Today marks the fifth anniversary of Fox Food Records, and to celebrate James Smith has gathered a large number of the label’s artists for a special compilation, Something’s There But You’re Not Sure What. Essentially a who’s who of the Fox Food roster, the release represents a celebration of what truly independent labels can offer—a diverse group of people from all over the world linked not by a specific sound and style but rather the spirit within.

Opening with an acoustic version of Oh Rose‘s ‘Prom’, Something’s There But You’re Not Sure What features a whole host of our favourites. Nice Legs stop by with another slice of delightfully warm fuzz pop, Spartan Jet-Plex provides an alternate take on single ‘Meant’ and Monarch Mtn returns with his characteristically intimate and melancholic whisper-folk.

Dana Gavanski joins Kaiya Cade on the haunting ‘Garden’, Fazed on a Pony serves up a dose of wonky nostalgia and Goodbye Max welcomes us back into his wistful warmth with the modest wonder of ‘Search Party.’ Then there’s the icy pop of Bloodhype, the whimsical momentum of Plant Food, not to mention the playful hush of Lewtrakimou and cool swagger of Saint Charles. Mixing things up, Henoheno and Fair Mothers offer different takes on patient, sprawling music—the ethereal gloom of the former matched in mood and scope by the foreboding creep of the latter.

Elsewhere, Unisex offer a carefree sway with ‘Let the Tide Take You’, Fairy Godmother a garage rock washed with dreamy haze and the likes of Ratbath, Hairpins, Suzy Jivotovski (of GRNDMS) and Deer Scout all provide stellar examples of intimate bedroom folk. Then, in a fitting finale, Smith’s own Good Good Blood teams up with Astral Social Club for mammoth closer ‘Heathen Astronaut’.

With ambient textures and electronic beeps and glimpses of sincere emotion peeking through the fog, the track acts as a kind of summary of the compilation and therefore the Fox Food Record’s mission as a whole. Heartfelt, experimental, bound not by expectation or convention but rather some gut-level intuition. Together, the elements coalesce into an intangible yet sustained sense of spirit, something far more powerful and lasting than anything done alone. This might not be something than can be adequately put into words, but that it exists is a testament to Smith’s judgement and effort. Because something is there, even if you’re not sure what.

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However, as always, we want to point out that ‘free’ does not have to mean pay nothing in this context. Indeed, the title of the post says ‘free’ music because it’s snappier than ‘name your price’ music, but really that’s a convenient/attention-grabbing misnomer. Last year we spoke about how paying artists makes for the best soil in which to sow creative seeds, and things are no different now. Indeed, with the dawn of Spotify and the all-powerful algorithms, it is more important than ever to support independent artists and labels, and in reality there are already enough free ways to consume music that we don’t need to encourage another.

So please delve into the below list, curated entirely by humans, and spend whatever is left of your Christmas money when you stumble across something you like. We can vouch for the quality of everything here, so don’t be afraid to judge a record by its cover to begin with.

Here’s a handy mix featuring one song from each of the free / ‘name your price’ albums featured:

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Various Small Flames’

Songs of 2017

Anamon – Kneel Old
Android Automatic – Dark Roads*
Angie McMahon – Slow Mover
Basement Revolver – Johnny Pt. 2
Baxter Roy Long – Paribanou
Bea Troxel – Let Them Know
Big Thief – Mary
Black Belt Eagle Scout – Soft Stud
Bully – Running
Cayetana – Mesa
Charly Bliss – Percolator
Chastity Belt – Different Now
CHUCK – Happy Birthday
The County Liners – Maria
The Courtneys – Tour
Craig Finn – God in Chicago
Crumb – Locket
Crushing – Emery Board
Cut Worms – Like Going Down Sideways
David Bazan – Care
Distant Reader – First Try
Emperor X – God Save Coastal Dorset
Fits – Ice Cream on a Nice Day
German Error Message – 2017*
Gleemer – Soothe Me
Great Grandpa – Favorite Show
Haley Heynderickx – Oom Sha Lala
Hiccup – Teasin’
Horse Culture – Texaco
Illuminati Hotties – ‘(You’re Better) Than Ever’
Japandroids – No Known Drink or Drug
Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit – If We Were Vampires
Jay Som – The Bus Song
Jeremy Squires – Night Cars
Katie Ellen – Drawing Room
Lizzie No – Monuments
Lomelda – Bam Sha Klam
Mike Pace and the Child Actors – Audits & Surveys
Meursault – The Mill
Mount Eerie – Crow
Nice Legs – Mighty Three
Oceanator – Nowhere Nothing
Ohyeahsumi – Daisy
Old Earth – Pit Dynamics
PASTEL – Stammer
Peter Silberman – New York
Phoebe Bridgers – Motion Sickness
Pope – Talk Me Out of It
Protomartyr – Windsor Hum
Rainwater – Place
Ratboys – Elvis is in the Freezer
Rick Rude – Bald & Fat in Houston, TX
Roadkill Ghost Choir – Classics (Die Young)
Rose Dorn – Dirt
See Through Dresses – Lucy’s Arm
Shannen Moser – A Funeral, A Friend, My Sanity
Sinai Vessel – Died On My Birthday
Slaughter Beach, Dog – Phoenix
SOAR – Fort Funston
Soft Fangs – Jordan // Jackson Elementary
Spartan Jet-Plex – We Believe
Strange Ranger – House Show
Strawberry Runners – Garden Hose
Timid, The Brave – Alice
Us and Only Us – Bored of Black
Vagabon – Cold Apartment
Viewfinder – Instant Moonlight
The Washboard Abs – Veil
Waxahatchee – Never Been Wrong
Wild Pink – Albert Ross
William Ryan Fritch – In Our Blood
The Wooden Sky – Swimming in Strange Waters
Ylayali – Cherry Tomatoes

*Strictly released in 2016, but barely, and we covered it in Jan. 2017.

If you missed it, you can see our Favourite Albums of 2017 list here. Also, the curious can find such lists from previous years here.

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Tracklisting:

Half Gringa – Marte
CHUCK – Happy Birthday
Ian Terry – Cut
Bea Troxel – Let Them Know
Dana Gavanski – How Long Has It Been?
Honey Joy – Done
Miseryslims – Onto Elm Street
See You At Home – Summer Is a Long Way Off
Camp Counselor – Limo Speech
Windbury Street – Skinny Jeans and Sweaters
Philippa Zawe – Time
Big Baby – Not That
Illuminati Hotties – (You’re Better) Than Ever
Señor Fín – Joe Charmers
M Grig – Still Life I
Jacob Faurholt – A Lake of Distortion
Lazy Legs – Bed Head
Steakhouse – National
Francis – Swing
all-caps LADD – Computer Kids
Happy Abandon -Severed Seams
pastel – Silhouette
Nice Legs – I Never Knew
Tucker Theodore – Our Lady Hope

If you’ve missed more than a month of VSF, or just want some good music to listen to, check out our other Monthly Roundup mixes.

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With Lentz relocating to Japan to make video games (we told you they were cool), times are a’changing for Nice Legs, though luckily for us they teamed up with Fox Food Records to put out a double A-side last hurrah, Strange Family. First is ‘Mighty Three’, a honeyed cinematic rock song, playing like a slow-dance dream where reality is just off, each movement highlighted by a shimmer and shake. As such, the track occupies a curious space between then and now, nostalgia and immediacy combining into what could be fond memory, keen hope for the future, or some psychedelic vision of the present as seen from a sixties summer night.

“Day like today, can’t bare to see the sky.
It’s the most magical sound in the world
and these are magic times”

‘Ashtrays’ is dreamy but in a different way, the background synths swelling and receding in peculiar patterns behind Walker’s vocals. If the previous track was a magical haze then this is a pensive fog, a weird, semi-transparent blanket that clouds the surroundings and forces you into introspection. Still, as you might expect from Nice Legs, the song is far more than some dejected lope, fizzing and popping with quirks and oddities while Walker’s vocals find the perfect pitch, coming to your ears like nostalgia captured and purified.

“My head hurts from smoking
just waiting my turn
when I just want to say
country songs make me homesick”

Strange Family is out now via Fox Food Records (who are unfortunately out of alpine white lathe cut square vinyl) and Campers Rule Records (who’s crystal clear editions are also sold out). Oh well, grab it as a name-your-price download instead!

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Tracklisting:

1. Your Best American Girl – Mitski
2. Shine – Solids
3. Vertebrae – Sam Moss
4. Joy Lies Down – Cloud (Bern Yr Idols comp from Audio Antihero)
5. Near You – Adeline Hotel
6. I Saw You – Outer Spaces
7. Madeline – Yoni & Geti
8. Keep it Light – ARMS
9. Figure It Out – Jake Rollins
10. We Learned to Cry – Adeem The Artist
11. ant hill paradise – Bedbug
12. I’m Young – Erin Tobey
13. coca cola purgatory – Ryder Eaton
14. Muppet Babies – Nice Legs (FRY YR BRN comp from Cereal + Sounds & Z Tapes)
15. Dawn Raid – The Second Hand Marching Band & Benni Hemm Hemm
16. President – Nice Try
17. SHIP – Fake Boyfriend
18. If You Let It – Sioux Falls
19. sorry for not answering the phone, i’m too busy trying to fly away – In Love with a Ghost
20. Clueless – Holiday Home
21. Realistic Birthday Music – Hallelujah the Hills
22. Age of Consent – Cayetana
23. Seattle – Tincho
24. Lance bangs #1 single released on 4/20 – Lance Bangs
25. Cigarettes – Daytime TV
26. Everything Costs – Radical Face
27. Tired of IPAs – talons’
28. Soak – Good Good Blood
29. Heavy as a mountain – Moin Moin

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With an array of styles and influences across the twenty-three songs, there truly is something for everyone. Try Isabel Rex‘s oddly melancholic ode to amusing genetic copies of famous people, MagicPerm’s blissed-out memorial of a forgotten Toon Disney gem and WTD favs Nice Legs‘ surf rock anthem for everybody’s favourite infant puppets. Or maybe you’d prefer Queer Jane’s take on those meddling kids, Lake Michigan‘s bummed-out nod to a semi-fictional Will Smith or Ainsworth’s tribute to Mister Rodgers (and his inspirational acceptance speech)?

Elsewhere, Casper Heyzeus attack their pizza-loving effort with the hyperactive energy of child actors in action figure TV commercials, IZE offer something strange and sultry enough to make Lynch himself proud and Pet Cemetery takes the theme of your teenage angst and makes it seem insular and strange, a song for one of Orange County’s outsiders who never appeared on screen because they were always locked in their gloomy bedroom playing records.

In other words, this is a near-enough perfect compilation for those of us who grew up under the ever-present bombardment of photon-based entertainment. Listen to the whole thing below and let nostalgia burn through the white noise of your image narcosis:

Artwork by Mimi Jaffe

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‘Funny Man Routine’ is not as spiky as anything on Ride With Me, Henry Demos swooping in and smoothing over the edges with fuzzed-out reverb. The vocals sound naive and unsure, less swaggering rock demigod, more odd and eccentric outsider, part Withered Hand, part Evangelicals. Think of the track as a lo-fi surf rock, dream pop encore, simultaneously sunny and strange, capped off with the final lines which are funny and weird and sad all at once.

“Doing my funny man routine for the football team at school.
If I showed them the sad parts, would they walk out on me.
So I showed them the sad parts and they fell in love with me.
So I showed them the sad parts and they cried for me”

You can buy ‘Funny Man Routine’ now from Table People’s Bandcamp page on a pay-what-you-can basis. If you’re in the area, be sure to get to Strange Fruit for 9pm in order to catch Nice Legs, JuckJuck GRUNZIE and Table People’s last hurrah. It’s 5000won + free pizza and Table People merchandise, so you’d be a fool not to go (unless, like us, you’re 9000 miles away). All the details are here.

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Today we are happy to bring you the music video for the track ‘Farewell Navigator, which we described as “lean and wiry indie pop, a song of changes and goodbyes”. It was probably my favourite track on the record, and just gets better when twinned with the charmingly psychedelic DIY video by Henry Demos/Nice Legs’ (and all round good guy) Mark Lentz. Check it out via the Z Tapes Youtube channel below:

Farewell Navigator is surrounded by other good songs on the band’s self-titled début. If you haven’t already then why not grab Naomi Pop via the Z Tapes Bandcamp page? There are still some tapes left! You’ll get a lovely package in the mail which may even include some delicious Slovakian sweets (which are worth the price tag alone, trust me).

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