Lead single ‘Reward’ comes from 22° Halo, the recording project of Philadelphia-based songwriter and producer Will Kennedy. We’ve followed 22° Halo for a good while, most recently with album Lily of the Valley on Tiny Library Records. An album which “displayed the easy lo-fi nature that Kennedy projects so well,” as we wrote, “small and soft indie pop songs that handle real-life struggles with a shining sense of hope.” Continuing this style, ‘Reward’ makes for the ideal introduction to True Names. Something in its gentle compassion embodies the project’s spirit, Kennedy’s familiar willingness to broach difficulties with empathy and warmth aligning perfectly with the mission set out by Worry Bead Records.

Album art by Sami Martasian

The post True Names: a benefit compilation for the Trans Youth Emergency Project appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Here is a list of songs from 2020 that we liked but didn’t get around to writing about.

If you find something you like, follow the link in the embed to support the artists and labels on Bandcamp. And of course, there is a whole year’s worth of pieces on releases we did manage to write about, so have an explore through our reviews, previews and interviews from 2020.

The post Music We Missed in 2020 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Tracklisting:

Hop Along – How Simple
Remember Sports – Pull Through
Fresh Kill – San Diego
Badlands – Slow it Down
Foundlings – Misery
Squirrel Flower – Conditions
Valley Queen – Chasing the Muse
Nap Eyes – Every Time the Feeling
wished bone – reasons
Pearl Crush – True Blue
Samia – 21
plant food – baked beans
Gillian Frances – Blue Shit
Luton – Ice Museum
naps – ninth
Allison’s Gate – Traces
Mess – Cave
runner – awash
I’m Kingfisher – Sarajevo
Sam Moss – Snap
The Duke of Norfolk – Dylan Thomas / Bitter Bitter
Michael Nau & The Mighty Thread – Less Than Positive
lung cycles – dcs

You can check out all of our past monthly roundup mixes here, and be sure to follow us on Spotify and Playmoss for all our future playlists.

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

Mess – Cave

Mess are a quartet from Kansas City who are gearing up to release their debut album Learning How to Talk later this year. In the meantime, the band have released a new single ‘Cave’ as something of a taster to keep your appetites whetted over the summer.

“‘Cave’ is a snapshot of a toxic relationship,” explains songwriter Allison Gliesman. “It was written in a tense head-space, characterised by the helpless feelings paired with watching someone you love be controlled.” Which goes some way to explaining the dichotomous nature of the track, the tender-yet-fierce sound portraying two levels of a relationship—the old, true affection driving a desperate plea for change. However, through the tumultuous crescendos, Gliesman’s vocals remain steady and bright, a lighthouse in the storm hoping to aid navigation, and welcome their dear person to safety on the other side.

Learning How to Talk is due out this autumn, so be sure to keep an eye on Mess’ Facebook and Soundcloud pages for more news.

Foundlings – Misery / Your Sister

Foundlings are a new four-piece out of London who released their debut single this spring. Put together at Marketstall Recording in Bermondsey, the tracks have an insistent, guitar-driven energy across which the vocals are lifted, setting the tone somewhere between urban style and sweet nostalgia. ‘Misery’ places itself firmly within the later category, the frenetic guitars and drums creating a semi-dangerous swagger, while ‘Your Sister’ is altogether brighter, a time viewed in retrospect—the edges softened and rounded, the primary emotion that of fondness.

Head to the Foundlings Bandcamp page to buy both tracks.

Squirrel Flower – Conditions

We’ve featured Squirrel Flower, the project of  Ellä Williams, several times here at VSF, covering both ‘Not Your Prey’ and ‘Daylight Savings’ from their debut EP, Contact Sports. This summer sees the re-release of that EP on vinyl, complete with shiny new artwork and two previously unreleased tracks.

In order to celebrate the release, Squirrel Flower have put out a video for the track ‘Conditions’ by Williams and Helena Gruensteidl, which serves as a great introduction to the style and sound for those who might have missed it the first time around. Straddling a brooding sense of emotion with an earnest openness, Williams’s vocals soar through the moody guitars with a calm conviction, though as the track progresses a vague sense of threat comes to the fore, as though the track is trying to persuade and warn simultaneously.

Contact Sports is set for re-release on the 20th July and you can pre-order it now via Bandcamp.

Michael Nau & The Mighty Thread – Less Than Positive

After time fronting Page France and Cotton Jones, Michael Nau set out solo in 2017, releasing the well-received album Some Twist and The Load EP. Forming a band of the same name, this summer sees Nau put out a brand new record, Michael Nau & The Mighty Thread, building upon his previous work to form a layered, sprawling record of poetic folk rock.

The lead track from the self-titled album, ‘Less than Positive’ finds Nau tucked into the space between carefree cheer and suffocating gloom, as though these opposite poles depend on one another for existence, and to fall into one completely would be to fall into nothing. Better then, to toe the line right the way down the track, to try to figure out the big picture while embracing the rhythm of life.

Michael Nau & The Mighty Thread is set for release on the 3rd August via Full Time Hobby.

Samia – 21

New York-based songwriter Samia makes music pitched somewhere between ironic and sincere, or perhaps embracing both poles simultaneously. Her brand new single ’21’ is no different, combining an intense sense of feeling with wry humour that makes the overall tone hard to pin down. At times her vocals have a carefree swagger, though this can shift just as quickly into a keen desperation, as though certain lines are dragged from within her chest by some external force. The result could be described as adolescent, where moods swing in an attempt to best frame an insistent rage, though the self-conscious lyrics hint at an over-arching intelligence operating behind all this too.

“I weigh a hundred and fucking something pounds,
That makes me almost good.
It is nice to be a hero,
but it’s better to be anything
that anyone could want in a woman.”

Samia is on Grand Jury Music and you can find her on Bandcamp.

Hop Along – How Simple

Hop Along’s 2015 album Painted Shut cemented their place amongst the very best in the indie rock genre, with the songwriting and vocal delivery of Frances Quinlan and distinctive and captivating as any in the field. This spring saw the release of Bark Your Head Off, Dog, the long-awaited follow-up album that retains all of the immediacy and spirit of previous records, and pushes the boundaries of the Hop Along sound with new, varied sources of inspiration.

While we hope to get a full review up at some point, for now let us point you toward lead single ‘How Simple’ as the perfect demonstration of what make Quinlan and co. so noteworthy. Complete with a video by Derrick Belcham, the song marries every aspect of the holy trinity of music—a keen sense of energy, emotional immediacy and clever lyricism. As such, the song disproves any theory that aiming for a sense of movement and catchy chorus means sacrificing any complexity or depth in terms of writing or feeling.

Bark Your Head Off, Dog is out now via Saddle Creek and you can get it from Bandcamp.

The Duke of Norfolk – Dylan Thomas / Bitter Bitter

“I’ve long been fascinated by Dumas’s idea that there’s neither happiness nor misery,” says Adam Howard of The Duke of Norfolk. “There is only the comparison of one state to another.” Such nuance and thought is intrinsic to Howard’s sound, as new single ‘Dylan Thomas / Bitter Bitter’ attests. Blending the intimacy of folk with a grand orchestral sound, The Duke of Norfolk follow the likes of Typhoon in building a kind of ‘sublime folk’—songs that seem to coalesce from the surrounding landscape, channelling energies far older than the music communicating them.

Inspired by ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’, the poem Dylan Thomas wrote after the death of his father, Howard’s single alters Thomas’ call for rage into one of mournful sadness to create a requiem for his own terminally ill father. However, that is not to say the track comes off morose, with the instrumentation swelling around the profoundly personal lyrics to creating a soaring, transcendental response to loss and grief.

The Duke of Norfolk are releasing a new full-length, Attendre et Espérer, on the 15th June and you can pre-order it now from Bandcamp.

Valley Queen – Chasing the Muse

LA-based Valley Queen are readying their debt full-length, set for release in the summer, and have released the first single, ‘Chasing the Muse’ in anticipation. Continuing the throwback folk-rock of their EP Destroyer, the song sees lead Natalie Carol deal with the aftermath of a break up in a way that’s at once reflective and swaggeringly defiant.

“One part anger , two parts heartbreak
Three parts relief
I’m escaping this reality we made
Four parts fear
I’ve made a terrible mistake but
only a fool would stay”

The album is going to be released on Roll Call Records, and you can pre-order it now from the Valley Queen Bandcamp page.

The post Bright Sparks: Vol. 12 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

In the meantime, check out the mix below to hear everything we covered during June 2017, and click through the links in the tracklisting to be whisked away to the specific posts.

Tracklisting:

Roadkill Ghost Choir – Classics (Die Young)
Julia Lucille – Darkening
girl valley – faceback
Deer Scout – Sad Boy
Crushing – Emery Board
Crumb – Plants
Alex Napping – You’ve Got Me
Squirrel Flower – Daylight Savings
Andrew Younker – Pretend Therapist
Outside The Academy – Anaesthetise
Sammus – Perfect, Dark
Miserable Chillers – Love Theme (For The Wilderness)
Ohyeahsumi – Cosmos Bowling
Maud Scheltinga – I’ve Come to Know You Well
Midwestern Exposure – Riverboat
Will Graefe – Blood Feather
Baxter Roy Long – Purpose Against An Unavailing Balance
Idan Altman – Heroic Bee
american poetry club – how i felt about most things
About a Million – Young Bull
Flamingods – Bhima
Headless Pin Up Girl – Forever Watching the Skies
Wild Pink – Albert Ross

Check out the previous round-up mixes here, and stick around next month for yet another selection of the best new music.

The post June 2017 Roundup appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Fast forward six months and Squirrel Flower has released a brand new video for the track ‘Daylight Savings’ ahead of a US tour with Lina Tullgren. As the title suggests, the song draws upon the seasons to map change, taking the noticeable, physical differences in the environment as a cue to consider less tangible alterations. The video maximises this focus, juxtaposing wide-open rural spaces with dusky, indoor details to produce something abstract yet loaded with meaning, an otherworldly examination of our perception of time. As the blurb puts it:

“As Squirrel Flower remains immobilized and exposed, an alternate narrative plays out of the two dancers. Transitioning from day into night while capturing the landscape of Grinnell, Iowa, where Ella lives, represents the sudden time change when daylight savings occurs. This highlights that both love and daylight savings are surreal, inevitable, and out of your control.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcBnNXMsdMk&feature=youtu.be

To give everyone involved their proper due, the video was directed and filmed by Melissa Fandos and Nadiri Saunders, choreographed by Charlotte Richardson-Deppe, styled by Nora Coghlan, and stars Serena Hochaeron and Emma Tilden as dancers alongside Williams.

Contact Sports is out now on It Takes Time Records and you get it from Bandcamp. Squirrel Flower’s tour with Lina Tullgren is underway right now, and you can see the remaining dates below:

6/12: Portland, ME – Zero Station
6/13: Montreal, QC – Brasserie Beaubien
6/14: New Paltz, NY – Commissary Cafe
6/15: Brooklyn, NY – Alphaville
6/16: Richmond, VA – Lucy Lane
6/17: Asheville, NC – Revolve
6/18: Nashville, TN – Wilburn St Tavern
6/19: Chicago, IL – House of Heavy Petting
6/20: Des Moines, IA – Kitty City
6/21: Bloomington, IN – Blockhouse
6/22: Athens, OH – The New Happiness

The post Squirrel Flower unveil new video for ‘Daylight Savings’ appeared first on Various Small Flames.

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.

The recording project of Boston native-turned Grinnell student Ellä Williams, Squirrel Flower released its debut early winter songs from middle america back in 2015, an eight-song release of ambient-infused pastoral folk built around Williams’s rich voice. Her sophomore release, Contact Sports, sees a slight deviation toward a heavier sound, with Jesse Williams (bass), Lyle Brewer (guitar) and Marco Giovino (drums) adding a noisy depth that will please fans of Mitski.

The first single from the EP, ‘Not Your Prey’, explores how vulnerability and strength are not mutually exclusive, and how those made to feel fragile and insecure need not remain silent in uncomfortable situations. As such, the song plays like an anthem for long-overdue change, a rallying cry against misogyny and other types of discrimination and a reminder that no matter your gender, race or sexuality, you can and should belong in whatever space or situation you want.

“If you touch me I won’t be still
You’re no predator
I’m not your prey
I’m not your kill”

Contact Sports is due for release this December on It Takes Time Records and you can pre-order it now from Bandcamp.

The post Squirrel Flower announce EP with first single, ‘Not Your Prey’ appeared first on Various Small Flames.