Pressing Concerns: Flower Show, Tiny Vipers, Deep-Fried Butterfly, GBMystical

Posted byrosyoverdrivePosted inPressing ConcernsTags:, , , , , , , ,

On this lovely morning in May (presumably it’s a lovely morning; I’m writing this ahead of time) we have four new records for you to peruse here in Pressing Concerns: new albums from Flower Show and GBMystical, a new EP from Deep-Fried Butterfly, and an archival release from Tiny Vipers.

If you’re looking for more new music, you can visit the site directory to see what else we’ve written about lately. If you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here.

Flower Show – Painted Nails & Silver Bells

Release date: May 2nd
Record label: Self-released
Genre: Psychedelic pop, jangle pop, Britpop, indie pop
Formats: Digital
Pull Track: Bags for Life

It is time for us to meet Flower Show, a “queer six-piece indie band from Liverpool” who describe their music as “charity shop pop”. The sextet (led by Craig Sinclair and also featuring Simon Gabriel, Lloyd Gabriel, Dave Miller, Dom Price, and Terry Green) have just released their debut album, Painted Nails & Silver Bells, but some of the members previously played together in a band called Lovecraft over a decade ago. Painted Nails & Silver Bells, which also features arrangements from Jon Hering of Ex-Easter Island Head, is certainly a “British pop album”, although it’s a bit of a different sort than the kind of music I typically write about that fits this description. Sinclair’s deep vocals are arguably the most foundational aspect of this album–they certainly sound like somebody who learned to make and appreciate music through David Bowie and Jarvis Cocker, and I also hear a bit of The Bevis Frond’s Nick Saloman at times. Musically, Painted Nails & Silver Bells has two main “modes”–either Flower Show are bouncing through 60s-style power pop and psychedelic, Paisley guitar pop or they’re treading through a murky, moody, post-Britpop haze. The transitions ought to be jarring, but Flower Show are well-versed in drawing these connections in a way that makes sense as a record.

Opening track “Spitting at the Walls”, bile in the title aside, has enough joyous, exuberant power pop for the entirety of Painted Nails & Silver Bells. Flower Show deploy triumphant trumpets and insistent organ tones, which really place this flowery guitar pop tune right in the middle of the 1960s. It’s a good thing that Flower Show give us such a treat right at the beginning, because they trust us to follow them as they immediately meander into material like “The Macerator” (a strange psychedelic, key-heavy mood piece) and the vintage balladry of “I’ve Forgotten”. “Green Grows the Grass” has a nice jangly undercurrent, but the mid-section of Painted Nails & Silver Bells continues Flower Show’s “difficult” streak (check out the six-minute prog-folk-pop odyssey of “She Will Have Music”), and it’s not until the closing duo of songs that the pop side of the sextet starts to win out again. “Bags for Life” is probably the best song on Painted Nails & Silver Bells–this was Flower Show’s debut single, and it’s such a power move to start your career off with something this effortlessly catchy, clever in a naturally British way (sample lyric: “I need a place to rest my bones, anywhere will do / I’m a cunt and you’re a cunt and we’ve both had a few”), and sneakily quite dynamic. “Drink the House” starts off with our narrator falling down and hitting their head on the toilet in the midst of an eventful night out–there’s still darkness here, although Flower Show seem to find some kind of purpose in making their misery busy and dizzy. (Bandcamp link)

Tiny Vipers – Illusionz Vol. 1 (1997-2004)

Release date: May 2nd
Record label: Self-released
Genre: Lo-fi folk
Formats: Vinyl, cassette, digital
Pull Track: Billboards & Dumpsters

Jesy Fortino, aka Tiny Vipers, has been intermittently releasing experimental folk music in Seattle for over twenty years now. She’s perhaps most famous for a pair of folk albums released on Sub Pop in the late 2000s (2007’s Hands Across the Void and 2009’s Life on Earth) as well as a 2012 Kranky-released collaborative release with Liz Harris of Grouper (Foreign Body, under the name Mirrorring) which hinted at the more ambient but still folk-based sound Fortino’s later work would follow. Tiny Vipers releases have been fewer and far between in recent years, but they’re still coming–her most recent LP was 2017’s Laughter, she put out a three-song EP called American Prayer in 2022, and now we have the archival release Illusionz Vol. 1. Much more raw and direct than any of the other Tiny Vipers releases, Illusionz Vol. 1 collects nine songs that Fortino recorded on cassette recorders, ADAT decks, and boomboxes from 1997 to 2004, documenting an exciting, formative period for a developing songwriter. Lo-fi 90s indie folk acts like The Mountain Goats, Simon Joyner, and Cat Power come to mind (and there are moments that connect this compilation to the concurrent political indie/punk of the Pacific Northwest), although there’s already Tiny Vipers’ unique darkness in this music.

“Tired Horses” is an incredibly strong, transfixing opener–a loping, bleak, blues-informed folk song, it’s like a rougher version of early Nina Nastasia. The next song on Illusionz Vol. 1 is still dark and stark, but it’s of a different sort, marked by frantic acoustic strumming and a strained voice on the verge of breaking. There’s an agitated, spirited side to Fortino’s writing and playing here that might be surprising for those only familiar with her later work, particularly on highlight “Billboards & Dumpsters”. It’s a searing, seething indictment of some dipshit who thinks their politics compensates for their personal odiousness  (“You say that there are more important things than me / Like spraypainting ‘Smash the state’ and ‘Anarchy’ / On the side of billboards and dumpsters and freight trains / Billboards and dumpsters and freight trains are more important”). “Something Wrong” is another folk song with this level of writhing liveliness, and it’s really not until the final two songs on Illusionz Vol. 1 that we get some real hints about where Tiny Vipers would end up going. But what strong indications “Watch My Body Die” and “Illusionz” are! The six-minute crawl of the former and the haunted eight-minute drone of the latter take Tiny Vipers to the next level suddenly and capably–but I’m still happy that we get to hear Fortino’s journey to get there on the rest of this album. (Bandcamp link)

Deep-Fried Butterfly – Salt of Saturn

Release date: March 31st
Record label: Kitschy Spirit
Genre: Fuzz rock, indie pop, dream pop
Formats: Digital
Pull Track: (Guess the) Age of the Aquarius

Deep-Fried Butterfly are a new quartet hailing from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan–specifically Schoolcraft Township (it’s on the Keweenaw Peninsula, near Houghton, I say as if this means anything to any of you). Their Bandcamp page gives the members all fun names–guitarist/vocalists Lio Coulter and Sean Stout are “Visor Stains” and “Bloomin Onion”, respectively, while bassist Chris Joutras and drummer Aidan Reilly are “Baron La Croix” and “Box of A.I.R.”. You’re probably thinking–“wait, the Upper Peninsula? That’s where Liquid Mike is, right? How are they involved in all this?” Well, Liquid Mike’s Mike Maple did indeed record the debut Deep-Fried Butterfly release, the four-song Salt of Saturn EP (and Joutras’ record label, Kitschy Spirit, has put out a few Liquid Mike records as well). I confess that I’m really not sure what to make of Salt of Saturn, but I do quite enjoy it–as one might expect from a Mike Maple-recorded EP, it’s nice and fuzzed-out, but otherwise it’s pretty far removed from punk-ish power pop. These four fairly disparate songs pull from dream pop, psychedelic pop, alt-rock, instrumental jazzy post-rock, and more–there are plenty of quality hooks in them, though, which is as good a unifying force as any. 

“(Guess the) Age of the Aquarius” opens up Salt of Saturn with what I’d call the “hit” of the EP–that beginning guitar riff is probably the most “Liquid Mike” thing on the record, but the song that follows is more polished and refined version of indie pop ushered along by Reilly’s propulsive drumbeat and Coulter (I think?)’s stately vocals. “Super Fun Site” is also a journey into the realm of indie pop, although it’s an oddly disjointed one, its classic pop song core consistently distorted and reset by the band and the recording. “At the Drive In at the drive in” is easily the strangest thing on this EP–it’s an instrumental, and veers sideways into the realm of slightly chilled-out math rock and jazzy, guitar-led rock music (it’s surprising that something on this EP reminded me of The Royal Arctic Institute, but here we are). Salt of Saturn wraps up an eventful fourteen minutes with “It’s Just ‘Table’”, the most dramatic moment of their brief career yet. The low-key but somewhat dour guitar pop of the majority of the song floats in some kind of distorted ether, but the final minute and change of the track finds Deep-Fried Butterfly careening into a “big finish”, the vocals becoming increasingly yelled and frantic and the guitars launching into the sky. There goes the first record from a promising new band, fluttering away like some kind of winged insect. (Bandcamp link)

GBMystical – Wannabe

Release date: May 2nd
Record label: Bee Side Cassettes
Genre: Psychedelic pop, folk pop, jangle pop, lo-fi pop
Formats: Cassette (forthcoming), digital
Pull Track: Magic Glove

Terrin Munawet is a musician from upstate New York–they played in “math rock bands in high school”, drummed on an album from the then-Rochester-based Cusp, and started making beats solo as GBMystical before recently moving to Philadelphia. GBMystical has primarily been an outlet for Munawet’s experimental electronic beatmaking, but songs like “Little Dolphin” from 2020’s Planet GB hinted at lo-fi indie folk and guitar pop sides to Munawet–sides that are fully explored on the latest GBMystical release, Wannabe. Munawet and their new collaborators (including William Wilkinson on trombone and Soft Idiot’s Justin Roth on backing vocals) transform the project into a vehicle for folky, psychedelic indie pop/rock across a dozen brief tracks (it’s about twenty-five minutes long in total). Wannabe is being released through Albany label Bee Side Cassettes (with whom Munawet has collaborated before), and while GBMystical’s earlier material fit alongside the electronic side of that label, their newest record fits alongside the imprint’s guitar acts–there are bits of Another Michael, Bruiser & Bicycle, and Floral Print in here. It all comes in a casual but very well-crafted guitar pop package, delivering its version of psychedelia in brief, self-contained bursts. 

“Magic Glove” is a gorgeous ninety-second opener, sliding in some horns to introduce us to Wannabe in the form of lo-fi chamber pop and very nearly “jangle pop”. The meandering, electric folk rock of “Remember” is a little bit more developed, but the laid-back charm of the opening track is hardly lost–the music reminds me a bit of the Meat Puppets, a touchpoint I hear again in the instrumental “Stirring Theme”. A lot of Wannabe is just good old-fashioned Philadelphia bedroom pop, somewhat dour but nonetheless beautiful music that recalls stuff like Ylayali, 22 Degree Halo, and the whole Sleeper Records discography (I’m thinking specifically of “Mist”, which goes from an intimate Greg Mendez-type thing to a soaring fuzzy rocker, but plenty more spots on the record apply, too). Wannabe leans into its brevity a bit–songs like the title track, “Starfish 2”, and “Stirring Theme” feel a bit like snippets, giving the record a collage-like tint that connects it with Munawet’s less pop-forward work. The only song on Wannabe that really sounds like those beat-centric records, however, is “Doesn’t Matter”, a synthpop collaboration with New York project Certain Self that places the busy drum machines front and center (but still has plenty of “pop”). “Doesn’t Matter” still fits naturally with the songs next to it (the dreamy pop of “Fairy Hour” and one last folk-pop heist in “GRIM”); it’s a nice addition to the strange and comforting quilt that is Wannabe. (Bandcamp link)

Also notable:

4 thoughts on “Pressing Concerns: Flower Show, Tiny Vipers, Deep-Fried Butterfly, GBMystical”

  2. Pingback: New Playlist: April 2025 – Rosy Overdrive
  4. Pingback: Pressing Concerns: With Patience, Brian Bilston and The Catenary Wires, Unwed Sailor, IE – Rosy Overdrive

Leave a comment