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Bandcamping: Psychedelic and Alt-Country Releases for the Weekend

The selection of albums featured in this week’s Bandcamping is like the weather recently (assuming you’re on the east coast like I am): Full of variety, except the music’s not obnoxious. Actually, we’re quite taken by the records that cropped up on Bandcamp this week. There was a lot of good stuff going on in a lot of different genres, and we tried our best to represent the musical cornucopia with our top 5 selections.

Let’s jump right in.

5. Moses II by MOSES

moses

Genre: psychedelic rock, shoegaze
If you like: Tame Impala, Deerhunter, Pink Floyd

It’s tough to do ambient-leaning rock well, striking the balance between creating a comforting, downtempo atmosphere and remaining interesting, but MOSES achieves it by keeping the production interesting and the instrumentation just varied enough to entertain without disrupting the lull they’ve put you in.

4. What of it? by Lucola Bang

lucola bang

Genre: electronica, ambient
If you like: Cut Copy, Boards of Canada, Washed Out

Here’s some chilled-out electronica for a rainy Saturday: This album by New Zealand’s Lucola Bang is ambient electronica with bass lines that soothe into submission with enough experimentation to keep you on edge. This would be at home in the ’70s or ’80s electronic scenes, but it’s still unmistakably contemporary.

3. No Burden by Lucy Dacus

lucy dacus

Genre: indie rock, alternative rock
If you like: Best Coast, Cage The Elephant, The Men

The Virginia-based Lucy Dacus is a group people are looking forward to seeing at South by Southwest real soon, and it’s easy to see why: Their garage rock-inspired sound is relatively simple but also profoundly robust. Opening track “I Don’t Want To Be Funny Anymore” is a deceptively catchy gem, and the rest of the record has a similar appeal.

2. Rented Rooms by Ben Lubeck

ben lubeck

Genre: alt-country, Americana, folk
If you like: Wilco, Ryan Adams, John Mayer

Lubeck, also of Minneapolis band Farewell Milwaukee, ventured out on his own this time around, and what resulted is a classic-sounding record of warm Americana that, admittedly, tons of aspiring artists are making, but few of them do it with this much substance.

1. Tonight Is by Jagged Jaw

jagged jaw

Genre: indie rock, indie pop
If you like: Tame Impala

There’s just no separating this from Tame Impala. The band has inspired a wave of imitators, but Jagged Jaw puts a more electronic pop spin on the idea, and boy does it work. The songwriting is tight and compelling, the production is clear and immersive, and the instrumentation is an appropriate mix of past and present. It’s hard to blame one band for sounding like another when they both sound so good.

And now, here are a few other albums were were also feeling this week.

Honorable Mentions

Winter, Part 1 by Easy Ruckus
Genre: folk rock
If you like: Deer Tick, M. Ward

Run it’s the Kid by Run it’s the Kid
Genre: singer-songwriter, pop
If you like: Paolo Nutini, Fleet Foxes

You & Me by The Castillians
Genre: indie rock, garage rock, punk
If you like: The White Stripes, Hop Along, Vampire Weekend

Thanks for checking in with us, and until next week, let us know in the comments which of these albums were your favorites, what we missed, and what we should keep an eye on. If you missed out on last week’s list, you can find it here (and the complete Bandcamping archives are here).

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