With the release of Internal Drone Infinity now just a day away, Living Hour have returned with new single ‘Best I Did It’. A song, like The Weakerthans’ ‘One Great City!’ before it, which uses the dismal skies and cityscape of Winnipeg as a kind of mirror, evoking a personal lethargy and lack of colour. “Preparedness for transformation / Performance posthumous display / Of some grizzly bits of pigeon on the side of the highway,” Sarty sings in the opening lines. “Everything’s bright gray / Can’t tell if it’s real, or just in the way.” But for all of its sombre gloom, the track refuses to settle within the leaden environment, each chorus like an upward grasp towards something brighter in the hope of piercing the clouds. “I imagine myself ten years from now looking back at this song and thinking of all the ways I’ve tried to heal myself,” Sarty explains, “and saying I did the best I could. I’m doing the best I can.”

But I’m like the road bird
Head curled in, dead, from all it’s thinking

But it’s the best I did it

Watch the video made by Ryan Steel below:

Internal Drone Infinity releases today via Keeled Scales, Paper Bag Records (Canada) and Beloved Records (Australia). Order a copy now from the Living Hour Bandcamp page.

The post Living Hour – Best I Did It appeared first on Various Small Flames.

The recording project of Boston‘s Doug Poppe, An Triangles works within a variety of styles to achieve its distinctively idiosyncratic sound. Think the emotion of Mount Eerie, the lo-fi energy of Pavement and Daniel Johnston-esque eccentricity. Ahead of debut album Triangular Life, Poppe has unveiled new single ‘Mother on You’. A slice of classic bummed-out bedroom pop which offers a glimpse into the inner child which drives the record’s curiosity and vulnerability. “And I know you got my bag / It’s got everything I have,” Poppe sings. “And I know you got my dues / It’s got everything I lose // I’ll call my mother on you.”

Blush Club – Ornamental Ponds

After the success of 2021 EP A Hill To Die On, Glasgow five-piece Blush Club are set to return later this year with a brand new EP, Ornamental Ponds. Ahead of the release, the band have unveiled the title track. It’s a song which adds a newfound catchiness to their hybrid pop/post-punk style, so while the leftfield jaunt and characteristically sardonic tone are still present, some of the frantic verbosity of the previous release is swapped for a slower, more confident flow. Which means we can now sing along with the cutting commentary on our rubbish-filled Anthropocene, pining for the sweet ignorance of the nineties.

Jacob Brodovsky – Night Baker

Winnipeg-based songwriter Jacob Brodovsky has shared brand new single, ‘Night Baker’, a character study of a figure facing long-hour loneliness amid the unseen ecosystem of a city at night. “The night baker leaves the lights on in the basement even though he never goes down there,” opens the song by way of introduction. “The night baker once a Christian now a Quaker leaves his shoes on when he walks down stairs.” Channelling the sincerity and wry humour of fellow Manitoban John K. Samson, Brodovsky presents the scene with equal parts playfulness and emotional resonance, our titular baker mocked by the sourdoughs and begged by the bagels as he pines after his lost love, the gluten-free flour asking if he is okay.

‘Night Baker’ is out now and available via various streaming services.

The Other Each Other – Heads

Apparently Joel Finch, frontman of Seattle punk rock outfit The Other Each Other, is not a real person. Their website has few details. There are no tour dates, no merch, no jazzy social media pages. Just a list of previous releases and the date of a forthcoming album, Mirror Memorials, coming later this summer. Single ‘Heads’ is the first taste of this new album, a conflicted track which struggles with the pandemic-era confinement while also appreciating the luxury of having a place to be stuck inside. Indeed the track has a twin, ‘Tails’, one of several count/counterpoint pairs on the record intended to more fully explore the nuances of living. “The truth is probably not just one perspective,” as Finch puts it, “but multiple.”

Mirror Memorials is out on the 19th August and you can find more info on their website.

Poolblood – twinkie

After releasing the EP Yummy back in 2019, Toronto-based artist Poolblood had only shared one single, ‘I’m Sorry’, a collaboration with Louie Short and Eliza Niemi. But signing to Next Door Records, this summer saw the first taste of a new phase of the Poolblood project with the single, ‘twinkie’. A rich and nostalgic sound lifting searching vocals, capturing a blend of fondness and uncertainty for the bittersweet summer croon we’re all craving. Check out the video directed and shot by Emma Cosgrove below:

‘twinkie’ is out now and available via the Poolblood Bandcamp page.

Pound Land – Bunker

Formed by lyricist Adam Stone (Future Bomb/Holy Ghost People) and multi-instrumentalist Nick Harris (Reverends of Destruction/ex-Dead Sea Apes), Pound Land is a self-described ‘kitchen-sink punk’ project based in Manchester. Their self-titled debut came out in 2020 on Misophonia Records, though Cruel Nature Recordings has recently put on Pound Land Plus, a repackaged version with extra material. Playing like The Fall meets Threads, new track ‘Bunker’ is as good an introduction to their pitch black style, a nine-minute noise punk behemoth ranting about dooms both future and present.

Thomas Stajcer – Building A Home (Yip Walla Wahoo)

Written on the back of a John Deere mower in Seaforth, NS, ‘Building a Home (Yip Walla Wahoo)’ is not the usual slice of American melancholy or heartbreak you might expect from a good old fashioned folk song. The latest release from Thomas Stajcer, the track instead celebrates life’s blessings, however big or small they might be, with the playful energy of John Prine or more recent compatriots like Doug Poole. The result is a lesson in looking forward in a genre that’s often all too ready to look back.

Tunnel – Lemonhead

The project of LA‘s Natasha Janfaza, Tunnel are readying the release of their debut EP, Vanilla on Washington DC label House of Joy. The record sees Janfaza joined by D Saperstein, Owen Wuerker and Fugazi drummer Brendan Cant, who come together to craft a sound that owes as much to 90s rock and alt pop as it does to contemporary acts like Snail Mail. ‘Lemonhead’ is the EP’s lead single, what the band describe as a “soft and cruel” song which introduces both the Tunnel sonic sensibility and their general sense of apathetic cool. Janfaza delivers her vocals with a sardonic edge (“Tell me the truth,” she sings in the opening line, “I’ll think you’re lying”), which transforms a tale of frustrated romance into something that feels fresh and raw.

Love is fine
Love is boring

The post Weekly Listening: July 2022 #1 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Following on from the success of the album, this month sees Zoon return with a brand new EP, Big Pharma, again on Paper Bag Records. As the title suggests, the release continues to explore the enduring face of colonialism via the power and violence of the pharmaceutical industry. “I talk about how they destroyed my community of Selkirk, Manitoba and many more small towns and cities,” Monkman explains. “A whole generation completely changed in just a matter of five years. Families torn apart and loved ones lost to addiction and overdoses.” The medical insurance schemes available via treaty cards often only offer the most addictive medication, fuelling an epidemic of opioid addiction within communities already ravaged by genocide.

The release sees Monkman collaborate with an array of talent, with each of the five tracks welcoming artists like Cadence Weapon, Michael Peter Olsen, Sunnsetter and Jasmine Trails. Lead single ‘Astum’ sees Leanne Betasamosake Simpson join to explore themes of addiction more directly. The experience of being caught within the immediate grip of the phenomenon, where the will to change is smothered by a cycle of suffering, survival instincts kicking in as the need to anesthetise the pain returns. “While in active addiction, it’s extremely difficult to function in the known society and it leaves you feeling even more lost,” Monkman explains. “You’re longing for a great relationship but know it could never happen because you’re constantly trying to numb out past traumas.”

The song also sees Zoon explore survival in another form. “‘Astum’ was the first Cree word that my late father, Glen Olsen, taught me as a child,” Monkman explains. “It means ‘hurry up’ or ‘quickly’. He would walk in front of me and at the door say ‘Astum, Daniel! Astum!'” The idea of upholding language via music is something important to the Zoon project, allowing Monkman to contribute to something he was prevented from doing while growing up. “Passing down language was something that I prayed for as a kid,” he continues. “I remember wanting to attend the reservation school to learn but our Ojibway teacher disappeared one month earlier and never came back.”

And you, wanted your freedom
We’ll see, mourning, you’ll be crying
We’ll seek, somebody else, love
We’ll be, somebody else now

Watching as we speak into
the ocean
Holding back our years in the mourning

Check out the video directed by boy wonder with production Co. RAINBOW LAND below:

Big Pharma is out via Paper Bag Records on the 21st June and you can pre-order it from the Zoon Bandcamp page.

Photos by Vanessa Heins

The post Zoon – Astum appeared first on Various Small Flames.