Jeremy was kind enough to answer some questions about the new record, and offers some great insights into the motivations, inspirations and ambitions behind his music.

Hi Jeremy, good to speak to you again. How is life now that your latest album, Collapse, has been out in the world for a few months?

Hey, good to speak to you too! Things have been going pretty great. I got married about two weeks before the album came out and life has been beautiful. I’ve been spending time this Summer with my new wife and my kids, playing a few one off shows and I have been writing a new album.

The album is obviously deeply personal, with lots of it’s themes rooted in your own experiences. Is it a cathartic experience writing these songs? And how does it feel baring all of these real emotions to the world in your art?

Yes, it is very therapeutic at times (while writing them). However, once I’m completely finished with the songs often times they take on a new meaning and it is a relief to be done with it. Even though my songs are written from my personal experiences I write in a way that the listener can paint their own picture of what the songs are about and relate to it either directly or to what they portray in their mind that relates to their own experiences.

Kind of linked to the previous question – do you ever stop and consider the impact the songs will have on the listeners? Do you ever stop and consider the dual healing effects of art, how the sharing of your own struggle and pain might help ease that of others?

Yes, I definitely do. Although, when I’m writing the songs I’m really just in a certain state of mind at that particular moment. I am just feeling it out and telling a story. I like to be brutally honest but draw a narrative that sounds good. That being said with art in general everybody sees, hears and feels something different. I hope that by sharing my personal experiences and by attempting to make something beautiful out of it that people can find peace in their own struggles.

On a (final) related note, much of the album deals with troubles arising from addiction. Would you feel comfortable in offering any words of advice or consolation to anyone who might be going through (or watching a loved one go through) similar issues?

From my own personal experience. I would say you have to help yourself. Don’t enable the person who is an addict. They have two choices: To seek help or let the addiction win. You are not responsible or at fault for the choices that they make. I say this with the deepest compassion and respect.

While perhaps not one of the primary themes, religion is a thread that runs through the album, especially on tracks such as ‘Remnants’. I guess this isn’t an easy question to answer, but what’s your relationship to all that stuff, and how does it impact upon your music?

This is a great question. I very often use religious undertones and metaphor throughout all of my albums. I was raised by my Grandmother who is a devout Christian. (Crosses on the walls, religious artwork, etc… I try to paint a vivid picture of where I was raised and the home where she still lives in some of my songs) She is one of the strongest, most hard working and kindhearted people that I’ve ever known. I have gone back and forth throughout my life with what I believe to be true. However, I am a very spiritual person and even though I don’t follow the tradition and beliefs of Christianity I find the stories and iconography very interesting and compelling. It plays a huge role in my music and writing because it is one of the important things that inspire me.

There are several great guest musicians on the album, such as Heather McEntire of Mount Moriah and Shane Leonard of Field Report / Kalispell, How have you made this network of collaborators, and what effect do they have on your creative process?

I am a huge fan of Mount Moriah, Field Report and Kalispell. Mount Moriah live here in North Carolina as well. I’ve been a fan of Heather’s work for years. I reached out to Heather because I thought she would add something special/different to the songs. I was so happy that she sang on this album. I’ve known Shane Leonard for a while and he has worked with me before on the album When Will You Go… (2013) I asked him to play on a few songs on Collapse and I was very pleased. I also asked my friend Sean Husick to play drums and bass on the first track titled ’58’. I meticulously choose who I want to be a part of my records. Heather, Shane and Sean each brought something unique to the songs and it helped to shape them into something special . A perfect example is how Shane played on the songs ‘Fall on Me’ and on ‘Gemini’ it helped to make the album sound more sparsely layered, atmospheric and come together as a whole.

What are your plans now that Collapse has been out in the world for a while? Are you writing (or at least thinking about) new music? Does it take a while to get over creating something like this?

I am currently planning a southeast tour this Fall. I have been working on a new album and writing new songs. I am always writing in some way and I always have a song or idea in my head.

And finally, our usual closing question. Could you name a few bands/artists you’ve been listening to lately?

Lately I’ve been listening to Angel Olsen, Heather Woods Broderick, Beach Slang, William Tyler, Eric Bachmann, Phil Cook and Kurt Vile to name a few.

Be sure to read our full review of Collapse, and check out the Jeremy Squires tag for reviews of previous releases and an older interview. And of course, head to the Jeremy Squires Bandcamp page to buy all his music.

The post Interview: Jeremy Squires, Part II appeared first on Various Small Flames.

The album opens with ‘58’, a slight departure from Squires’s previous work in as much as it’s more of a full band effort, drums and bass adding depth to his usual lonely acoustic sound. A touching reference to his late mother, the track takes an interesting post-Christian approach to death, the words addressing the lost loved one directly, while also admitting, “I know you cannot hear me now / when you are is far away at the speed of sound / and I’m always reminded that everything is on its way to another place”. The song explores that middle ground between no longer believing our forefathers’ versions of faith and spirituality, and not being quite ready to give up on a world beyond our own.

More akin to the songs on Shadows, ‘Water Signs’ is a heartfelt slo-mo country track that introduces another of the album’s main themes―an ill-fated and mutually destructive relationship governed by struggles with addiction. If ‘Water Signs’ is all desperate declarations of love and final curtain calls, ‘Fall On Me’ exists in a hushed and anxious aftermath, Squires joined by Field Report’s Shane Leonard on drums, bass and synth.

“There’s an eerie glow
when the TV casts a light through the haunted house
When I lie awake at night and I think about too many things
I wish I could call you when my mind is stirring”

Many of these songs are at least partially autobiographical, and this authenticity is the standout quality of Squires’s songwriting, every line able to ring true with a kind of resigned and wistful acceptance. It’s the sound of a man who has lived through a lot, and who may still not have all the answers but is at least getting better at anticipating the questions.

‘Night Cars’ is a standout track, a beautifully ruminative folk song where the guitar gathering in intensity as Heather McEntire (of Mount Moriah) joins vocal duties. The track deals with what Squires describes as the “trial and tribulation in this worn-out heart,” a frustrated weariness in watching a loved one succumb again and again. ‘Remnants’ is enclosed with claustrophobic religious imagery (“Children play where you lay / near a permanent stain / on the wall hangs a cross / that don’t keep all your demons away”), while ‘Where the Devil Sings’ is sour with poison, a madness-induced by living with addiction and trying to support its victim. ‘Leave-Taking’ sees the relationship finally end (“Well I knew you’d leave right from the start / but when it comes around it still breaks your heart”), before the closing track, ‘Secrets I Can Keep’, sees out the record. The song is infused with a wistful sense of acceptance, built entirely from gentle guitar, slowly winding pedal steel and Squires’s vocals.

“I don’t wanna let you go
and i don’t wanna watch you stumble
I don’t wanna talk about it anymore
all their wasted time
waiting for tomorrow”

Collapse is perhaps most remarkable for its final message. It’s one thing to make an album suffused with genuine emotion, tales of heartbreak and suffering, but another thing entirely to see it through to the light at the end of the tunnel, the idea that things can and will get better if you can hold tight and keep on going. So while, as the first song hints, contemporary country/folk songs might not be as sold on the idea of God as those of the past, Collapse is Jeremy Squires showing us there are religious experiences to be found everywhere. Be this through God or not, in times of struggle or in quiet, everyday, small-town existence. Society may be changing but ideas of love, forgiveness, and ultimately redemption are not unobtainable. As Squires wrote in an email about the album, “This album is about overcoming in general, coping with loss, persevering and becoming whole again.” It’s this sense of hope that sets him apart from many of his peers. It’s (relatively) easy to write sad songs for listeners to wallow in, but in offering the possibility of change and recovery, Collapse feels not just unusual but important.

You can order it now on CD and digital download from the Jeremy Squires Bandcamp page.

The post Jeremy Squires – Collapse appeared first on Various Small Flames.

And the usual disclaimer applies, there were too many great tunes to include them all, so treat this more as a selection rather than a comprehensive round-up of the year. Enjoy.

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson – Constellation

“You’re used to quiet words
and so am I
so I’ll just whisper“

Tiny Ruins – Dream Wave

“always a dream wave drawing you off track
dream wave, a coast calls you back“

Magana – Get it Right

“You were red but my gold turned you green
So you stood there lying through your teeth“

deer scout – holy ghost

“I could find a new kind of devotion
I could know you by another name“

Hovvdy – Meg

“Speak because i know you feel a certain way
but ill pass it along anyway“

Bedbug – Leaving Town, Moving to a National Park <3

“I’m too young for that anyways
everyone’s just tryna skip town these days“

Soccer Mommy – Skinned Knees

“i left
burning streets in tennessee
for a north east feel“

Mitski – Your Best American Girl

“Your mother wouldn’t approve of how my mother raised me
But I do, I finally do“

LVL UP – Hidden Driver

“God is peeking
softly speaking
fucking everything
until I slowly do see“

Lisa Prank – Starting Again

“You say you’re not still drinking
you just started again
I swear I don’t still miss you
I just started again“

Dicktations – Dicktations Forever

“It’s hard to say when I first figured out something was wrong“

Joyride! – Running on Empty

“Young and running on empty
you said that you thought I looked pretty with my makeup on
so I went home and I took it off“

Sioux Falls (now Stranger Ranger) – Dom

“Spending too much time on the internet
are you ok? you don’t seem very into it“

Camp Cope – Jet Fuel Can’t Melt Steel Beams

“It’s the trophy wives raising trophy wives raising children on TV
Scared of people like you and me
Just don’t ask questions you’ll sleep peacefully
We will not go out in silence and we will not go quietly“

Fake Boyfriend – BUMTOWN

“Why do I cling to the threads that mean the least?“

Outer Spaces – I Saw You

“I saw you, a shedding snake“

American Enthusiasm – Holy Wow

“Make a note of all the words I cough out on my death bed“

The Hotelier – Soft Animal

“Fawn, doe, light snow
Spots on brown of white 
make me believe that there’s a God sometimes“

Beach Slang – Future Mixtape for the Art Kids

“We’re not lost, we are dying in style
We’re not fucked, we are fucking alive“

CHUCK – Death

“You hold on to whatever kin
that keeps on breathin’ in
that keeps you from driftin’
like paper in the wind“

You Won’t – Ya Ya Ya

“So your daddy was a poltergeist
sent your little sister screaming down the hallway
well I don’t know about the afterlife,
but I can help you to forget about the old days“

Mountain Almanac – Kids Playing Outside

“Saturday morning, cartoon time, let’s go“

Basement Revolver – Johnny

“Please just stay away from Johnny
cos I love him understand“

Boy Scouts – Did You See My Cry

“walking walmart shopping center
i’d never been better
on my own two feet
i guess“

Free Cake For Every Creature – First Summer in a City

“i’ll be singing when i’m 90
climb a tree to see
what tastes to smokey sweet
first summer in a city“

Haley Heynderickx – First I’m Sorry

“Mother knows I drown in my lies
Father knows I learned my lesson the second time.
Ask me where I’ll go I’ll say do not know
No, I do not know“

ARMS – Missing

“I don’t want to force your hand
but wishes disguised as plans will never do
Like the king of deathbed regrets
and the queen of last requests could ever choose“

Naps – Bad Vibrations

“Can’t stand up to the world’s expectations
I’m living on a bad bad vibration“

The Washboard Abs – Day Draws Nearer

“Your backyard
you talked to God
about the heartbreak you forgot“

Trace Mountains – Forgiveness

“old dirt you thrown underneath the stair
is right there
right where you said i’d tremble and stare
at the vast unforgiving spirit lurking there
but it takes time, to realise forgiveness“

Nassau – Desert Blues

“I took a marker and wrote your number on the bathroom stall
That’s just my way of reaching out cos I’m too proud to call“

Adeline Hotel – Near You

“Sleep better tonight
In the heat of red moon light
Whatever we are, whatever we’ll be
I used to live near you, you used to love near me“

Simon Balto – Foothills

“I’ve never been a faithful man
I’ve always been too proud to pray
But won’t you come out to the foothills
And hold me together for one more day“

Cloud Cult – No Hell

“There’s no use in running unless you run like heck
The best things we’ve learned we learned from the wreck
Jesus coming back as a woman this time
Handing out hugs in the clinic line
Someone tell the devil we don’t need no hell
We’re all pretty good at beating up ourselves“

Slingshot Dakota – Break

“And in the end there’s two of us
it was always two of us“

Good Good Blood – No Sadness/Furrowed Brow

“We’ll have no sadness/furrowed brow
There is no shame in dying now
I said from my death bed“

Ben Seretan – Bowl of Plums

“My friends call me when they’re feeling low
We talk quietly for hours and walk the room
Flowers growing in a coffee can
Our lives are wonderful and sad sometimes“

Chris Bathgate – Big Ghost

“I got a Big Ghost
of static in my throat
from coming up too short“

Wintersleep – Metropolis

“The man that you are, the man you were, the man you left
Turn into stars, flowing in through the wilderness“

Mothers – Lockjaw

“I don’t want your kind words
I want your ghost inside a thimble“

Car Seat Headrest – Drunk Driver / Killer Whales

“You build yourself up against others’ feelings
And it left you feeling empty as a car coasting downhill
I have become such a negative person
It was all just an act
It was all so easily stripped away“

Space Mountain – Never Lonely

“Met a friend today
And im feeling okay
She’s in my head
I’m never lonely“

Hallelujah the Hills – What Do the People Want?

“What do the people want?
The people don’t know what they want“

Mount Moriah – Calvander

“Carry on and on and on on
With your cosmic reach
Newport river whispered fate
Spells cast with every crashing wave
Neon lines and a new name“

Frederick Squire – Bike Thief

“The lights are on
And we are sinking way down in our chairs
We don’t say much of anything
Even though there’s still a lot to say“

Kevin Morby – We’ve Been Here Before

“Running my mouth off at the storm
Yelling, “man, what the hell did you do that for?“

Sam Moss – Vertebrae

“Did you watch my vertebrae
Slendering out
Or did you watch your own?
Stretching skin over the bone
I’ve grown
Learning to be proud“

Arlo Aldo – House & Home

“O’er the mountains out past the trees
where the grasslands, meet the sky
you’ll find me singin’ my songs
with my lover in my mind“

Will Johnson – Nervousness Fangs

“Jesus what a mess
what they’re all selling
and what’s being sold“

Jeremy Squires – After All

“There’s an old painting of Jesus on a wall
and a tapestry that hangs by a cross
that weighs heavy on my shoulders now and then
I get caught up with why the things we love ain’t never last“

The Dead Tongues – Stained Glass Eyes

“Fifth wind brought a howl got me in a storm
I saw a lighthouse spinning at the edge of the world
like looking through a window to the day
I was born“

Kyle Morton – Automatic

“It’s my head, it’s my head
breaking itself to make a thought but instead
Just some pornographic images to stave off my death
It’s all automatic“

Keaton Henson – Alright

“Obviously
My wounds are open to see
But don’t take them seriously
I’ll be fine“

Talons’ – Work Stories

“Is this what the end of the world looks like?
Or is this just life?“

Jordan O’Jordan – A Lonely Road

“There are truths we may or may never know friend
and that is the point“

Mal Devisa – Sea of Limbs

“Honey-lover
keeper of the bees
Soft-spoken
seldom-seen“

Young Jesus – Hinges

“I’m pretty sure I’m a kind of collection of things
scattered throughout the backyard
under the moon
pulling weirdo slow dance moves
maybe always losing it a little
i am ashamed to believe in myself!“

Lung Cycles – For a While

“I feel like sharing
so I’ll press record
and I’ll tell you that I had a vision“

Sister Grotto – UNCANNY

“When we go, we go alone“

John K. Samson – Virtute At Rest

“You should know I am with you, know I forgive you
Know I am proud of the steps that you’ve made
Know it will never be easy or simple
Know I will dig in my claws when you stray“

If you missed it, you can see the list of our favourite albums of 2016 here, and stay tuned for our collection of the best name-your-price releases on Bandcamp next week.

The post Wake the Deaf’s Favourite Songs of 2016 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Hallelujah The Hills – A Band is Something to Figure Out
(REVIEW | INTERVIEW)

“This is an album built from symbolism (one of the tags on Bandcamp is ‘hieroglyphics’, to give you an idea) but, like all the best mysteries, a sense of significance floats to the top, independent of any hidden code. Hallelujah the Hills reconstruct the human experience through sheer enthusiasm, using their joyous hooks and choruses as earnest expressions of emotion rather than ironic juxtapositions.  Walsh and Co. aren’t sitting us down to share a smirk and a wink, or to reel off some abstract philosophical theories, but rather taking us by the hand and running through their strange world, leaving it up to us to catch something meaningful in the breathless blur. And what a world this is, one which has been evolving since their first album, an ecosystem based on a strange molecule – twin strands of confusion and intuition tightly bound and swirled into a double helix – the DNA of Hallelujah the Hills.”

Camp Cope – S/T
(REVIEW)

“For those of us that want to hope that maybe everything doesn’t have to be shit forever, there’s an atmosphere of dissent that seeps into every line. Not in that horrible on-the-nose Billy Bragg/Frank Turner way, but more subtle, funny and heartbreaking, with throwaway lines that leave you a bit off-balanced. I think that’s what I like most about Camp Cope – the constant switch between personal and protest, heartache and anger, and all the while feeling completely and utterly helpless.”

Beat Radio – Take It Forever
(REVIEW | INTERVIEW)

“Beat Radio’s fifth album Take It Forever feels like a culmination of ideas, the product of some long, hard thinking… With a large dose of hope and a pervading sense of goodwill, Take It Forever plays like the manifesto of someone who doesn’t know all the answers but finds meaning in asking the questions, the words not of a revolutionary or prophet but an ordinary man striving to make life extraordinary, just as it should be.”

Talons’ – Work Stories
(REVIEW)

“Explores the pervasive disillusionment in a society that hasn’t yet lived up to what it promised, a society run for interests other than those of the people who make up its majority. A society that offers hopes and dreams of resplendent lives in exchange for your hard earned $$$s, education courses that leave people stranded with more knowledge but no money, opportunities or sympathy. These are songs for people who wonder ‘when did it become not okay to do what I want with my life?’ Work Stories is a reminder that it’s okay to occasionally feel afraid or sad, that the things which trouble you are probably not as much your fault as you think, and most of all that, despite how it might sometimes feel you are never, ever, alone.”

Mount Moriah – How To Dance
(REVIEW)

“Mount Moriah push past their troubles into something positive and mysterious, a conglomeration of symbolism, mysticism, universality and other cosmic forces which pretty much equates to Southern Gothic 2.0. How to Dance is crafted from spirit and faith, carved out of a high, wide hope capable of healing any wounds, giving us the courage not just to survive, but to live.”

The Chairman Dances – Time Without Measure
(REVIEW | INTERVIEW)

“The Chairman Dances succeed in bringing characters to life in three dimensions, though on Time Without Measure the feat is even more impressive as the roster of figures are not only numerous but also known to history in decidedly superhuman terms. Now more than ever we should remember that activists and political heroes, for all of their spirit and unimaginable resolve, are as prone to doubt and death as anyone, and not half as powerful without our support and belief. Likewise, we’d do well to remember that villains and bigots are human too, flames that, however fierce and bright, will be snuffed out without the oxygen that is our backing. This album is a reminder that belief and faith can save us. It’s just a matter of choosing the right thing in which to invest our energies.”

Karima Walker – Hands in Our Names
(REVIEW)

“Hands in Our Names sees Karima Walker reconstruct an array of varied elements into something larger and more meaningful than they could ever be alone. Field recordings from her present and found recordings from someone else’s past swirl above and beneath her own words and guitar notes, drones of every pitch filling the background and stretching the songs into worlds of their own. When atomised into separate parts, the album is impressionistic, blurry and strange and difficult to describe, though when listened to as a whole, a blanket of stitches, it becomes something vivid and intuitive. As such, Hands in Our Names is able to convey things normal songs cannot, a freedom not just born of trope-avoiding experimentalism but somehow inherent in the very combinations of sounds, as though arranged into secret patterns or codes, magic spells that trump postmodern convictions. Rather than dying in open air upon leaving her mouth, Karima Walker’s communications bubble from within, stirring that dormant empathy that lies somewhere near the centre of us all.”

Sioux Falls (now Stranger Ranger) – Rot Forever
(REVIEW)

“Sioux Falls’ sound reads like a melting pot of the last twenty years of rock music. Taking the indie rock of the likes of Built to Spill et al., the band add thoughtful emo (like The Hotelier) and smart pop punk vibes (think LVL UP etc.) to create something wonderfully varied and entertaining, cycling through these genres not just between songs but within them. The narrator is centred within the stories of which they sing, sounding like another confused player in violent, unfair game operating to rules outside of anyone’s understanding. In the face of bewilderment they turn to anger and sorrow and joy, feelings easy to recognise, easy to submit to, decidedly non-ambivalent chemical reactions which remind them that they’re still alive.”

John K Samson – Winter Wheat
(REVIEW)

“The Weakerthans frontman’s first release since 2012 is everything we’ve come to expect, exploring his favourite themes of contemporary loneliness and isolation in his uniquely warm manner, his characters not ready to give up hope that connection (that is, real human connection) is still possible in our digital world.”

Nap Eyes – Thought Rock Fish Scale

“Nova Scotia’s Nap Eyes return with a sophomore album of rhythmic, ear-worming slacker folk rock songs, recorded completely live with no overdubs in just four days. Nigel Chapman’s lethargic monotone vocals give the whole thing the feel of a daydream, like the wandering high-brow thoughts of a sleepy philosophy/psychology major.”

Jeremy Squires – Shadows
(REVIEW | INTERVIEW)

“Does what the very best folk music can do, an outpouring from one human being to a multitude of others. It’s a record borne out of legitimate heartbreak, the end of a marriage and the death of a loved one, a brave and honest attempt to deal with big life-changing events. Deft songwriting allows Squires to expand these specific, individual scenes into large, engaging metaphors, in which we can find shards of our own experiences. The beauty of it is that the finished work is not just healing and revelatory for the artist. It can help us too.”

Loone & Paper Bee – Now I Know You and See How Wide You Are to the World
(REVIEW)

“Now I Know You and See How Wide You Are to the World is a terrific album. It’s as rich and as complex as life itself, steeped in passion and poetry, whirring like the universe and everything in it. There’s a line at the end of ‘Ugly, I’m Sorry’ that sums up the whole release rather nicely, capturing its in a handful of words far better than I am able to in this review: ‘And I wanna hold your hand / and go explore the pulsing humming darkness’.”

Spartan Jet-Plex – Get Some
(REVIEW)

“Taken at face value, Get Some is an indistinct album, the themes and meanings wrapped in layers of abstract lyrics and varied instrumentation. However, this vagueness itself curls and contorts and creeps into your head, eluding inclinations to describe and detail and thus bypassing the whole processing machinery most music must enter. As such, Kells’s thoughts and feelings arrive whole, unaltered, meaning that you feel what’s being said, even if it’s impossible to put into words.”

Kyle Morton – What Will Destroy You
(REVIEW)

“While Typhoon’s fourth record is still in the works, Morton last month released a surprise solo album, What Will Destroy You. Again the twin themes of tragedy and pleasure are central, as is the idea of catharsis and release. However, while mortality is an intrinsic element, the album does not tread the exact same ground as previous Typhoon releases. What Will Destroy You shifts the focus onto love, more specifically what Morton describes as “the ambivalence of erotic love,” leading to an intimate, surprisingly honest album which delves into things both more wonderful and mundane than your average love songs.”

CHUCK – My Band is a Computer
(REVIEW | INTERVIEW)

“Playing like a collaboration between Owen Ashworth and Bret Easton Ellis, the CHUCK brand of observant and at times cringe-inducingly honest indie pop will no doubt prove divisive. But there’s far more to My Band is a Computer than drugs and self-pity and empty sex. Like the Frog release that Audio Antihero brought us last year, it crams an awful lot into its run-time, covering everything that’s terrible and everything that’s not about being a young adult in the twenty-first century, somehow managing to tap into the human kernel at the centre of our zombified lurch of nostalgia and regret.”

Monarch Mtn – Everyone is Here
(REVIEW)

“It would be wrong to consider the music of Monarch Mtn as simply a two dimensional mope-fest, with Farmer’s poetic lyrics and warm delivery hint at something beyond the misery. The palette is undoubtedly gloomy, blacks and greys and deep blues, but Farmer’s warm vocals and poetic turns of phrase flicker across this twilight like threads of gold.”

Claire Cronin – Came Down a Storm
(REVIEW)

“The real success of Down Came a Storm is how Claire Cronin and John Dieterich combine to spin stories and landscapes from their combined talents, every element given equal standing to conjure not only folk tales but the worlds in which they exist. Here you can feel the wind on your skin, hear it move in the trees, smell its scent of salt and earth and ozone. You can feel it move the characters too, propelling them into dark, poetic places where nature rules and comfort can be found in the starkest of elements.”

Adeem the Artist – Kyle Adem is Dead
(REVIEW | INTERVIEW)

“The word ‘sincere’ is often taken as synonymous for affectionate or sentimental. With Kyle Adem is Dead, Adeem the Artist strives to be sincere in every sense, finding the bravery not just to declare his love for his wife but to voice his fears, his weaknesses, his exasperation with life as we live it. With everything on the table, no lingering mysteries or secrets withheld, there is nothing left to corrupt the good things. Because, after all, Kyle Adem is dead.”

Mal Devisa – Kiid
(REVIEW)

“Kiid is a personal record and plays like condensed version of life, reaching high and falling low, crackling and bursting and simmering under the surface, at times exploding in urgent streams of consciousness as if the words and thoughts can no longer be held in. This is an album that refuses to be reduced to something easily describable, persevering in it’s complexity against the binarizing forces of anxiety or genre or gender or race. Kiid isn’t a self-doubt record or political record, nor a sad record or a happy record. It’s not jazz or gospel or indie rock. Kiid is everything. Kiid is whatever it wants to be.”

Lisa/Liza – Deserts of Youth
(REVIEW)

“Wonderfully minimal and psych-tinged songs that will doubtless appeal to fans of  soft and sad outsider folk artists such as Sarah Winchester. At times it’s gossamer thin, with Victoria’s vocals little more than hushed murmurs, though even in these quiet moments her words hold a kind of understated magnetism, a power which draws in the instrumentation and in turn becomes augmented by it. Deserts of Youth shows you don’t necessarily need to raise your voice to make a statement, that even quiet songs can be imbued with a blazing energy.”

Old Earth – Lay For June
(REVIEW | INTERVIEW)

“Trying to put Old Earth’s music into words seems futile and kind of besides the point. There’s never going to be a satisfactory way to describe art so fluid and weird and instinctive, so all we can tell you is what it sounds like to us. It’s operating on a deeper level, one not easily outlined, playing on some atavistic region of the subconscious that reacts to fear and beauty, that treats intense wonder and dread as the same emotion. It’s the same area of the brain that tells us to light candles and throw coins down wells no matter how secular our society becomes.”

What were your favourite albums of 2016? Let us know through one of the usual channels – we’re on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram.

The post Wake the Deaf’s Favourite Albums of 2016 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Tracklisting:

1. Fire – Mal Devisa
2. wild fire/flowers – Trust Fall
3. Home Alone – Max Gardener
4. Your Love – Jeremy Squires
5. Veins – Camp Howard
6. How To Dance – Mount Moriah
7. Good Evening – Adeem the Artist
8. Shallow – Candy
9. Francie Cool – Francie Cool
10. Bad Vibes – Zebrafi
11. Piece of Ivy – Jake Bellissimo
12. Snow Day – Julia Brown
13. Alive – Dear Tracks
14. Ted the Radical Westy – Ravetank
15. ft1 – naps
16. We Have The Perimeter Surrounded – Hallelujah the Hills
17. Bullet in a Broken Gun – Oscar Lush
18. Color Peels – The Wandering Lake
19. Nowhere Nothing – Oceanator
20. Suagr Skull – The Washboard Abs
21. Of Wandering – Littler
22. bicycle – Twelve Gardens
23. Ya Ya Ya – You Won’t
24. Find You – Family Video
25. Jack Campbell (Quick Jammer) – Dingus.
26. Candy – Fish Food
27. It May Very Well Do – 100 Watt Horse
28. Life – Whim
29. Meg – Hovvdy
30. Piano Player – The Hotelier
31. Calvary – Chris Bathgate
32. Postman – Sam Moss

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This new positive direction is clear from the start of How To Dance, the band toning down whatever indie rock leanings they had on their previous releases in favour of a full-bodied country sound. Opening track ‘Calvander’ pitches us right into the mix, a buoyant Americana song with snappy riffs and limber vocals and good-time horns. Though beneath this veneer lays the true value of Mount Moriah’s music. Heather McEntire’s lyrics have always been a cut above the standard fare, and here you get the sense she has honed her craft further still. Poetic yet simple, indirect without being indistinct, she conjures beauty from both the environment and the interior thoughts of her characters.

“Carry on and on and on on
With your cosmic reach
Newport river whispered fate
Spells cast with every crashing wave
Neon lines and a new name
Held up my palm and I offered up my face
Blue heart and a dark mind
Looking for any kind some kind of sign
I swear to God tonight
Those Jacksonville boys ain’t gonna find
Sweet Company”

As ‘Calvander’ suggests, the main theme of the record is one of belief, of finding meaning or hope in unlikely places, and ‘Precita’ is about just that, a chance encounter leading to something something special. “We turned into gold,” she sings, “and we turned into stars / The highest soul has the whitest spark”. ‘Baby Blue’ is a song about new beginnings, and while the refrain tells us that “nothing lasts forever”, the track is the antithesis of despair, urging us to appreciate good times while they’re present and to live in the moment. Though the lyrics feel intimate and personal, McEntire dedicates this sentiment to all who need to hear it, as shown by one of the album’s liner notes:

‘Chiron (God in the Brier)’ is an upbeat track, filled with a positivity captured perfectly in the opening line (“Light came knocking, knocking on my door and I got no need for you no more!”). The track is rich in imagery and symbolism, its golden hours and harvest moons and crows and stags and ravens all very much loaded and meaningful. To push further, the titular Chiron is a notable centaur from Greek mythology, set apart from others for his abilities as a healer and oracle and his noble sacrifice of immortality (to become the constellation Centaurus), while Chiron Healing is a technique involving the understanding and repair of energy which surrounds us (including past emotions and experiences), facts which show just how far you can descend into these songs if you so choose.

‘Cardinal Cross’ provides another rabbit hole down which to tumble, referencing the cardinal grand cross of astrology. Essentially, a grand cross is formed when the four planets are equidistant and separated by 90 degrees, meaning the different aspects of a person are straining in opposite directions to create a tension-filled stalemate, and a cardinal grand cross ramps things up further as the cardinal signals of the zodiac are identity-based. As such, the track finds McEntire asking such questions (“Are you the woman you wanted to be?”) together with further abstract references we’ll leave you to figure out (cohosh, cinnamon, pendulums and heron to name a few). One of the beauties of How To Dance is that it’s as abstract as you want it to be, working on a variety of levels to ensure that no listener is alienated no matter how much work and faith they want to put into the symbolism on show.

“Eyes to the skies now slowly lift the veil.
Are you the woman you wanted to be?
The inner is outer, the inner is free!
Are you the lover you wanted to be?
Eclipse is a mirror, the mirror is me!
Grand, Grand Arsenal, Cardinal Cross!”

‘Fox in the City’ is a slow song where the past lingers like a low fog, the lyrics littered with references to North Carolina’s Carrboro, while ‘Higher Mind’ finds us jumping all over America, from California (“Honey Lake, 395”) to Macon, Georgia. While the song feels like the detailing of a personal journey, there is an overriding sense of community here, as if McEntire if sharing her story in preparation to hear our own. “We all got vices cause the pain still flows,” she sings, “we all got things we’re afraid to show. Do you have something to show?” This sense of unity is important to the record and Mount Moriah as a whole, transcending the lock of personal experience to be something directly relevant to us all, placing the mystical aspects into better context. McEntire isn’t looking to the gods and stars and natural world for some arcane secret she can wear around her neck. She’s looking and pointing and asking questions, never settling for what is accepted as normality or truth. She’s standing right there next to you and suggesting you do the same.

And this is where the record really clicks. We said earlier that the music works no matter how much work you are prepared to put in, but the phrasing is misleading. No amount of effort will obtain the true meaning because the meaning is not in the symbols but rather in the questioning. The imagery does not add up to any steadfast truth, because for us or anyone else to say, categorically, x means y would be to impose the very restrictions McEntire and Co. are trying to escape. The title track confronts this with graceful subtlety, a series of gentle questions which get to the heart of the societal pressure that tries to enforce a rigid existence.

“Baby, do you like to dance?
Do you like it slow or sorta fast?
Got a lot of people telling me how to dance”

So for all of it’s intricacies, which are undoubtedly interesting and rewarding to explore, the record is a simple one. How to Dance is crafted from spirit and faith, carved out of a high, wide hope capable of healing any wounds, giving us the courage not just to survive, but to live.

You can buy How to Dance now from Merge Records, including a rather lovely limited-edition coke bottle clear vinyl. Mount Moriah also have a Bandcamp page if that’s more your thing.

The post Mount Moriah – How to Dance appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Tracklisting:

1. A Hospital + Crucifix Made of Plastic – Florist
2. Richmond – talons’
3. Say – Indoor Voices
4. Aeroplane – House Plants
5. When I Was an Island – David Karsten Daniels
6. The Gentleman’s Apocalypse – JR Green
7. Hitman – Mrs. Hopewell
8. sun drops – ratbath
9. A Cruise – Brian S. Cassidy
10. Orpheus – Matt Kivel
11. Your Love – Jeremy Squires (INTERVIEW)
12. Blood Moon – C.M. Slenko
13. Bake – Broken Beak
14. Brushes Like a Fox – Saint Corsair
15. daniel – francie cool
16. Baby Blue – Mount Moriah
17. For You – Free Cake For Every Creature
18. Have This Dance – Govier
19. Goodness (trailer) – The Hotelier
20. The River Because – Sawtooth
21. why are you so cool? – Dying Adolescence
22. cockroach – tall friend
23. Waiting – Faint Peter
24. Heart Destroyer – Lazy Legs
25. Take it Forever – Beat Radio (INTERVIEW)
26. Every One of Them, Dogs – Quarterly
27. like a feather or a pawprint – Field Medic
28. Lay For June – Old Earth
29. 2 old 2 broke – Gorgeous Bully
30. Funny Man Routine – Table People
31. House & Home – Arlo Aldo
32. Cave Song – Sea Ghost
33. Everywhere (Fleetwood Mac cover) – Boosegumps (from Sugar Rush)

The post February 2016 Roundup – A Mixtape appeared first on Various Small Flames.

“Sees the band pushing passed their troubles into something positive and mysterious, a conglomeration of symbolism, mysticism, universality and other cosmic forces which pretty much equates to Southern Gothic 2.0.”

While March is still a whole month off, the band have eased the wait by releasing ‘Baby Blue’, a slow-burning track full of the melancholic joy that makes Mount Moriah’s sound. The song comes complete with a rather lovely video by Jordan Blake (Teen, Classixx) based around the minuscule details of American life, showing a variety of people in the midst of normal, dignified existence. However these snippets are complicated by the presence of camera operators and and technical staff, showing that the whole thing is scripted. As Blake explains:

“I wanted to show these little moments of isolation, then turn them into something more interesting by including bits and pieces of our crew. The idea was to make these ‘authentic’ snapshots feel kind of surreal, because you can see it’s all staged. And I guess, on a deeper level, I wanted to prompt some thought about the way we frame our own personal memories/perceptions of others.”

How To Dance will be released on Merge Records on the 4th March. You can pre-order your copy right now. If you find yourself in the US this spring, Mount Moriah are on an extensive tour starting in March. Full dates can be found here.

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Tracklisting:

1. I Don’t Know – Tina Refnes (+ Lit Links)
2. If I Were a Portal – Evening Hymns
3. Cradle Robber – Tyler Butler and His Handsome Friends
4. Calvander – Mount Moriah
5. The Way It Is, The Way It Could Be – The Weather Station
6. Porch – Long Beard
7. Small Wind Power – Fraternal Twin
8. Mourning Dove – Danielle Fricke
9. 3 – Cat Be Damned
10. Cold Apartment Floors – Vagabon
11. I Used To Be A Bird – Fairweather Currents
12. Drive-Thru – Honeyuck
13. Ghosts – The Washboard Abs
14. Litany – Tyler Key
15. Aviator Shades – Quiet Hollers
16. Book of Right On (Joanna Newsom cover) – Foxtails Brigade (Lit Links)
17. Judy Blume – Mal Devisa
18. So Long – Dot & Logic
19. A Swift Thing – EP
20. Stuck w/ Me – Home Lives
21. Close Call (Adderall Anxiety) – Shaky Shrines
22. Boys – Dicktations
23. Nothing – Strange Friends
24. Careful Creators – Summering
25. Blinding White – Vapour Night
26. Pull – Slow Dancing Society (Hidden Shoal compilation)
27. Calmest – Naps
28. As He Walked Into the Field – Robert Stillman
29. Church Bells – Tommy Perman, Simon Kirby & Rob St. John
30. Seven – Oh, Rose
    31. No Hell – Cloud Cult

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

How To Dance, due on Merge Records next year, is the proper successor to Miracle Temple. Building upon the 7″ songs, the album sees the band pushing passed their troubles into something positive and mysterious, a conglomeration of symbolism, mysticism, universality and other cosmic forces which pretty much equates to Southern Gothic 2.0. You can listen to lead single ‘Cardinal Cross’ below:

Also on the album is the previously released ‘Calvander’, which comes with a great lyric video:

How To Dance is due to be released on the 4th March via Merge Records. You can pre-order it now on CD or vinyl, with the first 250 records coming in limited-edition ‘coke bottle clear’. You can also buy the three song 7″ featuring ‘Calvander’ here.

The post Mount Moriah announced new album, How To Dance appeared first on Various Small Flames.