Back in June we introduced Recurring Common Dream, the forthcoming EP from Great Klons, describing how the release ups the ante on its rather chaotic predecessor. Written and recorded amid a time of turmoil both personal and political, the EP sees Scott Klon and co. expand their already inventive, genre-bending sound to match the uncertainty of the moment. After lead single ‘More Beauty in the Rain‘, Great Klons are now back with follow-up ‘Hidden Signage’. A vivid slice of indie pop rooted in both driving percussion and fresh guitar which uses vocal harmonies and electric violin to further amp up the emotional resonance. And emotional the track is, proceeding with a decidedly wistful air, reflecting on imperfect times with the inevitable fondness we hold for the past.

‘Hidden Signage’ is out now on streaming services.

henry o henry – The Fool

Born in Dublin but now “thirty years a US immigrant,” henry o henry makes music that observes the US from the perspective of an adopted son. He has spent years “absorbing the country’s mythologies” while working various trades across the country (an image that evokes Whitman’s I Hear America Singing), but he has retained ties with his roots too. “Ireland is the DNA of the thing,” as he puts it, “the thing before every other thing.” In September, he will release an album Apocrypha on Western Vinyl. It brings together a collection songs in the lineage of Cale and Drake and Cohen, which function as dispatches from his personal vantage point, or as the press release puts it “the specific weight of being somewhere for a long time without quite being from there.” Lead single ‘The Fool’ is the ideal entry point, a song worn and wistful and weathered but with a glint in its eye, moving with a sincerity and easy grace that comes with experience.

Josaleigh Pollett – Cherry

We’ve written about Josaleigh Pollett‘s new full-length If I Let It Quiet plenty in recent months, with singles like ‘Radio Player‘, ‘The Witness‘, ‘Like a River‘ and ‘Bed of Quiet‘ all suggesting the album will be a fitting follow-up to its predecessor In the Garden, By The Weeds. With the record out now via Audio Antihero and Lavender Vinyl, the Salt Lake City-based artist has shared final single ‘Cherry’ in celebration, and the track is every bit as evocative as we’ve come to expect. Displaying Pollett’s uncanny ability to combine the resonant emotion of memory with the tactility of the present moment, the song emerges through dappled electronics and announces itself with forthright clarity.

We break like belonging,
We’re broken like bread,
When you look you don’t see it,
Don’t know where we’ve been,
From two of us brothers
To both of us dead,
Laid to rest in the 90’s
in the back seat of a van

Jude Brothers – Desire & Devotion

Jude Brothers describes herself as an “Arkansas-forged and New Mexico-moulded folksy leaning singer songwriter with a penchant for whimsy and tender heartedness,” which is just about the perfect introduction. Later this year, she will release Dogwood Maiden Voyage, a collection of timeless folk songs built on the foundations of harp and voice, which she says “reckons with the costs of surrendering wholly to love.” Latest single ‘Desire & Devotion’ does just that, a hymn-like timeless folk song that is suffused with all the doomed romance of a Brontë novel. “How can you doubt me now?” Brothers asks in the line that gives the track its title, “My love ain’t no solemn vow! It is a churning sea.”

King’s Evil – S/T

Stemming from a discussion at a tiki bar back in early 2020, King’s Evil is a new project between Sami Martasian of Puppy Problems and JM Dussault of (T-T)b. The pair, already established as some of Boston‘s most interesting songwriters, imagined a new vehicle for songwriting where the stakes were slightly lower and the scope for invention expanded. A place where they might take risks otherwise avoided in their usual work. The eventual result, a self-titled EP coming via Worry Bead Records, is a testament to the power of such a spirit of working, one which eschews the usual desire to plan and demo songs in order to fully lean into the moment, not to mention that of collaboration. “To hear them say it,” as the label states, “King’s Evil is a project explicitly about the community and solidarity you build in proximity to other artists you admire. Finding energy and freedom in allowing someone else you admire to figuratively root around in your brain.” Listen to the title track now:

Legit Smitty – Picture In My Wallet

Jake Smith, aka Legit Smitty, wrote his forthcoming new record This Living Ain’t That Hard following a serious car accident while on family vacation in Hawaii. Such a near-death event understandably brought a newfound perspective, and the album is an expression of that. As Smith puts it, he is more determined than ever to “continue to share his heart in order that others might feel more at home in their own skin.” Latest single ‘Picture In My Wallet’ is a good introduction, a downbeat but still hopeful song which Smith says “details how his love will remain unchanging, as will his faults.”

‘Picture In My Wallet’ is available now on streaming services. Stay tuned for news on This Living Ain’t That Hard.

oh, hooray – MY BROTHER’S NEW BLACK EYE

A few weeks ago we featured a couple of tracks from the city has teeth i think i saw them once, the new record from Houston‘s oh, hooray. We described those songs as “fatalistic, furious and at least halfway triumphant,” calling them “dispatches from the American present, a time we might label ‘late capitalism’ if only the late didn’t seem such an overly optimistic diagnosis.” That description holds up across the record, but some songs are more personal in scope than others. A good example is ‘MY BROTHER’S NEW BLACK EYE’, which details an exasperating relationship with the title’s mercurial sibling. “‘MY BROTHER’S NEW BLACK EYE’ is about my brother,” describes lead Jamie McDonald. “I love him, I hate him, I am confused by him, I support him, I resent him. No matter how much he has alienated myself or my family, he will always be just that. My Brother.”

the city has teeth i think i saw them once is out now and available from the usual places.

Promiseland BBQ x Tory Silver – Where’d All the Firemen Go?

Promiseland BBQ is the recording project of Ross Weidman, originally from West Virginia and now based in Pasadena. We last featured his music back in 2023, writing about the album Murder In The Friendly City, which explored his parents hometown in blue collar Appalachia following the death of his mother. He released another EP, Promiseland BBQ Airways, last year, and is now back with a new standalone single, ‘Where Did All the Firemen Go?’ Altogether more lighthearted than the last album, Wediman says the song, a full band arrangement including Tory Silver on vocals, “imagine[s] a world where everyone got the job they wanted,” a laidback and swaying country rock jam that sees a cast of characters swap professions and bemoans the loss of a certain brand of smalltown hero.

You can download ‘Where Did All the Firemen Go?’ now from the Promiseland BBQ Bandcamp page.

Sand Duney – Saw You In the Roses

September will see the release of Plant Material, the debut full-length from Sand Duney (Portland, Oregon songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jess Jones), via the triple threat of Orindal Records, Anything Bagel and Bud Tapes. As per the press release, the record “explores a deepening of selfhood, love, and understanding the natural world,” while searching for “hope and a daily rhythm in a world that’s changing in massive and indecipherable ways.” Our first glimpse is ‘Saw You In the Roses’ a giddy, ambling psych pop song that continues the signature Sand Duney style, what we have described in the past as “equal parts meditative and energetic.” Jones plays every instrument, from guitar and bass to pedal steel, organ and drums, layers which reel and swim around her relaxed and composed vocals. Check out the video, directed and edited by Dawn Riddle, below:

Plant Material will be released on 4^th September and is available to pre-order from the Sand Duney Bandcamp page.

Sera Cahoone – Not How I Hoped

Alongside drumming for acts such Carissa’s Wierd and Band of Horses, Seattle’s Sera Cahoone has developed rich oeuvre of solo work, starting with the dusky, melancholic self-titled album back in 2006. Twenty Years on, Cahoone is preparing to release her fifth full-length I’ve Missed You All These Years via Sub Pop, and it seems time has only deepened her warm and aching sound. As its title suggests, latest single ‘Not How I Hoped’ confronts disappointment and regret with unerring candour, the clarity of Cahoone’s voice supported by a vivid arrangement featuring violin, pedal steel, piano and Hammond organ. “This song flew out of my broken heart many moons ago,” Cahoone explains. “It was the first song I wrote for this record. It’s quite sad, but writing it really helped me work through those hard feelings.”

Watch the video below, made by Cahoone herself along with Adam Evarts and Arriba Media LLC:

I’ve Missed You All These Years will be released on the 28th August via Sub Pop and you can pre-order it now.

W. Y. Huang – Running Into Walls

Last month, we introduced On Stranger Hills, the forthcoming new record from Singapore-born, New York-based singer-songwriter W. Y. Huang. Lead single ‘Born to Lose’ “owe[d] a debut to both Daniel Johnston and Adrienne Lenker and drawing on [Huang’s] own immigrant experience,” and now W.Y. Huang has unveiled a second track to further generate anticipation. Titled ‘Running Into Walls’, it’s an introspective indie folk song that the press release says “stages a tender reckoning with inherited trauma and the unbearable weight of survival.” It’s set during a late-night train ride, and captures perfectly the sense of solitude and emotional clarity that such journeys often evoke, mimicking the brain’s tendency to ruminate as the carriage falls silent and dark landscapes fly past the window.

‘Running Into Walls’ is out now and available from the usual places.

The post Weekly Listening: July 2026 #2 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Back in 2024, Richmond, Virginia’s canaries released a self-titled EP, six songs that announced their brand of noisy lo-fi fuzz pop. One home-recorded demo aside, they have been quiet since then, that is until returning last week with a double single, released to coincide with a short tour with fellow Richmond locals Star Sign. Both new songs are great, but opener ‘horsepower’ just about takes it. The opening minute is a wordless rush, raw guitar and building percussion gathering into something genuinely exhilarating. Highly recommended if you like your pop songs on the heavier side and slathered in shoegaze-ish fuzz.

Frontlawn – Jenny Says

New Oberlin-based project Frontlawn have unveiled their debut single ‘Jenny Says’ as a calling card for their tender style of folk. The recording project of songwriters Tyler Buckser-Schulz and Viv Tullis, as well as a variety of friends, Frontlawn is clearly a labour of love, and their lead single sets out their intentions from the off. Recorded live to further the emotional immediacy of the sound, ‘Jenny Says’ is subtle but undeniably rich, possessing the closeness of bedroom pop yet brought to life by a full band, including Meredith Grotevant’s lap steel which adds a wistful country twang. Lyrically, the track is thoughtful and earnest, able to conjure both specific moments and images as well as a more reflective assessment of life’s constant yearning. An act to keep an eye on for sure.

Great Klons – More Beauty in the Rain

“[An] inventive collision of genres, as indie rock, psych, folk and Krautrock influences all coalesce into a singular sound able to explore ideas of instability within the contemporary moment.” So we wrote of an EP by Great Klons back in 2024, songwriter Scott Klon drawing on a wide palette to meet a chaotic present. Though if the circumstances surrounding that release were tumultuous, then latest EP Recurring Common Dream only ups the ante. Devasting wildfires, parental illness, the encroachment of pernicious technology… and that’s just on lead single ‘More Beauty in the Rain’. The track has a decidedly mid-00s feel, carved out of a blend of organic and digital textures and lifted by male-female harmonies, simmering as though always on the verge of firing into something altogether more propulsive yet for the most part retaining its understated, tonally ambiguous rhythm.

‘More Beauty in the Rain’ is out now and available from the usual places.

Hadnot Creek – The End Of The Road

Back in May we introduced Hadnot Creek, the recording project of Charlottesville songwriter Robert Sawrey and his rotating band of supporting musicians (including former members of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Kendall Street Company, no less), in preparation for the release of new full-length The End Of The Road. After single ‘River of Love’ gave a flavour of what to expect (“fans of the likes of James McMurty are sure to find much to love,” as we wrote, “Hadnot Creek sketching a decidedly existential picture of life and death without losing a toe-tapping rhythm”), Sawrey and co. are back with the title track. “[The song] is loosely based on two things,” he explains. “An ill advised camping trip to Vermont I took in 1976 (yes I’m that old) and the suicide of an old friend who battled bouts of mental illness. He was a gifted poet and naturalist.” The result is every bit as evocative as you might expect from this description, with vivid imagery (“Black flies so thick / you could kill them with a rake”) combining with an overarching sense of reflection to paint a picture of a man at the dead of night. A person lost in the wilderness or else the dark twists of his own head and confessing as much as plainly as he knows how.

Hana Stretton – salt / stove

Hana Stretton returns later this summer with a brand new record, the much-anticipated follow-up to 2023 sleeper hit Soon. Titled tiarn, the collection of eleven songs was self-recorded in small-town coastal Australia, taking inspiration from the experience of watching whales pass on a nearby migration route to ruminate on feelings of anxiety and loss caused by living through ecological crisis. Stretton takes this heavy subject matter and spins it into something characteristically calm and evocative, as evidenced by lead singles ‘salt’ and ‘stove’. Fans of Soon will instantly recognise the spacious compositions and warm production, but the first two songs hint at a step toward the ambient, with diverse samples and careful electronics evoking a whole world, ambiguous and dreamlike. Check them out below:

Tiarn will be released on 7^th August via brierfield flood press. If you’re in Aus, be sure to snag a copy of the limited first edition LP, which comes with a beautiful blind embossed eel design. And for those in other locations, records are apparently coming soon.

Lesley Mok – williams landing

Based in New York City, Lesley Mok is a percussionist and interdisciplinary artist whose work spans sound, installation, film and theatre. Next month, Mok will release a new record, titled transient, which label American Dreams describe as “an assemblage of sonic vignettes suffused with introversion, poignancy, nostalgia, and contemplative observation.” Named after the street where Mok grew up, latest single ‘williams landing’ is a piece of opaque but strangely affecting ambient music that not only explores the uncanny nature of memory but attempts to evoke it in the listener. “Memories can feel both elusive and fuzzy in the way they sit in my body,” Mok explains. “But sometimes with a bit of attention and time, details come into focus, and a once-vague memory can suddenly become clear, like a photo negative. I hope that this track can be a space where listeners can resonate with the experience of remembering, no matter how fleeting or fragmentary a memory might be.”

transient will be released via American Dreams on 17th July. Pre-order it now via Bandcamp.

oh, hooray – STATISTICALLY ME / WASTELAND2

oh, hooray is a little more than your usual folk pop outfit. Describing themselves as “an art project that makes celebratory sad music,” the band practise a multimedia approach, supporting their sound with everything from film and stop motion to theatrical and dance-centred performance. In the wrong hands, such artistic diversity might prioritise style or substance, but as latest LP the city has teeth i think i saw them once attests, oh, hooray is rooted in an authentic and impassioned emotional core. Take recent single ‘WASTELAND2’, a slow burn slice of bedroom pop which paints the current moment with equal parts devotion and doom. Or sister track ‘STATISTICALLY ME’, which channels Bright Eyes in its fervent, almost desperate delivery. Both songs play like dispatches from the American present, a time we might label ‘late capitalism’ if only the late didn’t seem such an overly optimistic diagnosis. Fatalistic, furious and at least halfway triumphant, if only because they still have the energy to raise their voice to scream.

today i woke up wishing i didn’t
collecting the last cut of my unemployment
i tried to be right, right in the middle of it
but it’s an eye of storm that i stopped chasin’
so the day that i die i’ll be in blissful anonymity
just a percentage on a screen
statistically me

the city has teeth i think i saw them once is out now and available from the usual places.

Piu – Home

Piu might be the solo recording project of Vancouver Island-based songwriter and composer Priyanka Chakrabarti, but new album Milao is anything but the product of a single person. With a title which translates as “to come together,” the record turns to family history, drawing on the songs and melodies made familiar by the matriarchal line of Chakrabarti’s lineage, passed down the generations and ultimately from Chakrabarti’s mother to herself. The result is at once highly personal and inherently historical, rooted in specific details yet shaped by the partition and other national events. Latest single ‘Home’ is the ideal introduction, where layers of modular and analogy synths combine with striking vocals to create a sound expansive enough to do such grand themes justice. “‘Home’ explores the idea of finding belonging within yourself, wherever you are,” Chakrabarti explains. “Written from experiences of moving through unfamiliar spaces, the piece reflects the search for connection amid uncertainty and change. ‘Home’ is both a place of return and an ongoing process of becoming.”

Shredded Sun – Skyscraper

All three members of Chicago indie rock band Shredded Sun, that’s Nick Ammerman, Sarah Ammerman and Ben Bilow, previously played in trash-pop outfit Fake Fictions, which “tore through Chicago’s underground from 2004 to 2009.” Later, they reinvented themselves as Shredded Sun, which despite not fully hitting its groove until 2022, has been pretty prolific since then. Their sound pulls ingredients from all corners of the indie rock pantry, resulting in something that feels both reassuringly familiar and freshly unpredictable. Later this summer, Shredded Sun will release a new record, Never Odd or Even, via Repeating Cloud. Lead single ‘Skyscraper’ is our first glimpse, a song that combines jangly hooks with Replacements-style rock grit.

SIKADE – greedy heart

Oslo-based singer, songwriter, harpist and producer Linnea Vestre, aka SIKADE, has been releasing a steady stream of singles in recent times as she gears up for the release of her debut full-length. So far songs like ‘body of water‘ (“embodies the balance between intimacy and scale which marks the project”) and ‘eleven‘ (“the line between sensuality and symbolism dissolves […] pushing towards a lushness which is almost cinematic”) have raised the anticipation for the record, and latest single ‘greedy heart’ only furthers the excitement. An embodiment of both the yearning at the heart of the forthcoming album and the dreamy compassion with which Vestre brings it to life, and the ideal balm to the oppressive summer heat which has descended upon us.

‘greedy heart’ is out now via streaming services.

The post Weekly Listening: June 2026 #3 appeared first on Various Small Flames.