stealth wasters (mr. 1)
stealth wasters is blog to shoutout artists and entities who do cool things. and recommendations to everyone else who are not the artists.
bruiser & bicycle — holy red wagon
i’ve been really into dissonant death metal lately. so when i heard this album’s featured track, “1000 engines”, it felt like such a soft place to decompress. the jangly guitars was pleasing. i didn’t think too much about it, but i put this on my wishlist*. nearly everytime i saw this album, i would play it.
eventually, i just really fell in love with it. it’s weird and long and i think of it often. i listened to the entire album, and yowzers, it’s also sprawling and bizarre.
this also made me want to listen to more jangly guitar stuff (pylon! wow, pylon)
paint kart by brendan keogh
amazing concept, recreating a childhood game! it’s really difficult to steer, but i think that makes it more wild and exciting. very inspiring, too! i even got a couple people to play it as well. here’s an imgur album of my races. https://imgur.com/a/lSYbo81
perfect example by john porcellino: an autobiographical bildungsroman in comic form. the story is simple, the drawing style is simple and it works so well. bands are namedropped which i love! it makes the comics feel more real and i understand the desire to share cool music. also, his work is so inspiring, it makes me want to make autobio comics.
small albums: i really didn’t need another source of recommendations! bandcamp daily, brooklynvegan, random browsing. but i couldn’t resist since it’s done by an ant on helium. the selections tend to be more indie and relaxed electronic stuff, which is a great counterpoint to my deathmetal obsession. fortunately, there’s just the right amount of overlap with my tastes so i’m not overwhelmed with their picks (i just cannot vibe with “emo” no matter how hard i try). tiny playlist tuesday, what rules wednesday, new music friday guide, and best-of lists means A LOT of recs.
topshelf records. https://topshelfrecords.bandcamp.com/
oh yeah, bruiser & bicycle is on this label. i’m biased because topshelf is based in porland, oregon, usa (i live in eugene, oregon, usa). dunno how i found out about them, but i’m glad i did because they’ve put out some great samplers (i love samplers!) and have found some cool stuff from those (of course). indie, math rock, emo, some other stuff too. they have such a lovely and welcoming vibe, which feels great!
i listened to the discography of: the xx. there are only three albums. they are lovely. my fav is reunion + sunset. i’d play these tracks back-to-back over-and-over (while playing thps2 on gba) because they’re the best to me.
wishlisting on bandcamp (*)
i pretty much use wishlists on bandcamp as a bookmarking tool. i think that’s what everyone does, right? i watch a skate video, find a gem in a compilation, then mark it for later.
i have more than 500 items here, but of course i’m not going to buy everything! i hope an album being wishlisted helps the artist, even if i never make the actual purchase.
but i end up just playing the featured tracks quite a bit when i just want a hit of something fresh. it’s nice to have unlimited plays for that, and that benefits the artist because it may push me towards making a purchase whenever the next bandcamp friday rolls around.
i decided i needed to trim down this list, so i’m listening to it all. even if i unwishlist it, i’ll still check out the band’s page and their label’s page. it’s pretty fun discovering what i was thinking about when i clicked the lil’ heart.
@bruiserbicycle @BRKeogh @The_Real_John_P @SMALLALBUMS @topshelfrecords @The_xx
