It’s Bandcamp Friday and on the first Friday of every month for the rest of 2020, Bandcamp is waiving its revenue share to get more money to artists during COVID-19. Here are some things you should listen to and purchase.
CLASSICS OF LOVE
Well, maybe 2020 isn’t that bad after all. During the lockdown, Jesse Michaels (Operation Ivey) reformed Classics of Love with Sharif Dumani (Alice Bag, Exploding Flowers) on guitar and bass and Peter John Fontes (Los Nauticals, Surf Fronts) on drums and voila! we have the 5-track ‘World of Burning Hate‘ EP in our sanitized hands. It doesn’t disappoint; raging, angry hardcore of the highest order, skillfully chronicling the shitshow planet earth is at the moment.
SMASH FASHION
Pretty simple tried and true recipe here from LA’s Smash Fashion. ‘Got Da Hee Bee Gee Bees (at CBGBs)‘ splits the difference between a Kinks riff and some Hanoi Rocks swagger. It’s good-time rock’n’roll with big 70s power riffs and a bit of that punk spirit and the b-side, an absolutely killer cover of Elton’s ‘Bennie and The Jets‘, it’s way better than you’d imagine. Out now on Yeah Right! Records.
GARBITCH
This 5-track EP from California Anti-fascist queercore band Garbitch is raw like an open sore. They sound like L7 run through one of those car crusher machines. This shit is visceral, abrasive, and confrontational, but also exhilarating. The way punk rock should be.
THE SPEEDWAYS
In an alternate universe, a cigar-chomping A&R guy leans back with his feet up on his desk listening to the appropriately titled ‘Radio Sounds‘, the new LP from London band The Speedways and says “guys, all I hear is cha-ching!” Stadium tours and platinum records would surely follow. But unfortunately, they don’t play this on the radio anymore. In fact who listens to the radio these days? Luckily that doesn’t stop The Speedways from releasing flawless, hook-laden power pop for fans of the good stuff: The Records, Big Star, Shoes.
CAT CLYDE
Over the years I’ve gushed over singer-songwriter Cat Clyde. She’s an old soul possessed with a divine voice and though her catalog may be small, her two studio albums are already timeless masterpieces in my book. Now here she is with a revelatory rework of ‘Mr. Hitler‘ by the one and only Lead Belly, turned into a timely modern-day protest song called ‘Tear The System Down‘. Focusing on her own Métis heritage as well as the Black Lives Matter movement, all proceeds are going to the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto and The American Civil Liberties Union.
