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1. 2nd Grade, “Hit to Hit”
2. Oddisee, “Odd Cure”
3. Green Druid, “At the Maw of Ruin”

Bandcamp is an online music platform used largely by independent artists and record labels to stream songs and sell merchandise. It’s also a vibrant virtual community teeming with interesting sounds just waiting to be discovered. Each week, I’ll highlight three releases available on the site that are well worth your time and attention. If you find something you dig, please consider supporting the artist with a purchase.

2nd Grade

“Hit to Hit”

Welcome, friends, to the most aptly titled album of the year, the debut full-length from Philly indie-pop combo 2nd Grade, which delivers hit after hit after hit after hit after hit. Led by a guy named Peter Gill, the band is a seemingly tireless factory of fuzzy hooks, catchy melodies and songs that are brief enough to never overstay their welcome, but also punchy enough to stick in your head long after they’re over. And with 18 out of 24 tracks clocking in under two minutes long, if you come across a song you don’t love, just wait a few seconds, because a new one’s arriving soon. If something’s got you down — and chances are, it does! — put on “Hit to Hit” and let wave after wave of good vibes wash over you.

Oddisee 

“Odd Cure”

Musicians have already released a whole bunch of “quarantine albums” — ostensibly projects that came together during the spring lockdown in response to the pandemic, and that might not have happened if not for a sudden glut of downtime. Some are great and some not so much, but few have the sort of documentary feel of “Odd Cure,” the latest full-length from left-of-center Washington D.C. rapper Oddisee. Interspersed among songs about isolation, fear, conflict, hope and escapism are five recorded conversations with Oddisee’s father, mother, grandma, friend and manager about COVID-19, food supply, masks and typical day-to-day stuff. Someday, when other quarantine albums feel dated, “Odd Cure” will provide a clearer reminder of these times.

Green Druid

“At the Maw of Ruin”

Green Druid is an under-the-radar doom band out of Denver’s killer metal scene whose new album “At the Maw of Ruin” showcases the versatility that makes them stand out from a lot of better-known doom bands. This is not “plug in, pick a riff and pound it into the ground” doom, a la Sleep. This is more like “take an incredible, dynamic journey that’s equal parts soaring and suffocating” doom. Green Druid threads enough drone and noise into their sound that you can practically hear the Earth and Swans records sitting alongside Black Sabbath and Electric Wizard on their shelves at home, and they are as comfortable climbing atop a beautiful vocal melody as they are clawing out an earth-moving racket. Most of all, they’re just … massive.