ALL THINGS MUSIC
PAGE 4 • GO! MAGAZINE
Thursday, april 22, 2021 • ThE BullETiN
Bandcampin’: Good stuff for your ears
BY BEN SALMON • For 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.
SAMANTHA CRAIN
“I Guess We Live Here Now”
For more than a decade, Samantha
Crain has been putting out wonder-
ful folk-rock records from her home
base in Shawnee, Okla., about 40 miles
east of Oklahoma City. Shawnee is no
doubt a fine place to be from, but it
doesn’t exactly hum with the same kind
of big-city buzz as a New York City or
even a Portland, which is probably a big
reason Crain is one of the more over-
looked and underappreciated talents
within the Americana scene. Her songs
are heartfelt and well-crafted, her voice
is consistently compelling and each of
her albums reward repeat listens. “I
Guess We Live Here Now” is her new
EP, just out last week, and it is as beauti-
ful as it is brief.
THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE
“Entertainment, Death”
I was today years old when I learned
The Spirit of the Beehive is named af-
ter a very well-regarded 1973 film. I
just thought it was a Philly indie-rock
band with a weird name. And not just
any Philly indie-rock band, but one of
the best, which is saying something, be-
cause that city pumps out a lot of good
indie-rock bands. What The Spirit of
the Beehive does really well is write
and record catchy little pop songs and
then bend them and twist them and
coat them in a layer of buzzy fuzz and
add a synth squiggle here or some un-
expected percussion there, all without
sacrificing their melodic charm. That’s
not easy to do, and this band does it
well.
BRUISER WOLF
“Dope Game Stupid”
As long as there are rappers, there
will be different rapping and rhyming
styles. If some of today’s most preva-
lent flows — the Migos triplet, mum-
ble-rap, Drake’s singsong style, etc.
— are starting to wear thin, check out
Bruiser Wolf, an associate of another
very distinctive MC, Danny Brown.
On his debut album “Dope Game Stu-
pid,” the Detroit rapper more or less
speaks instead of raps, unspooling
a seemingly endless supply of clever
lines and metaphors in his own her-
ky-jerky way. He sounds like a cross
between Bay Area legend E-40 and,
as one album review put it, “a breath-
less jogger attempting to talk.” If that
sounds odd, well … it is. But it’s also
endearing and engaging and different,
which is always good.
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. You can find him on Bandcamp and Twitter at
@bcsalmon.
As long as there are rappers, there will be different rapping and rhyming styles. If some of
today’s most prevalent flows — the Migos triplet, mumble-rap, Drake’s singsong style, etc.
— are starting to wear thin, check out Bruiser Wolf, an associate of another very
distinctive MC, Danny Brown. On his debut album “Dope Game Stupid,” the Detroit rapper
more or less speaks instead of raps, unspooling a seemingly endless supply of clever lines
and metaphors in his own herky-jerky way.