Praything Archives - Various Small Flames

Best of The Rest: Things We Have Missed #11

Jon Doyle — Sun, 12 Mar 2017 13:45:13 +0000

One of the best/worst things about the whole blogging game is the abundance of great music. Unfortunately there are (still!) only twenty-four hours in a day, most of which are consumed with non-WTD things, so even if we get sent ten great albums then chances are we will only be able to cover three or four. While trying to avoid falling into the listicle trap, we thought the best way to remedy this problem would be a semi-regular round-up, ‘Best of the Rest’, where we include all the songs we think you should hear but don’t quite have the time to tell you why. Inclusion here is no comment on quality – this isn’t a runner-up prize, just things we have missed!

Field Medic – Flash Tattoo

If you’ve been following WTD for any length of time, chances are you already know all about Field Medic (if not, check out reviews here, here and here), and the way he makes folk music for the Twenty-first Century. The latest Field Medic single, ‘flash tattoos’, is yet another example, what feels like a sincere classic folk song at heart, a quietly confident paean to celebrating your differences, but embellished with warm lo-fi pop stylings that keep things genuine and rooted to the ground.

“it don’t pay to be different right now
but sometime I know someday it will”

The song will appear on a forthcoming EP, so keep your eyes peeled for the full release.

Praything – You’ll Be Mine

Praything, the project of Brooklyn’s Ju Kovacevich, is another artist we’ve featured several times (for example here and here). Praything’s first song of 2017 is ‘You’ll Be Mine’, another slice of lush and anthemic indie pop, Kovacevich’s distinctive vocals delicate and vulnerable against steady percussion and bubbling synths, before the whole thing breaks out into a cathartic wordless chorus. Sometimes you don’t need words to express emotion.

On the Other Side – Lincoln Oak

On the Other Side is the solo project of Dwight Miller from Modesto, California. He has an EP out early next month on CA DIY label Make Anything Records, and has recently released the first track, ‘Lincoln Oak’. The sound is emotionally charged, emo-tinged, indie rock, with shades of Pinegrove and Modern Baseball. The label say Miller tries to make “music that isn’t just escape from his problems, but forces him to tackle them head on”, so expect heart-on-sleeve sincerity behind the throaty barked vocals.

She Was My Ryan is due on the 7th of April, and you can pre-order it now from Make Anything Records.

Cassandra Jenkins – Red Lips

New York’s Cassandra Jenkins is soon to release her debut album Play Till You Win, and has just released the second single ‘Red Lips’. The song is a beguiling mix of Emmylou Harris’s country rock, Mazzy Star’s dreamy lingering pop and the strange and emotional synths of the Twin Peaks Soundtrack. The song deals with the encroachment of the digital realm on our lives, and the subsequent impact on our mental health. There are messages woven into the fabric of the track, as Jenkins explains, “Each verse takes on one color from the RGB spectrum: red for love and desire, green for jealousy, and blue for sorrow.” If this is anything to go by, the album will be one to look out for as it takes pop music to new ruminative and thematic depths.

Play Till You Win will be released on April 7th through Jenkins’s own label Cassandra Complex, which she set up as a means of making “social commentary in a way that is accessible and beautiful”. You can order it now from Bandcamp.

ULTRAS – Team Handed

The moniker of Scottish multi-instrumentalist Gav Prentice (formerly Over The Wall), ULTRAS is a veritable melting pot of influences, from pop, rock and traditional folk to electronica and hip-hop. The self-titled debut album, set for release this April, is therefore a diverse listen, though lead single ‘Team Handed’ finds Prentice practicing a similar style to that of Over The Wall. Warm guitar and background ambience are coupled with detailed lyrics that manage to sound both dejected and alive, giving the whole thing an emotive, empathetic vibe that speaks highly of Prentice’s songwriting capabilities.

ULTRAS is set for release on the 28th April via Hello Thor Records and Instinctive Racoon.

On The Water – Sun Temple

Philadelphia-based experimental folk band On The Water have announced their sixth collection of songs, Superposition, to be released in the middle of April. Written by Fletcher VanVliet and featuring an array of contributors both old and new, the release comprises of unorthodox folk songs which seem to fall somewhere between eccentric and organic, playing like thoughts and feelings presented unfiltered. Single ‘Sun Temple’ is a good example of this, eschewing convention to sound like a direct view inside someone’s head, ending up every bit as immediate and weird as that might seem.

Superposition will be released on the 22^nd April and you can pre-order it now from the On The Water Bandcamp page.

Rosie Tucker – Fault Lines

Rosie Tucker is a musician and songwriter from LA. Her latest single, ‘Fault Lines’ is her first new music since her debut album Lowlight, and provides what she describes as an “indie-rock ode to a particular sort of sun-bleached, So-cal feeling of isolation”. Fans of Waxahatchee and Frankie Cosmos will find plenty to like, especially as the songwriting is so strong. As the title suggests, the lyrics use the geology beneath California as a metaphor for movements of a more personal nature.

“California aches on her tectonic plates
she waits to make the break into the sea”

Keep an eye on the Rosie Tucker website for info on future releases.

Sleep Movies – Paper Hat

Sleep Movies is the recording project of Pittsburgh’s Skyler Brimmierer, who featured recently on the Crafted Sounds compilation, Have a nice day. (of which there are a few copies left, if you’re quick). April sees the release of EDG, a hazy-yet warm collection blissful lo-fi pop that plays like a tropical sea mist descending on your day at the beach. Lead single ‘Paper Hat’ serves as a perfect introduction, the vocals fuzzed to the point of indecipherability, yet losing nothing in their message thanks to the expressive delivery and idyllic vibes. As such, the track is temperate and hospitable, allowing the listener to relax back into its cloudy embrace. As the press release suggests: “Watch TV in your dreams, and flip on Sleep Movies.”

EDG is out on the 13^th April via Crafted Sounds and you can pre-order it now in both digital and physical formats via Bandcamp.

Panther Hollow – Jamie

NYU music composition graduate Bernardo Ochoa writes and performs for Modern Diet, Ackerman, and a variety of other Brooklyn-based bands, though Panther Hollow is his personal recording project. With the help of Matti Dunietz (drums), Dan Hemerlein (bass) and Evan Lane (trumpet), Ochoa has put together an EP, People Synesthesia, which pulls inspiration from all directions to form what the press release describes as a “stylistically diverse collection of portraits and transient feelings.” While lead single ‘Office’ was a fuzzy slice of grungey garage rock, second single ‘Jamie’ uses banjos and mandolins in support of Ochoa’s gentle, wistful lyrics to create something altogether more pacifying.

People Synesthesia is set for release on the 31st May.

The Saxophones – New Tradition

You may remember us writing about The Saxophones back in August, when we reviewed their debut EP, If You’re On the Water. Excitingly, the 3-song single is now getting the release it deserves on Full Time Hobby. To celebrate, the band have released a video for ‘New Tradition’, a track we described in our review as a “slow dream pop song, like a sad croon in a sparsely filled dance hall, Alexi Erenkov’s sax snaking around and conjuring an almost Lynchian, noirishly romantic vibe”. The video takes a slightly different tack, setting the song to footage of a bright summer day, and one man’s attempts to shake off a sense of gloom.

You can get If You’re on the Water now on 7″ vinyl or digital download from Full Time Hobby.

Day Joy – Fumbling

A few months back we featured ‘Florida’s Warm’, the new song (after a three year hiatus) from Michael Serrin’s Day Joy project. We described the track as, “[not] hopeful so much as hopeful of hope, the narrator holding on to the image of a brighter day, homesick and half-tortured by the slim possibility of the chance the sun might rise once more, bringing a thaw that might allow some sensation to return to frost-bitten limbs”.

Making good on his promise to release the album single by single, Serrin has now unveiled ‘Fumbling’, our second taste of the direction Day Joy will take on the new record. The track is a slow burning ballad, Serrin’s plaintive vocals laid on top of melancholy piano, gentle percussion and winding atmospherics. It’s a stunningly accomplished piece of work that’s wrought with emotion and certainly has us eagerly anticipating the rest of the record.

The post Best of The Rest: Things We Have Missed #11 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

October 2016 Roundup

Jon Doyle — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 20:01:59 +0000

Here’s a mixtape of songs by all the acts we featured during October 2016. As usual, click on the artist name to be whizzed off to read more about the artist in question. And click on the Playmoss button at the bottom to hear the thing front to back.

Tracklisting:

1. prairie creek redwoods state park, ca – bedbug
2. See the World – Kidsmoke
3. Motion | Sickness – Good Good Blood
4. Downtown – Gabriella Cohen
5. Automatic – Kyle Morton
6. Throwing Roses – Eva Foote
7. vildt+sødt – Eugenia
8. Dicktations Forever – Dicktations
9. Fallen Robin – Wild Leaves
10. Palms – Native Other
11. Not Your Prey – Squirrel Flower
12. Luna – Akira Kosemura
13. Made of Gold – Albert af Ekenstam
14. She Floats – Van-Anh Nguyen
15. Dead Radiance – Ego Death
16. Sponge State – Sløtface
17. Black Mass – Wooden Maria
18. Float – Silver Liz
19. glass machines discovering water – Corvus B.
20. Longshot – The Furious Season
21. The Same Chords – Tiger in My Tank
22. Let’s Go to the Beach – Sophie Longshaw
23. Blue Moon – Many Voices Speak
24. One Footed – MAH KEE OH
25. Country Room – Static Animal
26. The Ground Before Him – Drowning By Numbers
27. Refugee – Cameron James Henderson
28. down (kenny) – ever
29. Strange Tones – Youceff Kabal
30. Don’t Let Love Go By – Golden Suits
31. Sit and Stare – Tiny Dinosaurs
32. Settle Down – Dark Mean
33. telegraph ave. – Betty Becky
34. WEN – glider
35. Nicholas – Holiday Oscar
36. Lyse Striber – True Strength
37. Careless – Stationary Suns
38. Vulnerable – Mark Timmins
39. On & On – Reuben Hollebon
40. Recoiled – William Ryan Fritch
41. Lonely Girl – Praything
42. Drinking the Same Water – Katie Spencer
43. Get It Right – Magana
44. Cheer Up Free Your Mind – Jenny O.

That was October 2016, and if you like what you see/hear, why not check out the other months too?

The post October 2016 Roundup appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Praything unveil new single, ‘Lonely Girl’

Jon Doyle — Fri, 21 Oct 2016 17:38:23 +0000

As we told you a few weeks ago, Ju Kovacevich, AKA Praything, is slowly but surely re-entering the music world. Teaming up with Loose Narrative, Kovacevich re-released his old single ‘Soon Soon’ as a refresher, and has now returned with a brand new single to really whet our appetites.

‘Lonely Girl’ is an electro-tinged folk pop song, straddling the line between traditional country ballads and contemporary, experimental songwriters such as Perfume Genius and current-Bon Iver. As Kovacevich explains: ‘I wrote and recorded this song on a late rainy night in Brooklyn a few minutes after I received a break-up text. I wanted to write a 21st century Tom Waits murder ballad – or at least, that was my intention. The day after, I showed it to a friend and I think his reaction sums it up best: “You okay, bro?”‘

Praything will release a full album in 2017 on Loose Narrative, so keep your eyes peeled for that. In the meantime, you can grab ‘Lonely Girl’ via iTunes or listen via Spotify, and check out his previous release on the Praything Bandcamp page.

The post Praything unveil new single, ‘Lonely Girl’ appeared first on Various Small Flames.

September 2016 Roundup

Jon Doyle — Mon, 03 Oct 2016 18:21:41 +0000

Yep, it’s that time of month again… THE END. Which this time means that summer is a distant shimmer in the evening sky, leaves are starting to get a little twitchy re. their position as green/alive/hanging from trees, and those of us in and around universities see the sudden influx of eager people and sharpened pencils.

If any of the above points make you feel a little down, here’s a playlist of every band we featured during September to cheer you up. As always, click the artist name in the tracklisting to be whisked away to the specific post.

Tracklisting:

1. Hidden Driver – LVL UP
2. Death – CHUCK
3. Seskinore – Hiva Oa
4. Shut Out the Light – Tiny Dinosaurs
5. Foothills – Simon Balto
6. Lie 2 Me – Shana Falana
7. annie – moving in
8. A Lonely Road – Jordan O’Jordan
9. Augustine – The Chairman Dances
10. Golden – Mt. Wolf (feat. St. South)
11. I – Slenko & McKeys
12. zszs – rgz
13. Meditations – Tall Ships
14. Tossing & Turning – Saint Clementine
15. Century Woods – Lisa/Liza
16. Clear Section – Spartan Jet-Plex
17. Trancendless Summer – Peter Silberman
18. Where We Began – Tilman Robinson
19. will you?/you will – Fossil Jane
20. Ya w/Me? – Lomelda (from Swell Tone’s Summer of Sad)
21. Soon Soon – Praything
22. Drive – Mere Women
23. See Through – Suzy Callahan
24. Untitled (Slow) – Jana Irmert
25. Beyond the Stars – The Edge Of The Light
26. Northern Arm – Evening Hymns
27. It’s Not Real – Hazel English

You can check out the previous monthly roundups here, and our various other playlists and mixtapes here.

The post September 2016 Roundup appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Praything – Soon Soon

Liam Doyle — Wed, 28 Sep 2016 17:50:42 +0000

Back in 2013, we wrote a short post about a video for ‘Soon Soon’, a single from Praything’s Her Skin Caught The Glow EP (which featured on our Best Free Music of 2012 list). In preparation for new music, Ju Kovacevich has teamed up with Loose Narrative to re-release the single as a way of re-familiarising us with his sound, so we thought we would follow the recycling lead and re-share a modified version of our post.

As beautiful as the song itself, the video for ‘Soon Soon’ is made up of black and white time-lapse photography of clouds and landscapes, capturing the both the epic nature of the track but also its sense of peace and the palpable passing of time. In the unveiling, Kovacevich revealed his inspiration for the song and his reasons for making the video:

“A few weeks ago, the person who inspired “Soon Soon” prematurely passed away. She was a mother and I wrote ‘Her Skin Caught The Glow’ about her daughter. It was difficult to communicate with her in the few times I met her. The right side of her body was paralyzed. Her speech was limited to mostly yes’ and no’s. Yet she was always lively, funny, and sassy. She laughed and gossiped with her daughter. She always complained about the food they served at the nursing home. She loved Virginia Slims and McDonald’s Iced Coffee. Her love for her daughter always showed through in the conversations I had with her.While her speech in dialogue was severely limited, she was able to sing full stanzas of songs from memory. The first time I met her, I was stunned to hear her sing a line or two of a love song she remembered. She lifted up her mobile arm and gracefully gestured toward the sky. Every word was sung beautifully. Every note was perfect.

With “Soon Soon”, I wanted to create a physical world that was timeless and unfamiliar. Slowing down the beautiful time lapses Brian shot made the clouds and light dance playfully. I saw new rhythms appear in the heavens. While not being religious myself, I wanted both the video and record to at least attempt to create a place of spiritual calm.

The video is dedicated to her, and the little time I had the pleasure of spending with her.

May she find calm soon.”

You can visit the Loose Narrative website for further information, including links to Spotify and iTunes.

The post Praything – Soon Soon appeared first on Various Small Flames.

May 2014 Roundup – A Mixtape

Jon Doyle — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 18:17:00 +0000

A collection of songs from artists that were featured on Wake The Deaf throughout the month of May. Dig in.

Tracklist:

1. Kids Will Be Kids – Praything
2. Do You Have Romantic Courage – Hallelujah The Hills
3. The Shore And The Coastline – Now Wakes The Sea
4. The Corrections – Alphabetical Order Orchestra
5. Give Me Time – Roo & The Howl
6. To Remember – City States
7. Vow – Sales
8. In The Rain – Cut Ribbons
9. Feel What – Jacques Greene
10. Down On My Luck – Vic Mensa
11. Greater Than – Sharpless
12. Tennis Court (Flume Remix) – Lorde
13. Warehouses – Kane Ikin
14. Wild Geese – Small Sur
15. Youth – Best Wishes
16. Early Morning – Eagle Lake Owls
17. Dust To Settle – Rough River
18. Slow Down – Scott Orr
19. Gray Lodge Wisdom – Will Stratton
20. Brother, Do You Know The Road? – Hiss Golden Messenger
21. Something Like That – Wolf Collage
22. Muscle and Bone – John Joseph Brill
23. All Your Promises – Jesse Marchant
24. Echo Tropism – Inventions
25. Veiled Grey – Christian Löffler
26. All I Want – Dawn Golden

If you missed them, we have such mixes for January, February, March and April too.

May Mix from Wake The Deaf on 8tracks Radio.

The post May 2014 Roundup – A Mixtape appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Praything – Heavun EP

Liam Doyle — Mon, 05 May 2014 17:14:13 +0000

We have featured Praything, aka Ju Kovacevich, several times previously here at Wake The Deaf (his Her Skin Caught The Glow EP featured on our best free music list of 2012). Well now he’s back with a brand new EP entitled Heavun.

Kovacevich describes Heavun as “some corny ass songs I wrote about dying”. It seems he left out the part that said that these corny ass songs are also really good. The overall mood is a little more poppy this time around, falling somewhere in the region of Cloud Nothings and You Won’t. Tracks such as opener Kids Will Be Kids, and Mary, retain the earnest tenderness of previous releases, but also have a bounce, an injection of indie rock toe-tapping rhythms. All these factors considered, the end result is something rather glorious.

Fans of Praything’s previous releases can rest assured that is is also pretty great. Fans of indie pop acts such as Yellow Ostrich, Tokyo Police Club and Born Ruffians would do well to check this out too.

You can buy the EP right now on a pay-what-you-want basis over at Praything’s Bandcamp page.

The post Praything – Heavun EP appeared first on Various Small Flames.

The Covers Mix: Volume #6

Jon Doyle — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:56:00 +0000

Welcome to the sixth edition of our Covers Mix. Once again we present 20 covers that we like a lot and think that you will too. If you missed any of the previous volumes than check them out – One, Two, Three, Four, Five.

Tracklisting:

1. Borrowed Tune (Neil Young Cover) – Field Report*
2. Someone Like You (Adele Cover) – Shipwrecks & Island of Misfit Toys
3. Good Good Things (The Descendents Cover) – Edsel
4. Ceremony (New Order Cover) – Chromatics
5. Angels (The XX Cover) – KOTKEE
6. Dark Eyes (Bob Dylan Cover) – Dirty Projectors
7. If I Had No Place To Fall (Townes Van Zandt Cover) – Nathaniel Rateliff^
8. Dancing in the Dark (Bruce Springsteen Cover) – Praything
9. From the Soil, a Violin (Goose Lake Cover) – Wand (formerly First Nations)
10. I Can’t Talk About It (El Perro Del Mar Cover) – His Clancyness
11. Such Great Heights (Postal Service Cover) – Iron & Wine
12. From The Morning (Nick Drake Cover) – Pickering Pick
13. Night Moves (Bob Seger Cover) – Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson^
14. Hang Me, Oh Hang Me (Traditional) – Daniel Rossen
15. My Dreams Have Withered and Died (Richard and Linda Thompson Cover) – Angel Olsen & Marissa Nadler
16. No Ordinary Love (Sade Cover) – The Rosebuds
17. You Aint Seen Nothing Yet (Bachman Turner Overdrive Cover) – Yo La Tengo
18. Indian Sunburn (Schooner Cover) – Wesley Wolfe
19. Ohio (Damien Jurado Cover) – Neil Halstead*
20. I See a Darkness (Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy Cover) – Johnny Cash

* = taken from Fuel/Friends Chapel Sessions
^ = taken from Daytrotter Sessions

Please remember to support the artists! We’ve included links on the tracklisting that will take you somewhere more specific for each band so be sure to check out their original material. Also visit Daytrotter and Fuel/Friends, the sessions they do are well worth your time.

The Covers Mix: Volume #6 from Wake The Deaf on 8tracks Radio.

The post The Covers Mix: Volume #6 appeared first on Various Small Flames.