ALL THINGS MUSIC
PAGE 4 • GO! MAGAZINE
Thursday, June 3, 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.
YEAH IS WHAT WE HAVE,
“Through the Window”
For six months, I’ve been singing to
myself (and sometimes for others) the
chorus of “Weather’s Fine,” the third
track on this 2019 album from New
York City’s Yeah Is What We Have. I
have no idea how I missed this album
back then, but I’m glad to catch up with
it now. Packed with more than its share
of incredible pop-rock songs, “Through
the Window” is a bittersweet collision
of warm acoustic strum, jangling elec-
tric guitars, and Tom Werring’s melan-
choly lyrics, reliably matched up with a
memorable melody. Devotees of Teen-
age Fanclub take note: Yeah Is What
We Have approximates that Scottish
band’s perfect sound more closely than
just about anyone.
WOODS OF DESOLATION,
“As the Stars”
Like you, I’m sure, I eagerly await a
new Woods of Desolation album, seven
years after the release of the stunning
“As the Stars,” which made my “best of
2014” list that published right here in
GO! Magazine. Back then, I lauded its
“expansive soundworld where shred-
ded howls and cymbal crashes exist,
they’re just evermore distant as D.’s
shimmering, shoegaze-y guitar work
carries you up and up and away.” (D. is
the mysterious main force behind the
band.) Put another way, “As the Stars”
is one of the best examples of majestic,
melodic black metal to come out in the
past decade. Here’s hoping Woods of
Desolation is only dormant, and not
done for good.
COSTANZA, “George”
This release caught my eye because
of its cover, which shows a blurry image
of Jason Alexander as George Costanza,
Jerry’s lovable idiot of a best friend on the
“Seinfeld” TV program. The music is a
deeply chilled mix of synth-pop, vapor-
wave, instrumental hip-hop and ’80s-fla-
vored nostalgia, and as of this writing,
it’s up near the top of Bandcamp’s list of
best-selling releases, presumably because
there appears to be a new vinyl and cas-
sette release. (“George” originally came
out in 2017. The new cassette set includes
it and two mixes: “Assman” and “The
Jerk Store”). Anyway, it’s all very strange,
except for the music itself … which is
quite enjoyable.
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.
Packed with more than its share of incredible pop-rock songs, “Through the Window”
is a bittersweet collision of warm acoustic strum, jangling electric guitars, and Tom
Werring’s melancholy lyrics, reliably matched up with a memorable melody. Devotees
of Teenage Fanclub take note: Yeah Is What We Have approximates that Scottish
band’s perfect sound more closely than just about anyone.