Black Sea Dahu – Thaw
Will Henriksen – Nothing Left Behind
Dehd – Letter
Hovvdy – Ruin (my ride)
Maya Lucia – preteen
They Are Gutting A Body of Water – french
Jason Calhoun – moving
Dilary Huff – Overused Sayings
Two Meters – The Nightmare
Dead Painters – Marigold
The Deer – Confetti To The Hurricane
Pastel – Moon Landing
Hit Like A Girl – No More Dysphoria
Basement Revolver – Master’s Degree
Bodies on the Beach – Ghost
Highnoon – Lens
Distant Reader – Marie
Drakes Island – 4 Days
Wet Dream – Worried
Best Mann – Must Be Wrong
The Funs – Trains Across The Sea
Ganser – Buio
Nothings – Favorite Shirt
Corinne Sharlet – Hail Mary
ahem – Halloween
Max and the Martians – Please Hold On
A.S. Wilson – Taken Apart
Béret – Book of Hera
Joel Jerome – There’s Nothing Here To Bother You Anymore
Carpet City – Little Longer
Hannah Cranton – Kite
Zachary Lucky – Didn’t Know That You’d Come Along
Wintersleep – Fading Out
Coral – find me wrong
Boo Baby – “Jazz?”
Margaux – Palm

Check out our previous Monthly Roundup playlists, and be sure to read our Reviews and Previews throughout the month.

The post October 2019 Roundup appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Ganser – Buio

Chicago post-punk outfit Ganser are set to release a new EP, You Must Be New Here next week. “We keep saying this EP feels like a confectionery,” explains Nadia Garofalo, though if this has you expecting something sugary sweet and superficial then you would be very much mistaken. Because far from being throwaway, nutritionally-poor treats, “[Confectionery] can hold significant symbolism, seen as a more precious sustenance, celebratory, comforting or a show of gratitude.” Garofalo continues. “We assign moral weight to them and to ourselves for consuming them, ‘I’ve been so bad’ or ‘I shouldn’t.’”

Led by Alicia Gaines, single ‘Buio’ gives an insight into what to expect, complete with a confectionery filled video. With an angular and pervasive tempo, the track forms uncomfortable atmosphere, unease extending into the lyrics too. “I won’t pretend I know anymore,” sings Gaines, “I don’t even know what I like anymore.” The mood serves as an interesting exploration of the artist-audience relationship, as well as wider concerns related to authenticity and truth within any form of communication.

You Must Be New Here is out on the 8th November and you can pre-order it now from the Ganser Bandcamp page.

A.S. Wilson – Taken Apart

‘Taken Apart’ is the first single from Convinced Friend, the forthcoming album from Providence, RI-based songwriter A.S. Wilson. The song introduces an aesthetic that’s rooted in stark emotionally-wrought folk a la Jurado or Bazan. Wilson says the album will “deal with characters realizing that suffering doesn’t make us unique,” and so perhaps unsurprisingly it’s on the downtempo end of the spectrum. But there’s more to A.S. Wilson than mopey folk. There’s a glimmer around the edges, supple and gauzy dream pop elements illuminate the track from within, resulting in something that’s ultimately quietly uplifting. Something that, as Wilson puts it, might “open the door past solipsism into empathy.”

‘Taken Apart’ is out now and available via the A.S. Wilson Bandcamp page, and keep your eyes peeled for further news on Convinced Friend in spring 2020.

Béret – Book of Hera

Béret is the project of Seattle’s Ian Kurtis Crist, who makes Velvet Underground style minimalist post-punk. The new Béret record, Jesus White, is out later this month on Born Yesterday Records, and in the meantime we have some advanced singles to increase the anticipation.

Latest offering ‘Book of Hera’ promises to be one of the album’s “emotional peaks”, a song that Crist tells Post-Trash is intended to explore the “blurriness between the want and the need for human compassion and understanding.” It’s a good introduction to Jesus White precisely because it sounds quite unlike anything else on the record. Béret’s approach is at once careful and intuitive, the songs fitting together more like elements of an artwork than a traditional album. All of which means Jesus White is one to spend some time with once it’s released.

Joel Jerome – There’s Nothing Here To Bother You Anymore

The latest offering from Dangerbird Records‘ Microdose singles series (like the Milly release we wrote about last month), ‘There’s Nothing Here To Bother You Anymore’ shows off the psychedelic folk talents of California’s Joel Jerome at their very best. Blending a sunny energy with a western twang and a slice of psychedelic heartbreak, the single is firmly rooted in the bittersweet rhythms of life.

The song therefore has a dual spirit, on the one hand perfect for soundtracking the warmest days with its effervescent air, yet also possessing a wistful tone, as though all the while aware that the seasons pass all the same.

‘There’s Nothing Here To Bother You Anymore’ is out now via Dangerbird Records.

Hit Like A Girl – No More Dysphoria

Hit Like A Girl is the recording project of Nicolle Maroulis from Montclair, New Jersey, starting out as an acoustic solo endeavour before evolving into a full band. Maroulis also runs the non-profit No More Dysphoria, which seeks to provide emotional and financial support for people going through the transition process.

The band and charity operate according to the same aim, and latest single ‘No More Dysphoria’ is something like a title track for Maroulis’s work. Describing themselves as a “non-binary Rosie The Riveter for young adults struggling with their identity,” Maroulis uses Hit Like A Girl as a vehicle for their goals, extending the support they offer to LGBTQ+ people from the practical stuff of the non-profit to the intangible but no less important influence of music, showing that identity need not be a barrier to art, and furthermore can act as the binding force within a community.

Carpet City – Little Longer

The solo recording project of Jack Ventimiglia, Carpet City makes a downbeat and emotionally resonant brand of bedroom pop. So far we only have debut single ‘Little Longer’ to go on, though the track marks the act as one to watch for sure. With its moody, melancholic sound that nevertheless captures a distinctive empathy, the song reminds us that emotions are temporary, that “feelings are just feelings, and they will pass eventually.” The trick is therefore to ride out the storm. As Ventimiglia continues, “When it seems hopeless, you just need to wait a little longer.”

asking for a friend
how you been doin
in this crazy world
with your crazy heart
won’t it fall apart again?

it only hurts right now
just a little longer

Zachary Lucky – Didn’t Know That You’d Come Along

A songwriter in the traditional sense of the word, Saskatoon’s Zachary Lucky cut his musical teeth on the road, playing hundreds of dates a year as he blew through towns and played his songs to whoever was listening. “I never felt the need to come home” he says, “because there was never anything waiting for me there.” Fast forward a decade and things are changing, a family waiting at home in Ontario changing his whole perspective.

Forthcoming album Midwestern confronts the change, delving into the experiences of fatherhood as well as change both personal and global, wondering whether his daughters will experience the same Canadian prairies that he found himself traversing. Lead single ‘Didn’t Know That You’d Come Along’ serves as an introduction into Lucky’s new situation, balancing the joy of kinship with the allure of the road and seeing which way the scales fall.

Seen the sun rise over the mountain peaks
I drove a thousand miles to feel so free
I always thought I would die alone
I didn’t know you would come along

Midwestern is out on the 18th October and you can pre-order it now.

Maya Lucia – preteen

When Maya Lucia was in high school, she told her friends that she liked a boy, only for the guy to find out and come up with the coup de grace of any adolescent. “Isn’t she like a preteen?” he asked, perhaps aware of the insult or perhaps not. Either way, the experience forms the basis of ‘preteen’, the first single from Lucia latest EP, lashing out, where Lucia reclaims the term to describe “someone who is constantly lashing out and just upset[ing] everyone.

Where her previous releases were firmly in the love ballad camp, the song marks a change of direction, pushing into a rambunctious garage rock sound while still giving her strong vocals room to hold centre stage. The result is as sweet and stroppy as any moody child, so lean into your angsty side and let Maya Lucia take you back to the melodrama of youth.

Wintersleep – Free Fall / Fading Out

Mainstays of the Canadian indie rock canon, Wintersleep have made a habit of writing anthemic and often existential songs that run the gamut between triumphant and brooding. In the wake of full-length album In the Land Of, released this March and earning a place on the Polaris Prize longlist, the band are releasing two singles, ‘Free Fall’ and ‘Fading Out’.

Led by Paul Murphy’s distinctive vocals, the songs continue Wintersleep’s career-long exploration of the line between awe and dread, taking on issues both personal and political with a palpable weight and beauty. Following a recurring theme in Murphy’s work, ‘Fading Out’ pitches human fragility against an inorganic tide of chemicals and electronics, as well as dealing with the death of a loved one. Leaning more toward prog rock, ‘Free Fall’ instead confronts the death of a relationship, though again within a soundscape that far exceeds such personal intentions.

‘Free Fall’ comes complete with a video directed, animated and edited by Christopher Mills of Number Four Films, which you can check out below:

Free Fall / Fading Out is out now via Dine Alone Records and you can get it now.

ahem – Try Again

Minneapolis trio ahem released their debut EP Just Wanna Be back in 2016 on Forged Artifacts, blending boisterous punk and indie rock into a sweet ‘n sour mix of blown out guitars and vocal harmonies. After a follow up EP last year, the band are once again teaming up with Forged Artifacts to unveil their full-length record, Try Again.

Lead single ‘Sideways’ sees the return of ahem’s trademark energy, the guitars weaving a bright and infectious sense of momentum that sweeps up the listener and delivers them to cathartic release. The wistful lulls in the racket hint at another side to the band, and second single ‘No Kid (Gold Star)’ embraces the quiet/loud dynamic too, pitching reflective introspection into the moments of quiet, then riding the crests of the guitars to arrive at a sense of certainty.

Coral – find me wrong

Coral is the recording project of Miranda Coral Engholm, a swede who grew up a “theatre kid” Österlen but views songwriting as her favoured mode of expression. “I like the intimacy of it,” Engholm explains. “Sometimes when I listen to a song it can feel like a complete stranger is suddenly standing in my living room talking about something really personal.”

Such a connection drives all of Coral’s work. For Miranda it’s really important to stay genuine and tangible as an artist, so this feeling of connection is something she wishes to achieve with her own music. “Like someone wrote it in their diary and it just happened to rhyme.” Debut single ‘find me wrong’ certainly achieves such intimacy, spinning a tale of tender love and fear of loss. Check out the suitably affectionate video below:

find me wrong is out now via Feverish and available from the Coral Bandcamp page.

That’s all for Vol. 29 of Bright Sparks, but be sure to stick around the Reviews and Previews sections for more in-depth writing.

The post Bright Sparks: Vol. 29 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

And the usual disclaimer applies, there were too many great tunes to include them all, so treat this more as a selection rather than a comprehensive round-up of the year. Enjoy.

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson – Constellation

“You’re used to quiet words
and so am I
so I’ll just whisper“

Tiny Ruins – Dream Wave

“always a dream wave drawing you off track
dream wave, a coast calls you back“

Magana – Get it Right

“You were red but my gold turned you green
So you stood there lying through your teeth“

deer scout – holy ghost

“I could find a new kind of devotion
I could know you by another name“

Hovvdy – Meg

“Speak because i know you feel a certain way
but ill pass it along anyway“

Bedbug – Leaving Town, Moving to a National Park <3

“I’m too young for that anyways
everyone’s just tryna skip town these days“

Soccer Mommy – Skinned Knees

“i left
burning streets in tennessee
for a north east feel“

Mitski – Your Best American Girl

“Your mother wouldn’t approve of how my mother raised me
But I do, I finally do“

LVL UP – Hidden Driver

“God is peeking
softly speaking
fucking everything
until I slowly do see“

Lisa Prank – Starting Again

“You say you’re not still drinking
you just started again
I swear I don’t still miss you
I just started again“

Dicktations – Dicktations Forever

“It’s hard to say when I first figured out something was wrong“

Joyride! – Running on Empty

“Young and running on empty
you said that you thought I looked pretty with my makeup on
so I went home and I took it off“

Sioux Falls (now Stranger Ranger) – Dom

“Spending too much time on the internet
are you ok? you don’t seem very into it“

Camp Cope – Jet Fuel Can’t Melt Steel Beams

“It’s the trophy wives raising trophy wives raising children on TV
Scared of people like you and me
Just don’t ask questions you’ll sleep peacefully
We will not go out in silence and we will not go quietly“

Fake Boyfriend – BUMTOWN

“Why do I cling to the threads that mean the least?“

Outer Spaces – I Saw You

“I saw you, a shedding snake“

American Enthusiasm – Holy Wow

“Make a note of all the words I cough out on my death bed“

The Hotelier – Soft Animal

“Fawn, doe, light snow
Spots on brown of white 
make me believe that there’s a God sometimes“

Beach Slang – Future Mixtape for the Art Kids

“We’re not lost, we are dying in style
We’re not fucked, we are fucking alive“

CHUCK – Death

“You hold on to whatever kin
that keeps on breathin’ in
that keeps you from driftin’
like paper in the wind“

You Won’t – Ya Ya Ya

“So your daddy was a poltergeist
sent your little sister screaming down the hallway
well I don’t know about the afterlife,
but I can help you to forget about the old days“

Mountain Almanac – Kids Playing Outside

“Saturday morning, cartoon time, let’s go“

Basement Revolver – Johnny

“Please just stay away from Johnny
cos I love him understand“

Boy Scouts – Did You See My Cry

“walking walmart shopping center
i’d never been better
on my own two feet
i guess“

Free Cake For Every Creature – First Summer in a City

“i’ll be singing when i’m 90
climb a tree to see
what tastes to smokey sweet
first summer in a city“

Haley Heynderickx – First I’m Sorry

“Mother knows I drown in my lies
Father knows I learned my lesson the second time.
Ask me where I’ll go I’ll say do not know
No, I do not know“

ARMS – Missing

“I don’t want to force your hand
but wishes disguised as plans will never do
Like the king of deathbed regrets
and the queen of last requests could ever choose“

Naps – Bad Vibrations

“Can’t stand up to the world’s expectations
I’m living on a bad bad vibration“

The Washboard Abs – Day Draws Nearer

“Your backyard
you talked to God
about the heartbreak you forgot“

Trace Mountains – Forgiveness

“old dirt you thrown underneath the stair
is right there
right where you said i’d tremble and stare
at the vast unforgiving spirit lurking there
but it takes time, to realise forgiveness“

Nassau – Desert Blues

“I took a marker and wrote your number on the bathroom stall
That’s just my way of reaching out cos I’m too proud to call“

Adeline Hotel – Near You

“Sleep better tonight
In the heat of red moon light
Whatever we are, whatever we’ll be
I used to live near you, you used to love near me“

Simon Balto – Foothills

“I’ve never been a faithful man
I’ve always been too proud to pray
But won’t you come out to the foothills
And hold me together for one more day“

Cloud Cult – No Hell

“There’s no use in running unless you run like heck
The best things we’ve learned we learned from the wreck
Jesus coming back as a woman this time
Handing out hugs in the clinic line
Someone tell the devil we don’t need no hell
We’re all pretty good at beating up ourselves“

Slingshot Dakota – Break

“And in the end there’s two of us
it was always two of us“

Good Good Blood – No Sadness/Furrowed Brow

“We’ll have no sadness/furrowed brow
There is no shame in dying now
I said from my death bed“

Ben Seretan – Bowl of Plums

“My friends call me when they’re feeling low
We talk quietly for hours and walk the room
Flowers growing in a coffee can
Our lives are wonderful and sad sometimes“

Chris Bathgate – Big Ghost

“I got a Big Ghost
of static in my throat
from coming up too short“

Wintersleep – Metropolis

“The man that you are, the man you were, the man you left
Turn into stars, flowing in through the wilderness“

Mothers – Lockjaw

“I don’t want your kind words
I want your ghost inside a thimble“

Car Seat Headrest – Drunk Driver / Killer Whales

“You build yourself up against others’ feelings
And it left you feeling empty as a car coasting downhill
I have become such a negative person
It was all just an act
It was all so easily stripped away“

Space Mountain – Never Lonely

“Met a friend today
And im feeling okay
She’s in my head
I’m never lonely“

Hallelujah the Hills – What Do the People Want?

“What do the people want?
The people don’t know what they want“

Mount Moriah – Calvander

“Carry on and on and on on
With your cosmic reach
Newport river whispered fate
Spells cast with every crashing wave
Neon lines and a new name“

Frederick Squire – Bike Thief

“The lights are on
And we are sinking way down in our chairs
We don’t say much of anything
Even though there’s still a lot to say“

Kevin Morby – We’ve Been Here Before

“Running my mouth off at the storm
Yelling, “man, what the hell did you do that for?“

Sam Moss – Vertebrae

“Did you watch my vertebrae
Slendering out
Or did you watch your own?
Stretching skin over the bone
I’ve grown
Learning to be proud“

Arlo Aldo – House & Home

“O’er the mountains out past the trees
where the grasslands, meet the sky
you’ll find me singin’ my songs
with my lover in my mind“

Will Johnson – Nervousness Fangs

“Jesus what a mess
what they’re all selling
and what’s being sold“

Jeremy Squires – After All

“There’s an old painting of Jesus on a wall
and a tapestry that hangs by a cross
that weighs heavy on my shoulders now and then
I get caught up with why the things we love ain’t never last“

The Dead Tongues – Stained Glass Eyes

“Fifth wind brought a howl got me in a storm
I saw a lighthouse spinning at the edge of the world
like looking through a window to the day
I was born“

Kyle Morton – Automatic

“It’s my head, it’s my head
breaking itself to make a thought but instead
Just some pornographic images to stave off my death
It’s all automatic“

Keaton Henson – Alright

“Obviously
My wounds are open to see
But don’t take them seriously
I’ll be fine“

Talons’ – Work Stories

“Is this what the end of the world looks like?
Or is this just life?“

Jordan O’Jordan – A Lonely Road

“There are truths we may or may never know friend
and that is the point“

Mal Devisa – Sea of Limbs

“Honey-lover
keeper of the bees
Soft-spoken
seldom-seen“

Young Jesus – Hinges

“I’m pretty sure I’m a kind of collection of things
scattered throughout the backyard
under the moon
pulling weirdo slow dance moves
maybe always losing it a little
i am ashamed to believe in myself!“

Lung Cycles – For a While

“I feel like sharing
so I’ll press record
and I’ll tell you that I had a vision“

Sister Grotto – UNCANNY

“When we go, we go alone“

John K. Samson – Virtute At Rest

“You should know I am with you, know I forgive you
Know I am proud of the steps that you’ve made
Know it will never be easy or simple
Know I will dig in my claws when you stray“

If you missed it, you can see the list of our favourite albums of 2016 here, and stay tuned for our collection of the best name-your-price releases on Bandcamp next week.

The post Wake the Deaf’s Favourite Songs of 2016 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Here are some great songs from the tumultuous year that was 2003.

1) The Thermals – No Culture Icons
2) The Wrens – Ex-Girl Collection
3) Wintersleep – Orca
4) Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Maps
5) Sun Kil Moon – Carry Me Ohio
6) Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – Hard Life
7) Califone – Million Dollar Funeral
8) Okkervil River – The War Criminal Rises and Speaks
9) Sufjan Stevens – Romulus
10) Hymie’s Basement – Lightning Bolts and Man Hands
11) The National – Lucky You
12) Malcolm Middleton – Cold Winter
13) Damien Jurado – Amateur Night
14) Cursive – Sierra
15) The Constantines – Shine a Light
16) Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – Jeanne, If You’re Ever in Portland
17) The Unicorns – I Was Born a Unicorn
18) The Decemberists – Red Right Ankle
19) Songs: Ohia – Farewell Transmission

What did we miss from 2003? Let us know via Facebook or Twitter! Be sure to check out our posts on 2000, 2001 and 2002, and pop back in a month when we’ll be turning our attention to… 2004.

The post Millennium Mix: 2003 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Tracklisting:

1. Amerika – Wintersleep
2. Born Confused – Porridge Radio
3. Catchyalater – Frog
4. Water – Opals
5. Listerine – Foxall
6. Nightmare Song – Oscar Lush
7. October Mirage – Island Eyes
8. Past is Personal – West America
9. Roller – Quilt
10. Unattached – Two White Cranes
11. On the Nights You Stay Home – Donovan Woods
12. Call Out – Minor Moon
13. Consolation – The Chairman Dances (Lit Links)
14. First I’m Sorry – Haley Heynderickx
15. Waitress – Soft Lions
16. Vanitas – Hanging Hills
17. Waiting – Faint Peter
18. Farewell Navigator – Naomi Pop
19. Gifts – Real Swell
20. Future Wife – Jacob Faurholt
21. Wall – Slows Down
22. Olly Oxen Free – Creature Speak

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

The Wall Street Journal premièred the lead single, ‘Amerika’, last week, a track which frontman Paul Murphy says was inspired by Walt Whitman. His poem ‘America’ is a hopeful 1888 view of the nation (“Centre of equal daughters, equal sons / All, all alike endear’d, grown, ungrown, young or old”), something Murphy tries to channel in the lyrics, although the Amerika-with-a-K spelling also brings to mind Kafka and his abstruse, crushing systems. The result is something decidedly of the now, a track about being an individual in the arrangement, torn between romanticism and cynicism, hope and dread. About finding shelter and not giving in. Check it out below:

The Great Detachment will be released on the 4th of March. You can pre-order it now via Dine Alone Records.

Photo by Norman Wong

The post Wintersleep announce new album, The Great Detachment appeared first on Various Small Flames.

“The album takes the formula of Stewart’s previous releases and stretches it panoramic, bedroom pop on a mountainous scale, a departure from his norms in all the right ways. The band build dense layers of guitar which, paired with rumbling bass and crashing drums, create something imposing, a monolith rising through the fog.”

The great news is that the full album has now been released, and the promise saw at the start of the year has been realised. Eight songs of dense indie rock which borrow as much from the cathartic peaks of post-rock as they do from the slow and spectral sound we’ve come to associate with Stewart. We begin with ‘In Linear’, with it’s slow and considered start, all open spaces and dark winding guitars and Stewart’s signature vocals. The “choruses” spike with heavier instrumentation, our first taste of the album’s post-rock tendencies, while the gentler verses are full of lines like:

“You always cover the receiver with your hand
why don’t you want them to listen
why don’t you want them to understand?”

‘LAFK’ opens with almost martial drumbeat before the advent of inky and slinky guitars, eventually blooming into a track which fuses a sheer rock passion with emotive vocals and reflective air of something else entirely, bringing to mind earlier Winterlseep releases and particular the music of Brian Borcherdt’s Dusted project. The song is punctuated by moments of almost pure silence, where the only sound is the receding reverb of the previous burst of instrumentation, a sound you can’t be sure doesn’t exist only in your inner ear. Eventually things build to a pinnacle, ending in a furious cacophony of pounding percussion and squealing guitars. ‘Careful Creators’ gathers itself and then comes crashing to life, the vocals sad and oddly serene, floating in during the intervals between the noise (“To be alive is to be alone”).

The title track is a patient and vaguely ominous song, guitars rolling in like surf on an abandoned shore, while ‘x’ shakes things up with its shimmering, shifting ambience, like ice crystals gliding through the great black expanse of outer space. A discordant clang announces the arrival of ‘Temporary Widow’, which has shades of Explosions in the Sky, epic crests of feedback and pummelled drums surrounding the soaring vocals like a big staticky storm cloud. ‘Concrete Plans’ marches out of a drone that sounds like some kind of cosmic wind, the drums holding a rhythm that feels almost heavy rock.

“Under someone else’s concrete plans
you’re not even a name
or the print of your own hand
you become so dependent”

Finale ‘Words’ is epic and reverberating, stretching over the nine minute mark and enduring all manner of tumult in its duration. It converges into perhaps the heaviest maelstrom on the entire album, before descending into a lull at the very finish, just sparse guitar and Stewart’s vocals, like the strange glowing hush in aftermath of a tempest.

“It’s alright if your words
don’t come as easily to you
if everything is overheard
maybe they’re not supposed to”

This is an album that has it all. It’s pretty easy to turn to cloying metaphors to describe the sense of vast space it conjures, the poignancy or Stewart’s vocals, the pure tangible noise that the band can summon. It takes a little bit of everything and melts them down into something that’s quite unique. Something that is quite distinctly Summering.

You can get Summering now via the Summering Bandcamp page.

The post Summering – s/t appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Illustrated by Joe Sumner, the book charts Wyld’s life, from hearing Aussie fishermen stories aged six to her grown adult self. From the moment her brother is brought the jaws of a bronze whaler by Father Christmas, Wyld becomes preoccupied with sharks. The captivation is not helped when she discovers a book on shark attacks and falls in love with Rodney Fox‘s “salty eyes” and look which said “the whole thing was just fine”.

Back in London Wyld finds obsession continuing, scouring the Sydenham library for shark books while plagued by a fear which makes baths difficult and forces her to sit with all appendages safely on-board the sofa. An ill-advised viewing of Jaws cements her mindset before the family return to Australia and encounter more sharks in a variety of situations (imaginary and otherwise).

What this simplification of the plot leaves out are the small details of familial life squeezed into both the writing and illustration, the astute observations and interactions from Wyld’s juvenile viewpoint which reveal what the book is really about. Wyld’s father, the pale Englishman, often cuts a lone figure, isolated in London by work and wine and in Australia by layers of clothing and high-factor sun-cream, while her mother floats with Wyld in the pool at night because “she is awake anyway”. When Wyld’s older brother begins “linger[ing] in doorways with a blank look on his face”, and returning home cut and bruised, the home is loaded with tension yet remains cryptic to Wyld, and by extension, us. Be they adolescent anxieties, genuine enduring depressions or just good old fashioned existential ennui, the emotions of the adults remain alien, unknowable and for the most part hidden, present only as dark, lingering shapes and ominous choppy wake.

Indeed, this sharks-as-emotions allegory can be extended further than sadness. From her father’s well-meaning day trip to ‘Vic Hislop’s Killer Shark Show’, to her encounter with an uncomfortably comic doctor, pretty much all of Wyld’s interactions are surrounded by the unseen forces of love and loss. Sumner’s artwork highlights this paradoxically by adding photo-realistic sharks and wounds to his otherwise simple drawings, beasts which often stalk Wyld when, consciously or otherwise, she is considering losing a loved one. Although she doesn’t quite understand it yet, she is thinking about love through its most illuminating prism – the loss of it. She is thinking about death.

While this morbid idea is true and central to the plot, it would be naive and unfair to dwell on it without noticing that, amongst it all, life not only goes on but flourishes. Wyld is never caught by the shark, nor is her brother or mother or father. She might have felt ill examining the colossal White Pointer at Vic Hislop’s museum but the next day she was braver in the sea. Our relationship with sharks is changing, with The Discovery Channel and National Geographic and the seemingly monthly event of ‘Shark Week’ beaming out pro-shark propaganda in which deep-tanned marine biologists preach education and understanding and love. Similarly, the message from Wyld seems not so much ‘LOOK OUT LIFE WANTS TO EAT YOU!’ but rather ‘life could eat you, sure, but such occurrences are exceedingly rare and even then you can poke it in the eye and escape to the hands of kind strangers who prod your guts back into your body’. In other words, learning to accept the atavistic, bone-level violence and pain as something natural, unaware and worthy of careful respect. Its strikes are few and far between, and even then, it’s nothing personal.

Everything Is Teeth is out now on Jonathan Cape/Random House.

As per usual, we’ve made you a playlist of songs that are related to the book. Nothing too subtle this time, I’m afraid, just plenty of teeth and blood sprinkled with Australians and capped off with the definitive garage-rock  anthem for sharks.

Tracklisting:

1. The Race – Oh Pep
2. Teeth – Bowerbirds
3. Drawn to the Blood – Sufjan Stevens
4. Swim – Surfer Blood
5. I Want Blood – Water Liars
6. Ocean’s Nerves – Songs:Ohia
7. Jaws of Life – Wintersleep
8. Find Me In The Ocean – Will Samson
9. Blood Song – Stupid Loser
10. Everywhere I Go Smells Like Fish – Donovan Woods
11. King Fish – Sun Kil Moon
12. Lurk Underneath – Trouble Books
13. Blood – The Middle East
14. Shark? – Shark?

The post Everything Is Teeth – Evie Wyld & Joe Sumner appeared first on Various Small Flames.

This is good-time rock and roll with a weird edge, with frontman Ryan Walsh addressing the complications and absurdities of modern life in a way that is more often seen in modern lit. The album kicks off with a manic drum roll and dives head first into a manic indie rock track, ‘We Are What We Say We Are’, complete with rousing shout-along chorus.

The album doesn’t really waver from thereon, with a continued description of the incongruities in contemporary life, lyrics that are both funny and terrifying and very much now. While having the lyrics to hand would make writing this review a lot easier, the pleasure of Have You Ever… comes from repeated listens, each re-run unearthing a new lines or phrases.

“Just read me my rights in the cadence we agreed on” from ‘Try This Instead’, and: “I’m doing okay I guess, I’ll walk with a limp but I’ll do my best to hide it / I’ll show up to your party with bandages on, covering every part of my head but my eyes. You’ll see me don’t worry” from ‘Destroy This Poem’ are just a few that jumped out in my time with the record so far. ‘I Stand Corrected’ another smart, lean indie rock song (which I do have the lyrics to), opens with the lines:

“You’ve been selected to participate
In a survey about this call.
You can press 3 to get on with it
Or smash the phone into the wall.”

and goes on to the Salinger-esque:

“You can always press the star key to see if I’m around
But I probably won’t be around
Because the world tends to swallow us whole
and I’d rather risk oblivion
Then wait around to play some phony role.”

The track comes complete with a self-made video in which the band take you on a tour of Boston’s legendary (and completely fictitious) music landmarks. Check it out over at Youtube.

But if this social commentary stuff isn’t your thing, don’t let us put you off. These are still spirited rock songs that bring to mind some of my favourite bands – Titus Andronicus, Oxford Collapse, Wintersleep, The Walkmen, not to mention the impressive HtH back catalogue. Whether this triumphant tone is ironic or genuinely celebratory is up to you to decide. I’d say a bit of both. And I’d also ask whether it matters, this is easily my favourite rock and roll album of the year so far.

Have You Ever Done Something Evil? is out on the 13th of May on Discrete Pageantry Records. You can pre-order it via the Hallelujah the Hills Bandcamp page.

The post Halleujah The Hills – Have You Ever Done Something Evil? appeared first on Various Small Flames.

The title is taken from The Pharmacist’s Mate by Amy Fusselman, where she is describing that almost miraculous nature of music. She sums up by saying:

“And how even though the vibrations are invisible, I can feel them in the air. I can feel them, they are there, they are as there as I am.”

A song is a strange thing. The way in which the writer captures it and builds it up to what we find on our records and CDs is unique to each artist. A whole host of changes are possible from that first spark of inspiration, be it a certain lyric or series of notes. What we hear on studio albums may be an evolved version of the original. It may have been sped up or toned down, altered to sit with the other nine or ten songs with which it shares the album. Conversely, what we hear during live performance may itself be the evolved state, an shift of empahsis or tone to better suit the context.

Whatever changes occur, live songs are different to their recorded counterparts, and this mix contains songs that are different and/or special when performed live. Sometimes there are obvious differences from the recorded track (such as the frenzied ending to ‘Wolves’ by Phosphorescent) and other times it is subtler, increased emphasis on just a word or two. Sometimes there is nothing obviously different apart from some sense of  purity, something organic in the single take delivery.

I’m sure even the most seasoned concert goer will be able to point to two or three moments where a live song somehow transcended normal experience, becoming something so inherently personal it’s hard to believe others were in the room. For me, great art is about the trading of emotions to some empathetic goal, the artist allowing the listener/viewer into themselves to see something pure, something to which everyday labels and descriptions do an injustice. In truly great art, seeing inside another is not fascinating in a some voyeuristic way but instead because it stirs a recognition in the listener. The indescribable feelings within us are given voice, they are painted for us by the artist and shared so that others can see. In this way, the song becomes as much about us as it is about the artist (something which much prove difficult for musicians, which is another debate entirely).

Adam wrote about his choices for the mix in his own blog post, so be sure to go and check that out too.

Hopefully the tracks below contain some sort of spark, that indesribable magic that Fusselman describes.

I Can Feel Them In The Air (Wake The Deaf Side):

1. A Few Kind Words (Live at the Queen’s Hall) – Meursault
2. Tapes (Live at WMSE) – Conrad Plymouth
3. When My Time Comes (Live at the R&R) – Dawes
4. Dead Letter & the Infnite Yes (iTunes Session) – Wintersleep
5. Lately (Live on KEXP) – BOAT
6. Something, Somewhere, Sometime (Daytrotter Session) – Ben Sollee
7. Last to Swim (Weekender Session) – Strand of Oaks
8. Medication – Damien Jurado
9. Mountain Song (Live in Munich) – Evening Hymns
10. Red (Live at Schubas) – Okkervil River
11. Allahu Akbar (Daytrotter Session) – Emperor X
12. The Twist (Quietly Now) – Frightened Rabbit
13. Wolves – Phosphorescent
14. Blood Bank (Live at Glastonbury) – Bon Iver
15. Wasp Nest (Black Session) – The National
16. Jeanne, If You’re Ever in Portland (Daytrotter Session) – Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
17. Down in the Valley (Live on KEXP) – The Head and the Heart
18. Wake (Live at the Bowery Ballroom) – The Antlers
19. First Night (A Positive Rage) – The Hold Steady
20. Robots (Live at Shorefest) – Dan Mangan

I Can Feel Them In The Air (Songsfortheday side):

1. Years/Cleo’s Song (Daytrotter Session) – JBM
2. Grown Ocean – Fleet Foxes
3. Ghost of the Beast – Kelli Schaefer
4. Ocean Open Wide – Hoots & Hellmouth
5. First Sight – These United States
6. Nobody But You – Langhorne Slim
7. Yellow (Piano Version) – Coldplay
8. Blackout (a capella) – Pickwick
9. Everything Trying (Fuel/Friends Chapel Session) – Night Beds
10. I Won’t Be Found – The Tallest Man on Earth
11. To Sing For You/Brand New Colony – Ben Gibbard
12. Kathleen (Live from Dublin Castle) – Josh Ritter
13. Outfit – Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit
14. Acuff-Rose – Jeff Tweedy
15. Catapult – Counting Crows
16. Evening Kitchen – Band of Horses
17. Always on My Mind – Iron & Wine/Calexico
18. Born to Run – Bruce Springsteen
19. Since I Fell For You (ft. Mike Noyce & Justin Vernon) – Eau Claire Memorial Jazz I
20. I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me) – Jay-Z

You can find both mixes here as a collection.

The post Wake The Deaf & Songsfortheday Present: I Can Feel Them In The Air appeared first on Various Small Flames.