Because we still have a fair amount of tapes left, and obviously want to raise as much as possible for Worldreader, we have decided to run a special holiday offer. So, as suggested below in stylised sans serif, entering the code ‘HOHOHO’ at the checkout on Bandcamp will get you a handsome 40% off both digital and physical copies of the compilation. This will still cover the production cost of the cassette, but remember all profits go to charity, so every extra pound you give will be a pound well spent.To refresh your memory, here’s what you’ll be getting if you put some of your hard earned cash towards Quiet, Constant Friends:

Side A

Danielle Fricke – The Well
Lotte Kestner – Cattleya
Wes Tirey – Akhnilo Blues
Pasture Dog – Everything That Rises Must Converge
Old Earth – Pretty Steep
Salt Altars – Little Big Man
Henry Demos – Not Her
Beat Radio – Mexico City
Sondra Sun-Odeon – Hair

Side B

Nathan Amundson – Haruki Murakami
Windmill – Jim & The Rather Large Nectarine
ARMS – The Book of Love
Oh, Rose & Sawtooth – TV
Free Cake For Every Creature – Don’t Go Away (Ahumpf Acgroof)
John Ross – The Overlook Hotel
Kissing Fractures – I Drank Phosphorus With Aunt Lucy
Nice Legs – Past Lives
Ben Seretan – King of Crumbs
Trouble Books – Oak and Linden Tree Abridged
Lewtrakimou – I’m a Book on Tape
Nadia Reid – Runway

Grab a download or cassette now via our Bandcamp page, and be sure to remember to use the code ‘HOHOHO’ for your discount.

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Surely you have all heard of ARMS? We have certainly mentioned them a few times. For the uninitiated, ARMS is Todd Goldstein, the ex-Harlem Shakes guitarist, and a variety of friends. We were honoured and delighted when Todd offered to record a version of ‘The Book of Love’ by The Magnetic Fields.

The book of love is long and boring
No one can lift the damn thing
It’s full of charts and facts and figures
And instructions for dancing

But I, I love it when you read to me
And you, you can read me anything

You can buy Quiet, Constant Friends now via the Wake The Deaf Bandcamp page. Remember, all tapes come with super-limited edition art print postcards. You’d be a fool to miss out!

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We’ve been big fans of Oh, Rose for quite a while now, feelings which peaked over their latest album SEVEN, an album of quite spectacular ferocity and strangeness. As we wrote in July:

“The vocals have the quality of an exorcism, like the unnatural utterings of a twelve year old as some jaded man of faith flicks holy water at her forehead. Here Rose sounds quite literally possessed, as if channelling something old and malevolent and playful in a mean, spiteful way”

Sounds cool, right? So cool in fact that we asked Oh, Rose to be a part of our project. Accepting the offer, they teamed up with fellow Olympians Sawtooth to make ‘TV’, a song which first appeared on Because Mountains Are There To Climb, an excellent compilation from the ever-reliable Fox Food Records.

How does this tie in with the books theme, I hear you shout! Well, let’s just say it’s down to your own interpretation. I think there’s an interesting discussion ongoing on books vs. TV/internet, and the slow deliberation of reading vs. instant gratification, and even the most square-eyed among you would admit that having something so easy to digest being beamed out of the various screens in your home might have a tiny influence on your reading habits. But anyway, buy the compilation, listen to the song and stare in a catatonic daze at the artwork below.

You can pre-order Quiet, Constant Friends now on our Bandcamp page, and all profits go straight to Worldreader! Why not grab a tape, complete with super-limited edition art prints?

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We wrote about Aimee Lin’s Kissing Fractures late last year, describing how she writes “candidly about her fears and anxieties in simple but poetic verse” on Lost Self. We were therefore delighted when she agreed to be part of Quiet, Constant Friends, submitting a new song. ‘I Drank Phosphorus With My Aunt Lucy’ is a similarly short-but-oh-so-sweet track, disarmingly sincere and sad, sounding like a late autumn afternoon where the fading sun casts everything in a melancholic light. As Don DeLillo once wrote, “…the time of year, time of day, for small insistent sadness to pass into the texture of things.”

The artwork for this one is by Liam.

You can pre-order Quiet, Constant Friends now via the Wake The Deaf Bandcamp page. All tapes come with super-limited edition postcard prints, and all profits go to Worldreader. Treating yourself + helping somebody = win/win.

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So we’re unveiling the tracks one by one in a sort of music-streaming drumroll, and tonight we are delighted reveal a song by New Zealand’s Nadia Reid. ‘Runway’ closes out the compilation, a track as fitting as it is beautiful. Here, as with all of Nadia’s music, she speaks with the rich texture of experience beyond her years, her words defiant and fragile and human in the very best sense of the word.

“When I hit the ground in all my glory
I will know
where I have come from.

In the shadow of the doubt that meets the morning
I have come,
I have faced it”

If you like what you hear her record, Listen to Formation, Look for the Signs, is out on the 27th November on Sputnik and Scissortail Records, so be sure to get your pre-order in.

The artwork in response to ‘Runway’ is by the brilliant Heather Swenson, who uses an array of different techniques and styles for her strange, vibrant pieces. You can find all of her work on her website, follow her on Tumblr and keep an eye on her work with Mt. Home Arts. Christmas is coming, you know. Who wouldn’t like something to put on the wall?

Remember that you can/should order Quiet, Constant Friends on cassette via the Wake the Deaf Bandcamp page,* a limited release which comes with a few postcard prints of original artworks. Who knows, you might get Heather’s. Better still, every penny of the profits go straight to Worldreader, so you can spoil yourself and help others in one fell swoop.

*Digital downloads are available for those of you living in modern day society. And of course all tapes have downloads too.

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The accompanying painting for this song is by San Francisco-based artist Lindsay Stripling, who manages to match the simple, warm message of the song and myth. Sometimes things can withstand the passage of time. You can find her work on her website, buy it from her shop and follow her on Tumblr and Instagram.

You can pre-order Quiet, Constant Friends now the Wake The Deaf Bandcamp page. All tapes come with super-limited edition postcard art prints, and all profits will go to Worldreader.

The post Quiet, Constant Friends: Trouble Books – Oak and Linden Tree appeared first on Various Small Flames.

This drink doesn’t make me sleep
Didn’t think it would
The numbers on the clock are green
The rest of this is mud
We let off the heavy chains
But I’m not free
Til you say this life is worse without me
You must say the right thing some time.
And you know that I’ll wait up
As if though for my true love
And you know that I’ll wait up.

The artwork for this song was done by Teresa Romo from Santiago, Chile. You can follow her on Tumblr, Facebook and Instagram, and buy her lovely work on her Etsy page.

Pre-order Quiet, Constant Friends now via the Wake The Deaf Bandcamp page. Every penny goes straight to Worldreader, so spoil yourself with a clear conscience.

P.S. If you are a fan of Lotte Kestner, let me point you in the direction of a new collection of covers she released this week. Best of: Requested Cover Songs is comprised of her take on 17 songs requested by fans, including Beck, Slowdive, Radiohead and Pink Floyd.

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“Lots of music that is inspired by Southern Gothic fails to get past the weird-for-weird’s-sake sort of deal where oddity or perversity or violence is included because it seems to add indistinct depth, but… here, the strangeness is specific and targeted, cathartic confessional hymns to critique human behaviour and the good ol’ Social Norms it has created”

As you can probably tell, this not only makes Pasture Dog a great listen but also a perfect fit for our Quiet, Constant Friends compilation. Luckily, Alexa agreed and we are delighted to unveil ‘Everything That Rises Must Converge’ as part of our release. The song is inspired by the Flannery O’Connor story of the same name, a tale which holds significance for the message on Southern Gothic as a whole (I’ve written my thoughts here, if you are interested) but feel free to skip ahead and just listen below:

The quite brilliant artwork in response to this track is by London-based illustrator William Exley. Check out all of his work on his website and follow him on Tumblr, Twitter and Instagram.

You can pre-order Quiet, Constant Friends now via the Wake The Deaf Bandcamp page. Remember, all cassettes come with super-limited edition art print postcards, so be sure to get your order in. I mean, look at Mr. Exley’s work above. Wouldn’t that look good on your wall?

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Today we are delighted to unveil ‘King of Crumbs’ by Ben Seretan. The song is taken from his album In Two, recorded as Ben Seretan & The Early in 2012, and is inspired, at least in part, by the writing of Patti Smith. As Ben explains:

“I wrote the lyrics to this song on a cocktail napkin on an airplane to Portland, Oregon after reading Patti Smith’s description of Jim Carroll in Just Kids – in writing about their romance, she describes him as a mix of Rimbaud and Parsifal, the holy fool, who in Wagner’s last opera, wanders a magical kingdom where “time becomes space.”

The track is a strange one, the instrumentation dischordant and unsettling, Seretan’s vocals delivered in a detached murmur. Things grow increasingly ominous right up to the noisy finale, where the music comes together in a clattering collision of percussion and guitars and the snarled mantra of “let slip the dogs of war”. Check out the full lyrics below and see how much of Parsifal and Patti Smith you can glean from them:

“The brass ring fell from my grip
Trip to the moon
Sleep in the daytime
Tennessee fell in the ocean
Our drugstore home under a shipwreck

Call me the fool, wander the kingdom
I broke my bow over my knee
Honey the lids, hang by the ankles
The king of crumbs biting his thumb

Let slip the dogs of war”

The artwork is by the excellent Nottingham-based artist Mouni Feddag. You can check out her work here, buy some lovely things here, or follow her on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram.You can pre-order Quiet, Constant Friends now from the Wake The Deaf Bandcamp page. Remember that the tapes comes with extremely limited edition art prints, so if you like the work of Mouni and Co. then be sure to get your order in.

–

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“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counsellors, and the most patient of teachers”

So says Charles William Eliot, and I tend to agree with him. And not just because I’ve thrown my lot in with the literary world. Books are where you learn that others share your weirdest thoughts and experiences, and are able to describe them in a way that makes you want to squee with delight or tattoo the words into your skin. What’s more, they let you experience life as someone else, allowing you to get a grip on the unseen forces which batter some while you relax in ignorant shelter. I can confidently say I would be a different person had I not become acquainted with John Singer and Don Gately and Ignatius J. Reilly, with JR from New York and Ruthie from Fingerbone and Oscar Wao from the Dominican Republic, now of Paterson, New Jersey. That’s without mentioning Esther Greenwood or Hazel Motes or the Glass family, nor Mr Small or Spot the Dog or any of the menagerie of Redwall mammals, ie. any of the hundreds of fictional folk who helped build the world as I now see it.

If, then, you cannot read, you automatically miss out on an army* of literary friends to entertain you and hold your hand and generally remind you that you are not alone. You may or may not know that UNESCO estimate there are 757 million adults, including 115 million youths (15-24), who cannot read or write the simplest of sentences. They even have a cool interactive map to give you a better idea of where the problem is biggest.

Worldreader is non-profit organisation dedicated to creating a literate world through digital education. Their Worldreader Mobile app (available on even the simplest feature phones) brings digital books to families around the planet, allowing communities without access to any print books to connect to a library of over 28,500 titles in over 40 languages. And this sort of programme extends far further than helping people gain basic skills. Take the current Ebola outbreak as an example. With such a deadly disease it can be difficult to provide adequate information to those in danger, particularly when moving around increases the risk of transmission and worsens the situation. Worldreader are utilising their mobile reading app to disseminate information to help save lives, from vital health advice to inspiring stories from survivors, while minimising the need for movement on the ground, and thus transmission.

Of course, all this ignores the whole special, reading-as-a-magic-activity side of things that Charles William Eliot was getting at. Books are fun and comforting and inspiring and door-unlocking in so many ways, and I believe quite firmly that increasing the number of young people reading is one of the best ways to deal with current issues and prepare ourselves for future ones. Worldreader actively curates books by African and Indian authors, so rather than just beaming the same dusty classics all over the world, they’ve developed a library representative of the diversity of interests, tastes and subjects seen around the globe. Better still, the mobile aspect will help transform education into an unstoppable force. No longer will your gender or religion or race prevent access to education, nor any disabilities, nor your social standing. With a small amount of help from charities like Worldreader, we can overcome privilege and prejudice by placing education in the hands of the people. We can be each other’s quiet, constant friends.

It’s all pretty inspiring. So much so that I decided to try to help with my own version of community and worldwide collaboration. Quiet, Constant Friends, a compilation of literary-themed songs by some of my favourite artists, will be sold in support of Worldreader, with every penny of the profits going straight into their good work. Some of the songs were recorded especially for this release, some are from upcoming albums and others are old favourites which fit nicely with the theme. You can listen to one new track, ‘I’m a Book on Tape’ by Lewtrakimou, right now:

I’ll be unveiling more songs between now and release, so keep your eyes peeled for that, and check out the artwork and full tracklisting below:

1. The Well – Danielle Fricke
2. Cattleya – Lotte Kestner
3. Akhnilo Blues – Wes Tirey
4. Everything That Rises Must Converge – Pasture Dog
5. Pretty Steep – Old Earth
6. Little Big Man – Salt Altars
7. Not Her – Henry Demos
8. Mexico City – Beat Radio
9. Hair – Sondra Sun-Odeon
10. Haruki Murakami – Nathan Amundson (of Rivulets)
11. Jim and the Rather Large Nectarine – Windmill
12. The Book of Love – ARMS
13. TV – Oh, Rose & Sawtooth
14. Don’t Go Away Ahumpf Acgroomf – Free Cake For Every Creature
15. The Overlook Hotel – John Ross
16. I Drank Phosphorus with my Aunt Lucy – Kissing Fractures
17. Past Lives – Nice Legs
18. King of Crumbs – Ben Seretan
19. Oak and Linden Tree Abridged – Trouble Books
20. I’m a Book on Tape – Lewtrakimou
21. Runway – Nadia Reid

As if collaborating with 20-odd acts wasn’t exciting enough, we’ve also enlisted the talents of a range of artists and illustrators to design special-edition postcards for each song. Again, I’ll be unveiling these as time goes on, but check out the piece for Lewtrakimou’s song by Ji Hyun Yu below:Huge, huge, huge thanks go out to everyone involved. It has been so great to see how nice and enthusiastic people can be about a simple idea, and how it can evolve into something much better than I ever expected. I owe you all.

Quiet Constant Friends is out now. You can buy it from our Bandcamp page, including a limited edition cassette, complete with some super-limited edition art postcard prints (you can browse the complete set of artworks here).We decided against having this as a free download in an attempt to raise as much for Worldreader as we possibly can. Obviously, if you choose to pay more than the suggested amount you are donating more to Worldreader, so feel free to do that. That said, we know times are tough, so if anyone wants a download, just drop us a message/tweet/email and we’ll sort you out, no questions asked.

* I’m taking suggestions for the best collective noun for friends who only exist in books.

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