Little Flowers's Debut EP Glitter Reinvents 00's Indie Pop

In their deput EP Glitter, Little Flowers makes the mundane magical. The opening track, “Oh My Love”, describes an ordinary room that housed powerful memories. Singer songwriter Thérèse poetically shows how love can shape one’s sense of place. She recounts broken promises made with the purest of intentions, and reflects on them without bitterness or anger, but with hope. “Oh My Love” sets the thematic tone of the EP; it’s a mature and light-hearted perspective on lost love and self-discovery.

Glitter is catchy and easy-going, the perfect soundtrack for watching the leaves change color or grabbing coffee with an old friend. Thérèse’s dreamy voice is reminiscent of starry-eyed female pop from the early aughts, and the accompanying acoustic guitar is soft but intentional. It’s the kind of easy-going pop music that’s sweet upon first listen, but more complex with every repeat listen. Little Flower’s sun-dappled tunes pull the listener into what superficially feels like catchy indie pop, but keeps them coming back for the unraveling lyrical themes and breadth of emotion.

Thérèse says she writes from personal experiences with the hope that it will “help someone process something in their life, too.” This level of cathartic writing serves a two-fold purpose. Initially, it’s a therapeutic way for the artist herself to unload and analyze feelings. And when the music is released, the goal is to bring listeners the same kind of comfort. I couldn’t help but see myself and past relationships in the narratives she creates. The beauty of Thérèse’s songwriting is that her stories are vague enough that a wide audience can relate, but detailed enough to paint a specific picture.

Listening to Glitter is an experience that becomes more rewarding each time. The three-minute average long songs make this EP digestible and easy to play on repeat. If you’re facing heartbreak, growing pains, or any other kind of bittersweet life changes, this album will resonate for you. With a debut this strong, Little Flowers is bound to put out even more powerful music in the future, and we at CVZ are here for it. Glitter comes out today on Spotify.

Vivian Girls Make a Return to Form: Show Recap 10/18

by Julia Leiby

On October 18th, 2019, Vivian Girls played one of their reunion shows at First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia. Young Guv, the project of Fucked Up guitarist Ben Cook, and Philadelphia-based four piece rock band Empath opened up the show as well.

Young Guv opened up the show with a brisk set of indie pop songs that recalled bands such as Thin Lizzy with their power pop guitars. They played mainly songs from their 2019 record GUV 1 and will release another record GUV 2 this week. They are on Run For Cover records and played a quick and melodic set of songs that set the night off to a good start.

Philadelphia’s own Empath played second. The band, fronted by Catherine Elicson, plays noisy pop music with synths and keys as well. The mix of Vivian girls’ rather straightforward pop songs and Empath’s more messy and dynamic tunes bounced well off of each other. They recently re-released their debut album on vinyl. It’s called Active Listening: Night on Earth and was released on Get Better Records. The songs “Hanging Out of Cars” and “Roses That Cry” were some highlights of the mesmerizing set. Vivian Girls’s drummer Ali Koehler could be seen with her young daughter Wendy by the side of the stage dancing along. 

Vivian Girls were mainly active in 2008-2011 and released three albums in that time. They are fronted by Cassie Ramone, with Katy Goodman (who went on to play in other projects such as La Sera) on bass/vocals and a revolving cast of drummers (now Ali Koehler). They have a knack for singing about heartbreak and love in a relatable way that listeners can connect to. They started off the set with the song “Walking Alone at Night,” the first track from their 2nd album Everything Goes Wrong. 

Most of their songs are very short and jangly but instantly memorable. They regrouped and released a new record this year, Memory, and played a couple songs from it. The record picks up just where the previous record from eight years ago left off and is a return to form for them. Since their last record, two of the band members have gotten married and have young children, which is why they were playing three mini tours on weekends instead of touring extensively like they used to. They played a mix of songs from their four records and and in the encore, covered the late indie punk legend Jay Reatard’s song “My Shadow” and it was spot on in its intensity. The show was sweet and it’s exciting to see a band like Vivian Girls return and continue to be passionate about making and playing music together.

It's Jesse Gimbel Against the Lanternflies, Our Bets are with Jesse

My goodness, Philadelphia, we sure are blessed with some multi-talented artists in our community. Jesse Gimbel is one such human. He has released a new animated music video to accompany his new single, “Minds on Fire,” a song about hearing music that “hits your right in the chest”. This is a feeling I think all of us can relate to. That moment when you hear a song for the first time and it just takes over. For a few minutes, that song is your whole experience, in an all consuming way. Jesse tells us “The deeper I dive into exploring new artists, playing on stage, and seeing live music, the more easily permeated I find myself by amazing music.” Which makes sense in context of the video, which is ultimately designed to bring awareness to the all-consuming Spotted Lanternfly invasion that we are currently experiencing in the Northeast.

Jesse describes the video as a fun challenge to himself to see if he could create a cohesive video based on seemingly unrelated topics. If you ask me, animating a video seems like enough of a challenge, so I’m already impressed. Count me doubly impressed after hearing that Jesse increased difficulty by picking these “unrelated topics” with the “random article” button on Wikipedia. Curious to know what some of these random ideas were? Submerged church, bioluminescence, moths, sea snails, illuminated manuscripts and track geometry were just a few examples. As you can see from the finished product, the video follows a runner through various scenes until finally culminating in an invasion of Spotted Lanternflies and a tidal wave washing everything away.

"The deeper I dive into exploring new artists, playing on stage, and seeing live music, the more easily permeated I find myself by amazing music."

Jesse tells the zine that he has a difficult time working on a project if that project doesn’t mean something to him, if it’s not somehow infused with his beliefs. The issue that had been weighing on him most recently is the Spotted Lanternfly invasion and the havoc it has wreaked on Pennsylvania. “This invasive species has been taking over forests all over the state. I’ve personally seen the effects of beautiful areas I love being overtaken, and as they come closer and closer to Philadelphia, it’s important to recognize what’s coming and do what we can to take action” Jesse tells us. The end of the video directs the viewers to more information about what each person can do to help stop the spread of these oddly beautiful bugs. (CLICK HERE FOR THAT INFORMATION).

Jesse and his band have just returned from two recent tours and have a few shows coming up including a show at the Underground in Landsdale on 11/22 and a show a Tannery Run in Ambler on 11/23. “Minds On Fire” is just one single off of their upcoming album set to release sometime in 2020. Check out Jesse’s bandcamp here, his instagram here and his facebook here!!