And lo, on the heels of my post to the contrary, a burst of activity from American musicians, ending the European dominance on Bandcamp since, oh, January. But this week, there were American artists and more than one, maybe as many as five, and that’s a big jump. Here at Indiedisco, we are rooting for our fellow Americans to pick it up and go with it. Perhaps we will. This week’s top vote getter for band of the week is Gold Dust, from Easthampton, MA, a quartet led by songwriter and former punk rocker Stephen Pierce.
Twixt and Tween – March 19, 2025
| Radio
This week, we were able to come up with three new tracks from American artists, a bit of a rarity these days as Americans seem to have been laying low. Since there are only three of them, we will introduce them here as:
The Needmores, a thoroughly engaging rock band from Detroit, Michigan whose new song “Lookin'” is in the Cars tradition or thereabouts.
Leaves Floating On The Water is a jam rock project…
Waves of Confusion – March 12, 2025
| Radio
If you were to judge the spirit of America by the number of new releases showing up on Bandcamp right now, you would have to assume that something has happened. But what? What could have happened to so thoroughly crush Americans’ creative spirit. Other than the perennial electronic and death metal releases, there just doesn’t seem to be much going on out there in Tune-land. I attribute it…
Wishful Blinking – January 15, 2025
| Radio
Our favorite band of the week turned out to be my favorite band of last year, despite the fact that I only just discovered them — The Breaks Inc. and their amazing album Hotel Earth. Also, belatedly, a couple of tracks from the Chillhop Winter Essentials disc and new music from Mogwai. Not to […]
The Breaks Inc. – Hotel Earth
| Music
The Breaks Inc. are a band from Queens, NY. Their new album, Hotel Earth, is a concept album about the end of the world. Cutting to the chase, yes, it’s kind of depressing, but it’s also really beautiful, tuneful, and wise — in short, it’s one of the best albums of last year that you […]
Dark Descant – October 23, 2024
| Radio
Here in the northeast, we’re in that peak/past peak moment with foliage. We balance precariously at this point for quite a few days before one day the weatherman pronounces decisively, “we’re past peak,” and you know it’s true. It’s also a time when we balance precariously between two radically different views of the future — […]
Summer’s End – September 11, 2024
| Radio
Imperial Designs – June 26, 2024
| Radio
Summer slowdown is already underway. This week’s playlist had to make room for summer songs, war songs, death songs, and even a handful of love songs.
Now that Max Blansjaar’s new album is out, we were finally able to play our favorite track, “Pieces of the Sun.” We fell easily into the low key slackdom of Max’s world, a world that will come crashing down one day as flowers turn to dust, our hero now expendable, nervously “waiting for someone.”
Hot and Heavy – June 19, 2024
| Radio
No, it’s just a playlist. Nothing to see here but the tunes. Happy Juneteenth!Happy Heat Wave, too. Lots of oldies from Chuck Brown to George Clinton, saluting freedom, the weather, and the good old summertime. New this week — Hungrytown’s highly evocative “Circus for Sale,” M Vaughan’s optimistic “All Good,” and Las Nubes rock-heavy guitars.
Plus the usual, “more”…
Worlds Gone By – June 12, 2024
| Radio
June brings crickets and heat waves.A wren is nesting in the gourd house! People are starting to drift away to vacate themselves to distant shores.Indie bands go on tour, hot grubby exhilarating tours across the country in cars and vans! Not a whole lot of new music this week so we filled in with oldies from groups that once upon a time also toured the land in cars and vans.
Wee Willie Waffle Iron – June 5, 2024
| Songs
It’s hard to say what we were on about this week. There was a sense of doing the Charleston on the deck of the Titanic, and also one of “Look, how beautiful, it’s June!”
A certain nostalgia prompted us to revive the Lemonheads, Uncle Tupelo, and Unrest, not to mention the still very active Mountain Goats, currently on tour everywhere. We played “Jaipur” from The Coroner’s Gambit — classic Mountain Goats with all the trimmings including Darnielle’s trademarked* pissed-off vocals.
Baffling number of the week was “Good Luck, Babe” by Chappell Roan.
La Souterraine Compilation – Traboule
| Records
La Souterraine is one of our favorite labels, originating (we think) in an area of France known also as La Souterraine. This newish compilation released by them is called Traboule and is dedicated to the city of Lyons from whence all the artists included are based. A traboule is a uniquely Lyonnaise thing referring to the covered passageways found throughout the city.
TAI Dai – May 22, 2024
| Radio
Everyone has their AI moment. This week was mine. Coincidentally, and with regard to technology, I got the complete Switched On series (boxed, of course) by Stereolab for my birthday, and fans of the show benefited. So much great stuff! We had new tunes from Hungrytown, M. Vaughan, and Max Blansjaar — thanks, AA! New […]
Extraterrestrial Trifles – May 15, 2024
| Radio
Lots of new music this week after our last show was prematurely wiped out by the solar storms that rolled in the next day. But hey, at least we got to see the Northern Lights, finally. Rather than replay last week, we just rolled on with new music, starting with “The Neu! Testament” by Hidoux, a speculative number that imagines what Jesus would say if he ever got fed up with us. We finally got a copy of Mountain Goats Jenny from Thebes album and played tracks from that — much smoother than we remembered but still the John Darnielle we know and love.
It’s almost embarrassing how much we loved the power pop anthem “One For The Ages” by The Future Unwritten, but we forgive ourselves. Speaking of guilty pleasures, CG finally played some Atarashii Gakko!
Chill Magic – May 1, 2024
| Radio
This week on Bubble Wrap, we were grateful to bands, pr companies, and labels who sent us new music to check out. Without them, ‘twould have been a thin show indeed. As it was, we heard new tunes from Rinjin (Norwegian indie), Las Nubes (heavy Miami rock), and M. Vaughan (chill-hoppy with studio production), among others.
Another new release that we really enjoyed was Flowers and Overcoats by The Stakes Are Us. They really took us back to the cooler bands of the mid 80s, and indeed, we spent a lot of time saying things like “now where does that guitar sound come from.” This is especially true of “A Little A Lot.”