Featuring:

Petal – I’m Sorry
Wild Pink – The Seance On St. Augustine St
Big Thing – Spin
Bombshell Nightlight – Death Day
Mount Goldie – Summer
Elsa Lester – Pretty Bad, Man
Why Bonnie – Gold Rush
Devon Welsh – Vampires
Max García Conover – Another Travelling Man
Floating Room – Dog
Izaak Opatz – Bathing in the Ganges
Free Cake For Every Creature – Around You
Indigo De Souza – Home Team
Museum Food Court – bad song
Crisco Dreams – I Like Your Bed
You’re Sister – I Think About You
Russel the Leaf – Let ‘Em Run
Fresh – Daytime
Stevhen Peters – Phone Talk
Tender Age – Don’t Mind
Lord Youth – Do You Have Anything To Add?
Quiet Hollers – Addicted
Blue J – Hard to Know
Post Moves – The Arc of Life
Angus & Julia Stone – Nothing Else
Gia Margaret – Birthday
Sun June – Discotheque
Campdogzz – Souvenir
Field Report – Every Time

*(Due to various issues of availability and licensing, neither playlist has the complete quota of acts, but welcome to the modern age).

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.

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

Despite opener ‘Little Songs’ declaring the narrator to be “done with tiny songs,” Rock Combo consists almost entirely of sub-two minute tracks, with the only two that pass the 180 second mark doing so by twelve and twenty seconds respectively. Instead, Russel the Leaf focuses on creating tight yet playful songs with a retro flavour, pop distilled into its purest form and presented in bite-size nuggets. So, whether the mood be the runaway energy of ‘Out of My Head’ or more heartfelt and affectionate as on ‘Set It On Up,’ Marré maintains a brand of carefree energy that seems to belong in days now past, captured in film photographs from disposable cameras, any blurring of light leaks only added to the character.

Lead single ‘Let ‘Em Run’ is the archetypal example of Russel the Leaf’s aesthetic. The leisurely waves of instrumentation lap at your ear before carrying Marré’s vocals in too, though his lyrics almost merge into the song so as to become part of the tidal rhythm, allowing for a sound that is buoyed by its own energy. The song comes complete with a suitably lo-fi video directed by Karl Bertrand, so check it out below:

Rock Combo is out on the 25th July via It Takes Time Records and Bee Side Cassettes. Head on over to the Russel the Leaf Bandcamp page to grab all of the previous releases. Finally, Marré is going on a short tour later this summer, and you can find the date below.

August 10th – Philadelphia, PA
August 11th – Brooklyn, NY
August 12th – Troy, NY
August 13th – Saratoga Springs, NY

Photo by Ron Atkins, artwork by Meg Mccauley 

The post Russel the Leaf – Rock Combo appeared first on Various Small Flames.

When we heard that Super Fan 99 was releasing Talking Quietly of Anything With You and “Pretty Good” on one cassette for European audiences, we thought it would be a good time to have a chat with Bennett to explore her songwriting and the reasoning behind her transatlantic venture.

Hi Katie, thanks for speaking with us! You have just re-released two of your albums, “Pretty Good” & Talking Quietly of Anything With You in the UK and Europe on Super Fan 99. How did that opportunity come about? And are you excited to share your music with a whole new audience?

Hey, thank you! Luke Barham, owner of Super Fan 99, messaged me on Facebook about six months ago asking if I’d want to put out a cassette with them. I was excited by the idea of having tapes available in the UK because we’d ultimately like to go and play over there. I checked out the Super Fan website, loved the sounds and look of their label, and trusted Luke to make our release special.

There are also plans to cross the Atlantic for your first UK tour. That must be really exciting. Have you visited the UK before? Is there anywhere you’re particularly excited to visit/play in?

I may have been a little premature in revealing our plans to tour the UK, because as of right now we don’t have the funds to, but it’s definitely in our long-term plan. We’ve never played outside of the US & Canada, and I’ve never been to Europe save for a trip to London with my family when I was eleven. But we’ll get there!

The cassette also comes with a mini zine that you have made. What can people expect from that?

The zine contains a series of diary entries I wrote over the course of our progression as a band. It gives a little insight into how starting a band and getting over insecurities can be extremely difficult, but is ultimately extremely rewarding.

Your songs always sound very personal. Are they based on your own experiences? Do you keep a diary or something that forms the basis of your songs?

My songs are always based on my own experiences, and often the seeds of them come from things I’ve discovered through writing a journal entry. Initially, when I didn’t think people would ever hear my songs, I would write and record them in the midst of a strong feeling as a way to document that feeling and my personal history in general.

I love to listen to these kinds of audible journal entries/ “demo” songs from other artists, and I continue to make them myself (while also often focusing on crafting songs). Now that I’m aware there’s a small audience for my music, I’ve been holding onto these sorts of songs and thinking about how/ if I want to put them out. I’ve been curating more, thinking about my intentions, and asking myself, “What do I want to say/ show by sharing this?” because I know people will be asking that of the songs and I want to have an answer.

At least to me, Talking Quietly of Anything With You, is about getting older in your own way, about leaving behind teenage years but not completely all the feelings that go along with them. Would you say this a fair assessment? Is the album about a specific period in your life, and if so, what inspired it?

The album is for/ about anyone who is in a period of transition, is unsure of their life-plan, or just likes pop music and enjoys a little humor/ absurdity.

That being said, I wrote the album in my early 20s, and I think you’re right in saying that that specific time period is heavily reflected in the lyrical content of the album. It was a difficult time for me, between moving somewhere new, trying to find a job, trying to make new friends, etc. In many ways, even though it’s been a few years since I wrote those songs, I still feel and relate to that struggle. Now I’m just used to the feeling of being unsettled, it isn’t oppressive.

Is there anything else that you consider a major inspiration? Perhaps books, films, other people’s music?

Yes to all! I spend a lot of time reading, and often I’ll come across a word or phrase that jolts me and I’ll have to stop and write a poem or song or journal entry. I recently re-read two books that I’ve loved for years and that inspire me a ton: Diane di Prima’s “Recollections of My Life as a Woman” and Kate Zambreno’s “Green Girl.”

The final track On “Pretty Good” is a cover of REM’s ‘It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)’, a song which seems pretty relevant in light of recent events. Without asking you to provide a hot take on US/global politics, what’s your take on all this? And how can we all do a little to fight bigotry and hate?

Keep doing the work you love and believe in. Keep going, be bold, don’t be afraid.

Last month, thirty six beautiful artists and musicians, some of whom I’d met and many of whom were friends of friends, lost their lives in the Ghost Ships fire in Oakland. Since then, conservative groups (fueled & encouraged by Trump’s win) have been using that horrific event as an excuse to try and shut down artist’s spaces by harrassing them online and telling fire departments the spaces are “unsafe.” A few places we were supposed to play on this tour got moved because they’d been threatened. Someone even brought a gun into one of the spaces the previous month and shot the ceiling. The threat is real and ridiculous, and while safety is our priority, we can’t just stop playing shows and making music because we are afraid. Making music and playing shows and connecting to that community is a life-line for me and for so many people.

Finally, could you name 4/5 bands or artists that you’re into at the moment. They can be brand new or golden oldies, whatever you’ve been listening to.

I’m so lucky and grateful that people from my favorite music projects are touring with me as the free cake band. Drummer Francis Lyons plays/ records as ylayali, lead guitar Evan Marré is Russel the Leaf and bassist Heeyoon Won is Boosegumps.

You can get “Pretty Good” & Talking Quietly of Anything With You as a double tape and zine package from Super Fan 99 Records, and be sure to check out the Free Cake For Every Creature Bandcamp page for previous releases.

The post Interview: Free Cake For Every Creature appeared first on Various Small Flames.