psych-pop Archives - Various Small Flames

Wastelander – Papa Was a Parasite

Jon Doyle — Tue, 24 Oct 2023 19:43:10 +0000

Last month, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Cooper Formant, AKA Wastelander, released his debut album What is Left of Me. “Although ostensibly a solo record,” as we wrote in a preview, the record drew “upon the wealth of talent in Nashville’s Americana scene,” with the likes of Jo Schornikow, Paul Defiglia (Langhorne Slim, The Avett Brothers), Spencer Cullum and singer-songwriter Erin Rae all featuring. Rae joined Formant for single ‘Be Where’, what we described as “a throwback to the classic folk rock stylings of the Laurel Canyon scene” which sounded “sepia-toned and wistful without abandoning its sunny buoyancy.” An encapsulation of the record in how it paired searching emotion and lush folk sounds.

Fresh off the back of the album, Wastelander has returned with Feed the Ducks, a new EP featuring bonus material and demos complementing the full-length. Songs which might lack the polish of those on the record, but in doing so offer a new dimension to Formant’s work. Take single ‘Papa Was a Parasite’, a psych-pop song recorded at home with an iPad and iRig which uses its DIY aesthetic to further the themes underpinning it. Because as the title suggests, the track offers a picture of being a stay-at-home father and an artist, wrestling with the associated guilt and indignity of living a life contrary to traditional stereotypes and the apparent will of the world. The result is often tongue-in-cheek but always sincere in its message, drawing on influences as diverse as the words of Carmelite monk Brother Lawrence. ““I am doing now what I will do for all eternity,” as the fifteenth-century Frenchman once wrote. To embrace your own life if to find meaning and peace.

Feed the Ducks is out now and available from the usual places.

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Song Premiere: Pop Weirdos – Theory Wars

Jon Doyle — Thu, 28 Jul 2016 11:41:29 +0000

For all of their grey matter, there is little doubt that learned people can think a little too much and let their strong views transmogrify intelligence into ignorance or stupidity. I mean, where else but in academia could people argue with ferocity about whether or not there is an argument to be had (this, for example)? But, as readers of Richard Powers will know, thinkers are humans too, often over-anxious neurotic ones with all-too-breakable hearts, so all this polemic squabbling must take it’s toll.

That’s where ‘Theory Wars’ comes in. The latest single from Atlanta duo Pop Weirdos, the song is taken from a forthcoming EP, Any Old Time. Here Bennett Kane and Jamison Murphy are joined by Richard Sapeta on drums to bring to life this half-paced pop croon, a song which could quite as easily be read as a wistful lovesick strum as an academic satire. The whole thing builds toward a communal sing-a-long finale which brings to mind the joyous choruses of Nana Grizol, thus proving the band are as adept at building up as they are at knocking down.

“I love you the most, she said
worship the droning in my head
I went to school and did my best
to keep you all impressed.

[…]

and it’s clear we’ve gone to war”

Theory Wars by Pop WeirdosAny Old Time has no release date as of yet but be sure to keep an eye on the Pop Weirdos Facebook and Bandcamp pages for further updates. While you are there, why not check out the band’s previous releases?

Cover by Wyatt Kane

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Chain Wallet announce new self-titled album with ‘Muted Colours’

Jon Doyle — Wed, 29 Jun 2016 18:09:13 +0000

Chain Wallet is Stian Iversen, Christian Line and Frode Boris, a trio from Bergen, Norway. Despite only having been in existence for little over a year, the band have garnered a fair amount of attention through a couple of great singles and European tours and recently signed with Oslo-based label Jansen Plateproduksjon in preparation for the release of their self-titled debut album.

The record, which explores “themes of betrayal, idleness and crushed dreams”, charts the existential breakdown of an troubled protagonist, delving into what Boris describes as “his self-indulgent pity, gradual loss of touch with reality and his forlorn attempts on returning to normal life”. As you might expect, such a record is fractured and pretty and strange, almost transcendentally rich yet underpinned with a certain nagging sadness, the vague subconscious knowledge that reality is waiting, unchanged, for their return. As Boris continues:

“The abrupt disintegration unveils interesting tensions between urgency and inertia. The album is about fragmented memories, unfulfilled ambitions and the quiet whisper of a stranger”

‘Muted Colours’ is the first single from Chain Wallet. As with much of their music to date, the song occupies a strange space between good-time pop escapism and melancholy shoegaze. The shimmering haze adds a certain sense of nostalgia for times past and dissolves the distinction between happy and sad so that they conjoin into one dense, glittering fog.

Chain Wallet is due for release on the 7th October via Jansen Plateproduksjon. In the meantime, you can check out their previous singles via the Chain Wallet Soundcloud page.

Photo by Synne Sofi Bønes

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