Tracks like ‘Chat Room Messages’ and ‘Ice Cream Run’ are anthems for bedroom kids of our generation, finding solace not in vast soundscapes or grand adventure, but rather TV and the internet. Which isn’t to say the whole thing isn’t beautiful―the half-paced, blissed-out ‘Swept’ is like lying in the bathtub and imagining you’re bobbing down some lukewarm river, and the pastel-coloured heart-ache of ‘Dating Game 3000’ and ‘Contestant’ provide some much needed comfort for your worried mind.

 To celebrate the release, the band kindly agreed to take part in our Mystery Mix series―where we give them a series of random prompts they must use to create a mini playlist. Tackled as a quartet, the result is as interesting and wide ranging a selection of songs you are likely to see, and potentially the only time Smash Mouth will grace the Various Small Flames page.

Teamwork (Makes the Dream Work)

by Sundae Crush

Song with animal in the name

Battles – Inchworm

Izzi: A friend of mine said this whole album sounds like unicorns doin’ it, which I think is totally accurate. This song makes me feel simultaneously like skipping merrily down the lane, and aggressively breaking shit. It’s perfect.

Song that reminds you of your favourite book

Vashti Bunyan – Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind

Jena: My favorite book is Things I’ve Learned in My Life So Far by Stefan Sagmiester and I feel like this is a good song to sum it all up.

Song with a name in it

The Allman Brothers – Jessica

Jesse: Although there are no lyrics to this song you can almost picture who The Allman Brothers are describing through the instrumentation. This is also the name of my childhood crush. I taught myself how to play the main guitar riff on my bass and it has turned into my favorite song to play during sound check.

Song that reminds you of being somewhere awful

Smash Mouth – I’m a Believer

Izzi: When Jena and I were driving from Texas to Washington, we were in the middle of nowhere southern California in the summer during the draught. We drove through the desert for what seemed like a thousand hours. It was so hot and hellish and we were starting to go insane so we covered this song using a portable amp, an omnichord, and a maraca while I was driving. For sanity’s sake, and because we desperately wanted to believe that we were eventually gonna hit the coast, this was a good song choice at the time.

Jena: I totally back this. Also… this was totally a Monkees song first and I love them. But I was def thinking of Smash Mouth when we did this in the car.

Favorite live experience

Thundercat – Friend Zone

Jesse: There are way too many shows that I’ve been too and I cannot pinpoint my favorite one, but the most recent show I’ve been to is when I saw Thundercat a couple weeks back. Thundercat is a major influence on my song writing and bass playing. This was my favorite song from his set that night.

Song for the apocalypse

In Down Bad by Lil B. // REM – It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

Alex: In an apocalypse we might listen to In Down Bad by Lil B. “Shots at the court like basketball”. Or maybe we could listen to REM – It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

Song for the sunniest day of the year

Soak Up the Sun – Sheryl Crow

We talk about this song a lot, so this was an automatic pick.

Remember, Crushed is out now via The United Worker’s Party, U.S.A., and you can snag a copy on CD and cassette from Bandcamp. Once you’ve done that, you can find the previous entries in the Mystery Mini Mix series here, and browse our Mixtapes section to find a playlist for every occasion.

Artwork by Ariel Davis

The post Mystery Mini Mix: Sundae Crush appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Luckily for us, Lauren Rearick from The Grey Estates seems out to disprove the Bad Winners/Good Losers notion. After fighting through the formidable gauntlet of macho vanity and arrogance that makes up the music industry (see also: college, school, life), she has made her blog into one of the best, most consistent sites covering independent music right now. Mirroring her own attitude, she covers music made out of necessity, bands fighting a multitude of prejudistic blindspots because to not-fight is not an option. It might not be overtly militaristic or political, but the very act of persevering in the effort to create/promote such music is a strong statement. This sort of quiet commitment might be often overlooked but the importance of recognising and celebrating it cannot be underestimated. As if to mark her achievement and symbolise what it stands for, Rearick has teamed up with Negative Fun Records to put out Sugar Rush, a compilation of covers featuring female and gender-neutral musicians. The aim of the album is simple – to try to address the balance (or lack thereof) represented in contemporary music. As she explains:

“A glance at festival lineups, year-end lists and favorite bands are often missing a huge ingredient – female and gender-neutral acts. Sugar Rush was spurred by the idea of giving these individuals a voice, and introducing listeners to their sounds in a most unique way – with cover songs.”

Sugar Rush features contributions from some WTD favs, including Boosegumps, PONY and Kississippi, as well as a whole host of bands and artists that we’re unfamiliar with, just waiting to be explored. Claire Morales and Jena Pyle kick things off with a saccharine rendition of Pasty Cline’s ‘Strange’, the heartbreak flowing thick as molasses, while Kississippi’s cover of Sixpence None the Richer’s ‘Kiss Me’ is minimal and spacious, dreamy as a lovestruck gaze. Boosegumps reinvents Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Everywhere’ as a pretty and understatedly resplendent bedroom pop song and Seattle-based dream pop band Sundae Crush provide a quietly sweet take on ‘Unpretty’ by TLC.

The B side sees a change of mood, as Rearick puts it:

“We thought of the A-side as the sugar-y side, the sweet candy you enjoy before the B-side, when all that sugar begins rushing through your veins, leaving you ready to dance, party and load up on more sugary goodness.”

PONY begin the transition into upbeat danciness, updating Blink 182’s ‘Feelin This’ into a sharp and dynamic shoegazey pop song, before Susan take on The Violent Femmes’ ‘I Held Her In My Arms’, stumbling across a verse which could be used to sum up the compilation as a whole: “I will not kill /  the one thing I love / In this world of wreckage, I look above / Help me, Lord, help me understand / What it means to be a boy and what it means to be a man”. Next, Pearl Earl offer a brash take on Devo, Mommy Long Legs bring their familiar energy to The Cramps and Alright race through a Bouncing Souls number. The penultimate track sees Philadelphia’s The Pretty Greens cover Lucille Mathis’ ‘(I’m Not Your) Regular Woman’, before Daddy Issues finish on a cool, dreamy version of ‘Riot Grrrl’ by Keel Her.

It’s likely there was no small amount of anxiety, doubt and stress involved in the making of Sugar Rush and The Grey Estates as a whole, so it’s no exaggeration to consider the whole time-draining, energy-sapping endeavour a noble quest indeed. While nobody is naive enough to think that one compilation and a dozen artists will ever be enough to win the big fight, it’s just possible that an accumulation of such small victories could eventually build into the coup de grâce for this discriminatory industry. So, if you are in a position to strike a blow of any size but need some reassurance and motivation, take a look at Rearick and then rush head-on into an attack of your own. Because make no mistake, a fight this certainly is.

Sugar Rush is out today (the 29th February) and you can buy it now via Negative Fun Records’ Bandcamp. If you need further convincing, the good people over at The Le Sigh are streaming it in full.

The post The Grey Estates & Negative Fun Records present… Sugar Rush appeared first on Various Small Flames.