San Jose, California’s Xiu Xiu were quite a heavy presence in the Los Angeles underground music scene during the early 2000s, and it seems that they’ve maintained their quality, as well as their bleak lyrical content.
Alternative/Indie
[Music] Geronimo Arafat – To Writhe Amongst The Lepers
Geronimo Arafat are an experimental music project based in Los Angeles which has been in operation since around 2011. For those of you who remember the experimental music cassette culture of the 1980s and early 1990s, and love bands like The Residents, Sun City Girls, Merzbow or even early Nurse With Wound, this project is VERY much worth exploring.
[Music] Luke Haines – Inside The Restless Mind Of Rollerball Rocco
Luke Haines is famous for fronting such bands as The Auteurs, Baader Meinhof and Black Box Recorder, but this solo LP, 9 1/2 Psychedelic Meditations on British Wrestling of the 1970s & Early ’80s, takes the cake, especially as the aforementioned Mark “Rollerball” Rocco was a British pro wrestling hero of mine.
[Music] Letha Rodman Melchior – Edymion/MWCIE
There’s little worse, from a musical standpoint, than discovering an artist whose work gleams brightly after she has left this mortal coil, and from cancer, that cruel killer. Letha Rodman Melchior was a painter of some renown as well as a composer of fine experimental music. She hailed from Durham, North Carolina, and recorded for Siltbreeze Records, with whom she released two absolutely stunning albums: Handbook For Mortals from 2013, and Shimmering Ghosts, released posthumously in 2015.
[Music] The Jay Vons – Want You Tomorrow
From Daptone Records, the same company who brought you Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, comes another neo-soul combo, The Jay Vons. The feature members of Reigning Sound, Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens, and Robbers on High Street.
[Music] The La Souterraine Label Keeps French Pop Freaky
Bandcamp breaks yet another amazing record label, this time out of France. La Souterraine are based out of France, and they cover a lot of weird alternative and pop music that flies under the radar in their home country.
[Music] Swans – God Loves America
Never doubt The Swans, even if we’re enduring a tough love.
[Music] 36 – Hollow
36 (pronounced three-six) are an ambient drone band based out of the United Kingdom. Heavy duty music for headphones, not quite Eno-esque, but it resides more along the post-rock side of the spectrum.
[Music] Girl Band – De Bom Bom
Here’s another track from what, to these ears, is the best band in Ireland today. Girl Band sound something like a violent crashing of The Birthday Party, early Nirvana, with touches of This Heat.
[Music] Svitlana Nianio – Spotkanie
This is a very charmingly weird slice of avant-pop from a Ukrainian singer and songwriter, Svitlana Nianio, whose one album, Китиці (Kytytsi), was released on the Polish indie label Koka Records.
A Miscellany Of Tasteful Music 