Happy Friday, happy May and most importantly for the purposes of this blog, happy Bandcamp Day.
The website, which allows independent artists to stream and sell their albums, EPs, singles and other merchandise online, waived its share of revenue on sales through its platform March 20 to help artists affected by COVID-19. It recently announced it would do it again May 1, June 5 and July 3.
Today's the day to get on the site and support your favorite artists. But before you download that Metallica or U2 album (are they even on Bandcamp? I didn't check), check out what your neighbors are doing on the site. Here are five picks in no particular order to help get you started.
(Five picks, quarantine top fives ... why is this blog so obsessed with fives, you may ask? "High Fidelity," that's why.)
"Till the Feeling's Right," Erin Cole-Baker
Folk-rock-pop singer-songwriter Cole-Baker recently returned to Bend after many years living in New Zealand, where she stepped away from music for a time and started a family. Looking to get back into performing, she recorded "Till the Feeling's Right" in New Zealand in 2017, and spent a good portion of last year touring around the U.S. with her family in an RV.
The record finds Cole-Baker experimenting with electric guitar and a full band, while dealing with the uncertainties of returning to music, taking care of her family and her travels across the U.S. and world. The full-band recordings give Cole-Baker's songs and already powerful voice that extra push over the top.
"Creature Comforts," The Roof Rabbits
I've sung the praises of The Roof Rabbits over at GO! Magazine on more than one occasion, so this entry probably comes as no surprise to regular readers. I'm linking to the band's first album, "Creature Comforts," an angry yet contemplative blast of indie-punk that stands alongside the best rock 'n' roll breakup albums. The album was easily my favorite release of 2018 and is still one I revisit frequently; check out "Baby Blue Mercury" and "Mayday," a perfect diamond of crystallized anger and regret.
However, you'd do well to check out the March EP "Arizona," too. With expanded musicality and lyrical focus and longer songs, the set is the next logical step in this trio's evolution.
"Rainmaker," AM Clouds
Readers who followed me from GO! Magazine know that AM Clouds is my other favorite local band, for many of the same reasons I love The Roof Rabbits (it all boils down to big hooks and bigger guitars). "Rainmaker" blends '60s pop and psychedelia with more modern indie rock sounds, while songwriter Bruce Moon contemplates life, love and longing in the digital age and beyond.
The title track and closer "Almost Her" are highly recommended. The former starts in easy-going pop/rock territory before devolving into a psychedelic jam, while the latter is a country song until the squalling guitars come in to obliterate the ending.
"Head On," "This is (Not) All There Is," "What Comes After," Mosley Wotta
Bend rapper, poet and visual artists Wotta dropped a new track, "Head On," in mid-April that fits in rather nicely with his EP from earlier this year, "This is (Not) All There Is." The track rides a jazzy keyboard line and trap beat as Wotta urges that "it's OK to not be OK, it's OK to rebound." The track's underlying frustration suits this new quarantine paradigm perfectly.
Check it out and also check out "This is (Not) All There Is," as well as last year's de facto comeback album "What Comes After" -- two records that address themes such as family, racism, fear of the "other" in general and empowerment, but take very different journeys to get there. Wotta has been donating proceeds from his album sales during the pandemic to organizations and causes including Bend's firefighters; check him out on Facebook for more information.
Bonus: Immune Friction
OK, not from Bend, not even close, but this grunge-surf-punk duo is well worth your time anyway (full disclosure: they're also two of my best friends in the world, and my band used to play with them on the East Coast when I used to do stuff like that). Based in Bennington, Vermont, Immune Friction -- guitarist/songwriter Chris Dayton and drummer Justine Curry -- mix esoteric wordplay, ethereal harmonies and sludgy riffs into songs that perfectly balance naivete and darkness. I've linked my favorite song of theirs, "Mountain View Wind Farm," from their first album, 2011's "The Markets Never Sleep."
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