New Commute: Recent Episodes
New Commute
The Natural Yogurt Band’s latest, Parasol, is a home-recording marvel from English composer Miles Newbold, who engineers neo-library and space-jazz fusion with prodigious one-man-band flair, saturating every track in exotic textures and far-out, clever drum patterns. With unearthly sound effects entering and exiting the airspace freely, it’s a record that is totally out-there and unafraid.
Adam Amram’s To the End is chock full of wavering, country-folk storytelling, its unvarnished melodies carried by a full band that knows the aches of the road. Worn-in and honest, the album blends backstreet blues with hard-earned tales; a fitting soundtrack to roll as the city skyline appears deep in the horizon.
Wild Cow’s self-titled debut is a restless, joyously messy tangle of art pop, where playful electronics and acoustic flourishes dart in and out of focus, all anchored by percussion that’s primal and propulsive. Each song fizzes with a sense of discovery, as unconventional structures and textures tumble together, creating a vibrant, compulsively replayable rush.
Woven together with contributions from a stellar cast of collaborators, including saxophonist Joseph Shabason, singer Satomimagae, and Kikagaku Moyo’s Tomo Katsurada on cello, Once Was Ours Forever finds Jonny Nash at his most tender, balancing folk, ambient jazz, and dreampop in a world that’s tender and absorbing.
Andy Boay, the solo project of Tonstartssbandht guitarist Andy White, unleashes “One & One,” a preview from his forthcoming self-released album, You Took That Walk For The Two Of Us. With echoey, commanding vocals riding atop mystical, stair-stepping throbs of sound, White crafts a loose-screw psychedelia that feels oblique, isolated, and alluringly adrift inside some waking dream.
Live tape manipulations, improvisations, and field recordings captured on train platforms, city streets, and domestic spaces generate a sprawling urban opus, where modular synths, viola, horn, and guitar intertwine as the very fibers of city life. With a palindrome tracklisting and compositions that blur environmental noise and performance, Different Rooms is both study and symphony, mapping the right angles and curves of the city through sound.
This week:
Ryan Davis & the Roadhoad Band, 22° Halo, Floating Action, Frown Town,
Florry, Winter McQuinn, Slack Times, Harmony Index, Calvin LeCompte, Mavis Staples,
Kate NV, Julianna Riolino, Oog Bogo, Ben LaMar Gay & more.
Calvin LeCompte’s new one, “Farewell Ye Gilded Fog,” simulates a city at night: live-to-tape and a little blurry, with guitar lines curling like smoke above the skyline. It’s a barren lullaby with a downtown aura and mysterious lights drowning in radio crackle.
In yet another head-scratching, "How did they even find this guy?" moment for ULYSSA, they’ve dusted off Doug Newman—a true van-dwelling original whose home-recorded acoustic tunes feel like Jack Johnson and Little Wings somehow conspired to soundtrack a life lived off-grid and off-the-clock. There’s something disarmingly unhurried about the way Doug strums and mumbles his way through each song, as if he’s got all the time in the world to let you in on whatever strange thought just crossed his mind. When you’re drifting at Doug’s pace—delivering food by mountain bike, bouncing between parks and campsites like a latter-day Daniel Boone armed only with a battered guitar—the days just sort of blur together, and that’s exactly how he likes it.
22° Halo’s Lily of the Valley is an overlooked 2024 gem, its artfully forged sound weaving together post-punk’s skittish energy and indie pop’s offbeat charm. Imagine bar italia’s cool precision meeting Death Cabs heart-on-sleeve sincerity, but tinted by something moodier and more mysterious. Singer-songwriter Will Kennedy’s hushed vocals gently soften the sharp edges of a briar patch of guitars.
Winter McQuinn’s “Walkin’ Through That Door,” the debut single from his upcoming album, lathers slick AM gold and groovy western soul in a luxuriant ’70s sheen. As an adaptable psych-folk songwriter, McQuinn teams up with the radiant vocals of Feign Jima, mixing wistful longing with grooves that'll keep calling you back.
This week:
Hayden Pedigo, Michael Nau, El Michels Affair + Clairo, Teethe,
Water From Your Eyes, Mae Powell, Les Halles, Cate le Bon,
Curtis Harding, Dari Bay, S.G. Goodman, Hand Habits & more.
Hayden Pedigo’s I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away is a pinnacle achievement of primitive guitar virtuosity, where meticulous fingerstyle precision and Chet Atkins swagger transform into a striking composition, heightened by lush string atmospherics and a flawless sense of craftsmanship. The “Motor Trilogy” alone is an astonishing musical journey, full of wonders and delights, cementing Pedigo’s position in the hall of modern guitar excellence.
With the enduring songwriting and mesmerizing melodies that defined early ’70s Tokyo folk rock, Appliqué’s self-released 1973 EP—now lovingly reissued by First & Last Records—distills the band’s youthful wonder into a haze of gentle, psychedelic hues.
Joe Bourdet recasts Dan Fogelberg’s “Illinois,” trading its Midwestern melancholy for a California cool that elevates a country-rock dollar-bin fixture into something much more stylish. With Justin Smith’s assured drumming and Catfish Connor Gallaher’s yearning pedal steel, Bourdet preserves the song’s sense of haunted homecoming, but filters it through the lens of his own displacement, returning to familiar ground after being priced out of Southern California.
King Blood’s Eye I Aye Ivy is a scorched transmission from the outer reaches of Rylan Wharton’s fretboard, as black metal’s road-rashed remains drip into a ragged ooze of psychedelic muck. Bad-trip guitar riffs snarl and spiral downward, plunging into a dubby abyss. The result is a heady meditation where obliterated amplifiers become the altar for this hallucinatory ritual.
Michael Nau’s latest pair of songs drift in with a gentle-spirited, folky ease, each track a mellow waltz, pillowy-voiced and untroubled, moving at his own unhurried pace, pure and genuine as if he’s serenading you from your own living room. Stripped of any excess, these recordings are elegantly simple and beautifully understated, evidence that Nau remains a master of his craft while still leaving us locked in for what’s to come.
In the far-out fringes of California’s New Age 1980s, where health food co-ops and crystal shops moonlighted as gateways to other dimensions, Lost Coast: Some Visionary Music from California (1980-1992) cracks open a vault of dream pop, avant-electronic, guitar soli artifacts that chart the state’s metaphysical underground. Crafted by unheralded Pacific seekers, this suite of freakuencies tunes straight to the mind’s edge, third eyes pried wide and pointed toward the endless horizon.
Lost Coast: Some Visionary Music from California, 1980–1992 by Goaty Tapes / House Rules
For their second full-length record, Where They Dwell, Tokyo’s TAMTAM conjure a pearlescent neo-soul and funk fantasia, threading glistening synths and Eastern-influenced guitar work through hip-hop grooves and Japanese-sung vocals.
Cincinnati’s Liaam rips through Dancing With My Clothes On with a peppy new wave sneer, grinding 21st-century punk sensibilities into sulfuric two-minute riches. Each track is a hiss-soaked, four-track tape machine gem that struts, stumbles, and crashes with loud, gnarly confidence.
This week:
Modern Nature, Drugdealer + Weyes Blood, Daryl Johns,
Cactus Lee, Tobacco City, Emily Hines, Jahnah Camille, Sharpie Smile,
Foxwarren, TOPS, Credit Electic, Ben Kweller + MJ Lenderman & more.
On Dark Green Curtains, Frown Town’s Shane Perry transforms home recording into a personal manifesto, weaving folk rock textures with the kind of care that only comes from total creative control. The album’s raw edges and handmade charm give each song an unfiltered immediacy, blending Elliott Smith introspection with McCartney-esque melody, all crafted from start to finish by Perry’s independent vision.
Modern Nature’s “Pharaoh” is a finely crafted single, marked by understated instrumental clarity and Jack Cooper’s measured, thoughtful vocal delivery. References to Andrew Weatherall and Pharaoh Sanders drift in without fanfare, adding extra layers to a track that gently urges listeners to question who they follow and to find their own way forward.
Michael Collins and Natalie Mering, old mates from Oakland’s music scene, stumbled into “Real Thing” after a chance Parisian encounter, hammering out a demo in a studio steeped in ’70s prog rock lore. Mering’s sharp lyrics and harmonies, paired with Collins’s rich strings, deliver a warm, honest ode to love that feels like it’s been simmering for years, polished off by a crack production crew.
Lionmilk’s When The Flowers Bloom is an introspective and meticulously crafted album, its shifting blend of jazz, soul, and ambient colors revealing a composer of considerable subtlety and poise. Each track unfolds with understated eloquence, the emotional arc elegantly charted by Lionmilk’s deft musicianship and unwavering sense of purpose.
On Make Way For Love, O & The Mo drift through a narcotic haze of dream-pop and low-slung tropical groove, as if Beach House and Khruangbin marooned together in some twilight cantina. It’s all shimmering reverb, unhurried basslines, and a dreamy romanticism in a soft glow.
Artwork by Elias Prado
This week:
Wednesday, Florry, Colin Miller, Friendship, Floating Action,
Pachyman, Dummy, Winter, Popal Daoud Akira, Hank Donahue,
Lionmilk, Resavoir, Tracey Nelson, Kieran Hebden + William Tyler & more.
Your favorite New Commute hat delicately hand-dyed in a few small batch variants.
Each dye is unique, so there may be variations in color.
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On Sounds Like…, Florry take the backroads through ragged country and indie rock, their songs humming like an old truck engine with a loose clutch—scruffy, badass, and pan-fried in distortion. Bedhead harmonies and a Stonesy patina give the whole affair a slacker charm, but beneath the grit lies a homegrown camaraderie and charisma that’ll never buff out.
A soft samba ripples through Horizon, a sultry, horn-laced daydream from Resavoir and Matt Gold that drapes Bonfá and Nascimento’s quiet genius in contemporary shimmer and brain-tingling cinematic funk. It’s a thoughtful, vibe-forward achievement, post-bossa reimagined with subtle flourishes, seaside ease, and crystalline musicianship that might induce a slow-burning epiphany.
On Mad Dogs, Grace Rogers suspends her solo, old-time roots for a sound that’s wilder and more electric, wielding her Ibanez S Classic on eight songs that pound with Kentucky grit. Backed by a crew of Louisville’s finest, Rogers threads tales of eccentric kin and local legends through jangly guitars and plaintive strings, her voice sturdy and her lyricism vivid.
Snooper’s Unknown Caller is a riotous, sugar-rush of an EP, where mutilated electronics and video game bleeps collide with their signature, ferocious guitar tantrums. The songs, sharper and more techno than ever, are exhilarating, bewildering, and quite magnificent.
Matching Outfits’ Ditch Me captures the pastel ache of post-breakup drift with deadpan precision. With oddly buoyant harmonies, a touch of Velvet Underground cool, and razor-sharp attention to life’s tiniest heartbreaks, the songs pull you in with a smile only to unravel your heart by the end.
With its Florida-sun-faded, direct-to-tape aesthetic, Hank Donahue bestows a legacy of joyful, self-made music, with wiggly guitar lines, hiss-filled drum machines, and a sound somewhere between lo-fi R&B, K-Mart boogie, and agnostic gospel soul. Revived by ULYSSA’s rapscallion antics, these home recordings, clearly made for no audience but his own, embody the freedom that pulses through the label’s entire catalog.
Maybe I’m Dreaming is a crate-digger’s reverie, where Mikey Young and Keith Abrahamsson unearth a trove of folksy oddball brilliance. These handmade songs, gathered from the riverbanks of obscurity, beckon the listener gently toward a far-off edge, following the paths of these strangers who sidestepped the mainstream of the 70s and 80s.
At long last, a supply of New Commute t-shirts have landed in the shop with designs by the great Sloppy Robb and August B. Limited run!
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S.G.A.T.V.’s Collected Recordings 2020-2023 is the sound of a one-person dungeon raid, where battered drum machines and scorched synths conjure a heroic, fantastical synth-punk that’s equal parts video game boss fight and basement exorcism. Severin Beerli’s home-recorded scuzz is unrestrained and gloriously weird, like wizards and warlocks moshing in the ruins of a stadium show.
Artwork by Elias Prado
This week:
Easy Sevens, Friendship, Frown Town, Wilson Tanner,
Moon Mullins, Floating Action, Golomb, Kate NV, Major Murphy,
Qur’an Shaheed, Standing On The Corner, S.G. Goodman & more.
Friendship’s Caveman Wakes Up is a gritty, heartfelt slab of country-rock, where Dan Wriggins’ workmanlike baritone hauls raw poetry through dusty riffs and oddball flute bursts, like a factory hand scribbling verses on a smoke break. It’s the sound of calloused hands and late shifts, channeling Neil Young’s rough-hewn soul with the weary pride of a rust-belt diner at dawn.
Two Modern Rock Ballads á 3:48 finds the messianic croon of John Moods amid Tuftyhead’s swirling, eccentric guitar drama, all bathed in an ‘80s pop shimmer that only these two Berliners could achieve.
The shapeshifting NYC jazz-art collective Standing on the Corner present Baby, an ambitious EP that zig-zags between a spoken word piece, a menacing bit-crushed procession, and a cursed Cindy Lee-like R&B session.
Duval Timothy’s wishful thinking is a medley of lived-in field recordings and first-pass moments of understated brilliance. Issued via his own label-slash-clothing line, the record trades in minimalism for atmosphere, stitching together synth smears, distant horns, and ambient noise from South London to Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Major Murphy’s “Touch Grass” is a sturdy, rootsy stomp that finds new grit from Michigan legend Mark Lavengood, the band’s eco-folk leanings landing with warmth and bite. The stripped-back demo, meanwhile, proves the song’s bones are strong enough to stand without the steel-stringed flash, revealing a band confident in their craft.
Artwork by Elias Prado
Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band, Florry, Teethe, Duval Timothy,
Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer, Cory Hanson, Reverend Baron, Andy Jenkins,
Hayden Pedigo, Dougie Poole, Pachyman, Daniel Romano’s Outfit & more.
Christopher Alan Durham and The Peacetime Consumers forge a gritty, third-eye rock sound that’s a head-expanding trip through a busted Michigan backroad, where 60s freak-beat sprouts off with Syd Barrett-era Floyd and the raw edge of early 70s Alice Cooper. Their latest work, Play Atlantis, deftly balances the familiar and the strange, crafting mutant strains of lysergic choogle that clatters down the tracks of a dystopian Rust Belt dreamscape.
In the sultry haze of ’69, Toots and the Maytals’ Sweet and Dandy erupts like some clandestine dispatch from Jamaica’s sonic underground, its ska-to-reggae pivot a kaleidoscopic whirl of raw, soul-drenched verve, where the title track’s sticky-sweet hooks and the gritty, apocalyptic churn of “Pressure Drop” conspire to map a nation’s rebellious pulse. Beneath Toots Hibbert’s Redding-haunted wail and Leslie Kong’s alchemical console wizardry, the album’s grooves revolutionize into a global glyph, heralding reggae’s anarchic dawn amid the world’s unsuspecting airwaves.
On Land’s End Eternal, Cole Pulice introduces guitar into their sonic universe with grace, adding a sacred glow to their already weightless blend of ambient jazz and electroacoustic experimentation. The result is a revitalizing listen.
Cash Langdon’s Dogs is a triumph of detail and defiance, where train whistles, mower sputters, and the weight of history seep into every pore. A steady and scrappy country rock revue, Langdon and his barnstorming band, Meadow Dust, keep the thrill through the world-weariness and late-summer sunburn.
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Artwork by Elias Prado
This week:
Tim Bernardes, Real Estate, Greg Freeman, Lael Neale, Resavoir & Matt Gold,
Emily Hines, Silver Synthetic, Hotline TNT, Adam Amram,
Esther Rose, Sally Anne Morgan, Neu Blume & more.
Beer III cranks the chaos even harder with just over ten minutes of scorched-earth punk elation duct-taped together and screamed through a busted PA. The Charleston, SC band’s finest moment yet, it blows the fuses with reckless abandon, hotwiring manic art punk with house-show absurdity.
Absolute Devotion is equal parts jangly shimmer, tape-saturated murk, and small-town mystique. Living Dream channel their deep-cut worship of underground music into something gorgeously strange and oddly intimate that lets instinct conduct the moment.
Neu Blume’s Let It Win is a sepia-tinted blend of folk rock, ambling through the borderlands of indie and Americana with the zen of a summer evening stroll. Gentle guitars and unhurried rhythms frame songs that unfold patiently, never rushed to reach their summit. Each track is polished where it matters and pared back with stylish confidence.
Nico Georis’ Music Belongs To The Universe is a transmission carried on cosmic winds, all sun-bleached synths and melodies that hover just above the desert floor, inviting you to tune in and drift away. Recorded in a century-old dancehall on the edge of Death Valley, these tracks glisten with a patient and profound wonder.
Steröid’s Chainmail Commandos is a wild collision of classic metal swagger and lo-fi punk abandon, all delivered with unfiltered confidence. Its catchy and chaotic hooks ricochet like pinballs slapped around by an arcade-dwelling, sugar-highed misfit.
Legends is Wilson Tanner's latest act of ambient pastoralism, recorded in a vineyard fug thick with mulch, static and low-intervention intent. It sounds like wine making itself: damp, droning, half feral, with tools clinking, strings sighing, insects humming and a mower hallucinating in the distance.
A gloriously ramshackle patchwork, The Quest finds Alli Blois and Oliver Child-Lanning (moonlighting as The Orange County Shred Center, naturally) trading lead vocals and instruments, while Spencer Auten, Luke Norton, Justin Morris, Emma D-G, and Peter Lewis pile on everything from cello to saw to wind chimes. Recorded across three delightfully named locations (Halloween on Raspberry Hill, Betty's, and Shadetree) and mixed by Blois herself, these five tracks offer a homespun, heartfelt charm that embrace the ensemble’s whimsical spirit.
On From Newman Street, Kassi Valazza quietly rejects the relentless pace of algorithm-driven pop, instead crafting songs that feel as if they’ve been carefully assembled in a world where time moves slower and every pedal steel sigh or birdsong sample means something. In a landscape obsessed with instant gratification and playlist-friendly hooks, Valazza’s gently worn voice and lovingly detailed arrangements serve as a reminder that music can still feel like a handwritten letter.
Tracey Nelson’s “New Years Flowers” is a mid-tempo pop gem that wears its Teenage Fanclub influences lightly, buoyed by a warm, country-tinged production courtesy of the MJ Lenderman/Wednesday guild. With just two songs available online, it already hints at a quietly compelling new direction-one that feels like a comfortable, hopeful step forward in Nelson’s evolving sound.
Artesia is Larry Rice's quiet detonation—a mandolinist’s rebuke to obscurity, each track a precise, jazz-lit refusal to play second fiddle (a stiff challenge when your brother is Tony Rice). The album glows with cerebral heat: nimble, sly, and oddly defiant, like a man picking bluegrass with a cigarette dangling from his mouth and a PhD in modal theory.
Small Talk, Forager Records’ latest dispatch, finds half-curator, half-mystic Brandon McMahon charting forgotten yacht-rock currents from the dock of his Bermuda Triangle marina. The album drifts between offshore soft rock, rum-soaked AOR, and other sunstruck frequencies beamed in from the '70s and '80s.
This week:
Colin Miller, John Myrtle, Friendship, Natalie Bergman, Semi Trucks, Artificial Go, Mae Powell, Pachyman, S.G. Goodman, This Is Lorelei, William Tyler & more.
Losin’ is a quiet marvel, a record where Colin Miller scrawls eulogies and love notes in the same breath, singing like someone marooned in a time-loop of loss and trauma. These grief-slicked, ash-dusted songs feel both lovingly handmade and eerily fated, each one drifting in on the Appalachian air with the smell of gas station roses, pedal steel, and the kind of plainspoken poetry that hits deep.
S.G. Goodman’s “Satellite” kicks off Planting by the Signs with a haunting pulse, blending her ghostly Appalachian roots with gritty post-punk churn that feels like Lucinda Williams fronting a Kentucky-bred Gang of Four. Its stark guitars and foreboding vocals weave a spellbinding tale of humanity’s disconnect from nature, proving Goodman’s razor-sharp songcraft is at its peak.
Jesus-Christ Ne Deçoit Pas is an album born out of crisis; a lean, luminous offering from Jess Sah Bi made in the wake of near-death and divine deliverance. Recorded swiftly in South Carolina with borrowed hands and UNICEF cartoon money, it stands as a hushed, heartfelt testament to survival, faith, and the insistence of purpose in a world that almost let him go.
Musical Chairs finds Artificial Go sharpening their sound while loosening their grip. It's ten tracks of existential pop fizz that jitter, shimmer, and occasionally lurch into grace. Angie Willcutt sings like she’s balancing on a wire above late capitalism, grinning, swinging, and throwing down punchlines as the band conjures a kind of haunted, hip-shaking futurism from a mess of tape hiss, sax blurts, and boom-bap ghosts.
Georgia Overdrive is Semi Trucks’ burnished love letter to distortion and daylight—a ten-track spinout where sweetness and feedback trade verses like old friends with unfinished business. It’s a sun-glared, slow-crashing beauty: part Velvets dream, part SST Records scuzz, with Sepe and Bradshaw harmonizing like they’re wiring pop songs to explode gently in your chest.
“Spring Rain” by Stone Rollers drifts in like a worn prophecy—jangling, weary, half-sung to the clouds. It’s a hymn for the end times in denim and scuffed boots, where the sky’s ready to swallow you whole and the only thing left to do is mutter something poetic and keep strumming.
This week:
THiQ, Floating Action, Panda Bear, Jeremy Bradley Earl, Real Companion,
Moon Mullins, Sam Amidon, Little Mazarn, Now, Lightheaded,
Rubber Band Gun, LoPi, Julian Neel, Swindlers & more.
THiQ’s The New Cats rides the 3 a.m. L train between menace and glamour, where busted synths spit static and electric guitars sparkle like neon through rain-smeared windows. It’s a beautiful, broken, sleep-deprived, and paranoid in the best way imaginable.
Tribal Organic is a reclamation of rhythm as resistance—nine tracks from the fringes that remind us how experimentalism and tradition were never separate things. Compiled by Luca Fiore and Glossy Mario, the tracks not only preserve these wild sounds, they renew their pulse, purpose, and urgency.
Tribal Organic: Deep Dive into European Percussions 79-90 by GLOSSY MISTAKES
Jeremy Barnes’ Human Error is a stirring record of computerized compositions born in the barren confines of an Albuquerque juvenile detention center where Barnes tutored incarcerated youth. This debut twists mistakes into wonders, threading the spark of young souls into a digital folk-punk web that’s fearless and alive.
Cliché Toupee’s Endlessly Continuous possesses the soul-baring grit of the South London fringe, its twisted and brilliant post-punk conjuring a futuristic haze that could pass for an ‘80s minimal wave treasure. With crushed percussion and warehouse party hypnosis, it locks you in a groove that feels both lost to time and eerily ahead of it.
Frank Maston’s “Foreign Affairs” drifts through London fog and Paris shimmer, its avant-lounge glow wrapping each melody in a wistful ache. On the B-side “Liaison,” ghostly strings and a solitary piano paint a deserted twilight shoreline, Pacôme Henry’s distinct 16mm cinematography hovering nearby.
“Long Pond Lily” opens Hayden Pedigo’s final Motor Trilogy installment with a jolt that’s louder, wilder, and more unhinged than anything he’s done before. The track’s audacious form, with its over-the-top production and maximal instrumentalism, further dials the idiosyncratic style he’s been tailoring for years.
This week:
Resavoir, Hayden Pedigo, Maston, Hotline TNT, Sam Gendel & Nate Mercereau,
Cash Langdon, Stereolab, Florry, Dean Johnson, Frankie Cosmos,
Fantasy of a Broken Heart, Penza Penza, Wilson Tanner & more.
Chaos Practitioner, the latest EP from fantasy of a broken heart, captures the buzzworthy duo at their most vulnerable and adventurous, steering their sound into new territory while preserving their knack for surrealist storytelling. Recorded across three cities with close collaborators, the EP's half-dozen tracks pirouette between slapstick levity and psychic excavation, forming a contraption of heartache and whimsy that serves as a soundtrack for a mind in meltdown.
Alex is a medley of synths and self-reflection, with Sauser-Monnig’s radiant voice slicing through the detritus of capitalism and the unraveling of gender norms. Through pathways of intimacy and vulnerability, Alex maps an unlikely route to catharsis—one where every folky chord progression and motorik pulse feels like a small act of rebellion.
This week:
Michael Hurley (Rest In Peace), Phil Cook, Fust, MJ Lenderman & Wednesday,
Tucker Zimmerman, Florist, William Tyler, Lady Apple Tree, The Pennys,
Jessica Pratt, THiQ, Joe Harvey-Whyte & Bobby Lee & more
Soda Lite’s latest album feels like a living, breathing ecosystem—each track unfurling like tendrils of moss creeping over sun-warmed stone. Recorded on the island of Lutruwita, its slurred flutes, saturated drones, and organic textures evoke a world both ancient and decaying, where nature’s quiet persistence sings louder than the ruins of human folly.
Joe Harvey-Whyte and Bobby Lee’s “Flatbed Alfalfa Run to Pueblo, Colorado, Fall 1972” is a sepia-toned postcard from across the pond, where pedal steel and psych-country guitar conjure a cinematic sweep of dusty highways and cosmic horizons. The UK duo’s spliff of ambient Americana, pastoral folk and kosmische textures makes this debut single a deeply immersive journey, as if Gram Parsons and Brian Eno were swapping stories under the desert sky.
All photos by Anna Powell Denton
<a href="https://laraajinumero.bandcamp.com/album/glimpses-of-infinity">Glimpses of Infinity by Laraaji</a> <a href="https://oursilentcanvas.bandcamp.com/album/circle-of-celebration">Circle of Celebration by NOUS with Laraaji and Arji OceAnanda</a> <a href="https://astridsonne.bandcamp.com/album/great-doubt">Great Doubt by Astrid Sonne</a> <a href="https://cassmccombs.bandcamp.com/album/seed-cake-on-leap-year">Seed Cake On Leap Year by Cass McCombs</a> <a href="https://richruth.bandcamp.com/album/water-still-flows">Water Still Flows by Rich Ruth</a> <a href="https://philcookmusic.bandcamp.com/album/appalachia-borealis">Appalachia Borealis by Phil Cook</a> <a href="https://ddt93.bandcamp.com/album/a-room-with-many-doors-night">A Room With Many Doors : Night by Darian Donovan Thomas</a> <a href="https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/recordings-from-the-land-islands">Recordings from the Åland Islands by Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer</a> <a href="https://alabasterdeplume.bandcamp.com/album/a-blade-because-a-blade-is-whole">A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole by Alabaster DePlume</a> <a href="https://jessicapratt.bandcamp.com/album/here-in-the-pitch">Here in the Pitch by Jessica Pratt</a> <a href="https://swampdogg.bandcamp.com/album/blackgrass-from-west-virginia-to-125th-st">Blackgrass: From West Virginia to 125th St by Swamp Dogg</a> <a href="https://mercelemon.bandcamp.com/album/watch-me-drive-them-dogs-wild">Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild by Merce Lemon</a> <a href="https://liakohl.bandcamp.com/album/for-translucence">For Translucence by Whitney Johnson & Lia Kohl</a> <a href="https://junemcdoom.bandcamp.com/album/june-mcdoom-2">June McDoom by June McDoom</a> <a href="https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/small-medium-large">Small Medium Large by SML</a> <a href="https://heladonegro.bandcamp.com/album/phasor">PHASOR by Helado Negro</a> <a href="https://lonnieholley.bandcamp.com/album/tonky">Tonky by Lonnie Holley</a> <a href="https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/in-electric-time">In Electric Time by Jeremiah Chiu</a> <a href="https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/when-the-distance-is-blue">When the Distance is Blue by Macie Stewart</a> <a href="https://joshjohnsonmusic.bandcamp.com/album/unusual-object">Unusual Object by Josh Johnson</a> <a href="https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/mighty-vertebrate">Mighty Vertebrate by Anna Butterss</a> <a href="https://magictuberstringband.bandcamp.com/album/needlefall">Needlefall by Magic Tuber Stringband</a>
"Kids Are" captures André Ethier's knack for weaving deeply personal narratives into deceptively simple compositions. The music video, with its grainy textures and deliberate focus on ephemeral details of domesticity, highlights André Ethier’s ability to uncover depth in the mundane and the subtle moments that shape everyday life.
"Austin and his crew arrived in Toronto just as fall was turning into winter. We shot this little video around my neighbourhood.
Enjoy your spring."
Like the remains that inspired it—vivid, decaying, and ultimately transformed—Saapato’s new album Decomposition: Fox on a Highway is a meditation on impermanence, a self-conscious performance of unraveling that reassembles itself into something hauntingly alive, all while winking at the listener who dares to follow its intricate, recursive path.
Phil Cook’s Appalachia Borealis is an exploration of how something as simple as a thrush’s call or a lingering piano note can hold entire worlds within them. In stripping his music down to its essence, Cook composes a personal hymnbook of instrumental curiosities shaped by the deep marvels of existence.
Somewhere between the road and a landfill-turned-creative-utopia, Lily Seabird tunes into the signals of Trash Mountain, a record pulsing with low-frequency static bands of memory, motion, and loss. The songs move through late-night spirals and daylight clarity, threading through grief and renewal like a broadcast from a past life waiting to be heard again.
Tucker’s Music By River Words By Ear emerges not as an artifact of nostalgia but as a vital transmission from a life lived deliberately, steeped in the quiet persistence of craft and community. Recorded in 2002 with collaborators Dave Evans, Quanah Zimmerman, Geert Waegman, and Jef van Gool, these songs resonate with an unembellished clarity, marking Tucker’s entry into the 21st century as both a continuation and a renewal of his poetic lineage.
Keanu Nelson’s Place Where I Go is sparse and heavy, the quiet legend’s voice drifting through fractured Casio loops, the circuitry straining, the pulse unsteady, every repetition threatening to slip out of sync. The songs are deeply personal, yet they carry a feeling of ancestral weight through the crackle of home recording and his collaborator Yuta Matsumura’s ghostly production.
This week:
MJ Lenderman, Colin Miller, Cactus Lee, Men I Trust, Cass McCombs,
Jahnah Camille, Keanu Nelson, Lionmilk, Lael Neale, Foxwarren,
Lorg, Blue Cactus, Semi Trucks, Eiko Ishibashi & more.
Kyle Mooney’s The Real Me is a bold experiment that pushes the limits of what music can be, blending awkward sincerity with a defiant disregard for convention. It’s less an album and more a chaotic performance piece, the work dancing between absurdity and brilliance that leaves you unsettled but strangely captivated.
Kevin Dehan’s self-titled album as Cactus Lee feels like stumbling upon a dusty treasure chest of Texas melancholy, where every melody holds the faded charm of a Gene Clark ballad and every lyric carves with Townes Van Zandt-like precision. His voice, mellow and smooth, carries the weight of stories that feel lived in and honest in a way that’s impossible to fake.
Austin Leonard Jones’ Famous Times, his twelfth record, delivers plainspoken songs of lonesome roads and small lives, each track sharp with the weight of existentialism. His voice, dry and clear, shapes homespun stories into something vivid and bright, cutting through the sludge of ordinary America with quiet force.
Hannah Cohen’s Earthstar Mountain unfurls like a twilight ramble through the Catskills, her voice—a ribbon of smoke and honey—lacing through sonic thickets that sparkle with the exotic magic of the natural world. Her tracks are like rugged souvenirs from the backcountry, full of longing and light, swapping urban edge for a wild, ancient vibe that guides you forward.
A standout from his forthcoming LP Losin’, Colin Miller’s “Porchlight” thrives on the emotional weight of its rootsy indie folk purity. Anchored by sorrowful pedal steel and Miller’s understated croon, it captures the quiet devastation of waiting for something that might never happen.
This week:
Brian D’Addario, Dutch Interior, Friendship, Jeremy Bradley Earl,
Moon Mullins, Coffin Prick, Zodiac Lovers, Durand Jones & The Indications,
Ultra Far, Wishy, THiQ, Kyle M & more.
9” x 3” vinyl bumper sticker
Thank you to everyone who follows the blog, whether here on the site or through social media. Keeping music promotion and content free for listeners is a priority for us. One way to support that mission—while keeping the servers running and artist commissions flowing—is through limited-run merch like shirts, hats, and stickers. We’ve spent years in the lab perfecting the ultimate sticker, engineered for maximum adhesion to unregistered tour vans, battle-worn instrument cases, and well-loved MacBooks that have seen better days.
Artwork by Sloppy Robb
THiQ’s “Yes/No” is a nocturnal assemblage of synth-pop that scrapes the residue of outsider music from the city’s forgotten corners. Its lo-fi drum machine beats, gnarled bass lines, and distorted guitar riffs coalesce into a deliberate disarray, evoking both the immediacy of tape-recorder experimentation and the menacing allure of a sleepless downtown bender.
Dutch Interior’s Moneyball is a record with untamed energy, a collection of songs where six voices converge to integrate the architecture of Americana and alternative rock. Country shuffles, bookish musings, and murky ambient drones all stitch together with an offhand ease that makes their lofty ambition feel natural.
Henning Schmiedt’s latest solo piano album carries a sense of quiet weight and resonance. The soft electronics hum in the warm orange background—like sunlight filtering through a leafy canopy, drifting in and out of these intimate but fleeting moments.
After four years away, Jimmy Lacy, under his SiP moniker, returns with Leos Ultras, a patient, expansive follow-up to Leos Naturals created at the converted warehouse studio in Chicago’s Homan Gardens. In these slow-blooming, Ethiopiques-coded layers—anchored by keyboards, sax, kalimba, flute, and hand drums—you can sense Lacy's shapeshifting through sound as fatherhood reframes time, his songs absorbing life’s beauty and weight.
Wild Swans, the fourth single from Beachwood Sparks' comeback record Across the River of Stars, weaves their influences into a tight, jangling two and a half minutes with the newly released “HOO Mix” ascending into exceptionally heady reaches. With Chris Robinson on production and fresh remixes by Damien Page Lewis, Clay Blair, and Nick Holton, the track previews what’s coming on Beyond the River of Stars, due early 2025.
Debuted during a September residency at New York's Blue Note, BADBADNOTGOOD capped off one of their eight nights with a reverent piece “Poeira Cosmica” born from their collaboration with Brazilian artists Tim Bernardes and Arthur Verocai.
Two of North Carolina’s most adventurous interpreters of Old Time tradition, Weirs and Magic Tuber Stringband, join for a collaboration that turns ancestral myth and local instrumentation into something both ancient and unearthly. Recorded in the darkness of a mile-long, abandoned railroad tunnel in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, their droning string composition reverberate off stone and earth, echoing into the depths.
This week:
Kate Bollinger, The Nude Party, BADBADNOTGOOD feat. Tim Bernardes, Homer,
Laurie Torres, Hovvdy, The Cosmic Tones Research Trio, Lee Baggett,
Blue Material, Peel Dream Magazine, World Brain & more.
For the past ten years, Crystal Dorval’s White Poppy has unfolded like a half-remembered daydream, weaving together bedroom shoegaze, bossa nova, and new age hues throughout her Paradise Gardens trilogy. On Paradise Regained, Dorval opens the vault with 11 outtakes that trace the wandering, layered paths of her process—each track hovering like an ethereal mirage that slips away the second you open your eyes.
Laurie Torres’ debut, Après coup, blends improvised piano, freeform jazz, and ambient textures across 11 tracks that evoke a meditative experience in the same orbit as of contemporaries Nala Sinephro and Duval Timothy. Recorded in a secluded lakefront studio, the album embraces a raw, unpolished intimacy, allowing each piece to breathe and unfold slowly among field recordings of footsteps and outdoor breezes, revealing Torres’s path from pop to profound.
This week:
Credit Electric, Dead Gowns, Cindy, Robert Earl Thomas
Charlie Overman, John Roseboro, Jonathan Personne, Dana Gavanski,
Prison, Gong Gong Gong, Yuma Abe & more.
Beijing's Gong Gong Gong and Taipei's Mong Tong unite on Mongkok Duel to create a mystical soundtrack for an imagined martial arts epic. Recorded live with antique gear at the storied Mongkok's President Piano Co., the album intertwines both groups’ specific rhythms and textures with a vintage warmth and crisp clarity.
The re-release of Mistreater’s Hell’s Fire is a raw Midwest relic, a primal testament to stoner riffs and spaced-out guitars shaped in the solitary confines of rural Ohio. Carrying every gritty riff and psyched-out lead with renewed force, Mistreater’s sound thunders into the present—a feral howl from the DIY underground, finally given its due.
Meridian Brothers’ new record, Mi Latinoamérica Sufre, pulses with the quicksilver rhythms of African highlife and soukous, blending seamlessly with Latin sounds to forge a raw, sunlit opus. Eblis Álvarez’s vision draws on cumbia, tropicalia, and Afrobeat to weave a multi-dimensional web, as his fictional protagonist Junior Maximiliano the Third tumbles through folklore and political musings.
O.B. McClinton was a rare voice in Nashville, filtering Memphis soul through a distinctly country lens at a time when the two genres rarely mingled. With Country, newly restored by Stax Records, McClinton forged a pivotal moment for Black artists in country music—a legacy both deep and indelible that quietly ruptured the genre’s expectations.
Freeform visionary Sam Gendel brings in keyboardist and composer Benny Bock and Norwegian fiddle player Hans Kjorstad to form what can be called the "Dream Trio." From a studio somewhere in Japan, they recorded live, no overdubs—just three masterful operators letting intuition guide them through unmarked musical realms.
Fools is John Roseboro’s inspiring take on post-bossa that unravels “alternative” music’s expected blueprints and lands in a space that’s supremely unfiltered, personal, and elegant. It’s a collective experiment woven together with input from Brooklyn regulars like Luke Jr and Yamp, who foster a sense of trust and shared purpose, elevating Roseboro’s introspections into a fully communal sound.
This week:
Ben Varian, Chris Cohen, Sean Thompson’s Weird Ears, Bonnie Prince Billy,
Born At Midnite, Rosali, Hovvdy, Yves Jarvis, The Bures Band,
Dorothea Paas, Yuma Abe, World Brain & more.
From the jump, Ben Varian’s SNIP sounds like it’s trying to hold itself together as it falls apart. The album’s playful veneer—a kind of warped, funhouse pop—fractures and reveals the messier, rawness of Varian’s voice spilling out onto the floor. With three years of creation behind it, SNIP is a reel of moments pulled from the disorienting blur of post-breakup life, drifting between reflection and surreal humor. It’s a wild ride with a strange elegance to the way it wobbles and bobbles.
Ethio-jazz godfather Mulatu Astatke teams up with Tel Aviv’s Hoodna Orchestra on a new album, Tension, that pushes his signature sound into uncharted territory, where shimmering vibraphone melodies encounter the muscular force of Afro-funk brass. With the soulful knack of Dap-King Neal Sugarman’s production, the unit reimagines Astatke’s iconic sound, creating a vibrant collision of tradition and innovation.
With “Caravan Land,” a standout from their forthcoming sophomore album, The Bures Band leans further into their trademark blend of folk rock that’s equal parts vintage glow and present-day shimmer. Sun-dappled guitars jangle and twangy harmonica lines weave in and out like a late summer wind blowing through the canyon.
Artwork by Albert Lebron
This week:
Panda Bear feat. Cindy Lee, Fantasy of a Broken Heart, Nap Eyes,
Christopher Owens, Kate Bollinger, Mei Semones, Allegra Krieger,
Greg Mendez, John Roseboro, Jordana, Tim Heidecker, Josh Kaufman & more.
Nap Eyes’ The Neon Gate occupies that elusive space where thoughts meander and ideas hover just beyond grasp. The music unspools with the band's signature laid-back charm, guitar lines curling through the air with a relaxed freedom. Meanwhile, the lyrics, as potent as ever, reveal Nigel Chapman’s inner dialogue—a blend of offhand observations and understated epiphanies that resonate long after the notes fade.
Eddie Fisher’s The Promise is a buried relic from the East St. Louis jazz-funk guitarist, a record that never quite found its time. For the select few—mostly those with a devotion to digging through dollar-bin stacks—The Promise isn’t merely a hidden gem; it’s a reward for the endless pursuit, a boogie record whose grooves gain meaning through the thrill of discovery.
On his latest, Yahola, Taylor Hollingsworth challenges the conventions of singer-songwriter music with his audacious take on "folk n' roll." His sound ignites a raucous blend of foot-stomping grooves and spirited celebration, driven by thunderous strumming, gritty fingerpicking, and unapologetic storytelling.
For two nights in Japan, L.A. jazz bassist Sam Wilkes brought together a quintet that played like old friends locked in a wordless, spontaneous dialogue. On iiyo iiyo iiyo, his compositions curl and coil with an intricate grace, unfolding into a unscripted medley where each note feels both carefully finessed and entirely unexpected; a spellbinding spectacle.
Artwork by Albert Lebron
This week:
Richard Swift, Clairo, Rose City Band, Jeff Parker,
Babe Rainbow, Daughter of Swords, Homer, Les Imprimes,
Caroline Says, Jake Xerxes Fussell, Tomo Katsurada & more.
Art by James Madison Mitchell
Cardinals At The Window was compiled by three North Carolina natives with deep ties to the region: musician and community organizer Libby Rodenbough, New Commute founder David Walker, and music journalist Grayson Haver Currin, with crucial support from Shirlette Ammons, Martin Anderson, Anna Morris, Cory Rayborn, and Rusty Sutton. Sylvan Esso’s Nick Sanborn, Alli Rogers, and Asheville native Clay Blair provided free audio engineering work. The compilation is functioning in tandem with a direct-relief effort launched by musicians, artists, and Western North Carolina residents Ryan Gustafson (The Dead Tongues) and Hunter Savoy.
“There were just so many folks who, like us, had witnessed the destruction of these holy places from the outside and felt their hearts trying to break out of their chests,” says Rodenbough, a Madison County resident who was on tour in Massachusetts with The Dead Tongues when the storm hit her home. “It was instant, the way people signed on. They also feel what I feel, that these mountains are the cradle of some deep and ineffable magic.”
Cardinals At The Window crisscrosses genres, scenes, and state lines, as so many friends were eager to donate new music to the sudden cause of this enchanted region. There are entirely new songs from MJ Lenderman, The Go-Betweens, Sharon Van Etten, Little Brother, Sylvan Esso, the Mountain Goats, Hotline TNT, Six Organs of Admittance, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, Archers of Loaf, Flock of Dimes, Chuck Johnson, Real Estate, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, and many more.
Long providing crucial community support in Asheville and working directly on social justice issues impacting a rapidly changing city, BeLoved Asheville has redirected all of its resources to direct relief for those impacted by Hurricane Helene. Since 1978, the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina has provided crucial relief and resources for 18 counties in the state, with special focuses on education, cultural and natural resources, and the basic needs of citizens in its region. Founded in 2017 in the now-flood-ravaged Madison County, Rural Organizing and Resilience, or ROAR, is doing direct work on the ground to keep people fed, housed, and clothed and to begin the long process of cleanup and rebuilding.
Artwork by Albert Lebron
This week:
Resavoir, Waxahatchee, Nap Eyes, MJ Lenderman,
pablopablo & Helado Negro, Floating Action, Beverly Glenn-Copeland,
Anne Malin, Wicca Phase Springs Eternal, Florist, Sessa & more.
When I’m Called, the fifth album by Jake Xerxes Fussell, is an intimate, meticulously whittled collection where Fussell weaves his own instincts into forgotten Appalachian ballads and travel songs, honoring the roots of these living artifacts.
Recorded in 1963 at the peak of Folk City’s cultural moment, this Smithsonian recording isn’t just an album—it’s a historical artifact. Two giants of traditional music, Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson, whose names probably carry more weight in retrospect than they did at the time, tear through a set of Appalachian standards. "Blue Ridge Mountain Blues," "Storms Are On the Ocean," and "Wabash Cannonball" echo the region's past, brought to life in a performance that lives as much in myth as in memory.
Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson at Folk City by Jean Ritchie & Doc Watson
Merce Lemon’s new album Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild moves with an earthy, tactile force, where layers of guitar grind with a fury through delicate odes to nature, straddling the divide between unrest and restraint.
Artwork by Albert Lebron
This week:
Trace Mountains, Merce Lemon, Lou Hazel,
Sam Blasucci, Rudy De Anda, Shirly Hurt, Real Estate,
Ben Varian & Sarah Safaie, Blue Material, Jennifer Castle & more.
Dave Benton’s fourth Trace Mountains album, Into The Burning Blue, marks a clear shift from his earlier, more intimate country-inspired recordings, embracing an arena-sized, Bruce/Petty-flavored ‘80s rock sound—new territory, but his emotional core is still very much intact.
Kate Bollinger’s Songs From A Thousand Frames Of Mind feels like the work of someone who’s mastered the art of making it all look easy, even though it’s anything but. The 1960s pop and folk influences are subtle but ever-present, giving Bollinger’s soft, steady voice the perfect backdrop as she navigates the quiet mess of adulthood—where everything feels just familiar enough to keep you comfortable, but uncertain enough to keep you guessing.
Ed “Mensah” Wartts’ sci-fi, neo-soul noir, cached on an old hard drive, is maxed out with lush textures and modern edges. Sliding between minimal grooves and digi jazz, his soundscapes float somewhere between intimate and infinite.
On their latest single, “Breath,” Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp, a seasoned twelve-piece ensemble, pulls off a sharp pivot from playful, lighthearted horn and string arrangements to a grittier blend of post-punk guitar riffs and African-inspired rhythms. It’s a collision of sounds that shouldn’t work but totally does—cool, layered, and unexpected.
Planet Pearl, Pearl & The Oysters’ latest broadcast from the outer reaches, is a postcard from space travelers stuck on Earth, forever out of step with the locals. But even as Juju and Jojo orbit their own kind of melancholy, they faithfully keep things light, turning their alienation into jazz-pop hooks, quirky introspection, and something they call “depressed disco.”
Flammer Dance Band’s Gynger taps into that timeless 1970s West African funk spirit—sweaty, hypnotic, and full of groove. The percussion is raw, the synths swirl, and the saxophones scream. Recorded in some no-frills Oslo shack, it’s got that gritty, real-deal energy that makes you feel like you’re right there in the room. This is an analog, no-fuss homage to a sound that refuses to quit.
Artwork by Albert Lebron
This week:
Sean Thompson’s Weird Ears, Floating Action, Tim Heidecker, The Mystery Lights,
Tucker Zimmerman, Color Green, Real Companion, Pearl & The Oysters,
Tomin, Lutalo, Haley Heynderickx & more.
Dark Canyon’s Long Days, Pleasant Nights stretches across barren frontiers where analog tape hiss and fleeting moments of improvisation trigger a windswept, haunted air. With a rotating cast of Chicago’s finest, the record is a compelling, slowly revealing narrative that enriches Dark Canyon’s growing sonic mythology. It’s only fitting that Hippie Scum, a tape label built on fringe sounds and outsider aesthetics, would be the ones to release this.
The Bures Band rolls back in with "Mono Masking," another track that’s tastefully rooted in the sounds of the '60s and '70s, blending twangy, harmony-rich folk-rock with easygoing country blues.
More than five years on, Coriolis by Florida’s Euglossine still pulses with an electric heartbeat. Its shimmering, fantasy-tinged guitars and space-bound jazz flourishes feel as alive as ever, swirling with a bright, bold exuberance that’s expansive and fully immersive.
Milan W.’s Leave Another Day is a slow-burn meditation on nostalgia, with dusky folk-rock and chamber jazz tethered to grayscale kosmiche and indie-pop. The album's textures toggle between haunting synths and modernist melodies, balancing a moody warmth with ornate, medieval-meets-contemporary sounds.
With the ease of a barroom raconteur and a grin that suggests he’s a couple tokes deep, Sean Thompson’s Weird Ears delivers “Roll On Buddy,” a tribute to his late canine companion. The track's untamed, virtuosic guitar boogie twists and snaps capturing a sense of both joy and loss in its freewheeling energy.
With a nod to the anti-folk dissonance of the '90s and the trippy echoes of Scandinavian psych heroes Träd, Gräs och Stenar, Stenhjärta navigate the space between old-world folk tradition and something more fractured, more modern—rooted in the past but pushing it forward into the surreal.
Gryning Kommer Röd by Stenhjärta Embed Block Add an embed URL or code. Learn more
Artwork by Albert Lebron
This week:
Porches, iji, Christopher Owens, Allegra Krieger,
Boyscott, Being Dead, Cactus Lee, Merce Lemon,
Daryl Johns, Sam Wilkes, Jahnah Camille, Anna Butterss & more.
True bedroom artist Jamie Broughton’s Big Long Sun: Speaking spills over with the kind of kaleidoscopic pop exuberance that defined the best of early aughts indie. It’s a colorful fever dream that nods to Animal Collective’s Feels, Tame Impala’s Innerspeaker, and MGMT’s Congratulations, spinning lovely, strange melodies against a backdrop of quirky textures and irresistible, body-moving rhythms.
Art of the Unseen Infinity Machine—an apt moniker for Allegra Krieger’s latest collection—navigates a labyrinth of darkly intricate tales, accompanied by a full band. The New York singer-songwriter’s work unfolds like a surreal dream, simultaneously sublime and agonizing, a force that is as unsettling as it is beautiful, as haunting as it is profoundly harrowing.
Guitarist, flutist, and songwriter Barry Archie Johnson’s debut Fortune’s Mirror floats with an eerie grace, his string and wind compositions conjuring a strange, holy atmosphere that feels simultaneously familiar and unknowable.
For Library of the Occult, a record label that practicing in the dark corners of dungeon synth and goth soundtracks, Zac Olsen, the man behind Traffik Island, conjures a monstrous, fevered hallucination of moody grooves and freaked-out library music throughout his new Ghost Notes LP.
Cactus Lee, newly aligned with Western Vinyl, release “Sister” like a message from the heat-soaked highways of Texas. The track emerges as both declaration and evolution, rooted in familiar dust but with a swagger that hints at a subtle reshaping of leading man Kevin Dehan’s song craft.
This week:
MJ Lenderman, Real Companion, Video Age, World Brain,
Dr. Dog, Sam Blasucci, Peel Dream Magazine, Winona Forever,
John Roseboro, Lorg, Hayden Pedigo & more.
All photos by Madelyn Matthews
<a href="https://waxahatchee.bandcamp.com/album/tigers-blood">Tigers Blood by Waxahatchee</a> <a href="https://mjlenderman.bandcamp.com/album/manning-fireworks">Manning Fireworks by MJ Lenderman</a> <a href="https://fayewebster.bandcamp.com/album/underdressed-at-the-symphony">Underdressed at the Symphony by Faye Webster</a> <a href="https://stvincent.bandcamp.com/album/all-born-screaming-2">All Born Screaming by st. vincent</a> <a href="https://snailmail.bandcamp.com/album/valentine-demos">Valentine (Demos) by Snail Mail</a> <a href="https://timheidecker.bandcamp.com/album/slipping-away">Slipping Away by Tim Heidecker</a> <a href="https://jpegmafia.bandcamp.com/album/i-lay-down-my-life-for-you">I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU by JPEGMAFIA</a> <a href="https://thejesuslizard.bandcamp.com/album/goat-remaster-reissue">Goat (Remaster / Reissue) by The Jesus Lizard</a> <a href="https://wednesdayband.bandcamp.com/album/rat-saw-god">Rat Saw God by Wednesday</a> <a href="https://guidedbyvoices.bandcamp.com/album/i-am-a-scientist-tractor-rape-chain-30th-anniversary-versions">I Am A Scientist / Tractor Rape Chain (30th Anniversary Versions) by Guided By Voices</a> <a href="https://indigodesouza.bandcamp.com/album/all-of-this-will-end">All of This Will End by Indigo De Souza</a> <a href="https://badbadnotgoodofficial.bandcamp.com/album/mid-spiral">Mid Spiral by BADBADNOTGOOD</a> <a href="https://amendunes.bandcamp.com/album/death-jokes">Death Jokes by Amen Dunes</a> <a href="https://durandjones.bandcamp.com/album/wait-til-i-get-over">Wait Til I Get Over by Durand Jones</a> <a href="https://jesssahbipeterone.bandcamp.com/album/our-garden-needs-its-flowers">Our Garden Needs Its Flowers by Jess Sah Bi & Peter One</a> <a href="https://w-i-t-c-h.bandcamp.com/album/zango">Zango by WITCH</a> <a href="https://sluice.bandcamp.com/album/radial-gate">Radial Gate by Sluice</a> <a href="https://spencercullumscoincollection.bandcamp.com/album/spencer-cullums-coin-collection-2">Spencer Cullum's Coin Collection 2 by Spencer Cullum's Coin Collection</a> <a href="https://sofiabolt.bandcamp.com/album/vendredi-minuit">Vendredi Minuit by Sofia Bolt</a> <a href="https://magictuberstringband.bandcamp.com/album/needlefall">Needlefall by Magic Tuber Stringband</a>
Broadcasting straight from Boone’s North Carolina’s Espresso News - a hub as vital to the local arts culture as it is for caffeination- Real Companion cut a live video for “Piedmont Reason” and “Coastal Pistol,” two hits from their debut record Nü-metal Heroes. Video shot and edited by Matt Groce and Jesse Barber
"Johnny," the latest offering from John Roseboro, features Mei Semones, whose guitar weaves seamlessly through the track’s rustic samba, drifting alongside Roseboro’s slow, sensual nylon-string melodies.
Now Again has reissued the fifth and final record from Zamrock originators WITCH, 1977’s Including Janet, their last breath of teeth-rattling African psych rock before splintering into the ensemble that created the disco-funk records Movin’ On and Kuomboka.
Including Janet by WITCHEmmanuel Jagari Chanda
Julia McFarlane’s Whoopee is a twisted heap of a record that defies any label you want to slap on it. It's a warped thing—chunky breakbeats, warbly 90s space sounds, and funk rhythms that are too strange to pin down but impossible to ignore.
From MJ Lenderman, the shaggy, unassuming Southern rock wunderkind, Manning Fireworks is a masterstroke of raw spirit and sly artistry, sanding down the emotional heft of his working class manifestos with songwriting that’s ragged, loose, and refreshingly human.
Rose Main Reading Room, Peel Dream Magazine’s fourth record, recalibrates their ever-evolving sound achieving its most refined and intellectual synthesis of easy listening, krautrock, and unnervingly precise pop.
Artwork by Albert Lebron
This week:
Tucker Zimmerman, Hovvdy, Allegra Krieger, John Myrtle,
Kate Bollinger, Dummy, Nina Ryser, Tasha, Wu-Lu,
Floating Action, The Medium, John Roseboro & more.
Bondo’s new single, “Triple Double,” from their forthcoming album Harmonica, due out in October through Day End Records, is an exercise in sheer sonic force. Heavy with distortion, delay, and overdrive, it imposes a brooding, impenetrable wall of sound that propels the track forward, uncompromising and raw in its intensity.
Hayden Pedigo's Live in Amarillo, Texas captures the essence of his career in a performance at the esteemed Amarillo Globe-News Center, his hometown's pride. The record reveals the virtuosic guitarist at the height of his craft, navigating new dimensions in his solo instrumentation with precision and clarity.
All photos by Noel Woodford
<a href="https://snailmail.bandcamp.com/album/valentine-demos">Valentine (Demos) by Snail Mail</a> <a href="https://timheidecker.bandcamp.com/album/slipping-away">Slipping Away by Tim Heidecker</a>
"We’re Tearing The Heart Out of Love" is classic John Myrtle—stripped-down folk with weathered fidelity to feel immediately familiar, bittersweet but deceptively simple, and unforgettable by its ragged charm.
Artwork by Jason Look / Executive Suite Partners
This week:
Real Companion, Caroline Says, Bondo, Being Dead,
Dana Gavanski, Trace Mountains, Lutalo, Joanna Sternberg,
Contour, Arthur Ahbez, William Tyler, Andrew Combs & more.
City Life, the third full-length from Nashville indie rockers The Medium, is a collection of ten richly-detailed power pop singles, equally calculated and chaotic, that blends their vivacious and off-kilter melodies and hammering riffs with the twangy lineage of their hometown.
Grounded at the center of mass of their sprawling folky geometries, the second live album from free-experimental trio Setting from a performance at Asheville’s Eulogy venue captures their spontaneous and wildly enlightening real-time energies.
I Wonder If I’ll Ever Come True unfurls more of the song poetry of living legend Tucker Zimmerman with unreleased material from a vault of mid-70s home recording sessions capturing the enduring qualities of his dirt-and-sweat folk tradition.
Artwork by Jason Look / Executive Suite Partners
This week:
Christopher Owens, Kolumbo, Panda Bear & Sonic Boom, Homer, Merce Lemon,
iji, Emma Russack, Michi, Fievel Is Glauque, Cassie Ramone,
Issy Wood, Anna Butterss & more.
Frank LoCastro’s magical project Kolumbo is back with “Sandy Legs,” an paradisiacal new track washed ashore by the utopian breezes of 60s Polynesian lounge/exotica and 70s Brazilian fusion.
From the maestro behind Smiling C’s beloved America Dream Reserve compilation, Black Rain scavenges an elusive stash of home-produced relics from the burnt end of the psychedelic folk-rock craze; faded and groovy iridescent downer folk, shimmering neon blues, and other nuggets of ragged brilliance.
The Space Lady’s Other Hits re-discovers back-catalog dispatches from the legendary extraterrestrial street performer that offers sci-fi renditions of Elvis, The Doors, Golden Earring, and “Puttin’ On The Ritz.”
Anna Butterss, the versatile bassist and composer renowned for their contributions to supergroup SML and collaborations with improvisational gurus Makaya McCraven and Jeff Parker, forges into solo territory with "Shorn," the debut track from an upcoming album, Mighty Vertebrate. With intensifying layers of polyrhythmic drum machines, bass, guitar, and sax, the immersive song exhibits the mastery of Butterss’ craft.
Taken from a pair of electrifying performances in August of 2023 in Stockholm and Tallinn, the prolific Estonian cosmic jazz auteur Misha Panfilov gathered his sanctified Septet for a live highlight reel journeying through the last decade of releases that shows off the unit’s impeccably stylish and sprawling instrumentals.
Aurelia, an introduction to the psychedelic fever dreaming of Melbourne’s Matty Groves, is a portal to an otherworldly, mystical plane tapping into an ancient state of mind with pastoral, string-driven symphonies and elaborate jazz-influenced folk songs.
The soul-bearing songwriter Christopher Owens resurfaces with “No Good,” a track from his upcoming record I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair that ends a near-decade-long silence; an eternity for those craving his poignant and melancholic poetry best defined by his years with the seminal indie rock group Girls.
After boosting the low end for a Dub variant of their everlasting record, Reset, Panda Bear & Sonic Boom combine forces with the elite mariachi party band Mariachi 2000 de Cutberto Pérez to apply a flamboyant Mexican/Spanish genre twist on “Danger” and “Livin’ in the After.”
Reset Mariachi EP by Panda Bear & Sonic Boom with Mariachi 2000 de Cutberto Pérez
Hex by the bombastic and mysterious electronic creator DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ accumulates eighteen hyper-stylized dance tracks composed with surgical reconstruction of shattered fragments of nostalgic pop, house, and techno sounds.
Artwork by Jason Look / Executive Suite Partners
This week:
Real Companion, Styrofoam Winos, Floating Action, Peel Dream Magazine,
hemlock, Allison Young, Porches, Naked Roommate,
Tasha, The Medium, Shady Cove, Neu Blume & more.
Nü-metal Heroes, the debut album from Boone, North Carolina’s Real Companion, is an odyssey through the trials of sobriety, fatherhood, joy, and sorrow, transfering these profound themes into jangly, new wave rock anthems that resonate with the zeitgeist of an overstuffed Case Logic wallet crammed with burned CDs of Guided By Voices, The Rolling Stones, and scrappy local punk bands.
From the vaults of London reissue label Sticky Buttons comes a vibrant Brazilian blues reggae jam from Natacha Fink, initially nestled on a 1986 compilation spotlighting regional musicians from the Amazon rainforest.
With some help from Esther Rose, Video Age reconstruct their synthy hit "Out In The Country" from 2023's critically acclaimed Away From The Castle LP into a mellow-mannered acoustic tune that glides into the realm of alt-country.
Artwork by Jason Look / Executive Suite Partners
This week:
Video Age, Nap Eyes, MJ Lenderman, Jeffrey Silverstein, Pearl & The Oysters,
Dean Spunt, Yasmin Williams, Allegra Krieger, Raphael Roginski,
Lael Neale, Lindsay Reamer, Trace Mountains, Yu Su & more.
All photos by Kevin Brown
<a href="https://jessicapratt.bandcamp.com/album/here-in-the-pitch">Here in the Pitch by Jessica Pratt</a>
In an ode to his Sydney, Australia sanctuary, multi-instrumentalist and self-producing musician Hugh B's Brainwashing EP unfolds as a cerebral sojourn through meticulously crafted psych-fusion and serenely blissful jazzy minimalism.
Washed out blue 6-panel unstructured lid with blue SnapBack adjustment cloture.
The first run sold out very quickly, so a second run is in the works.
These will ship within 2-4 weeks. Thank you for your patience!
BUY ONE HERE
Hold onto your hat, cuz the folks at Numero have unleashed another impeccably curated beast—twenty more neon-lit West Coast country gems and button-fly blue jean folk rock anthems from the tail end of the 60s into the wild 70s that journey deep down the highways of Americana.
Cosmic American Music: Motel California by Wayfaring Strangers
Before making a career as a computer engineer for NASA, singer-songwriter Ronnie White cut Big Sky, a timeless, private press artifact of rough-hewn blues and country rock with tracks that tell unflinching and authentic tales from the American Southwest.
New from top-tier label Moon Glyph is Figures of Speech by Antwerp artist Oval Angle who renders a spectacle of gleaming and liberated electronic symphonies reflective of child-like whimsy and abandon that unfurls with blissful simplicity.
Polish composer Raphael Rogiński's new record Žaltys blends traditional Eastern European folk music, mythology, and the mysticism of American primitive guitar playing. An innovative use of electronic effects, unconventional amplifier wiring, and a unique curation of guitar strings culminates in his revolutionary "guitar piano" technique that lays a shimmering sheen to his introspective pieces that bridge ancient and modern visions.
This week:
Peel Dream Magazine, Alex Izenberg, Ylayali, Sepe, Dummy,
Sam Wilkes, Tall Juan, Empress Of, Being Dead,
Iji, Fust, Maya Ongaku, Bria Salmena, Lutalo & more.
From experimental pop artist What’s Important, their new album Bloodsoaked Castle, aptly touted as Charli XCX meets Beat Happening, is a distinctive combo of grunge’s raw edge, bone-crushing trap music, eerie dungeon synth, and the defiant catchiness of mutant pop that encapsulates the chaotic spirit of the day.
Wiluraarrakutu emerges as a brilliant debut orchestrated by Keanu Nelson, an artist from the Indigenous Australian community of Papunya, whose soaring Casio keyboard melodies intertwine with reggae drum machine rhythms for an experience that’s graceful, intimate, and profoundly inspiring.
A new compilation "Like Someone I Know" reverently dissects the enigmatic legacy of cult musician Margo Guryan with a fresh cadre of artists venturing into the nuanced labyrinth of her lightly psychedelic pop ballads, reimagining and rediscovering the subtle brilliance that surrounds Guryan’s lore.
Like Someone I Know: A Celebration of Margo Guryan by Various Artists
Cut at dusk below the San Bernadino Mountains, bassist Sam Wilkes, drummer Craig Weinrib, and guitarist Dylan Day convene for a gentle jazz compendium marked by whispered instrumentation and understated virtuosity that’s both meticulous and effortlessly organic.
Sam Wilkes, Craig Weinrib, and Dylan Day by Sam Wilkes, Craig Weinrib, and Dylan Day
Computer engineer/bioinformatician by day, multi-instrumentalist by night, Tomin Perea-Chamblee's debut solo effort is a double-sided revelation with one part offering masterful interpretations of Mingus, Coltrane, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and Albert Ayler while the other immerses listeners in his original creations of futuristic electric keyboards and synths that push the boundaries of sound and imagination.
Special World, the audacious brainchild of Philly’s Andy Molholt, stitches together an improbable quilt of hearty and intimate bedroom synths interwoven with delightfully quirky nods to the 8-bit wonders of the video game soundtrack realm, all seamlessly melded with the idiosyncratic rushes of weirdo laptop rock.
This week:
Workers Comp, Beachwood Sparks, Color Green, Pleasure Mob,
Jake Xerxes Fussell, What’s Important, SML, Gillian Welch,
BASIC, Dorothy Carter, Fantasy of a Broken Heart & more.
If The Durutti Column’s Vini Reilly made an acid-laced private-press psychedelic folk record, it would have to sound something like the Paul Marcano and LightDreams’ 1982 sci-fi guitar excursion 10,001 Dreams, a brilliant piece of far out New Age fusion.
This week:
Sam Blasucci, Claude Fontaine, Tim Heidecker, Merce Lemon,
Dean Blunt, Tasha, Armlock, Photay, Galaxie 500,
Chris Cohen, Mei Semones, Tony Jay & more.
Broadcasting from the small garage in Los Angeles belonging to Tristan and Luke Pelletier, their “Back In The Garage” video sessions are on a mission to squeeze in as many artist sessions as they can before their lease expires. The latest finds Luke, a one-of-a-kind singer-songwriter and illustrator, at the mic for a self-deprecating ballad about the current state of the garage.
Following the tragic loss of Portland D.I.Y. cornerstone Stevie Pohlman, a final album by her profoundly independent band Mope Grooves will be released containing 27 new songs on double LP gathering the last artistic outpourings on sorrow, rage, social injustice, trans rights, and punk principles.
New York City garage rock veterans The Mystery Lights make a triumphant return with “Purgatory,” the title track from their newly announced record out in September on Daptone that’s guaranteed to contain heart-thumping guitar hooks and rebellious energy.
Beehive Mind from the Cambridge, Massachusetts band The Spatulas is a proper debut of their finest bits of ultra-scrappy and charismatic guitar rock, earnest in lyricism and endearingly tousled in production.
On “Ur Heart Stops,” Brooklyn duo Fantasy of a Broken Heart, touring accomplices of buzzworthy groups like Water From Your Eyes, Sloppy Jane, and This Is Lorelei, generate vivid, pulse-pounding popcraft with the flair of Japanese anime and 90s dream pop wonderment.
This week:
Real Companion, Major Murphy, Martha Rose, Cass McCombs,
Allah-Las, World Brain, Shady Cove, Matty Groves,
Floating Action, Jacob Cummings, Winter McQuinn & more.
For its tenth anniversary, Guruguru Brain, the label founded by members of Kikagaku Moyo, supplies another regional reconnaissance of the underground scene of new psychedelic and experimental folk bands from Taiwan, India, China, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia.
Berlin’s World Brain is back with “Open,” a new single of Edenic synth-pop with glistening, 80s adult contemporary electro-organic textures and impeccably pure vocals that mirrors the fantastical single artwork.
“Weekend Ritual,” the debut single from Real Companion is a humorous and invigorating anthem for the glory of aging gracefully, leaving behind youthful recklessness for sobriety, parenthood, and embracing everyday humdrum magic.
This week:
MJ Lenderman, Lutalo, Allegra Krieger, Being Dead,
Tex Patrello, Th Blisks, Dummy, Michael Younker,
Erin Durant, Oko Ebombo, Pearl & The Oysters, Peel Dream Magazine & more.
Stewards of the Old Time folkways Joseph Decosimo, Luke Richardson, and Cleek Schrey gather on Beehive Cathedral to reverently interpret fifteen everlasting tunes from the Appalachian mountain music treasury with their traditional techniques on fiddles, banjos, and a 19th-century pump organ.
Beehive Cathedral by Joseph Decosimo, Luke Richardson, Cleek Schrey
From one of the best named guys in jazz (and equally amusing cover art), the defining album from Leroy Vinnegar, 1973’s Glass of Water, now back in print courtesy of Ontario’s On High Records, features Vinnegar’s trademark “walking bass” upright rhythms woven through Rhodes and Wurlitzer expressions.
Tex Patrello’s debut Minotaur, with a strikingly perverse cover image that’ll burn into any onlooking retina, is an ingenious specimen of absurdly overstimulating cybernetic pop, glassy and incomprehensibly beautiful, that sounds like a humanoid clone of Joanna Newsom with a corrupted neural implant.
From his forthcoming record Alex Izenberg & The Exiles due late July on Domino’s Weird World imprint, “An Obscured Odyssey” is the latest sweeping, full-band piece that’s rich with the songwriting oracle’s distinctive irregular grandeur and vintage pop patina.
Compiling material released on the first of each May since 2020 by Arianne Churchman & Benedict Drew, MAY is a blood ceremony of voice, harp, hurdy-gurdy and electronics that pays respect to the acid folk and drone visionaries before them such as Third Ear Band and Ash Ra Tempel.
The mischievous anti-cultural publishing house ULYSSA hoist another champ from the <1,000 echelon with Princeville, Alabama writer/spiritual counselor/home-recording dilettante John R. Brusseau’s catalog of Sega-sounding e-funk and “toejazz” conspiring gospel rock.
EVERYBODY GETS WHAT THEY WANT: The Gospel of John R. Brusseau by John R. Brusseau
All photos by Abby Johnson
<a href="https://richruth.bandcamp.com/album/water-still-flows">Water Still Flows by Rich Ruth</a>
This week:
Pachyman, Trace Mountains, Beachwood Sparks, Rich Ruth, Total Blue, Andrew Combs, G.S. Schray, Writhing Squares, David Nance & more.
Water Still Flows, the third studio album from Nashville sound architect Rich Ruth encapsulates his stimulating instrumental faculties carried out by a commingled chemistry of mystical synthesizer ambiances, primal guitar eruptions, and outer edge kosmiche muzik.
Released in 1971 by the short-lived Brazilian octet Free-Son, the group’s lone record Banguele was a fiery mixture of sweltering, conga-fueled afro-funk and wah-wah-laden Latin psychedelic instrumentals with the occasional animalistic scream tossed in.
An obscurity of the 1970s cosmic Americana wave, Sandy Harless’ lone record and Discogs grail Songs gets the Numero treatment that’ll spark the revival of this rural rock masterwork.
The Italian artist Francesca Heart has a new album on the horizon, Bird Bath, guiding a sonic quest to an Eden of glistening arpeggios, digital birdsongs, and spiritually enriching otherworldly frequencies.
Soon to be reissued by Drag City half a century after its original release, Dorothy Carter’s debut record Troubadour bridges traditional Appalachian string music and ancient European liturgical compositions through her mesmeric hammered dulcimer playing.
This week:
Floating Action, Bloomsday, Color Green, ORB,
This Is Lorelei, J.R.C.G., Elan Noon, Apifera,
The Medium, The Deslondes, Nap Eyes, Josephine Network & more.
Box for Buddy, Box for Star, the formal debut from Water From Your Eyes’ Nate Amos under his solo front This Is Lorelei, hotwires a radical strain of misfit Americana and preposterously catchy dance-rock that results in a beautifully absurd fusion.
Estonian jazz-funk guru Misha Panfilov takes his adjunct Septet crew for another deep-space expedition To The Mesophere And Beyond for another expectedly intricate and celestial encounter.
Australian psych rock natives ORB tumble into a wavy wonderland on “You Do,” their hallucinogenic new track from an upcoming record Tailem Bend out in July on Fuzz Club/Flightless.
Bloomsday’s magnificent new record Heart of the Artichoke surrounds singer and songwriter Iris James Garrison’s piercing lyrical realness and nimble melodies with a richly detailed structure of twang-ish alt-folk performed by an ultimate ensemble of collaborators from the Babehoven, Slow Pulp, and Lomelda ilk.
“Natural Lady” from the upcoming new record Easy Easy Easy Easy by the principle Raleigh indie rockers Lonnie Walker finds a moment of light and love an album drawn from the dispiriting darknesses of addiction.
This week:
Bonny Doon, Amery, Hovvdy, Bloomsday, Moses Sumney,
Lou Hazel, Lionlimb, SML, Little Wings, Marina Allen,
Steel Fringe, Trummors, Erin Rae & more.
Once Upon a Time in Battersea, the debut from South London-based Grr Ant,completes a bizarre circuit between the halogen glow of The Radio Dept., the saw-toothed rock of The Replacements, and the gravely twang of Uncle Tupelo.
Renegade bard of California Little Wings combs a new drift of outlandish shanties and surreal folk yarns on High On The Glade, his newest reef of seaweed entangled poetics and salt-bearing singalongs recorded at the derelict Gilligan’s Island film set.
Hour’s Ease The Work, the newest record from the ten-piece West Philly instrumental ensemble, integrates lushly orchestrated swells of adventurous chamber pop created with classical string sections whose grandeur is weathered by deviant guitar playing and disjointed drum rhythms.
Worshipping the medieval-sounding choral singing of Anastasia Coope, Darning Woman is a spine-tingling serenade, brooding and intense, composed of majestic tiers of euphoric acapella and candlelit acoustics.
Montreal-based artist, illustrator, and synth-pop hit-maker Amery Sandford, f.k.a. Alpen Glow and 1/2 of the righteous duo Born at Midnite, presents her solo debut Continue As Amery that’s flush with sweet and swirly hooks, digitized jewel tones, and Y2K swank.
Underneath a geodesic dome of sitar and homemade synthesizers, the husband-wife duo known as Planetary Peace tapped into a rarefied synthesis of new age utopia, out-of-body meditation, and Incredible String Band rural mysticism.
This week:
Kate Bollinger, Anna St. Louis, Floating Action, Chris Cohen,
The Mad Walls, Little’s House, Sam Wilkes, LoPi, Soft Meet,
Sofia Wolfson, Tele Novella, Shady Cove & more.
You’ve got it tuned to W3NG, the ultimate destination for Numero Group’s smoothest, all-inclusive charter across America’s obscure yacht rock, offshore disco, and lite-funk maritimes.
From Seth Little, the Seattle-based folk-singing operator behind 2019’s lovely Hello, I’m Sorry band and its lone mighty album Buddy comes Growing A Garden, a concept album under the new name Little’s House that evolves over three stages tied together by the notions of the seed, the flower, and the garden performed with a gentle, lived-in spirit and old soul nature.
This week:
Carson McHone, Luke Temple, The Bures Band, Sam Evian,
Marina Allen, Freeman DeJongh, Nathan Bowles Trio, The Dead Tongues,
Joe Ghatt, Lau Ro, The Woolen Men & more.
Illuminating another fascinating musical universe, Death Is Not The End’s Skateland Soundtapes, 1980-1986 telecasts from Halfway Tree, Kingston's roller skating rink and epicenter for the dancehall era's golden period in the mid-to-late 1980s.
The debut album by Jane Roman-Pitt, titled This Beautiful Feeling, released in 1973 by a small label in California, is an underappreciated gem of hippie folk, profoundly inspired by meditation and new age mindfulness.
Activating an inward-facing, long-form mode of head music, Mountain Movers’ transcendental new record Walking After Dark replaces their famous wigged-out rage of crashing symbols and hell-forged amplifier feedback with grounded, heartrate-synchronizing hand drum patters and a levitational latticework of guitars and synthesizers.
Kai Slater, champion of Chicago’s inexhaustible Hallogallo music/art scene kicks out another sensational solo record as Sharp Pins with Radio DDR, a Palestinian Children’s Relief fundraiser with eleven raw and noisy power pop hits.
London’s sunshine-folk-playing gentle soul John Myrtle shares a Rado-produced heartfelt farewell to a passing love interest in the Burt Bacharach fashioned “How Do You Break a Heart?”
Galloping toward their triumphant return with the forthcoming Across The River of Stars, cosmic Americana modern masterminds Beachwood Sparks toss eager fans another beaut in “Falling Forever” saddled with an endearing twang that affirms their undying coolness.
This week:
Tenci, Beachwood Sparks, Dr. Dog, John Myrtle,
J.R.C.G., Jake Xerxes Fussell, Nap Eyes, Rich Ruth,
Tasha, Color Green, The Lemon Twigs, The Mountain Movers & more.
Debuting as Magic Fig, members of San Francisco’s elite underground scene (Healing Potpourri, the Umbrellas, Almond Joy, and Whitney’s Playland) unite for a majestic Canterbury infused pop fantasy with their Bay Area psychedelic bloodlines expressed through mind-expanding Moog pitch-bends and soaring electric guitars.
SML is the inconceivably exciting jazzmaster combination of bassist Anna Butterss, synthesist Jeremiah Chiu, saxophonist Josh Johnson, percussionist Booker Stardrum, and guitarist Gregory Uhlmann that embodies Herbie Hancock’s futuristic electricity, the punk edginess of Essential Logic, and the rhythms of Fela Kuti.
Introduced with a meditative sitar shakti, the debut record from The Royal Family quickly morphs into a Magical Mystery Tour spectacle with a few detours into a Stereolab-like space age pop trance.
All photos by Jake Dapper
<a href="https://waxahatchee.bandcamp.com/album/tigers-blood">Tigers Blood by Waxahatchee</a>
This week:
Floating Action, Jordana & Paul Cherry, Amen Dunes,
Armlock, Vicky Farewell, Bloomsday, Hazel City,
Erin Rae, Amery, Teen Daze, Bruno Berle & more.
As her first full West Coast tour nears, Eva Louise Goodman’s whimsical folk project Nighttime presents “Keeper Is The Heart,” the unreleased title track of her mesmeric 2023 full-length that sounds prudent and lovely with a thunderous vigor.
Released one decade ago as of last week, A.R.T. Wilson’s masterwork Overworld , originally composed for a feminist interpretive dance piece, is the confluence of pastel New Age tape recordings, smooth G-funk rhythms, and supremely blissful ambient brain massages.
With drums performed by Andy Shauf and bass by Sam Wilkes, the new Teen Daze single “Back Yard” enlists a distinguished trio to realize his swankiest prismatic pop tune in recent memory.
All photos by Jake Dapper
<a href="https://thenudeparty.bandcamp.com/album/rides-on">Rides On by The Nude Party</a>
Australian duo Armlock reappear with “Ice Cold” from a new record Seashell Angel Lucky Charm out in July that flashes their spectacular slowcore-informed crisp guitar melodies, pounding snares, and glistening electronics.
Someone Like Me, the newest comp from Efficient Space, a group with a cavernous catalog of mysterious and rarefied curiosities, allow the coveted engineer Mikey Young to compile a suite of homespun psych-folk obscurities from around the globe.
All photos by Sam Blieden
<a href="https://johnandrewsyawns.bandcamp.com/album/love-for-the-underdog">Love For The Underdog by John Andrews & The Yawns</a>
This week:
Alex Izenberg, The Lemon Twigs, Chris Cohen, Jessica Pratt,
Crystal Egg, Pleasant Mob, Liv.e, Soft Meet,
Magic Fig, Yohei, Sam and Louise Sullivan & more.
Here In The Pitch is another sanctified record by the untouchable Jessica Pratt that heightens her soul-stirring expression with newly incorporated drum elements and a velvety Hollywood recording room finish.
Now in its third installment, e-jazz luminaries Sam Gendel and Sam Wilkes co-conspire for The Doober, so far the best named record of the year and another brilliantly strange combination of saxophone and bass executed by the Sams.
Nashville’s Crystal Egg, with their first recorded single “What Money?” now pulsing through auxiliary cords worldwide, wield Stereolab-like retro-futuristic quirkiness paired with the type of rebellious house-show energies you might hear bouncing off the walls at Soft Junk any night of the week.
OSEES percussionist Dan Rincon sets his trusty drumsticks aside to enter Spotlight City, his debut of modular synth based compositions of hypnotizing Berlin School patterns and intricate electronic spirals.
Pleasant Mob is the new project from Spread Joy’s Raidy Hodges and his band of Chicagoans that serves tight and scrappy indie pop that’s prime listening for fans of the Flying Nun catalog.
This week:
Hovvdy, Sam Gendel & Sam Wilkes, Shannon Lay, Woods,
Marina Allen, Dr. Dog, Monde UFO, Babe Rainbow, Floreana,
Bnny, Kara Jackson, Hour & more.
Scott McMicken and his Ever-Expanding guild of resourceful musical personnel shares another genuinely crafted collection of songs on When It’s Happening, his second album of off-centered backwoods groovers.
When It's Happening by Scott McMicken and THE EVER-EXPANDING
In harmony with Fire Records’ 40th anniversary, Monde UFO transform Spacemen 3’s sacred sedative séance “Amen” into an outer-realm monochromatic exotica devotional.
The hallowed Woodsist Festival returns September 21-22 in the Hudson Valley at the charming Arrowood Farms with a reliably maxed-out lineup of familiar faces and new companions to the institutional indie rock cooperative.
Go ahead and get tix.
Artwork by Mickey Miles
For our Self-Portrait series, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
On the first day abroad for a highly anticipated European tour promoting their loud and jagged power-pop opus Cartwheel, Hotline TNT’s Will Anderson commands a Self-Portrait feature with a free-flowing array of momentary curios and foundational recordings that goes everywhere from MBV to Everclear.
"This playlist is really just a heat of the moment smorgasbord of influences, recent favorites and all-time classics. When I get annoyed in the van I put my headphones on and listen to these songs, pretending I'm anywhere else with my eyes closed.”
After sitting on a reel-to-reel for four decades, the debut album from the Australian AOR duo Keady & Vallins surfaces via NYC’s Ordinary Tones label that has exquisitely reissued the slinky and shimmery yacht rock gem.
Artwork by Keven Louis Lareau
This week:
Keven Louis Larreau, Color Green, Scott McMicken & The Ever-Expanding,
Monde UFO, Jeffrey Silverstein, Bill MacKay, This Is Lorelei,
Pom Poko, Blunt Chunks, Somesurprises & more.
All photos by Dave Scholten
<a href="https://allah-las.bandcamp.com/album/zuma-85">Zuma 85 by Allah-Las</a> <a href="https://samblasucci.bandcamp.com/album/off-my-stars">Off My Stars by Sam Blasucci</a>
With a new record Fool’s Parade landing this summer on the heavyweight New West Records, Color Green begin their next chapter with “Four Leaf Clover” that summons the heady swirls of Satanic Majesties through their signature frayed-edge rock and roll witchcraft.
The subversive and incongruous artist Liv.e, whose early low fidelity beat-tape fantasies captured and held our attention, sends it hard left with PAST FUTUR.e, a Bandcamp-only EP that plays like a grimy and pixelated industrial dancefloor workout tape in the vein of Throbbing Gristle or Severed Heads.
Artwork by Mickey Miles
For our Self-Portrait series, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
Rosali stars in the newest Self-Portrait feature emceeing an elaborate playlist of key references for her powerful new record Bite Down released in March to universal critical praise.
“Growing up in a musical family, heavily steeped in British Folk, rock, jazz and psychedelia, I was also a teen of the 90's who loved top 40 radio plus punk rock and grunge with indie rock friends. I mostly listened to mixed tapes I'd play in my car driving around the muck fields and apple orchards of my Michigan home town. Always loved a sweet and slightly off-kilter love song with melodic barbs.”
Scottish folk songwriter and fingerstyle guitar player Sam Grassie, a deft emulator and respectful student of the guru Bert Jansch, nobly echoes Jansch’s traditional blues and enchanted jazz on his debut Sandwood, recorded and released through the Bert Jansch Foundation.
Keven Louis Lareau leans back into another humble homespun ode to gently relishing the ordinary that’s central to his down to Earth songwriting practice.
it may not look like much... but it's mine by Keven Louis Lareau
Artwork by Keven Louis Lareau
This week:
Steel Fringe, Amen Dunes, Scott McMicken & The Ever-Expanding, Margo Guryan,
Rich Ruth, Porches, Amery, Vicky Farewell,
Water From Your Eyes, Trummors, Little Wings & more.
Harmony by the band Parades, a minimally detailed tape release from Akron, Ohio’s Soft Pedestal, is a highly amusing listen for snappy, no-wave enthusiasts and Elephant 6 devotees.
The long-awaited fifth album by Taos duo Trummors, aptly titled 5, reawakens their desert wandering cowboy country and astral-gazing southwestern Americana songwriting spirit with echoes of George and Tammy vocal harmonies.
A new discovery from the elite cosmic Americana purveyors at Curation Records, Steel Fringe’s debut “Klickitat County” is a worthy associate on a label that’s home to the hallowed twangness of Beachwood Sparks, Sean Thompson, GospelbeacH et al.
As today’s totality nears, Smiling C have released a compilation, Triángulos De Luz Y Espacios De Sombra, that remembers the solar eclipse of 1991 that found Mexico City in the path of complete obscurity and a concert organized around it with some of Mexico’s most eccentric underground electronic artists performing under the shadow show.
Artwork by Keven Louis Lareau
This week:
Woods, Beachwood Sparks, The Stone Rollers, A. Savage,
D.R. Hooker, Habibi, La Luz, Mei Semones,
Jon McKiel, Yohei, Winter McQuinn & more.
The immortal Woods dole out a grip of unheard recordings from their sessions at Panoramic House in Stinson Beach, California where their latest (and greatest) record Perennial was created.
In a joint release between None More Records and Arrowhawk Records, a new live tape commemorates the epic gathering last year in the U.K. of a Who’s Who of twangy neo-kosmiche dubbed the Cosmic Country Revue with Bobby Lee Jeffrey Silverstein, and Joe Harvey Whyte.
Cosmic Country Revue - Live at PDV 03/31/23 by Cosmic Country Revue
Still delighting in the flavors of October’s Several Songs About Fire, A. Savage furnishes additional songs recorded at Wilco’s The Loft Studios while touring through Chicago last year that features covers of Lavender Country, Kevin Ayers, Johnny Paycheck, and a new interpretation of his own song “Wild Horses” from his first solo record Thawing Dawn.
California-blooded cosmic Americana titans Beachwood Sparks return 12 years after their last dispatch with a stout new single “Torn In Two,” alongside a rad animation by Mark Neeley and news of a forthcoming record Across The River of Stars arriving in July on the familial Curation Records.
Artwork by Keven Louis Lareau
This week:
Jessica Pratt, Marina Allen, Erin Mat & Paul, Mike Michaels’ Gentle Earth,
Scott McMicken and the Ever-Expanding, Bnny, Joe Ghatt,
Dan Rincon, Jack Name, Crumb, Dent May & more.
Like, Everything is a new live EP by Bay Area underground standouts Credit Electric elevating three of their immersive and intricately realized guitar rock treasures with more horns and pedal steel cut straight to tape.
There are few artists worth the effort and risk of blindly wiring an international payment to an anonymous email address based on a scant description of what is offered in the transaction. “The album is 32 tracks. It is 2 hours and 2 minutes long” is all that’s known about Diamond Jubilee, the new album by the otherworldly Cindy Lee available exclusively via WAV file emailed after $30CAD is sent to the Proton Mail account filed on their chaotic Geocities site. Worth it.
Perfect World’s ridiculous new single “Pillar of Salt,” outfitted with an unhinged portrait for the track artwork, is a glitchy and absurdist jolt of maximalist and hard-hitting indie pop.
Philly’s Star Moles steps through the looking glass on her fanciful new album Three Chimes, At Silence Palace! that’s a majestic feat of do-it-yourself new age pop with the trusty Kevin Basko on the studio dials and special guests The Lemon Twigs and Eric Slick.
A wicker interlace of old-timer Piedmont blues, prickly stringband passages, and his own potent potion of new, weird Appalachian kosmiche, Nashville picker Kevin Coleman joins many great contemporaries in challenging the future of rustic American music with his gripping tape Imaginary Conversations.
Released during last year’s Record Store Day, For Let's Go Dancing: Said the Firefly to the Hurricane is the first of four LPs paying homage to the songwriting legacy of Drivin N Cryin’s Kevn Kinney with inspired artists and colleagues like Patterson Hood, Jason Isbell, and one of our favorites Erin Rae covering choice cuts from his catalog of southern rock gems.
Let's Go Dancing: Said the Firefly to the Hurricane by Tasty Goody Records
An unheralded figure in the Brazilian musical narrative, Bororó’s EP A Tempo e a Gosto recorded at the turn of the 1970s captured a vibrant era of the Tropicalia movement when traditional acoustic playing merged with revolutionary electrified pianos and gear.
The former Babe Rainbow touring vibraphonist Mike Medleycott begins anew as Mike Michaels’ Gentle Earth, a solo recording project that emulates the studio signatures and mellow melodies of his heroes Burt Bacharach and Brian Wilson with his own quirky spin.
The easy-come-easy-go kiwi artiste Joe Ghatt drops in with “Always Remember,” the long-awaited follow-up to his propulsive 2019 record Banana Sludge and a genesis release on the enduringly impressive Third Eye Stimuli label. Five years later, Ghatt’s unmistakable coastal sway has a renewed strength with cross-cultural grooves and ultra-shaggy surf-rock hooks amplifying his enthralling free-spirited allure.
Artwork by Dismal Alchemy
This week:
Sam Evian, Rosali, Dr. Dog, Another Michael, Jackie West,
Winter McQuinn, Pokey La Farge, Thee Heart Tones,
Little’s House, Amy O, Anna Tivel, Liam Bailey & more.
Argentinian artist Luna Maria Cedrón aka Fiesta En El Vacío (or Party In The Void) weaves spectral soundscapes from a complex circuitry of machine-coded reggaeton rhythms and human-operated flamenco guitar on her visceral new record Rosal.
Photo by Asia Harman/Layout by Daniel Murphy
On her profound new record ***Bite Down***, Rosali Middleman’s hallmark heartfelt vocals muscle through a deluge of scuzz from her feedback-junkie rock band Mowed Sound that capture the revelry of a basement jam session with a tie-dye swirl of Sonic Youth, Magnolia Electric Co., and 10,000 Maniacs.
Los Angeles based label Forager Records uncover a heap of rarified funky folk and late-night sultry sounds of the 70s and 80s on their latest, silver-toned comp Forever Gamblin’ On You.
A mini assortment of back catalog singles by unsung 60s Space Age doo-wop-country artist Joyce Heath, featured on Efficient Space’s 2016 comp Sky Girl, is presented by the great Melbourne label that offers her sci-fi-tinged tunes a wider reach.
On Aguafuerte’s new tape Fantasia on the discovery-rich label Ediciones Populares, Spanish producers Jordi Gegé and Xabel Ferreiro tap into the chippy absurdies of 16-bit theme music and gameplay jingles that are integral to the classic Super Ninetendo or Gameboy fantasy worlds.
French producer Amor Fati taps a bizarrely beautiful, time-displaced alchemy by fusing medieval folk and Soundcloud rap on Mai, Le Joli Mai, their intriguing EP that eluded the New Commute radars in 2022.
Artwork by Dismal Alchemy
This week:
Yuma Abe, RNIE, Bobbie Lovesong, The Lemon Twigs, Erin, Mat & Paul,
Loving, Gregor, Pachyman, Lily Seabird, Mountain Movers,
Video Age, Josh Johnson, Kane Pour & more.
As they’ve reliably supplied on all prior efforts, Loving craft an album’s worth of well-composed woody soft rock pleasantries on their latest and greatest Any Light.
In a Link Wray-meets-Les Baxter fashion, Floreana’s new scorcher “Black Lizards of the Surf” is dedicated to the marine iguanas of the Galapagos soundtracking the sea-diving reptile’s graceful existence.
The latest addition to Stones Throw’s project celebrating the half-century anniversary of Hosono House welcomes Yuma Abe, the Japanese singer-songwriter and true emulator of Harry Hosono’s Eastern country-funk and folk who faithfully offers his version of “Fuyu Goe.”
Artwork by Mickey Miles
For our Self-Portrait series, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
Leading into his fourth full-length Plunge, a high point in the catalog of elite singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Sam Evian, the Catskills-dwelling virtuoso curates a set of impactful tracks guiding his myriad audio pursuits.
Multi-disciplinary artist Nathaniel Russell fantasizes an album that would be for sale at at the merch table at his own funeral on his new record Songs Of coming May 24th on the reliable Psychic Hotline label. The gently magnetic “Wonderful To Be In Love” is the album’s latest sentimental single delivered with a palpable proximity.
“Dilaudid” is the debut single from Athens, Georgia’s new recording project Chairs formed by Reed Winckler and Marcel Sletten, curator of the Primordial Void outlet that shimmers with Bunnymen/Joy Division atmospherics and hooks.
Artwork by Dismal Alchemy
This week:
Sam and Louise Sullivan, Floreana, Bobby Sheppard, Sam Evian,
Jon Mckiel, Bobbie Lovesong, La Luz,
Amen Dunes, Habibi, Dent May & more.
Sibling band Sam and Louise Sullivan, a Philly unit and frequent collaborator with the recording king Kevin Basko, share a softly sorrowful single “Your Letters,” about a fizzled romance with a Feist-like songwriting emotion.
Mischievous saxophone virtuoso Sam Gendel joins Brazilian guitarist Fabiano do Nascimento for The Room, the combo’s soul-stirring debut on Peter Gabriel’s Real World label with ten stimulating new interpretations of folkloric compositions from around South America.
Sydney’s Itchy & The Nits propagate a sunshiny brand of cranked-up, riff raff punk shaped by the girl group power pop outfits of the 70s and 80s cult underground.
Favorably mixing Flamenco style guitar with reggae rhythms and hooks, Ronnie Lion’s debut Spanish Town is an out of the ordinary pairing that pays homage to the Spanish influences of Jamaica.
By the end of Jon Mckiel’s new single “String” from his new record Hex out in May, each spectator becomes hypnotized by the tune’s ritualistic hum and disjointed guitar soloing.
Bobby Sheppard, best known for his sleek brand of visual design work as Zone Catalog, pursues his own musical craft with County Theme II, a compact montage of airy and lighthearted instrumentals with the nostalgic audio character of a VHS score.
Artwork by Dismal Alchemy
This week:
Fust, Lou Hazel, Winter McQuinn, Worms ‘R’ Us, Rosali, Shabaka, Bnny, Youbet, Flowertown & more.
On a surprise third album by Bobbie Lovesong titled Shadow Of A Cloud, the self-recording Brooklyn artist compiles a trove of alienlike psych-pop tunes that further emphasize her soft-spoken, imaginative originality.
Every once in a while, when the mystic magic strikes just so, our beloved troubadours stumble upon the sacred in song. In an increasingly secular world, seekers are finding refuge not in the traditional houses of worship, but among the healers and prophets of modern age – the musician. Pedestrian Hymnals is a selection of meditations and glimpses of Satori that touch the divine in ways subtle and sonorous from artists belonging to the "popular" cannon of (mostly) Western music.
Words, artwork and playlist by our friend Izzy Fradin.
Here’s one from Florida. Gainesville citizen, guitarist and multimedia artist Kane Pour writes multi-story electro-acoustic patterns looped, modulated, and then probably looped again into one cascading tidal wave of IDM-gone-New-Age nirvana.
Featuring the splendid sounding “Watermelon Wallaby” and the glossy-pop title track “Worms ‘R’ Us,” the debut EP Larry On The Mountain from the new recording project Worms ‘R’ Us is a brief but addictive dash of lovely songwriting.
“Red Wool,” the second single from Australian folk-rocker Winter McQuinn’s upcoming sophomore LP Move To The Trees out in April on the regal Third Eye Stimuli outlet is a swift wind of cheery harmonies and groovy, garden-style acoustic guitar picking.
This week:
Real Estate, Adrianne Lenker, Blunt Chunks,
Verity Den, Hunter Hicks, Writhing Squares,
Another Michael, Hour, Corey Madden & more.
Frayed electronic drones and blurry electric guitar thrums generate a dense, swirling fog scattered by a quietly intense vocals and drum machine palpitations on the debut from Verity Den, the Carolinas’ new trio who exude the finest elements of early 4AD, Swirlies, and Slowdive.
Self-identified “raw West Texas dirtgaze” band Shallowater make nods to first generation slowcore and post-everything guitar rock on There Is A Well, a solid-stone debut that extracts the twang and dramatic vastness of their home terrain.
Marking the 50 year anniversary of Haruomi Hosono’s legendary debut Hosono House, Stones Throw have curated a compilation of contemporary Hosono acolytes covering tracks from the album. Up first is Mac Demarco wistfully laying down “Boku Wa Chotto” in fairly decent Japanese.
From Goaty Tapes, a worthy purveyor of far-out music, comes Echardt & Kash’s Songs of the Soul, a transportive neo-age encounter with birdsongs, deep bass, and higher consciousness timbres for total tranquility.
Casino 2223 takes listeners on a euphoric walking tour through a Vegas strip setting two hundred years in the future led by lo-fi mesmerists New Mexican Stargazers.
This week:
Jessica Pratt, Molly Lewis, Sam Evian, Mei Semones,
Slaughter Beach, Dog, DIIV, Little Wings, Lake J,
Travis Percy, Bill MacKay, The Lostines & more.
With an inventive fusion of math guitar complexities, bossa eloquence, and folky ease, "Inaka” introduces Bayonet Records’ thrilling new discovery Mei Semones whose tender Japanese and English sung lyrics sprawl between a sophisticated dimension of violin and viola.
Brandished with an Infidels-ian cover image, Kevin Basko aka Rubber Band Gun mints a bombastic mid-80s tribute on Street Memories, a surprise record (like most of his material) that came at the tail end of 2023 written, recorded, and produced by the home-studio specialist.
Delving deeper into the lore of Mississippi woodworking wildass David Michael Moore, the ULYSSA misfits extract another motherlode of rural ragas on Bird Head Burlando, a trance inducing force of clamoring cookware, thwacking thingamajigs, and baptismal boom-bap.
The legacy of shadowy and glamourous West Coast songwriter Jessica Pratt expands with “Life Is,” a gleaming introduction to her fourth record Here In The Pitch out in May on Mexican Summer.
Artwork by Mickey Miles
For our Self-Portrait series, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
Experimental synthesist Jeremiah Chiu is in the throes of a prolific period of expression and innovation marked by three records in three years that masterfully exercise the disciplines of field recording, analog patchwork, mechanized improvisation, and fourth-world electronic composition. Chiu shares the wiring diagram for his 2023 album In Electric Time; a junction of experimental electronics, hypnotic tape manipulation, and austere digital collages.
“The selections in this playlist represent a variety of reference points, sonic spirit guides, and approaches to how I edited and produced “In Electric Time.” For example, in naming my track "A Cloud Song", I imagined it to be a nice poetic pairing with Ryuichi Sakamoto's "A Rain Song". Seeing those titles next to each other now, you might think, "ah, I see the connection", but as they live out there in the world in their own spheres, I enjoyed the idea that they may one day stumble into each other, or run in parallel, never meeting. The same, of course, goes for tracks titled "Rhythm..."— a direct reference to Raymond Scott's collection of studio experiments as heard on "Manhattan Research..." and "Three Willow Park". The playlist also loosely follows the same narrative cadence as "In Electric Time" and is really just a collection of some of my favorite experimental electronic references that skirt between lab experiment and autre pop. Analog, tape, electronic humanness.”
This week:
Loving, The Bures Band, Rosali, Helado Negro,
Amen Dunes, Jon McKiel, Cara Beth Satalino,
David Nance, Bats, A Savage & more.
Hotter than Lone Star asphalt in July, San Antonio’s new charred country rock posse Sunjammer serve a plateful of raw and ragged, fully-baked groovers with their debut record Relatively Decent Weather that parties hard in a harsh and unforgiving clime. And a tip of the brim to our Texan lodestar Hippie Scum for the lead.
Helado Negro’s soul-renewing new record PHASOR celebrates a rapturous return to the outdoors spiritually and physically that forages technicolor textures and blissful new-agey rhythms that radiate with positivity and hope.
Roy Werner fka G.S. Sultan codes his own pastoral e-jazz simulations on Imagine My Surprise that activates a bustling suite of cyber sounds and sophisticated “real” instrumentation that’s full of life be it human or machine.
A spliced assembly of raw recordings of his new album Accompany, Montrose Tape is thirty-six minutes of gloriously uninterrupted Michael Nau too affecting to fall to the cutting room floor.
The titular track “Floreana” debuts the tape-abstracted exotica from Los Angeles musician Victoria Mordoch whose opening communiqué is a looping oceanic collage of vintage synthesizers and drum machines.
Itasca’s distinct wispy blues and elegant, wrought iron guitar playing intertwine prestigiously on her new record Imitation of War that broods with gentle complexities up to the album’s staggering 9-minute climax “Easy Spirit.”
This week:
Trummors, Floreana, Teethe, The Stone Rollers,
Circles Around The Sun feat. Mikaela Davis, Winter McQuinn, LAIR,
Florry, Astrid Sonne, Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band & more.
Artwork by Mickey Miles
For our Self-Portrait series, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
With last year’s standout record I Keep My Feet On The Fragile Plane and its swift B-sides follow-up, Allegra Krieger has begun to amass a worthy share of attention and acclaim. Her fleshy, Joni-eque songs that carve hearts right out of chests have led her opening slots for Angel Olsen, Tomberlin and some upcoming runs with Katy Kirby and Michael Nau. She illuminates a few anchor points for her writing in our first Self-Portrait of 2024.
‘Here I have a playlist of some music I love, featuring some of my favorite artists like Lucinda Williams, Elliott Smith, Arthur Russell, Frank Ocean & Judee Sill with some formative instrumental pieces as well. There’s a soft Misfits cover by Ariel M + some psych country by Hollins & Starr. Eyes of Love made one of my most favorite albums ever & Suzanne Vega is my New York City songwriting queen. Moondog is beautiful. Hope you enjoy what I’ve enjoyed.’
Hollywood crooner Austin Leonard Jones tacks up a new set of cheeky ballads on At The Polo Club that’ll fancy fans from Buck to Berman with his twistedly amusing musicmaking like the album’s hit “John Denver Alone at Home Depot” or “Dust on the Drugs” that lifts the melody of “Auld Lang Syne” for a morbid but mirthful hoorah.
A bonus B-side from a ‘22 cassette single release, “Thanks” finds Texas slowcore technicians Teethe channeling the sludgy grooves and ambivalent ambiance that lingered in the subsurface throughout the mid-90s.
This week:
David Nance, Merce Lemon, Colin Miller,
Spencer Cullum & Hollow Hand, Bnny, Mavis The Dog,
Corridor, Immaterial Possession, Coco & more.
Vesuvio Solo, the Montreal duo made up of Blue Material’s Thom Gillies and Cam Maclean break an eight year hiatus with a sturdy new single “Backyard Operation” proving the riches of their melodies and atmospheres are still flowing.
Philly’s Scott Olsen who home-records hyper-low-fidelity and hyper-high-felicity bedroom pop as Mavis The Dog reappears with White Plastic Chairs, a new batch of unpolished gems that’ll engage lysergic flashbacks to the primordial Woodsist catalog.
Tipping their hats to the unrivaled Will Oldham, producer/engineer Colin Miller and Merce Lemon paused Lemon’s hotly anticipated debut album recording sesh to bleed their hearts into two tender renditions of “I See A Darkness” and “Gulf Shores,” giving a glimpse of the alchemy at work between the two emerging artists.
I See a Darkness / Gulf Shores by Merce Lemon & Colin Miller
Cosmic folk pedal steeler Spencer Cullum unites with his kindred creative Hollow Hand for a dewy reimagination of “O Caroline” by the 70s Canterbury prog-rock group Matching Mole famously lead by Soft Machine’s Robert Wyatt, a fellow wonderful and whimsical weirdo.
Peel back the climbing vines and venture through an overgrown entrance to a secret mystical realm…
This week:
Sam Evian, Real Estate, Molly Lewis, Loving, Adrianne Lenker,
Magic Tuber Stringband, Gregory Uhlmann,
Hotline TNT, Lutalo, Reyna Tropical & more.
From their sixth record, the forthcoming anthropomorphic long-player Daniel, the “big indie” backbone Real Estate renew the high-ranking hangability of their earliest tone on “Haunted World” disappearing self-reflective perplexities into a crisp, even-tempered jam.
The 1980 opus by Turkish percussionist and tight Don Cherry associate Okay Temiz, Drummer of Two Worlds, was a visionary concord between newfangled European jazz-fusion rhythms and ancient Turkish wind instrumentation that’s a cosmic odyssey like no other.
Songwriter/producer almighty Sam Evian shares the exciting news of a new record, Plunge, out in March on his newly minted Flying Clouds Records imprint with Thirty Tigers. The debut track “Wild Days” is Evian at his best; cooking an immediate and focused, delicate and stylized powerhouse of a tune.
Hollow Hand, through the fantasy/dungeon-themed tape distro Cosmic Ocean, has entered 2024 with a live audio mix from an August 2023 show at Brighton’s The Green Door Store. Fittingly scheduled during the sacred ancient harvest holiday Consualia, More Blood On Brighton Beach features songs from The New Eves and Sean Thompson’s Weird Ears, and Erin Rae who shared the iconic bill.
More Blood On Brighton Beach by Hollow Hand, The New Eves, Sean Thompson's Weird Ears
This week:
Christo Graham, Itasca, Rosali, Helado Negro, Daniel Romano, Waxahatchee, Keven Louis Lareau, Dana Gavanski, Mirama & more.
Ripped to a tiny run of CDs from the original reels found at a flea market, this lost relic of the 70s by fingerstyle guitarist Abraham Chapman, an untraceable player with a knack for the country blues, may have stayed in eternal obscurity if not for the small, seemingly inactive German label that appear to have bootlegged the tracks with their own vision of what an album cover may have looked like…
From Yoga Records, the esteemed group that brought Ted Lucas’ masterpiece to the foreground, comes Trinidad Seed, another wonderful discovery of a humbly spectacular home-recorder Penny Carson Nichols whose delicate, heartfelt folk songs rival the brilliance of Vashti Bunyan, Sibylle Baier and other cult classics of the type.
French contemporaries Sierra Manhattan evoke a glossy and high-spirited indie energy on their newest EP Which Life, The Friends that’s elevated by its suave and gleeful nature.
First mate Brandon McMahon tags in for another meticulously curated playlist of after-hours cruisers and swanky, cologne-drenched AOR prize pieces.
My Own Private Rodeo is the premiere release from one of the best new things out of Asheville, North Carolina, the spunky “primitive pop” trio Wagging who specialize in disarmingly charming and hooky, rough-edged guitar anthems struck with a pleasing balance of cool-dude mope and high-end studio polish.
Virtually undetected by the outside world until now, the 80s Japanese new wave band The Air Music International’s utterly awesome record Pass The Santa-Lucia Gate In Manila is a freeform jam session of fuzz-covered, ultra-dubby psychedelic jazz rock inspired by Lee Perry and CAN.
Pass The Santa-Lucia Gate In Manila by The Air Music International
R.M.F.C., the exuberant one-man punk operation of Sydney’s Buz Clatworthy stakes out his long-awaited debut record Club Hits sculpted with the same obsessive care and intention of the bulldozing catalog of EPs and 45s that precede it. “The Trap” is the fierce lead single written, recorded, mixed by Clatworthy and mastered by the master Mikey Young.
Artwork by Mickey Miles
For our Self-Portrait series, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
With their new album Perennial arriving at the end of the week, Woods mark a twenty-year run of purveying scrappy independent ideology through a deep catalog of their own influential homestyle folk rock records, their institutional, self-run Woodsist record label, and an unbeatable and mostly-annual Woodsist Festival celebration of the community magnetized by the collective’s magic. To understand the DNA of this self-built phenomenon, the group’s mainstays Jeremy Earl and Jarvis Taveniere present a playlist of guiding forces for their Self-Portrait.
"Here are some songs that have inspired and influenced us over the years. Songs we referenced, songs we covered and songs we’ve loved. In loose chronological order. Enjoy!"
Atop a beloved knoll in his rural midcoast Maine locale, songwriter Jesse Kivel introduces his newest single/video “I Sat on a Ridge” from his upcoming record Life and Death at Party Rock out November 10th on New Feelings. Blanketed in a dew of ambient-electro tones, raw acoustic strummings, and upright bass from Sam Wilkes, Kivel writes an ode to fatherhood, partnership, and his picturesque seaside environment.
All photos by Danielle Petrosa
Artwork by Sarah Mattes
This week:
R.M.F.C., The Stone Rollers, Video Age, Badge Epoque Ensemble,
Vicky Farewell, The Brights, Dippers, Jeremiah Chiu,
Sunwatchers, Las Los, Acetone, Cactus Lee & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page where you can show your support by buying music and merch.
All photos by Madelyn Matthews
When Horses Would Run by Being Dead
The Rainbow Wheel of Death by Dougie Poole
Hotline TNT Live @ WKDU by Hotline TNT
Elegies for the Drift by Joe Westerlund
Love For The Underdog by John Andrews & The Yawns
Live at Third Man Records by Rich Ruth
Stuck Inside a Cloud by Rosali
All photos by Madelyn Matthews
Emptiness at The Sinclair by Dinosaur Jr.
American Football (Deluxe Edition) by American Football
All photos by Madelyn Matthews
<a href="https://cutworms.bandcamp.com/album/cut-worms">Cut Worms by Cut Worms</a> <a href="https://denzelcurrymusic.bandcamp.com/album/melt-my-eyez-see-your-future">Melt My Eyez See Your Future by Denzel Curry</a> <a href="https://margoprice.bandcamp.com/album/strays-ii">Strays II by Margo Price</a> <a href="https://rosali.bandcamp.com/album/stuck-inside-a-cloud">Stuck Inside a Cloud by Rosali</a> <a href="https://johnandrewsyawns.bandcamp.com/album/love-for-the-underdog">Love For The Underdog by John Andrews & The Yawns</a> <a href="https://rosecityband.bandcamp.com/album/garden-party">Garden Party by Rose City Band</a> <a href="https://beingdead.bandcamp.com/album/when-horses-would-run">When Horses Would Run by Being Dead</a>
All photos by Madelyn Matthews
<a href="https://pavement.bandcamp.com/album/slanted-enchanted">Slanted & Enchanted by Pavement</a> <a href="https://alvvays.bandcamp.com/album/blue-rev">Blue Rev by Alvvays</a> <a href="https://kingkrule.bandcamp.com/album/space-heavy">Space Heavy by King Krule</a> <a href="https://eshutune.bandcamp.com/track/knee-brace">Knee Brace by Eshu Tune</a> <a href="https://palmnewyork.bandcamp.com/album/nicks-and-grazes">Nicks and Grazes by Palm</a> <a href="https://samevian.bandcamp.com/track/life-go-low">Life Go Low by sam evian</a> <a href="https://richruth.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-third-man-records">Live at Third Man Records by Rich Ruth</a> <a href="https://whitmerthomas.bandcamp.com/album/the-older-i-get-the-funnier-i-was">The Older I Get The Funnier I Was by Whitmer Thomas</a>
Exercising more of his distinctive production tact, Sam Evian imparts another beaut with “Wisteria,” a weary purple-blue reflection as summer slips away.
Rubber Band Gun’s Kevin Basko re-energizes his Hot Machine alter ego with “Meat the Beetles” a squirrelly new single with singer Emily Starmoles from an upcoming full-length out at the end of October that’ll unleash more of the project’s genuine Historic New Jersey home-studio-cooked club pop.
Canadian duo Freak Heat Waves veer towards a weightless downtempo euphoria for their fifth album Mondo Tempo fittingly out on the Mood Hut label that’s home to Jack J and Pender Street Steppers.
From the Brooklyn stop on his 2016 global tour, Ethiopian jazz legend Hailu Mergia’s return to performing is presented by Awesome Tapes From Africa on Pioneer Works Swing (Live), a new live record documenting the career-spanning set of raw and spontaneous ethio-jazz improvisations he and his veteran band extended.
Artwork by Mickey Miles
For our Self-Portrait series, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
Across four outstanding records, Rose City Band have reliably delivered the kind of free-spirited country rocking twang that floats and grooves uninterruptedly from one grass-stained jam to the next. The band share a taste of their eclectic listening diet of private press folk records, dusty country cuts, and longform trip-outs on their Self-Portrait.
I took this assignment somewhat literally and thought about artists and songs that impacted me deeply in my formative years, and are also all present, in some way, in my current music. This is not quite, but almost, chronological, starting with my first love, The Rolling Stones, and the album Tattoo You, which I encountered in 4th grade. There is my skateboarding, SST-loving years, the classic rock and psychedelic explorations of high school, obscurities of varying degrees from my time living near Amoeba in San Francisco, etc..., and beyond. It was a challenge to keep it at a reasonable length, so I hope it is at least a good listen.
On “In Electric Time,” using the rare analog machinery on display at the Vintage Synthesizer Museum in Highland Park, Los Angeles, electronic composer Jeremiah Chiu loops and layers a magical, on-the-spot sound pattern that transmits the built-in sacred energies of the classic musical artifacts at his fingertips.
Artwork by Sarah Mattes
This week:
Pachyman, Sam Evian, Lael Neale, Mndsgn,
Ty Segall, Woods, Being Dead, Alli Blois,
Sylvester, Gregg Kowalski, Oneohtrix Point Never, Helena Deland & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page where you can show your support by buying music and merch.
“Kingston meets Tripoli” says it all for Habibi Funk’s next full-length record that showcases the Father of Libyan Reggae Ibrahim Hesnawi who incorporated the downbeat and offbeat rhythms of Bob Marley into his traditional Libyan jazz and funk creations.
Habibi Funk 024: The Father of Libyan Reggae by Ibrahim Hesnawi
The twelfth volume of Tompkins Square’s Imaginational Anthem compilation series honors the late, great, and dearly missed Michael Chapman with a tribute by fellow Yorkshire musicians curated by guitarist Henry Parker.
Percussionist Valentina Magaletti, known for her drumming with the avant-pop group Vanishing Twin and as an accomplished solo experimental composer improvises a 45-minute long forceful and ritualistic free-expression piece with La Tempesta Colorata recorded live at London’s Cafe Oto in 2021.
Bogota’s jazz sampling producer Felipe Gordon mellows out his typical club-ready beats on “This Is How Running Feels” from his upcoming Psychedelic Melancholia record that draws more from boom bap, Indian traditional music, and heavily layered atmospheric funk.
An obscure discovery of private recordings from 1970 by disco legend Sylvester reveal his work as a Prohibition Era jazz standards performer in the years leading up to his flamboyant and high-energy hit-making.
On a surprise curveball EP, indie-pop deity Toro y Moi takes an introspective journey back to his homeplace around Columbia, South Carolina, a region better known for it’s barbecue joints, hollowed-out strip malls, and high school football honors than its high art or new age psychedelic music. Synths and drum machines are swapped with banjos and pedal steel to feel the rural reunion of Chaz Bear’s roots.
Artwork by Connor Mikita
This week:
Rosali, Toro y Moi, Tex Crick, Chet Sounds,
Dream Sitch, A. Savage, Jamma-Dee, L’Rain,
Lutalo, Colin Miller, Joseph Shabason, Zooey Celeste & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page where you can show your support by buying music and merch.
Artwork by Mickey Miles
For our Self-Portrait series, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
For the last decade, The Nude Party have been on a steady course forging a worthy and hard-earned career in rock and roll. Through their inextinguishable charisma, the septet has honed their sound and live show into a bona fide indie juggernaut with multi-album record deals, tours around the globe, and confluence with legends of the scene. Three records in, their latest, Rides On, hits the bullseye of their 70s-minded bluesy country rock target. For the Self-Portrait series, the dudes hand off a deep dive of inspirations and ingredients that contribute to their sound.
“This playlist represents many of the early sonic inspirations we had in common as friends while we attempted to create our own music. Ranging from certified garage rock gold, British Invasion rippers, to more mellow cosmic country grooves, these were and still are many of the musicians we love. Blending these genres and then distilling them through the filter of seven different musicians with their own styles of playing is generally the recipe for a Nude Party record.”
Vermont based musician Lutalo’s new album AGAIN that’s out today via Winspear is a brief but invigorating suite of soulful and elaborate alt-rock where roaring electric guitars and overcharged indie percussion energize the compelling societal protests voiced in the lyrics.
Parquet Courts frontman and esteemed visual creator A. Savage shares “Elvis In The Army,” the lead single from his new solo record Several Songs About Fire that’s a brawny cut of well-read and pressurized Americana.
After nearly a decade of micro-sized runs of cassette releases, the Kentucky-situated minimalistic post-punk home-recorder Chlorine shares a proper full-length in Wait For The Light to Shine that reaches back to the salad days of nervy, Xeroxed indie records.
With tags "like “stoner with a drum machine,” “lackadaisical gospel,” and “Grateful Dead,” you would rightly expect Glad We Got Us, the new handmade CD-R release from Edmonton underground lo-fi dronesman Brick Road, to show up here. Immersive morning meditations awakens into mid-day jammers that wither into deeply soothing and energy-balancing sound waves.
Midwestern screwball rocker Christopher Alan Durham and his Peacetime Consumers posse scrounge up their first long-playing record with Kicks or Macabre, a menacing, halfway sloshed nightcrawling street blues record littered with loose, sorta-tuned guitar rips and grime encrusted percussion.
Kicks or Macabre by Christopher Alan Durham & The Peacetime Consumers
The smooth-grooving piano balladeer Tex Crick announces his sophomore record Sweet Dreamin’ out in October on Mac’s Record Label leading off with the mellow-mannered single “Easy Keepers” recorded in his Tokyo attic studio.
In an far-out tribute to his youth, Toronto jazz-funk sax player Joseph Shabason will rescore the quintessential ‘96 Toy Machine skate video Welcome To Hell. The concept album’s first track, “Jamie Thomas” eases off the original scraped-knee rock and roll of the original soundtrack with a fusiony, vibraphone-laced reimagining of the epic part.
The eternally awe-inspiring Rosali has announced her signing with rock champions Merge Records for her follow-up to her impeccable 2021 release No Medium that begins with a spellbinding one-off cover of George Harrison’s “Stuck Inside a Cloud” that’s adorned with sparkling synths and gritty electric guitars.
On “Never Wanna,” the second single from his new album Haw Creek out September 29th with Ruination Records, Colin Miller, production-side affiliate of the steamrolling MJ Lenderman/Wednesday band guild, weaves his own modern folkloric tale that brings a 90s slacker attitude to the hallowed Appalachian string traditions of his Blue Ridge Mountain operating zone.
Artwork by Connor Mikita
This week:
Allah-Las, Woods, Mapache, Hot Apple Band,
Leah Senior, Modern Nature, Hollie Cook, BCMC,
Sun June, Fievel Is Glauque, Pauline Anna Strom & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page where you can show your support by buying music and merch.
Tropical pop sensation Hollie Cook sends her 2022 record Happy Hour through her signature dub sequence to reassemble the album’s original lover’s rock vibe into a heady, spaced-out creation.
West Coast mellow mates Mapache broadcast their most full-bodied blend of easygoing folk rock on Swinging Stars, their instant-classic fifth record of sea swept and suntanned Americana blessed with the duo’s seamless vocal and acoustic harmonies.
Artwork by Mickey Miles
For our Self-Portrait series, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
As Cut Worms, Max Clarke’s singing and songwriting stylings are situated between ragtime, mid-century rhythm and blues and the incipient era of rock and roll giving his albums an old-world, chronologically displaced, and supremely delightful sensation. His latest self-titled record is a concise nine-track LP condensed to its most pure “pop essentialism” and is an ideal display of what he’s been refining since the beginning of the project. Max takes us through a progression of some of his all-timers spanning nearly a century of recorded music history.
Here’s a playlist of some of my favorite of all time songs—I tried to include selections that span nearly the whole 20th century and beginning of the 21st. A lot could be said about each one but in the interest of time, I’ll say that just about all of them are monumental in their own way and each had a profound effect on me at various moments in my life when I first heard them and they, for me continue to hold just as strong as they ever did.
Shepherds of the bubbling garagey alt-country scene in Sydney, Hot Apple Band bid a farewell gesture to their previous moniker with their upcoming debut record So Long, Noodle House while clearing a path for sharing more of their twangy, classic-toned cruisers.
A true hidden jewel of reggae/dancehall music’s digital era, Horace Ferguson’s 1987 Sensi Addict, now available from the impeccable Death Is Not The End label, puts forth an unconventional groove with Ferguson’s untouchable falsetto and rhythm tracks made on early drum machines by Tyrone Downie, a longtime member of Bob Marley & The Wailers.
The tropically-inclined ambient-exotica artist Monopoly Child Star Searchers reflects the serenity of his recording environment in the Canary Islands on his latest effort, Barbados Wild Horses, enlisting a kindred-spirit experimentalist in Sun Araw to co-pilot the balmy escape into the dimming horizon.
Artwork by Connor Mikita
This week:
Video Age, Florry, MJ Lenderman, Floating Action,
Sessa, Faith Healer, Lemon Quartet, Alan Palomo, Jamma Dee,
Sam Wilkes, Skyway Man, Magic Al, EXEK & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page where you can show your support by buying music and merch.
São Paulo singer-songwriter Sessa who has carried the spirit of Tropicalismo psychedelic folk music from generations past to the modern age with a cool, sartorial swagger, presents the early blueprints of his superior Estrela Acesa LP released last year with Mexican Summer. The new Demos & Alternates EP recorded in makeshift studios on cell phones, laptops, and tape machines between his Brazilian home and Upstate New York, shares early takes and unheard variants that reiterate the subtle and unpretentious beauty of his work.
Loss For Words, the third PAINT record, redirects from the last two trips of psychedelic pleasantries into the obsidian depths of a seedier style of pop mixed with brief and smoggy flurries of disjointed and dubby jazz and electronics that evokes a gritty and unnerving celluloid fantasy.
LA producer and modern-funk beatmaker Jamma-Dee presents his debut record Perceptions on the Parisian label Nothing But Net that showcases his primetime cuts of throwback skating-rink boogie, baggy downtempo, and silky swingbeat with assists from Mndsgn, Koreatown Oddity, and Benedek.
New Orleans sophistipop craftsmen Video Age reappear with “Away From The Castle,” the title track from their newly announced record out October 27th on Winspear. Skewing slightly from the timeless funked-up glow of their back catalog, Ross Farbe and Ray Micarelli calibrate an unbearably catchy new sound with equal parts blue-sky power pop and well-crafted folk rock.
Back in April, Berlin based home-recording psych-soul specialist Twïns assembled a capable squad of players to perform a rare live set of his original starry-infused material and groovy rendition of Pharoah Sanders’ beloved “Love Will Find A Way” now available as Live at Loophole.
Aside from his duties as acting co-founder of the upswinging Ruination Records, Dan Knishkowy has cultivated a rising creative output with his own music as Adeline Hotel. Today, the project reveals “Hot Fruit,” the title track off an upcoming record due in October that leads onto an exciting new trail with meticulous and idyllic classical orchestration spun into an autumnal indie folk rhythm pattern.
Artwork by Connor Mikita
This week:
Connie Cunningham and the Creeps, Dream Sitch, Lutalo,
Mutual Benefit, Hiss Golden Messenger, Green-House,
Colin Miller, King Tuff, @, Mary Lattimore, Sheer Mag & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page where you can show your support by buying music and merch.
Two years after his lovable debut record Fantasia, Tokyo based singer-songwriter Yuma Abe is back with a new EP Surprisingly Alright out with the trustworthy Temporal Drift outlet that presents five additional jovial and groovy toe-tappers that tightly resemble the Westerly country rock sensibilities of Haruomi Hosono.
“The Way She Flies” is the final single that stands before Sam Hoffman’s momentous sophomore record Books On Tape that’s been gradually unveiled through a series of superb indie/power-pop singles and exquisite accompanying cover artwork.
For their next enchantment, the micro-moguls at ULYSSA celebrate another unsung True American Wildass™ in Craig Peyton, the vibraphonist, five-thousand-hour certified aircraft pilot, television soundtrack composer, and aerial cinematographer featured in music videos by Beyoncé whose soul-inspired jazz fusion coasted off the last gusts of the disco scene right into the prevailing hip-hop and house evolution.
Somewhere in the depths of the subterranean Perth indie scene exists Lacky Band, a mostly anonymous trio with no online presence besides an incredible six-song live album on Bandcamp taped at Merri Creek Tavern in late 2022. The band, apparently just Lew, Luggs, and Charlie recalls the attitude of the Velvets’ loose and untamed Live at Max’s Kansas City or any of the output from The Strange Boys.
Santa Cruz songwriter Bridge Gamble strikes a golden balance between Stetson-donned rancher twang, wry metamodern balladry, and scruffy, homespun dream rock.
“Build A Friend For Me” from the self-titled debut tape from GUJI, a punky electropop quartet out of Shanghai, China evokes the playful and electrifying zest from DEVO, the B-52’s, and countless DIY bands from the 00s blog era matched with sardonic singalongs about their home country’s socio-political conditions.
Artwork by Mickey Miles
For our Self-Portrait series, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
Much like the man himself, Hayden Pedigo’s musical output contains multitudes. The unassuming musician is also an accomplished actor, former political candidate, Gucci runway model, and expert humorist. Similarly, at a cursory glance, his five full-length records of fingerstyle guitar instrumentals are landscapes of emotive 6-string arrangements rich in nuance and wonder. However, studying deeper, his art is a chaotic coalescence of qualities from pummeling Musique concrète, dissonant prog-rock, primordial blues, and eccentric pop. For his Self-Portrait, he brings some of his earliest and most unpredictable influences that leads us from Charley Patton to This Heat.
"In light of my new album 'The Happiest Times I Ever Ignored" I wanted to share some of the music that really shaped my life. I decided to focus on the ages of 15-18 when my interest in music was really going crazy. There's plenty of prog rock fantasy, Canterbury scene whimsy, haunted mellotrons, hypnotic twelve strings, and electric jazz chaos. This is really a photocopy scan of the music that set the course for my life. I can still hear so much of these songs in my music, you just have to listen really closely. It's in there....I hope y'all enjoy these songs, this really is a fun selection of stuff. There's a lot of good tunes in here.."
Spiritual free rock mastermind Jeffrey Alexander and his Heavy Lidders unit bring forth a new set of consciousness-elevating jams with “Star Power” from his next record New Earth Seed that joins forces with a formidable consortium including Animal Collective’s Geologist, drummer guru Ryan Jewel, skronklord Jeff Tobias and contemporary guitar legend Chris Forsyth who produced the record.
Zambia, the immensely influential debut album from Rikki Ililonga, widely recognized as the architect of Zamrock that blended traditional African folky rhythms and grizzly Western guitar tones in the early 1970s, is back in print via Now Again Records since its first reissue with the label over 10 years ago.
“Eve’s Hollywood” is the spellbinding debut single from Holy Matter, the pseudonym of experimental filmmaker and songwriter living in Los Angeles Leanna Kaiser who introduces their evocative fairground folk pop with an impressive start.
“You” is the final preview of the top-shelf vintage soul expected on the debut record from Norwegian one-man multi-instrumentalist phenom Les Imprimés titled Rêverie out August 11th on Big Crown Records that’s built around tones from the Golden Age of dreamy doo-wop.
Artwork by Connor Mikita
This week:
Resavoir, Holy Matter, Mapache, Animal Collective,
Kibi James, PAINT, Chet Sounds, Calvin LeCompte,
Hotline TNT, Tele Novella, Leo Takami & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page where you can show your support by buying music and merch.
In anticipation of the upcoming Flagstaff Fadeaway happening September 30, 2023 presented by High Country Motor Lodge in Flagstaff, Arizona, organizers New Commute and Varyer have curated the official playlist with some of our favorite tracks by artists on the lineup. While you await this unforgettable getaway, tune in to the sights and sounds of what's to come; the cosmic scruff of Color Green, the country-soul splendor of Sylvie, the astral dispatches from Rich Ruth in special combination with the pastoral spirit-guiding of Spencer Cullum, the rootsy force of The Senators, and the dreamy americana storytelling of Kacy & Clayton.
PERIL, the impactful new record from Austin based singer-songwriter, ex-ballet dancer, and sustainable farmer Jordan Moser uses his sweetly-sung Texas hill country-flavored balladry to artfully reinforce the climate emergency we’re living in and to serve as shared therapy for any listener worried about the loved ones who will inherit a damaged ecosystem. True to his convictions, Moser has forgone pressing physical media or touring the new record opting for plastic-free Bandcamp purchases and local shows only.
Japanese guitarist Leo Takami follows up his acclaimed 2020 record Felis Catus and Silence with the title track from his new collection “Next Door” that draws a musical bubble bath of New Age jazz fusion and glossy kankyō ongaku.
Laith’s debut record Lightning plays as a travelogue for a Hollywood-style long haul ramble across the miles of endless highways through the heart of America stretching between one smoke-filled bar to the next where twangy bursts of guitar and pedal steel get down with thunderous piano playing.
The gritty hypnotics of fledgling cult artist Calvin LeCompte are on display again with his newest curio “Perfume Nineteen,” a bleak and dysfunctional jingle-jangle melody that’s purely beautiful at its clouded core.
Texas favorites Cactus Lee cut their most ambitious single to date with “Pale Rider,” a striking 7-minute road test from their highly anticipated new record Caravan arriving later this fall that’ll expand the range of their spit-shined outlaw mysticism and heartland folk balladry.
Jazz trumpeter and composer Will Miller ends the long wait for more original material from the gifted and in-demand player who has spent the years since 2019’s standout self-titled debut collaborating with hip-hop royalty and contributing to Whitney’s ascent to the indie rock summits. With “Inside Minds,” Resavoir blesses an invigorating Balearic and Bossa beat with piano, synths, and nylon-string guitars piloting the trip.
Chet Sounds, part of Sydney’s incredible Uplifting Bell Ends crew returns with “Losin’ End,” a deeper discovery into his next batch of solo material coming as Changes Happen To Everyone, Everywhere this October with the regal Third Eye Stimuli that follows Chet into his own wonderfully weird and wiggly world where frizzy synths and guitars joyfully mingle in a freewheelin’ folk rock fantasy.
Artwork by Ellen Voorheis
This week:
Cut Worms, Florry, Cut Worms, Sam Burton,
Floating Action, Allah-Las, Pachyman,
Lori Vambe, Lady Apple Tree, Anastasia Coope, Sven Wunder & more.
Haylie Hostetter, one half of the folk duo Will and Haylie who briefly dabbled in the Old Time and country blues duets of the great American songbook back in 2022 steps aside for a solo venture as Lady Apple Tree bringing her own original tunes forward that are rich with lush canyon-dwelling hippie atmospheres.
Florry provide another cut from their new record with “Cowgirl Giving,” a slow swinging roughneck ballad stuffed with curdled and countrified duet singing and belly-deep harmonica playing.
MJ Lenderman continues his meteoric rise with “Rudolph” off a new limited edition 7-inch and his first as an official ANTI- Records artist that foretells more banged-up and twanged-out hits lie before us.
Artwork by Ellen Voorheis
This week:
Being Dead, PAINT, Silicone Prairie, Lael Neale,
Jalen Ngonda, Lutalo, A. Savage, Allegra Krieger,
Mikaela Davis, Jordan Moser, Sam Gendel & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page where you can show your support by buying music and merch.
All photos by Kate Giffin
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After many years engaging in clandestine shenanigans performing everything from lo-fi hypnagogic psych to Medieval garage punk around the Austin underground, Being Dead prevail with their big time debut record When Horses Would Run, turning on new disciples to the fanciful funhouse surf pop of their latest artistic whim.
Silicone Prairie, the slinky art punk project of Ian Teeple who’s otherwise playing in Snõõper, lets loose the warbled giddy-up single “Cows” from his new record Vol. II out later this month on Feel It Records.
Parquet Courts frontman A. Savage returns with a new, unmistakably original solo song “Thanksgiving Prayer” along with an announcement of his signing to Rough Trade Records.
Nashville’s blood-pumping punk mob Snooper make their major label debut with Super Snõõper out on Third Man that spotlights their zany and erratic bursts of scuzzy guitars and drums best experienced through their unforgettable stage spectacle decorated with larger than life handmade puppets and props.
Mikaela Davis, the classically trained harpist turned psychedelic folk idol shares “Cinderella,” an enchanting, genre-bent fairy tale ballad off her new record And Southern Star that benchmarks an impressive growth in her lyrical and songwriting prowess.
Under the veiled Hazel City moniker, Clay Frankel of Twin Peaks and Grapetooth fame sidelines his boisterous indie rocking role to take the form of an inwardly-oriented and unplugged folkie indulging in intimately soft banjo plucks and warm and well-placed piano chords for processing a fragile and sentimental side of the artists we’re not used to receiving.
With “Low,” the last single from Allegra Krieger’s upcoming record I Keep My Feet on the Fragile Plane out next Friday, the New York based songwriter reveals an evocative and soul-stirring serenade that glows against a mangled swell of crackling electronic noise.
PAINT, the alter ego of Allah-Las’ Pedrum Siadatian shares “Desolation Dub,” the second single from his upcoming record Loss For Words out July 18th on Grape St. Inc. The deliriously dubwise track is accompanied by a mostly unglued music video depicting a tow-truck crucifixion featuring a curious cast including whistler-extraordinaire Molly Lewis, actress Mercedes Kilmer and poet John Tottenham.
Artwork by Ellen Voorheis
This week:
Monster Rally, Tobacco City, Centre El Muusa,
Hether, Hayden Pedigo, Florry, Woods,
Fust, Edsel Axle, Lionmilk, Nico Georis & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page where you can show your support by buying music and merch.
Artwork by Mickey Miles
For our Self-Portrait series, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
Francie Medosch, leader of Philly’s raw, rambunctious and buzzworthy rock band Florry offers a compilation of tracks from Dylan, Lucinda, Sugar Ray and everything in-between that highlights the reference points for their highly anticipated new record The Holey Bible out August 4th on Dear Life Records.
From Florry’s Francie Medosch:
I heart listening to music big time. Getting to make it is especially amazing because you may wind up subconsciously pulling from this or that song that you heard as a kid or in passing that left an imprint. Some songs sound like you’ve known them forever and your own songs can do that too. I wanted to write an album with songs that sounded both modern and classic. I usually don’t pull from specifics, but the general songs I’m listening to in a point of time probably help push me towards feelings I want to express through words, chord progressions, riffs, or vibes. These are some of those songs.
My mom and stepdad are responsible for a lot of my underlying influences, like Aimee Mann, Bob Dylan, various soul music, etc., but I stumbled into my deep love of country music, showtuney music, power pop, and weirdo rock later on. My influences dont always show, but they are with me and combine with my experiences as a person.
If I had to pick my favorite artists of all time, my answer would be The Roches, Stereolab, Dylan, The Band, and Lucinda, but I just love a lot of stuff like everyone else!
Rainbow Generator, part of the first wave of experimental electronic groups on the Australian continent, guided a musical odyssey on their lone LP Dance of the Spheres that stretches from drum-machine powered industrial ragas to spoken-word folk spirituals.
Now-Again have revived the inspiring and overlooked album by The Southern University Jazz Ensemble Goes To Africa With Love created by legendary New Orleans avant-garde jazz clarinetist Alvin Batiste and his band of young college students that celebrates the unrestricted power and beauty of spiritual jazz.
Goes To Africa With Love by Southern University Jazz Ensemble
The new solo record Natural Internet by Will Sprott, keyboardist for garage-pop titans Shannon & The Clams, maintains an easygoing vintage charm that balances whimsical folk with absurdist sci-fi sounds drawn from a cocktail of weighty emotional matter like death, newborn enchantment, environmental anxiety, and the perils of cyberspace.
The newest country rock group out of Perth, featuring New Commute favorite Stephen Bailey at the helm, debut their 60s/70s-ish twangy Americana essence with “Birds Nest” along with an A+ video of the boys jamming it in the studio.
“Big America, dumb America, I’ll take all that I can” sing Chicago crowd-pleasers Tobacco City on their new track “America” that reflects on a foolish and carefree youth; mooning the landlord, getting blasted in the backyard, and jackknife cannonballs in the pool.
Artwork by Ellen Voorheis
This week:
Cut Worms, Floating Action, The Bures Band, Anna St. Louis,
Art Feynman, Roman Norfleet, Hollie Cook, Hayden Pedigo,
Modern Nature, Mapache, Buck Meek, Kibi James & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page where you can show your support by buying music and merch.
Back in September, Toro y Moi held a small two-day concert and campout in the Big Sur forest where he performed his newest record MAHAL in full. Now, the recording of the live set is available to stream.
Illustrator and designer Mark Neeley has announced a new artbook called Extracted Frames featuring 120-pages of animation frames, sketches and storyboards from short films, music videos, and other projects that he’s created over the years.
The psychedelic cowboys at Torn & Frayed have wrangled a tribute tape dubbed Prairie Biscuits of country and folk rock songs by Ernie Graham, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Red Rhodes and other obscure artists of the 60s and 70s reimagined by new era artists such as Spencer Cullum, Bobby Lee, Pearl Charles, Michael Rault, Keven Louis Lareau and more.
“Our Night” from Paul Cherry’s first instrumental jazz record Pure Grooves Vol. 1 out this fall previews the minty tone he’s curated that syncs with the vibe of his unbeatable 14-hour-long Cherry’s Chunes playlist.
“Zoos of the World” from the latest cluster of Mort Garson recordings Journey To The Moon and Beyond out through Sacred Bones in July presents a rare score from a 1970 National Geographic documentary of the same title.
Artwork by Robert Beatty with animation by Mickey Miles
Nick Kinsey, drummer often seen alongside Kevin Morby, Waxahatachee, or Elvis Perkins shares another dust-streaked vintage doo-wop sounding tune with “The Breaking of the Chains” from his new project as Connie Cunningham and the Creeps.
The Breaking of the Chains by Connie Cunningham and the Creeps
Tokyo Riddim 1976-1985 gives showcase to the initial influence of Jamaican culture on the Japanese music scene. J-reggae stylings, galvanized by the verve of Bob Marley and Trojan Records, permeated into the work of jazz and city pop artists like Chu Kosaka and Junko Yogami with dubbed-out low ends and skank rhythms.
The shapeshifting Tony Price resumes control of the dancefloor with the title track of his new record Hit Piece coming this September with Telephone Explosion that swaps the seedy and shadowy atmospheres of his last record IBM Contra with sweat-soaked and blood-rushing house rhythms.
On their superior debut, Portland ensemble Roman Norfleet and Be Present Art Group conjure the liberating and self-expressive forces and philosophies of their spiritual jazz ancestors like Sun Ra or Alice Coltrane. The collective intersperse free-flowing sax, drums, and organ among improvised percussion and vocals that intensify into a profound, soul-stirring listen.
Roman Norfleet and Be Present Art Group by Roman Norfleet and Be Present Art Group
The 1988 masterwork Into the Heart of Love by folky New Age luminaries Woo is reborn through the essential Palto Flats label with remastered versions of the entire cassette-only originals on vinyl for the first time.
Twenty-five years after its original release on Factory Records’ smaller imprint, The Durutti Column’s ‘98 triumph Time Was Gigantic…When We Were Kids is being remastered and reissued for the first time on vinyl. Leading man Vini Reilly’s unmistakably sparse and luscious guitar playing style curl around vocals from Eley Rudge and a balearic backdrop that capped off the final release for the iconic label.
Artwork by Spencer Pidgeon
This week:
Florry, Woods, Paul Cherry, Spencer Cullum & Maston,
Freak Heat Waves & Cindy Lee, Faye Webster, Bobby Lee,
Hazel City, Marmalade Mountain & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page where you can show your support by buying music and merch.
Artwork by Will Gaynor
The cats at Hippie Scum are back with another one from Texas. Drug Guitar For The Artist is their newest tape curated by Mike Sharp surveying the headiest extents of the six-string guitar spectrum to fundraise for visual artist Rich Cali’s cancer treatments.
Come Touch Tomorrow is the irresistibly sexy mid-80s jazz-fusion record by Nigerian saxophonist, flutist, and clarinetist Daoud Abubakar Balewa as Ambiance II Fusion who gives a steamy set of ravishingly funked up spirituals infused with sparkly synth pads and velvety drum machine beats.
Bobby Lee, a spiritual guide for the contemporary ultra-heady Americana jam cult, delivers a defining culmination of his signature cosmic farmstead choogle on Endless Skyways that’s deeply appreciative of the mind-altered masters before him.
Italian brothers Michele and Simone Bornati a.k.a. Twoonky uniquely merge thirty year’s worth of krautrock, new wave, ands acid house influences on their sophomore record Ottico that deploys analog synths, overdriven guitars, outré sax segments, and bizarre digital collages held in orbit by a techy dub-leaning backbeat.
The newish Atlanta trio Kibi James indulge in a charming and gingerly mid-fi indie sound that swaps English and Spanish singing between beams of 90s-gazing guitar effects.
Florry’s rambunctious and twanged-up indie rocking chugs along with “Drunk and High” from their newly announced record The Holey Bible that’s out in August on the dominant Dear Life Records. The Philly sprouts will also be bringing their rowdy roadshow back out for some 2023 solo dates and support slots for Kurt Vile and Rose City Band.
Woods are back to announce a new record Perennial and its first listen “White Winter Melody” that brings Jeremy Earl and crew together for a lightly fried instrumental to set the appealingly loose-fitting tone of the forthcoming material.
Wee doggies! Mississippi Records has remixed and refined the 2002 Michael Hurley masterpiece Sweetkorn, originally self-released on Snock’s own Bellemeade Phonics label (who still accepts cash mailorder payments for LPs and CDs).
A new batch of unreleased treasures from the Arthur Russell estate will be shared as Picture of Bunny Rabbit compiled from masters and test pressings discovered in his vast tape archive taking focus on the period around the release of his iconic World of Echo LP from 1986.
Baroque pop instrumentalist-producer extraordinaire Frank Maston expands upon the idyllic “What A Waste Of An Echo” from the new record by Spencer Cullum with a flawless remix that cranks up the low end frequencies and broadens the horizon for deeper rhythmic grazing.
What a Waste of an Echo / The Three Magnets (Maston Remix) by Spencer Cullum's Coin Collection
Artwork by Spencer Pidgeon
This week:
Allah-Las, Bonny Doon, Allegra Krieger, Jess Williamson,
Lutalo, Hand Habits, Devendra Banhart, PAINT,
Jack J, Water From Your Eyes & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page where you can show your support by buying music and merch.
Artwork by Mickey Miles
For our Self-Portrait series, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
As heard on their dazzling new record Coast 2 Coast and first with the mammoth Stones Throw label, Pearl & The Oysters brilliantly blend multigenerational jazz, space age pop, and synthy AOR together with a rare level of proficiency. Now, the duo guide an audio odyssey into the inspirational touchstones of their work.
Here’s a little over 2 hours of music that offers a window into the scope of our stylistic inspirations as P&TO. A hodgepodge of long-standing formative influences, aesthetic shocks, and existence-altering discoveries, these are all tunes that had a profound impact on us, and came to define different eras of the band over the last 7 years. This collection is eclectic in nature, and mirrors our own chaotic taste as listeners, which spans multiple national/regional styles and eras in recorded music, covering genres and sub-genres as disparate as early electronic novelty records, Brazilian bossa nova, Japanese city pop, AOR, disco, garage rock, exotica, fusion, sunshine pop, baroque counterpoint, 90s lounge pop, lo-fi home recordings of the 70/80s, 60s psychedelia, French impressionism, hauntology/plunderphonics, easy-listening, jazz pop, etc—the common thread being perhaps that all of these songs tend to share a certain compositional sophistication. You’ll find some usual suspects and ubiquitous classics in here (McCartney, Beach Boys, Jobim), but also—slightly—deeper cuts (White Noise, R. Stevie Moore, The High Llamas, Dr. Samuel J. Hoffman). Enjoy!
Archivist label Smiling C who’ve amassed a short stockpile worth your full attention, gives a deeper listen into the work of David Horridge on their twelfth title Journey Within, an astounding display of iridescent and meditative pieces from the instrumental guitarist and bedroom recorder from the 1980s.
Announcing Flagstaff Fadeaway, a music festival and event to benefit the Glen Canyon Institute presented by New Commute, Cloth & Flame, Varyer, and Visitor hosted at the beautiful High Country Motor Lodge in Flagstaff, Arizona on September 30, 2023.
Tickets and lodging options available now.
Indie folk lords Fleet Foxes have shared the live recording of a cover of The Strokes song “Under Control” featuring guests Uwade and The Westerlies taped at their show last year at New York City’s Forest Hills Stadium.
Under Control (Live at Forest Hills Stadium) [feat. Uwade & The Westerlies] by Fleet Foxes
Plus a Joni Mitchell cover featuring Robin Pecknold’s dad Greg Pecknold and Grizzly Bear’s Daniel Rossen.
“Zuma 85,” the title track from Allah-Las’ newly announced record out in October on their own Calico Discos label reconvenes on an orange-hued coastline for an Ash Ra-style instrumental that points the group’s sonic compass towards the world of kosmiche musik.
Alex Bingham, beloved bass-playing sideman to groups like Hiss Golden Messenger, Watchhouse and T. Gold, debuts his new solo project Magic Al with the joyous pop single “Skateboard Lovers,” that features vocals by Libby Rodenbough.
Going further into the archives of electronic music pioneer Mort Garson, Sacred Bones map a new system of findings for Journey To The Moon and Beyond with fifteen Moog-driven instrumentals including a Nat Geo zoology soundtrack and a live synthesizer score of the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing.
Artwork by Spencer Pidgeon
This week:
Anna St. Louis, Essential Forever, Jordon Moser,
Mapache, Floating Action, Tofusmell, Alan Palomo,
Julie Byrne, Nydia Gonzalez, Mort Garson & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page where you can show your support by buying music and merch.
Artwork by Mickey Miles
For our Self-Portrait series, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
Jeffrey Silverstein whose new record Western Sky Music harmonizes mystical meditative phenomena and twangy country instrumentalism links up for a self-portraying playlist of backwoods folk and pedal-steelin’ rarities.
“these are songs that trace my continued interest/love of country music and the pedal-steel guitar. familiar favorites and deep cuts. i spin many of them during regular dj sets here in town. never tire of hearing different takes on 'how i got to memphis' - a tune that has recently become a staple of my live set.”
Embraced by serene and subtly countryfied foliage, Anna St. Louis, an immediate favorite around here, manifests her most compelling and complex songwriting yet with In The Air, her astounding new record out now on Kevin Morby’s Woodsist imprint label Mare Records.
LA producer and 1/2 of the essential electronic dance duo Classixx, Michael David ventures out under his own name with his new EP Talking Book World that balances balmy, lower tempo lounge music and euphoric digital jazz fusion with the support of Sam Wilkes, Laraaji, and Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith.
Austin-based folky singer-songwriter upstart Lefty Parker has shared an album of live recordings from an intimate show in Chicago several month ago that brings listeners back into the room to hear his tender, gently twangy tunes.
The Gow-Dow Experience is the self-funded record by Cal-Poly Professor James Benson and his 1973 class of jazz students deriving inspiration from a field trip to Africa and the racial justice movement happening back home in America.
Artwork by Mickey Miles
For our Self-Portrait series, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
Just ahead of her new album Time Ain’t Accidental that’s out in full this Friday on Mexican Summer, singer-songwriter Jess Williamson brings forth a Self-Portrait playlist that interprets her synchronization of supernatural indie-folk and anthemic radio-ready country music.
“In anticipation of my new album coming out this Friday, I wanted to give y’all a little peek into my brain, musically. Each track I included here influenced my new album in big and small ways. Some of these songs have been rolling around in my consciousness since I was in the womb, like Angel from Montgomery, and others are fairly new to me, like the Billie Eilish song. This playlist feels spiritually quite similar to my new record, sonically and lyrically. I hope you enjoy digging in ahead of Time Ain’t Accidental coming out this Friday. Thanks so much to New Commute for asking me to contribute!”
Artwork by Spencer Pidgeon
This week:
Sam Evian, Blonde Redhead, Paul Cherry & Kate Bollinger,
Anna St. Louis, Cut Worms, Yuma Abe, Jonny Nash,
Hayden Pedigo, Edsel Axle & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page where you can show your support by buying music and merch.
A rare recording has surfaced of Beverly Glenn-Copeland in the prime of his folk jazz era performing alongside fingerstyle guitar virtuoso Lenny Breau in 1971 on Canadian public television.
Paul Cherry and Kate Bollinger unite for a whimsical pair of new singles on Los Angeles Story, an immersive two-act story involving the sale of a Volkswagen Cabriolet from an obnoxious dealer soundtracked by Cherry’s meticulous slick ‘n’ funky production and Bollinger’s soft and sweet vocal delivery.
The golden glow of the summer sun shines through Sam Evian’s comfortable new single “Life Go Low” that tosses around in the salty breeze like a kite tethered to the shore kept afloat by gusts of horns and synths unmistakably originating from Flying Cloud Studios.
Operating as Edsel Axle, Rosali Middleman, known for her profound work as a singer-songwriter, abandons the vocal elements of her art in exchange for brooding and spontaneous solo electric guitar streams.
The scarlet-clad balladeer Cut Worms opens the door to his newly announced self-titled record with “Ballad of the Texas King,” carrying forward his signature vivid storytelling and superb knack for catchy and classic sounding melodies.
Jeffrey Silverstein far surpasses the limits of his previous work with his second full-length record Western Sky Music. Partnering with notables like William Tyler, North Americans/Rose City Band’s Barry Walker Jr., and Akron/Family’s Dana Buoy, Silverstein brews otherworldly energies through deeply focused cosmic twang orchestrations and meditational vocals that guide listeners to inner and outer peace.
With a lovable homespun jangle, 3.A.M. Again, the musical outlet for English teacher Michael Telles captures the pace and spirit of his seaport setting in Gloucester, Massachusetts with a briny breeze of folky guitar melodies on Cherry Street.
For the first time ever, Keith Paul’s masterful 1978 heavy soul and disco self-titled record will be officially reissued by La Freak & Zamal Funk who painstakingly restored the Stevie Wonder-ish relic from a perfectly clean original copy.
Black Coral Sprig by Talk West, the latest offshoot from solo fingerstyle guitar phenom Dylan Golden Aycock, envelops listeners in an ethereal bath of pedal steel, synth, and electric guitar covering latitudes between cavernous ambient drones and carefully guided instrumental serenities.
Artwork by Tom Mountford
This week:
The Lemon Twigs, Dream Sitch, Allegra Krieger, Sam Burton,
Leah Senior, Maya Ongaku, GracieHorse,
Buck Meek, Jess Williamson, Bong Wish & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page where you can show your support by buying music and merch.
The freakishly brilliant Lemon Twigs brothers, Brian and Michael D’Addario elevate their songwriting supremacy with Everything Harmony chain-stitching their bellbottom power pop gleam and mega-melodic rocker balladry together for thirteen new and incredible hits.
Always Chasing Rainbows, the aptly titled debut album from Sydney producer and songwriter KESMAR is a merry, mild-mannered, and lightly funky eight course collection from the debonair dude.
The UK’s Big Potato Records have reissued the long out-of-print 1974 record from Tucker Zimmerman, Over Here In Europe, released between his iconic mid-seventies self-titled debut and Foot Tap LP. This rare collection features Zimmerman at his best delicately draping his poetic lyrics over a bed of synthesizer-based folk sounds.
Australian singer-songwriter Leah Senior presents the lead single “Pony” from her newly announced record The Music That I Make arriving August 18th via the Melbourne label Poison City Records. The track, written while stranded in the country, retains an otherworldly aura that mingles with British occult soft rock and poetic East Village folk.
Artwork by Mickey Miles
For our Self-Portrait series, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
Patrick McDermott and Barry Walker Jr., the instrumental duo known as North Americans, supply a mix of 80s country b-sides, rural flatpicking gems, electronic collages, and balmy ambient cuts that track with their expansive new record Long Cool World out now on Third Man Records.
Artwork by Tom Mountford
This week:
Floating Action, Misha Panfilov, Being Dead,
Talk West, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Kiren Hebdan & William Tyler,
Credit Electric, Sofie Royer, Fust & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page where you can show your support by buying music and merch.
Artwork by James Madison Mitchell
The New Commute Weekend playlist; perfect for cleaning the gutters, napping in the hammock and everything in between.
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Dark Entries, the undisputed authority in post-punk and synthy obscurities, will reissue the long out of print debut album Elevator To Eden by Lives of Angels housing one of the greatest songs ever “Imperial Motors” that crosses the primordial electronics of Neu! and Amon Duul II with a rapturous new-wave spunk.
Credit Electric, a project that caught our attention with last year’s mighty Out of Love in the Face of a Shadow LP, returns with “Backseat Driver,” a new single building from the holographic sophisti-pop spirit from where they last left off.
Libby Rodenbough has shared a live session of “Waking World,” an Old Time-indebted fiddle-led ballad from her new record Between The Blades performed with a circle of instrumentalists from her Sleepy Cat Records family.
Our Cali-dwelling favorites Mapache are warmly welcomed back with “People Please,” a full-scale cosmic folk starburst from their forthcoming record Swinging Stars that brings Sam Blasucci and Clay Finch together along with guest spots from Allah-Las’ Spencer Dunham and kindred guitar/harmony god Dave Rawlings.
Leading with the ruminative “Violent Jubilee,” Durham’s Fust, a supergroup from the Carolina folksy underground guild that features members of MJ Lenderman, Wednesday, Indigo De Souza, Sluice and Magic Tuber Stringband circle ‘round for their studio debut Genevieve coming June 16th through Dear Life Records.
The prolific Estonian producer Misha Panfilov marshals a septet of likeminded instrumental accompanists for Gala!, his newest entry in his rapidly growing discography that breathes a subterranean spiritual jazz club intimacy.
“Flight” is the second course from California composer Nico Georis’ blissful set of meteorologically inspired experimentations coming through on his new record Cloud Suites out on Leaving Records. The track features a dazzling 8mm film by Erren Franklin captured at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.
Four Tet and William Tyler unite for an unlikely but by all means flawless combination on “Darkness, Darkness,” serving Psychic Hotline’s epic single series with a landmark collage of Tyler’s virtuosic steel-string solos spliced with Kieran Hebden’s beat-laden electronic abstractions.
Darkness, Darkness / No Services by Kieran Hebden & William Tyler
For the second volume in Swiss label Bongo Joe’s Club Coco series, DJ and radio host Coco María hand-selects her favorite contemporary pan-Latin dancefloor dazzlers and tropical funk cuts like Dip In The Dub’s “La Cumbia Del Sufi Que No Sabía Bailar" that’s laced with slithery guitar tones and post-digital rhythms that put a modern spin on the roots music of Latin America.
Coco María presents Club Coco ¡AHORA! The Latin sound of now by Various Artists
Artwork by Tom Mountford
This week:
Jeffrey Silverstein, Bonny Doon, Joyce Street,
John Andrews, Hether, Nico Georis, Maya Ongaku,
Holy Wave, Kacey Johansing, Charlie Hall & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page where you can show your support by buying music and merch.
The funky orchestral beat of Sven Wunder’s latest single “Easy Going” comes via the newly announced sixth volume of the Mr. Bongo Record Club mixtape-style series curated with contemporary psychedelic cuts from Brazil, Sweden, the USA, South Africa, Portugal, Japan, Trinidad and Tobago, and Canada.
Mississippi’s Joyce Street, the undercelebrated countrypolitan singer and songwriter with Opryland dreams that never were gets an overdue showcase through Tied Down, the hit-filled and career-spanning collection pulled together by Numero Group that’s a great companion for any fan of Patsy, Loretta, or Tammy.
The essential outsider label Efficient Space has prepared an anthology of the work of Patrick Gibson, the influential Australian underground soundcrafter titled Elbow Room in Paradise that compiles his obscure ambient and jagged synthwave cassette tape recordings from the richest part of his career.
Artwork by Tom Mountford
This week:
The Lemon Twigs, Rubber Band Gun, Daryl Johns,
Yuma Abe, Anna St. Louis, Pearl & the Oysters,
Mong Tong, Rahill, Bobby Lee & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page where you can show your support by buying music and merch.
All photos by Lauren Hartmann
<a href="https://angelolsen.bandcamp.com/album/forever-means">Forever Means by Angel Olsen</a>
All photos by Jake Dapper
<a href="https://thenudeparty.bandcamp.com/album/rides-on">Rides On by The Nude Party</a> <a href="https://cactuslee.bandcamp.com/album/alpine-skier">Alpine Skier by Cactus Lee</a>
For the last two decades or so, the gentle and scruffy folk songs of Dean Johnson have rung out through neighborhood bars and listening rooms around Seattle cherished by locals lucky enough to get within earshot of his old-timey and soft-spoken cowboy lilt. Now, amazingly, for the first time in his career, his work will be released to a wider audience through Mama Bird as Nothing For Me, Please, his debut full length record of casually spellbinding ballads.
“Falling Apart Without You,” the second cut from a new EP by Portland, Oregon’s Graham Jonson evolves his Soundcloud study-beat origin sound into a fully loaded and chameleonic affair that’s grounded in retro-tinged DIY pop and skyward psych-rock.
Whistling pedal steel and slowly cruising acoustics set a worry-free pace for the second single “Better Days” from Anna St. Louis’ forthcoming record In The Air that keeps a self-assured and optimistic mindset for the brighter times just up ahead.
Artwork by Tom Mountford
This week:
Floating Action, Essential Forever, Max Shrager, Julie Byrne,
Spencer Cullum, Kevin Morby, Anadol, Crumb,
Esther Rose, Rudy De Anda, Sluice & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page where you can show your support by buying music and merch.
All photos by Sam Blieden
<a href="https://johnandrewsyawns.bandcamp.com/album/love-for-the-underdog">Love For The Underdog by John Andrews & The Yawns</a> <a href="https://bobbielovesong.bandcamp.com/album/on-the-wind-2">On The Wind by Bobbie Lovesong</a> <a href="https://robertearlthomas.bandcamp.com/album/the-wind-through-the-air">The Wind Through The Air by Robert Earl Thomas</a>
For all-around master craftsman John Andrews’ new record Love For The Underdog, his fourth catalog entry with the Woodsist tribe, the ebbs and flows of a career entertainer’s lifestyle are poignantly and cynically verbalized by John and his velvety folk-rock ways; “some days I’m well, some days are hell, some days it’s just plain hard to tell.”
Bongo Joe, an esteemed source for discovery of rare music from around the globe, have focused their attention on the 70s and 80s work of Algerian garage rock band Les Abranis who fused the burgeoning sounds of North African psych, western disco, and funky European jazz.
Although he’s physically relocated to Chicago from sunny Los Angeles, Rudy De Anda kept his West Coast Latin-psych musical spirit in place for his new record Closet Botanist out on the great Colemine/Karma Chief Records that takes a slight redirection toward a grayer and more visceral vintage sound.
Japanese drummer Akira Ishikawa, an essential player in the development of his country’s jazz-rock scene, drew from African rhythms and melodies for his 1970 masterpiece Bakishinba: Memories of Africa.
Bakishinba: Memories Of Africa by Akira Ishikawa Count Buffalo Jazz And Rock Band
Using fifty-year-old electronic mini-organs and low-tech recording machines, Turkish artist Anadol crafts minimal instrumental synth-pop suites that take inspiration in the keyboard fantasies of 80s European cinema soundtracks. Her forthcoming album Hatiralar, or “Memories,” revisits compositions written around 2012, well before her exemplary 2019 debut Uzun Havalar.
Right at home on the “janglepophub” label Subjangle, Oslo, Norway songwriter Terje Torkellsen enters Loose Ends…, his new EP of warm and fuzzy 4-track delights.
The highly sought after self-titled record by 80s duo Will and James Ragar, a buttery private-press soft rocker that coasts in smooth air, will return to print through the mighty BBE label.
Art by Madalyn Stefanak
This week:
John Andrews, Dream Sitch, Misha Panfilov, Jeffrey Silverstein,
Floating Action, Libby Rodenbough, Lael Neale, Pantayo,
Rahill, Mega Bog, Pearl & The Oysters, North Americans & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
Pearl & The Oysters thrust listeners into a 16-bit fantasyland of arcade-style city pop and subtropical space funk for their immensely pleasurable Stones Throw debut Coast 2 Coast that adds in players from Stereolab, Neon Indian, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, and Mild High Club.
Home-recording hitmaker Kevin Basko, owner-operator of Philly’s Historic New Jersey analog studio and the dude behind all fifty-eight Rubber Band Gun albums, knocks another one out of the park with Shut Up and Deal that traverses sounds of twangy bedroom folk, velvety indie-pop, and slithery funk like only RBG can do.
The debut album by 70s Panamanian jazzy funk group The Soul Fantastics has been restored and reissued by Nabu Records who are making inroads to dig up and preserve some of the rarest music from the nation’s historic recording studios and labels.
Balearic craftsman Simon Peter delivers two blissed cuts in “Every Cloud” and “You Don’t Send Slow Waves” for his Forest Jams label debut that set sail for warmer climes and saltier airs.
Resident vibe connoisseur Brandon McMahon dips back in with Smooth Talker, a playlist of 80s Spring Break punch that’s overflowing with coconut-infused private press AOR, ultraviolet funk, and oceanfront jazz. Reapply every two hours.
Rose City Band call on illustration guru Mickey Miles to visualize their groovy number “Slow Burn” from their new record Garden Party into a psychedelic animated short film about tripping with cops and aliens.
Art by Madalyn Stefanak
This week:
Keven Louis Lareau, Bonny Doon, Jalen Ngonda,
Angel Olsen, North Americans, Hayden Pedigo, Spencer Cullum,
Nico Georis, Being Dead, Natural Information Society & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
On her all-too-brief Forever Means mini release, Angel Olsen lets go of four soaring singles showing her expert range of breathtaking solo ballads and earthshaking full-band symphonies.
The beautiful and rejuvenating second volume from Spencer Cullum’s Coin Collection gathers a bouquet of talented musical buds like Dana Gavanski, Erin Rae, Yuma Abe, Sean Thompson and others for a springtime traipse through a meadow of cool English folk.
Spencer Cullum's Coin Collection 2 by Spencer Cullum's Coin Collection
Guitarist Hayden Pedigo, lauded by Gillian Welch, William Basinski, Dr. Demento, and 12% of the 2019 Amarillo city council electorate, is back with “Elsewhere,” an immaculate meditative steel-string arrangement from his new record The Happiest Times I Ever Ignored that’s out June 30th through Mexican Summer.
When he’s not alongside Cut Worms, John Andrews, or Anna St. Louis with bass guitar in-hand, Keven Louis Lareau patiently whittles his own cozy acoustic cuts that trickle out from time to time at an unhurried pace. His latest, “Take Me Back To The Country,” is a comfy groove about missing the countryside from a tiring urban outpost in Los Angeles.
The Norwegian funk outfit Flammer Dance Band’s new long player Dedikasjon Til Inspirasjon summons a fiery ecstasy of Afro-disco grooves, highlife horn skronk, and raw psych rhythms.
Being Dead, one of Texas’ most promising and underrated creative and theatrical forces break free with “Muriel’s Big Day Off,” an outlandish surf-pop freakshow with a western gallop and snappy, absurd melody that comes from their Bayonet Records debut When Horses Would Run out this summer.
“Ice Crystals” is the debut movement from Nico Georis’ new Cloud Suites record of ambient keyboard compositions named after different cloud formations. Like Desert Mirror and his A Rainbow In Curved Air reimagination before this, Georis create a full-body hypnosis through floating piano melodies and textures.
All photos by Anna Powell Denton
<a href="https://tennispollen.bandcamp.com/album/pollen-explicit">Pollen [Explicit] by Tennis</a>
Artwork by Mickey Miles
For our Self-Portrait series, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
The witty country crooner Dougie Poole keeps the wisecracking to a minimum on his standout new record The Rainbow Wheel of Death that’s full of sobering and self-conscious storytelling with a lightly twanged giddy-up. For his Self-Portrait, he herds in tunes by Don Williams, Doug Sahm, Joan Armatrading, J.J. Cale, The Fugs and others.
Brief 90s R&B radio pop star turned neo-soul sage Eddie Chacon boosts his late career revival with Sundown, his simmering Stones Throw debut that’s given flight by production maestro John Carroll Kirby’s glossy and enchanted touch.
Art by Madalyn Stefanak
This week:
Anna St. Louis, Sam Burton, Arthur Russell,
GracieHorse, Roxy Gordon, WITCH, Beach Fossils,
Sam Blasucci, Mad Anthony, El Michels Affair & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
On Long Cool World, the North Americans twosome of Patrick McDermott and Barry Walker Jr. again become the flora and fauna in the sonic bog they’ve matured across four previous LPs where leafy shoots of hardy guitar notes and humid pedal steel gusts purify the ambience for a quiet and deep brainwave slowdown.
Artwork by Mickey Miles
For our Self-Portrait series, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
Just after the recent announcement of a new record Bystander created alongside Bonny Light Horseman’s Josh Kaufman and The Walkmen/Fleet Foxes’ Matt Barick, LA singer-songwriter Johanna Samuels guides us through an autobiographical suite of music by Nina Simone, Fruit Bats, Dylan, Aimee Mann & more that relay her affecting folk and soft rock expressions.
All photos by Sam Blieden
<a href="https://deerhoof.bandcamp.com/album/miracle-level">Miracle-Level by Deerhoof</a>
Synthesis is the lone release by husband and wide duo Will & Kalima Sawyer who chose Planetary Peace as the name of their recording project of D.I.Y. folky devotional electronic compositions performed on a mailorder synthesizer unit and recorded at home on a TEAC reel-to-reel in 1980.
From a new record In The Air out June 9th on the ever-reliable Woodsist/Mare Records, “Phone” marks the long-awaited return of Anna St. Louis and her mesmerizing and open-hearted songwriting that flourishes in bold new textures and patient, unguarded storytelling.
All photos by Connor Fields
<a href="https://weyesblood.bandcamp.com/album/and-in-the-darkness-hearts-aglow">And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow by Weyes Blood</a>
Art by Madalyn Stefanak
This week:
Pearl & The Oysters, Sven Wunder, Hether, Rahill,
Scott McMicken & The Ever-Expanding, Mystic 100s,
Eddie Chacon, SUO, Rich Ruth & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
Swedish producer Sven Wunder queues up another mid-tempo bop of the jazz-funk and latin-groove variety with “Harmonica And…” from his newest 7-inch slab of rare groove instrumentals.
For Dr. Dog frontman Scott McMicken’s new venture, The Ever-Expanding, a superior cast of trustees was assembled from players in the camps of Cotton Jones, Kevin Morby, Elvis Perkins and Hether for the recording session for Shabang, a downhome family-band safari through the spectrum of his soulful and scuffed-up songwriting vision.
Mystic 100s, the fabled group once named Milk Music, submit to the psychedelic state on their long-awaited new record On A Micro Diet, although all signs point to macro-levels of recreational dosage. As a bellwether for weird and way-out American musicmaking and art, the Olympia tribe turn out a heady and steady stream of ergot-derived grunge jams and frantic freeform blues that’s blown home by the four winds.
Last August, Rich Ruth, flanked by his pack of flugelhorn and pedal steel wielding technicians, celebrated the release of his epic new record I Survived, It’s Over with a breathtaking performance at Blue Room, his label Third Man Records’ premium venue space in Nashville.
Artwork by Pear Juice Productions
“Ugly On The Inside” sets the tone for singer-songwriter Johanna Samuels’ forthcoming record Bystander, an emotional reckoning with her dispiriting inner thoughts illuminated by her invigorating folk-pop song construction.
From their upcoming debut record with the mammoth Stones Throw Records, Pearl & The Oysters switch-on “Read The Room,” an accelerating force of electronically geared drums and synths that features avant-pop kindred spirit Lætitia Sadier of Stereolab that also brings an astonishing animated video by Mickey Miles in tow.
Although completely his own species, the mystic sound of Bobby Would bears resemblance to the scuffed exterior of the infamous Les Rallizes Denudes mixed with the cold, fractured but ravishing melodies of bands like Women or Cindy Lee. His third LP Styx encompasses the “death-surf,” “psycho-beat,” “monotone jingle-jangle” that has made this mysterious project so alluring.
All photos by Jake Dapper
<a href="https://bonnydoon.bandcamp.com/album/let-there-be-music">Let There Be Music by bonny doon</a> <a href="https://danielromano.bandcamp.com/album/dandelion">Dandelion by Daniel Romano</a> <a href="https://thenudeparty.bandcamp.com/album/rides-on">Rides On by The Nude Party</a> <a href="https://enumclaw6.bandcamp.com/album/save-the-baby">Save the Baby by Enumclaw</a> <a href="https://freerange.bandcamp.com/album/practice">Practice by Free Range</a> <a href="https://curation-records.bandcamp.com/album/sean-thompsons-weird-ears-3">Sean Thompson's Weird Ears by Sean Thompson's Weird Ears</a> <a href="https://cactuslee.bandcamp.com/album/alpine-skier">Alpine Skier by Cactus Lee</a> <a href="https://peeldreammagazine.bandcamp.com/album/pad">Pad by Peel Dream Magazine</a> <a href="https://skywayman.bandcamp.com/album/nothing-no-1">Nothing No. 1 by Skyway Man & Andy Jenkins</a> <a href="https://wkdu.bandcamp.com/album/hotline-tnt-live-wkdu">Hotline TNT Live @ WKDU by Hotline TNT</a> <a href="https://goodlooksband.bandcamp.com/album/bummer-year">Bummer Year by Good Looks</a> <a href="https://sadurn.bandcamp.com/album/radiator">Radiator by Sadurn</a> <a href="https://ohsees.bandcamp.com/album/help">Help by Thee Oh Sees</a>
Artwork by Dan Wilson
This week:
Dougie Poole, Spencer Cullum, Mega Bog,
The Nude Party, Shannon Lay, Glyders, Fruit Bats,
Wednesday, Lael Neale & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPRthat links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
All photos by Lauren Hartmann
<a href="https://mapachesounds.bandcamp.com/album/roscoes-dream">Roscoe's Dream by Mapache</a>
Calvin LeCompte’s “911 Fifth Avenue” is a quick and mysterious mirage of inner-city crime drama bumper music that fades away into a blur of paranoiac guitars and emergency dispatch calls.
Feelin’ Fine was the 1972 record by American expat banjo player Derroll Adams who became one of Europe’s most adored old time singers staying abroad after touring the continent with Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. With guest appearances from Tucker Zimmerman and Wizz Jones, this LP has some of Adams’ finest recordings of traditional folk ballads using his clawhammer-style banjo playing and rugged vocals.
Eleki Bushi 1966-1974 is a new compilation of material by Japanese guitar hero Takeshi Terauchi from the sweet spot of his career when his explosive and critically acclaimed Eleki style Eastern surf rock instrumentals were at full power.
April Magazine, a group that features a consortium of underrated Bay Area performers from The Reds, Pinks & Purples, Flowertown, and Tony Jay, return with a new tape of beguiling, soft-focused sketches of ethereal slowcore on Wesley’s Convertible Tape For The South.
“Frenz,” a psychoactive instrumental carousal from Calgary producer Ryan Bourne’s sophomore record Plant City, gives a taste of the squiggly, garagey folk pop tinctures in store for the album experience.
A new compilation from Munster Records, It’s A Beautiful Day celebrates the sunshine pop, psych folk and soft rock scene that illuminated Lima, Peru in the early 70s and offers a fitting soundtrack for basking in vernal revelry.
A mainstay in the modern era of West Coast psychedelia, Triptides shimmy into a jazzier realm of the genre with “Thought Collector,” their second single from a new full-length, Starlight, descending into record stores in late April by way of the Curation Records mothership.
Artwork by Dan Wilson
This week:
John Andrews, Drugdealer, Sam Blasucci, Hether,
The Lemon Twigs, Juan Wauters, Hollow Hand,
Floating Action, Connie Cunningham and the Creeps & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
Artwork by Luca Schenardi
Hours of nautical dispatches from a capsized vessel bound for tropical bliss.
The essential Yoga Records have recovered another nearly vanished privately pressed treasure. Naked In The Park is the mysterious cassette release from the sultry 1980s synth pop duo Talvé that should’ve/could’ve/would’ve led to a successful pop charts career capitalized by artists like Pat Benatar and Blondie.
Hether has snuck in a brand new self-released and self-recorded album Covered In Hether reimagining twelve immortal tracks from the last decade of the American songbook touching Skeeter Davis, The Beatles, Burt Bacharach, Eden Ahbez, The Cranberries and a few jazz standards all warped through his slinky articulation.
Maybe Connie Cunningham was an unsung doo-wop vocalist from a distant era whose undersold records and dreams of success were laid to rest in the dusty attic of her Hudson Valley farmhouse waiting to be rediscovered by its new owner half a century later. Perhaps her persona and story is all just a fictional figment of the imagination of drummer/producer Nick Kinsey who does actually live in an old Hudson Valley farmhouse... Either way, “Going, Going Going, Gone” is a timeless and worn-in soul number with the luster of an obscure cratedigging diamond.
An upcoming compilation from a new label Muzikawi culls eleven exceptional instrumentals from the cassette tape archives of Ethiopian jazzer Dawit Yifru. Similar to the legendary Hailu Mergia but with more violin, Yifru’s warm and grainy recordings link the different musical styles that were emerging in 1970s Ethiopia.
Sam Blasucci, the resonator guitar wielding half of the folky darling duo Mapache, takes a step out individually with “Turn Yourself Around,” a soothing and soulful debut single from his new solo record Off My Stars that arrives this summer.
The D’Addario duo craft another captivating harmony-rich hit with “In My Head” that’s bred from their multigenerational scholarship of guitar rock and power pop and carried by their instrumental mastery and savvy songwriting chops.
Unlike the snubworthy Austin Butler, Jimmy “Orion” Ellis imitated Elvis to a shocking degree, so much so that the original cover of his goofball rockabilly record Reborn crudely depicted him rising from the coffin of the fallen King.
Resembling peak Nick Lowe or Elvis Costello spunk, the venerable Drugdealer reveals a new track, “Lip Service,” recorded a while back with an unsung songwriter friend Scott Archdale. Left on the cutting room floor for last year’s favorite Hiding In Plain Sight, this gem is a sturdy standalone for the hitmaking unit.
Floating Action is back with an early preview of some new material in “I Knew I Felt It,” a multi-vibed track from the forthcoming album Glacial Speed, a promising teaser for this summer’s hangin’ out soundtrack.
Artwork by Dan Wilson
This week:
Symphony Orchestra, Beach Fossils, The Nude Party, Rose City Band,
Eddie Chacon, Ryan Wong, Angel Olsen, Asher Gamedze,
Purr, Vanity Mirror, Bria & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
Whether you walk in the light or live in tempt of the Holy Spirit, you can let Ralph Stanley, The Louvin Brothers, Jim & Jesse, Ola Belle Reed and others cleanse your unrighteousness with some gospel bluegrass and Old Time on the Sabbath Day.
Ten years after it’s initial release, Sonny & The Sunsets’ countrified cult classic Longtime Companion is back in print on Rocks In Your Head Records, the label owned and operated by the band’s own Sonny Smith.
What better time than Norman Blake’s 84th birthday to revisit his foundational bluegrass record cut with the late flatpicking god Tony Rice, Blake & Rice. Originally released by Rounder Records in ‘87, this lick-filled masterpiece demonstrates two expert guitar practitioners uniting around a batch of century-old traditionals and prevailing modern-day originals.
H. Hawkline, the nom de plume of Cardiff songwriter Huw Evans, reaches deep inside the soul on his devastatingly surreal new record Milk For Flowers, produced by Cate Le Bon and featuring Tim Presley on guitar. This alliance of off-kilter geniuses court a myriad of stark soundscapes and visceral lyricism.
The instant classic from pianist/composer John Carroll Kirby, Tuscany, long out of print since it’s original 2019 release with Patience/Impatience, is back with a final repress. The two long tracks of improvised neoclassical arrangements stem from a solo songwriting sabbatical taken in Italy immersed in the northern coast’s awe-inspiring geography.
Monde UFO’s new track “Government Employee,” the second piece from their upcoming record Vandalized Statue to Be Replaced With Shrine, is an enchanting samba-shuffling leftfield exotica vision.
Melbourne’s Sunfruits lighten the peril of climate and societal disaster with “End of the World,” a high-spirited four-on-the-floor romp from their newly announced debut record One Degree out April 28th on Third Eye Stimuli and Earth Libraries.
Our favorite rock and roll brotherhood, The Nude Party, set free a hefty pair of singles from their new record Rides On that imparts an Upstate barn-burning thrill to the frisky, neon-lit “Cherry Red Boots” and Dr. John deep cut “Somebody Tryin’ To Hoodoo Me.”
After a dreadfully long silence, Milk Music reappear as Mystic 100’s with a new double album On A Micro Diet and the debut single “On A Micro Diet,” a 10-minute macrodose of outer edge psychedelia that burns to a crisp as it spirals out of the atmosphere.
All photos by Lachland Starling
<a href="https://drugdealerband.bandcamp.com/album/hiding-in-plain-sight">Hiding in Plain Sight by Drugdealer</a> <a href="https://texcrick.bandcamp.com/album/live-in-new-york-city">Live In... New York City by Tex Crick</a>
Artwork by Ty Williams
This week:
Bonny Doon, Lael Neale, Sessa, Dougie Poole,
Roxy Gordon, Cactus Lee, Masahiro Takahashi, William Tyler,
Joseph Terrell, Kate NV, Mystic 100’s & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
On what would have been the 100th birthday of flatpicking legend Arthel “Doc” Watson, we’re treated to news of a compilation celebrating the bluegrass and Old Time music icon. I Am A Pilgrim: Doc Watson at 100 features a multi-genre spread of Doc-loving musicians performing some of his most beloved tunes.
This Bandcamp Day, Cactus Lee dares you to drop $1,000 on his new digital double-sided cassingle “Alpine Skier” and “Shoot From The Hip,” arguably songwriter Kevin Dehan’s best dressed material yet with soaring pedal steel and an unwaveringly cool turn of mind. Thankfully, Hippie Scum is offering a tape of the tracks for the price of a pack of cigarettes.
At long last, Bonny Doon share the official news of their new record Let There Be Music, their deeply anticipated progression after two cult classic albums and a long-running post as the Waxahatchee backing band. The Detroit trio, and probably your favorite band’s favorite band, bring “Naturally” into focus with a suitable easygoing outlook on the situation at hand, a condition the band prospers in.
Over ten years in the making, Paradise of Bachelors announce the first ever reissue of Choctaw, Assiniboine, and Texan poet, journalist, artist, activist, and musician Roxy Gordon’s 1988 private-press record Crazy Horse Never Died. Celebrated by TVZ, Leonard Cohen, and Terry Allen, Gordon’s brutal outlaw artistry reflects on the complexities of American Indian life.
From Skull Valley Records, the new boutique reissue label prowling every dollar bin in the Four Corner states for abandoned folk pearls, is While In Exile by Arizona loner Terry Telson who recorded his one and only album in the cowboy and hippie-filled high mountains of Prescott in 1975. On it, the drifting troubadour shares gritty firsthand tales of wandering the 70s hippie communities of the southwest.
On Sluice’s new album Radial Gate, the Durham, North Carolina based folk guild sing a roughneck benediction for a natural world lost to industrialism, an intensifying human isolation, and a surprising sanguinity that counterbalances the doom.
Artwork by Ty Williams
This week:
Sylvie x Maston, Rahill, Sluice, Bernice,
Unknown Mortal Orchestra, The Nude Party, Cian Nugent,
Libby Rodenbough, Wednesday, Jeffrey Silverstein & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
All photos by Madelyn Matthews
<a href="https://weyesblood.bandcamp.com/album/and-in-the-darkness-hearts-aglow">And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow by Weyes Blood</a> <a href="https://cafemolly.bandcamp.com/album/mirage">Mirage by Molly Lewis</a>
Everywhere I Go is the stellar debut from Los Angeles duo Clear Thing that blends dubby frequencies, smoggy ambient sound-art simulations, and seasick exotica jammers.
Josephine, the mononymous “soul-glam” singer-songwriter whose Network includes a deep roster of Brooklynite players like producer whiz Adam Amram and pedal steel honcho Jon “Catfish” DeLorme, has cut a new record No One’s Rose that’s flush with gushy country-leaning ballads.
Max Kinghorn-Mills of Hollow Hand deals out “Jealous King,” the final single off his third record Your Own Adventure produced by the venerable Chris Cohen. With a sound that’s like catnip for the country-rock cratedigging type assisted by Spencer Cullum’s steeling, the Brighton artist sings a liberating ballad against tyranny and bigotry in one of the deeper moments of his catalog.
Artwork by James Madison Mitchell
This week:
The Lemon Twigs, Spencer Cullum’s Coin Collection, Lionmilk,
Sweet Dreams Nadine, Island of Love, Josephine Network,
King Tuff, Mega Bog, Isik Kural & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
Jerusalem provides an unexpected new batch of early 1970s home recordings by the 99-year-old visionary composer and pianist Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru whose work was celebrated with Mississippi Records’ first two volumes of angelical instrumentals.
“Head (Am I Out of My?)” is a new single from Grady Strange, a veteran in the practice of weirdo indie rocking. The hectic, multi-directional pop ditty uses sax, keys, and an agile drum beat to soundtrack the character, Johnny, on his mind-quest for the meaning of life.
The self-titled debut from the late singer-songwriter Steve Weichert, who described his sound as “Oklahoma Bossa Nova,” tosses soul, jazz, loner folk, and lounge tones into the hopper for a poetic, easy-going, and smoke-filled listen.
Island of Love, a group whose energetic debut show at Third Man Records’ Blue Basement venue in London persuaded the label to sign them on the spot, announce their first full-length record with the powerhouse rock institution. The first pair of tracks from the trio’s self-titled LP, “Grow” into “Blues 2000” is an alloy of high-volume early indie rock and ferocious cassette deck punk.
“Betwixt and Between” is the newest pagan folk number from Spencer Cullum and his communal Coin Collection coterie of kindred Nashville musicians who brings his project’s second volume to life on April 3rd. The tune evokes the ritualistic, old-stone spirit of the Wicker Man film score with autoharp swipes, woodwind flutters, and shared vocals with classic Coin member Erin Rae.
Spencer Cullum's Coin Collection 2 by Spencer Cullum's Coin Collection
On this annual celebration of romance, get Turned On!, the exceptional soundtrack of an unrenowned 1982 steamy, queer bathhouse porno rescued from obscurity by Dark Entries, a befitting operative for such a task. The two, thirty-minute kosmiche fantasies are the masterwork of “Forbidden Overture,” better known as the electro producer Man Parrish who worked with YMO, Klaus Nomi, and Kraftwerk.
Artwork by James Madison Mitchell
This week:
John Andrews, Dougie Poole, The Medium,
Dari Bay, Barrie, Yaya Bey, Sluice, Stella Kola,
Esther Rose, Uh Huh, Scott McMicken and the Ever-Expanding & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
The Medium, behind their tremendous 2022 record For Horses, lay down another pair of brilliant singles in “She’s Got It” and “Moon Rock,” showcasing their impressive Revolver-slash-Pet Sounds production and hit making wizardry.
In a new definitive box set, Segue To Infinity, the earliest recordings of the monk-like New Age pioneer Laraaji are presented courtesy of Numero Group. These deeply meditational works composed mostly on zither and autoharp reveal Laraaji’s late 70s catalog from just before his Brian Eno collaborations.
Artwork by Mickey Miles
For our Self-Portrait series, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
Southern-style fretboard virtuoso Sean Thompson picked and grinned his way through his tremendous Weird Ears debut out on the groovy West Coast country rock label Curation Records. The Nashville lifer has now gathered a heap of tunes that spans grassy acoustic rags, minty jazz numbers, and deep nugs of pickled psychedelia.
POSH SWAT combines an all-star percussionist trio of John Dwyer, Ryan Sawyer, and Andres Renteria who thwack away on a variety of acoustic and electronic surfaces for a weird and wobbly sound display that’s customary to this Castle Face conglomerate.
The unmistakable craftsman John Andrews greets the new year with “Checks In The Mail,” a full-ranging debut off his new record Love For The Underdog out April 28th on the kindred Woodsist label. The restless entertainer builds out his latest snug and low-key folk pop score with illustrious strings sections, clever and existential storytelling, and more clips of his fantastical stop-motion creatures.
Artwork by James Madison Mitchell
This week:
Rose City Band, Pearl & The Oysters, Lael Neale,
Sam Burton, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Jana Horn,
North Americans, Lady Apple Tree, Monde UFO & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
The primitive folk duo North Americans are back with “Classic Water” from their fifth LP called Long Cool World set for an April 7th release on Third Man Records. Guitarist Patrick McDermott and the pedal steeling Barry Walker create an ecocentric whirl of wild roaming drone patterns with a baseflow of peace-bringing creekside acoustic strums.
All photos by Madelyn Matthews
<a href="https://mjlenderman.bandcamp.com/album/boat-songs">Boat Songs by MJ Lenderman</a> <a href="https://florry.bandcamp.com/album/dlrdg-005-sweet-guitar-solos">DLRDG 005: Sweet Guitar Solos by Florry</a>
Stella Kola’s eponymous album debuting the underground guild of New England freakers from Sunburned Hand of the Man, Wet Tuna, Six Organs of Admittance, Weeping Bong Band, Tower Recordings, et al. observe the rituals of the British folk revival in as thrilling and unpredictable a manner that only this assembly could achieve.
All photos by Madelyn Mattews
<a href="https://sukiwaterhouse.bandcamp.com/album/milk-teeth">Milk Teeth by Suki Waterhouse</a>
Songwriter Eva Louise Goodman, member of the esteemed folk outfit Mutual Benefit, presents more of her own solo work as Nighttime with the triumphant Keeper Is The Heart, a mossy, outer worldly listen for the dead of winter that leans toward Vashti Bunyan, Incredible String Band, and Charlie Megira.
The privately pressed debut from Akron, Ohio hobbyists Wilbur Niles & Machelle McNeal titled Thrust, known to net upwards of $1,500 for a vinyl copy, will be rereleased by Toronto label We Are Busy Bodies. The scarce late 70s joint was recorded in the rear stock room of a car wash and involves DIY basement jazz, Moog synth driven space funk, and burning R&B instrumentals.
Rose City Band roll into their fourth record Garden Party with the humdinger intro track “Chasing Rainbows” that feeds the heads of the group’s grass-stained boogie-loving hive with high-spirited pedal steel and guitar trading twangy licks and float away into a slowly soaring b-part.
Japanese composer Masahiro Takahaski ushers in Humid Sun, his latest offering of serene, softly lit electro-acoustic pre-dawn orchestrations released with his local Toronto trust Telephone Explosion.
“Konami,” the newest single from Pearl & The Oysters flashes back to the read-only memories of 90s jet ski arcade gameplay with the duo’s hallmark jazzy city pop that flourishes among some stylish analog production effects by Neon Indian’s Alan Palomo.
Artwork by James Madison Mitchell
This week:
Tchotchke, King Tuff, Florry, Joe Westerlund,
Kate NV, De La Soul, King Gizzard, Sluice, Ulrika Spacek,
Weyes Blood, Reverse Death & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
In 1981, American Old-Time musician Jody Stecher and Indian classical folk instrumentalist Krishna Bhatt came together to record an album, Rasa, that bridged Appalachia to India. The unprecedented blend of Stecher’s grassy pickin’ with Krishna Bhatt’s virtuosic sitar and tabla ragas create an unthinkably unique world music experience.
On Reverse Death’s brainfeeder of a debut Stretching To Infinity, earth-toned acoustic drones, idyllic stream-of-consciousness spirals of electric guitar, and murmuring deep-space signals waft together into a sedative salve.
At just 18 years old, Hako Yamasaki’s 1975 release Tobimasu was heralded as a modern classic in Japan’s thriving folk rock trend that began a long and varied recording career for the melancholic singer-songwriter and feminist champion.
All photos by Connor Fields
<a href="https://angelolsen.bandcamp.com/album/big-time">Big Time by Angel Olsen</a>
The debut from the Tchotchke trio, a candy-coated orchestral power-pop album produced by The Lemon Twigs who impose their signature tape-recorded flair, gives a charming and catchy rendering of midcentury girl-group records.
This 1969 collaboration between Jamaica’s iconic ballroom keyboardist Uncle George “King of the Ivories” Moxey and a young version of the luminary ska and rocksteady guitarist Ernest Ranglin is an awesome combination of calypso jazz standards and groove-savvy swings.
George Moxey, Ernest Ranglin - Plays Music For Dancing by Dub Store Records
Gabriel da Rosa, brought up in rural Brazil, draws on his heritage and the musical nostalgia of bossa nova and samba records from João Gilberto, Gal Costa, and Caetano Veloso for a contemporary take on the work of these cultural icons on his Stones Throw debut É o que a casa oferece out in February.
Artwork by Mickey Miles
For our Self-Portrait series, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
With their ‘20 debut My Heart Is An Open Field and last year’s follow-up A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing, Tenci have proliferated their knotty bedroom folk into an exquisite and rarefied rank of abstract indie songcraft. The bandleader, Chicago’s Jess Shoman, unloads an hour’s worth of inspirational sounds ranging from the detectable work of Lucinda Williams, Low, and Arthur Russell to some more discreet touchstones from Aqua to Tierra Whack.
Artwork by Nature Face
This week:
Bonny Doon, Florry, Wednesday, Lionmilk
Mac Demarco, Hollow Hand, Bria, Nico Paulo,
Eddie Chacon, Bobbie Lovesong, Bobby Lee & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
All photos by Olivia Miller
<a href="https://angelolsen.bandcamp.com/album/big-time">Big Time by Angel Olsen</a>
Although they’re great with vocals, the new tape of instrumentals from Toro y Moi’s infallible Anything In Return record access a heavier, psychedelic trunk-rattling boom-bap that behaved differently under the control of Chaz Bear’s peace-giving vocals.
Cosmic practitioner Bobby Lee kicks out “Reds For A Blue Planet,” a desert-chooglin’ bruiser that’ll be on a new record coming this Spring through the Tompkins Square channels.
Originally released as a bonus 7-inch inside of the limited edition variant of his excellent Pad LP, Peel Dream Magazine digitally delivers his mini EP Magic Is Pocketed that carries you through four peacemaking sketches of reclined pop.
Philly’s vape-age country-rock unit Florry share the studio version of their twisted-up barnyard twang hit “Cowgirl In A Ditch” from their Dear Life Records debut out next week.
Lionmilk induces another curative serum of brain-wave-slowing keyboard frequencies with the new pair “shaneen” and “no question” previewed from his upcoming Intergalactic Warp Terminal 222 full-length on Leaving Records in March. Splurge on the super limited cassette run with handmade collage J-cards from Moki Kawaguchi himself.
Bonny Doon are sounding better than ever with “Crooked Creek,” a surprise single leaked on the eve of their winter tour through the Midwest. The Detroiters lock into a veteran groove not too out of reach from Bowie’s “Heroes” era…but better!
Whew! The newest dig-up from the perpetually inspiring Analog Africa label is an incredibly obscure 10,000 volt 80s Nigerian cosmic dancefloor funk treasure. For the first time since it’s original miniscule pressing, Lagosian producer Philosopher Okundaye’s project The Good Samaritans’ edo-funk masterpiece No Food Without Taste If By Hunger stamps two-thousand additional units into the world.
The Good Samaritans (Limited Dance Edition No. 20) by Analog Africa
Artwork by Nature Face
This week:
Yukihiro Takahashi, Dougie Poole, Kate Bollinger,
Glyders, Tenci, Purling Hiss, King Tuff,
The Nude Party, Lonnie Holley, Purr & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
Ahead of a brief run of dates through the Pacific Northwest with Jeffrey Silverstein, Credit Electric share “archetype,” an unused track from 2022’s standout recordout of love in the face of a shadow by the project’s recording, producing, and songwriting soloist Ryan LoPilato.
Artwork by Mickey Miles
In our new series, Self-Portrait, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
Kyle Thomas, better known as King Tuff, has self-propelled his career to the heights of the garage rock boom and endured as a household name through his magical touch as an engineer, producer, and shapeshifting songwriter. His latest record, Smalltown Stardust out this month on Sub Pop, centers focus on the allure of nature, youthfulness, and love and their role in his artwork and spirituality. Thomas bestows a wide-ranging suite of symbolic songs for his creative inclinations. Sparkly radio hits like “Manic Monday” meld into short-fused punk staples and glamourous T. Rex and Bowie ballads settle into astral phantasies with Alice Coltrane and Terry Riley.
The limber and low-fidelity improvisations on Discount Heaven House Band’s new cassette released by the deeply-embedded Goaty Tapes label is a halfway-conscious new age jam session where dust-covered analog rhythms backline a dream-inducing melodica and pillowy bass balm.
The new Mainstream Disco Funk comp showcases choice cuts from legendary record producer Bob Shad’s label that helped tool New York City’s mid-70s disco nightlife revolution.
Quickly and fiercely, The Drin bring their heathenish motorik-paced, straggly-rhythmed havoc to the head of the Midwestern punk frontlines. The Cincinnati group’s third album Today My Friend You Drunk The Venom is every bit as eruptive and toxifying as the cover artwork suggests.
All photos by Dave Scholten
<a href="https://realestate.bandcamp.com/album/days">Days by Real Estate</a> <a href="https://cutworms.bandcamp.com/album/nobody-lives-here-anymore">Nobody Lives Here Anymore by Cut Worms</a>
Artwork by Nature Face
This week:
The Lemon Twigs, Florry, Robert Earl Thomas,
The Drin, Rozi Plain, Ging, Nighttime,
Holiday Ghosts, Spang Sisters & more
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
The Lostines & Nick Shoulders, two kindred souls of a swampy modern Americana sphere evolving in New Orleans and the Ozark hills, unite for a split EP Heart of Night showcasing two cuts from each camp including a waltzing and yodeling Blondie cover.
Heart of Night by The Lostines and Nick Shoulders & the Okay Crawdad
At age 72, Cordell Jackson shared her signature ballgown-dressed boogie-woogie blues at Chicago’s Schuba’s nightclub in November of 1997 captured on the Live In Chicago album. The Memphis born and raised rockabilly pioneer was a one of a kind American icon who owned and operated her own recording studio and record label in the 50s and continued to make music until her passing at 81 in 2004.
Nope. That’s not Lou Reed. It’s Chico Lessa on the cover of a reproduction of his 1982 private-press album that combined the modernizing sounds of jazz-funk with salty-aired post-Tropicalia aromas.
The Brooklyn label Names You Can Trust unveil the second release from a trove of rare Panamanian souldies 45s being revived through their Panama Gold series. This time we’re treated to the raw funk of The Jungle Rat USA’s 1971 uplifting anthem “Just Love One Another.”
With a jump to Captured Tracks, The Lemon Twigs are back with “Corner Of My Eye,” wielding harpsichord, vibraphone, and mandolin for a Van Dyke Parks-sounding studio recording of a song long part of their live repertoire.
Artwork by Nature Face
This week:
The Kimba Unit, Chet Sounds, Patrick Andy,
Anne Malin, Daniel Villarreal, Lou & Co.,
Krano, Spice World, Zacht Automaat & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
Happy New Year from New Commute and Friends.
Animation by Mickey Miles
Music by Ben Varian
3D Modeling by Jake Welch
Living In Mount Zion presents a posthumous collection of mid-70s dubwise selections from Patrick Andy’s catalog produced by Yabby You that, until now, were only available on their original mono 7-inch slabs.
Recorded live at a Spahn Ranch looking remote locale, Ryan Pollie and his jam-capable sextet run through four favorites from his 2021 record Stars that gives some roadshow energy to his newer hits that haven’t made it out for a proper tour…yet.
Artwork by Great Indoors
This week:
The Uplifting Bell Ends, Charles Stepney, The Holydrug Couple,
Smirk, BCNC, Leland Whitty, Brower, Shirley Hurt,
Sean Nicholas Savage, Robert Lester Folsom & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
From songs about Santa shaving his beard and going on strike to a tearful father falling off the wagon on the holiest day of the year, Numero Group’s quintessential comfortless Christmas collection Christmas Dreamers: Yuletime Country spends the holiday with the sorriest saps that ever crossed the Wisconsin AM airwaves.
Christmas Dreamers: Yuletide Country (1960-1972) by Various Artists
At an upright piano surrounded by a small orchestra, Sven Wunder directs two odes to wintertime nights with the slowly swinging “Jazz At Night” that drops gently into the celestial “Stars Align.”
Artwork by Great Indoors
This week:
Eggy, Sven Wunder, Caution, Grapetooth
Weyes Blood, Bobbie Lovesong, Non Plus Temps,
Morabeza Tobacoo, Charif Megarbane & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
Artwork by Mickey Miles
In our new series, Self-Portrait, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
Earlier this year, modern crooner Marlon Williams emerged with his most suave performance yet with My Boy, his latest full length record out now on Dead Oceans that channels New Romantic bombast and seductive boutique folk songcraft simultaneously. The New Zealander characterizes his endearing sound with songs from Martin Gore, Ralph Stanley, Weyes Blood, Björk and more.
“Early Morning Rising,” the newest cut from Kassi Valazza works in as much roadhouse twang as it does elaborately detailed rural hippie balladry artfully employing elements of her Southwest upbringing and current Oregonian nest.
Born At Midnite is the “product-placement-punk” duo of Montreal visual artist Amery Sandford and TOPS’ David Carriere who channel the early and innovative sounds of Wham!, Heaven 17, or The Human League through high-spirited tape machine grooves.
Artwork by Great Indoors
This week:
MJ Lenderman, Wet Satin, Alex Izenberg,
Kate NV, Rubber Band Gun, H. Hawkline, Drugdealer,
Tigris, Devon Russell, Khotin & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
Artwork by James Madison Mitchell
Here are the records that caught and held our attention throughout the year. The list is unranked, but limited to one hundred-ish releases. With hundreds of albums that passed through the New Commute headphones, it was not easy to narrow this down.
We’re thankful for all of the time and attention anybody has given the blog this year. Cheersing a cold seltzer to all of you.
Enjoy the selections on Spotify / Apple Music but it’s better to support your local record store.
A.R. Wilson- Old Gold[Patience/Impatience]Old Gold by A.R. WilsonAlabaster DePlume- GOLD[International Anthem]GOLD by Alabaster DePlumeAlex G- God Save The Animals[Domino]God Save The Animals by Alex GAlex Izenberg- I’m Not Here[Weird World]I'm Not Here by Alex IzenbergAlien Nosejob- Stained Glass[Anti Fade Records]Stained Glass by Alien NosejobAlmond Joy- Oh Henry![Perrenialdeath]Oh Henry! by Almond JoyAngel Olsen- Big Time[Jagjaguwar]Big Time by Angel OlsenBadge Époque Ensemble- Clouds Of Joy[Telephone Explosion Records]Clouds Of Joy by Badge Époque EnsembleBibio- BIB10[Warp]BIB10 by BibioBig Thief- Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You[4AD]Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You by Big ThiefBobbie Lovesong- Paris By Starlight[self-released]Paris by Starlight by Bobbie LovesongBorn At Midnite- Alternity[Arbutus Records]Alternity by Born At MidniteCactus Lee- Perfect Middle Hall[Hippie Scum/Mapache Records]Perfect Middle Hall by Cactus LeeCate Le Bon- Pompeii[Mexican Summer]Pompeii by Cate Le BonCentre El Muusa- Purple Stones[Sulatron Records]Purple Stones by Centre El MuusaCole Pulice- Scry[Moon Glyph]Scry by Cole PuliceColor Green- S/T[Org Music]Color Green by Color GreenCredit Electric- Out Of Love In The Face Of A Shadow[Royal Oakie]out of love in the face of a shadow by Credit ElectricDaniel Romano’s Outfit- La Luna[You’ve Changed Records]La Luna by Daniel RomanoDavid Michael Moore- Flatboat River Witch: 1994-2015[ULYSSA]Flatboat River Witch: 1994 - 2015 by David Michael MooreDavid Nance- Pulverized And Slightly Peaced[Pretty Bunco]Pulverized And Slightly Peaced by David NanceDear Nora- human futures[Orindal Records]human futures by Dear NoraDimples’- Soul Chateau[Laughable Recordings]Soul Chateau by Dimples'Discount Heaven House Band- S/T[Goaty Tapes]Discount Heaven House Band by Discount Heaven House BandDivino Niño- Last Spa on Earth[Winspear]Last Spa on Earth by Divino NiñoDroopy Eye- Embruja[Leaving Records]Embruja by droopy eyeDrugdealer- Hiding In Plain Sight[Mexican Summer]Hiding in Plain Sight by DrugdealerEli Winter- S/T[Three Lobed Recordings]Eli Winter by Eli WinterErin Rae- Lighten Up[Thirty Tigers]Lighten Up by Erin RaeFlanger Magazine- After The Bend[Students of Decay]After the Bend by Flanger MagazineFonteyn- Trip The Light Fantastic[Born Losers Records]Trip The Light Fantastic by FonteynHaziz- Supertiger[Day End Records]Supertiger by HazizHealing Potpourri- Paradise[Run For Cover]Paradise by Healing PotpourriHether- Play It Pretty[Ear Slime]play it pretty by HetherHieronymus Harry- The River of Doom[self-released]The River of Doom by Hieronymus HarryHoney Harper- Honey Harper & The Infinite Sky[ATO Records]Honey Harper & The Infinite Sky by Honey HarperJack J- Opening The Door[Mood Hut]Opening the Door by Jack JJairus Sharif- Water & Tools{Telephone Explosion]Water & Tools by Jairus SharifJake Xerxes Fussell- Good And Green Again[Paradise of Bachelors]Good and Green Again by Jake Xerxes FussellJohn Carroll Kirby- Dance Ancestral[Stones Throw]Dance Ancestral by John Carroll KirbyJohn Moods- The Great Design[Mansions And Millions]The Great Design by John MoodsJonny Kosmo- Light Speaks The Quilt[Slimehouse]Light Speaks the Quilt by Jonny KosmoJulianna Riolino- All Blue[You’ve Changed Records]All Blue by Julianna RiolinoJune McDoom- S/T[Temporary Residence, Ltd.]June McDoom by June McDoomKate Bollinger- Look At It In The Light[Ghostly International]Look at it in the Light by Kate BollingerKevin Morby- This Is A Photograph[Dead Oceans]This Is A Photograph by Kevin MorbyKikagaku Moyo- Kumoyo Island[Guruguru Brain]Kumoyo Island by Kikagaku Moyo/幾何学模様Kolumbo- Gung Ho[Calico Discos]Gung Ho by KolumboLee Baggett- Anyway[Perpetual Doom]Anyway by Lee BaggettLeland Whitty- Anyhow[Innovative Leisure]Anyhow by Leland WhittyLes Halles- Eight Fantasies[self-released]Eight Fantasies by Les HallesLou & Co.- The Dynamite Man[Mock Records]The Dynamite Man by Lou & Co.Luzius Schuler- Penta Fest[self-released]Penta Fest by Luzius SchulerMakaya McCraven- In These Times[International Anthem]In These Times by Makaya McCravenMapache- Roscoe’s Dream[Innovative Leisure]Roscoe's Dream by MapacheMarina Allen- Centrifics[Fire Records]Centrifics by Marina AllenMartin Courtney- Magic Sign[Domino]Magic Sign by Martin CourtneyMichael Rault- S/T[Wick RecordsMichael Rault by Michael RaultMisha Panfilov- The Sea Will Outlive Us All[Miraaž Records]The Sea Will Outlive Us All by Misha PanfilovMisha Sultan- Roots[Hive Mind Records]Roots by Misha SultanMJ Lenderman- Boat Songs[Dear Life Records]Boat Songs by MJ LendermanModal Melodies- S/T[Anti Fade Records]Modal Melodies by Modal MelodiesMolly Lewis- Mirage[Jagjaguwar]Mirage by Molly LewisMonster Rally- Botanica Dream[Gold Robot]Botanica Dream by Monster RallyNico Georis- A Rainbow In Curved Air[Spiritual Pajamas]A Rainbow In Curved Air by Nico GeorisNightlands- Moonshine[Western Vinyl]Moonshine by NightlandsNorth Americans- Lost Tracks[Third Man Records]Lost Tracks by North AmericansOog Bogo- Plastic{Drag City]Plastic by Oog bogoPaul Chery- Back On The Music![Sunset Music]Back On The Music! by Paul CherryPeel Dream Magazine- Pad[Slumberland Records]Pad by Peel Dream MagazineRich Ruth- I Survived, It’s Over[Third Man Records]I Survived, It's Over by Rich RuthSay She She- Prism[Colemine Records]Prism by Say She SheSean Thompson’s Weird Ears- S/T[Curation Records]Sean Thompson's Weird Ears by Sean Thompson's Weird EarsSessa- Estrela Acesa[Mexican Summer]Estrela Acesa by SessaShabason & Krgovich- At Scaramouche[idée fixe records]At Scaramouche by Shabason & KrgovichShirley Hurt- S/T[Telephone Explosion]Shirley Hurt by Shirley HurtSnooper- Town Topic[Electric Outlet]Town Topic by SnooperSofie Royer- Harlequin[Stones Throw]Harlequin by Sofie RoyerSOYUZ- Force of the Wind[Mr Bongo]Force of the Wind (Сила ветра) by СОЮЗ / SOYUZStephen Bailey- G.G. Ryder[Third Eye Stimuli]G.G. Ryder by Stephen BaileySurprise Chef- Education & Recreation[Big Crown Records]Education & Recreation by Surprise ChefSylvie- S/T[Full Time Hobby]Sylvie (2022) by SylvieThe A’s- Fruit[Psychic Hotline]Fruit by The A'sThe Living Sky- Enter The Sky[Home & Garden]Enter the Sky by The Living SkyThe Medium- For Horses[yk Records]For Horses by The MediumThe Smoky Dunes- S/T EP[self-released]The Smoky Dunes EP by The Smoky DunesThe Uplifting Bell Ends- Super Giant IV[Third Eye Stimuli]Super Giant IV by The Uplifting Bell EndsThe Zenmenn & John Moods- Hidden Gem[Music From Memory]Hidden Gem by The Zenmenn & John MoodsThey Hate Change- Finally, New[Jagjaguwar]Finally, New by They Hate ChangeTim Bernardes- Mil Coisas Invisíveis[Psychic Hotline]Mil Coisas Invisíveis by Tim BernardesTime Wharp- Spiro World[Leaving Records]Spiro World by Time WharpTomberlin- i don’t know who needs to hear this…[Saddle Creek]i don’t know who needs to hear this... by TomberlinTony Price- Mark VI[Telephone Explosion]Mark VI by Tony Price Toro y Moi- MAHAL[Dead Oceans]MAHAL by Toro y MoiTwain- Noon[Keeled Scales]Noon by twainVicky Farewell- Sweet Company[Mac’s Record Label]Sweet Company by Vicky FarewellWednesday- Mowing The Leaves Instead of Piling ‘Em Up[Orindal Records]Mowing the Leaves Instead of Piling 'em Up by WednesdayWeyes Blood- And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow[Sub Pop]And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow by Weyes BloodWidowspeak- The Jacket[Captured Tracks]The Jacket by WIDOWSPEAKWilma Vritra- Grotto[Bad Taste]Grotto by Wilma VritraWorkhorse- No Photographs[Dinosaur City Records]No Photographs by WorkhorseYoung Guv- GUV III & IV[Run For Cover]GUV III & IV by Young Guv
Artwork by James Madison Mitchell
In tradition, we’ve collected a list of compilation and reissue titles that kept and held our attention throughout 2022. Each record featured here is made possible by tireless work from independent labels who invest time, money, and manpower to thoughtfully and artfully assembling these wonderful, rare, and enriching recordings. These records commemorate momentary microcultures, bizarre historic personalities, overlooked hobbyists, and out-of-print treasures from some of today’s most beloved musical cult icons.
Enjoy the selections on Spotify / Apple Music but it’s better to support your local record store.
Alan Dunham- Learning To Fly[Numero Group]Learning To Fly by Alan DunhamAmerica Dream Reserve[Smiling C]America Dream Reserve by Compiled by Charles Bals & Henry JonesAsha Puthli- The Essential Asha Puthli[Mr Bongo]The Essential Asha Puthli by Asha PuthliBoogie- In Freak Town[Guerssen Records]In Freak Town by BoogieBorga Revolution! Ghanaian Dance Music In The Digital Age, 1983-1992[Kalita]Borga Revolution! Ghanaian Dance Music In The Digital Age, 1983-1992 (Volume 1) by Various ArtistsBranko Mataja- Over Fields And Mountains[Numero Group]Over Fields And Mountains by Branko MatajaBrief Encounter- Singles[Athens of the North]Brief Encounter Singles by Brief EncounterCarl Erdmann- Bizzarophytes[Morning Trip]Bizzarrophytes by Carl ErdmannCharles Stepney- Step On Step[International Anthem]Step on Step by Charles StepneyChrome Universal - A Survey of Modern Pedal Steel[Tompkins Square]Luke Schneider Presents Imaginational Anthem vol. XI : Chrome Universal - A Survey of Modern Pedal Steel by Various ArtistsDenny Zeitlin- The Name of This Terrain[Now-Again]The Name Of This Terrain by Denny Zeitlin with George Marsh & Mel GravesEarl’s Closet: The Lost Archive of Earl McGrath, 1970-1980[Light In The Attic]Earl’s Closet: The Lost Archive of Earl McGrath, 1970-1980 by V/A - Earl's ClosetEmahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru- S/T[Mississippi Records]Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru by Emahoy Tsege Mariam GebruErnest Hood- Back To The Woodlands[Freedom To Spend]Back to the Woodlands by Ernest HoodFitz Gore- Soundmusication[Sonorama Records]Soundmusication by Fitz GoreFolk Funk & Trippy Troubadours[Warm]Folk Funk & Trippy Troubadours Volume One by Paul HilleryFusion Global Sounds (1970-1983)[Favorite Recordings]Fusion Global Sounds (1970-1983) by VariousGhia- Curaçao Blue[The Outer Edge]Curaçao Blue by GhiaGiancarlo Barigozzi- Il Flautissimo[Four Flies Vaults]Il Flautissimo by Giancarlo BarigozziHamid El Shaeri- The SLAM! Years (1983-1988)[Habibi Funk]Habibi Funk 018: The SLAM! Years (1983 - 1988) by Hamid El ShaeriHazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard- Won’t You Come and Sing For Me[Smithsonian Folkways]Won't You Come and Sing For Me? by Hazel Dickens and Alice GerrardJacques Charlier- Art In Another Way[Musique Plastique]Art In Another Way by Jacques CharlierJames Newton- Flute Music[Morning Trip]Flute Music by James NewtonJazzberry Patch- S/T[Jazz Room Records]Jazzberry Patch by Jazzberry PatchJeff Phelps- Magnetic Eyes[Numero Group]Magnetic Eyes by Jeff PhelpsJon Iverson- Many Worlds Interpretation[Séance Centre]Many Worlds Interpretation by Jon IversonKaren Dalton- Shuckin’ Sugar[Delmore Recording Society]Shuckin' Sugar by Karen DaltonLee Tracy- Is It What You Want[Athens of the North]Is It What You Want by Lee Tracy & Isaac ManningLes Rallizes Dénudés- The OZ Tapes[Temporal Drift]The OZ Tapes by Les Rallizes DénudésLinks & Friends- More Rock Steady[Rocka Shacka]Links & Friends - More Rock Steady by VariousLou Reed- Words & Music, May 1965[Light In The Attic]Words & Music, May 1965 by Lou ReedMad Anthony- The Lost Tapes[Earth Libraries]The Lost Tapes by Mad AnthonyMatadi- Dance My Love[Le Freak/Zamal Funk]Matadi - Dance My Love (1978) by La Freak Records x ZamalFunkMensah- Elusive Fantasy[Paradise Is A Frequency]Elusive Fantasy by MensahMountain Brews- S/T[Perpetual Doom]Mountain Brews by Mountain BrewsNorma Tanega- I’m The Sky: Studio and Demo Recordings, 1964–1971[Anthology Recordings]I’m the Sky: Studio and Demo Recordings, 1964–1971 by Norma TanegaPatrick Cowley- Malebox[Dark Entries]Malebox by Patrick CowleyPoliphony- S/T[Mad About Records]Poliphony – "Poliphony" by MAD ABOUT RECORDSPaolo Ormi E La Sua Orchestra- P.O.X. Sound[Sonor Music Editions]P.O.X. SOUND by Paolo Ormi E La Sua OrchestraRisco Connection- Risco Version[Strut]Risco Version by Risco ConnectionRobert Lester Folsom- Sunshine Only Sometimes Archives Vol. 2, 1972–1975[Anthology Recordings]Sunshine Only Sometimes Archives Vol. 2, 1972–1975 by Robert Lester FolsomSaigon Supersound Vol. 3[Saigon Supersound]Saigon Supersound Vol. 3 by Saigon Supersound CompilationsSandy Denny- Early Home Recordings[Earth Recordings]Early Home Recordings by Sandy DennySilberland- Kosmische Musik Vol 1 (1972-1986)[Bureau B]Silberland - Kosmische Musik Vol 1 (1972-1986) by Bureau BSjunne Ferger- Mindgames[Strangelove]Mindgames by Sjunne FergerSky Dust Drifter[Forager Records]Sky Dust Drifter by Forager RecordsTerry Allen- Smokin The Dummy[Paradise of Bachelors]Smokin the Dummy by Terry Allen and the Panhandle Mystery BandThe Drive- Drive Unlimited[We Are Busy Bodies]Drive Unlimited by The DriveThe Movers Vol.1 - 1970-1976[Analog Africa]The Movers Vol.1 - 1970-1976 (Analog Africa Nr. 35) by The MoversThe Pyramids- King of Kings[Strut]King of Kings by The PyramidsThe Staples Jr. Singers- When Do We Get Paid[Luaka Bop]When Do We Get Paid by Staples Jr. SingersTonstartssbandht- Hymn[Fire Talk]Hymn by TonstartssbandhtTwin Cosmos- Double Action[Left Ear Records]Double Action by Twin CosmosUniversal Liberation Orchestra- Communion[Freedom To Spend]Communion by Universal Liberation OrchestraViento Sur[Vampisoul]Viento Sur by Various ArtistsWayne Powell Octet- Plays Hallucination[Tramp Records]Plays Hallucination by Wayne Powell OctetWe Are The Children Of The Sun[BBE]We Are The Children Of The Sun compiled by Paul Hillery by BBEYasuhiro Kohno Trio- Song of Island[BBE]Song of Island by Yasuhiro Kohno Trio + One
Motionman is the new surprise album by the ceaseless creator Rubber Band Gun recorded in his Historic New Jersey hit-making factory calibrated for wooly cassette-tape specialties.
Artwork by Mickey Miles
In our new series, Self-Portrait, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
Last year, the masses were introduced to Tex Crick’s lovable piano-based songwriting candor through his debut album Live In…New York City, the inaugural release on Mac Demarco’s Mac’s Record Label. Crick offers up his Self-Portrait with a thorough mixture of jazz, Randy Newman, and velvety soft rock.
Arbor Labor Union churn out another round of homegrown wierdo Southern jams with Yonder, the Atlanta quartet’s newly announced record of twisty “transcendental twang.”
Amidst the continuous celebrations of his tremendous Boat Songs release, MJ Lenderman and his sponsors at Dear Life Records present the first vinyl edition of MJ’s 2021 album Ghost of Your Guitar Solo that kicks off with a sizzling Crazy Horse meets Sparklehorse title track.
On UTRY, Tel Avivian five-piece Tigris cull the tightest grooves from their previous three records of East African tezeta jazz and Senegalese percussion that align with the hypnotic sounds of Hailu Mergia and Mulatu Astatke.
Artwork by Great Indoors
This week:
Jon Iverson, Healing Potpourri x Peel Dream Magazine, Mei Ehara,
Ben Varian, Erin Rae, Shirley Hurt, Cots,
Bardo Pond, Glyders, King Tuff & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPRthat links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
The global hub for toejazz and other private-press micro-genre horseplay, ULYSSA stamps a fifteen year retrospective of Charlotte townies BCNC known for their “Sunburned Hand of Dave Matthews” style free-rock that welcome their first release since their lone Live In Miami 1984 record (available on Discogs for $3.49).
The Triangle trio of Skylar Gudasz, Kate Rhudy, and Libby Rodenbough who teamed up earlier this year for a traveling songwriter-in-the-round and live advice column (with no refunds for bad advice) unite again with “Supposed To Make You Happy,” a Tift Merritt cover that’ll send all December profits to the Carolina Abortion Fund.
Supposed To Make You Happy by Skylar Gudasz, Kate Rhudy, Libby Rodenbough
The original Color Green release, a smoked-out self-titled EP issued as a small Maximum Exposure, Inc tape run comes to vinyl via Org Music and the blogfather Aquarium Drunkard who helped bring the band’s first full length record to the masses earlier this year.
Letters to My Robot Son is a post-apocalyptic concept album by Brooklyn ambient musician Corntuth that imagines an inventor father leaving behind a data tape for his robotic son that’s designed to program him to feel through these ethereal magnetic-tape sequences.
Credit: Pear Juice Productions
With “Up On The Wind,” Sylvie previews the next measure of rural California folk expected sometime in 2023 shepherded by a beautiful short film by Pear Juice Productions. In the meantime, their expanded debut record is now available on vinyl from Full Time Hobby.
Dark Entries exhume more unreleased studly hi-NRG disco-funk from the archives of Patrick Cowley on Malebox, a surprise release of six spacey grooves recorded between 1979 and 1981.
From his beginnings as Weird Al Yankovic’s college roommate and early career collaborator in the late 70s, Jon Iverson’s intentions were on “serious” music inspired by Vangelis and Tangerine Dream. By the middle of the 80s, Iverson had his own home-studio in Los Osos, California hand-painted with psychedelic flora where his special style of electronic cosmic Americana took shape. Moogs and other synthesizer hardware weave through airy acoustic guitar ragas and heady percussion elements for a truly otherworldly listen. Trusty keepers of outsider music Séance Centre present Jon Iverson’s archival Many Worlds Interpretations compiling a batch of his best reels together for the first time.
On The Wind, a do-it-yourself musical feat completed by the multi-talented Bobbie Lovesong, was recorded inside of an abandoned Earthship in Taos, New Mexico and mixed and produced independently during the city’s pandemic lockdown. A homebrew of warped jazz standards, extraterrestrial freak folk, and fermented funk, Lovesong’s debut fits perfectly on the Woodsist shelf.
Artwork by Andre Poise
This week:
Bobbie Lovesong, Hollow Hand, June McDoom,
Martin Frawley, Thee Sacred Souls, Stephen Bailey,
Born At Midnite, Kit Sebastian & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
Artwork by James Madison Mitchell
We asked some of our favorite graphic artists friends who work within the music ecosystem to share their favorite music from the year through their own creative languages. We appreciate these artists and all others that use their talents to enhance the music universe’s visual component. Everyone below is a master of their craft. Reach out for collaborations and commissions to have their artistic sorcery improve whatever type of project you’re developing.
Aerial Ballet
Andrew McGranahan
Bailey Elder
Brandon McMahon
Caio Wheelhouse
Crimson Honey Cake
Dan Wilson
Favorite Vegetable
Great Indoors
Hannah Pahl
James Madison Mitchell
Looks Discount
Luca Schenardi
Madelyn Stefanak
Maple Fortress
Mark Neeley
Mickey Miles
Miles Wintner
RUG
Sight Study
Swamp Goods
Tender Wizard
Tragic: The Saddening
TW Rushing
Ty Williams
Wolf Bomb
Wyatt Grant
Zone Catalog
Artwork by Andre Poise
This week:
Weyes Blood, H. Hawkline, Bria, MJ Lenderman,
Ernest Hood, Liv.e, Say She She, Dari Bay,
DIIV, Les Halles, Stephen Bailey & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
The sultry and techni-fusion pop sounds of Berlin based instrumental unit The Zenmenn mobilize the delicate vocalist John Moods to front their latest joint effort Hidden Gem out now with the indefatigable Dutch label Music From Memory.
Hieronymous Harry’s debut record The River of Doom follows into the spellbinding, grey mist of Incredible String Band, Pentagle, and others from the pantheon of British psychedelic folk.
The Great Daddy of Etsako, The Oyoyo King, The Great Father of the House; all names for Nigerian highlife star Alhaji Waziri Oshomah whose work was released by Luaka Bop in the third wave of their World Spirituality Classic series following 2017’s The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda and 2019’s The Time For Peace Is Now. Now, the complete, five-album Volume series by Waziri Oshomah and His Traditional Sound Makers is coming to back to vinyl celebrating his output between 1978 and 1984.
All photos by Lauren Hartmann
On November 14, Lodge Room hosted Kitchen Sink Festival bringing artists together to shed light on food insecurity in Los Angeles and to promote the efforts of Hollywood Food Coalition, a legacy nonprofit that has served a meal to anyone in need in Hollywood, every night of the year, for 35 years, striving to provide and promote food access across Southern California. Missed the show? You can support their mission with a donation right here.
Refuge by Devendra Banhart, Noah Georgeson
Fun House: Blueprints by Hand Habits
Artwork by Mickey Miles
In our new series, Self-Portrait, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
Western Australian songwriter Stella Donnelly queues up a list of defining tracks that shaped the two great records in her canon including 2022’s jaunty and emotionally complex Flood. Jenny Hval, Broadcast, Orange Juice, Vashti Bunyan, and Alex G are just a few of the creative spirit guides at work.
Artwork by Andre Poise
This week:
Shirley Hurt, Porches, Robert Lester Folsom, John Fizer,
David Nance, Hieronymus Harry, Sunfruits,
Tonstartssbandht, Patrick Cowley, The Zenmenn & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
The beautiful cacophony of Chris Olsen’s Human! Sound! —> & or the record i could never finish (even if i wanted to) orchestrates the sounds of a misfiring laptop spewing out Arthur Russell and “ooga chaka” mp3 snippets at random and Animal Collective-literate vibe sculpting into an unbelievable and unforgettable goop.
Town Topic, the new one from Nashville’s Snooper clocks an eight-minute long whirlwind of Devo-licious art-punk and brain-draining speed-pop from a band that really has to be seen live to believe with their gigantic homemade stage props and maniacal concert performances.
Twin Cosmos is the epic concept album released by Japanese fraternal twins Morihito & Yasuhito Ito in 1982 that divided each brother’s oppositional songcraft evenly on each side of the LP. On Side A, Morihito directs a Brian Wilson-gone-New-Age psychedelic quest. For the flip side, Yasuhito spills into the darker subterranean zones of Lou Reed or John Cage.
Fred E. Scott’s incredibly rare 1978 “afro-synth” release Journey Within has been repressed for the first time by Detroit’s Two Rooms Records bringing the fried-out bass/percussion raga back from the void.
All photos by Angela Betancourt
Frequent New Commute contributing photographer, Austin, Texas’ own, Angela Betancourt chatted with master guitarist and composer Marisa Anderson at Empire Control Room before her Levitation Festival set in support of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Anderson is a immensely talented artist with a body of work that includes seven albums of stirring solo electric folk instrumentalism as well as collaborations with Lee Ranaldo, Meg Baird, Steve Gunn, William Tyler, Mary Lattimore and others.
In addition to your own records, you’ve had some high profile collaborations with Tara Jane O’Neil, William Tyler and Jim White. Can you talk a bit about how these came about?
Those are all people that I've toured with and I've been friends with. Most collaborations for me come out of a personal relationship with the person I'm working with. It's almost never like a cold call, but usually built out of a friendship or spending time on the road together. Except with William, we had never played together but we knew each other's work well enough to know it would work.
Do you have a dream collaboration?
Oh I don't know! I'm pretty wide open. I don't think I have anyone in particular in mind you know? It's when the moment is right and the person is right.
You have a guitar sound and style that’s instantly identifiable yet there’s a lot of emotional range and color in those recordings. Beyond entertainment, what would you like the listener to get out of it?
When I'm making music, I'm not really thinking about the listener. I'm making it just because it feels right to make it, but the act of releasing it into a marketplace involves an implied relationship with the audience and I think I would hope to make music that people want to be accompanied by in special moments in their lives.
You’re a DIY musician touring in the era of COVID so let’s get to the obvious question. What’s the best place to eat on the road?
I'm a real grocery store eater. I just usually go to the closest health food store and hit the deli and then take it somewhere with me!. I'm not much of a restaurant eater.
Do you have any advice for younger or aspiring guitarists trying to find their own voice?
About people finding their own voice, I'd say, just play! Don't try too hard, just play.
We took a few photos in the small green room area. Though Marisa claimed, "I usually never smile in photos", she graced me with some laughs thanks to someone making a funny remark.
Artwork by Mickey Miles
In our new series, Self-Portrait, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
The homestyle and off-center folk songwriting of Robert Lester Folsom found a pathway into the new millennia with Anthology Recordings who have resurrected the Georgia-born artist’s back catalog through a series of magnificent reissues. Ahead of the latest distribution Sunshine Only Sometimes, focusing on Folsom’s mid-70s output of “high-flying American folk rock,” Folsom himself delivers a mix of influences that resonate through his craft from the heavy rock of Marshall Tucker and Gregg Allman to the poignant lyricism of Dylan, Donovan, and Joni along with plenty of Beach Boys, Beatles, and CSNY.
Artwork by Andre Poise
This week:
Spencer Cullum, Pearl & The Oysters, Credit Electric,
SOYUZ, Eddie Chacon, Bnny, Marina Allen,
Okay Kaya, The A’s, Dear Nora & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
The third and final volume of the Saigon Supersound super-series is now available with twenty more soul and funk tracks from pre-1975 Southern Vietnamese cut during the nation’s “Golden Era” that existed until the end of the War.
Just in time for Bandcamp Friday, Belgian ambient artist Les Halles presents his newest work, Eight Fantasies, furthering his trademark bioluminescent electro-acoustic blankets of sound.
Written and composed across 2018 and 2019, Patrick McDermott’s recent dispatch from his North Americans mission, Lost Tracks, available now via Third Man Records, uses an improvisational mesh of guitars, piano, and walls of noise to explore darker elements than previous efforts while sustaining his holy zoner-folk crux.
German musician TWÏNS who recently shared his take on an Alice Coltrane spiritual bows again at the alter of musical greatness for a smooth cover of “Love Will Find A Way” by the late jazz giant Pharoah Sanders.
Grotto Terrazza, the Munich based art and music project of Thomas Schamann, has released a video for “Senza Piombo 95,” a new school industrial dance beat from the phenomenal sophomore record Kalte Köstlichkeiten that dropped in August with Maple Death Records & Cut Surface.
Sofia Bolt has shared the first part of a new double single release called City of You that opens with “All She Wants” featuring arrangements by the great producer Van Dyke Parks before flipping to a cover of Harry Nilsson’s “Perfect Day.”
After a short rest following their psychedelic sabbatical to Flowerland, Pearl & The Oysters emerge with a new song “Pacific Ave” featuring Alex Brettin of Mild High Club on guitar and an announcement of their signing with Stones Throw. The new track draws from the AOR and Japanese jazz-pop records of the late 70s and comes with a music video in tow of a live TV performance imitating Casiopea or Yellow Magic Orchestra.
Artwork by Mickey Miles
In our new series, Self-Portrait, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
Drugdealer founder and songwriter Michael Collins shares a specialized mix of bygone AM gold, cosmic country and folk curios, and velvety pop gems tailor-made from the spirit of his new album Hiding In Plain Sight that was released last week on Mexican Summer.
Spencer Cullum dips back into his pouch of British folk revivalism for another volume of the Coin Collection. This time, his opening offer is a cheery and serene track featuring the buzzy Japanese indie-folkster Yuma Abe for “Kingdom Weather,” the debut track from Coin Collection 2 out next April on Full Time Hobby.
Spencer Cullum's Coin Collection 2 by Spencer Cullum's Coin Collection
Artwork by Andre Poise
This week:
Glyders, King Tuff, Drugdealer, Heather Trost,
Hieronymus Harry, Sam Burton, Leland Whitty, Patrick Cowley,
Honey Harper, Almond Joy, North Americans & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
With “Leaving Here Still,” folk songwriter Sam Burton reveals an early listen into an exciting new batch of material recorded last year with the illustrious producer Jonathan Wilson.
4 Songs allows lo-fi spiritual jazzers Monde UFO the space to twist up their own bleary take on a batch of Fugazi tunes.
With a gritty choogle and burned-rubber rumble, Chicago underdogs Glyders kick things off with “High Time,” the first test from their new record Maria’s Hunt picked up by Drag City imprint Country Thyme that arrives in January.
Hieronymus Harry is back with another slice of bizarre country-leaning psych-folk with “Radiant Planet,” the latest preview from the new record River of Doom that lands November 11th.
Artwork by Persona La Ave
This week:
Jonny Kosmo, Smirk, Ingredient, Alex G,
Bibio, Lee Baggett, Corntuth, Twain, Jonah Yano,
Voice Actor, Stephen Bailey, Julianna Riolino, King Gizzard & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
Just as solar noon is the moment of precise equilibrium of the day, Twain’s newest record bearing the same name as the meridiem and out today on Keeled Scales represents an honest and profound balancing point of the human spirit’s flight of fancy and the sobering truths of reality through his trademark fragile folk sensibility.
As part of their latest campaign celebrating the legacy of Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard, Smithsonian Folkways is reissuing the pioneering female bluegrass duo’s second steamroller of a record Won’t You Come and Sing For Me?
Won't You Come and Sing For Me? by Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard
Smirk enters focus with a new long-player Material out next month on the unfailing Feel It Records label. The project’s commander, LA’s Nick Vicario, brings a punkish paranoia to bay with rushing rhythms and a glazed-over apathy for the messes of the modern world.
Gunfighter’s zippy and zany country punk dust-up Ballads makes its way onto 7-inches of vinyl showing off five of his most crazed tunes including a cover of kindred spirit Hasil Adkins.
Viennese art-pop starlet Sofie Royer conspires with themes of medieval theater, bohemian cabaret, and American mall punk on her debonair new album Harlequin out now on Stones Throw.
The A’s, the old-souled folk-singing duo of Sylvan Esso’s Amelia Meath and Daughter of Swords’ Alexandra Sauser-Monnig, go for another ride in the sky with their willowy take on the classic hippie spiritual “Lonesome L.A. Cowboy.”
Artwork by Persona La Ave
This week:
Dougie Poole, Weyes Blood, June McDoom,
Ben Varian, Liv.e, The A’s, Drugdealer, Kate NV,
Harmony Index, Born At Midnite, King Gizzard & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
All photos by Anna Powell Denton
This Is A Photograph by Kevin Morby
(An Overview on) An Overview on Phenomenal Nature by Cassandra Jenkins
The debut effort from solo artist Harmony Index meshes sparkly and chic synths, hard and heavy digital rhythms, and razor sharp guitar strokes for a flawless and all-too-brief encounter.
Ben Varian takes a producer-extraordinaire role on his new release, an EP titled Riddle Rock, that invites friends Jonny Kosmo, Zach Burba, and Marina Allen to lend vocals to his multi-layered pop pearls.
Western Australia janglers Spice World launch into their debut set of songs with “Dying To Go,” a convivial guitar pop earworm about faking your own death and disappearing forever.
Dougie Poole’s back with “The Rainbow Wheel of Death,” the title track from his new record out in February that begins his third volume of wisecrack country at the mercy of the infamous mortality-revealing spinning wait curser.
America Dream Reserve, the newest comp from Smiling C, gathers a gang of everyday entertainers and no-hit wonders from the private/vanity press ecosystem of the 70s and 80s to celebrate their frugal approach to pop musicmaking.
Nico Georis’ reimagining of Terry Riley’s beloved composition “A Rainbow In Curved Air” through his own ambitious and reverential approach now takes a visual form with a fully analog, in-camera effects-laden film by Erren Franklin comprised of experimental 8mm footage shot through hand-cut mattes, prisms, and kaleidoscopic filters.
“Each frame is a stained-glass window embedded with devotion to cosmic light: an homage to ROYGBIV imprinted on film in spectral array” -Erren Franklin
Widowspeak’s Robert Earl Thomas once again sets out on his own with a sorrowful country tune “After My Second Divorce” that kicks up a twangy tale of nuptial calamity with a cowboy choir akin to a Marty Robbins number.
Artwork by Persona La Ave
This week:
Shirley Hurt, June McDoom, Sylvie, Peel Dream Magazine,
Dezron Douglas, Moon Mullins, Seventies Tuberide,
Surprise Chef, Wand, King Gizzard & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
Available on Spotify or Apple Music who pay on average $0.004 per stream where it takes 263 streams for an artist to earn a single dollar.
All photos by Connor Fields
Dance Ancestral by John Carroll Kirby
Year Of The Spider by Shannon and the Clams
Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 Night Dreamer Direct-To-Disc Sessions by Seun Kuti & Egypt 80
Education & Recreation by Surprise Chef
Going Going Gone by Mild High Club
A Way Forward by Nation of Language
Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava by King Gizzard & The Lizard WizardRapscallion by The Murlocs
Francis Trouble by Albert Hammond Jr.
Artwork by Liz Moser
Peel Dream Magazine’s Joseph Stevens joins us to lay out the stories behind each track on his latest record Pad that diverges from his shoegazey beginnings toward a rosier dopamine-boosting nature.
“Not in the Band”The album opens as if it's frozen in a moment. The vibraphone is like a clock ticking idly, but in suspense. The story of the album opens with me inexplicably exiled from Peel Dream Magazine, and I wanted that to feel both tragic and cozy at the same time, as if I've found a way to get on with my new life and make a new home (my Pad). I would say I wrote this about halfway through the process of making the album, and I was heavily exploring mid century instrumentation. When I was recording this, I heard my partner Kristina playing with our dog in the other room, and it just encapsulated this joyous, domestic moment - I ran outside to join them and secretly recorded them playing, so that's what you hear tucked away at the end of the track.
“Pad”The first song-song of the record, I recorded this really early on in the process. It was at the outset of the pandemic, and I was literally singing about being confined to my apartment. It was a huge departure aesthetically for me, and channeled this "Smiley Smile" era Beach Boys feel that I'm hugely inspired by. It didn't feel like a Peel Dream Magazine song, partly because my apartment only allowed for a basic recording like that with the organ as the primary instrument. The shaker sound is actually a plastic container of cous cous that I was using for this mellow shaker sound. I would record something with it during the day, make some cous cous for dinner, and then when I resumed recording that night, it would have a slightly different tambour from having less inside. I tried a few times to clean this recording up with better vocal takes, etc. but I eventually decided that it sounded best the way it was, which I did in one take. I developed this philosophy during that time that I wanted everyone to hear my sloppy first takes and not overly edit the recordings. I was also messing around with a bunch of chimes on this one.
“Pictionary”I ended up recording this several times over. I'm blown away by the High Llamas song "The Old Spring Town," and I was particularly inspired by the way the drum beat has the snare on every quarter note. It felt driving but genteel at the same time and I wanted the entire record to have a genteel, baroque energy. I ended up borrowing that idea for this song and “Self Actualization Center.” I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how this record could have rock songs, and this represents the pinnacle of driving energy on the album, just with acoustic guitars. The melody is essentially a redux of "I'm Only Sleeping" by the Beatles, with some clever chord changes happening behind it that give it this puzzle-ish feel. The song is very ambiguously about "play", and in it, a set of characters have a tantric, debaucherous experience while playing a game of Pictionary.
“Wanting and Waiting”This song also went through a bunch of different iterations. I ended up giving the song that shuffling beat and adding in clavichord with the auto wah. I'm singing a lot more clearly/up front than I have on past records here, so this one stands out in that way. In the story of the record, I'm drawing an analogy between Odysseus, who like me has been banished from his true home, and myself (banished from my band). The album is an allegory about the personal odyssey we're all on to find our home. I'm trapped on the island of Calypso, begging my captor to release me ("Seven long years while you sing"). I eventually plead with Athena to intervene and free me, which she does.
“Self Actualization Center”On the inner sleeve of the record is the story of Pad written out as a fable. In that story, I explain that my personal journey in exile leads me to a mysterious church that promises to relieve me of my woes. That church is the Self Actualization Center, styled after the real-life "Self Realization Fellowship" in Los Angeles, this ultra "woo", Buddhist-adjacent institution. I'd heard a lot about it and began to play with the idea that it was essentially a cult, and like the island of the Lotus Eaters in the Odyssey, that it would try to lure me into it's orbit only to entrap me forever. My friend Samira of Winter sings on this one.
“Walk Around the Block”In my mining of mid century influences, I wanted to touch on the library music of folks like Basil Kirchin and Sven Libaek. This goes after that 70s style noir film score vibe. This is also a krauty one by comparison with the others. The feverish tone and title of the song suggest that I furiously need to walk and think, as I sometimes do. It's very much a "something's on my mind" track.
“Hamlet”This was a really early song. It leans into the country/psychedelia intersection of the album. In this song I'm talking through a window to the birds outside my Pad. Unlike me, they are not confined to a structure, but able to fly freely anywhere they choose. That feeling of entrapment and isolation, which in a literal sense was drawing on the quarantine, is a universal concept that I wanted to touch on with the record. "Peering outside my hamlet, wanting to feel that way. Practice a song, I hammer it, practicing for that day." I'm literally working on Pad in the song, preparing for the day I will be free and share the album with the outside world. There's a lot of self-aware stuff like that on the album, as I wanted to blur the fourth wall as much as I could. The second section of this song has this magical vibe to it. There's some hope in there.
“Penelope's Suitors”This is a reprisal of the opening track, although you don't know it until the end. This one oscillates between this surreal, care-free feeling and this sinister, churning darkness. That is kind of the central tug of war on the album. In the Odyssean allegory, I'm referencing the suitors who are lining up to replace him and marry his wife Penelope. In my version of the story, Peel Dream Magazine is holding auditions in the practice space, and there's hordes of greedy applicants hoping to replace me and making a mess of the space.
“Hiding Out”I wrote this about needing space and retreating to a secret happy place by yourself. During the early days of the pandemic, I would stroll endlessly through the industrial part of northern Brooklyn and into Queens, up and down every weird little side street I could find. I would hit the wastewater treatment plant in Greenpoint, and then Calvary Cemetery, and head over to Long Island City and the Queensboro Bridge. I felt a bit like I had the city to myself because things were so shut down. The verses have a tense minimalism to them, and the choruses open up into this magical world with more color and instruments, so there's this musical analogy happening.
“Jennifer Hindsight”This song is basically me being in awe of truth as it reveals itself in real time, or especially, after the fact. Truth is this unwavering, mesmerising babe who turns your life upside down and keeps you grounded at the same time. "Jennifer Hindsight, you shattered my plans. You're changing my life with the wave of your hand". Jennifer Hindsight obviously represents hindsight, and the year 2020 as well. It was a mesmerizing dose of reality for where we have arrived as humanity - completely fucked but also incredibly resilient. In the song I talk about her and other allegorical characters that help keep a town functioning (the original title for the song was "Our Town"). There's mail carriers, librarians, heathens, and even a mayor - they too all play a role in shaping our lives. It's a little bit like a metaphysical civics lesson. The lyrics also continue to opine on my pandemic walks, as if the town is somehow New York City. "From Wastewater to Calvary, the streets are so plain."
“Reiki”This is one of my more minimalist leaning instrumental tracks. The original version didn't have any marimba, instead relying more on patches from my DX7 which I still used a lot in the final mix. I actually sold that DX7 to one of the members of The Strokes here in LA via Craigslist. I had been advertising it and they just randomly showed up. I really wanted to expand the aesthetic palette of PDM, and I was inspired by Japanese composers like Haruomi Hosono and Susumu Yokota, as well as obviously Steve Reich. My friend Marta Tiesenga recorded saxophone for this one.
“La Sol”Do Re Mi La Sol is a melody written out in Solfege, but I also like that La Sol sounds like bastardized Spanish for "The Sun" or even "L.A. Sun". I only sing the melody in its correct form once in the song - the first time I recite that lyric it's actually just to "Do" the entire time. I like the idea of "saying" a melody without actually singing it, as an allegory for not really having your heart in something. This song is about a character who has to leave his family home in the countryside because it feels lifeless to him. It's almost as if the lyrics are a letter that one of his siblings has received from him on the road, "Give my love to Alice, don't ever put her down. I've gone and run to Dallas, a city life abound". This is a really fun wacky one full of banjo and synthesizers. It's not literally about me in the Pad storyline, but it fits neatly into the overall theme.
“Message the Manager”This one has more of an orchestral, baroque pop whimsy to it, channeling a bit of what I love on Sgt. Peppers. Here, I'm pleading with the manager of Peel Dream Magazine to put me in touch with the band so that we can reconcile our differences. The structure of this song is more like classical music in that it's not a verse/chorus/bridge type of progression. I wanted each section to simply flow into the next, growing and shrinking with the emotional tenor of the music. I've grown completely exhausted by the music industry here, and in a moment of defeatism, I tell myself "Never be livid, Joe".
“Roll in the Hay”This is a surreal instrumental piece that follows this love-making arc. It starts out with this sweet melody - one that reprises part of the Pictionary melody, and then enters this more brisk, chugging section where two are going at it. There is then this intense build/hold, and finally . . . an eruption. This is not part of the album story but in a way it's about consummation and being brought together.
“Back in the Band”The finale to the record, I've finally rejoined Peel Dream Magazine. This song is sung from the perspective of one of my bandmates who is speaking to me. "It really wasn't cool when you bailed on our show, or when you didn't pay your tab. But nothing can excuse my petty rant, or when I went and hit you back". On the one hand, this is a celebratory song about friendship and resilience, but on the other hand it's got a freakish, sardonic quality to it, almost as if my bandmate is speaking through gritted teeth. It's supposed to suggest that in any friendship/relationship/family/band there is this simultaneous push and pull that keeps people together and apart at the same time. There's obvious resentment here, but at the end of the day, all we have is each other, and there's a lot of love there as well.
Artwork by Mickey Miles
In our new series, Self-Portrait, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
Whether he’s softly singing from his charming catalog of folky originals, accenting Cut Worms or Woods behind a keyboard, keeping the rhythm on drums with Hand Habits, or hand-painting new characters into his stop-motion animated universe, John Andrews’ genuine originality never wilts. His latest record Cookbook stays in constant rotation around here. We’re honored to have John give us a roundup of some of his most influential musical references; Michael Hurley, Little Wings, Vince Guaraldi, and more.
Find John out on tour playing all over America for the rest of the month!
Sylvie bring forward another new single found on the expanded re-release of their debut album and first vinyl pressing that’s out on October 14th on Full Time Hobby. “Further Down The Road” brings vocalist Marina Allen back into the mix for more of the band’s light and loose folk rock.
Aussie psychedelic folkies The Uplifting Bell Ends share a video for “Travellin’ Home” that kicks off their new record Super Giant IV, the band’s fifth record that’s brimming with effortlessly cool tunes.
Pivoting away from the bombed-out shoegaze sounds that defined the first three records, Peel Dream Magazine escape to a clear-headed radiance on their new record Pad that trades fuzzy guitars for vintage organs, chimes, and farfisa while still retaining that wiry Slumberland touch.
Toronto’s Sophia Katz (working as Shirley Hurt) introduces the luring and sweetly arranged single “Problem Child” from her upcoming debut self-titled record out on the ever-reliable Canadian powerhouse label Telephone Explosion.
Estonian instrumental mastermind Misha Panfilov unleashes another top-of-the-line full length album of sprawling soul jazz spirituals titled Momentum, his latest in a long string of great works he’s been affiliated with in 2022.
With an opening message promising to permanently alter the course of your natural life and an online persona of a cultlike marketing scam, Atlanta’s Improvement Movement instead offer a bombastic mixture of bizarre lightning-in-a-bottle cyber-pop and feral funk songlets that are undeniably and irresistibly authentic.
Los Angeles label Temporal Drift continue their archival work focusing around the legendary and notorious Japanese noise/psychedelic band Les Rallizes Denudes with an expanded reissue of Oz Days Live commemorating the closure of Tokyo’s Oz Rock Cafe, the epicenter of the city’s experimental rock subculture of the 70s.
OZ DAYS LIVE '72-'73 Kichijoji: The 50th Anniversary Collection by Various Artists
On her new single “Stone After Stone,” June McDoom’s folk songcraft embraces the ethereality of Sibylle Baier and melancholy of Nico for a frosty and euphotic episode that raises the anticipation for her debut EP coming later this month.
Artwork by Persona La Ave
This week:
Robert Lester Folsom, Lee Baggett, Skinshape,
Ghost Funk Orchestra, Makaya McCraven, Erin Rae,
Babe Rainbow, Cole Pulice, John Carroll Kirby & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
Available on Spotify or Apple Music who pay on average $0.004 per stream where it takes 263 streams for an artist to earn a single dollar.
West Coast undergrounder Lee Baggett sheds more of his illusory lore with Anyway, a brand new batch of loose-fitting and carefree hippie folk rock shanties served in the veteran craftsman’s homestyle form. Perpetual Doom helps brings Baggett’s mythic creative personality more into focus with this latest collection that follows last year’s essential release Just A Minute.
The archives of southern songwriting psychonaut Robert Lester Folsom is further revealed with Sunshine Only Sometimes Vol. 2, 1972-1975, the latest tranche from Anthology Recordings’ fieldwork into the artist’s homestyle folk rock recordings.
Sunshine Only Sometimes Archives Vol. 2, 1972–1975 by Robert Lester Folsom
Grassy duo The Smoky Dunes share a live video of their August 2022 performance at Wilmington’s finest record shop The Fuzzy Needle where the guys break out their Doc Watson and Tony Rice indebted bluegrass and hot-fretted fingerpicking numbers from their new debut self-titled EP.
Australian one-man rock gawd Alien Nosejob furthers his productive run of hitmaking with “Beatles vs. Stones,” a driving AC/DC paced slugger from a new record titled Stained Glass coming in November with Total Punk and Anti Fade Records.
Artwork by Aerial Ballet
This week:
Pharoah Sanders, Carson McHone, Tenci, Ingedient,
Wau Wau Collectif, Summer Vee, The Murlocs, Mind Shrine,
Marlon Williams, Jackie Cohen, Alex G & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
Available on Spotify or Apple Music who pay on average $0.004 per stream where it takes 263 streams for an artist to earn a single dollar.
Strings maestro Joseph Allred brings forth The Rambles & Rags of Shiloh, a magnificent record of American folk instrumentalism shaped by the lore of Shiloh, a humble riverside community in the Upper Cumberland region of Appalachia where his family has lived for over two centuries.
Artwork by James Mitchell
On the eve of the 2022 autumnal equinox, here’s 100 songs to ring in the new season. It’s an offering of folky fall favorites, old timey bluegrass, dollar bin country blues, psychedelic guitar music, and some less obvious seasonal sounds.
Spotify and Apple Music have you covered, for now.
Excavated from the deep Four Flies Vault of obscure Italian records, Franco & Franco’s undercelebrated 1977 joint Guitar Ensemble is a four-track whirlwind of flamenco disco, weird Brazilian funk, and psychedelic easy listening.
With a steady breeze of synthesizer tones and a heartbeat of analog drum machines quilted together, the artistry of songwriting duo Shady Cove takes dream pop to the pastoral terrain with songs from their debut full-length materializing naturally while the wayfaring pair decamped to the Oregon wilderness.
Artwork by Aerial Ballet
This week:
Bonny Doon, Weyes Blood, Marina Allen,
Buga, Molly Lewis, Tim Hill, Babe Rainbow,
Malaya McCraven, Hand Habits, Nick Hakim & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
Available on Spotify or Apple Music who pay on average $0.004 per stream where it takes 263 streams for an artist to earn a single dollar.
The great Bonny Doon return with “San Francisco,” a new track and Anti- Records debut by the Detroit-bred group who’ve been busy as the backing band for Waxahatchee who lends her voice to the very Doony single along with several Woods bandmembers.
The self-titled debut from the supergroup 10th Street has just the jive that you’d expect when members of El Michels Affair, Lee Fields & The Expressions, The Dap-Kings, Antibalas, and others from NYC’s vibrant soul/funk scene align their sights and get down on it.
In league with Anatolian psychedelic rock legends Barış Manço, Cem Karaca, Erkin Koray, and Selda Bağcan, the work of Edip Akbayram finds a mystic union of Turkish traditional instrumentation, deep funk grooves, mind-warping fuzzy guitar breaks, and powerful and poetic vocals.
In August, the band Workhorse led by multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Harriet Fraser-Barbour put out a surreal and twangy dream-pop debut record No Photographs with Dinosaur City Records. Ahead of the album’s release, the band ventured across 6,000 km of Australian landscapes that shaped the apocalyptic and “queer western” sound playing shows, stopping for regional roadside oddities, and photographing their expedition.
In September of 2021, almost twelve months ago, I cooked up a plan to travel regionally with my band Workhorse. The pandemic was still fresh with live music opportunities still extremely wobbly, and the idea of touring regionally, steering clear of big city metropolises seemed appealing. Cut to eleven months later, and this plan was finally ready to be brought to fruition – with all the complicated schedules of intertwining band mates finally in sync, and a brand new album soon to be out in the world!
This was our journey, from Adelaide to Darwin and back – travelling over 6,000 km from the south coast to the north coast of Australia, with eleven people, one dog, one van and a trailer full of gear in tow. Members of our travel party have each documented different angles of different legs - providing the perfect patchwork of insight into our journey!
Adelaide (South Australia)
Here we are, at my house on Albert Street, Adelaide on the morning of 4th of August 2022 as we prepared to depart! The crew were instructed to meet at my house at 6:30 a.m. to be on the road by 7:30 a.m. but Ricky slept through his alarm and we were a little slow taking off…
Our first destination along the Stuart Highway was the opal mining town of Coober Pedy. I could write a whole essay on Coober Pedy. Land of Star Wars-like landscapes, scattered in mounds of red desert sand excavated and discarded, and a weird township seemingly existing in a time zone all of its own. People live in homes excavated and dug into the ground, where the sun doesn’t reach - but it doesn't matter because they get up to go work in the mines at 3 a.m. anyway. The man working in our hotel seemed pissed off that we had booked online, said he hates computers and wished people would just knock on their door with cash like the old days.
Coober Pedy (South Australia)
(Coober Pedy, South Australia)
I had arranged for us to play at the Italian Miners Club. We would be paid in drinks and Italian food, but we had ordered only one beer before the gruff lady behind the bar said, “no more beers until you’ve finished playing.” I got the impression that she thought we were very entitled city slickers. There was a mixed reception at the gig. Jess Johns Band opened the night and the three young miners sitting in the front row seemed absolutely stoked!
(Workhorse play at the Italo Miners Club, Coober Pedy)
I ate my lasagna and thought “well, it doesn’t get much better than this” because I am easily contented by a free meal and also the sounds of Jess Johns singing. Workhorse played and a couple of people milled about, then the iPod got connected to the PA and the corner of the club suddenly felt like an actual CLUB with fucking 2000s party bangers blasting out from behind the pool tables. Marcus, the manager, poured us all a shot of Fireball and said something indistinguishable along the lines of “this is how you do it in Coober Pedy” but with more swearing and then we all packed the gear back into the trailer; microphones, stands, amps, drums, PA, mixing desk, cables – a whole stage worth of stuff. We would have this down to a fine art by the end of the tour.
(Workhorse play at the Italo Miners Club, Coober Pedy)
The following day we were back on the road, this time gunning it towards the red centre of Australia, Mparntwe (Alice Springs) in time for Ricky Albeck & The Belair Line Band to play a show!
Alice Springs is Australia's equivalent of Las Vegas maybe; a small city in the middle of the desert, in the very centre of Australia with a population of about 25,000. We were greeted with the warmest of welcomes, with the whole community pitching in to help make our gig happen, lending us a PA and gear so that Workhorse could play a sold out show with heaps of new faces and new friends made along the way.
(Workhorse playing at Montes in Alice Springs, and below Ricky Albeck and The Belair Line Band before their gig)
We had a couple of days to explore the wonders of Mparntwe, so we unhitched the trailer and drove alongside the beautiful Macdonnell Ranges, practised our whip cracking in the clay pans and even got our hands on some leftover fireworks from Territory Day!
(Above and below, hanging out in the clay pans outside of Alice Springs, and Ellery Creek Big Hole)
After a couple of days hanging out in Alice Springs, we piled back into the bus and continued our journey up north - with the next pit stop being outback tourist destination Wycliffe Well - UFO CAPITAL OF AUSTRALIA.
I’m not sure why exactly it’s the UFO capital of Australia. The implication is clearly that there is a hive of UFO activity simply buzzing around this tiny truckstop in the middle of nowhere. All I can say is that it doesn’t feel particularly spooky, or like there is anything out of the ordinary that would even attract extraterrestrials to this particular place in the first place. But what would I know? More likely is that it's the capital of UFO-themed merchandise in Australia, and of course we stocked up on alien themed trucker hats, stickers, mugs, and t-shirts.
Daly Waters, Northern Territory
About 500kms north of Wycliffe Well was our next stop for the night - Daly Waters. Truly a strange place and one that is hard to describe or convey for those who are yet to make the journey. You drive ten hours through dusty arid landscapes, and slowly watch the flora grow taller the further north you reach, from desert grasses to tiny scrubs and eventually frangipani trees. Daly Waters is a midway point between the red desert centre of Australia (Alice Springs) and that top northern coast of Darwin. It’s basically a tiny pitstop existing for the sole purpose of hosting weary travellers like us for the night. You arrive in the dark after driving for what feels like an eternity, and follow the signs which lead you off the main highway, towards some distant lights, and suddenly find yourself in this bustling little street full of people and nightlife, all centering around the Daly Waters Pub, a huge tavern full of outback pub nostalgia steeped in old school racism and sexism, signs warning of the ‘chinese flu’ and one that says “we don't serve women - bring your own”, unfortunate relics displaying the worst parts of white outback australian culture. There seems to be a tradition or custom of women hanging their underwear on the walls? Most of it looks ancient. Some old codger was playing guitar and singing Australiana bush songs and the sign advertising him unashamedly referred to him as “the heart and soul of the bush” which seemed a bit bloody disrespectful considering we were on the traditional lands of the Jingili people, the original custodians of the land before white men built their pub and World War 11 air base there.
Darwin, Northern Territory
After resting our heads and exploring the oddities of Daly Waters, we continued our trajectory North, with only a day's drive left to reach our final destination of Darwin.
The trees are not the only thing getting taller the further north you drive - termite mounds litter the landscape, starting out about a foot high when leaving Alice Springs in Central Australia, and up to four metres high by the time you reach the north coast of Darwin!
Things begin to look lusher, with wild pandanus popping up as you reach closer towards the tropical climate of the North.
We stopped off at Mataranka, a short detour from the highway, to have a splash in the tropical hot springs. Clear green water flows between palm trees, and signs inform you that crocodiles are regularly removed from the area by ranges to ensure its safety for those swimming.
Another few hours drive until we reached our final stop of Darwin where we were able to spend a good few days relaxing in the dry season sunshine - a much anticipated escape for those of us from the cold dreary winter of the South! Darwin is a city unlike any other in Australia - a melting pot of cultures with the Australiana of the outback mashing together with Southeast Asian influences. Markets are a highlight in Darwin, full of fresh exotic tropical fruits and street foods. A short drive outside of Darwin city centre is a whole wealth of incredible national parks, and we made the most of our little tour bus to take a trip to Berry Springs, another swimming hole made from natural springs where we spotted a Mitchell's water monitor (a large lizard) lazing in the sun. Workhorse released our album No Photographs and played at The Lucky Bat in Darwin where we drank yummy cocktails to celebrate!
And that’s only half way… we still had to drive back! This time 3000kms, four days in a row! You can hit fast forward.
Artwork by Mickey Miles
In our new series, Self-Portrait, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
A leading figure in the next era of Brazilian musical stars, Sessa’s cool and ultra-stylish practice takes the country’s beloved nylon-string grooves and Bossa Nova rhythms in exciting new directions as experienced on his two standout records Grandeza and this year’s Estrela Acesa. The São Paulo-born songwriter shares his most influential reference points like national icons Gilberto Gil, Erasmo Carlos, and Os Mutantes to sounds from other continents like Sun Ra, ESG, and Cluster.
And attention New Yorkers! Catch Sessa performing his first show in the US since the release of Estrela Acesa at Brooklyn Made on September 17th!
Purchase Sessa’s new album Estrela Acesa out now via Mexican Summer.
Artwork by Aerial Ballet
This week:
Kate Bollinger, Alex G, Peel Wednesday,
Air Waves, Jonny Kosmo, John Moods,
Scone Cash Players, Eliza Edens, Charles Stepney & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
Available on Spotify or Apple Music who pay on average $0.004 per stream where it takes 263 streams for an artist to earn a single dollar.
All photos by Madelyn Matthews
Set My Heart on Fire Immediately by Perfume Genius
Remember Your North Star by yaya bey
All photos by Madelyn Matthews
Things Take Time, Take Time by courtney barnett
In The Night by Charley Crockett
Chicago label International Anthem’s newest release, Step On Step, is a magnificent celebration of the home-recorded minimalist funk masterpieces created by a hometown underground legend Charles Stepney. Found in the liner notes of records by Earth, Wind & Fire, Ramsey Lewis, Rotary Connection, Minnie Riperton, Muddy Waters, and sampled by many more in the hip-hop world, Stepney’s creative impact reached much further than his small basement studio where most of Step On Step originated. However, the raw and analog “baroque soul” heard on the collection is a depiction of a brilliant musical practitioner with an inextinguishable imagination for building a groove within any budget.
Artwork by Mickey Miles
In our new series, Self-Portrait, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
Kate Bollinger wooed listeners with her suave and tender folk-pop on the exceptional Look At It In The Light EP released earlier this year. Yesterday, the songwriting starlet continued the momentum with a new track “Running” produced by Sam Evian.
Today, Bollinger joins us with a Self-Portrait contribution that details the threads of her creative approach with tracks from essential femme folkies Vashti Bunyan, Margo Guryan, Elyse Weinberg to the modern day stars such as Feist, Lael Neale, Bobbie Lovesong, and Jessica Pratt. Further, there’s some Velvets, Darcy Clay, Nina Simone, a even a hit from No Doubt.
Purchase Kate Bollinger’s new single “Running” out now via Ghostly International.
Perth songwriter Stephen Bailey makes his Third Eye Stimuli debut with “The Holder,” the first track from an upcoming record G.G. Ryder built upon a bedrock foundation of 60s and 70s folk and blues rock of Bobby Charles, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and J.J. Cale.
In February of ‘75, during the Grateful Dead’s effective yearlong touring hiatus, a calendar that marked just four Dead shows, Jerry sat in with an all-star bluegrass band called the Good Old Boys for two nights at Margarita’s Cantina, Santa Cruz’s newest club & Mexican restaurant captured on Owsley Stanley’s Nagra reel-to-reel.
Artwork by Aerial Ballet
This week:
The Medium, Ghost Funk Orchestra, Peel Dream Magazine,
Sofie Royer, Horse Lords, Vinyl Williams, Tim Bernardes,
Workhorse, Marina Allen, MJ Lenderman & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
Available on Spotify or Apple Music who pay on average $0.004 per stream where it takes 263 streams for an artist to earn a single dollar.
Throughout For Horses, the new one from Nashville sensation The Medium, the young rockers echo Revolver’s baroque pop flavor merged with sweet and bubbly modernistic indie tones that are brimming with energy and curiosity.
Back in print again from Freedom to Spend is Neighborhoods, the mythical masterpiece from Ernest Hood whose early ambient soundscapes of Portland, Oregon circa 1975 rest underneath a halo of zither and synthesizers.
There’s more! Freedom to Spend presents a previously unreleased collection from Hood recorded around the same time as Neighborhoods titled Back to the Woodlands that explores more of the brilliance of the northwestern sound artist.
Back in print for the first time since its original 1975 release is Drive Unlimited, the fourth record from The Drive, the soul-jazz band from South Africa who deployed deeply groovin’ brass sections, wah’d out guitar licks, and spacey synthesizer tones.
Through Link Wray-indebted slow, wailing surf guitar and the smoky, midnight vocals of Julee Cruise or Mazzy Starr, Adelaide, Australia’s Workhorse wrangles a stout debut record with No Photographs; a surreal apocalyptical western soundtrack.
Artwork by Mickey Miles
In our new series, Self-Portrait, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
On the heels of her debut record Trip The Light Fantastic, Fonteyn reveals the inspirations behind the album’s wellspring of dazzling retro radio pop that nods to her musical heroes Carole King, Todd Rundgren, Paul McCartney, Laura Nyro and many more.
Purchase Fonteyn’s new album Trip The Light Fantastic out now via Born Losers Records.
Artwork by Tender Wizard
This week:
Drugdealer, Wesley, Say She She, Badge Epoque, Tenci,
Dear Nora, The Berries, Jairus Sharif, Lee Baggett,
Mad Anthony, La Femme, Jonathan Personne, Anteloper & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
Available on Spotify or Apple Music who pay on average $0.004 per stream where it takes 263 streams for an artist to earn a single dollar.
“Rina” is the debut single from a collection of songs by Mad Anthony, a mostly forgotten about 70s folk rock trio whose reach remained within the bar circuits of Ohio until now. The Lost Tapes, the band’s demos that never materialized into a label contract or nationwide tour instead found the ears of bandmember John Schwab’s son, Ben Schwab whose interest in the breezy recordings from a lifetime ago inspired him to form his new band Sylvie from the spirit of these tunes.
After tossing out a couple great teasers earlier this year, Los Angeles folk-singing duo of Will Worden and Haylie Hostetter aka Will & Haylie present their full-length album aptly titled Sing Folk that finds the two taking on traditionals from the early Americana songbook plus songs from Doc, Dylan and Joan Baez.
Sylvan Esso's Amelia Meath and Daughter of Swords' Alexandra Sauser-Monnig unite as The A’s for Fruit, an enchanting record that strings together sweetly sung yodel tunes, swinging cowboy waltzes, and soothing back porch lullabies with unparalleled harmonic brilliance.
Drugdealer is back with a new song “Someone To Love” as well as the official announcement of Hiding In Plain Sight, the third record from the group led by Michael Collins that’s out in October with Mexican Summer. It’ll feature iconic guest spots from Tim Presley, John Carroll Kirby, Kate Bollinger, Bambina, Sean Nicholas Savage beside his trusty cast of characters like Mikey Long, Jackson MacIntosh, Josh De Costa, et al.
Artwork by Mickey Miles
In our new series, Self-Portrait, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
Dub’s newest prodigy Pachyman portrays the extensive influences on his sound from the pioneering genre artists like Scientist, Augustus Pablo, and Lee “Scratch” Perry to the less obvious elements from Stereolab, CAN, Cluster, and Aphex Twin.
Purchase Pachyman’s new record The Return of… out now via ATO Records.
Artwork by Tender Wizard
This week:
The Uplifting Bell Ends, Dougie Poole, The Medium, Workhorse,
Honey Harper, Nick Hakim, Sean Thompson’s Weird Ears, Molly Lewis,
Color Green, Divino Niño & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
Available on Spotify or Apple Music who pay on average $0.004 per stream where it takes 263 streams for an artist to earn a single dollar.
The Sydney based one-man post-punk phenomenon R.M.F.C. divulges “Access,” a Devo-like march from a 7-inch out on the reliable southern hemisphere rock and roll label Anti Fade Records that precedes a long-awaited LP expected in early 2023.
Music City’s Sean Thompson debuts his long-playing Weird Ears hootenanny that catches the big-grinnin’, chicken-pickin’ son of a gun launching into a crossbreed of country-fried, hot a ’mighty boogies and hearty, wine-stained Americana ballads.
Comical country crooner Dougie Poole passes along “High School Gym,” a serious-minded tune from the haunts of his new, unrevealed stash of songs that imagines communing with his deceased brethren together in the gymnasium.
In the mid 70s, tracking with the rise of the environmentalist movement in America, a special musical concept was commissioned to promote natural conservation and ecological protection. Wilderness America enlisted several California record producers and studio musicians to craft a psychedelic and cinematic soundtrack to celebrate man’s connection to the cycle of all living things on Earth.
Wilderness America, A Celebration Of The Land by EBALUNGA!!!
Sydney’s cheeky folk rock bunch The Uplifting Bell Ends make a righteous return with “I’ll See You Again,” the new single from their upcoming fifth album Super Giant IV, the finale of their fantastic suite of wooly and downright soul-soothing grooves.
Aside from the easy sonic comparisons to Cocteau Twins or The Stone Roses, the second album One Stop Shop from twen substantiates the duo’s mega-DIY and self-reliant approach to music and life handling the writing, producing, mixing, directing, designing, booking and management of their band themselves ambulatorily from their self-converted and solar-powered Dodge Crew Van tiny home. Their unequivocal toughness and versatility bolsters the independent spirit of their evocative and incredibly hooky new record.
Combining spacey corkscrews of VHS quality guitar, synth and horn sections with scatterings of light-headed rhythmic samples, Lou & Co.’s debut The Dynamite Man is a melted down and smeared around specimen of indiscriminately odd and supremely prototypical pop songcraft.
Artwork by Mickey Miles
In our new series, Self-Portrait, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
Sylvie’s Ben Schwab hand-selects an array of tracks that represent the tenets of his band’s folksy, California sunset grooves. The mix spans pastoral chill to global psychedelia with cuts from Heron, Mark Fry, Tex Crick, Judee Sill, Angelo De Augustine, Ye & more.
Purchase Sylvie’s debut self-titled album coming to vinyl for the first time via Full Time Hobby.
Artwork by Tender Wizard
This week:
The Zenmenn, Healing Potpourri, Haziz, Charles Stepney,
Rich Ruth, Nightlands, Cornelia Murr, Fonteyn,
Eddie Chacon, Ami Dang, Ylayali & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
Available on Spotify or Apple Music who pay on average $0.004 per stream where it takes 263 streams for an artist to earn a single dollar.
Credit Electric have shared the title track from their upcoming record out of love in the face of a shadow, an invigorating post-modern folk display from a burgeoning group that emerged from the pandemic with a batch of buzzworthy songs that meld a myriad of influences from Jason Molina, Hiroshi Yoshimura to American Football.
Boldly, contemporary New Age pianist Nico Georis explores his own reimagination of Terry Riley’s sacred A Rainbow In Curved Air composition through tessellations of synthesizer patterns that bow in communion with the experimental deity.
Led by American painter, musician, and internet radio personality Jake Longstreth, the tasteful 70s inspired country folk rock of Mountain Brews, the best of the old and the new, follows The Weeknd model for the first ever physical release of their four previous EPs combined into one beautifully packaged compilation presented by Perpetual Doom that’s sweet as morning dew.
Keen On welcomes back Chicago jammers Junegrass to the circuit with three treatments of tight and lively skronky funk grooves that shows off an ability to stretch things out and reach ecstatic peaks all in short five minute intervals leaving room to wonder what kind of magic may come from a longer live exhibition.
A recently discovered treasure from Bandcamp is 20 Years, a blatantly homemade album of 80s radio country backed with a blown out drum machine from David Hinds, a lesser known recording artist from Tennessee by way of Tulsa who worked alongside Gib Guilbeau of The Flying Burrito Brothers in the 80s.
Trip The Light Fantastic is the debut album from Fonteyn, a softly lit 70s radio pop spectacle embodying the spirit of Carole King and Todd Rundgren that starts a promising songwriting career at a highpoint.
For the first time since its 1974 release, the original version and track sequence of Numero Group’s exquisite compilation Over Fields And Mountains, an introduction to the work of Branko Mataja, is available to stream. The guitar player from Belgrade’s lone LP shares the ghostly and cinematic folk sounds of Yugoslavia recorded on Mataja’s fully-customized electric rig.
Anthology Editions and artist Mark A. Rodriguez announce After All is Said and Done: Taping the Grateful Dead, 1965-1995, an expansive exploration into the psychedelic world of Grateful Dead bootleg tape culture that features hundreds of archival homemade cassette covers and interviews with dozens of Dead tapers.
Frenetic and inventive riffs crossed with vivid surrealist pop melodies make Eggy’s new record With Gusto a grand mix that’s custom fit for fans of Stereolab or Faust.
For the the eleventh volume in Tompkins Square’s Imaginational Anthem series, the label invites pedal steel wonder Luke Schneider to curate A Survey of Modern Pedal Steel which is just that; a roster of forward-thinking, contemporary masters of the instrument.
Artwork by Tender Wizard
This week:
Peel Dream Magazine, Marina Allen, John Moods,
Sam Gendel, Surprise Chef, Austin Leonard Jones, Rachika Nayar,
Friendship, Sunfruits, Breanna Barbara & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
Available on Spotify or Apple Music who pay on average $0.004 per stream where it takes 263 streams for an artist to earn a single dollar.
Jasper McMahon, designer operating as Pumpkin Press in Los Angeles, shares “Time,” an all too brief whistling lofi pop treat that reveals a songwriting talent equally as impressive as his visual work.
Two of Texas’ most supreme experimentalists Neil Lord and Michael Sharp share Betula Birch Embers, the bootleg recordings from a series of performances between 2020 and 2022 that display the duos way out synth and guitar ragas. The Lone Star’s own Hippie Scum reliably delivers the cassette release once again.
Artwork by Zone Catalog
Healing Potpourri’s Simi Sohota joins us to give a breakdown of each song on his vibrant new record Paradise out today on Run For Cover. Sohota worked alongside veteran producer Sean O’Hagan of The High Llamas and Stereolab to craft a sprawling and meditative breed of lush chamber pop.
“Truly Good”This was one of the first voice memo ideas on my phone that turned into a song on the album. I have a memo of just hitting that Fmaj9 chord and singing that melody line I knew would be horns. The lyrics are all about being in love with my girlfriend Ava. The middle section was written by my co-producer Sean O’Hagan (of High Llamas and Stereolab) and is one of the most beautiful moments on the album. It was really fun to go super Beach Boys for the ending and come up with all the vocal layers and cross melody.
Wind”This song went through so many iterations! The original version was produced by my friend Muzzy (Almond Joy, Froogy’s Groovies) on his 4 track. Then we started playing it as more of a low-key Floydian tune but when I told Sean I wanted this one to be a single he said he “didn’t hear a single.” So he helped give it that Doobie Brothers shine. I love the swirling synths and ear candy in this one. The outro really reminds me of late era The Cure, it just makes me happy, so blissed out. Wind is a metaphor for consequences of your actions, and it's sort of a running theme throughout the album.
”Free”The lyrics are sort of inspired by that Beach Boys song “Airplane” off of the Beach Boys Love You (1977). We did some BBoys style drum fills but helped deepen it with all the synths and drum machines. The bridge with acoustic 12-string plucking is probably my favorite part, very sunshine pop. My friend and old bandmate Jack saved my ass by making me change the original lyric “snacks in the glove” to “hand in glove,” thankfully! This is another love song for Ava.
”What Do I Do Now?”This song is about addiction and mental health issues. It’s about a specific childhood friend that overdosed on his anti-depressants, I won’t say who. But I was also thinking of a few other friends/lovers that I’ve lost due to suicide/drug abuse. My heart breaks every time I think about these people in my life and how much more love they had to give. I wanted to contrast the deep sadness of the song with really happy production. Sometimes I feel like that makes it hit harder. My friend Raphey who plays trumpet and trombone on the album told me he thought it was a break-up song, which is funny, I love that this song can have a different meaning to every listener.
”Sticky”We used the string section from the song “Last Place” to create an intro to this weirdo instrumental. Jason Kick (who co-produced the album with Sean) pitched them down so they’d flow into the chords we had. And we added some sort of 70s jazz electric piano and rain stick sounds to make it really soft, pretty and psychedelic. Then when the chords hit it sort of has this cartoon Magical Mystery Tour vibe in my head. I was using remix effects to trip it out. I imagine trudging through mud with boots and the mud is just sticking like gum and making it hard to walk.
”Paradise”The title track here was written in response to the murder of George Floyd. I wanted to push myself to write something meaningful about what was happening in America during the time we were making this album. It’s a sad song that refers to a type of aspirational paradise if we could all just get our shit together. The strings on this one mostly came from Sean, although Jason Kick (my other producer) and I contributed a little. There’s sort of a Kate Bush “Cloudbusting” moment towards the end of the song that gives it that sort of “call to action” vibe. A lot of love and humility went into this track and it sorta gives me chills when I really listen to it.
”Terry”This is an homage to Terry Riley. When I was a DJ at KDVS, my college radio station, I found “A Rainbow in Curved Air” in the stacks and it changed my life. It was the most psychedelic thing I’d ever heard, and I used to play it on my radio show all the time. I tried to make it as much of an homage without it being too derivative, that’s why we have that baggy beat going and added some groovy bass licks. The outro was almost entirely Sean, which is why he has co-writing credit for this song.
”Last Place”Those strings from Sticky come back here. This is more of a straight ahead bossa feel with the nylon string guitar and really romantic strings. The lyrics are about disappointment with humanity in the face of the global crises we faced during the pandemic and racial reckoning of 2020. I spent a lot of time mixing the ba da da harmonies and whisper tracks for the outro, I think it turned out perfect, it shoots off like a sexy rocket in slow-motion.
”Fireworks”It started off as an exercise in writing a song without any “weird chords” although an Fmaj9 slipped into the chorus. I was listening to a lot of Tim Presley’s White Fence and Syd Barrett at the time and was inspired by their chord changes. It’s about having a psychedelic experience with my new love Ava at our friend Griffin’s house on the fourth of july. I don’t write too many upbeat songs but this one just couldn’t be any other way. Sean tried as hard as he could to not make this song sound too Stereolabby, but it didn’t work! Hahah.
”Here”I think we were re-watching the X Files and I was reading about aliens and contemplating the universe and where Earth fits into the big puzzle. Sean really knocked the horns outta the park with this one. I think we turned some crazy arpeggiated synths into midi, then re-did them with harp sounds to get that twinkle that contrasts with the deep horns. I really love Sean’s do da’s at the end, he recorded it as an idea for me to re-do with my voice but I liked it so much we kept it and repeated it a bunch of times.
”Something New”I started writing this chord progression many many years ago. I would occasionally try to get my band to play it at practice but it was too complicated and annoying to learn so it just sat unfinished. I was going to keep it as an instrumental but Jason really pushed me to write some lyrics for it. He even wrote some scratch lyrics to help with a vocal melody but I ended up re-writing them about how much I hate my day job and how I often fantasize and daydream about a different life.
The French duo Ko Shin Moon splice together their colorful East Asian inspired electronic EPs Miniature I & II together for a vinyl combo out in October via the Parisian label Total Totem.
“Pad,” the title track from the new Peel Dream Magazine record marks a sonic evolution stepping back from their trademark 90s indie ferocity into a more gentle and poised 60s Beach Boys and 70s Nilsson conceptual approach.
“Not Every Lake Dreams Of Being A Magic Swamp” is the first half of Siberian producer Misha Sultan’s Far East inspired flute, synth, and guitar drone journey on Translucence, the latest catalog entry within the impeccable Patience/Impatience canon.
Las Los is the new collaboration between Paul Schlada of The Sha La Das and Max Shrager of The Shacks. If that doesn’t turn your crank, you have some homework to do. It’s a pure hit of straight-up gritty jukebox soul.
ZOO, the solo project of Cincinnati based artist Cory Pavlinac, shares “Hidden Doors,” a bedroomy psych-pop trip that arrives with an animated video by the inimitable Mark Neeley.
Artwork by Tender Wizard
This week:
Almond Joy, Molly Lewis, Lean Year, Sofie Royer,
Wednesday, Vicky Farewell, Whitney, Brijean,
Living Hour, Plains, Jahmal Padmore & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
Available on Spotify or Apple Music who pay on average $0.004 per stream where it takes 263 streams for an artist to earn a single dollar.
Styrofoam Winos, the Nashville group who put out a quality debut record last year that’s well worth your attention, share the fruits of their quarantine project; fifteen covers of their favorite Michael Hurley tunes that received the stamp of approval from Snock himself.
Styrofoam Winos Play Their Favorite M. Hurley Songs by Styrofoam Winos
In the summer of 2021, Sam Gendel performed his visionary jazz to small audiences across three unassuming Texas settings; a cattle ranch in the Hill Country, an old-timey ballroom in Corpus Christi, and under a bridge beside the San Antonio River. Gendel shares cuts from these far out, unconventional occasions on Cicada Lite: Live In Texas available via Unseen Worlds who helped organize the spectacle.
As purveyors of the San Francisco Sound, Almond Joy revive that glorified Nuggets-style West Coast Pop cheer with “Candy,” a gently mind-altered number from their debut stash Oh Henry!
Artwork by Pear Juice Productions
Whistling superstar Molly Lewis returns with “Miracle Fruit,” the debut single from her latest Brazilian-leaning Mirage EP out September 16th on Jagjaguwar. Lewis’ hypnotizing vocal instrumentation and exotic studio collaboration casts listeners towards oceanic landscapes and enchanted isles.
Artwork by Mickey Miles
In our new series, Self-Portrait, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
Bringing her classical jazz background to Los Angeles’ rising funky/neosoul wave, Vicky Farewell’s debut album Sweet Company released in April on her friend and collaborator Mac Demarco’s private label is a rich and whimsical cosmopolitan pop sensation. Vicky’s self-portrait mix crosses Cambodian soul, Japanese jazz, contemporary pop, and a juicy Marcos Valle hit.
Purchase Vicky Farewell’s new album Sweet Company out now via Mac’s Record Label and find tickets to her upcoming tour dates opening for Mac Demarco.
Monster Rally sails to an uncharted old-growth island paradise on Botanica Dream, the newest full-length record that’s ripe with his trademark Polynesian steel guitar breaks, sumptuous exotica jazz combos, and beachside field recordings.
Ahead of a long-awaited East Coast run of performances kicking off in August, Jeffrey Silverstein leaks the early demo versions of his 2020 album You Become The Mountain that’s soon coming to vinyl for the first time on Arrowhawk Records.
You Become The Mountain - Demos (2019-2020) by Jeffrey Silverstein
Artwork by Double Wonderful
This week:
Makaya McCraven, Divino Nino, Healing Potpourri,
Twen, Luzius Schuler, S. Raekwon, Color Green,
Julianna Riolino, Twain, Ornament, Monster Rally & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
Available on Spotify or Apple Music who pay on average $0.004 per stream where it takes 263 streams for an artist to earn a single dollar.
All photos by Lauren Hartmann
On their self-titled debut record out right now wherever you buy music, Color Green waste no time letting loose the chooglin’ and Cali-honed country boogie that has defined their short and buzzy career start. The kindred duo of Noah Kohll and Corey Madden capably twist up a deep-purple blend of Canyon-dwelling folk and crystal-rubbed rock and roll.
Lee Baggett, the outsider folk mystic whose homespun art and songwriting has become more visible through the partnership with Perpetual Doom shares “Fruit Dog,” the lead single from his upcoming record Anyway out September 30th. Watch the new animated video prepared by Baggett himself.
The Ask Me Anything Tour featuring Skylar Gudasz, Kate Rhudy, and Libby Rodenbough will be in Charlotte at Recover Brands on August 12th for a special evening of song-singing and advice-giving about matters of the heart.
TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE.
Soundmusication by Fitz Gore, the treasured recordings of incredibly cool spiritual jazz led by the Jamaican-born tenor sax maestro finds its way back onto vinyl after a lifetime as an irrecoverable relic of the 80s thanks to the Sonorama label known for reissuing some great rare jazz and world music.
“Cold 40s” is the fresh and fonky groove from Hammond organist Adam Scone and his Scone Cash Players outfit that kicks off his debut record Brooklyn to Brooklin out on the legendary Daptone Records this September.
Artwork by Luca Schenardi
Swiss pianist Luzius Schuler’s transportive new album Penta Fest levitates listeners to a fantastyland someplace above the skies through hyperreal new age jazz and elegant experimental exotica.
Artwork by Double Wonderful
This week:
ZOO, Fotneyn, Tchotchke, The A’s, Badge Epoque Ensemble,
Lee Baggett, Jennifer Vanilla, The Medium, Chris Forsyth,
Angel Olsen, Young Guv, Floating Action & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
Available on Spotify or Apple Music who pay on average $0.004 per stream where it takes 263 streams for an artist to earn a single dollar.
Floating Action’s debut self-titled album, now over a decade old, withstands the test of time with its idyllic seafoam glow illuminating Seth Kauffman’s faultless dubwise lo-fi soul.
Next, hear parts of the masterpiece in their stripped-down, most heady format on Floating Version.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard exhume a decade’s worth of raw studio demos created between 2011 and 2021 on their Bandcamp site under the title Vol. 3 & 4. The collection’s far-reaching material ranges from the enchanting Paper Mâché and Brunswick East era to the hard-driving Rats Nest and Murder of the Universe tombs and everything in between.
Moonshine finds David Hartley, bassist for rock titans The War on Drugs, at a creative summit with his solo makings as Nightlands. From his new home recording station in the mountains of North Carolina, Hartley directs a gear-mastered auditory cruise through celestial sounding vocal layers and glossy, high definition electro-pop.
That’s right. The Prince of Georgia Soul. Arthur Ponder’s sultry singing and seductive stare was archetypal for a career in deep soul musicmaking during the sexiest parts of the 1980s. The lifelong Macon, Georgia resident’s finest 45-rpm hits and swankiest unreleased gems are shared to a long-deserved wider audience courtesy of Athens of the North.
Just following a tour supporting The Cactus Blossoms, folksy songwriter Esther Rose shares a live session performing a new and unreleased number “Levee Song” written during lockdown as an ode to the badass women in her life. As is the case on the three records in Rose’s back catalog, a true-to-life gracefulness steers her clever style of country-folk.
Artwork by Mickey Miles
In our new series, Self-Portrait, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.
Martin Courtney, lead singer and founding member of the indie rock cornerstone Real Estate and solo artist with an exceptional new record Magic Sign out on Domino, joins us to share his survey of some of his biggest influences including cuts from Big Star, Television, Woo, Arthur Russell, Little Wings and more.
Purchase Martin Courtney’s new solo album Magic Sign out now on Domino Recording Co.
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The extravagance of Daniel Romano and his espousing Outfit has once again surpassed the constraints of contemporary musical undertakings. With “Genuine Light,” from the theatric new record La Luna, Romano plus Outfit assemble a mythically inclined epic that joins the ranks beside Robert Fripp, Roger Waters and others that have dared to attempt such sprawling, fantastical concepts.
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“Squeaky Wheel Oil Can” is the newest single from the stony Grave Flowers Bongo Band who stir up a freaky freewheeling simmer where high-lonesome pedal steel tones lift off from a smoke-filled Ty Segall-produced slow-rocker.
“Reservations At Red Rose” is a ragged and ghostly waltz from NYC songwriter Calvin LeCompte whose woozy no-fi 4-track ode echoes the absurdist fare from his unbeatable NTS Radio show The Uline Catalog.
Artwork by Double Wonderful
This week:
Charles Stepney, Leonardo Marques, Michael Rault,
Weyes Blood, Dimples’, Cactus Lee, Kate NV,
Anna Erhard, Tonstartssbandht & more.
Explore the mix on BNDCMPR that links directly to each artist’s Bandcamp page and is the best option for streaming music in terms of paying fair wages.
Available on Spotify or Apple Music who pay on average $0.004 per stream where it takes 263 streams for an artist to earn a single dollar.