A Year of Bandcamp, Part 1
Cocktail jazz, exotica, surf guitar, Spanish indie pop, and dream pop noir
While I may not be the seeker-out of new music I was in my more formative years, I do still enjoy discovering new music, even if the music isn’t new and is only new to me, or is new music that sounds like old music. My litany of Bandcamp purchases is pretty representative of these investigations and reflective of the highly suggestible mental state in which I find myself when reading or watching something. What I bought this year was heavily influenced by, among other things, a trip to Palm Springs, books about hauntology and psychogeography, the television show Reservation Dogs, and driving around late at night. Styles and genres represented include synthwave and disco noir, indie rock both jangly and melancholy, hauntology and ambient, surf guitar, and exotica and cocktail grooves.
No in-depth exploration here, just quick impressions. That said, it’s still long enough that I had to split it into two parts, so look for the rest next week.
A Trip through Spanish Indie Pop
Some years ago, I was flipping through the records at New York’s late Mondo Kim’s and, for reasons I can’t fully remember but probably had to do with miniskirts and striped t-shirts, I picked up a couple of albums by two Spanish indie pop bands, Vacaciones and Cola Jet Set. Both have maintained places high up on my list of “most frequently played” ever since. Both have a jangly, catchy 1960s by way of the 1980s paisley underground sound (think the Bangles, especially early Bangles).
This year, I was plugging some holes in my collection of releases from both bands and bought Vacaciones’ LP, Soy tu fan, and the three-song Cola Jet Set release, Suena El Teléfono. Both are bright, bouncy, and will put a smile on your face.
The Palm Springs Collection
I spent a couple of weeks this summer amidst the mid-century modern marvels of Palm Springs, California. I knew going into the escapade that Martini Kings would play an important part in my soundtrack. I’d previously bought an album, Dance of the Virgins, in preparation for a trip to Hawaii in 2018, after reading an article about “exotica noir,” which I can no longer find.
Knowing that they had many an album with a Palm Springs vibe, I went wild a few days before departure, buying five albums, all of which were exactly what I wanted for my desert getaway: Intoxicating Sounds, Palm Springs Serenade, Cocktail for Two, Let's Get Away From It All, and Smile, the last one being a collaboration with vocalist Kate Campbell. Later in the year, long after returning home, I slipped one more Martini Kings purchase into the mix, MeduSirena Marina Presents...The Intoxicating Sounds of Martini Kings.
Another key element of my Palm Springs soundtrack was Technicolor Paradise: Rhum Rhapsodies & Other Exotic Delights, a three-disc set of obscure and independent 1960s exotica from the label Numero Group (and which I reviewed on the Suburban Pagans website). While poking around lounge and exotica releases on Bandcamp, I discovered that there was more to the story, that they’d selected for the collection more songs than three albums could contain.
The overflow explored exotica-influenced R&B, slow grind, and burlesque beat music and was assembled on a supplemental release, Jungle Juice. Not officially part of the Technicolor Paradise collection but certainly a spiritual companion, Numero Group also released Private Beach, a collection of dreamy surf guitar exotica. While making those purchases, the universe decided I should also purchase Call Me Old Fashioned, a Numero Group collection of lounge and easy-listening tunes. Who was I to argue?
The final pieces of my Palm Springs serenades came while I was there, visiting Frank Sinatra’s grave at Desert Memorial Park. While wandering the cemetery, I came across the grave of Grace Moody, which proclaimed “Grace was the ace of them all.” Enamored by such an enthusiastic endorsement, I looked her up. She and her husband were Palm Springs nightlife legends, and she and her sister, Pony Sherrell, had been vaudeville sensations. Pony scored some hits as a singer, including one featured on Technicolor Paradise. As fate would have it, there were two Pony Sherrell collections on Bandcamp, Pony Sherrell with Phil Moody & His Orchestra and Jungle Ungle, Um, Bai. Needless to say, I added both to my collection. While I was doing that, I stumbled across another Numero Group curio: Silent Island, a collection of exotica and cocktail music by Darla Hood, formerly of Our Gang/The Little Rascals.
Strange Surf
No year goes by without me adding a few surf guitar albums, even though, admittedly, they can often sort of blend together. In 2022, I picked up four albums by three artists. The 427’s Stay Gold is an upbeat collection of songs influenced by everything from spy movies to Bullitt, with a slightly more sinister noirish undertone lurking in the shadows.
The Mankooras pulled me in with pulpy album art, and it didn’t take much of a listen before I was sold and picked up a single, Blue Sunset, and an LP, Jungle of Steel. They come to surf guitar by way of exotica, languid and dreamy most of the time but always willing to venture forth on a jungle adventure. Very Les Baxter, and an excellent Adventureland soundtrack.
Finally, I picked up Stereophonic Space Sound Unlimited’s The Flawless Ms. Drake. SSSU brings a cinematic sense to surf guitar, and this album could be the soundtrack to a space-age British spy series that never existed but was influenced by the likes of Emma Peel and The Avengers.
Dreamy Noir
Italians Do It Better, pioneers of what has been dubbed by many as “disco noir,” is one of the very few labels from which I will buy every release. For years it was home to one of my favorite groups, Chromatics, until that band broke up in 2021. Luckily for me, lead singer Ruth Radelet continued to forge a sound that is heavy with late-night driving ambiance and mood-drenched noir independently from Italians Do It Better. She released two singles, Crimes and Stranger, then an EP, The Other Side, which contained both singles. There’s a reason Chromatics made an appearance in Twin Peaks: The Return and collaborated with Julee Cruise. As a solo act, Ruth Radelet continues to wander that same dark, beautiful dream pop path.
To be continued…