5 Albums to Check Out on October’s Bandcamp Friday

In late March, Bandcamp announced the Bandcamp Friday series, where for 24 hours the online music service would waive its revenue share, so musicians could recieve more money from each purchase. It was a solid gesture from a company that has always been devoted to making sure musicians can survive in this soul-crushing “There is no money in music” era, but I doubt they thought we’d still be doing Bandcamp Fridays into October. We’ve now had seven of these lovely events, and Bandcamp has announced that it will continue the series until the end of 2020. It’s been over 200 days since quarantine started, and when you get down to it, little has changed. Musicians are still hurting, so we figured we’d recommend five of our favorite projects from this year that you should support on this Bandcamp Friday! Ethan Gordon

Anjimile
Giver Taker 
(https://anjimile.bandcamp.com/album/giver-taker)

There are some songs that immediately grab you and others that unveil their layers over time. All the tracks on Anjimile’s debut album, Giver Taker, manage to do both. The Boston-based singer-songwriter seems to have arrived as a fully-formed artist, their songs passionately and beautifully reflecting on their identity as a trans non-binary person, as well as spirituality, love, grief and the gamut of emotions and possibilities. “I’m not just a man/I’m a god/I’m not just a god/I’m a Maker,” Anjimile sings on Maker, as a mix of keyboards and guitar snake and spiral around their expressive vocals. Baby No More moves from light jazz guitar touches to a foot-tapping fuzz groove. Your Tree turns their lovely finger-picked guitar melodies into a spider web where ethereal elements like a synth harp, fluttering flutes and backing harmonies crawl gracefully. It’s an ideal setting for their lyrics of heartache to blossom, with striking imagery like “Soil as black as a widow/Nothing grew” followed by emotional pleas like “How I long to be/blooming from your tree.” With a cornerstone of wonderful guitar picking and a distinctive voice that gets across their story and emotions instantly and powerfully, Giver Taker is a superb introduction to a new artist to watch and a welcoming presence that projects serenity and passion through every note. Joe Marvilli

Moor Mother
Circuit City
(https://moormother.bandcamp.com/album/circuit-city)

After the first five or so turbulent minutes of Moor Mother’s Circuit City have elapsed, the poet asks, “You ever been robbed of your genius? And have your talent lay waste with bones ripped from its neck? Well, that’s circuit city.” Aggro-poetic stanzas, stern and convincing, cut through a mire of scribbling saxophone and whirling drums fills for the majorityof Circuit City, a four-act work by Moor Mother, (or Camae Ayewa). Following a release earlier this year from her project Irreversible Entanglements titled Who Sent You?, and last year’s excellent Analog Fluids of Sonic Black Holes, Ayewa’s Circuit City was performed live as a play, this recorded version featuring her poetry set to free jazz, which provides her material an appropriate and cacophonous backdrop. “The way they house us,” Ayewa says in opening track Act 1 – Working Machine, “The way they make home a dream, a wish—anything but a human right.” Circuit City is meant to take place in a living room, Ayewa’s observations delivered in a manner that has more in common with journalism than poetic expression. She’s never overwhelmed by her words. She doesn’t audibly give in to emotion or pain. She simply reports, a solid level of strength in her voice commanding listener attention. With the exception of Act 3 – Time Of No Time, its repetition and relative structural stability offering some respite from the album’s otherwise Impulse!-centric array of squeal and battery, Circuit City is as relentless as it is powerful, a necessary statement belonging to the now of political and social unrest.

The Muslims
Gentrified Chicken
(https://themuslims.bandcamp.com/track/gentrifried-chicken)

“If I wanna get shot, I call the cops” is how the chorus of Call the Cops by the queer, Muslim punk group The Muslims starts. It feels right in line with the historic punk choruses everyone knows: an immediate, thrashing, and exciting refutation of shitty and corrupt systems that everyone should expect less out of. With early album cut Punch a Nazi, you’re provided with a perfect soundtrack for the clip of Richard Spenser getting socked in the face. The catchy opener, Blame It On Mohammad, finds group skewing anti-Islam panic that stems from school shootings and terrorist attacks with blunt simplicity: “Oh my fuckin god, Bobbys bought himself an AR, blame it on Mohammad.” It’s the sort of fiery, snapping punk music that certain people thought the Trump presidency would bring, but so far, it seems The Muslims are the only ones doing it this well. Ethan Gordon

Teenage Halloween
Teenage Halloween
(https://teenagehalloween.bandcamp.com/album/teenage-halloween)

Few albums this year have restimulated my longing to be at a good basement punk show again quite like the new album from Teenage Halloween. Hailing from Asbury Park, New Jersey and belonging to legendary NJ punk label Don Giovanni, Teenage Halloween is a classic, vital example of what has made the Garden State such an essential locale for great pop punk. Despite just being under 25 minutes, Teenage Halloween’s self-titled album is a marvel of versatility in a genre that’s so often underestimated - tempos bounce back and forth, pianos and drums seamlessly weave in and out, yet the focus is never taken off the bands hooky, explosive riffs and raw-throated singalongs. We may have spent much of this year in isolation, but it’s hard not to hear vocalist Luke Hendericks howl “I am starving for a world without ridicule” with empowering bombast and not imagine yourself shouting it right back from the crowd. Peter Quinton

Advertisement
American Advertisement
(https://thisisadvertisement.bandcamp.com/album/american-advertisement)

There’s a sense of fuzzy mystery that exudes from Advertisement’s debut album, American Advertisement. A minute into the opening cut, Freedom, and you’ve already got a healthy mix of bluesy organ work, tense drumming, and the post-punk guitars of Tough Age’s Which Way Am I? (another great 2020 project you can find on Bandcamp here). By the time lead singer Charlie Hoffman’s shit-eating Sam France of Foxygen-esque vocal performance cuts through the groove, the appeal is obvious. On Upstream Boogie, the punchy guitar riff and chorus vocal melody are worth the price of admission alone. With Tall Cats, a hazy 2-minute stomp, it feels like the band is just finding excuses to put the Wah effect on everything. For a band like Advertisement, that can only be a positive. Ethan Gordon