Just in time for Bandcamp Friday, we’re back with some records that have been in heavy rotation at Undrcurrents HQ over the past month. Whether you use this as a jumping off point for today’s festivities or a listening list for the next month, we hope you discover something you love.
Stuck – Content That Makes You Feel Good
It feels like there’s a never ending deluge of amazing rock music coming out of Chicago, and the latest from Stuck is yet another example of the city’s excellence. After releasing their debut LP on band member Greg Obis’s label Born Yesterday Records last year, Stuck signed with Exploding In Sound and released their debut EP for the label, Content That Makes You Feel Good, a few weeks ago. Its title feels somewhat ironic given the subject matter (the harsh realities of living in a late stage capitalist society), but these razor sharp post punk tunes will keep your foot tapping even as the world burns around you.
Phone Voice – Cradle Tapes
Chitra Subrahmanyam is a one person band on her debut album as Phone Voice, Cradle Tape. Playing every instrument except bass, the Portland based musician and visual artist offers up a master class in bedroom pop. Very much in the tradition of moody Pacific Northwest indie (think everyone from Elliott Smith to S), it’s atmospheric and fragilely beautiful stuff that packs an emotional wallop.
Fuubutsushi – Natsukashii
Fuubutsushi – a quartet made up of Chris Jusell, Chaz Prymek, Matthew Sage, and Patrick Shiroishi – recorded four “ambient jazz” albums remotely over the course of the last year, each one dedicated to a different season. I’m a bit late to the party, but there’s no better entryway into the series than Natsukashii, the most recent entry in their discography. Their summer album, Natsukashii (which translates to nostalgic in English) manages to capture the ineffable qualities of the season: the amber glow of a summer sunset, lazy days basking in the sun at the park, that first taste of ice cream on a hot day. The perfect soundtrack to the waning days of the season.
Flowertown – Time Trials
Flowertown first caught my attention last year when they released two EPs on the great Paisley Shirt Records. Their followup full length (if you don’t count the self titled compilation released earlier this year) is more of what made those first releases so special. The base components are simple (jangly melodies cloaked in fuzz and fragile, overlapping vocals) but the end results are something special, songs that envelop you in their warmth and beauty. Yet another gem from the Bay Area in 2021.
The Stick Figures – Archeology
The history of rock is littered with stories of what might have been. Countless bands record a handful of songs, toiling in obscurity until they eventually fade into the ether of history. The Stick Figures fit this story to a tee. Formed at the University of South Florida in 1979, the band never managed to get much commercial traction during their lifetime (despite opening for the Fall and being played by John Peel on BBC radio), eventually disbanding after their sole release, a four track EP, hit shelves. Archeology presents those four tracks along with previously unreleased studio and live recordings, painting a portrait of a band influenced by post punk and new wave but noisier and weirder than most music you’d associate with the era (if you need proof, see “Ellis Otivator Dub”, a twitchy and wildly experimental two minute sonic collage). Archeology leaves no doubt in your mind that The Stick Figures should have been huge.
Wednesday – Twin Plagues
If I didn’t know any better, I’d think Twin Plagues was a long lost indie rock classic. Wednesday’s latest album sounds like it could have come out in 1995; at different times you can hear the loud-soft dynamics of grunge, the drifting melancholy of slowcore, alt-country twang, and the slacker rock of Pavement. But listen closer and you’ll realize the way they mix and match these sounds sounds utterly contemporary. Infused with an irrepressible sense of energy, it’s one of my favorite rock albums of the year so far.
Indigo de Souza – Any Shape You Take
Newly signed to Saddle Creek, Indigo de Souza’s sophomore album Any Shape You Take is a star making turn for the Asheville, NC based musician. Her instrumentals are a shape shifting mix of grungy guitars and contemporary pop sounds, but de Souza’s voice is the clear star. She’s the kind of singer who can wring the emotion out of even the simplest words, supercharging each heartbroken lament or loving entreaty. “Maybe we’re bigger than staying in the very same place” de Souza sings late on the album; this is the kind of music that’s going to take her all over the word.
Various Artists – Wounds of Love: Khmer Oldies, Vol 1
The latest breaking entry in this list, Wounds of Love just landed on Bandcamp yesterday morning. Brought to us by the great Death Is Not The End, this compilation explores the music scene that developed around Phnom Penh in the late 1950s and early 1960s that combined early American rock and pop music with Southeast Asian sounds. The label has always excelled at creating transportive snapshots of different times and places, and this release is no exception.
Mike and the Moonpies – One To Grow On
Mike and the Moonpies have been releasing music since 2007, but One To Grow On may be their best record yet. Across the album’s nine tracks the band writes songs about the everyman that cover all classic country tropes: heartache, drinking, scraping by with a job you hate. But it’s the instrumentals that make the album really pop; the band never lets the energy drop, blasting through one honky tonk burner after another. A strong contender for the best country album of the year.