Striking It Rich

After a week of overdosing on over-wrought music, you know the kind–complex arrangement of instruments, overwhelming synthesizer layers, deep bass, heavy drum lines, hardly discernible vocals—I was looking for some relief and it came in the form of a gent named Thomas Patrick Maguire. He’s based in Brooklyn, New York, and if you see a picture of Maguire—clean-cut, fresh faced, short, slicked back hair, you’d probably get the wrong idea about the kind of music he makes. But listen to any track from his just released, The Future’s Coming So Fast, and you’ll realise that what you see is not always what you get.

Maguire has been self-releasing his albums for a while and playing small clubs and tiny gigs. He’s a singer and songwriter whose music is redolent with emotion but also wit and humour and, best of all, a hugely appealing, jangly, garage-y feel. I discovered Maguire when I heard a single song from the new album on a podcast of this year’s new music thus far. The song was called What’s Your Malfunction. It’s a song of an indignant, confused lover with simple lyrics but sung in a manner that reminded me of the delightfully, sloppy blues that another of my favourite singers, G. Love, makes. I haven’t heard G. Love and his deliciously named band, Special Sauce, in years but on the song that I heard, there was something about Maguire’s laid-back vocals, emotion-laden yet witty lyrics and rough, slap-dash recording quality that was endearing enough for me to look for the album.

Thomas Patrick Maguire has been self-releasing albums and playing tiny gigs

I found it on Bandcamp, the website that allows musicians and bands to directly sell their music and merchandise to their fans. It’s a virtual treasure trove for music-lovers, specially if they’re looking for new artists and virtually unknown ones such as Maguire who prefer to do DIY-style publishing. I found The Future’s Coming So Fast on Maguire’s page and for, roughly, Rs 350, I downloaded the album and even got a couple of mp4 formatted high definition videos of his songs for free. It was well worth it.

Maguire’s music has a recording quality that reminds me of my father’s old Bush valve radio that used to wheeze and snarl and make noises that your stomach makes sometimes. I do hope he doesn’t change that when he gets really popular, which I think he certainly will, because that’s the charm of the album. Besides, of course, the irony of his songs. I’m guessing Maguire is, like our Prime Minister, an introvert (I didn’t say it; Time magazine recently did!) because his songs have a certain “leave-me-alone-please” emotion about them. One of them is even called Avoiding People. In fact, reading through the song titles itself is a treat. Besides the two songs I’ve mentioned, you get Beer in the Fridge, Instruction Manual, Negative Hill, Unemployment Dreams, Nothing that Stitches Can’t Sew… you get the drift?

You can find albums by Amanda Palmer on the Bandcamp website

Bandcamp is a place worth hanging about in. You can get almost everything that former Dresden Dolls’ singer, pianist and songwriter, Amanda Palmer, has released on her own steam and even some Dresden Dolls albums. Her husband and star graphic novelist Neil Gaiman’s readings are also on sale—you can name your price for them, by the way. You can browse genres, browse by location (India as well) and get music free. Or better still, pay the artist directly for the music he makes.

After Maguire’s album, I wanted more of less, so I browsed Bandcamp’s acoustic section and found Tin Cans On A String, a band that makes happy, humour-filled folk music and uses mandolins, banjos, harmonicas and lots of clapping. They seemed promising and I may just think of forking out some cash for their album.

Or not. Because, as I am writing this, something else just caught my eye—a virtual post-metal band called Deathmole, whose creator is a web-comic book illustrator called Jeph Jacques and whose band has a sound that is exactly the opposite of what I started talking about in this column. Deathmole are everything you want metal to be, loud, droning and high-amped. I’m listening to Meade’s Army, their new album on Bandcamp, and I may just change my mind about listening to peaceful, under-wrought, less complicated stuff. Am I being fickle? Well, probably, yes. Oh, and do check out Jacques’ web-comic. It’s called Questionable Content.