One of the joys of browsing the #Nashville hashtag on Bandcamp is the random music you’ll encounter. The only information you’re given is the album title, artist name and the release art. That’s not a whole lot to go off of when trying to decide if you’re the least bit intrigued but occasionally it’s exactly the right amount. Case in point: Blasphemous Rumors is a fantastic artist name and the cover art features a still from the wonderful 1988 horror classic Lair of the White Worm. That still provides zero context on what actual music is contained within but it’s a helluva enticement to start listening.

The release itself, SP Beatz, is unsurprisingly beat driven (it’s in the name) and quite sample heavy. Glitched out percussion and haunting piano lines keep things moving along with a not-unpleasant sense of dread underlining the entire experience. Track two, simply entitled, “2“, is the best place to start as it gives you all of the above as well as some extra mystifying bleeps and bloops to amp up the intrigue.

All told, there’s almost no additional information to know about this artist beyond what is supplied on Bandcamp. There’s no artist image, no social media links or even a hint of a real name. The enigmatic posting is not uncommon on Bandcamp but, in this case, helps to augment the enjoyment of the offering. The real moral of the story here is, if you use Lair of the White Worm as your cover art, I will listen to it.

For the past few years, Great Grand Sun has made it a bit of a tradition to release new music on Halloween. The tracks themselves aren’t traditionally Halloween focused – i.e. they aren’t meant to be your soundtrack for a night out on the town trick-or-treating – but they do seem to embrace the roots of Halloween. Maybe I’m stretching here but allow me to divulge for just a moment…

Halloween’s roots go way back to a Celtic tradition known as “Samhain” – an evening that was believed to blur the line between the living and the dead. The idea being that if the dead were ever to return to Earth, this would be the night to do it. The Celts would light fires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. Like most traditions, this was appropriated and changed over time to become a celebratory time of costume wearing and candy consumption but the root tradition of spirits returning to our realm is still intact.

Both “Unconditional Love” and the b-side, “Life was Full of Joy & Light”, are a lament on lost love of the most intense kind. Releasing this on Halloween is nod to the death of that feeling. The Celts used Halloween to ward off spirits but with the veil being thinned, it’s also an opportune time to welcome those lost to another realm back into our lives. What better time to ponder a lost love than the evening when the possibility of it returning could be possible? The pair are absolutely tragical songs on their own but combining them with a Halloween release just adds another layer of painful wistfulness.

If you’re a regular reader of We Own This Town or regular listener of the Music podcast, you’ll know that we’re pretty smitten with the works of Volunteer Department. Primary songwriter Oliver Hopkins has a keen ability to write a scathing takedown steeped in snarling criticism, all wrapped in a memorable pop song. In short, we love it.

Recently, the band has been rolling out a new EP entitled Clean Living song-by-song. You possibly saw the premiere of the latest track “Swell” over in The Scene. I won’t bother to repeat the information that they’ve already shared (tho, you should read it) but will add that Hopkin’s lyrics are really worth paying attention to. Take this line for example:

“I’ll cut my fingers off and mail `em to France.
At least then some small part of me
won’t be stuck here arguing
the in’s and out’s of something that has no shape.”

It’s evocative and incredibly memorable. It’s also just one snippet of a track that continuously delivers similar gems. The song is, reportedly, about finding solutions to stunted creativity by looking elsewhere but Hopkins leaves it open-ended enough that you can draw your own conclusions.

It’s also worth noting that this latest batch of Volunteer Department songs seems to go to great length to layer vocal interplay in a myriad of interesting ways. Maybe that’s insight that should be saved for a larger review of the entire release but listening to “Swell” carefully and you’ll notice a variety of other voices that augment the lyrics to give them an even more potent punch.

Look for the Clean Living EP from Like You Mean It Records and be sure to follow Volunteer Department (really killing it with the visuals lately too).