – Hey, Creepshow

Boston’s (T-T)b have carved out a niche combining the hectic energy of Anamanaguchi with indie rock and power pop. 2021 EP Suporma typified how the project manages to push chiptune beyond its assumed limitations, and now the trio are back with Beautiful Extension Cord, a brand new full-length album to be released this April with the good folks at Disposable America. Lead single ‘Hey, Creepshow’ gives a taste of what’s to come. A song packed full of intricate details which nevertheless carries its own momentum and weight, retaining the chiptune sounds of the past but as one element among many rather than the central novelty. What results swings between atmospheric lulls and fond singalong choruses, and comes to form its own cathartic release.

Wryn – Snake

This spring, Californian songwriter Wryn is releasing their new full-length Shapes on Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records. It’s an album born of a personal process of change and self-actualisation which reckons with gender and past experiences in order to mould life into a more truthful, fulfilling shape. Latest single ‘Snake’ gives a glimpse into the release, namely folk-inflected indie rock which uses fury as a kind of fuel to drive a newfound sense of agency. “A call to something older and deeper, it taps into my own personal experiences of not just systemic violence but the intimate and interpersonal kind,” as Wryn explains. “Having experienced assault in my past, this song was a way to transform my own pain into a call to action. ‘I can’t wait for an answer before I get free.’”

The post Weekly Listening: January 2025 #3 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Audio Antihero Records began working with Jeni Magaña back in 2016, having made our initial connection through Submithub (if you can believe that). I was still fairly new in the United States at the time, and working on Golden Tongue, her debut EP, was a pretty nice way to continue getting grounded in a new continent.

Now in 2024, I’m working on another Magana release, and again facing new personal challenges and yet another exhausting relocation. Jeni’s music and the friendship it gave me mean a lot to me, especially in times like this, so it has been kind of comforting to put thoughts and memories together for this feature.

If you’ve heard her music before, are only familiar with her from her work with folk like Mitski and Lady Lamb, or if she’s totally new to you, I hope this will help to offer an okay introduction/recap to her previous solo work, as well as her journey to the spellbinding new Teeth LP.

Get It Right

“…If you could see what is in my mind / You would change before my eyes…”

It seems “right” to start at the beginning. ‘Get It Right’ was her debut single, released ahead of the EP we did together. It was really exciting at the time to see it getting snapped up for coverage by sites like Collapse Board, Gold Flake Paint, For The Rabbits, and The Grey Estates. When you begin working with a new artist, there’s always some anxiety about proving that you aren’t another timewaster, so it’s always really gratifying when you can feel like your contribution is making a difference.

As music press continues to erode for hobbyists and professionals alike, it’s getting harder and harder to find that sense of validation and momentum. We seem to be asking fewer and fewer people for more and more support. I send my endless appreciation to anyone who is still out there doing this stuff, and zero thanks to that traitor at HI54 Blog.

Looking back, I think there might be better songs on the EP, but this felt like such a perfect controlled burst with which to introduce her. It was sorta wild to finally work with someone who knew how to sing, like, holy cow.

Inches Apart

“…Oceans won’t take you…”

Originally released as a part of the Golden Tongue EP, ‘Inches Apart’ would later be re-issued with remixes from Frog and Benjamin Shaw (premiered right here) as a means of promoting the music video that Lauren Finerman directed. My personal favourite, this has gone on to become her best-known song at this point.

Certainly, it didn’t happen all at once or all in one place, but 25k streams here, 15k streams there, a few BBC plays, plus features on The Line of Best Fit, For Folk’s Sake, London in Stereo, it all began to add up. The song aches from beginning to end and I hope you love it too.

Pages

“…Our best friends and enemies are starting to look all the same…”

‘Pages’ was an older, kind of abandoned song that I convinced a sceptical Jeni to let me release as a “tour single” to help promote her shows, and also to keep her music visible online after the EP. It kinda worked too, a few blogs picked it up and we got some BBC airplay for it.

I like the song a lot. It’s got a more traditional “indie rock” sound than much of her other material, which I feel is what a “tour single” should be. Something fun and loud that works out of context and maybe wouldn’t have fit on the record.

A while later, she gave me a cute printed download code she’d made for the single, which prompted Jonathan Smith, her drummer and boyfriend (now drummer and husband), to say “Don’t download that.” I responded that I’d been the one to release the single, and he answered: “I know.” Good talk Jon.

Face in a Locket

“…Just tell your friends you’re leaving soon…”

Although we did a couple of stopgap releases after Golden Tongue, we didn’t necessarily bank on how long that gap was going to be. By the time her debut album, You Are Not A Morning Person was finally ready, I was wiped out and the label was dead (or at least buried alive).

I don’t know if I’ve ever witnessed an album’s development more than I did this one through rough mixes and live performances. It was kind of painful to not release it at the time (musically I’m a jealous ex) but it was also kind of a landmark moment, like, “Oh fuck, I’m finally out.” After years and years of dragging myself through it, I wasn’t “just doing one more album.” I was done! (Narrator: “They weren’t”).

There are lots of great songs on here but ‘Face in a Locket’ is just so my shit. It rumbles with a subtle tension until it all finally pours out. Then it’s over and we’re grooving with ‘Jenny Don’t Leave’. It’s a lovely record.

Though she self-released it originally, it was later picked up for an expanded cassette reissue by Beanie Tapes, which came out absolutely beautiful. I enjoyed seeing her reflect on the album recently.

Fringe

“…I won’t cut my hair for you…”

pen pin are a pop duo compromised of Jeni and Emily Moore. They’ve had four singles so far, and I’m pretty excited about their upcoming album. I listen to the singles on a loop sometimes but ‘Fringe’ is especially irresistible, and the video is a lot of fun too.

I feel like these two are practically musical soulmates, you can hear the chemistry, trust, and closeness in their music. Not a lot of music makes me happy, at least not in the conventional sense, but ‘Fringe’ is an absolute joy.

Oceans

“…Pretty young girls, oceans of sound / It’s so annoying when you’re not around…”

‘Oceans’ was originally written by CHUCK. There’s a version of it on the My Band Is a Computer compilation and then a more loaded electric version on his Frankenstein Songs for the Grocery Store album. 

The distant seed of this idea was planted, I suppose, when Bateman from Frog mentioned offhand that he thought CHUCK could be huge if he wrote songs for people with less polarising voices. A while later, in 2017, I was trying to think of ways to promote CHUCK’s final album and kinda knew we’d have to try going door-to-door with it to get ears on it. We did a lot of interviews and premieres and remixes and b-sides and music videos and so on just to try to reach a few new people.

Asking Jeni if she’d be open to covering ‘Oceans’ (I also suggested the creepier ‘Happy Birthday‘, which is my favourite) was another part of this album campaign. She did such a beautiful job and made it totally her own. The song got some nice reviews and was played on national radio in Austria (shout out to Robert Rotifer at FM4) so I think it did its job.

Unfortunately, I don’t think CHUCK’s songs ever really got their due, but I’m proud of the energy and ideas we put into the album. I’m grateful too that labelmates like Magana and Benjamin Shaw (who remixed ‘Happy Birthday’) were willing to help participate in the campaign and wanted to give CHUCK a nice send-off for his final album. 

Taste Bad

“…Feel good…Honest…Light heart…Savage…”

Speaking of nice send-offs, Magana also contributed a gorgeous cover of Cloud’s ‘Tastes Bad’ to The Desperation Club – A Cloud Tribute Compilation. This was something we put together in 2018 after his final album, Plays with Fire.

Cloud is Tyler Taormina (who now directs Michael Cera in movies) and he’s such an angel that it’s easy to forget that not everyone is already his friend. When Magana and 33 other artists came together to cover his songs for this compilation, it really did feel like everyone was in fact his good pal.

I’d say Teeth is my first “proper” release with Magana since 2016 but these compilations, covers and remixes were a nice way to keep working with her while we both saw our priorities and capacities shift.

I don’t want to say it’s a rare thing to actively enjoy collaborating with someone and to earnestly want to work with them, but it’s certainly a nice thing when it happens. It doesn’t even need to be about chemistry or similarities in personality, it may not even need to be about music, but trust and good faith can go so far when you find them with someone.

I Was Gonna Go to Boston

“…And only two of us survived…” 

Out of context, I’d like to imagine this title is a reference to her recording with Dropkick Murphys in 2007. That would please me. But ‘I Was Gonna Go to Boston’ is instead taken from her To Sleep, To Dream experiment. Here she narrated her own dreams and then set them to music. There are a lot of spiders in that sleepy brain of hers but it’s really neat.

Magana’s music allows her to share things about herself that she might withhold in her day-to-day life. We met through music but developed a friendship in the years that followed, and I love that I can still learn about her through her work, especially as we only managed to live in the same city for a short time.

This strange record is special to me since just like her music allows for suppressed elements of her personality to surface, her dreams naturally push her suppressed memories, ideals, goals, and feelings out into these bizarre narratives. The result of pairing her less-considered words and themes with music allows for one of her releases to document another side of her, one which I truly adore, that part of her which is a total fucking goof.

Magana’s second album, ‘Teeth,’ is out now via Audio Antihero and Colored Pencils. I think it’s her best yet, and I hope you’ll see its specialness too.

The post You Got Shit to Do: a Magana Retrospective By Audio Antihero Records appeared first on Various Small Flames.

With album Mirror, Reflect coming in May via Winspear, Amy O has shared single ‘Dribble Dribble’ by way of introduction. The record charts the experience of new motherhood during the pandemic, where twin forces of uncertainty and isolation ran a deep seam of precariousness through everything. But as ‘Dribble Dribble’ shows, Amy O documents this time with compassion and playful curiosity, the lo-fi pop sound lifting rhyming schemes from the books she read to her daughter to offer a mood at once fun and incisive, and Glenn Myers’s backing vocals further the conversational closeness.

Please don’t let the tide rush in
Held unburdened by the wind
A roomful of familiar
No catastrophes within

Bloomsday – Dollar Slice

The recording project of Brooklyn’s Iris James Garrison, Bloomsday introduced itself back in 2020 with debut Place to Land, an album which charted the fear, loss and joyous freedom inherent within the quest to find one’s true identity. But despite the personal subject matter, collaboration has always been an inherent part of the Bloomsday DNA, and new album Heart of the Artichoke is certainly no exception. Coming this summer on Bayonet Records, the release see Iris joined by Andrew Stevens (Lomelda, Hovvdy), Alex Harwood, Richard Orofino, Maya Bon (Babehoven), Hannah Pruzinsky (h.pruz, Sister.) and Chris Daley, and proves to be not only a celebration of togetherness and community but a testament to the enduring presence of friendship itself. Lead single ‘Dollar Slice’ is a great place to jump in, the cornerstone of the album which hints at the sound’s devotional quality. “I’m not religious,” Garrison says, “But I am into the idea of mystical, higher power—whatever that means – and that power seeing me, and my bullshit, and calling it out. That’s kind of godly to me.”

Cereus Bright – Boys

We introduced Boys, the new EP from Knoxville‘s Cereus Bright, back in February with single ‘Drifting’. “An ode to every tired soul and person without direction,” as we put it, “which offers comfort not through the promise of agency but rather the unforeseen benefits of letting oneself relax into the drift.” With the EP now out via Nettwerk, Cereus Bright has released the opener and title track as a final single. Inspired by stories of a “hard, complicated figure” of a grandfather, the song delves into the tangled world of cause and effect not so much in search of an answer but to instead reveal the layers of complexity which define any given person. As the artist explains: “It’s essential to reckon with the people or institutions that have affected us or hurt us, but some times truly understanding is impossible.” The song comes complete with a video filmed by Follow The Leader which you can watch below:

Boys is out now via Nettwerk and available from Bandcamp.

Fresh – Merch Girl

London punks Fresh have made a name with a heart-on-the-sleeve brand of rock, with tracks like ‘Babyface‘ and ‘Morgan & Joanne‘ typifying the bittersweet celebration of the queer experience offered by LP Raise Hell. Ahead of tours with Teenage Halloween and Los Campesinos!, Fresh are releasing a brand new EP Merch Girl on Specialist Subject Records next month, and have unveiled the title track for an early taste. It’s a song “about living in that space between wanting something and achieving something” as lead Kathryn Woods explains, centring on the titular character as they yearn to break free from the sidelines and make art of their own. “Standing at the back of the room / Wishing I could do what they do,” as Woods sings, “After all, I could play that guitar part better / I could hit those drums much harder / I could sing that song far louder // But I’m just a merch girl.”

I’m tired of living like this
Letting people talk over me for years and years and year and years
Gonna start doing things my way
Gonna write a song with a voice so strong it knocks you sideways

I’m not just a merch girl

Hour – Ease the Work

Though named after an image from a tragic Greek myth, Hour‘s 2018 album Anemone Red had more quotidian concerns. “Hour present the same heartbreak and longing as it occurs today,” we wrote in our review, “repressed and layered behind our day-to-day responsibilities, manifest not in blood-dripped flowers but the slow, sad progression of the world around us.” The project, led by Michael Cormier-O’Leary, returns this spring to build upon this foundation with Ease the Work, a brand new release on Dear Life Records. Challenging any clear distinction between composition and improvisation, the album performs the same small miracle of the previous records, presenting the everyday in all its joy and melancholy, comfort and strangeness. Listen to the title track now:

Jack Name – Cherie’s Eyes

Described as a “homage to the IRL world and its twisted and varied romance with the worlds of our minds,” Fabulous Soundtracks is the fourth album from Los Angeles-based musician Jack Name, out this May on Maple Death Records. Each song on the record is intended as a mini-soundtrack to a specific scene, and Jack Name runs the gamut of genres and stylistic influences in order to create cinematic soundscapes able to elevate these moments into their full surreal potential. Single ‘Cherie’s Eyes’ is the first example of this singular effort, presenting a sound at once odd and strangely intuitive, as though Fabulous Soundtracks functions within the logic and physics of dreams, where everything is off-kilter yet charged with meaning.

 Logan Lynn – To Be Of Use (Smog Cover)

Songwriter, producer, filmmaker, television personality and activist Logan Lynn is releasing new LP SOFTCORE this June on Kill Rock Stars. The album, written in the aftermath of a break-up, serves as a vehicle of rebirth. “A record of my coming alive again, and coming back to myself in the face of pretty extreme betrayal,” as Lynn puts it. “It’s a party album in a way—loud, wild, unhinged and abrasive at times—but it’s also a collection of tender songs about longing and togetherness.” A cover of Smog’s ‘To Be Of Use’ opens the album, a plaintive track which slowly gathers momentum, as though Lynn uses Bill Callahan as a way to shake off the shrouding gloom and turn a new page.

Magana – To My Love

Last month we introduced Magana‘s new album TEETH on Audio Antihero with the single ‘Paul’. “A song where grief is transcribed almost verbatim,” as we put it, “and tenderness, strangeness and plain disbelief can exist simultaneously.” With the album out today to coincide with the Worm Moon’s peak illumination, Magana has released final single ‘To My Love’ to further introduce the witchy rock atmosphere. A strange sound for a strange world, made by an artist determined to use every style available to best communicate their own experience of trying to exist within it.

Pina Palau – We’ve Got No Time At All

“The birds outside my window, they are singing as if the world was still the same.” So opens ‘We’ve Got No Time At All’, the centre point of Get a Dog, the sophomore album by Pina Palau. It’s a song that very directly captures the despair felt by young people across the globe, describing a world of war and mass shootings, heatwaves that “no AC can get us out of.” The Swiss artist put a career in medicine on hold to pursue her musical career, and her creative work is driven by the same fascinations that led her to the path to becoming a psychologist—what label Mouthwatering Records describe as “a desire to understand unvarnished humanity—the motivations, emotions and stories that shape our lives.” Which is why ‘We’ve Got No Time At All’ stands out on an album full of varied emotions. A rare track that stares down a generation’s biggest concerns head-on, blowing out into furious noise in its cathartic climax.

We’re still young they say we have time
But the truth is: we’ve got no time at all

The post Weekly Listening: March 2024 #4 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Teeth sees something of a change of direction for Magana. Having spent the last few years on tour playing bass for the likes of Mitski and Lady Lamb, and collaborating with Emily Moore as part of pop duo pen pin, the LA-based multi-instrumentalist began experimenting with new styles and genres in search of a newly forthright sound capable of charting the full complexities of contemporary life. A product of the conditions in which it was created, where the world revealed the full extent of its bleak and surreal character. “The world started to look strange to me, as if I was an alien plopped down in the middle of Los Angeles but with all these human feelings,” Magaña says. “I wanted this album to reflect that not only in the lyrics but in the soundscapes as well. I wanted it to sound like earth and space at the same time, so I arranged acoustic guitars, strings, and winds to weave in and out of synth lines and electric guitar solos.”

Paul, where did you go
When it was driving you insane
And I remember where I was when they first told me
You took those pills to kill your pain
Paul where did you go
With fentanyl in your cocaine
And I remember where I was when you first told me
I’m gonna marry you someday
I’m gonna marry you someday

The post Magana – Paul appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Nosferatu D2 – ‘It’s Christmas Time (For God’s Sake)’

It makes sense to start at the beginning, doesn’t it? This song comes from Nosferatu D2’s posthumous debut final album: We’re Gonna Walk Around This City With Our Headphones On To Block Out The Noise. Audio Antihero started in 2009 to release this album since no one else was going to and I wanted it on CD. Thanks to Gareth Campesinos! and lots of other folk, the album ended up doing really well–and for a long-time it was what this label would be known for. 

Honestly, I’ve been telling that same story for fourteen years. If anyone has been paying attention I’m sure they’re bored to tears hearing it again. I don’t get tired of Nosferatu D2 though, which is key because it can otherwise feel a bit sad to still be shilling ancient back-catalogue.

That was the point of this belated release though, I wanted people to hear it and I knew that I always would. As a label, it does feel great to have something new to share but I can’t imagine releasing an album that I didn’t least hope would still be worth talking about fourteen years later.

Like everything Nosferatu D2 did, the recording sounds like it’s held together by tape, and it rattles with the beat–but it might be my favourite ever Christmas song, certainly it’s the one I most relate to. In 2014, Spencer Madsen published ‘You Can Make Anything Sad’, and that title might best describe Nosferatu D2 and my connection to their work.

I often tell people that I “hate Christmas,” but what I truly hate is that I just can’t love Christmas. It’s no-showing the office party each year, it’s looking at the “Pound Shop Santa in a plastic sleigh” and feeling nothing, and it’s sitting down for Only Fools & Horses without comfort or contentment. I’d skip the whole thing if I could, and a few times I have.

It’s funny because Nosferatu D2 really did so well. As a dead band on a first timer one-person DIY label, the album kinda overachieved and found an audience, but that CD-buying fanbase never quite translated to Spotify, which in part is my fault for being a late adapter but is probably also common for inactive independent releases. In recent years however, Nosferatu D2 have been getting a bit of a boost on Spotify at this time of year. This particular song has amassed a modestly respectable 37,000+ streams thanks to playlists like ‘christmas cries‘, ‘Christmas Music for Pretentious People‘, ‘loser christmas playlist‘, and bless them: ‘It’s Christmas time for God’s sake‘. 

Between Nosferatu D2, The Superman Revenge Squad Band, and Tempertwig (featured by Various Small Flames here), I’ve worked on a few albums from the Parker brothers. I don’t think that myself or either Parker had particularly aimed for their lasting legacy to be having a very nominal Christmas hit but as their song ‘A Footnote‘ illustrates: you’re lucky to be a part of all this any way that you can be. If you put enough time into it all then you’ll learn that there’s far worse things to be known for in music than having a song people like listening to.

If people should ever want to explore songs like ‘Springsteen’, ‘Broken Tamagotchi’, ‘The Kids From ‘Fame’, ‘The Mojo Top 100’ or ‘Colonel Parker, they’ll all still be there.

Frog – Wish Upon a Bar

If Nosferatu D2 is what Audio Antihero was “known for” (relatively speaking) in its earlier years, then Frog (interviewed by Various Small Flames here) is what Audio Antihero is best known for now (still speaking relatively). ‘Wish Upon a Bar‘ is taken from their Kind of Blah album, which was the first of five that we’ve now worked on together. 

This 2015 album is certainly one of the favourites, though they’ve become so eclectic, and seen such an increase in their audience since that I don’t think there’s any clear favourite. Count Bateman has a lot of fans now and, from within my hyperfixation bubble, November’s GROG album is feeling like a phenomenon right now.

‘Wish Upon a Bar’ is highlight of an album filled with highlights (‘Judy Garland’, ‘All Dogs Go to Heaven’, ‘Catchyalater‘, ‘Photograph’, ‘Irish Goodbye’, ‘(Kind of Blah)’) and I think it has that special quality where it’s a song set over Christmas without being a song about Christmas. 

Don’t tell me where you are
don’t send me holiday cards
I’ma drop dead drunk on the FDR
I wish upon a bar

It’s almost Christmas time
the bartender’s cutting limes
and he asks you about your kids
you respectfully decline

The pain that Bateman describes in ‘Wish Upon a Bar’ existed in November and it’ll exist in January too. If anything, Christmas exists in ‘Wish Upon a Bar’ as a threat–it’s the looming presence of what feels like state-mandated closeness, and the pressure of expectation to feel what you maybe don’t and to be who you maybe aren’t.

To make a Cinematic comparison, 1974’s Black Christmas (considered by many to be the first North American-made slasher) is a brilliant horror film set over the holidays. The season informs the mise-en-scene and influences the circumstances of the plot, but what makes that film so haunting is the sheer randomness of the violence. This could have happened in any home at any time, but it happened here and now. Compared to a film like Silent Night, Deadly Night which relies on the novelty of a psycho-Santa killer, it’s clear how special Black Christmas is–and while it is a brilliant film to gather the children together for on Christmas morning, it shouldn’t be isolated in novelty sub-genre. If you’re not a horror fan, then think Die Hard vs. Jingle All the Way.

Just as there’s plenty of tedious Festive horror films, there’s a lot of shite Christmas songs too–and “Alternative” Christmas songs are no different. Punk covers of ‘Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer’ with bonus-swears are just not for me. ‘Wish Upon a Bar’ and Black Christmas are works that can be appreciated all year round–but they do gain some unsettling powers as the weather gets colder.

Slotted onto Kind of Blah at track three, the Christmas A Go Go! blog called it a “hidden Christmas track,” and I liked that.

Papernut Cambridge – ‘93 Million and One’

People tend to know Ian Button from his work in Death in Vegas, which is funny because I knew Death in Vegas for their work with Ian Button. Ian drummed for Audio Antihero alumni Paul Hawkins & The Awkward Silences, but there’s no way to express his contribution to the group. As a producer, he helped to channel Hawkins’ raw talent and creativity into a blistering debut record for Jezus Factory Records. On stage, Ian helped to contain much of the chaos and was the foundation for increasingly ambitious arrangements.

He had been quietly releasing his own songs for a while but when Ian’s new Papernut Cambridge monicker debuted with ‘93 Million and One’ in the Darren Hayman & Fika Recordings 2011 advent calendar, I was pretty blown away.

From here, Papernut Cambridge became a fully-fledged project, and with the subsequent founding of Gare Du Nord Records, he seemed to really find the freedom to be as prolific and experimental as he truly wanted to be.

There’s lots of great Papernut Cambridge songs, clever, touching, funny, and eclectic, but this little Christmas surprise is the one I always come back to. Whether it’s leading the charge or as a helping hand for the works of others, Ian is a real gift to music and a joy to know.

Benjamin Shaw & Fighting Kites – ‘This Christmas (I Just Want to be Left Alone)’

This was Audio Antihero’s only halfway earnest attempt at a Christmas single. Fighting Kites (featured by Various Small Flames here) were a brilliant band, instrumental and experimental without being pretentious. Their songs were danceable, melodic, beautiful, and fun. I have many joyful memories from their shows.

Conversely, Benjamin Shaw (reviewed by Various Small Flames here), who has since been reborn in Australia as a progressive house DJ called Megadead, was a relentlessly pretentious singer-songwriter with a daft tiny guitar. You were not dancing at this gloomy gut’s shows, and had you even tried, he’d probably have mumbled something rude into the microphone.

Though very different, these friends and labelmates collaborated on a Christmas charity single for Shelter. In a similar vein as ‘It’s Christmas Time (For God’s Sake)’ (which Benjamin Shaw also has a version of), it’s a grudging shrug into the happiest time of the year. The song explores the gnawing feeling of knowing that the one thing you want for Christmas (a day off work without pressure and performance) would be a heartbreaking insult to all around you for reasons you’ll never understand.

It’s not really a representative introduction for either artist but there’s clear chemistry here, which it would have been great to see expanded on with more recordings. I have a great memory of seeing them performing this together live and it was great to see Ben stop moping about in his box room and have a bit of fun with his friends for a change.

Fun fact: Benjamin Shaw did briefly have a regular backing band and they sounded incredible together. When I asked him to record a session of his solo songs with this expanded line-up he said “I’m not Tom Jones, Jamie!” and refused. Too bloody right you aren’t, Ben.

pen pin – ‘Office Party’

If you’ve followed Audio Antihero or Various Small Flames, you might already know the great Jeni Magana who comprises half of the pen pin duo with Emily Moore. ‘Office Party’ is their second single, a delightful song about seeking love at the office Christmas party.

By touching on the absurdity of “celebrating” within your workplace, and seeking a romance with your colleagues (the smallest fish in the smallest pond), it casually offers a terrifying message about capitalism without dropping its gorgeous sheen of 60s pop naivete. Naturally, I prefer their Halloween song but this is stil a really good one.

If there’s a positive to the season, it’s the reminders it offers you of the friends and loved ones you don’t get to see very often. Love you, Jeni, miss you, mama. Glad you’re doing well. Jeni’s solo work is all over Various Small Flames, so when four pen pin singles just isn’t enough for you, there’s still plenty more to dig into within the VSF vault.

Frog – ‘Space Jam’

It would be daft to go on about Frog’s seasonless (but not unseasoned) seasonal offerings after discussing ‘Wish Upon a Bar’ at length–but ‘Space Jam’ from their debut (reviewed by Various Small Flames here), offers something similar:

Thursdays I met you ‘neath the Garibaldi statue
And I held my breath as you came over,
Looking like the best of Auld Lang Syne
Lip-synced Sinatra blarin’ out an idling mack truck…

There’s a bar outside my window and they’re playing My Sharona.
It’s Christmas time, I think so, and the air feels just like home…

Danny Bateman writes songs that understand that Christmas isn’t one unshiftable block of good cheer. We get scraps of time off work where we’re required to be the jolliest versions of ourselves like you can just flip a switch. All the while, loss, regret, grief, illness, exhaustion, anxiety, insecurity, and desire persist. “‘cus it hurts” indeed.

This year is as good an example as any. I’ve bought mince pies and Christmas crackers to amuse my American in-laws, the TV and radio will get shitter and shitter, decorations will go up, and thoughtful gifts will be exchanged. But nothing has stopped. The UK and US governments are supporting Israel in committing a white supremacist genocide against Palestinians this December. If God allows it, Christmas doesn’t stop it.

Broken Shoulder – ‘Stille Nacht’

Broken Shoulder (featured by Various Small Flames here) is former Fighting Kites guitarist Neil Debnam, he began working on solo material due to the physical limitations he experienced when he, as you might have guessed, broke his shoulder. I was already a big Fighting Kites fan and was lucky to release his debut solo album, Broken Shoulderrr, which was all gorgeous sprawling soundscapes, looping guitars, drones, fuzz and lovely lovely NOISE. 

It was a bit of a departure for Audio Antihero but I did a few records with him, and hopefully I didn’t do too bad a job. Sensing my limited understanding of the genre, he joked gently once about how he’d need to prepare “a riffy song for Jamie” when I asked him to contribute to one of our compilations. My mum always called his music “strangely beautiful,” which is a happy memory I have of her now.

There’s a slightly more festive ‘Stiller Nacht‘ version which I also love, but the original is perfect as it is. The composition is performed primarily with a khene, a mouth organ and Laos’ national instrument. It produces the most beautiful sound.

Though themed on a silent night, this composition gives me images of daybreak–but one reserved for cinema, a sunrise intended to express both the power of nature and the terror of pollution. My eyes burn when I hear it.

Whether Broken Shoulder offers a silent night or the dawning of a new day is pretty irrelevant. For me, he offers exactly what I spend most of Christmas day pining for: a few wordless, solitary minutes, ushering in the end of Christmas day or the beginning of a new day. However bittersweet both might be.

In my quasi-annual Christmas shilling of back-catalogue, this eight-and-a-half-minute instrumental never quite makes it on the radio–but I optimistically continue to include it. I don’t know how you do this sort of thing but part of me will always believe that it’s destined for the big screen. Love you, Neil, miss you, king. I hope you’re doing well, mate.

I’ve put all the above songs together here. Frog’s “GROG” LP is out now via Audio Antihero. It’s good to be back, lads.

The post I Just Can’t Love Christmas: A Holiday Mix by Audio Antihero’s Jamie Halliday appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Based in LA, Aaron Weits is a self-described “musical explorer”. He uses guitars, computers, and modular synthesizers to craft an earnest, uncluttered style of pop music which explores themes of grief, joy and spiritual development. Latest single ‘Rapid Eye Movement’ is the ideal entry point for those unfamiliar with his work, the clarity of the sound not only reflecting on the loss of his mother as a child but making a space for her to persist alongside him within the present. “The lyrics embody a Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven moment for me,” as Weits explains, “what I might say to her if I could get a message to heaven.”

Abby Johnson – Wonder Why

Nashville-based songwriter Abby Johnson is also known for her film and photography work, and an attention to concision and detail carries through to her music. With a self-titled album coming this September via Earth Libraries, Johnson has shared ‘Wonder Why’, a track which encapsulates her ability to weave narratives with single snapshots. “Sometimes I pretend that I’m your moon / But still the daylight beats me to you,” go the opening lines, carrying the full weight of an emotional history. “I wonder why / I even try.” With band Ornament in tow, the record is full of such poetic clarity, positioning Johnson as a contemporary continuation of a seventies style birthed by the likes of Linda Ronstadt.

Field of Fear – Cold

The recording project of Oakland-based artist Drew Zercoe, Field of Fear is both a meditation on and escape mechanism from chronic depression, looking to chart the depths of the experience with a combination of ambient, industrial, metal and noise sensibilities. With a new album coming soon via Whited Sepulchre Records, Zercoe has released ‘Cold’, a new single which is every bit as evocative as this suggests. A song which is perhaps not as harsh or outright frightening as some of the previous Field of Fear releases, but instead offers a patient atmosphere, as though descending into the depths of gloom with a willingness to sit within it for however long it takes.

Magana – Afraid of Everybody

We first covered LA-based songwriter Jeni Magana, AKA straight Magana, back in 2016 with the Golden Tongue EP, praising the charged pop sound and its ability to evoke the nuances of relationships with yourself and others. A number of releases have built upon the sound, not least 2020 full-length you are not a morning person, and Magana’s latest single ‘Afraid of Everybody’ uses a careful hand and lush synths to weave one of her most searching songs to date. A subdued sound which rises intermittently to capture an introspective topography, coming to capture both vulnerability and strength as Magana shares her innermost fears. Or, as she herself puts it: “Sometimes you just don’t want to go to the party.”

Nora Kelly Band – Horse Girl

Recent singles ‘Roswell‘ and ‘Lay Down Girl‘ introduced the spirit of Rodeo Clown, Nora Kelly Band‘s forthcoming LP on Mint Records. An album which sees lead Nora Kelly ditching the grunge of previous project DIPSHIT in favour of an alt-country aesthetic. Described as a possible theme song for the band, latest track ‘Horse Girl’ is something of an origin tale for this transformation, with Kelly facing up to the difficulties of being a horse girl in stuck in a city with all of the heart and playfulness we’ve come to expect from her work, and ultimately choosing to own the persona. “I’m no ‘Okie from Muskogee’ or ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’, as she puts it, “but I’m not the first city slicker to love playing ‘cowboy’ either.”

I always tip my waiter but I’ve never tipped a cow
I can rob a Dollarama
Never worked a plough
I like Hank Williams
And I like Townes
I could ride the range
But I don’t know how

Check out the video by director/editor Sasha Khalimonova and cinematographer Evangelos James below

Rodeo Clown is out on the 25th August via Mint Records and you can pre-order it now.

Patio – Sixpence

Back in June, we featured the single ‘En Plein Air’ by Patio, the post-punk band’s first new music since 2019. Details were scant at the time, but the Queens trio—Loren DiBlasi (bass, vocals), Lindsey-Paige “LP” McCloy (guitar, vocals) and Alice Suh (drums)—have since announced their long-awaited sophomore record, Collection, which comes out in September via Fire Talk Records. To celebrate, they have released a second single, ‘Sixpence’. “[The song] was conceived within an early seventies daydream of decadence, glamour, and self-indulgence,” the band explain. “It’s about false identities—how money helps us create illusions that affect how others perceive us, and how we perceive ourselves. Inspired by Roxy Music, David Bowie, and the lethargic boredom that remains when ambition is thwarted by apathy.” Watch the video directed by Ambar Navarro below:

Collection will be released on the 22nd September via Fire Talk Records. Pre-order it now on all sort of formats via the Patio Bandcamp page.

Sargasso – Balancing Act

With their second album, Further Away, coming out later this month on Dead Definition Records, New York indie pop band Sargasso have released a new single titled ‘Balancing Act’. What the band describe as a song about “traveling young and making plans, achieving confidence in spite of uncertainty,” it’s acoustic guitar and gentle vocals build an atmosphere that combines quiet melancholy with a sense of hope and boundless possibility. All this comes together with a raw energy and sense of immediacy. As the band put it: “It sounds more like our band in a room in real life than almost all our other songs do.”

Life is short so go wherever you please
Life is hard so hold your love tightly
It’s a balancing act
When to go, when to come back

Taylah Carroll – Monogamy

Naarm/Melbourne-based songwriter Taylah Carroll is preparing to release her latest EP The After Party in the coming weeks, and latest single ‘Monogamy’ offers an indication of what to expect. A soulful, languid track which nevertheless possesses a building tautness through its heart, a tension which ratchets up as the song progresses to reveal the wounded anger beneath the polished sound. “I’ve been blaming the whole thing on myself,” Carroll sings in the opening verse, “But I know you ain’t no good for my health,” and the rest plays as an extended version of this realisation, hurt crystallising into something sharp-edged and brilliant.

Weave me a tale so I’ll stomach your pride,
Say a limp in your gate need not break your stride,
I learned it all fast, the guise of my past,
Selflessness is not self-sacrifice,
And feeling bad is not trying hard

Watch the video directed by Nick Mckk and Carroll herself below:

‘Monogamy’ is out now and available via the Taylah Carroll Bandcamp page.

the world famous – Hollywood Pawn

“It’s nice enough beneath the palm trees, it’s where I go to make ends meet.” So opens ‘Hollywood Pawn’, the new single by power pop band the world famous. It’s a line that captures something about the LA five-piece, mostly transplants from the East Coast—a kind of love-hate relationship with their new home. The track, lead single from the band’s forthcoming debut full-length totally famous, is based around the lead Will Harris’s experience of pawning and then buying back his guitar. It treats the Californian metropolis with a mixture of derision and delight, both ridiculing its oddities and excesses and riding the crest of its sunny, palm-lined feel-good factor.

totally famous will be released via Lauren Records on the 13th October and you can pre-order it now.

The post Weekly Listening: August 2023 #1 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Here is a list of songs from 2020 that we liked but didn’t get around to writing about.

If you find something you like, follow the link in the embed to support the artists and labels on Bandcamp. And of course, there is a whole year’s worth of pieces on releases we did manage to write about, so have an explore through our reviews, previews and interviews from 2020.

The post Music We Missed in 2020 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

There’s a haunting starkness to the song, though one leavened by the slinking clarinet, dark tones given a playful, dancing edge. Rafiq’s vocals drift across the track too, delivered direct and unadorned before raising in moments of mewled energy, recalling elements of the rustic strangeness of Will Oldham or Bill Callahan. The result is like the river of the title, shadowed and snaking as it winds through the backwoods of you mind, all the while refusing to reveal what it keeps hidden in its depths.

Art by Anja Schütz

The post Rabib Rafiq – Cold River appeared first on Various Small Flames.