✨ IC Community Weekly #34: Bandcamp Friday Edition
ft. Bandcamp Friday deals, an Allah-Lahs listening party, Sharkswimmer, John P. Strohm and Lindsay Lou records, new Torres on the way, a Gazelle Twin video, tours, events & more!
Hey and welcome to a packed new edition of IC Community Weekly!
In the week where Epic Games sold Bandcamp to Songtradr and Stevie Nicks got her own Barbie, the IC community, as usual, released lots of great music.
Keep scrolling for that, but first, some general community bits…
Applications are now open to join the AIM Board of Directors - nominate yourself or someone from your team by October 10th here.
There’s a petition you can sign here to the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) calling on them to either require all member venues & promoters to permanently do away with artist merch cuts or delegate representatives of NIVA to participate in a publicly live-streamed forum to debate and defend the practice.
nonclassical appointed a new chair, William Norris, a consultant working for a wide range of music and arts organisations including Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Sage Gateshead and the European Union Youth Orchestra. Check out an interview with him about music, plants, and what inspires him.
Fire Talk are looking for fans of the label/the band PACKS to join the Fire Talk street team. If you do you'll get a bevy of free swag & special VIP Fire Talk status.
Music Biz are looking for panels and presentations for the next event in May 2024 on ways to 1) best monetize music in today’s marketplace and 2) create a healthier & more inclusive work environment for everyone engaged in the business of music. Apply here before December 6th, keeping in mind these criteria.
NEW CATALOGS
A very warm 🤝 to…
Kame'a Independent Music Group, an indie record label and one of Israel's leading independent music distributors, boasting partnerships with renowned labels such as Secretly Group, Sub Pop and ECM.
Feels Like... a premium production music catalog, distributed by BMG Production Music worldwide, whose music is categorized based on feelings, not genre.
BANDCAMP FRIDAY
Songtradr have stressed, thankfully, that they’re planning to keep monthly Bandcamp Fridays going after its acquisition of the company. As a reminder, they’re the days, like today (Friday October 6th), where they waive their revenue share on all sales from midnight to midnight Pacific Time.
Special events and offers from the community today include:
✨ Fire Talk have added some signed records from their artists to their online shop to mark the occasion.
✨ Sahel Sounds have set their back catalog to Name Your Price so you have a chance to support their artists directly or get some old favorites for cheap/free.
✨ Innovative Leisure are hosting a listening party today for the new Allah-Lahs record - more on that below!
✨ Incidental Music (run by IC’s very own Support extraordinaire Austin) are releasing Distant Travel Companion by Satoshi Suzuki (鈴木慧) next Bandcamp Friday (Nov 3rd) but today’s a perfect day to pre-order it and you definitely should!
And here’s what we’ve got our eye on here at IC:
💿 Adam is looking to pick up No Fixed Point in Space by Modern Nature (Bella Union), the chamber-improv ensemble led by Jack Cooper of alt-rock band Ultimate Painting.
💿 Ari has Visionology by Le Tom Val (Tom Val Records), an album made of sampled library music and cosmic disco, with dialogue from b-movies and spoken word records, as well as Mâlemort by Orion Music Workshop (Les Disques Omnison) in his basket.
💿 Hunter sad, Hunter going to independent record shop instead, sorry. - Hunter
NEW RELEASES
If you’re an IC catalog or creator and there’s anything you want to be sure we include next time, just reply and let us know - this goes out to 2000+ inboxes every week!
ALBUMS
🎧 Innovative Leisure are releasing Zuma 85 the new album by Allah-Lahs next Friday, but you can listen to it a week early and chat with the band and other fans as they’re hosting a listening party today, exclusively on Bandcamp. It takes place at 10am PST (1pm EST / 6pm BST).
🎧 Fire Talk shared Another Year of Open Tab, a compilation of 2023 releases from its digital singles imprint Open Tab. The record features tracks from ten diverse artists, presenting “…a capsule of new talent that highlights some of the best upcoming experimental pop, post punk and songwriting.”
🎧 Propeller Sound Recordings released Something To Look Forward To, the first record in 15 years by John P. Strohm, onetime member of Antenna, Blake Babies and The Lemonheads. Strohm noted about the album: "I feel like Something To Look Forward To is the first music I've ever made that is truly and confidently in my own individual voice."
🎧 Really Rad Records released Serenity, the debut album from Brooklyn post-hardcore group Sharkswimmer, “…a refreshing concoction of sound that transcends genres” and “a meticulously crafted alt-rock gem.” (Rebel Noise)
🎧 Get Better released Hands In The Honey Jar, the new record by Philly punk/hardcore band Open City, “…an unflinching, uncompromising album full of energy and fury.” (New Noise Magazine)
🎧 Kill Rock Stars released Queen of Time, the new record by Nashville artist Lindsay Lou. Combining elements of bluegrass, folk, Americana and soulful pop, the album is a captivating showcase for Lou’s vocals, which are “…capable of untold multitudes: a molasses-sweet instrument equally capable of clarion ache, slicing deep into the soul.”
They also released the “…philosophical, whimsical, and occasionally twisted” new Tele Novella record Poet’s Tooth, an album brimming with “…dusty, serenely haunted country-psych tunes.” (AllMusic)
SINGLES
🎧 Double Double Whammy released the latest Babehoven single, Chariot, which “…explores new avenues of sound and highlights their knack for immersive song arrangements” and lets the listener “…into a moment that embraces them with a welcoming and intimate resonance.”
🎧 Dots Per Inch released Glory, the new Amiture single. Remarking on the single the band said: "Glory was built around this perpetual guitar riff, something that had been on our minds for a while writing and recording upstate New York. Once we decided to construct the song around this '70s country-esque riff, the rest of the melodies and words came almost immediately.”
🎧 INNI released the new Kjartan Holm track Limitless pt. II, the final single before his album HORIZON is released.
🎧 Spartan released the new Milliseconds single No Peaches, which you can listen to here via Punknews.
🎧 Mexican Summer released Fontainebleau, the new single by the LA-based multi-instrumentalist and sound installation artist Gregg Kowalsky.
PRE-ORDERS
🎧 Merge announced What an enormous room, the new Torres album will come out January 26th 2024 and is available for pre-order in the Merge store on CD, LP, and exclusive blue jay & white peak vinyl. Ahead of that they’ve put out Collect, the lead single from the record, alongside a new Dani Okon-directed music video.
🎧 Chapter Music announced Long Time… an overview of Margret RoadKnight recordings from 1988-2023. It is released on CD and digital on October 27th and available for pre-order now.
🎧 Don Giovanni announced that New Jersey folk-rock band Roadside Graves are releasing a new album I Won't Cry Alone, inspired by the S.E. Hinton novel Rumble Fish. Pre-order.
VIDEOS
🖥️ Invada released an unnerving video, directed by Chris Turner, for new Gazelle Twin single Fear Keeps Us Alive, the second taken from her upcoming album Black Dog:
INTERVIEWS
🎙️ Tongue In The Mind (PAN) spoke to Document Journal about the concept for new single Pretty Canary, non-musical influences that inform their sound and where the group stretch each other creatively.
🎙️ Gazelle Twin (Invada) opened up to The Quietus about facing fundamental fears, her childhood experiences with spectral visitors and what ghosts really represent.
FROM THE ARCHIVE
🖥️ The fourth outing of a new section where I'll choose a video I love from YouTube’s treasure trove of music videos, live performances and curiosities.
This time, the strange and beautiful music video for Airy Me by Cuushe, which is a decade old this year. The video was composed of over 3000 hand drawn sketches from artist Yoko Kuno, who reached out to Cuushe to ask if she could use her music for her graduation thesis and this is the result of that collaboration.
SHOWS, TOURS + EVENTS
🚌 Ransom Note have a very special edition of their monthly residency tonight as they team up with Hot Concept Records for a showcase. They’re joined by an array of guests including Pytko, Teplice, Yr Lovely Dead Moon, as well as Hot Concept boss John Loveless | TICKETS
🚌 Blood (Ramp Local) announced an upcoming east coast run | TICKETS
🚌 STRFKR (Polyvinyl) are heading out on a long-awaited European tour, starting in December | TICKETS
🚌 Laura Jane Grace (Polyvinyl) is ringing in the new year with a run of shows supported by Mya Byrne (Kill Rock Stars) | TICKETS
📆 UPCOMING INDUSTRY EVENTS
+ check out the 🎟 Events Directory for more conferences, festivals, record fairs, webinars, etc!
Oct 6th - 8th ‣ Austin City Limits Music Festival (Weekend 1) (Austin, TX, US)
Oct 9th - 15th ‣ MUTEK (Mexico City, Mexico)
Oct 10th - 13th ‣ MONDO NYC (NY, US)
Oct 11th - 13th ‣ MAMA (Paris, France)
Oct 11th - 15th ‣ BreakOut West (Kelowna, BC, Canada)
Oct 13th - 15th ‣ Austin City Limits Music Festival (Weekend 2) (Austin, TX, US)
Oct 14th ‣ IMSTA FESTA Seoul (Seoul, South Korea)
Oct 18th - 22nd ‣ Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
That’s all for this one! Stay safe and we’ll catch you next week for more.
- Adam & the Infinite Catalog crew