Traveling via bandcamp that is. I’ve always appreciated the location tags on bandcamp. It gives an opportunity to explore a city, a country, a region for it’s music. It’s a central tool that we have used during our drunk radio showers. And so I find it useful.
On this stop, Dublin, Ireland. Or at least I assume Ireland. Maybe all of this music originates in Dublin, Ohio. Hard to tell. Also while I don’t prefer to stick to a city per se, as the rural remote artists have enough to angst about as well, this seemed an appropriate enough journey to start. Feel free to follow along…
First stop: Princess.
The newest tracks from Princess date to 2015. Did they break up? At first, my original reaction wasn’t positive as it was a bit too indie pop for me. But it did occasionally divert into noise. And listening to more they had a tendency towards occasional space rock – or even an 1980s influenced pop sound. Which I can deal with. And maybe that’s just nostalgia, but I did like this track:
Next Stop Barry McCormack
Maybe it was my mood, but that didn’t work for me.
How about Spongebob eyelashes?
Nice name. Would spongebob sue them? They could be spongebob jr eyelashes. They were ok but this made me go back and lose that “indie rock” tag. I’m not just looking for ok and I realized I didn’t want to hear self-proclaimed indie rock since it often didn’t fit the tag.
Jayne Pomplas
I have a soft spot for irish folk, so this settled in nicely from the get go. It really fit my mood and is some solid. On man, this really hit the spot.
That was a pure delight. Now let’s try some other folks…
Cold Old Fire
This group interested me with their band name which I really appreciated. They are a solid folk band, though in the end I maybe wasn’t in the mood. I think I just needed to switch to something more rockin’…
Fontaines DC
The start of the Chequeless Reckless album didn’t grab me, but it grew on me some by the end. The Fontaines are definitely more pop punk than my ideal, but they are solid enough for a mid-day listen. It’s probably the elevated mixing of the vocals. I really liked these tracks though:
I felt a need to dig deeper…
The Disco Participation Matrix
Is there a disco theme in Dublin? Initially the electronic sounding instrumentation turned me off. But it’s pretty good. The music was more instrument driven (sortof) and interesting. I highly recommend it!
Lina Andonovska
I can’t resist the experimental tag which is how I ended up on Lina. I might have an affection for any Lina based on our obsession with Norwegian crime drama – where Lina is apparently a common name.
Anyhow, there are a number of schools where experimental music falls. This is more the quiet, weird instrumentation. Which is solid, but not as good as the weird, noisy instrumentation. Still, I enjoyed this. It is no Lefty Fish though.
Electricals
And then I found what I was looking for. Something closer to the core of what I like. The Electricals. The intro to “I’m Going to the Fucking Moon” immediately grasped me and pulled me in. Consistent use of discordance. The death vocals on track 1 are only part of what these folks have to offer. Some really excellent sounds. I can definitely recommend. This made me very happy.
I decided on one more stop. I tried a stop at Funeral Suits but was immediately scared away. The Department of Forever caught my eye. Interesting cover art and intriguing song titles. An ambient false positive (more on that another day). On to Thee U.F.O….
THEE UFO
The poor sound quality caught my attention. I’m used to bands I love being more of the low budget variety. This had an initial acid rock feel. Thee U.F.O. were a nice ending point. It was indeed psych rock. More on the delightfully mellow end. Give it a listen and happy day!
This wasn’t a deep dive. It is just fun to dive into a region or place or collection of sounds and see what it has to offer. And this is what I found on a small little venture. Maybe something of interest to yinz as well…
