Climbing a rung up the mainstream ladder with every new release, The National’s rise in popularity continues unabated. But regardless of your opinion of the band’s more recent output, Pembrokeshire-born, London-based artist Bryde‘s cover of ‘Brainy’ is a timely reminder of what they were before the lyrics grew increasingly literal and they become the kind of outfit which casually enlists the help of Taylor Swift. A sparse, cryptic track which seethes with an underlying intensity, as though the subtext the moment comes unspooling as the song develops. Bryde pulls this tautness ever tighter, capturing every inch of the crackling energy while making the song her own.

Griffin Moyer – Like No One Else

“If you’re going to say something, you might as well be honest.” That’s the maxim under which Nashville-based songwriter Griffin Moyer works. Having left a career in geological survey to pursue music, Moyer is about to release the LP Liar’s Disguise via Like You Mean It Records, and new single ‘Like No One Else’ invites the listener into the straight-talking emotion of his sound. A track where longing is accompanied by a nostalgic sixties warmth, lifting the ache at its centre into its own kind of romance.

Liar’s Disguise is coming soon via Like You Mean It Records.

Jess Kallen – Ink

LA-based musician Jess Kallen has been a staple of the local scene for a while, touring and recording with numerous bands, including the likes of Rosie Tucker and Alex Lahey. Next month, they will release their debut album Exotherm on New Professor Music and to celebrate they have released a brand new single. Titled ‘Ink’, it combines crunchy guitar and a springy sense of momentum. “Monday, Tuesday, Thursday / the time flies when nothing changes,” Kallen sings in what begins as a frustrated ode to everyday monotony, before the big chorus arrives to shake things up. Which is fitting, as Kallen describes ‘Ink’ as a song “about being stuck in a rut, and escaping by surrendering to an impulse.”

Exotherm will be released on 21st June via New Professor Music. Pre-order it now on Bandcamp.

John Hollywood – Leavings

Houston-born, California-based songwriter John Hollywood might draw his main inspiration from the likes of John Prine, Guy Clark and Bob Dylan, but new album Beauty Sleep shows his focus is very much on the present. Take ‘Leavings’, a song about the ever-deepening climate catastrophe delivered with the stark fervour of an old-time Bible preacher, where a father picks through the ashes a failed society for something which might outlast the oncoming violence. “What can I give to my son to help him? / What can I leave him after I’m gone?” Hollywood asks in the opening lines. “I’d leave him my land but the land is forsaken / I’d leave him my house, but the house has burned down.” The song gathers around itself with tumultuous foreboding, the sound of a society reaching its dead-end with no time to turn around.

Nathan Xander – Drive My Car

“He’s a big man, got no feeling below the knee,” opens ‘Drive My Car’, the latest single from Nathan Xander’s Three Waltzes. “When he goes down, getting back up sure ain’t easy.” The track is indicative of New York songwriter’s ability to paint such vivid portraits with so little, each song an elegant slice of life as lived within an uncertain present, be it Xander’s own quest for sobriety or the mind-bending experience of living with twenty-four hour news. As ‘Drive My Car’ highlights, this is delivered with equal parts sincerity and knowing humour, resulting in a wisdom that might not know how life is going to shake out, but is sure enough along for the ride.

Some folks drink, some folks smoke
Tonight, we’ll do a little of both
And if we die, at heaven’s door,
Please don’t tell them I let you drive my car

Nymphlord – Stinks 4 Lyfe

Raised in the forested foothills of Northern California, singer-songwriter and producer Nymphlord says her music was influenced by everything from “90’s alt rock [and] misty bush-whacked trail walks” to “Britney Spears crop tops, dog bites turned scars, and dust-covered pom poms.” This goes some way to explaining the distinctive Nymphlord style, which combines radio-ready pop hooks with a ferocious feminist punk energy and an ethereal experimentalism that sees acoustic guitar become otherwordly. Written in the aftermath of the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, ‘Stinks 4 Lyfe’ channels every ounce of fury, frustration and vulnerability into three minutes of catharsis.

Don’t tell me you want it
Don’t tell me you need it
Do you think it’s worth it
Do you think I’m worth shit, hey

‘Stinks 4 Lyfe’ is out now via Lauren Records and available from the Nymphlord Bandcamp page.

Rain Gregorio – Myrtle on Holiday

Having previously recorded under the moniker Mount Rainier, LA’s Rain Gregorio decided to revert to his own name for new EP, Myrtle on Holiday, coming soon via Anxiety Blanket Records, and the switch sees the sound push into newly personal territory too. “It gave me the confidence to excavate part of myself using the observational side of songwriting,” as Gregorio explains. “This is the first time I’ve made something that is true to myself as a songwriter.” The title track is the perfect introduction, its lush yet controlled beat ebbing and flowing as Lexi Vega (Mini Trees) lends backing vocals, all resulting in a sense of closeness which only amplifies the overall emotional resonance.

Sweetbreads – Chaos Is

Led by Brooklyn singer-songwriter Melody Stolpp, Sweetbreads make country-inflected indie pop that they say “will bend your ear, twist your pretty little heart, and get your hips swaying.” Following last year’s EP Out Of Range, Stolpp has again worked with long-time collaborator Nick Watt to write a new song, ‘Chaos Is’. “[It’s] a song about teenage life in the suburbs,” Stolpp describes, “with all the boredom, recklessness, and soul searching that come with it.” The track’s slow build captures the direction of such days, building from seemingly mundane beginnings into something with real emotional charge, and in doing so manages to recreate some of the heightened magic of those formative years.

The Tines – Collarbone

Formed in 2019 from members of acts such as Ports of Spain, Laundry Day, Quiet Giant and Ryxno, The Tines is an indie rock outfit based in New Haven, Connecticut. Back in 2022 they released their self-titled album on Funnybone Records, and latest single ‘Collarbone’ is the ideal entry point for those who let the initial release slip past their radar. A track which combines shimmering dream pop with a more pressing indie rock rhythm, the reverbed vocals drifting above it all to give the whole thing a sunny if enigmatic vibe, drawing the listener into its psych-inflected world.

The Tines is out now via Funnybone Records and is available from Bandcamp.

The post Weekly Listening: May 2023 #3 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

A new volume will be posted every few weeks and will offer a collection of really great songs that we’re determined not to let slip past our radar. Enjoy Vol 3!

Why Not – Guided Meditation / Ground

Why Not are a math punk band from the Twin Cities. They’re currently working on their debut LP, due for release later this year, and have released two tracks to whet our collective appetite. ‘Guided Meditation’ takes around a minute to build into a mathy thrash, the slacker vocals calm and disaffected at the centre. ‘Ground’, on the other hand, is a little funkier, glowing with a quietly carefree buzz until things devolve into a cymbal heavy crescendo.

“I know that I’m on the ground right
now but I know I can take it
I know that I’m still alive right now
but that won’t last forever”

You can get both songs from the Why Not Bandcamp page.

Blood Cultures – Detroit

New Jersey duo Blood Cultures have a pretty enigmatic web presence. What we do know is that they are readying their debut album Happy Birthday, and that they’ve been steadily dripping tracks in preview. The latest, ‘Detroit’, blends 80s synths with chilled out beats and laidback pop vocals. Think the Stranger Things soundtrack run through a 21st Century synth pop filter, what their bio describes as “hypnotic, galaxy-painted synths that will put listeners into a trace as they dance along to digital beats over the milky way”.

Keep an eye on the Blood Cultures website and Facebook page for updates.

Matt Paxton – Baby Don’t Go

Matt Paxton is a member of the stellar Other Songs Music Co. roster, and this month released a new EP, Hunter Street Station Blues. Written with Thompson Wilson, opening track ‘Baby Don’t Go’ gives a flavour of the gentle heartbreak on offer here, a blend of traditional folk and an ever so slight pop edge leading to a song both catchy and wistful. 

Hunter Street Station Blues is out now via Other Songs Music Co. and you can buy it now from Bandcamp.

Blaketheman1000 – Blake

Blaketheman1000 is the recoridng project of Blake Goldberg from Nashville, TN. Goldman recently sent us the video (made by Adele Smith) for a song called Blake’. It’s about, you guessed it, Blake himself, what Goldman describes as “A fun song I made about being me <3”. It’s a super lo-fi bedroom pop song, one that’s all the more endearing for its rough-around-the-edges vibe. Think Spencer Radcliffe meets Gorgeous Bully. You can keep tabs on Blaketheman1000 over at his Soundcloud page.

Somesurprises – serious dreams

Emerging as the solo act of singer and guitarist Natsha El-Sergany, Somesurprises is a constantly shifting outfit currently operating as a full band. Such a fluid line-up matches the sound, with latest release serious dreams highlighting the shifting, shimmering nature of Somesurprises’ music, rooted in nature but also otherworldly and strange. Take ‘Late July’ as an example, operating like a semi-sentient woodland fog, its tendrils reaching for your face and head, wrapping you within its somnolescent embrace.

serious dreams is out now on Eiderdown Records and available from Bandcamp.

Ramonda Hammer – Too Much, Too Recently

LA quartet Ramonda Hammer, founded by lead Devin Davis, are following up 2016’s album Whatever That Means with a brand new EP, Destroyers. To give us a taste of their new stuff, the band have released lead single, ‘Too Much, Too Recently’, a track with a rather novel subject matter. “I’m gonna get real real here,” Devin confides. “This song is about our bassist Andy, who is also my ex-boyfriend.” From here, the song explores past lives and multiple dimensions, all channelled through a lovely 90s grunge aesthetic.

Destroyers is set for release on the 4th August via New Professor Music and you can pre-order it from Bandcamp.

Devon Sproule – Trees at Your Mom’s

Recorded across three Canadian provinces and Scotland’s Shetland Islands, Devon Sproule’s record The Gold String feels very much a product of wide experiences and open expanses. The instrumentation is odd and often slightly off kilter, the lyrics somewhere between folk, poetry and ad-lib chanting, the words emerging perfectly formed from some unknown place. This means, as shown on ‘Trees at Your Mom’s’, there’s a curiously relaxed sort of intensity about the album, a natural flow that can meander between unhurried and frantic yet never loses that sense of momentum.

Get The Gold String from Bandcamp now (or here if you’re based in the EU).

Decoration Day – Palms

Toronto’s chamber-folk outfit Decoration Day released their debut EP, Blind Contour, back in June, a release which: “chronicl[es] a couple finding and later losing their first true love, resulting in making music together as a sort of cathartic grieving.” Utilising an array of acoustic instruments, the band create bright arrangements tinged with heartbreak, Mara Nesrallah’s vocals rising through it all with a kind of relaxed regret, fierce feelings as voiced from a late night hotel lounge, where the light is low and drink allows a certain romance to creep into the fabric of things.

Blind Contour is out now and available from the Decoration Day Bandcamp page.

Phoebe Bridgers – Motion Sickness

This autumn sees the release of Stranger In The Alps, the debut album from Phoebe Bridgers, an album of country-tinged indie rock. Single ‘Motion Sickness’ shows off her sound, introspective and laden with imagery, yet still buoyed on a firm confidence that makes for a listen at once visceral and deep. And balance seems an important part of the record: “I wasn’t trying to be too lo-fi, too hi-fi, too self-serious, too disingenuous,” Bridgers says. “I feel pretty confident that I’m finding my voice.”

Watch the home tape/karaoke-esque video, directed by Bridgers’ brother Jason, below:

Stranger In The Alps is coming out on the 22nd September via Dead Oceans.

The post Bright Sparks: Vol. 3 appeared first on Various Small Flames.