The thing about a joke band is that you have to be noticeably awful to really let your audience be IN on the joke. I recently caught a set by Lazersnake and honestly couldn’t tell that I was seeing a parody band; they loved what they were doing.

Thankfully, such is not the case with the second EP from Scoot and Skeet, a comedy undertaking from unknown sources that does an unbelievably good job of aping a number of genres with their own absurd twist. Will I listen to the Chipmunk’ed gibberish vocals backed by exploding shoegaze emo fury of “Sad Hawk Down” on repeat for the rest of the day? You bet your ass I will. It’s legitimately hilarious and shockingly well executed. 

The final track, an ambient undertaking entitled “Affleck, You Da Bomb In Phantoms Yo!” is the only questionable contribution; as there’s no funny stuff, just a haunting dirge. Maybe Scoot and Skeet’s got more to offer than they’d have you believe.

Another new track from the forthcoming Blank Range album, Marooned with the Treasure (due August 25th), is now streaming. Listen to more country tinged goodness from the band and mark your calendars for the full release.

My apologies for sleeping on Sad Baxter. They put out a full-length album back in 2016 entitled Weirdy and it just slipped right past me. I had the pleasure of seeing them play The East Room last weekend with The By Gods and they really left an impression. Their vibe is a bit of the 90′s throwback (hence The By Gods show coupling) but singer Deezy’s voice is unique in its sweet but gravely delivery. 

Overall, they pack a punch. Embedded is their latest offering, the single “Doubt” that appears on a recent split. It starts with a slow burn but delivers the packing punch I experienced at the show. I welcome more of it.

It’s actually fortunate that it’s a bit dreary in Nashville today because it serves as an appropriate backdrop to the new surprise release from Makeup and Vanity Set, the soundtrack to the short film Jogger. As with much of MAVS (friendly nickname) catalog, it’s a dark and foreboding piece of work; particularly fitting for a film about a man on a run who witnesses a horrible act, does nothing and is plagued by guilt. 

Today, August 4th, Bandcamp is donating 100% of their profits to the Transgender Law Center in support of Transgender Rights. Read more about that, here.

In support of this movement, PANGS has released a new song, “Next to Me”, that you can purchase for as little as $1 or if you’re looking to donate more to the Bandcamp Transgender movement. It’s a delightful combo of keyboards, crunchy guitars and detached vocals. 

If you haven’t found the time to watch the short film, The Privates, inspired by the band of the same name; do so stat. If you have watched it, you’ll want to steer yourself over to the Original Score now available on Bandcamp and revisit the three main pieces from the film as well as two outtakes that fit right in with the sci-fi world but just didn’t make the cut.

Bonus: the score includes two actual songs from The Privates, which you can never hear too often.

I know very little about Jonesiii From the Moon, aka Dedrick Jones, but the four tracks he’s posted on Bandcamp as a preview for his forthcoming album, The Moon is Watching Us (due Sept 10th),  is a compelling argument for learning more. The overall tone is laid back but he’s managed to mix mysterious spacey vibes both into the music (see the three minute outro on “Black Moon” or the staggering vocal track on “Afraid”) and into the lyrics – a thematic element that runs throughout the preview tracks. 

The full album will be 17 tracks that likely maintains a similar vibe. That won’t be easy to pull off but I imagine there’s plenty of compelling tricks up his sleeve to keep it interesting.