What should I buy for Bandcamp Friday?
August 7, 2020 8:43 AM   Subscribe

Bandcamp is doing another no-fee Friday where artists get 100% of the revenue. I've already bought Robyn Hitchcock's The Man Downstairs: Demos and Rarities, and have a substantial collection. What else should I buy? I'd love to support more great musicians / bands today. More favorites inside...

Bandcamp has been really, really good for exploring music and discovering things I'd not have heard of otherwise. I picked up on YĪN YĪN, The Comet is Coming, The Olympians, Mattiel, Reptaliens, The Traffic, Theon Cross, If These Trees Could Talk, The Coconut Monkeyrocket, Echo Ladies, Walking Oceans, Secret Drum Band, and DANCE WITH THE DEAD via Bandcamp. Plus I've gotten lots of great Bill Laswell, Buckethead, and Jah Wobble stuff released on Bandcamp.

I'm also heavy into the standard 80s alternative and new wave bands (Talking Heads, XTC, The Cure, Siouxsie, Information Society, Depeche Mode), 90s indie stuff, classic rock, early NIN, Aimee Mann, Colin Hay, Imogen Heap, as well as a smattering of jazz, and too many other bands to list.

What should I be checking out and buying on Bandcamp? What would you recommend I give a listen today?
posted by jzb to Media & Arts (14 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Burn me for this self-link, but you asked:

My band, Bottlecap Mountain, just put up a quarantune this morning. Recorded remotely, and has a bit more of a synthetic sound than our other stuff, but we like it. It's a buck, but you can listen for free.
posted by dirtdirt at 8:50 AM on August 7, 2020 [3 favorites]




Chromeo's Quarantine Casanova EP is on Bandcamp and it is just delightful.
posted by mogget at 9:58 AM on August 7, 2020 [1 favorite]


Rough Trade has a great, 115-track compilation benefiting Black Lives Matter.

You can't go wrong with Wussy or Mekons.

Daniel Knox has some stuff that might be of interest--both his original music and also his covers of Twin Peaks and Mister Rogers.

I love this album of music with lyrics from Carl Sandberg poems by David Nagler & Friends (friends include Sally Timms, Jeff Tweedy, and Robbie Fulks).
posted by carrienation at 10:48 AM on August 7, 2020 [1 favorite]


Based on your '80s/'90s bands, you might like some of these:

Silver Bars

Fragile Animals

Flyying Colours

Slowdive
posted by troywestfield at 11:32 AM on August 7, 2020 [1 favorite]


Cardiacs (and related)
posted by remembrancer at 12:21 PM on August 7, 2020 [1 favorite]


I'd recommend anything and everything put out by Sahel Sounds.

This year, they've been releasing monthly editions of "Music from Saharan Whatsapp" -- recorded on phones, shared via Whatsapp, and each only available for a month. All money goes to the artists.

The latest one, by a Wodaabe guitar band from Niger, is particularly great.
posted by neroli at 2:00 PM on August 7, 2020 [1 favorite]


The Bevis Frond

The Bevis Frond is mostly Nick Saloman playing everything, though he has friends in for live performances and sometimes on the recordings. He's been ridiculously prolific for a very long time. Thoroughly recommended.

The first thing I ever heard from him was Malvolio's Dream Journey To Pikes, on a quite decent car CD player turned up loud and then very very loud once the opening feedback squeal hit my ears. That was five minutes after buying The Auntie Winnie Album from my favourite record store purely because I liked the cover art. Never looked back.
posted by flabdablet at 3:25 PM on August 7, 2020 [1 favorite]


I just bought everything I could on Bandcamp from Paper Idol. His tagline is "too indie for electronic fans, too electronic for indie fans." I listened to "Feel Real Pretty" and couldn't hit that purchase button fast enough.
posted by mogget at 5:34 PM on August 7, 2020 [1 favorite]


Self-link but since you mentioned him: Some of my tunes are Robyn Hitchcock inspired, such as Lavender Sandwich.
posted by quarterframer at 5:38 PM on August 7, 2020 [3 favorites]


I'm a day late, but for next time: Broken Chanter. It's gentle ambient pop from Glasgow.
posted by scruss at 8:07 AM on August 8, 2020 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: quarterframer: For some reason your link isn't working for me. I did a search on Bandcamp for Sugar Gas and found you, though. Thanks for the suggestion!
posted by jzb at 9:55 AM on August 8, 2020


Response by poster: Even though this Bandcamp no-fee Friday is over, I'm still happy to have recommendations. Thanks all!
posted by jzb at 9:56 AM on August 8, 2020


Two of my recent discoveries on Bandcamp that have an 80's new wave, throwback feel are Automatic (containing the daughter of a Bauhaus member) and Shopping.
posted by Leontine at 7:59 AM on August 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


« Older Beyond potato chips and hummus   |   Help me list film, TV, play, book, etc. scenes of... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.