FTA’s Bandcamp Friday picks June 2022

FTA’s Bandcamp Friday picks June 2022

by | Jun 17, 2022

 

Hello and welcome to FTA’s list of what we are excited for this Bandcamp Friday, aka every music nerds favorite day! A few of us weighed in on what we’ve been into lately and we’ve got a nice selection goodies we think you should check out. This Bandcamp Friday is in honor of Juneteenth and will mark the 3rd year that the company will be donating 100% of their share from downloads to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (read Bandcamp’s full statement). BC Friday will skip August before returning September 2nd, and following through on the first Friday of each month until the end of the year.

 

Tell us what you dug and what you downloaded in the comments.

 

Kate Hoos- Editor In Chief

 

BLKVAPOR– Vaporising. There’s a lot to BLKVAPOR’S sound—emo, punk, noise—and it all coalesces into something that is uniquely them. This Baltimore based outfit also puts on an explosive and enthralling live performance and are without a doubt a band you need to be keeping your eyes and ears on.

 

Keefchamber– DIMO. I saw this two piece sludgey doom metal band last summer at a house show in NJ and they shook the fucking walls from start to finish. There may only be two of them, and no guitars in the band, but their sound is gigantic, a slow and demanding dirge that relies solidly on droning, heavily distorted bass lines. They also make no bones about their love of green, with many of their song titles and artwork referencing the bud. At least a few times a month ever since that show I’ve wondered aloud “when will I get to see this band again?!” and would very much like to change my drought in having seen them again this summer. They have scant few releases online but I’m also hoping that changes soon too.

 

Sons Of Kemet– Lest We Forget What We Came Here To Do. This formidable UK jazz group recently announced that they be “closing this chapter of the band’s existence for the foreseeable future” after they wrap up their 2022 touring commitments (likely because all four members of the group are busy with many other collaborations and solo work). While this is disappointing for sure, I am glad the members are continuing with a variety of other things and am especially glad I got a chance to see them a few months ago at Webster Hall for a spectacular night of expressive and contemplative jazz fusion. They leave behind a legacy of four exceptional albums, including this, their 2015 opus. They will play their final NYC show on 7/31 at Central Park Summer Stage.

 

###– Nasilno. I very recently discovered this Croatian instrumental post hardcore/noise/atmospheric rock band via a music group on Facebook. While it’s not good for much these days, Facebook does manage to come through in this department and I do enjoy the few groups I’m in on there to discover old and new things alike, this one being a big standout for me. I’ve long loved instrumental music and getting lost in the different textures and sounds in a way that I can’t find myself doing with music that contains vocals and lyrics. This is on the fast track to becoming one of my favorite releases of 2022. And if you were wondering how to say this bands name, apparently it is “pronounced” by hitting a random object three times.

Kevin McGann- Contributing Photographer

 

Failure– Wild Type Droid. This alt rock cult favorite from the 90’s is back on tour to support their latest full length album and will be playing Warsaw on Friday 6/24.

Fortezza– Windmill. Some post-punk garage rock courtesy of North Carolina and currently on tour.

GOAT– Requiem. Swedish experimental psych rock at its finest – GOAT’s last full length release.

Kapput– Carnage Hall. Glasgow 6-piece that combines post-punk percussive beats with keys, sax and swagger and have been touring with Squid.

 

Mike Borchardt- Live Correspondent 

 

Bartees Strange– Wretched. Bartees Strange has received no shortage of accolades from the biggest press publications and successes on the biggest stages these past two years, and that’s simply due to the fact that he remains so damn authentic. “Wretched,” the latest single off his brand new record Farm to Table is just that. Bartees has always surrounded himself with people who keep him honest, and he reflects that right back to his audience with rich sounds and warm textures that are unassuming and just connect on every fiber of the human experience. It’s nerdy. It’s real. And it’s strange.

Ganser– People Watching. My earworm love affair with Ganser started a few years ago. As a fellow Chicagoan, I am partial to Chicago bands, especially when they are awesome. Their new single “People Watching” is dark and driving seemingly effortless and ambivalent in its catchiness. The angular movements poke and prod in all the right places. They’re the kind of band that makes you want to buy a t-shirt and continue to wear it long past laundry day.

War Violet– Get Away. From the imagination of Jummy Aremu, War Violet has evolved over a handful of years, functioning almost as a fly-over of the beauty and truth in musical experience. Compressing both time and reality, what once started as an almost 1960s Nico-esque folk solo project has expanded its sound to include a collective of orchestral textures on their upcoming record.

Nick AD- Contributing Writer

 

Bartees Strange– Farm To Table. 

Editrix– Editrix II: Editrix Goes To Hell. 

Green/Blue– LP.

Hurry Up– American Weirdos. 

The Ire– What Dreams May Come. 

Nonconnah– Don’t Go Down To Lonesome Holler.

Valentina Magaletti– A Queer Anthology of Drums.

 

Ray Rusinak- Contributing Photographer

 

Supercrush– Melody Maker. Supercrush puts out catchy power pop in the 90’s indie mold similar to bands like The Lemonheads, GBV, Teenage Fanclub and Superchunk. Closer to home, and more recently, they also remind me a lot of Brooklyn’s Dead Stars (anyone know if they’re still around?).

Anyways, Supercrush put out one of my favorite albums of 2020 with SODO Pop, and a couple of weeks ago they dropped Melody Maker, an EP which strictly speaking, simply does not disappoint. The band has a knack for hook infused catchy power pop and they do a fantastic job at sticking to the known formula that clearly works. Check them out.

 

NWoBHM and Beyond, The 80s Metal Explosion

NWoBHM and Beyond, The 80s Metal Explosion

by | Mar 14, 2022

One of my favorite Bandcamp finds last year wasn’t music, but a delve into one of the greatest musical genres of all. A History of Heavy Metal is a self-published zine series by B.A. Ricciardi, who goes by “Badger” around these parts. It was a serendipitous discovery; since I started here at FTA, I’ve been thinking a lot about music writing. Describing music is always a tightrope between a press-release or an op-ed, and that goes double for longform. In an overview like this, what separates compelling history from simple, encyclopedic entries, or an overly personal list?

 

Badger seems to have found the perfect formula, melding necessary information with heartfelt musing about what makes metal so fucking good. The recently-released second volume, NWoBHM and Beyond: The 80’s Metal Explosion, tackles the coalescing of metal into something more definable than the often-scattered hard rock of the 70’s. (For the uninitiated, NWoBHM stands for ‘New Wave of British Heavy Metal’, and includes such bands as Iron Maiden, Venom, and Saxon.) All the greats are here, but the reach is far wider than Britain in scope, and many other artists are brought out into the light (including some lesser known female-fronted acts of the era, as well as bands from Japan and South Korea.)

 

The format of both volumes so far is a short introductory piece  — which here includes an aside on the polarizing and impossible to ignore phenomenon of 80’s hair metal — followed by a walk through the music itself. Bands get an introductory blurb (length depending on how high their influence looms) after which a selection of tracks are given their due. The focus on songs rather than albums as a monolithic whole is really a boon to those descending into unfamiliar territory, especially in this day and age of streaming. That’s not to say the impact of historic albums is neglected, just that acts such as Mythra (1*) and Trespass, who never released a full LP, are given a fair shake, and bands with a larger output don’t take up so much space we tire of them.

 

 

NWoBHM is not my bread and butter, so unlike the first volume, where I knew (nearly) every act, this volume brought me a number of new entries for my playlist. And of course, choice is a form of editorializing. But I maintain that any good overview of a genre like this can and should never be complete, and will immediately invite the reader to shout into the void about what was left out, because otherwise what you have is an anodyne encyclopedia. As Badger wisely states, “I always make an attempt to be fair, but I never make an attempt to be neutral.” Why write about music on anything but a wiki if you don’t want to include your own opinion? And so I find myself shaking my head that Sabbrabells aren’t here with the other Japanese metal bands, and vowing to fight Badger in a Denny’s parking lot over Motley Crue. (Too Fast For Love is a masterpiece. 2*) And honestly, that’s a plus in my book, as “this is still a History of Heavy Metal, and not a list of every good metal song that ever came out.” 

 

The writing doesn’t shy away from technicalities when necessary (I’m sure some people will have to look up ‘ostinato’) but it’s couched in fairly colloquial speech, so it never feels like reading a textbook; rather, it’s almost as if Badger himself is right there, extolling the virtues of metal with a gleam in his eye. Like a lot of great metal music, NWoBHM and Beyond mostly takes itself seriously, but knows when to poke fun at itself and when to just have fun. From waxing poetic on Dio’s relative lack of poetry, to an extended paean to X-Japan’s “Art of Life,” the text is both straightforward and intricate, like the best metal songs: riffs and elaboration.

 

NWoBHM and Beyond: The 80’s Metal Explosion is available in A5 zine format, at 64 pages long. Both volumes of A History of Heavy Metal can be found at Heavy Metal Handbook on Bandcamp, with volumes three and four, on thrash and death metal, respectively, to be released in the future.

 

  1. Fucking thank you for introducing me to this EP:

 

2. Note I’m not claiming this is heavy metal, just that it’s good