Free/"Name Your Price" Bandcamp Album Compendium

There is a lot of wheat amongst the chaff on Bandcamp, but there's a whole lot more chaff. Sometimes it can be intimidating to dig through all of it. So why not get ILM to help? Some of these are free downloads, some of these are "name your price" with no minimum (although if you want to throw them a few dollars, I'm sure they'd appreciate it). Here's a few to get you started:

Witch Mountain - South of Salem
http://witchmountain.bandcamp.com/releases
Rad female fronted doom metal courtesy of our own Nate Carson (not the aforementioned female)!

Hypatia Lake - Ouroboros
http://hypatialake.bandcamp.com/album/ouroboros
Psychedelic space rock of the highest caliber

Jake Kaufman - Mighty Flip Champs/Mighty Milky Way OST
http://virt.bandcamp.com/album/mighty-milky-way-mighty-flip-champs-ost
Super cheery 8-bit music!

Sedan - Sedan
http://sedan.bandcamp.com/album/sedan
Melancholy piano rock!

Sudden Death of Stars - Getting up, Getting down
http://suddendeathofstars.bandcamp.com/
French shoegaze!

White Triangles - the Night Is Ours
http://whitetriangles.bandcamp.com/album/the-night-is-ours
Icy ambient!

More to come, feel free to offer your own suggestions.

some earworm/gps related things

melodie du kronk / melodien

http://melodiedukronk.bandcamp.com/

kösmonaut

http://kosmonauten.bandcamp.com/

these guys made my #5 album of the year--although they took half of it down :(

http://thecosmicdead.bandcamp.com/

one more - nice psychy folky thing by snails

http://snails.bandcamp.com/album/7

neat beat happening-esque pop from melbourne, both EP and single are free

http://woollenkits.bandcamp.com/

▓▒░ TORLEY ░▒▓ - Glitch Piano
http://music.torley.com/album/glitch-piano
Half a gigabyte of what the title promises!

Butchers - Watch Your Back
http://butchers.bandcamp.com/album/watch-your-back
Noisy garage psych!

Corrupt Autopilot - inside the Crystal Palace
http://corruptautopilot.bandcamp.com/album/inside-the-crystal-palace
Psychedelic indie rock!

Kong - What It Seems Is What You Get
http://kong1.bandcamp.com/album/what-it-seems-is-what-you-get
Dutch instrumental metal!

Disasterpeace - Rise of the Obsidian Interstellar
http://disasterpeace.com/album/rise-of-the-obsidian-interstellar
Epic videogame soundtrack!

http://themarshhens.bandcamp.com/

Marsh Hens (both EPs free)

post-punky band with oddball vocals, sometimes compared to pere ubu

Grindcore Karaoke (label page)
http://grindcorekaraoke.com/
All the free grindcore you could ever want! Gigantic Brain's Invasion Discography is fun, I've heard good things about Robocop, and I love the cover of the Contraception record. Other than that, your guess is as good as mine. If anyone wants to dig through this and single out the good stuff, it would be appreciated. It's a little too much grind for me, though.

excellent irish psych

http://united-bible-studies.bandcamp.com/album/the-kitchen-session-dv039

japanese punk in the dillinger four sense, highly recommended, my favorite record of 2009

http://fourtomorrow.bandcamp.com/album/s-t

Man, I'm going to need another iPod because of this thread…

One of my most-played albums of 2011, instrumental/psych/space/kraut/doom. Sabbath meets Hawkwind meets Neu!, very catchy and incredibly concise for a bunch of psychedelic instrumentals.

http://shootingguns.bandcamp.com/

Thx for this thread J3ff T! Have been enjoying Sudden Death Of Stars this afternoon.

A great EP in the NNF/Emeraldsy neo-retro-synth vein:

http://riteswild.bandcamp.com/album/rites-wild-ep-2011

oh yeah Rites Wild is way cool

ILXor-related psych:

http://theroswellincident.bandcamp.com/

Man, great idea for a thread. This needs to be a constant resource.

And agreed re: the Roswell Incident, made up in part of longtime I Love Comics poster Matt M. Transantarctic was done in my old garage...

Yeah, and I should mention that this doesn't have to be just a list thread, people should feel totally free to post their thoughts on stuff they've downloaded. I'm listening to the Melodien album right now (Melodie), and it's GREAT.

Lüger - Concrete Light
http://luger.bandcamp.com/
Spanish Krautrock par excellence!

Ga'an - Ga'an
http://recordsonribs.com/artists/gaan/gaan/
Not Bandcamp, but free download of superb psychedelic prog! (Initially recommended by emil.y, so she deserves the credit)

Across Tundras
http://acrosstundras.bandcamp.com/
Complete discography of awesome psychedelic prairie rock! Pick one that looks cool, they're all good!

The Holy Roman Army - Lazerians
http://theholyromanarmy.bandcamp.com/album/lazerians
Electronica shoegaze? Why not!

Mega Beardo - A Mega Man 2 Guitar Tribute
http://beardomusic.bandcamp.com/album/mega-beardo-a-mega-man-2-guitar-tribute
Instrumental metal guitar covers of Mega Man 2 songs? Why not! Also, he has a guitar that looks like an NES.

i wouldn't even know where to start with this thread!

psychedelic prairie rock sounds interesting tho.

I should probably clarify that it's DARK, heavy psychedelic prairie rock. Reviewed their latest release for Decibel, but it's one of those weird outliers that they occasionally cover, not actually metal.

yeah they wont be metal enough for jbr

*shrug*

I think you mean to say that JBR is so metal that most bands shouldn't even try music, period.

I don't know if this has been posted but great work from Joel Ford (aka Oneohtrix Point Never) and John Shields. Name your own price.

Shiels and Lopatin 'S/T'

across tundras is great!

Teenage Strangler!
http://teenagestrangler.bandcamp.com/album/dark-sun

great album, a little garage, a little like if you wished 90s GBV was more like Superchuck or vice versa

great thread btw

my two favorite brooklyn bands at the moment:
http://diehard.bandcamp.com/ archers of loaf/sloan sounding stuff
http://passengerperu.bandcamp.com/ pinback/modest mouse sounding stuff

my two favorite boston bands at the moment:
http://grassisgreen.bandcamp.com/ progressive hardcore
http://fathistorymonth.bandcamp.com/ garage stuff

my fav philly band at the moment:
http://petmilk.bandcamp.com/ dreamy jangly shoegaze pop

http://brokenwatermusic.bandcamp.com/ - olympia band sounds like sonic youth & mbv

Ga'an is sick

This isn't on bandcamp but it is free and also AWESOME

The Runnies are a rock'n roll organ trio hailing from Chicago. Fronted by vocal extraordinaire Mary McKane. Their sound is gnarly, the beats are totally slammin, and the leads are freaky-deaky.

The Runnies - http://www.candydinner.com/album/the-runnies-you-cant-win/

that glitch piano one is actually kinda dope

Non-bandcamp free downloads are also welcome, as long as they are AWESOME.

nice shoegazey stuff from the Bilinda Butchers: http://thebilindabutchers.bandcamp.com/album/regret-love-guilt-dreams

http://cloudkicker.bandcamp.com/album/beacons
Ambient metal with electronic touches!

http://axxicorn.bandcamp.com/album/war-of-the-giants
Mythological proto-metal!

http://icedragon.bandcamp.com/album/the-burl-the-earth-the-aether
Garage doom metal!

http://airs.bandcamp.com/album/gloomlights
Shoegaze with black metal touches!

http://ktroneb.bandcamp.com/
Ridiculously prolific Tangerine Dream-style electronic guy! My favorites of the many, many albums he has available are Game over and Tiresias Show, but if you find any other good ones, let us know!

ooh that last one sounds good!!

i like Cloudkicker

Uruguayan psych rock, in my top 10 for the year: http://ufesas.bandcamp.com/

Every album that's available at Bandcamp on this list is linked! http://www.fastnbulbous.com/2011-stoner-doom-psych-metal-rock.htm

Sleestak - Altrusian Moon - A Lo​-​Fi Collection Of Psychedelia and Space Rock
http://sleestak.bandcamp.com/album/altrusian-moon-a-lo-fi-collection-of-psychedelia-and-space-rock

You can get it free, but if enough people pay something, it will fund their recording of a new album this year.

http://fofmusic.bandcamp.com/album/pop-massacre-2

free comp of pop covers by electronic musicians from a dope label

http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/8743-you-can-find-this-on-the-internet-mixtapes-you-might-have-missed/

^^^this, co-written by a certain ilxor, is a v. good guide to hip-hop stuff on bandcamp/similar websites from last year.

I made this
http://themartialarts.bandcamp.com/
it's power pop

this SEDAN record is v. pretty, ty jeff

Kevin Bewersdorf - Slow Dudes
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kevin_Bewersdorf/Slow_Dudes/

A friend of mine's RISD classmate (please don't let this repel anyone). Glitchy, cheesy, MIDI pop goodness. Favorites: "Hi Hi Hello" "The Last Seinfeld" and "1989 Toyota Camry"

really like this album reviewed on pitchfork today:

Household - Items
http://household.bandcamp.com/
(free to stream, $3 to download)

female postpunk with short catchy songs

That thing I linked to is a 'spoof' of some sort apparently. I thought it was pretty good to be honest.

great instrumental beat record:

http://manmantis.bandcamp.com/album/cities-without-houses

sample-heavy but very musical, tracks go places.

been listening to this constantly since @mountain_goats linked to it on twitter yesterday. it is lovely!

http://veryfresh.bandcamp.com/album/2011-demos

http://battlecircus.bandcamp.com/
Epic prog rock lock Muse (don't run away)!

http://c-jeff.bandcamp.com/album/preschtale
Chiptune prog metal (?) concept album!

http://cosmonautsday.bandcamp.com/album/paths-of-the-restless
Russian post-space sludge! Maybe.

http://eyemusic.bandcamp.com/album/center-of-the-sun
Heavy space rock from Ohio!

http://sanangelus.bandcamp.com/album/soon-well-all-be-ghosts
Post-hardcore from members of Pelican and These Arms Are Snakes!

I feel $4 and have no idea why

$6.66 hail satan

I usually go with $5.

$10 fugazi style

The question was prompted by some "name your price" Ian William Craig downloads that I'd buy if they came out on CD.

$4 or £3.00 doesn't seem too shoddy.

If you're gonna spend money on Bandcamp this week, consider doing it this Friday: https://daily.bandcamp.com/2017/07/31/this-friday-stand-with-bandcamp-in-support-of-trans-rights/

All the Shinkoyo label back catalogue is NYP right now, including those brilliant Skeletons records.

https://shinkoyo.bandcamp.com/

A friend of friends of mine just passed away. His stuff is good:
https://vows1.bandcamp.com/album/vows-2

mentioned on the post-fahey thread, but this is great: https://deathisnot.bandcamp.com/album/fayet

the excellent "weird times" by matt jencik is free/name your price today only for halloween: https://mattjencik.bandcamp.com/. highly recommended if you're interested in drone music at all.

One thing I don't understand about Bandcamp. Why does anyone pay for any of the music if everything - I ever saw on there - was streamable for free? Just to download the mp3 and have a file on the computer?

to download the MP3 in case it ever goes away, and/or to support the artist

at least once I've streamed something on BC a couple of times and then been informed I couldn't anymore without purchasing the album--not sure how standard that is though

The artist/label can set that, I'm pretty sure.

Also DJs still need downloads, which is why I really like Bandcamp for dance music.

Ok then but what I don't like is that you cannot download single songs (or can you?). On the other hand I like the album approach (in theory). I am torn in between the past and present.

You can! Just click on the track and it should open its own page, with a track-level price.

Although I have seen some jazz artists in particular making power moves where only a couple of the tracks are streaming, and so you have to buy the album to hear the rest.

Why does anyone pay for any of the music if everything - I ever saw on there - was streamable for free?

because they care about the artist

i mean why leave money in the hat of a street performer? you could use that money to pay your comcast bill. im sure they will appreciate it just as much.

BC has lossless album downloads (my preferred listening). I buy an album and support an artist I like rather than giving money to marketers.

I wish Bandcamp would offer Chromecast support. They claimed it was in the offing a couple of years ago but still nothing.

Shameless self-promo here: buy our album for free. Wherein our hero finally accepts that he only always wanted to be Glenn Mercer anyway. https://salthorse.bandcamp.com

The Roves debut LP is now name-your-price:

https://theroves.bandcamp.com/album/the-roves-lp

Zacht Automaat - Introductory Compilation
https://zachtautomaat.bandcamp.com/album/zacht-automaat-introductory-compilation

Review from Other Music NYC weekly mailer:

It is all too rare to hear a band like this, literally bursting at the seams with ideas. Zacht Automaat, the Canadian duo of Carl Didur and Michael McLean, have released an astonishingly diverse and kaleidoscopic array of music across eleven (!) albums in the past three (!!!) years, of which this gorgeously presented set distills the best two LPs worth of sounds. But even that abbreviated amount of music is almost impossible to encapsulate, filled as this record is with tape loops, cosmic workouts, lo-fi dirges, loping exotica-ish patterns, tuneful synth bliss, and modal psychedelia. They've clearly taken a page from Krautrock pioneers Faust, particularly the masterpiece that is Tapes, and let their imaginations and musicality run rampant. This is the best kind of totally listenable experimentation we can always get behind here, and the sounds they conjure hark back to so many long-time Other Music favorites it practically has us giddy, from Can, Cluster, Black Dice, Stereolab, Soft Machine, the Finnish psych underground, the Ghost Box roster, Bruce Haack, and Raymond Scott to a myriad of other brilliant artists we've championed over the years, while still managing to retain a distinct vision and voice.

i'm perpetually a sucker for bands that sound like hardcore kids who just discovered 70s rock so

https://man-eaters.bandcamp.com/album/gentle-ballads-for-the-simple-soul

May have been covered up thread but ... have we discussed the "correct" price to pay for a "name your price" album?

― djh, Sunday, July 30, 2017 10:33 AM (four years ago)

I feel $4 and have no idea why

― Universal LULU Nation (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, July 30, 2017 2:25 PM (four years ago)

why do i feel this way, too?

anyway ... this thread should never go inactive for a year.

goddammit

May have been covered up thread but ... have we discussed the "correct" price to pay for a "name your price" album?

― djh, Sunday, July 30, 2017 10:33 AM (four years ago)

I feel $4 and have no idea why

― Universal LULU Nation (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, July 30, 2017 2:25 PM (four years ago)

why do i feel this way, too?

anyway ... this thread should never go inactive for a year.

new waldorf and statler experience out a day early! soulful true school chicago hiphop with a sense of humor by two guys who just love making music.

(full disclosure: i'm friends with treblefree and have collaborated with him in the past. doesn't change the fact that he's an excellent producer and dvs is one of the most charismatic rappers i've ever heard.)

Some folks chaff, some folks wheat... But my music is all free/name-your-price on Bandcamp. If anyone pays anything, it gets donated on.

https://ianmanire.bandcamp.com/

Farewell compilation from my longtime electronic music label just came out for free/nyp:
https://astralplanerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/astraltopia

Happy birthday to the Late, Great Montana Elliot of Sharpless. She would have been 31 today. New Sharpless for u:

https://music.sharpless.life/track/people-in-love

georgie gould, aka bulldog eyes, is one of the best songwriters alive.

to tell you the truth, i can't get into her new stuff. it's too impenetrable, both in terms of structure and production. a lot of people seem to like it though.

her old stuff, though - there's almost nothing that isn't gold before late 2016. i've still never heard anything like it. she takes these disparate sounds and textures - jazzy nylon-string, raspy electric guitar, clipped-to-death drum samples, feedback, midi keyboards and soft, buried-in-the-mix vocals - and fashions them into something totally unique, catchy, cohesive and very beautiful.

she's been having financial trouble for a long time, so i'm sure buying her stuff would help her out - everthing's name-your-price.

i'm just gonna post every album i love (apart from the ones she's deleted) here:
https://bulldogeyes.bandcamp.com/album/shame
https://bulldogeyes.bandcamp.com/album/you-have-fun
https://bulldogeyes.bandcamp.com/album/landes
https://bulldogeyes.bandcamp.com/album/seeya
https://bulldogeyes.bandcamp.com/album/thanks
https://bulldogeyes.bandcamp.com/album/asleep
https://bulldogeyes.bandcamp.com/album/yukon-bulldog-eyes-split
https://bulldogeyes.bandcamp.com/album/gross
https://bulldogeyes.bandcamp.com/album/b-sides

This is pretty great- a gig Ben Goldberg did at The Stone in 2014. I can't improve on his description so here it is:

In February/March 2014 I had a one week residency at The Stone in New York -- 12 sets in 6 days. For the last set of the last night I assembled some of my favorite musicians -- Liberty Ellman, Steve Cardenas, Trevor Dunn, Ches Smith, and Rob Sudduth -- and we performed one of my favorite songs, "Let's Cool One" by Thelonious Monk. Fatigue had set in but the mind was open, and we played at the slowest tempo I could imagine, right around quarter note = 13 seconds. I had a feeling that something would take over sooner or later, and I think I was right. The song lasted 44 minutes. Luckily it was recorded. Now I give it to you and hope you get something from it. Love to all.

https://ben-goldberg--bag-production-records.bandcamp.com/album/ben-goldberg-at-the-stone-february-march-2014-lets-cool-one

hell yes

https://weedian420.bandcamp.com/album/the-100-best-releases-of-2024

There really are a lot of bands making stoner psych, aren't there? Amazed that they can come up with 100 releases in a given year of similar-sounding bands that I've never heard of.

you should dig through Weedian's page ... there are like 1000 more of these bands just on their comps

I wonder how many are AI generated.

I don't think any of them are on Weedian.

I think it’s generally not that difficult to play so the bands proliferate.

My controversial opinion is that stoner doom, alongside ambient / drone and guitar soli, is one of the easiest genres to passably imitate with very little practice or skill, which is why there is so much of it

There's probably lots of demand for them at dive bars and the like, as well.

Paul P you rephrased my post that was right above your! This stuff does seem to just proliferate with relatively little effort

Yours

I wonder how many of these "bands" are actually bedroom/studio projects from solo artists, as opposed to a group doing live shows #rockism

this pedal steel cover of eno's "discreet music" is lovely: https://jimwallis.bandcamp.com/album/discreet-music

I just nominated that in the EOY poll thanks to you!

Paul P you rephrased my post that was right above your! This stuff does seem to just proliferate with relatively little effort

― Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Monday, December 16, 2024 4:33 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I know, I was agreeing! Sorry that wasn't clear. I just wanted to piggyback and add in a few shots at two of my other favorite targets.

For the record there is, historically anyway, plenty of stoner doom, ambient and guitar soli I like. I think I'm just at the "enough already" point

What is guitar soli?

fingerstyle guitar music inspired by John Fahey

Ok, thanks.
I think of that as much more technically demanding than a lot of stonerdoom/ambient/drone...