I spent a couple of hours on Sunday morning sifting through more than 100 recent releases from artists and labels I follow on Bandcamp. I’d say it was time well spent, based on the finds below. As you might expect, it’s a well-mixed bag of sounds and styles — gritty indie-rock and punk from New York, California and Nashville, avant-garde Brazilian grooves, a posthumous collection from a Philly punk-rap hero, blasts from a Blasters’ past, Australian surf-punk, rockin’ jazz-funk covers, feminist cumbia and more. Enjoy. I am.
Sour Jazz
American Seizure
THE PRESS RELEASE: “With a dusty collection of experience that includes work with Cheetah Chrome, Sylvain Sylvain, Motorcycle Boy, PillBox, Jeff Dahl, Ian Hunter, Sami Yaffa, Bebe Buell, Freddy Lynxx, Kevin K, Marky Ramone’s Intruders, and also with former members of The Electric Eels, The Stillettos & The Cramps… Sour Jazz are four guys who dress to the left and suavely rock like absolute fuck. The World Famous Mr. Ratboy uses guitars, Mr. Popular uses a microphone, Cowboy uses a bass and Splat Action uses drums and sometimes a Theremin when we tire of arguing the point. Produced by Daniel Rey.”
Thiago Nassif
Mente
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Thiago Nassif is a Brazilian musician, composer and producer based in Rio de Janeiro, whose impactful mélange of pop, jarring no-wave, and edgy Tropicália has slowly been turning heads the world over. His latest album Mente was co-produced by no wave icon Arto Lindsay, and representative, via its diverse list of accredited musicians, of the progressive, new-generational music scene that is bubbling away in Rio. The album’s title is a Portuguese homonym meaning “mind” and “to lie”, and represents Thiago’s attitude towards what he calls the “post-truth” state of Brazil’s political regime. Mixing together the languages of Portuguese and English, Thiago goes deep into no-wave, experimental electronic music, Tropicalismo, jazz and rock, moving between funk carioca to dystopian, distorted bossa nova, and beyond.”
Dave Alvin
From an Old Guitar: Rare and Unreleased Recordings
THE PRESS RELEASE: “This 13-song collection features studio performances that I’ve recorded over the years for my own albums or for tribute albums but mainly they’re just things I did for the pure kicks of playing music I love with musicians I love and admire. The songs range from some originals to interpretations of compositions by dear friends like Peter David Case, Chris Smither and the late Bill Morrissey to tunes written by heroes like Willie Dixon, Bob Dylan, Lil Hardin Armstrong, Earl Hooker and Marty Robbins. The music ranges from acoustic blues and ballads to electric barroom blues, folk/rock and even a little country/rock. There are contributions from dearly departed comrades like Chris Gaffney, Amy Farris and Bobby Lloyd Hicks as well as from old Blasters pals like Gene Taylor along with various members of The Guilty Men/Women/Ones plus help from brilliant accompanists like Greg Leisz, Cindy Cashdollar, Bob Glaub, Don Heffington, Danny Ott, Skip Edwards, Rick Shea, Chris G Miller, Wyman Reese, Dale Spalding and David J. Carpenter. I consider myself extremely lucky to have had such a stellar collection of musicians to make some noise with and to say that I’m proud of the performances on this release would be a gigantic understatement. And, yeah, of course I played beat up, old guitars on all the songs.”
Spice
Spice
THE PRESS RELEASE: “As a collective thought, Spice’s self-titled debut album offers a deliberate isolation of pain as interpreted through different vehicles. Less than 30-minutes in length, the record diverts from a singular mood, tempo, or delivery, instead focusing on orchestrating emotional drain as single impulses — fast, slow, driving, simple, and layered — that coalesce in their machinations. At its core, Spice’s album is wired together by brawny and brittle guitars, lock-groove rhythms, and vocals announce each moment and mood. Formed in 2018 and based across California, each members’ roots are in the North Bay of San Francisco. Comprised of Ross Farrar (vocals) and Jake Casarotti (drums), both of Ceremony, along with Cody Sullivan (bass), Ian Simpson (guitar), and Victoria Skudlarek (violin), Spice’s sound pulls from the sense of melody and drive inherent to Bay Area pedigree, peppered with modernity and awash with an anthemic haze. The hook is in the connection as much as melody, with each song building its inner narrative and exploration of affliction.”
TV Saints
No Good (Super Deluxe)
THE PRESS RELEASE: “This is a reissue of the first album I put out as a band, which brings closure, and relief that I will not be writing in the first person anymore. This Super Deluxe Ultramega-OK version of the debut LP features a remastered version of the original record, the original Highschool Demos for Second Guesses and Seen A Lot of Trouble (recorded 10 years ago in NJ), alternative takes of Tease and Disaster, the original Shady Sister EP (Released in 2015) as well as the acoustic version of that EP. This version also contains over an hour of live recordings from the current lineup as well as Thru The Years which features the various lineup changes we endured over the past couple years starting out as well as some bad-ass covers that we blasted out. I probably could’ve added more to this, but am definitely saving the hours of live material for something else down the road.”
Ronnie Vega
Two EPs
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Curan Cottman aka Ronnie Vega will be remembered as a light in the life of everyone that knew him, but his music talks vividly about the trauma of racism and capitalism that he experienced as a Black person in America. To honor our friend, his band would like to make his music available for purchase with all the proceeds going to a fund, organized by Saleemah McNeil, that helps Black people in the Philadelphia area connect with free therapy. 100% of the proceeds from the sale of his discography will be donated to the Oshun Family Center, who is currently providing free therapy for Black residents of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland in the wake of the impact of the current conditions of both the COVID-19 pandemic which disproportionately is affecting the Black community, as well as the continued killings of Black people at the hands of police.”
Bobby Shad and the Bad Men
Bobby Shad and the Bad Men
THE PRESS RELEASE: “The only album to ever credit producer Bob Shad as a leader — even though the man had been behind so many famous records on labels that include Mainstream, Time, and Mercury! This set has Shad taking the hip vibe of the Mainstream label to the forefront — mixing funky jazz and trippier rock touches together beautifully (and) blending Mainstream’s worlds of psych and soul in a tremendous way — as he turns out these fresh new takes on big tunes from the time, all redone here as fuzzy instrumentals! The great Ron Frangipane handled arrangements, and titles include Whole Lotta Love, Pinball Wizard, I Want You Back, Instant Karma, and No Time.”
The Meanies
Desperate Measures
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Desperate Measures marks the first studio album from the band since their victorious 2015 comeback record It’s Not Me, It’s You amassed a slew of standout album reviews across the country and reignited Australia’s longstanding love affair with the influential punk-rock outfit. According to frontman Link Meanie, the album title Desperate Measures reflects the drastic strides we take to stomach the current state of the world. “Desperate Measures is an album title for the times, whether it be applicable to the rise of right wing anti-intellectualism, the associated denial of impending environmentally apocalyptic disaster or the cultural lobotomy of today’s popular media,” says Link. It’s hard to see a way through this miasma of illogical negativity without… (drum roll)… desperate measures.”
Acid Coco
Yo Bailo Sola
THE PRESS RELEASE: “On Yo Bailo Sola there is no mistaking the cumbia beat, but Acid Coco break with the dogma of tradition (a recurring theme in their work), the song’s female protagonist telling her would-be dance partner to leave her be, she wants to dance this cumbia alone. Breaking the same traditions that also inform their work is all par for the course for Acid Coco, a Colombian duo whose debut album Mucho Gusto will be released later this year. Recorded across two charged sessions in Geneva, it’s an album that finds emotional and physical catharsis through evoking the music and memories of a Colombia where they no longerreside, but which looms large across their work. Yo Bailo Sola takes inspiration from cumbia from the 1950s. Music that speaks of spirituality and solemnity but that is filled with mischief. As a Gibson riff and Colombian tiple propel the song forwards we hear Andrea break the conventions of cumbia. Often a couples dance, she tells her admirer: “yo bailo sola” (“I dance alone”).”
XIII
Heard Of Cows?
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Nestled within the tall bullrushes and stringy paperbark trees that line the Swan River in Perth, an old log studio affectionately known as The Cabin invitingly throws out a drunken glow of warm light… as you take a deep breath and start to walk slowly towards the dark, gritty structure, you can taste the smoke gently trickling from the chimney… XIII are on the graveyard shift. The six tracks that make up the Heard Of Cows? EP were recorded and mixed during sessions at three different studios (The Cabin, Clavering Street, The Skullery) over a five-year period. Produced entirely by the band themselves and almost never seeing the dark of night, this collection of songs sifts through the necessary murkiness and shadows left by the curse of the cow.”
