When COVID-19 took a wrecking ball to live music in March, digital retailer Bandcamp did a kindness for the independent artists and labels whose work it sells: for a 24-hour period, the site passed along its usual cut of revenue, which is generally 10 to 15 percent. On the first “Bandcamp day” the platform racked up $4.3 million in sales, which convinced it to make the initiative a regular thing—it’ll continue to waive its cut on the first Friday of every month till at least the end of the year.
The sixth “Bandcamp day” is Friday, September 4. In what’s become a minor tradition, I’ve combed through the Reader’s recent music coverage to put together a handy list of releases you can buy through the platform—and each entry is linked to what we have to say about it. I hope this serves as an entry point to Bandcamp’s vast catalog, which I’d encourage you to explore any day.
Aweful, Me Me Me
Bixiga 70, Quebra Cabeça
Alan Braufman, The Fire Still Burns
Davis, Ebony Maw
End Result, Let Them Eat Cake
Exotic Sin, Customer’s Copy
Fantastic Negrito, Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?
Ganser, Just Look at That Sky
Good Fuck, “6 Specific Ambiguous Losses” and Highway Galazozo Saint Christopher
Greenmachine, D.A.M.N.
Gulch, Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress
Half Gringa, Force to Reckon
Heavee, Trakpak Vol. 5
Hieroglyphic Being, The Pleiadian Agenda
High Spirits, Hard to Stop
Eiko Ishibashi, Hyakki Yagyō
J. Zunz, Hibiscus
The Knees, Posture
L.A. Witch, Play With Fire
Matmos, The Consuming Flame: Open Exercises in Group Form
Frank Okay, Errors
Angel Olsen, Whole New Mess
Zeena Parkins and Jeff Kolar, Scale
Phony, Knock Yourself Out
Pig Destroyer, The Octagonal Stairway
Primitive Man, Immersion
Spun Out, Touch the Sound
Thumbscrew, The Anthony Braxton Project
Traxman, “WAP Juked Out”
Ulcerate, Stare Into Death and Be Still
Steve Von Till, No Wilderness Deep Enough
Eli Winter, Unbecoming
Wye Oak, No Horizon v