Until then, here’s our June Roundup, a playlist of songs rounding up everything we covered during June. Clever, huh? Click on the artist name in the tracklisting to be whisked away to the specific post.

Tracklisting:

1. Trisha Please Come Home – Advance Base
2. Slower Now – Star Horse
3. I Make Boys Cry – Adult Mom
4. Cordella – On The Water
5. Destroy – Henoheno
6. A Long Time Ago – Kalle Mattson
7. Only One Who Feels a Little Bit Bad – Fazed on a Pony
8. Ohio Snow Falls – Unraveler
9. Pylon Pile On – Benjamin Shaw
10. For Luck – Cyberbully Mom Club
11. The Offer – Yowler
12. When I Met Death – Right Away, Great Captain!
13. Patriarchaeth – Gwenno
14. Future Bones – Bells Atlas
15. Beautiful Brian – Harley Alexander and The Universal Lovers
16. Whip-Poor-Will – Morning River Band
17. I Admit I’m Scared – Eskimeaux
18. Ideal World – Girlpool
19. Observation Satellites – GRNDMS
20. Podesta – Peptalk
21. Cwm Llwm – Yucatan
22. Clouds – Estan
23. Lullaby – Long Neck
24. KiwiKisses – Trenton Point
25. My Only One – PONY
26. Return to View – The Wandering Lake
27. Clicking Clanking – Ylayali
28. Pull Me Apart – Lung Cycles
29. Red Coat – Adeline Hotel
30. Johnny Go Riding – Damien Jurado
31. When the Day is Fresh, and the Light is New – The Wooden Sky
32. The Crow – Sean Henry
33. Yolanda – O-FACE

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

“The work that Casa Ruby is doing for their community is both inspiring and needed. We’re very appreciative of what the work of Ruby Jade Corado and her organization has done for countless LGBTQ+ youth and adults and hope that this compilation is representative of that appreciation from not just us but the community at large from all across world, and hope that, in some way, it will serve as a reminder that, no matter what, no matter who you are, you are not alone, you have an entire community of people behind you, supporting you, every step of the way.”

The compilation features 24 songs from an array of artists, including some we have written about (Adult Mom, Ricky Eat Acid, Unraveler etc.) and some we will probably be writing about in the future. Discovering new music while supporting a very worthy cause sounds like a win-win all round in our book.

You can buy the compilation now on a pay-what-you-can basis via Bandcamp.

P.S. There has a bit of controversy surrounding the inclusion of certain artists, and Garza has addressed this in a statement now available on Funeral Sounds. She also welcomes people to email her should they wish to discuss the issue.

The post Funeral Sounds Presents: a Compilation for Casa Ruby appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Fevered Press, Fevered Certainty is an independent press run by two non-binary radicals in Michigan. Their aim is to highlight voices on the margins, and they do so by publishing really cool zines and books. They have recently published the first volume of The Epoch Fanzine, which “includes photos, interviews with collective members, essays, dance, and song covers by the qt n friendly community surrounding the collective”. The blurb gives you good reason to grab a copy right away:

“read to feel posi, read to feel closer to yr fav bands n artists”

Perhaps the best bit about the zine are the covers of songs by Epoch faves Told Slant, Small Wonder and Eskimeaux by some really cool and talented people. They serve as 1) cool new takes on tracks I really like and 2) introductions to artists I’m not at all familiar with. What’s not to like?

First up is Leor Miller (of Cipinko), who transforms Told Slant’s ‘Lack’ with fuzzy lo-fi guitars and deadpan vocals, cultivating a sort of Bret Easton Ellis-style so-cool-he’s-numb kinda vibe. Then Detroit’s Chill Corea brings a lo-fi synth pop rendition of Eskimeaux’s ‘Alone At the Party’, think Casiotone for the Painfully Alone meets Free Cake For Every Creature.

The second Told Slant cover comes courtesy of Pitsburgh’s Unraveler, who chooses ‘Ohio Snow Falls’ and provides a version which manages to capture the awkward twitchy passion that makes Told Slant so good. Michigan-based Anywaves also cover Told Slant, with a guitar-less take on ‘Parking Lots’, complete with that slightly desperate warbling crack to the vocals, before alone@home wrap things up with ‘Pocket Full of Posies’, a track which the band describe as “characteristic Eskimeaux, with prettiness and sadness in every line”.

You can get the fanzine via the Fevered Press website, and download the songs on a name-your-price basis over at their Bandcamp page. Now excuse me while I go listen to all these artists’ back catalogues.

The post Fevered Press, Fevered Certainty – The Epoch Fanzine appeared first on Various Small Flames.