Butterglory.jpeg

1. Supreme Joy “Joy”
2. Jesca Hoop “Memories are Now”
3. Butterglory “Are You Building a Temple in Heaven?”

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.

Supreme Joy, “Joy”

Inspiration can come from anywhere, and in the case of Supreme Joy’s Ryan Wong, it came from Provoke Magazine, a photo journal published in Japan in the late 1960s that “presented Japanese culture in a light rarely represented by Western press: wild, seedy, and aggressive,” according to the blurb on the Bandcamp page. Wong plays guitar and sings in the delightful San Francisco psych/garage-pop band Cool Ghouls, and Supreme Joy finds him in a similar place sonically: fuzzy guitars, catchy melodies, lo-fi vibes. Recorded as a pandemic and civil unrest swirled outside his basement, though, the songs on “Joy” ring with more than a hint of melancholy.

Jesca Hoop, “Memories Are Now”

Longtime fans of adventurous American Jesca Hoop probably wouldn’t say this — they expected it! — but for me, “Memories Are Now” was one of the pleasant surprises of 2017, which was only four years ago, though it feels like forever.

Hoop is a veteran musician (who once nannied for Tom Waits, interestingly enough), but “Memories” is her first release for mighty Sub Pop Records.

It showcases her unique approach to the craft: dynamic vocal melodies, lyrics that radiate emotional clarity, sparse arrangements that nonetheless sparkle and thrum and envelop the listener in a way that seems like it shouldn’t be possible.

Butterglory

“Are You Building a Temple in Heaven?”

Merge Records is one of the great independent record labels on planet Earth. What’s amazing is that was true way back in the mid-1990s, when the North Carolina-based label was putting out incredible albums by (mostly) indie-pop/rock bands like Polvo, The Magnetic Fields and Neutral Milk Hotel. Somewhat overlooked from that era is Butterglory, a trio from Lawrence, Kansas, that had all the goods: jangling guitars, deadpan male/female vocals, occasional bursts of noise. They basically built a band around all the catchiest parts of Pavement songs, and 1996’s “Are You Building a Temple in Heaven?” captures them at their best.