And, of course, being comprehensive is impossible these days, so let us know if we missed your favourite and maybe we’ll add it to the collection.

Tall Friend – Tawl Friend
(RIYL: bedroom pop, lo-fi, bugs)

Talons’ – Growing Up / Work Stories / Shitty Aja
(RIYL: lo-fi, sad, post 9/11 angst)

Terry Vs. Tori – s/t
(RIYL: indie pop, summer)

The Grey Estates – Summer at The Grey Estates Volume 2
(RIYL: garage, dream pop, summer)

The World is a Beautiful Place & I’m No Longer Afraid to Die – Formlessness
(RIYL: indie rock, emo, re-takes on older songs)

These Bashful Claws – Everything, All At Once
(RIYL: emotive pop, alternative, Gleemer)

Thiago Nassif – Tres
(RIYL: alternative, electronic, experimental)

Tiger in My Tank – Skinned Genie and the Same Chords
(RIYL: indie pop, dream pop, “mid-fi”)

Trace Mountains – Buttery Sprouts & Other Songs
(RIYL: bedroom pop, LVL UP, lo-fi)

Triathalon – Cold Shower
(RIYL: pop, r&b, smooth moves)

Varsity – Smash / Still Apart
(RIYL: indie pop, sports)

The Wandering Lake – From James’ Garden / Ashame
(RIYL: psych folk, indie rock, desert rituals)

The Washboard Abs – Have U Scanned Ur Club Card?
(RIYL: indie pop, lo-fi, nostalgia)

Will B & the Teen Creeps (now Lanky Boy Club) – Slackers
(RIYL: bedroom pop, slacker)

Woods End – I
(RIYL: folk, alternative, winter)

Young Jesus – Void as Lob
(RIYL: indie rock, lo-fi, spoken word poetry)

Your Heart Breaks – From Mount Eerie / Ryan Woods / Toby Foster / Theo Hilton / Clyde Petersen
(RIYL: folk punk, Nana Grizol, Defiance Ohio)

Yours Are the Only Ears – Low
(RIYL: bedroom pop, sad, melodrama)

Be sure to check out the previous sections of our favourite free music of 2016 list here.

The post Favourite Free Music of 2016: T – Z appeared first on Various Small Flames.

With an array of styles and influences across the twenty-three songs, there truly is something for everyone. Try Isabel Rex‘s oddly melancholic ode to amusing genetic copies of famous people, MagicPerm’s blissed-out memorial of a forgotten Toon Disney gem and WTD favs Nice Legs‘ surf rock anthem for everybody’s favourite infant puppets. Or maybe you’d prefer Queer Jane’s take on those meddling kids, Lake Michigan‘s bummed-out nod to a semi-fictional Will Smith or Ainsworth’s tribute to Mister Rodgers (and his inspirational acceptance speech)?

Elsewhere, Casper Heyzeus attack their pizza-loving effort with the hyperactive energy of child actors in action figure TV commercials, IZE offer something strange and sultry enough to make Lynch himself proud and Pet Cemetery takes the theme of your teenage angst and makes it seem insular and strange, a song for one of Orange County’s outsiders who never appeared on screen because they were always locked in their gloomy bedroom playing records.

In other words, this is a near-enough perfect compilation for those of us who grew up under the ever-present bombardment of photon-based entertainment. Listen to the whole thing below and let nostalgia burn through the white noise of your image narcosis:

Artwork by Mimi Jaffe

The post Album Première: Z Tapes & Cereal + Sounds – FRY YR BRN appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Tracklisting:

1. Fire – Mal Devisa
2. wild fire/flowers – Trust Fall
3. Home Alone – Max Gardener
4. Your Love – Jeremy Squires
5. Veins – Camp Howard
6. How To Dance – Mount Moriah
7. Good Evening – Adeem the Artist
8. Shallow – Candy
9. Francie Cool – Francie Cool
10. Bad Vibes – Zebrafi
11. Piece of Ivy – Jake Bellissimo
12. Snow Day – Julia Brown
13. Alive – Dear Tracks
14. Ted the Radical Westy – Ravetank
15. ft1 – naps
16. We Have The Perimeter Surrounded – Hallelujah the Hills
17. Bullet in a Broken Gun – Oscar Lush
18. Color Peels – The Wandering Lake
19. Nowhere Nothing – Oceanator
20. Suagr Skull – The Washboard Abs
21. Of Wandering – Littler
22. bicycle – Twelve Gardens
23. Ya Ya Ya – You Won’t
24. Find You – Family Video
25. Jack Campbell (Quick Jammer) – Dingus.
26. Candy – Fish Food
27. It May Very Well Do – 100 Watt Horse
28. Life – Whim
29. Meg – Hovvdy
30. Piano Player – The Hotelier
31. Calvary – Chris Bathgate
32. Postman – Sam Moss

The post March 2016 Roundup – A Mixtape appeared first on Various Small Flames.

“There is a cathartic element to it, in a lonely late night headphones kind of way, but also in a freaky psychedelic, shamanistic campfire sort of way”

The good news for fans of The Wandering Lake’s earlier releases is that our friends at Z Tapes are re-releasing two of the band’s release on cassette. The A-side is From James’ Garden, which was released late last year in what felt like a period of organic respite after the grooving indie rock of Wend to Why. This becomes clear within the first seconds of opener ‘Field Notes (Variations on a Theme)’, which is all fluttering guitars and Kupillas’ distinctive vocals (which our buds at Cereal and Sounds described succinctly as “akin to a grief-stricken Hamilton Leithauser”). ‘Seven Sisters’ tends more towards a traditional folk song, before ‘When Thinking Long’ begins with a rattling lo-fi ambience and quiet, subdued vocals which have a creeping understated quality, like listening to an old crooner singing sad songs from the lonely apartment below yours. ‘Color Peels’ is similarly subdued, before ‘I Think I’ll Take a Walk’ feels like a marriage of every element from the other tracks, the moment Kupillas brings everything together. It is pretty and odd and heartfelt, a recipe for success in any folk song in my opinion.

The side still has two more lush acoustic tracks to offer, before the B-side of Ashame, first released in 2012. This was the release which first put The Wandering Lake on my radar, and is probably remains my favourite of his releases. First track ‘Horses’ captures the album’s free-form nature, its sense of nature and spiritualism. Kupillas utilises his vocal abilities to their soaring limits, giving the song the panoramic atmosphere of the barren, scrub-strewn landscape on the cover. ‘Water Patting’ is winding and glimmering, as Kupillas sings, “life’s so damn hard for so long”, gathering as it progresses into something that sounds almost celebratory. ‘Ubi Sunt Qui Ante Nos Feurunt?’ sounds intensely devotional (The title translates roughly as ‘Where are those who were before us?’), Kupillas’ voice reverberating around as if sung within a cathedral of natural stone structures, his background coos like the yips of coyotes on the plains.

There’s a similar atmosphere on ‘Laughing Friend’, a song which proves that it’s possible to be both passionate and meditative, the peaks of thrashed acoustic guitar rising from the eerie, cave-like foundation. ‘Little Light’ is piano-based, the keys low and reverbed, the vocals slower and more considered, before the album finishes with ‘Starry Night’ reintroduces the guitar and sounds somehow kind and gentle.

This release is one you really don’t want to miss, particularly if Ashame passed you by first time round. Kudos to Filip and Z Tapes for getting it back out there! You can get the double album on cassette or as a digital download via the Z Tapes Bandcamp page.

The post The Wandering Lake – From James’ Garden / Ashame appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Sabbatical Wilderness – Night Life in the Lemon Town of Büshka (REVIEW)
(RIYL: experimental, narrative-driven music, J-RPGs)

Sad Girls Club – Sad Girls Clubbing
(RIYL: bedroom artists, 90s/00s pop, crying in discos)

Sailor Jupiter – S/T
(RIYL: punk, noise, Riot Grrrls)

Schapero – Girls EP
(RIYL: catchy pop, Toro y Moi, LCD Soundsystem)

Sea Ghost – SG
(RIYL: punk, powerpop, The Unicorns)

Single Colour Fields – Jaundiced Views
(RIYL: dream pop, freak folk, splits)

Sister Something – Duds EP / The Tongue Davids EP
(RIYL: indie rock, post-pop, Mac DeMarco)

Sleeping In – EP
(RIYL: shoegaze, Speedy Ortiz, Sonic Youth)

Slows Down – S/T (REVIEW)
(RIYL: dream pop, drone, post rock)

SNCKPCK – LAVA PAL
(RIYL: Electronic, chill, positivity)

Spirit of the Beehive – You Are Arrived (But You’ve Been Cheated) (REVIEW)
(RIYL: indie rock, lo-fi, dream rock for disaffected youth)

Sports Day Records – RELAY (REVIEW)
(RIYL: indie pop, bedroom pop, compilations)

Stolen Jars – Kept
(RIYL: math pop, folk, Dirty Projectors, Freelance Whales)

Strange Friends – Summer Recordings (REVIEW)
(RIYL: fuzz pop, lo-fi, Gorgeous Bully)

Stray Amour – S/T
(RIYL: indie pop, shoegaze)

Sun Hotel – Coast / Fight Off You Demos
(RIYL: folk, “swamp pop”, Lord Huron)

Sunshine Faces – Peaked / Letting You Know
(RIYL: dream pop, lo-fi, bedroom pop)

Ursidae – Tape 4
(RIYL: drone, field recordings, sonic collage)

The Wailin’ Smithers – S/T (REVIEW)
(RIYL: indie rock, laidback summer fun)

The Wandering Lake – From James’ Garden
(RIYL: psych folk, experimental, meditative vibes)

The Washboard Abs – WHATEVERLAND (REVIEW) / The Beaming Pts. 1 & 2 (REVIEW)
(RIYL: bedroom pop, folk, Mount Eerie)

Wished Bone – Pseudio Recordings
(RIYL: dreamy lo-fi, Elliott Smith, Sharon van Etten)

Yesses – S/T
(RIYL: lo-fi, pop, The Beatles)

We’ve shared 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: S-Z appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Ben Seretan Group

“I wanted these recordings to sound huge. I wanted them to sound massive, gravitational, full of a swirling largeness that could eat up large portions of iTunes libraries” – we previewed Yellow Roses, a new release from Ben Seretan Group.

Yucatan

“Ethereal, celestial ambient post-rock” inspired by the Welsh landscape – we reviewed Uwch Gopa’r Mynydd, an album from Welsh band Yucatan

Benjamin Shaw

“comfortably sad and vividly alive, like watching rain fall onto a city from the window of a train” – a few words about ‘Pylon Pile-on’, the first song from Guppy, the upcoming album from Benjamin Shaw.

Long Neck

“Captures that feeling of creeping slowly over that threshold into adulthood and the revelation that it turns out not to be the whole new room you always thought” – Heights by Long Neck offers candid and reassuringly familiar thoughts on the plight of post-collegiate life.

Cyberbully Mom Club

“Music that feels like the words of an old friend, the sort of person who requires no formalities or effort and is happy to just sit and shoot the breeze” – a few thoughts on ‘For Luck’, the first song from a forthcoming EP by Cyberbully Mom Club.

Estan

“Raging against the pompous nature of professionals and academics…how ridiculous we are to think we can assign logic to a universe of chaos far too big for our tiny heads” – Our review of The Vanity of Reason by Estan.

Trenton Point

“Imagine John Maus teaming up with Small Black and The Cure to soundtrack a melodramatic 80s teen movie where the misunderstood hero finds herself walking home alone from the disco time and time again” – The three-song EP by Brooklyn’s Trenton Point, out on Vacant Magic.

The Wandering Lake

“Part indie rock and part psychedelic folk, all weaved together with Kupillas’ distinctive vocals, which are not quite a warble and not quite a croon and sometimes drawn out landscape-scale without a hint of breaking.” – we reviewed A Wend to Why, the new album from The Wandering Lake.

Ylayali / Lung Cycles

“enclosed in a sense of everyday melancholy…that feeling of long afternoons in gloomy rooms, when the rest of the human population seem faraway and indistinct, like figures from barely remembered dreams.” – Another great split cassette release from Lily Tapes & Discs.

Damien Jurado

“Jurado writes songs that reflect what it is like to be alive in the years either side of the millennium, songs for a landscape both cruel and kind, everyday and surreal, songs that can be sad and exciting and slightly scary and sometimes weird as hell” – We selected our very favourite Damien Jurado songs for our latest Through the Archives feature.

Mike Comite / Hop Along

“When I think about new rock idols, I don’t envision sold out arenas. I don’t hear Top 40 singles or perfect pitch, and I don’t think about stage personas and attitude. What I do think of is transparency, and a struggle” – Not quite last week, but Mike Comite of Old Best Friend wrote a fantastic piece about Hop Along for Property of Zack.

Coke Machine Glow / Jenny Hval

“Have you had breakfast? I was just about to make some eggs and huma—forgive me, I meant to say ham. Wink wink” – Coke Machine Glow presented a conversation about Jenny Hval’s Apocalypse, Girl between Hannibal‘s Hannibal Lecter and Will Graham, suggesting that I’m not the only person in the world who finds the show a little… overblown. All we need now are some meaningless close-ups of food and we’ll have an ‘intellectual’ TV hit.

Grantland / Jason Isbell

“It’s hard to keep up a James Dean type of facade if you’re thanking somebody for your salvation. But when you’re writing the kinds of songs that I do, I think your job is to try to be as honest as you possibly can and write about those things that make you uncomfortable sometimes.” – Stephen Hyden of Grantland talks through a list of Jason Isbell’s most gut-wrenching songs with the man himself.

Aero Flynn

We liked Aero Flynn’s self-titled album an awful lot. That’s why it’s so cool to see the band perform this live session for Audiotree.

Distant Records

“An hour of radical ladies influenced by that vintage surf rock reverb because, you know, it must be summer or something.” – Joanna, the face behind Distant Records, has a show on KPSU called The Muse in Music. This week’s show, ‘Must Be Summer or Something’, is all about… you guessed it, summer! Stream below or download this and previous shows over on the KPSU website.

Nice Legs

Seoul-based band and all round good eggs Nice Legs put together a video diary of a recent tour, featuring some lovely shots of the pair doing pretty much everything besides playing music. Check out their Youtube channel for other visual goodies.

And Finally… the 8tracks Playlist of the Week:

Heartbreaking Bravery‘s roundup of the best 2015 has had to offer so far is pretty comprehensive.

2015: Halfway Home from heartbreakingbravery on 8tracks Radio.

The post Week in Review: #7 (22nd – 26th June) appeared first on Various Small Flames.

The vocals on opener ‘I Hope I Meet All of You Again’ sound a little like J. Tillman crossed with Hamilton Leithauser, and indeed Tillman/Father John Misty and (Lisbon-era) The Walkmen were the acts my mind kept referring to as I listened to the album. The vocals are supported by meandering laid-back acoustics and some of The Wandering Lake’s trademark otherworldly “ooohs”. ‘Mono No Aware’ is more reminiscent of Angel Olsen, with quavering lead vocals and a sedate and dreamy atmosphere, while ‘Lily Pad’ is swooning and rhythmic and ‘Memphis’ uses strummed acoustic guitars to produce the musical equivalent of a lazy summer’s day. ‘Return to View’ sets Kupillas’s vocals to thumping indie rock with a fuzzed out background, producing something akin to The War on Drugs, something exciting and vaguely triumphant, a punchy peak in an otherwise mellow sea of azure blue.

Personal stand-out ‘O Sky’ is wonderfully sinuous and hazy, before a crescendo breaks in with drawn out howling vocals and a barrage of drums. It’s a really great song. Like, one of my favourites of the year good. Next up is ‘Swimming Hole’, which is half-paced and languid, swaying along as if in a warm breeze, and then ‘It’s You!’ teams lush, almost tropical instrumentation with languorous percussion. The album closes with ‘Then Where To Go’, which has a by-now familiar vibe basking blissfully in the warm glow of long afternoon.

You can get Wend to Why via the Whatever Tapes Bandcamp page. You can also get a super cool, 20-page art zine, made by Paul Sanders and Kupillas’s brother Joe (see below), if you’re so inclined. The band are also going out on tour very soon. Check the dates via their Bandcamp page.

The post The Wandering Lake – Wend To Why appeared first on Various Small Flames.

January was a bit of a scrappy month in terms of regular posts, but we still managed to cover some excellent artists. Why not catch up with any you missed with this tailor-made mixtape? Click the artist names in the tracklist to be whisked off to the review.

Tracklist:

1. Jesus in the 70s – Siskiyou
2. 2 Broke 2 Old – Gorgeous Bully
3. Another Way To Go – Adeline Hotel
4. Scene Sick – Diet Cig
5. Dog Burial Theme – Dicktations
6. Up the Academy – Mike Pace and the Child Actors
7. Con/ A Sewer/A Cat – Amateur Love
8. The End is a Vicious Thing – Puzzlecuts
9. Manic Pixie Dream Girl – Furnsss
10. Party Girls – Gleemer
11. Soft Reputation – Unlikely Friends
12. Passing Through – Harley Alexander
13. Coward’s Luck – Hip Hatchet
14. Memphis – The Wandering Lake
15. How a Resurrection Really Feels – The Hold Steady
16. Fire in My Eyes – Yours Are The Only Ears
17. Traffic is Okay – Sitcom
18. Gold & Rose – Dear Sister

Also make sure you check out our mammoth collection of our Favourite ‘Free’ Music of 2014. Finally, if you enjoy long, rambling pieces that try and draw connections between my favourite music and my favourite books, check out this piece on The Hold Steady’s Separation Sunday (Craig Finn said he enjoyed it, so it carries his stamp of approval).

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

The post January 2015 Roundup – A Mixtape appeared first on Various Small Flames.

The EP consists of four songs, all of which represent quite a departure from the otherworldly experimentalism of previous releases. The sound here is more immediate, more confident, a step towards psych tinged folk rock. They sound more like super-chill campfire jams than shamanistic campfire wails. The good news is that each track is great! Check them out in the player below.

I suppose it’s important to bear in mind that what we’re listening to is not quite the finished product. As Kupillas says on his Bandcamp page, “Here is a moment, imperfect as it was, captured and dressed for you. This isn’t all of it. This is a first glance of what was. There is more to come.” I for one am certainly excited for what comes next.

P.S. Here are The Wandering Lake’s upcoming tour dates. If any of the shows are near you, why not go check them out?

Thurs. Jan 29th – Nashville, TN @ The East Room
Fri. Jan. 30th – Lexington, KY @ The Green Lantern
Sat. Jan. 31st – Athens, OH @ The Pink Mattress
Sun. Feb. 1st – Murray, KY @ Terrapin Station
Mon. Feb. 2nd – St. Louis, MO @ FOAM
Tues. Feb. 3rd – Iowa City, IA @ Trumpet Blossom
Wed. Feb. 4th – Kansas City, MO @ Harlings
Thurs. Feb. 5th – Lawrence, KS @ The Replay Lounge
Fri. Feb. 6th – Fayetteville, AR @ JR’s Lightbulb Club
Sat. Feb. 7th – Little Rock, AR @ White Water Tavern

The post The Wandering Lake – Tour Support EP (Album Demo) appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Small Hours follows a similar pattern to previous old earth releases, although that is about the only ‘convention’ that it follows at all. Umhoefer is a great believer in experimentation and in taking risks. He says:

“If you want to be an inoffensive “regular” musician that just aims to please everyone, go ahead, but meaningful art comes out of making extraordinary choices. There are plenty of ways to avoid challenges and risks in life, and nothing interesting, unpredictable, unique, or inspiring comes from cowards.This is the most valuable lesson I learned from punk – celebrate yourself, whether everyone likes it or not.” 

This attitude is very apparent when listening to the album. It consists of just three tracks, all of which exceed five minutes in length (the longest clocks in at over ten minutes). The titles of these tracks are extremely vague, simply 1, 2 and 3 (although there is a more detailed list on old earth’s bandcamp which splits each track into several more). From that evidence alone I think it’s pretty clear that Umhoefer does whatever he wants, and that he is unconcerned about generating huge media buzz, or getting prime-time radio coverage. What he makes is art, and he makes it because he feels compelled to do so. This fact seems to have further relevance this week, when hundreds of bands and music people descend on Austin and huge, multi-million dollar companies splash their logos all over stages that are meant to be the platform for aspiring artists.

The music itself is in the same vein as previous old earth releases. Traditional folk music serves as a bedrock on which Umhoefer does his experimentation. The atmosphere is strange and dreamlike and Umhoefer’s vocals only add to the surreality, sporadically sounding like ominous demands or earnest pleas or the shamanistic chants of some psychedelic ritual. If you are a fan of lo-fi folk music (e.g.Phil Elvrum or The Wandering Lake) or even of drone/ambient stuff such as Grouper,  then I suggest that you quickly get familiar with old earth.

Small Hours will be released on the 22nd of April and is now available for pre-order via mini50 records. The CD comes with a beautiful lyric booklet that contains art by Jamie Mills (check out his website, some of his work is simply amazing). There are several packages on offer – you can just get the CD, the CD plus and old earth tote bag or a bundle which contains the CD, the bag, a bonus EP and a download for old earth’s previous album a low place at The Old Place. This is a very limited release, so I’d strongly recommend you order yourself a copy right away.

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