✨ IC Community Weekly #38: Bandcamp Friday Edition
ft. jobs at Secretly Distribution and nonclassical, Bandcamp Friday picks, releases and deals, Marnie Stern, Marina Herlop, Cidny Bullens, a FADER covers compilation, a Deerhoof reissue & more!
Hey and welcome to a new edition of IC Community Weekly!
In the week where The Beatles released one final song with a little help from AI, the IC community, as usual, released lots of great music.
Keep scrolling for that, but first, some general community news…
Trapital released their yearly report on major trends in music, media and hip-hop.
A2IM has a competition to win tickets to the The Wavy Awards, which takes place on November 18th in NYC and recognizes historically excluded talent such as women, queer, BIPOC, artists who identify with having a disability, and allies. Enter by this Sunday for your chance to win two tickets here.
👋 If you’re an IC catalog and you’ve got news, releases, or other fun stuff you want us to include, just reply and let us know - this goes out to 2500+ inboxes every week!
BANDCAMP FRIDAY
Songtradr have stressed that they’re planning to keep monthly Bandcamp Fridays going after its acquisition of the company is complete so, for now at least, we’ll continue this feature to coincide with it.
As a reminder: Bandcamp Fridays are the days, like today (Friday November 3rd), where they waive their revenue share on all sales from midnight to midnight Pacific Time.
Special releases, events and offers from the community today include:
✨ A number of artists signed up to labels in the IC Community, including Babehoven (Double Double Whammy), Being Dead (Bayonet), Ducks Ltd. (Royal Mountain) Madeline Kenney (Carpark) and Ratboys (Topshelf) contributed tracks to FADER & Friends Vol. 1, a covers compilation benefitting charities fighting for transgender rights, namely Transgender Law Center, Mermaids U.K., and Rainbow Railroad. They said: “Across genres, countries, and backgrounds, musicians of all kinds have come together to send a message of resistance and solidarity in one voice. The digital album costs $20, but be fast: on December 1, it's gone for good.” Purchase it on Bandcamp and help some great causes here.
✨ Overseas Artists Recordings are offering 50% off everything in their Bandcamp store. Use Code: CORPROCK
✨ Incidental Music (run by IC’s very own Support extraordinaire Austin) released Distant Travel Companion by Satoshi Suzuki (鈴木慧) today!
And here’s what we’ve got our eye on here at IC:
💿 Adam is going to get chaos takes the wheel and i am a passenger by San Jose band awakebutstillinbed (on Tiny Engines), who “succeeded at being so emo that they necessitated a new Bandcamp genre tag…. ‘extremo’” (Pitchfork).
💿 Ari is looking to pick up Bathroom Electronics by radical avant-garde experimentalists Idea Fire Company, an LP of songs featuring electronic instruments recorded in bathrooms, released by London label Horn Of Plenty.
JOBS IN THE COMMUNITY
🧑💻 Secretly Distribution are seeking a full time US Direct Account Coordinator rep to oversee a portion of their US account base, with a strong focus on order fulfillment and customer service.
They’re also looking to a hire a North American Account Coordinator, who will be at the forefront of their US and Canadian retailer and distributor partnerships, with a strong focus on order fulfillment, stock management, and campaign coordination.
Apply for both roles here
🧑💻 nonclassical have an open role as maternity cover for their Executive Director from January 2024, which you can apply for here. Applications close 9.59AM on Monday November 6th.
NEW RELEASES
ALBUMS
🎧 Joyful Noise released The Comeback Kid, the latest Marnie Stern record - her first new release in a decade. The Guardian say the album “…feels like witnessing a fireworks display, each song exploding to reveal intricate patterns before quickly vanishing as the next one launches” and Paste called it “…as urgent and electrifying as anything she’s managed in the 16 years since her disarming debut.”
🎧 PAN released Nekkuja, the “ambitious”, “daring” and “brain-twisting” new album by Barcelona-based artist Marina Herlop, which “comes from a place beyond language” (Pitchfork in their 8.0 review).
🎧 Merge released Misfits & Mistakes: Singles, B-sides & Strays 2007–2023, the fourth singles collection from SUPERCHUNK, featuring 50 songs sourced from long-out-of-print 7-inches, defunct web series, and benefit compilations, many of which are available digitally and/or physically for the first time.
🎧 Kill Rock Stars released Little Pieces, the new album by Cidny Bullens, who has previously worked with the likes of Elton John and Bob Dylan, as well as contributing to the Grease soundtrack and releasing albums both as a solo artist and with trio The Refugees.
🎧 Sipsman released Shelf Life, the new record by multifaceted and genre-defying artist Animal Hospital (Boston based multi-instrumentalist Kevin Micka), a “perfectly-pitched primer to his universe” (The Quietus)
🎧 Carpark released gin city/local singles by vaporware artist SAINT PEPSI (aka Skylar Spence), whose music has been described as “…like joining the conga line on ecstasy at a business cruise retreat” (The Tape Deck)
SINGLES
🎧 Chapter Music released Bubblegum the new single by Sydney based alt-pop singer, songwriter and producer June Jones, a track that was inspired by going out dancing and “…finding a sense of peace amongst the sweaty bodies of the girls and the gays.”
🎧 nonclassical released the second single from Outside the Lines, Vol. 6 - Severed Dreads II by EMÆNUEL. The track is a tapestry of undulating drum patterns, saxophones and homemade flutes and takes its inspiration from folkloric religious traditions.
🎧 Merge released the new TORRES track I got the fear, taken from her forthcoming album What an enormous room, out January 26th.
REISSUES
🎧 Joyful Noise reissued The Runners Four, the landmark album by Deerhoof, which was originally released in 2005 by Kill Rock Stars and the band's own Children of Hoof label. This is the first time the album has been available on vinyl in 18 years - get yours here!
PRE-ORDERS
🎧 Velocity Press announced the forthcoming release of two books:
Talking Out Of My Art, a chronological journey through the work of renowned British graffiti artist Mau Mau artwork, ft. high-quality photos of his most iconic artworks and an in-depth exploration of his life, influences, and artistic journey. It’s on general sale on 12 April 2024 but pre-order by 14 November to get a signed copy and receive it first in February.
Let the Music Play: How R&B Fell in Love with 80s Synths, the overlooked story of how R&B, disco and funk were transformed by the explosion of music tech in the 80s, tracing how pioneers like Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock inspired a new generation of black musicians and producers such as Prince, Jam & Lewis, Skyy and Kashif to reinvent music with a whole new set of rules. The book is due for release on 5 February 2024 but pre-order by 21 November to get your name printed in the book and receive it first in January.
NEW SIGNINGS
✍️ Weird Sister welcomed Louisiana native Noa Jamir to their roster and announced that new single Subside drops on November 17th (pre-save).
✍️ Get Better signed She-Nut aka Juicebox P. Burton, “a Black, trans-fem multi-disciplinary artist and a world-builder who frames narratives of trauma in the context of horror and sci-fi in order to heal the collective spirit of the Black community”. They also released a music video with the announcement for new track Condoleezza.
VIDEOS
🖥️ Ramp Local released Bone Dry, the new single by Philadelphia rockers Blood, alongside a new music video. 100% of the first month of net proceeds will be donated to the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund.
INTERVIEWS
🎙️ Squirrel Flower (Polyvinyl) talked to CLASH about the the best moment she’s ever had in a studio, the struggles of being a touring artist and drawing inspiration from Bruce Springsteen.
FROM THE ARCHIVE
🖥️ The latest 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 week: We Lived Alone, a short documentary, directed by Andrea Kannes, about the brilliant but commercially ignored singer-songwriter Connie Converse, who left home in her Volkswagen Beetle in 1974 at the age of 50 never to be heard from again - leaving behind goodbye notes and a filing cabinet full of her extraordinary life's work.
SHOWS, TOURS + EVENTS
🔊 Weird Sister are celebrating the release of Homes in Humans, the new album from singer/songwriter, Enny Owl tonight at 2220 Arts + Archives in Los Angeles.
Expect: performances by Jack Rabbit and Adriana & the Wildflowers, a screening of three of Enny's music videos for each single off the record, a photo booth, a custom cocktail, vegan treats and more | TICKETS
🚌 Man On Man (Polyvinyl) just started a tour of the UK and EU, with some of the dates supporting Dinosaur Jr. (Jagjaguwar) | TICKETS
📖 Velocity Press are holding another Independent Print Market on November 18th at a new home: Market Place Peckham. The free fair features stalls offering a curated selection of books, zines, posters, art, records, ephemera and merchandise | 🆓
📆 UPCOMING INDUSTRY EVENTS
+ check out the 🎟 Events Directory for more conferences, festivals, record fairs, webinars, etc!
Nov 2nd - 4th ‣ Iceland Airwaves (Reykjavik, Iceland)
Nov 6th - 11th ‣ Indie Week: Online Music Biz (Online + London, Canada)
Nov 7th - 13th ‣ Pitchfork Music Festival London (London, UK)*
Nov 9th - 11th ‣ACCES (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania)
Nov 17th - 18th ‣ Primavera Weekender 2023 (Benidorm, Spain)
Nov 21st - 25th ‣ Linecheck (Milan, Italy)
Nov 25th - 26th ‣ Primavera Sound Argentina (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
*we’ll be there
That’s all for this one! Stay safe and we’ll catch you next week for more.
- Adam & the Infinite Catalog crew