#20: Playing in The Bandcamp

Chicago Rules and the Finnish Underground

Welcome, lovers of sound.

Very happy to be coming to you on Bandcamp Friday. It’s a day that is just really good for smaller musicians and labels and I really hope everyone can buy something they like today and try to make the independent musical ecosystem work a little better for all. It would be even cooler if everyone bought music everyday but this is a start. 

On the other end of the spectrum, my private Tidal playlists for paid subscribers have been getting topped off every week. I’ve been deep in a jazz hole so the most ferociously growing playlists are the 60-80s jazz ones but more are coming. If you don’t have the links, simply DM me and I’ll hook you up. 

After a minor overuse injury and a rough winter, I’m getting back to a normal running routine. It feels amazing and it’s another opportunity to do some deep listening. 99.99 percent of the time I’m jamming jambands on my runs. Look, those boys just make music perfect for 4-6 miles, sun and wildflowers. Lately, it’s been a ton of moe. I am Strava and I post the shows I play on there if anyone’s interested. If you’re a runner and jam the jams on your runs, I’d love to hear about your favorites. 

Relatedly, I’m going to do a little moe. primer in the next few weeks. They’re simply an incredible band that should be getting more attention from all you indie rockers who started drinking the jam koolaid. Any moe.rons among you?

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This week’s episode of the Trailhead is on Mixcloud and it leads off with two beautiful acoustic guitar pieces from artists we talked about last week—Nicklas Sørensen and Jacob Sunderlin. I’ve also become enamored by some vaporwave labels the last couple years so we heard from the excellent Argentina-based outlet ASSEMBLY. We also heard a lovely piece from Portuguese songwriter Francisco Silva who records as The June Carriers via Brooklyn’s Youngbloods label. Also aired is a killer jam from the third volume of collaboration between Japan’s Acid Mothers Temple and Argentina’s Reynols. That was set one. In set two we went for the funky fusion and heard a lesser known Weather Report jam, a ECM classic from Herbie Hancock and John Coltrane collaborator Julian Priester, something from the extremely underrated UK prog/fusion guitarist Gary Boyle and a real cool one from Japan’s Masabumi Kikuchi that features the amazing Airto on percussion. 

If you listen to the show regularly and aren’t a paid sub here, please consider buying me a coffee. Preparing and hosting a 2-hour show every week is wonderful work but it is work. Thanks!

Listen to the show here and check the full playlist below.

The Trailhead 132 Playlist:

1. Nicklas Sørensen - Akustisk 4- Akustisk (Self, 2024)

2. Jacob Sunderlin - Kim Strother's Last Cigarette - In the Bardo (Flat Plastic Home Media, 2024) 3. Lunar Prairie - Enchain - Lunar Prairie (Self, 2024) 

4. Rhucle - あの場所 - Place (Oxtail Recordings, 2024) 

5. Old Million Eye - Sister Rock - Quartz Hive (Feeding Tube, 2024) 

6. modest by default + Mabisyo - プレモルテム （間奏曲）- 死​ぬ​こ​と​を​学​ぶ​た​め​の​戦​略 (ASSEMBLY, 2024) 

7. The June Carriers - Where Did You Come From, You Sweet Horses - Equanimity (Youngbloods, 2024) 

8. Acid Mothers Reynols - Lemurian Tsunami Inside a Hat - Vol. 3 (VHF, 2024) 

9. Gary Boyle - Gaz - Electric Glide (Gull, 1978) 

10. Masabumi Kikuchi - New Native - Susto (CBS, 1981) 

11. Weather Report - 125th Street Congress - Sweetnighter (Columbia, 1973) 

12. Julian Priester Pepo Mtoto - Love, Love - Love, Love (ECM, 1974)

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A lot of great music gets released on Bandcamp Fridays and I could never hope to cover even a fraction of it, but here’s some notable things that have come through my various feeds that I feel could use some further examination by adventurous ears. 

This week there’s a lot of Chicago action. I’ve never been there but it’s a city that has produced an inordinate amount of my favorite modern music. I guess I should go and take the Thrill Jockey and Kranky guided walking tours someday. And hit some of the town’s numerous record shops. 

The Trouble In Mind label sort of built its name on more rock-oriented sounds but in the last couple of years they’ve really broadened their scope and have been issuing really great left-of-center electronic stuff. These tend to be tape releases and arrive somewhat unhyped but they always deliver. Today they put out two really good ones from artists Rob Logan and Donny Mahlmeister. The former puts drum machines and samples to use and gets to some head-nodding spaces while the latter is a more atmospheric, inner zoning affair. Really nice stuff on each.

Also out of the Windy City is this new one from Ragenap and Dathon on the Lurker Bias label. Ragenap is Joel Berk and Dathon is Corey Lyons and together on Occhiolism they are hitting some kind of Windy & Carl plane and I’m all about it. This is billed as a “double-bass vi duo” which registers nothing in my non-gearhead brain but maybe it’s worth mentioning here. It sounds like guitars to me. Anyway,  this is making me want to dig out my copy of the old, essential Harmony of the Spheres box set on Drunken Fish. Stellar. 

Virginia’s VHF Records is really picking things up in 2024 after a couple years of somewhat stillness. Today they announced four new titles, all of them with great merit and promise. Finland’s underground has really been amazing this entire century and its innovation and depth show no sign of slowing or decline, as evidenced by these new releases by the duo Tomutonttu ja Lehtisalo and the group Mahti. The former’s LP is described by the label as “alien library music beamed in from the outerlands” and I can’t improve on that. Mahti’s live 2xLP is a more open and patient psychedelic expression not unlike No Neck Blues Band at their most direct and relatable. A stellar recording, there’s an amazing presence and soundstage that can really connect with the third eye and transport. 

England’s Guranfoe are probably the only jam band that really uses Bandcamp Friday effectively for disseminating live recordings. I’m really surprised more bands in the genre don’t embrace it. But, I digress. Today the quartet has two new archival releases on offer, including the beautifully and imaginatively titled 2023​-​12​-​01 The Smokehouse, Ipswich, England. While the title doesn’t quite dazzle, the jams certainly do. The gargantuan and utterly transcendent ‘Indigo Moon’ opener contains all the band does well—tight rhythmic shifts, soaring and intricate leads, impressive dynamics and collective energy to spare. 

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