Bandcamp.com might be my favorite website. In its version of a free market music economy—which is free to use, requires no subscription and lets anyone upload music—objectively superior music rises to the top of the pool, as popularity is controlled entirely by listeners, not big-time record labels. Every week I scour this site, looking for not-yet-famous artists making stellar sounds. Here are some of my favorite new releases.
Busch Hymns, by Posture & The Grizzly (March 4)
Hmmmm, Busch Hymns you say? Accurate—this denomination of punk strictly endorses unholy behavior. There’s a song called “Egg Nog Drunk Off of Hilary Duff’s Piss.” Full of fat, distorted bass licks, tight, syncopated guitar progressions, zero fucks, Busch Hymns kicks the poseur crap out of punk’s innumerable garbage projects.
Here’s a perfect lyric, from the song “God’s Drugs:” “And I’ve been thinking about myself/The fat, tired, lonesome, piece of shit that I am/Or tried to be.” With five of the album’s eight tracks clocking-in shorter than two minutes (a beautiful thing), Posture & The Grizzly’s debut LP equates to an audible quickie—a damn good quickie that will tempt you back for more.
Favorite track: “Jordan Michael’s Space Jam”
Girls with Fun Haircuts, by Bearcubbin’! (March 1)
So your favorite bands are Battles and Don Caballero? Bearcubbin’! might become the third band on that list. At times, Girls with Fun Haircuts sounds frighteningly similar to post-Tyondai Braxton Battles—what with the math, the prog-funk bass lines, the loops—which loop and loop and loop—the virtuosic feel changes, the bizarre, processed tones.
But Girls with Fun Haircuts blows Gloss Drop out of the water, for real. I attribute this largely to the addition of Patrick Dougherty on bass. Although the bass doesn’t melodically drive the album, it introduces some much-needed, Wrestling Moves-like crunch to an otherwise clean orchestration. It’s also worth checking out their 2011 release Get Your Heavies Out. A bit rawer, this EP immediately hooked me on Bearcubbin’!.
Favorite track: “Kevin”
Have a Bandcamp to suggest to Andy? Send him an email at holsteen@wisc.edu
