Little Dickman Records | Heartbreaking Bravery

May 26, 2017

Fruit & Flowers – Out of Touch (Music Video)

In the time that’s elapsed since the last non-premiere post was published here, there have been excellent songs by Beach Fossils, Stalagmites, Gold Dime, CHIMNEY, Bad Channels, Plastic Picnic, Hayden Calnin, Night Click, Ethan Daniel Davidson, The Technicolors, Blimp Rock, Elle Mary & The Bad Men, NØMADS, and Holy Boy that have all been unveiled. As if that wasn’t enough, there was a small host of exceptional music videos to find release, headlined by “Out of Touch”, the first proper visual effort from site favorites Fruit & Flowers.

Drug Tax, the band’s forthcoming EP, is out next month and to preview the release, they’ve offered up a beach-heavy clip that comes courtesy of Thomas Ignatius, who highlights what makes the band so appealing. There’s a sense of fun permeating throughout “Out of Touch” that’s both familiar and inviting. Surf elements blend seamlessly into psych elements, the visual effects and color grading offering an acute reflection of the band’s musical aesthetic. It’s a deceptively clever and impossibly entertaining moment of quiet catharsis that more than proves Fruit & Flowers are ready to advance their career to even higher levels.

Listen to “Out of Touch” below and pre-order Drug Tax from Little Dickman here.

September 11, 2016

Lost Boy ? – Born 2 Lose (Stream)

Lost Boy ? IV

As this week drew to a close, the final few days offered up outstanding music videos from M.T. Foyer (who nearly claimed this post’s featured spot), IAN SWEET, Lomelda, Sleepy, M Ross Perkins, ANOHNI, Beach Slang, and Merchandise. Additionally, there were all of the tracks that were covered in the preceding post and a small handful of full streams that will be covered in the post that follows this one. While those were dedicated to other quality releases, the focal point of this particular entry in the ongoing saga of coverage falls to site favorites Lost Boy ? who released both a riff-happy new full-length and a track online, “Born 2 Lose”, to mark the occasion.

For years now, the Davey Jones-led project has been releasing astonishing material, including one of the best records of this current decade in Canned. Lost Boy ?’s established, distinctive brand of basement pop is on full display in “Born 2 Lose”, which follows a string of excellent songs to tease Goose Wazoo without ever veering so far into familiarity that it becomes predictable. The ways this project shifts and moves from song to song remains one of Lost Boy ?’s most compelling aspects, furthering a singular identity in the process.

Riding the crest of a mid-tempo pace that manages, impossibly, to come off as both relaxed and surging, “Born 2 Lose” establishes a fascinating tone from the outset and never wavers. Jones’ vocals continue to betray a rotating cast of outsider influences that inform Lost Boy ?’s music in meaningful ways, from form and structure to narrative content.
All of those traits combine into an endlessly fascinating — and ridiculously enjoyable — basement pop track that continues to effortlessly navigate some of the dichotomies that have rendered Lost Boy ? one of the more memorable acts currently operating in the genre.

Don’t miss a chance to explore why this band’s endeared themselves to so many people (a sizable quantity of them being musicians responsible for similarly impressive material). “Born 2 Lose” is an upbeat anthem for the downtrodden, providing empathetic comfort in generous doses. Sometimes that’s exactly the type of thing the world needs and Lost Boy ? continues to deliver in earnest. Make sure to give this one the kind of investment it genuinely deserves.

Listen to “Born 2 Lose” below and order Goose Wazoo here.

August 5, 2016

Lost Boy ? – Goose Wazoo (Stream)

After a relatively quiet run for new releases at the onset of this week, Wednesday threw things back into full sprint with great streams surfacing from Clearance, Lithuania, Honey Bucket, Cool Ghouls, Pill, Hillary Susz, YJY, Maxwell Drummey, Elephants, Helena Deland, Kishi Bashi, Breathe Panel, Ex-Cult, Hyetal, Aaron Holm, Protomartyr, and Idiot Genes. In addition to those, there were excellent music videos that arrived courtesy of Savoy Motel, Charles Bradley, Psychic Ills, Show Me The Body, Oshwa, Trails and Ways, Sugar Candy Mountain, Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds, and Foreign Fields. Full streams from Jody, Heaters, and Preen rounded things out in memorable fashion.

Earning the featured spot was site favorites Lost Boy ?, who’ve been relatively quiet since releasing one of the best basement pop records in recent memory. That record, Canned, set expectations astoundingly high for their follow-up and now the band’s offered up a first glimpse via the characteristically off-kilter “Goose Wazoo”. The nonsensical title is a solid indicator of the song, which fearlessly embraces zaniness while simultaneously managing to keep the proceedings impressively grounded.

Lost Boy ? mastermind Davey Jones has more than proven his worth as a songwriter and it’s wildly entertaining to hear him tackle a more experimental approach. Jones has made Daniel Johnston’s influence on his work incredibly transparent over the past few releases (and has been known to cover the artist from time to time) but that influence reaches a fever pitch on “Goose Wazoo”. From the vivid cartoon-friendly narrative to the vocal delivery, Johnston’s spirit’s present but it never quite overtakes the singular identity that Lost Boy ? has managed to cultivate.

From the melodic shifts to the vocal quirks, everything on “Goose Wazoo” indicates that Canned wasn’t a fluke release; Lost Boy ? seems determined to cement a status as a great outsider artist. “Goose Wazoo” alone goes quite a way in establishing that status as a palatable goal. A complete joy, a tantalizingly unique entry, and an impressive display of both confidence and artistry, “Goose Wazoo” is the kind of song that won’t fade easily. More importantly, it’s one that holds up to a dozen consecutive plays without losing an ounce of its oddball charm.

Listen to “Goose Wazoo” below and keep an eye on this site for more news surrounding the band and their upcoming release.

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June 14, 2016

Dentist – Joel (Stream)

Monday tends to be one of the more eclectic release days for standalone streams and today proved to be no different. Worthwhile material emerged from just about every genre this site typically covers and continued to stretch some boundaries. The following artists all had songs that deserved to be heard: Consilience, Jackal Onasis, Gap Dream, Sweat, Scarlett Saunders, Cheena, Possible Humans, Ranch Ghost, Above Top Secret, and The Meltaways. In addition to those releases, a small handful of notable music videos from angelic milk, Wireheads, Haley Bonar, Preoccupations, and Ali Beleitc also saw the light of day.

Dentist’s surf-tinged “Joel” wound up securing the feature spot by virtue of sheer strength. Opening up on a foreboding riff and staccato chord stabs awash in reverb, “Joel” sets an intriguing — and oddly compelling — tone at its onset. Slowly, the guitar fades and gives way to a creeping piano figure that injects the song with an eerie Southern Gothic sensibility. Then, after a brief rest, the song snaps into a sugary overdrive that kicks the energy up from 15 to 80 in an instant.

Following the switch, Dentist falls comfortably into a groove that operates as a pastiche of pop influences from decades long gone. It’s a perfect transition that illustrates the band’s understanding of their craft, suggesting that Dentist’s forthcoming Ceilings may be one of 2016’s most unexpected joys. Apart from the invigorating dynamic shifts of “Joel”, the song’s vibrant second act endearingly instills the song with a surplus of giddy joy. “Joel” ultimately goes from bleakly intimidating to openly welcoming, leaving one hell of an imprint in the process.

It’s another entry in an already-long string of unlikely summer anthem candidates, carefree and just about perfect.

Listen to “Joel” below and pre-order Ceilings from Little Dickman here.

[Editor’s Note: The beginning of coverage in 2016 was an extremely hectic time and one odd quirk of this site was overlooked. That particular oversight will be amended in this post, which precedes the resumption of posting the 100 immediately preceding entries in the continuously-expanding Heartbreaking Bravery catalog of posts. A few of the image links are broken and some of the galleries are missing but all of them will eventually make the migration to Heartbreaking Bravery’s flickr. Keep an eye out.]

To access posts 700-799, click on the links listed below.

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