THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2021 • THE BULLETIN
ALL THINGS MUSIC
GO! MAGAZINE • PAGE 5
Bandcampin’: Good stuff for your ears
BY BEN SALMON " The Bulletin
B
andcamp 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.
DOMINIQUE FILS-AIMÉ,
<Three Little Words=
In 2018, Dominique Fils-Aimé burst onto
the scene with her debut full-length album
“Nameless,” a collection of bluesy songs that
explored the roots of African American mu-
sic through “historical silences and sorrows.”
A year later, her follow-up effort — “Stay
Tuned! — did the same, this time digging
into the civil rights movement of the 1960s
through jazz. Now, it’s time to complete the
trilogy with Fils-Aimé’s outstanding new
album “Three Little Words,” which man-
ages to echo soul music from the mid-20th
century (think Billie Holiday, Etta James)
but still feel completely fresh and modern.
One reason for that are the arrangements on
these songs, which are at once silky smooth
and crackling with energy. But the star of
this show is Montreal-based Fils-Aimé, who
delivers a confident and compelling vocal
performance in one of recorded music’s first
real “wowza” moments of the new year.
JEFF HANSON, <Jeff Hanson=
In the mid-1990s, the Northwest-based
indie label Kill Rock Stars achieved consid-
erable success when it released two early
albums from a preternaturally talented folk
singer-songwriter named Elliott Smith,
who died much too young in 2003. A de-
cade later, the cycle more or less repeated
itself with a Minneapolis singer-songwriter
named Jeff Hanson, who, like Smith, wrote
quiet, sad, ultra-melodic folk songs, and
who, like Smith, died much too young in
2009. Before he passed, however, he released
three albums for Kill Rock Stars. All of them
are very much worth hearing, but the best
of the bunch is his 2005 self-titled effort, a
stunningly beautiful gathering of acoustic
guitar strums, poignant lyrics, baroque ac-
companiment and Hanson’s angelic voice.
SWEEPING PROMISES,
<Hunger For A Way Out=
Like I am with heavy metal and hip-hop,
I tend to be pretty picky when it comes to
post-punk. That is not to say I have discern-
ing taste or that I only gravitate to the cream
of the crop, but simply that when I listen to
artists in these genres, I find a lot more that
I don’t love than those that I do. And I think
one reason for that is that I’m much more
likely to connect with music that makes use
of a catchy melody than music that does not.
Sweeping Promises is an excellent example:
The Boston-based band uses a lot of post-
punk elements — prickly guitars, workhorse
bass lines, minimalist synths — but they do
it in a way that prioritizes actual over blood-
less brooding. “Hunger For A Way Out” is
their debut (released last year) and boy does
it point the way to a promising future.
e e
Ben Salmon is a Bend-based music journalist and host of
Left Of The Dial, which airs 8-10 p.m. Thursdays on KPOV,
88.9 FM and streams at kpov.org.
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