Here we are at another BandCamp Friday, a day that has become one of our favorite recurring days of the year. For those yet unaware: since the start of the pandemic, BandCamp has been dedicating the first Friday of every month to music artists by donating 100% of sales made on purchases of albums and songs directly to them. So, if there were an album from your favorite artist, old or new, that you’ve had your eyes on, purchasing it today via their BandCamp page will put all of the money right in their pocket.
In the spirit of the day, here are a few of our favorite new music selections, including albums either recently released or soon to be released, that we think would be great purchases for your listening pleasure.
1. Butcher Brown: #King Butch
Smashing together fusion jazz, ultra tight hip hop beats, swamp rock and more, #KingButch is the fantastic new studio release from Richmond, Virginia’s Butcher Brown. The record is magic from its first few moments, in which the vocals of DJ Harrison flow like liquid velvet, and that magic carries through the incredible instrumental grooves of tracks like “Cabbage,” “Tidal Wave” and others. If you want a BandCamp purchase that will make you simultaneously want to drift into meditation and get up and move around, here it is.
2. Futurebirds: BirdFamilyJewels Vol. 1
Cozy, escapist, stellar indie rock. If you’re looking for the Wilco meets Avett Brothers of modern times, this might be your band. Futurebirds have released several critically acclaimed albums in their steadily rising career, but Bird Family Jewels Vol. 1, released just last month, compiles outtakes, B-sides, and acoustic versions of older songs. To be honest, we got into Futurebirds for their rip roaring, highway-cruising tunes that makes them a great live show, but this brand new collection makes us fall in love with a whole other side to their great sound.
3. Bella White: Just Like Leaving
If Rolling Stone magazine and Glide magazine both praise songs on your debut album, you’ve probably got something very special going on. Last week Canadian folk singer Bella White dropped her downright gorgeous Appalachian bluegrass album Just Like Leaving upon the world, and from the first roving notes of “Gutted” to the soulful bluesy twang of its final track, this is quite a grand entrance to be made upon the scene.
4. Goose: Ted Tapes III
Connecticut jamband Goose have been on a serious roll in 2020, from multiple sold-out drive-in shows to a brilliantly executed ten-day concert run called Bingo Tour. Today, they have released Ted Tapes III, the third installment in a series of jam-friendly releases on their official BandCamp page. The Ted Tapes consist of completely improvised pieces of music pulled from the band’s practice sessions, and tracks are given simple one word names to fit each piece’s mood and feel.
If recent Goose live shows are any evidence, Ted Tapes III should be pure exploratory magic.
5. Born Ruffians: Squeeze
With Squeeze released officially today, that makes two full-length studio releases in one year for indie bop darlings Born Ruffians, who put out Juice back in April. Squeeze is the complimentary follow-up record, and we’re grooving easy to what we hear so far. In the vein of artists like Beck, Cake, and Mother Mother, you never really know what you’re gonna get with each next Born Ruffians song, but you know it’ll be some truly fun, creatively satisfying rock and roll.
6. Twisted Pine: Right Now
Ask us what bands we thing we’ll be on top of the bluegrass world in just a few years, and Twisted Pine would be one of the first names we’d throw out. Over the past couple of years, the progressive stringband foursome’s sound and songwriting catalog has blossomed—involving everything from the welcoming of a masterful jazz flautist as newest member to SNL-style quarantine comedy videos—making them incredibly exciting to keep an eye and ear on. Right Now seems like the grand drawing of the curtain to reveal everything this sharp-riffed, bright-melodied band has been cooking up.
7. Eggy: Selections From The Crate
Like countless other bands out there right now, four-member groove rock band Eggy were robbed of some pretty tremendous touring opportunities this summer, such as making a debut at Peach Music Festival, opening for Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, and more. But they also made stellar use of their quarantine time, performing “Live From the Egg Crate,” AKA their band living room, a number of times throughout spring and summer. Today, they’ve released “Selections From The Crate,” a 2 hour-plus compilation of tracks from those performances, and the tremendous opening jam “One More Dance,” which stretches over twenty-five minutes long, should speak for this BandCamp release pretty quickly.
8. The Wormdogs: Hey Thanks
One band that has been generating great buzz this year is The Wormdogs, who made a big presentation to the east coast bluegrass scene earlier this year with Live From Otis Mountain. The band’s studio follow-up release comes in Hey Thanks, and from the music of these brand new tracks it certainly sounds like The Wormdogs know how throw a party. The fun kicks off immediately with the album’s headlining track, “River Song,” which pairs youthful vocals over the top of an energizing rock and bluegrass combo.
9. Frankie and The Witch Fingers: Monsters Eating People Eating Monsters…
“Bubbling up from the psychedelic tar pits of L.A., Frankie and the Witch Fingers have been a constant source of primordial groove for the better part of the last decade.” The band’s own words on their BandCamp page put it better than we could have. The Poke Around has long been sold on Frankie and The Witch Fingers’ blistering, otherworldly, rip-your-face-off brand of psychedelic punk. As such, we are teeming with excitement for the very hyped-up release today of Monsters Eating People Eating Monsters…