Tracklisting:

Restorations – Nonbeliever
Goshen Electric Co. – The Grey Tower
Horse Culture – Follow
Yowler – Where Is My Light?
Desert Liminal – Gauze Cave
Anamon – In 3
Adeline Hotel – Lightning
Lea Thomas – Upstream
Scott Orr – No Phone
Advance Base – Christmas in Nightmare City
Blue Wilson – Golden Eyes
The Sofas – Nothing Major
Lazy Legs – Nosebleed
All Boy/All Girl – Bomb
Strange Ranger – New Hair
Elly Swope – Idea
Dweller – Running
Will Henriksen – Halo
Knuckle Pups – Bottom Baby
Ian Wayne – Guessing
Massage – Crying Out Loud
Recluse Raccoon – Mother America
Interbellum – Ink
Marc Ferrino – Like a Spark
Katie Kuffel – As the Crow Flies
Emily Brown – Sometimes
KASHKA – Holding Steady
Philippe Bronchtein – Me and the Moon
Spencer Segelov – Sacred Songs
Annie Dressner – Fades Away
Belaver – Grave Robber
Of The Valley – Ride Alone
Hour – Give thanks in a special way

The post October 2018 Roundup appeared first on Various Small Flames.

The album opens with ‘Quiet and Curious’, which places DellaValle’s vocals front and centre, above persistent percussion and grand and swirling ambience. It’s an immediate statement of intent, wrought with both a wistfulness and a clear-eyed determination. Follow-up ‘Ride Alone’ builds from humble beginnings, just gentle guitar and DellaValle’s voice, but grows in emotional intensity as it progresses, ending with a near yelled refrain of “if you can brave this storm.” It’s a great song, and one that seems destined to capture the hearts of listeners all around, combining the lush singer songwriter vibes of Gregory Alan Isakov with the raw emotion of Justin Vernon’s early solo work.

DellaValle’s writing is personal and rich with romanticism. You’re probably aware of the usual scientific stereotype of dour pragmatism in a lab coat, but DellaValle shows that (most) actual scientists are nothing of the sort. In fact, he makes a clear link between the wonder and curiosity required for scientific research and the same qualities in art.

For me, writing music, and words, is not entirely different than being a scientist. In researching nature, we stand on edge, on the shoulders of giants, and work on capturing objective truth,” he describes. “An artistic endeavor is not so different: standing on a cliff-edge, casting your net into the unknown, hoping you might pull something back into it. A subjective truth. Something that moves, something takes courage to read out loud. Pursuing nature’s truths is similar to the pursuit of your own.

As if to prove this point, ‘Italy’ is an evocative love song that paints the story of its two characters with delicate brush strokes, DellaValle’s vocals sounding something like Matt Berninger on a mellow summer vacation, drinking white wine on a sunny Mediterranean patio rather than red in a shadowy New York apartment building. ‘Annie’ aches over sombre piano and subtle strings, before the Jesse Marchant vibes of ‘Over Your World’, which barely raises its voice above a murmur, and the stirringly emotional ‘The Tides’, which takes on a mantra-like quality as DellaValle sings “can you read the tides?”

Of the Valley is out now and you can get it via the Of the Valley website.

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Tracklisting:

Dear Nora – White Fur
Lawn – 2000 Boy
Pearl Crush – True Blue
Dead Painters – Fool On Fire
Slowcoaches – Found Down
Two Meters – Left Behind
Kerem Atalay – Winter 2
Pat Moon – I Belong
Blood Hype – Not Too Good
Talons’ – Driving Home From Shows
The Nova Darlings – I Like Crashing My Car (Into Yours)
Dead Sullivan – Swallow
Onlyness – Comfortable
Of the Valley – Italy
Nice Knees – Backout
Suburban Pets – Candy
Minor Moon – It’s Okay
Caroline Lazar – Georgia
Heatwarmer – American Dog
Jacob Furr – Life Comes At You Fast
Deux Trois – Dave
Grace Turner – Dead or Alive
Britton Patrick Morgan – Southern Drawl

The post June 2018 Roundup appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Of The Valley – Italy

Of The Valley is the recording project of Canadian-born, Copenhagen-based songwriter Brian DellaValle. Ahead of a debut full-length that is set for release soon, DellaValle is currently releasing stand-alone singles, beginning with ‘Quiet and Curious’ back in March. The track was a good introduction to the Of The Valley style, a slow, sad and atmospheric brand of folk which supports DellaValle’s affecting baritone vocals.

His latest single, ‘Italy’ follows a similar pattern, wrapped in warm melancholy that brings to mind a later-era Mark Kozelek. Thematically, the track charts a relationship and its slow evolution across time, change as a shaping force, capable of builing and destroying in equal measure. As the press release describes:

“Italy is a voyeuristic slice into a moment between two people. Beauty in such situations can certainly be found between those two, but also between the lines. When something important comes apart, it takes courage and time to find if you can build it back again.”

Slowcoaches – Found Down

London’s pop punk trio Slowcoaches have been putting out tunes as ferocious as they are catchy for a good while now, with 2016’s album Nothing Gives followed by a series of singles. The latest of which, ‘Found Down’, is the lead track from a new two-song release on Sonic Unyon Records. A boisterous, squally listen, the track races around the throaty vocals of Heather Perkins, demanding you join in with the hollered chorus. “on the dirty ground, I gotta grow up, grow up,” she shouts, “you say you want to be around, you never show up, show up.” However, the words are secondary to the sheer energy and attitude bursting from their delivery in cathartic release, a furious shedding of all of life’s soul-destroyingly banal frustrations in a two-and-a-half-minute storm.

The Found Down 7″ is out on the 30th June via Sonic Unyon Records and you can pre-order it from the Slowcoaches Bandcamp page, including on vinyl.

Minor Moon – It’s Okay

We first wrote about Sam Cantor’s Minor Moon back in 2016 when we covered A Whisper, A Shout, an album we described as “fuelled by the insistent dread of self-doubt and bad feeling to [become] something keenly honest and cathartic, yet always coloured with wry self-referential lines about that very process.” This was followed by an EP What Our Enemies Know, and now Cantor and co. are back with ‘It’s Okay’, a brand new single ahead of a future full-length album.

Don’t let first impressions deceive you. The instrumentation of ‘It’s Okay’ is something of a Trojan horse, housing a keen existential anxiety that flourishes in the lyrics. Therefore, while the sound evokes a timeless rock vibe, the themes of the track are actually far more contemporary, detailing the sense of alienation and dread that comes with the creeping ubiquity of technology and mass media. The song sees something of a fight back against this, preaching the idea that any form of resistance and human connection is valuable, and any attempt to be okay is at least some way closer to realising the wish. As Cantor explains: “I can be very cynical and take a dark view of things, but that cynicism is rooted so much in a desire for hope and for a better world.”

You can grab ‘It’s Okay’ from the Minor Moon Bandcamp page, along with the previous releases.

Caroline Lazar – Georgia

Caroline Lazar is a songwriter from outside Atlanta, so new single ‘Georgia’ is aptly named. The track is the first taste of a new EP to be released on My Little Empire Records, and shows off Lazar’s melancholic mix of bedroom pop and folk. The basis of the track is a languorous flow, a slow summer heat that ripples the vocals into a sedated, less immediate form of heartbreak. But heartbreak this track is, detailing a lost love and conflicted hopes of its return. “Why am I hoping that you might be holding someone else?” Lazar laments, “need a better reason to replace your picture on my shelf.”

Caroline Lazar’s EP is to be released soon via My Little Empire Records, so keep an eye on Bandcamp for further news.

Heatwarmer – Here Comes The Band

Heatwarmer are three piece from Seattle, Washington, who put out their latest album, Here Comes The Band last autumn. The record layers rich retro-pop with tongue-in-cheek humour, something like Mike Pace and the Child Actors taken to the next level of irony. ‘American Dog’ is the prime example, a smooth backwards-looking love ballad, though the focus of this emotion is not a beautiful woman or dark and handsome man, but a small, canine US national. Yes, really. The chorus makes it pretty clear:

“Oh oh oh oh my god
I didn’t know I’d feel this way about a little dog

American dog, American dog
I fell in love with an American dog
Good God, I fell in love with an American dog”

Here Comes The Band is out now and you can get it from the Heatwarmer Bandcamp page.

The Nova Darlings – I Like Crashing My Car (Into Yours)

Hailing from Los Angeles, The Nova Darlings are a garage rock four-piece described by their bio as “equal parts violent and tender.” Their sound draws upon influences from either side of the millennium, mixing the 90s guitar of Built to Spill and 00s vibes akin to The Shins with a more contemporary bedroom pop aesthetic that brings to mind The Washboard Abs. As a result, they manage to live up the the bio’s promise, capable of earnest emotion and ramshackle rocking within the very same track.

Since their EP Songs for Felix back in March, the band have been putting out a series of singles. The latest of which, ‘I Like Crashing My Car (Into Yours)’ is the perfect example of the sound we describe above, the tenderness of the vocals juxtaposing with the violence of the title and lyrics, and the carefree rhythm of the instrumentation managing to serve both.

You can grab ‘I Like Crashing My Car (Into Yours)’, as well as the other singles, from The Nova Darlings Bandcamp page.

Jacob Furr – Life Comes At You Fast

We’ve written about Texan songwriter Jacob Furr a few times in the past, first in 2014 upon the release of his debut album Trails & Traces, and then again in 2017 in a belated review of his sophomore record Sierra Madre. The conclusion of the latter post functions as a neat summation of what Furr’s music is all about: “Hope doesn’t have to be a sentimental act or retreat from reality, rather a considered and consistent refusal to give in. [Furr] finds strength in weathering storms, and, what’s more, wants to share that notion with you too.”

Last month saw the release of a brand new single, ‘Life Comes At You Fast’, and again a similar sense runs through the track. The nostalgic Americana sound is the ideal medium to capture the wistful attitude, and the whole thing is dressed in fondness too, as though any sense of melancholy is not so much regret but rather a reminder to feel.

“Running like a river through your dreams
down into the ocean, where nothing is as it seems.
And you watch the seasons change, you listen to the rain,
see the wind that’s tied up in the trees.

And you know just how that feels
Wishing you were free”

‘Life Comes At You Fast’ is available now from the Jacob Furr Bandcamp page, along with his previous releases.

Deux Trois – Dave

Working out of Kingston, Ontario, Deux Trois is something of a Canadian super group, featuring Nadia Pacey (Konig) Benjamin Nelson (PS I Love You) and Ben Webb (Carvings). Ahead of a new eight-song release, Health, the three-piece have been unveiling some singles to get the anticipation up. Following on from the hypnotic and salacious ‘Late Night Girls’, latest song ‘Dave’ moves on to unrequited love and the invisibility it casts over its suffers. The song has something of a dual perspective, the present pining for the titular Dave, but also one positioned ahead of the moment, looking back, free from the clutches of the once consuming conviction of love.

“Dave, I feel like an infant
Dave, just tell me I’m human
you look so sad but didn’t age that bad
drop the glass and struggle hard but
it’s all gone to waste.

At the time I was just a kid
you said you loved me but you never did”

Health will be released on the 8th June in a variety of formats, so keep an eye on the Deux Trois Bandcamp page.

Grace Turner – Dead or Alive

Utilising elements of folk, rock and country, Australian musician Grace Turner crafts songs at once energetic and emotional, the charged sound allowing her to delve into intimate and honest personal difficulties without ever coming off as trite or overwrought.

Latest single ‘Dead or Alive’ is a case in point, the persistent momentum of the drums leading Turner into a haunting exploration of internal suffering and the comfort that human connection can bring in the face of such turmoil. “The lyrics in the chorus are literally transcribed from [a] conversation,” Turner explains. “[A friend] called and said, ‘I didn’t know if you’d be dead or alive’. The whole song was written in about an hour after the phone call.”

“That was so sweet just the other night
You called me just to see if I was alright
You said you didn’t know if i’d be dead or alive
You said you worry so much about me sometimes”

‘Dead or Alive’ is out now and you can snag it at the Grace Turner Bandcamp page.

Britton Patrick Morgan – Southern Drawl

Britton Patrick Morgan is a multi-instrumentalist based in Kentucky who has recently put out his debut album, High Lonesome Throne. The record is rooted in the folk traditions, with Morgan using a 1947 Gibson LG2 parlour guitar to evoke a timeless quality to his sound, despite loving his Huss & Dalton guitar enough to give it the name Jane. “Instruments,” he explains, “much like people, have their own distinct personalities.”

‘Southern Drawl’ is a great welcome into this warm and wistful world, a song drawn forth from an age old existence in the American south, where the landscape colours the essence of life and a kind of patient longing seeps into the fabric of things. Fittingly, the song is pitched somewhere between plaintive and hopeful, a kind and compassionate word into the air in the hope that others might hear.

“I’d try to catch you if you had a fall
nobody’s perfect, we’re all flawed
If you ever need me you can call
And I’ll always love you
with a southern drawl.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYc45eO2pFw

High Lonesome Throne is out now and you can get it from iTunes.

You can find all of the previous instalments of Bright Sparks here, and be sure to check back in a few weeks to see what makes the next edition.

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