Bandcamp Friday: 12 Records Worth Your Money Today
From Kneecap to Japanese disco funk, here’s what’s been in my heavy rotation.
Bandcamp Friday is back, which means your money goes straight to the artists instead of getting chipped away along the way. Hard to believe this started in March 2020, but here we are, six years later and it’s still one of the easiest ways to support those making the music you care about.
This is the last one until August, so if you’ve been meaning to pick something up, now’s the time. I did some digging and rounded up a mix of new releases and a few older records that have been in heavy rotation over here. All vinyl links to Bandcamp. Leggo.
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KNEECAP - FENIAN (2026)
Get Vinyl: Red & Black Splatter | Red & Black Tricolor | Black
Genre: Irish Rap
Today’s a fun release day, headlined by Kacey Musgraves and American Football. Also BLARF! But let’s start with my favorite drop: the boys from Belfast are back, linking up with the great Dan Carey for their second album FENIAN.
If you heard Fine Art or caught their Netflix movie, you know the deal: Mo Chara and Móglaí Bap trade bilingual bars over DJ Próvaí’s blown-out, rave-adjacent production. FENIAN pushes that further, widening the sound while tightening the songs.
Recorded while Kneecap was the most talked about band in the country as Mo Chara was in and out of courtrooms for trumped-up terrorism charges, these lads are starting to look and sound like legends in the making.
Gia Margaret’s Discography (2018-2026)
Get Vinyl: Singing on Mental Clarity Clear | Mia Gargaret on Metallic Blue | Romantic Piano on Hinoki Cypress | There’s Always Glimmer on Coke Bottle Clear
Genre: Folk
Last week, Chicago composer Gia Margaret dropped her fourth album, Singing, and it lands with a bit more weight than your average release. After There’s Always Glimmer in 2018, a vocal injury forced her into silence, leading to two gorgeous ambient records, 2020’s Mia Gargaret and 2023’s Romantic Piano. “There was a time when I really didn’t know if I would sing again,” she says.
Singing is her first vocal album in eight years. The voice is back, but now it’s sitting inside something more deliberate, shaped by the years she spent working without it. You can hear that patience in the details, and in the way the songs open up with help from Frou Frou’s Guy Sigsworth, Stars’ Amy Millan, the Weepies’ Deb Talan, Pedro the Lion’s Dave Bazan, and Philly’s Kurt Vile. Taken together, these four records map a rare progression, where losing the obvious path opened a better one.
The Mystery Kindaichi Band - The Adventures of Kindaichi Kosuke (1977)
Get Vinyl: Black
Genre: Japanese Disco Funk
Sometimes you see an album cover of an awkward Dracula playing the flute and go, “yeah I’m gonna need to hear this.” And that will be the best decision you make all day.
The Mystery Kindaichi Band’s The Adventures of Kindaichi Kosuke (1977) is an “imaginary” soundtrack to a cult detective series by Seishi Yokomizo (think Japan’s Agatha Christie), arranged by Kentaro Haneda and performed by a loose collective of top-tier ‘70s Japanese city pop and session players. The result is ten instrumental cuts of straight disco funk, breakbeats, grooves, and no filler. It’s been a crate-digger staple for years.
Your Bandcamp Friday money here goes to Paris label We Want Sounds, who consistently put out high-quality reissues.
Fust - Evil Joy (2021)
Get Vinyl: Black
Genre: Alt-Country
North Carolina’s Fust snuck into my top 10 records of 2025 with Big Ugly, and now their debut Evil Joy is getting a much needed vinyl reissue for its fifth anniversary, courtesy of the great Dear Life Records. This one’s a bit looser and more barebones, but you can hear it clicking into place. If Big Ugly pulled you in like it did me, this is where to go back and see how it started.
Florry - Smells Like... Florry Live As Hell (2026)
Get Cassette: Black
Genre: Country Rock
We stay blessing the Dear Life label because they may have released the best live release of the year with Florry’s Smells Like… Florry Live as Hell.
Fourteen tracks pulled from shows between 2023 and as recently as March 2026 at Chicago’s Empty Bottle, this set gets close to what they actually sound like on stage: loose, loud, and on the edge of coming apart. Now please drop this on vinyl!
Eaves Wilder - Little Miss Sunshine (2026)
Get Vinyl: Yellow/Orange
Genre: Dreampop
One of my favorite April releases, and easily one of the stronger debuts I’ve heard this year, comes courtesy of North London’s Eaves Wilder. Little Miss Sunshine sits right in my sweet spot, 90s-leaning dreampop one minute, heavier, fuzzed-out guitar moments the next. If you’re a sucker for ethereal vocals and loud guitars like myself, this is an easy one to keep in rotation.
Mr Bongo Record Club Vol. 8 (2026)
Get Vinyl: Magenta | Black
Genre: Compilation
I’m going in blind on Mr Bongo Record Club Vol. 8, just trusting the curators at this point. These comps bounce across decades, genres, and moods, and usually send me down a rabbit hole of artists I’ve never heard before.
Early returns are strong. Kenny Dope’s rework of “Wish That I Could Talk To You” is a fantastic first single and has me sold on the rest.
The Visitors - Motherland (1975)
Get Vinyl: Black
Genre: Soul Jazz
Jazz Dispensary is one of my favorite labels, and their Top Shelf reissues do a great job unearthing rare or previously unavailable titles. This month’s selection is The Visitors 1975 spiritual jazz album Motherland, returning to vinyl for the first time in five decades. The title track is my favorite.
War Child Records - HELP(2) (2026)
Get Vinyl: Black
Genre: Compilation
Let’s end with one you’ve probably seen around, but if you scrolled past it, circle back. HELP(2) lands 31 years after the original, with War Child pulling in a stacked lineup including Arctic Monkeys (their first new song in four years), Depeche Mode, and Olivia Rodrigo.
There’s so much good stuff here. “Stranger” is my favorite Black Country, New Road track since Isaac Wood left. But the one that really hits is Cameron Winter’s “The Warning,” a jarring protest song that feels like it could outlast the moment.
All proceeds go toward supporting children affected by war, which makes this an easy one to spend on.
Appreciate you tuning in. Let me know what you picked up today, and if you’ve got a Bandcamp release, drop it in the comments so we can check it out.
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Until next time,
Jared
Can confirm I did see an album cover of awkward Dracula playing the flute and did go “yeah, I’m gonna need to hear this” - straight to bandcamp I go!
I have been trying to find, online, an album I owned back in the 70's. It's by a band named 'Ton-Ton Macout'. Can anyone point me in the right direction?