Hello and welcome to FTA’s list of what we are excited for this Bandcamp Friday, aka every music nerds favorite day! A bunch of us weighed in on what we’ve been into lately and we’ve got plenty of goodies old and new for you to dig into over a wide range of genres. But don’t take our word for it, dive into these tracks/albums and judge for yourself. Feel free to let us know what you think and tell us your suggestions.
It’s the first BC Friday of 2023 and we’re stoked for another big year of killer tunes. We had a bunch of great lists over the course of 2022 which you can peruse for plenty of inspiration on variety of tunes for you to explore. Check them out here: April, May, June, September, October, November and December.
Kate Hoos- Editor In Chief
Debbie Downers– Eat My Skorts. I’m not sure if this bratty Australian punk band ever released anything else, but I love this EP which I happened upon randomly while searching for something else on the Helta Skelta Records BC page (they have a bunch of other cool releases you should check out too, most notably Gaffer‘s demo which was a BC Friday score for me in 2020). And who doesn’t love a happy accident?! Described on the page as “6 tracks of short, fast and choppy DIY punk following a similar route to bands such as Kleenex/Liliput and the Petticoats” that’s a very apt descriptor. This was released in 2018 and as of yet I haven’t found anything else by them, but here’s hoping more is soon to be revealed!
Mr. Marcaille– No Snare No Headache. The internet, oh the internet. It’s an unyieldingly horrible cesspool most of the time, but every so often, your nightly doomscroll can pay you in large dividends. Just such a thing happened to me recently when I was on Instagram and saw a video of a dude playing a cello in his underwear while simultaneously playing drums with his feet and screaming…to which I said SIGN ME UP! The video didn’t show a name but eager to learn more, I googled “cello metal dude” and was quickly met with an article titled “Watch This Nearly Naked Bloke Play Death Metal On A Cello In The Park” from the NZ website The Rock (which seems to have the similar gonzo-esque/snarky approach to things that I have been more heavily leaning into lately, so you know I loved it). The article also yielded said undie clad cello metal bloke’s name, Mr. Marcaille.
I’m just starting to dig into his catalog, but there is just something so soothing about listening to a one man death metal band scream the perfect ode to navigating NYC on an given day “Fuck Off and Die” (that’s not what the song is really about, rather my personal interpretation). He is currently in the number one spot of my list of bands I absolutely must see. There are many videos of him playing shows and festivals around Europe on YouTube and I will be watching the Internet swamp like a hawk for the news that he is heading to the hellfire shores of Murica.
Various– If The 20th Century Didn’t Exist It Would Be Necessary To Invent It. This came out in 2002 on the now defunct label 5 Rue Christine (which at the time was an offshoot/the more experimental arm of Kill Rocks Stars) and I was recently reminded of it when I was thinking about my first introduction to Lightning Bolt when I was writing up their December show in Brooklyn (see pics).
Repeating what I said in that writeup about it: That time period was sort of the end of the heyday of the cheap record label/zine comps where you could get 20-25 songs for a few bucks and discover all sorts of new shit to explore, perhaps even finding your new favorite band. It was always (and still is) supremely satisfying to strike musical gold this way, much more so than playlists are now or downloading random MP3s were during the same era. You got the “brand assurance” of knowing the label or zine releasing it so you could bank on the fact that it probably was good/well curated, but you still had to have a little skin in the game and make a bit of an investment which yeah, sometimes turned out to be a bust, but a lot of times it paid off in spades. And pay off that comp surely did, I played that CD over and over again until it eventually got lost, but I never forgot the music I learned about from it.
This comp was my first introduction to many bands I went on to love: Lightning Bolt, The Sick Lipstick, Dilute, Generic aka The Advantage, Deerhoof and more. It will get you a lot of bang for your buck and I highly recommend it. (If CDs are more your thing, you can also get a copy on Discogs for a pretty good price, something I think I probably will do soon. I’ve been recently re-buying a lot of these 90s/early aughts comps—or picking up some for the first time—since they were so formative for me discovering new stuff in that era.)
DAKTYLOI– Mineral Screen. “An ecstatic slush binder.” Ambient sounds made by manipulating everything from tape, vinyl and an Assmann Universa dictation machine.
Dylan Mars Greenberg– BADWORLD. Greenberg is a local transgender musician and video artist who I was lucky enough to catch live recently. Here you’ll find 80’s synth sounds with a glimmer of Magnetic Fields. The melodies on these songs are insanely catchy. Watch out for next time she plays a show.
Miami Nights 1984– Sentimental. Nostalgia-tinged synthy beats for driving down the neon-washed streets.
SKYBRIDGE– VICTORY IS LIFE. Skybridge is a NYC-based production duo that I came across on a Tumblr blazed post. The soundtrack to the best racing video game you’ve never played. Expect synths and wild guitar licks.
Edwina Hay- Contributing Photographer
7ebra– I Have a Lot to Say. I received a press release for this Swedish duo’s 7″ and from the first few seconds of “I Have a Lot to Say,” I needed to hear more and purchased their two songs digitally.
Billy Nomates– CACTI. I first learned of Billy Nomates (née Tor Maries; her name is slang for someone who doesn’t have friends) thanks to Sleaford Mods and CACTI, her second album was released on Friday, January 13th and I’m very much looking forward to hearing these songs live in May.
Bratmobile– Discography. I previously owned The Real Janelle and Pottymouth on CD and cassette by Bratmobile respectively. I recently received a Bandcamp notification from Kill Rock Stars offering a discount on the entire discography on Bandcamp and it was an easy decision for me to buy all four releases digitally.
Cities Aviv– Man Plays The Horn./Working Title For the Album Secret Waters.
I had no idea Cities Aviv was releasing music again, but thanks to this piece by Blake Gillespie for Bandcamp Daily, I’m planning on picking up his latest releases on Bandcamp Friday.
Fatboi Sharif & Roper Williams featuring ELUCID– Scrabbleboard Pieces. Fatboi Sharif is a rapper from NJ who has teamed up with producer Roper Williams again. The duo seems pretty unstoppable right now and have recruited Brooklyn’s ELUCID for this exciting track released in January.
Sleepies– Smhoakstock. Brooklyn band Sleepies performed during Smhoakstock XII (the last and final one) and have released an EP of their performance which closes with a cover of The Replacements’ “Can’t Hardly Wait.”
The Cult of Chunk– Cult Answering Machine. As they head out on their first extensive tour of the United States to spread the word of Chunk, learn what you can do help back here on the home front. Kool Aid? Oh yeah!
Ilithios– Panic. This EP didn’t get the vinyl treatment as its beautiful LP predecessor Florist, but it packs a mean punch so it’s most definitely worth scooping up in digital format.
Ray Rusinak- Contributing Photographer
Arbor Labor Union– Yonder. This Atlanta quartet has been putting out music which they refer to as “transcendental twang” since 2016. That’s quite an apt description of what you’ll hear on Yonder. If you’re a fan of artists such as Ryley Walker or Garcia Peoples with their cascading guitar dominant cosmic neo-psychedelia, then Yonder ought to be right up your alley.
Isaac Alexander– Future Sanctuary 1 and Future Sanctuary 2. Little Rock’s very own Isaac Alexander attempted a quirky marketing trick with FS1&2. He released #1 at 11:59 PM on December 31, 2022 and #2 at 12:00 AM on January 1, 2023. I’m not sure if this little trick garnered much more in the sales of these two albums but I will say that the songs which pack these two discs speak for themselves. Between the two you get 24 well crafted songs that are introspective and thought provoking. Presented in a relatively (for the most part) quiet and soft singer/songwriter style within the Americana genre, Alexander, who runs and operates a Little Rock advertising agency as his day job ought to appeal to fans of Water Liars or Father John Misty.
Be still my gay heart! Middle-Aged Queers aka the Bay Area queer-core darlings and sassy pop punk band of my aging dyke dreams are back with new music, “Anal Beads,” which comes on the heels of their 2022 album, Shout At The Hetero (one of our favorites of 2022), and is the first release from the band featuring their new guitarist, Fureigh (The Homobiles, ex-The Shondes), who joined the band last year.
The song is a mid-tempo rock ballad with a plaintive plea to a lover: “I’m on my knees / Begging you please / For this one deed” and goes on to leave nothing to the imagination!
Released just in time for Valentine’s Day, the band says: “We grew up on the heterocentric, decadent rock and roll ballads of the ’70s and ’80s. It only seemed fitting that we write a love song for us, by us.” And you know I’m all for it because it is a certifiable fact that we need more songs explicitly about queer love AND how sexy it is. Thank the gay gods for bands like Middle-Aged Queers for fulfilling that need with all the sass, grit and glam they can muster.
Listen to the song below and download it on Bandcamp or listen on all major streamers.
The NYC/Long Island based punk band is preparing to release a new seven song album, Orgy of Hate, which is the follow up to their 2022 debut EP, Blood In The Water. The band members—Shawn Refuse, Joe Dorane, Blackout Matt, Jimmy Duke and Ryan Paige—have been stalwarts of New York’s DIY punk scene for years and count bands like Hopeless Otis, Blackout Shoppers and Refuse Resist on their resume.
Vocalist Refuse shares about the name of the album and its title track: “I came up with this great song about how hate breeds hate and it’s a vicious circle that needs to be broken by us as a society. It was called “Hate Will Breed Hate.” I brought it into practice and Matt was like ‘That’s no fun, why don’t we call it something that everyone likes? Orgies are fun, everyone loves orgies. Let’s call it ‘Orgy of Hate,’”
The album will drop in full on 4/21 and will be self-released by the 100% DIY band. It will be available via all major streamers, CD and a very limited run of lathe-cut vinyl. To celebrate the release of the album, they will play a pair of release shows: 4/22 in Boston at Midway Cafe and 4/30 in New York at Bowery Electric. The band produced the record along with longtime friend of the band, Glen Lorieo.
Today they share the first single, “Wasting Away,” an infectious punk n roll ripper which comes paired with a video that was filmed at storied LES Tiki bar, and home to hundreds of sweaty punk shows over the years, Otto’s Shrunken Head. Friends of the band make cameos throughout.
Watch the video below and check out the Orgy of Hate album art and track listing.
Whenwolves, who self describe as “Brooklyn art rock to be blasted while howling at the moon,” grew out of the isolation and pent up creativity of the early days of the pandemic when Bobby Lewis found his band, Mustardmind, left idling in 2020. What resulted was a new project unencumbered by the expectations of what came before as Lewis explains the onus of “picking up the pieces and starting work on new music fell solely on his shoulders, as there were no other bandmates to develop the songs with at the time.” What resulted was a new angular project that incorporated the familiar electronic elements of his previous project but with a new focus that forged a new direction and in doing so, their debut EP, Recon for the Weirdos, was born.
Ahead of the record’s 3/3 release date, lead single “The Minutes” is a cool and slightly mathy track with bouncy corners awash in synth and electronic piano to set the dreamy mood as it plays off the underlying bass groove. It’s as much God Lives Underwater as it is Church Crush, but at the same time it feels like a trolley ride through the Land of Make-Believe. Eric Slick (of Dr. Dog) was scooped up to play drums, Kristin Slipp (of mmeadows and Dirty Projectors) contributed backing vocals, and the 2022 live lineup became complete as Kelsey Rodriguez and Bobby’s brother, Billy Lewis, joined the group to play bass.
We here at Full Time Aesthetic are super happy to be premiering the track “Minutes” ahead of its official release and will be keeping close tabs on the band’s give song EP as we approach the 3/3 drop date. The band will play a release show to celebrate on 3/1 at The Broadway. Take a listen to the brand new track below and check out the art for the EP.
OSEES, the prolific garage punks and title holders of “one of the hardest working bands on the planet” have just announced a slew of tour dates for 2023 that will see them heading Down Under, hitting SXSW, jumping over to the UK and playing a number of festivals. All this comes before a US run in the fall which will have them returning to NYC in September for a pair of dates at Warsaw on 9/22 and 9/23.
They released their most recent album, the “brain stem cracking scum-punk” opus, A Foul Form (one of our favorites of 2022), last August and not that he’s not busy enough, but front man John Dwyer is also gearing up to release another improv album with his project Posh Swat on 2/17 (read our thoughts on their most recent single).
Tickets for all dates go on sale Friday 2/3. See below for full list.
OSEES 2023 Tour Dates:
2/3- Brisbane, AUS @ The Princess Theatre w/ Straight Arrows
2/4- Maroochydore, AUS @ Eleven – Sunshine Coast w/ Straight Arrows
2/5- Gold Coast, AUS @ Miami Marketta w/ Straight Arrows
2/8- Fremantle, AUS @ Freo Social
2/10- Melbourne, AUS @ The Croxton Bandroom w/ The Blinds
2/11- Melbourne, AUS @ The Croxton Bandroom w/ Modal Melodies
2/15- Sydney, AUS 2 The Factory w/ R.M.F.C.
3/14- Austin, TX @ Hotel Vegas – SXSW
3/15- Austin, TX @ Hotel Vegas – SXSW
3/16- Austin, TX @ Hotel Vegas – SXSW
3/17- Austin, TX @ Hotel Vegas – SXSW
4/27- Los Angeles, CA @ The Viper Room
5/13- Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Block Party
5/18- Manchester, ENG @ Albert Hall
5/19- Glasgow, SCT @ Old Fruit Market
5/22- Dublin, IE @ Button Factory
5/26- Birmingham, ENG @ The Crossing
5/27- London, ENG @ Wide Awake Festival
5/28- Brighton, ENG @ Chalk
5/30- Bristol, ENG @ Marble Factory
5/31- Leeds, ENG @ Brudnell Social Club
6/22- Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom
6/23- Calgary, AB @ Sled Island Music & Arts Festival
6/25- Montreal, QC @ Club Soda w/ Hot Garbage and Tha Retail Simp$
8/25- Málaga, ES @ Canela Party
9/3- San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
9/4- San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
9/5- San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
9/6- San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
9/8- Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom
9/9- Seattle, WA @ Neumos
9/10- Seattle, WA @ Neumos
9/14- Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
9/15- Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
9/16- Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
9/17- Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
9/18- Detroit, MI @ El Club
9/20- Boston, MA @ Royale
9/22- Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw
9/23- Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw
9/25- Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
9/26- Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
10/3- Albuquerque, NM @ Sister Bar
There’s so much going on in any given week in the music press/world of pop culture/the world at large that I can’t possibly keep up with it all. That being said, there are definitely things I see that I want to comment on and that being the case, I thought it would be fun to share some thoughts/anecdotes/snarky observations on a few things and get a little cheeky each week on things that I either liked or scoffed at that happened in the world of music/pop culture. I always love a chance to be sassy, sarcastic, and a bit over-the-top-gay, so here we are! Welcome to me serving up my aging punk nerd thoughts—not all of them polite—on some pop culture moments and music news from the preceding week. A little Sunday Brunch if you will.
In more exciting—and may I add very gay (insert heart eye emoji here)— boygenius news, it seems that sapphic heartthrob, Kristen Stewart, will be directing three videos for the holy trinity of indie rock, much to the rejoicing of queer women everywhere. While Rolling Stone did report it in a companion article to their recent cover story, they did not elaborate on any further details other than to mention it was happening. Nice tease, we see what you did there! Rolling Stone has been going hard on their boygenius coverage in general since they seem to be the only outlet that has thus far done a current interview with the band, so this selective parsing out of info is on track with that and I would expect yet another article with more fleshed out details on the videos is coming.
Without such details currently available, fans will most definitely be intensely debating and musing on what those videos will entail and for which songs, though the currently released ones seem like the most obvious choices.
And I’ll let you straights in on a little secret, lesbian/queer fandoms tend to be exceptionally rabid and unflinchingly loyal to their heroes, much more so than “regular” fandoms which can already be pretty ardent. This stems from the fact that we don’t get much that caters to us in popular media, so fans tend to cling to sapphic and queer characters/stories/artists/actors/musicians etc with a much more fervent grasp than their straight counterparts. Figures such as Stewart and “the Boys” (both as a collective unit and as individuals) are very hot discussion topics online in fan communities. I don’t tend to interact with any of that much at all other than to occasionally dip in and lurk once in a while on Twitter when big pop culture moments such as this happen, but I don’t need to even do that to know the bees are buzzing and speculation is flying! I guess we will just have to wait and see what this very gay partnership yields.
The companion article also had some fun and cute anecdotes from the band that didn’t make the full cover interview, so take a peak to find out about what they think about tarot, actual “boy geniuses,” what happens when you start eating meat again and more.
Fuck Phil Anselmo. Let me say it again in case you didn’t catch my drift, fuck Phil Anselmo. The racist lead singer of Pantera gets no sympathy from me after a number of European festival appearances were canceled this week over backlash concerning his bullshit of flashing Nazi salutes and yelling “white power” at a concert in 2016 which he claimed was a “joke about white wine”………..sure, yeah okay, I often scream racially motivated hate slogans about the beverages I partake in while displaying hateful gestures too and then pretend I don’t know what those words/gestures mean, doesn’t everyone?! It’s just a joke man, lighten up! (Cue tired middle aged gay eye roll please.)
The metal world was polarized over the return of the band in 2021, but to me it is astounding how this is even a question whether they should be playing or not. The answer is NO, they should not. Yes, Anselmo apologized and said he “owns” what he did, but forgive me for not buying it (because he has subsequently made statements to the effect of “it was one joke come on get over it!”). He was only sorry that he got caught. And unfortunately there are enough right leaning “it’s just free speech” bros in the metal world to let him continue to get away with this kind of stuff and have some semblance of a career. But it is definitely one of those “are you for fucking real right now?!” moments for me.
There is free speech and then there is hate speech and causing harm with your words. Screaming “white power” definitely falls under the latter category, no question about it. And either way you slice it, “free speech” only guarantees you won’t get arrested or imprisoned for saying it. It doesn’t guarantee you freedom from other consequences and being held accountable by non government actors up to and including not being allowed to bring your shitty metal bro attitude to a music festival and losing out on business opportunties. You’d think these fools would have grasped that by now. (Or better yet, evolved from being disgusting bigots/bigot enablers, but apparently that’s too much to ask.)
So far only a few dates have been canceled and everyone else seems content to let the “cowboys from hell” roll into town, as they are currently scheduled to complete dates throughout the year with Metallica and Lamb of God. While I’m not a fan of either (okay, I do like some old Metallica stuff from the 80s), it is extremely disappointing to see those bands looking the other way on this kind of behavior. One can hope they’ll wise up and address it but that remains to be seen (and I’m not going to hold my breath). There is no place in metal or otherwise for yelling racist language or displaying gestures that symbolize despicable genocidal maniacs, full stop.
Stereogum reported on the cancelations (as did many other outlets) and you can read more about the initial cancelations here or the subsequent ones here. Blabbermouth has a more nuanced article that includes some of the painful history in the locations that the events are being held and quotes Anselmo weakly defending himself in 2019 which was, to quote my favorite meme cat, “pathetic.”
Ummm what? Let me get this straight….you launched a cereal product at some point in the very recent past (aka 2022)…apparently without doing any research…or even a simple Google search…so you ended up naming it the same name as an already established musical artist who has used the name since the not very recent past (aka 1998)…and it turns out you actually previously collaborated with said musical artist on an ad campaign at another point in the not so recent past (aka 2011)…so you definitely knew about them…but apparently must have conveniently forgotten about it…and then when that musical artist sent you cease and desist letters you tried to dodge them…then buy them off…which they declined…leading to threat of a lawsuit from the band…which you then countered with your own suit…to try to steal the name that you already stole…rather than just admitting you fucked up and dropping the name that you’re trying to/already did steal…………………………………………..right! Got it!
Now that I’m up to speed here, damn, what an adventure in the theater of the capitalist absurd! The band commented to Billboard “A big corporation chose to steal the name of our band to market disposable plastic cups of sugar to children. That was an unwelcome surprise, to say the least,” they said. “But then they sue US about it? Presumably, the idea is that they can just bully us out of our own name, since they have so much more money to spend on lawyers? I guess that’s often how it works, but hopefully, we’ll be the exception.”
And Post’s lawyers countered with this snarky statement (which I swear I did not write!) “Given the length of time that has passed since that limited collaboration over a decade ago, the very small number of views indicated on the YouTube videos you referenced, and the general consuming public’s rather short attention span, it will also have absolutely no bearing on consumer perception of Post’s mark OK GO! used with cereal or cereal-based snacks, and will not lead to any mistaken association with OK Go.”
It remains to be seen how this Indie David vs. Cereal Goliath situation will play out but I really hope Ok Go (the real one) fights tooth and nail to defeat Ok Go (the soggy one). And as for the imposter cereal killer Ok Go and their behavior, let’s cue the cat meme again…
Read more about it on Consequence or the above linked Billboard article.
Last week, I mentioned a bit about conservatives raging at cartoon pieces of candy not being sexy enough and well…….now those cartoon pieces of candy are being dropped to avoid the controversy that has arisen over M&M’s changing their branding because right wing commentators screamed about them being “too woke.” I just don’t even know what to say about this. My eyes are bulging out of my head because wow. Just…wow. If ever it felt like the world is in flames and we are in a culture war, then this is the epitome of the clown car rhetoric that these people push on a daily basis. It’s literally cartoons…of pieces of candy…just say you hate anyone who isn’t a cis, straight, white Christian man and move on. Let’s be real that this isn’t about candy at all.
The ever fabulous and snarky queer Instagram personality Matt Bernstein weighed in on it with his typical razor sharp wit and hit the nail on the head, “remember what they took from you.” Remember indeed.
