Henoheno – I Made These Songs Before I Moved (REVIEW)
(RIYL: Bedroom pop, Elvis Depressedly, Alex G)

Henry Demos & Lewtrakimou – I Was trying to Get There But it Was Hard to See From the Balloon (REVIEW)
(RIYL: experimental, psychedelic, lo-fi, incredibly cool/nice people <3)

Hermann Doose – Hawaii Was Beautiful
(RIYL: pop, surf rock, ARMS)

High Bloom – Haloed
(RIYL: ambient, electronic pop, Orchid Tapes)

Honeyuck – very tiny songs (REVIEW)
(RIYL: bedroom pop, twee folk, Frankie Cosmos)

Isabel Rex – American Colloquialisms/Two Hexes (REVIEW)
(RIYL: lo-fi, garage rock, Olive Drab)

The Island of Misfit Toys – I Made You Something
(RIYL: emo, indie folk, hardcore)

Jake Rollins – Spend a Few, Make a Few (REVIEW)
(RIYL: lo-fi, summer pop, slacker rock)

JANK – Awkward Pop Songs
(RIYL: power pop, emo, Algernon Cadwallader)

Jay Som – Untitled
(RIYL: dream pop, woozy rock, dreaming of summer)

Joplin Rice – Low Hum (REVIEW)
(RIYL: indie rock, lo-fi)

Katie Dey – asdfasdf
(RIYL: bedroom pop, experimental, lo-fi)

The Kickstand Band – In the Sun
(RIYL: indie pop, surf rock, )

Kip McGrath – S/T EP
(RIYL: lo-fi, bubblegum pop, twee)

Kitten Crisis – Have a good summer
(RIYL: pop punk, summer days, Radiator Hospital)

Lady Paw – Long Shadow

(RIYL: dream pop, experimental, Twin Sister)

Laurence – Happy Town
(RIYL: bedroom pop, folk)

The Le Sigh – Vol. II (close enough to 2015!)
(RIYL: bedroom pop, compilations packed with goodness, female-identified/non-binary artists)

Letters From Bummer Camp – Vol. 1
(RIYL: punk, Boosegumps/Long Neck/other NJ-indie artists, helping good causes)

Long Neck – Heights (REVIEW)
(RIYL: bedroom pop, Two White Cranes, Cyberbully Mom Club)

Kizzy Hall – one last shame spiral
(RIYL: scrappy rock, basement pop, Coma Cinema)

Mike Pace and the Child Actors – The Flood
(RIYL: box-office music from the 80s/90s, Oxford Collapse)

Miniature Philosopher – Leaving ‘Bula
(RIYL: Paul Baribeau, Nana Grizol, Talons’)

Mini Dresses – FOUR
(RIYL: dream pop, laidback vibes)

The Modern Folk – Surround Me / Leather Jacket (REVIEW)
(RIYL: lo-fi, DIY, shambling rock n’ roll)

Morning River Band – Abyssal Channeling (REVIEW)
(RIYL: folk, country, bar-room rock)

We’ll be sharing a new section of the list every day this week, so be sure to check back for the complete collection. If you find something you like, or think we missed something life-changing, then why not let us know on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr or good old email.

The post Favourite Free Music of 2015: H-M appeared first on Various Small Flames.

The May Roundup mix below contains a track from every artist we featured during the month (apart from Sharon van Etten and Noah Gundersen, sorry!), so plug your headphones in and enjoy some new music. Click the artists’ names in the tracklisting below to be taken to the post in question.

Tracklisting:

1. No More Sad Songs – Elvis Depressedly
2. Catchyalater – Frog
3. The Day Draws Near – The Washboard Abs
4. Every House is On Fire – Island Eyes
5. Forever – Boosegumps
6. Open Casket Hidden Meaning – Molly Drag
7. The Arp – Aidan Knight
8. Atheist Money – Adam Stafford
9. Lynx – The Tarantula Waltz
10. Milo – Young Jesus
11. Slow Dark Water – Furnsss
12. Aubrey – Debris Slide
13. Foreign Hands – Aisha Badru
14. I Need Never Get Old – Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
15. Outside the Pale – Samantha Crain
16. Home – The Modern Folk
17. Staggers and Rise – Small Houses
18. Yannina – Jake Houlsby
19. To the Black Horizon – Mark Timmins
20. Heart – Bobby’s Oar
21. Bling – Bells Atlas
22. And You Meant the Sea – Ruth & Trudy
23. Party – Lake Michigan
24. Growing Leaves – Gay Angel
25. On and On – Zee Town and the Dog Boys
26. Travel Map – Hip Hatchet
27. Zoa – Batte Ave.
28. The Bird – Kathryn Joseph
29. …Until They’re Called – Old Earth

May 2015 Roundup from Wake The Deaf on 8tracks Radio.

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

Hip Hatchet

“Speak[s] of that vulnerable core at the heart of every man, and the desperate, ridiculous attempts to suffocate it with cigarette smoke or drown it in whiskey or cover it over with scars”- Philippe Bronchtein weaves timeless folk tales about the vanity and pride of tough guys who have been on the road too long.

Frog

“The U S of A in eleven songs – quirky, joyous, breathless, exhausting, addictive, heartbreaking and downright weird, accelerating towards a distant horizon while keeping its eyes firmly on a halcyon past that sure seems like it should have been more fun.” – some words about Kind of Blah, the excellent, endlessly quotable album from Frog out now on Audio Antihero.

The Modern Folk

“Folk songs don’t require banjos and fiddles, it’s something a little deeper than that” – some bona fide folk music from The Modern Folk.

Kathryn Joseph

“A simple album about things so complicated that it’s almost impossible to put them into words” – we used Marilynne Robinson to describe what makes Kathryn Joseph’s Bones You Have Thrown Me and Blood I’ve Spilled so special.

Island Eyes

“Confronts the uncertainty of every life, admitting his fear about pretty much every possible scenario while finding solace in the fact that this uncertainty binds us all” – The self-titled album from Derek Janzen’s Island Eyes is an epic metaphor for your everyday quests.

Adam Stafford

“Could quite easily make solid, radio-friendly, painted-by-numbers pop music that would be lapped up by the undiscerning masses, but instead endeavours to make innovative, progressive music” – Adam Stafford’s new single ‘Atheist Money’ bodes well for his forthcoming album on Song, By Toad.

Bobby’s Oar

“If you placed Nana Grizol, The Front Bottoms and The Hotelier in a blender and seasoned them with acoustic guitars, throaty emo vocals and the odd mathy flourish…” – The Weeds in Your Garden by Bobby’s Oar is a passionate, defiant slice of pop-punk-folk.

Debris Slide

“Lo-fi rock music that sits at a crossroads between shimmery shoegaze, oddball experimentalism and early nineties noise pop” – some noisy, deranged pop songs from Nottingham’s Debris Slide.

Women in Music Journalism

‘“What’s the big deal? You’re a groupie.” She replied, “I’m a woman who writes about rock and roll.” His answer: “Same difference.” Groupies have proved an enduring stereotype of women’s participation in rock: worshipful, gorgeous, and despised.‘ – Anwen Crawford explains why the world needs female rock critics in The New Yorker.

Spotify: a Good Thing?

“As both an independent musician and a music fan, I’m here to give you a new headline: I believe Spotify is saving the industry” – David McMillin of Fort Francis writes for PopMatters on how Spotify might not be as bad as some would have you believe. We don’t know what to think anymore…

The State of the Music Industry (or, Goodbye Thrash Hits)

“It still pains us to see other, larger organisations dumping content online with little thought to the medium they’re working in or the audience they’re speaking to” – Thrash Hits went on an indefinite hiatus with this closing piece on the state of music industry and journalism in 2015.

Henry Demos / Lewtrakimou / Nice Legs

“I could be wrong here but I have a theory that people want to make loud music everywhere in the world” – START-TRACK spoke to Henry Demos & Lewtrakimou about Nice Legs, solo work and the South Korean music scene.

Fields / Molina

Another week, another great Jason Molina tribute article over at Common Folk Music, this time courtesy of Jeffrey Fields of The Morning River Band. Be sure not to miss the cover of ‘Whip-Poor-Will’ while you’re there.

Casiotone For The Painfully Alone

“I was pretty much always nervous in those days. The memories of my awkward, fidgety & depressed early 20’s have come rushing back to me, leaving me feeling awkward, fidgety & depressed all over again” – Owen Ashworth, now of Advance Base, came across an old CD of a radio session he did as Casiotone For the Painfully Alone back in 2001. Check it out on Bandcamp.

HI54LOFI’s Mix Tape Radio

Jeremy over at HI54LOFI posted episode 55 of his Mix Tape Radio series and it’s brilliant as usual.

Swell Tone’s MEGA SUMMER BABES

The cool people over at Swell Tone have put together a great summer playlist which should see you set for the coming months.

And Finally… the 8tracks Playlist of the Week

It’s this one by Annievain. I stumbled across it and it’s really dreamy and cool.

we’re changing from annievain on 8tracks Radio.

The post Week in Review: #3 (25-29th May) appeared first on Various Small Flames.

“The goal of my site is to feature what i think of as “folk music”, which is music made by people who are trying to get by leading lives in our modern world who love to express themselves through music”

That sentiment resonates with us here at WTD, and it should with you too. Folk songs don’t require banjos and fiddles, it’s something a little deeper than that. You’d be a fool not to follow that link above and spend all evening trawling through the (sometimes rough) gems that get posted on a regular basis.

But! This post isn’t all about singing the praises of The Modern Folk Music of America. What I really want to tell you about is that J. Moss, the guy who runs the site and Practice Records, also makes music of his own – under the moniker The Modern Folk. The last six months has seen three releases from The Modern Folk, each of which represents a slightly different approach to making DIY music. Surround Me is an album of gutsy, lo-fi garage rock, recorded in warehouse spaces with a drummer and everything turned up to eleven, whereas Leather Jacket is much more reserved, recorded at home with the aid of an “ancient” drum machine. The album has this great swaggering, half-soaked coolness about it, all mumbling vocals and lazy guitars – basically exactly how a record called Leather Jacket should sound. The final release is American Sewer, which was reportedly recorded on a cellphone under a bridge in Portland in the space of just two hours. It kinda sounds like it too, all blown-out rumbling blues rock guitars and yelpy vocals, the sort of thing they play in bars frequented by tough guys (I’d imagine).

This is bona fide DIY music. Don’t let the lo-fi tag deceive you, a lot of hard work has gone into these recordings, right down to the artwork, which Moss produced himself. Check out a few of my current favourite tracks below:

You can get each of the releases on a pay-what-you-want basis via The Modern Folk’s Bandcamp page. There are also plans for physical releases so keep your eyes peeled and ears to the ground!

The post The Modern Folk appeared first on Various Small Flames.