The Bad Penny (beta)

Welcome to the 16th installment of The Bad Penny‘s Bandcamp Freebie series, in which we handpick our favorite free songs on the platform and dish them up for your consumption. We deserve lotsa high-fives this time around, because all 10 picks are full-lengths – of the highest quality, naturally – which makes us the most benevolent music outlet on the website. And which, in turns, explains we’re so unimaginably financially destitute that Merriam-Webster needs to adopt a new phrase for it.

(Note: If you’re financially capable of supporting any of these artists and/or labels, please consider doing so.)

1. Alienatör’s Pariahs (September 2019) and Regrets (November 2002) (self-released with help from the Canada Council for the Arts)

Hailing from Thunder Bay, Ontario – the municipality where Paul Shaffer also famously (?) grew up – Alienatör held the noise-rock torch between the years they released their two full-lengths. Whether Brad King (vocals, guitar); Sean Skillen (bass, vocals); and Simon Paquette (drums) threw in the towel after those two marvelous migraine-inducers is unclear. The three guys might also have a new album on their hands – but we say that without a shred of certainty, as there’s no mention of it on Alienatör’s Bandcamp page, and their Instagram account is still hyping Regrets. Isn’t that like two newlywed parents getting strangers to kiss their baby in Target because it’s a newborn? Perhaps the Target redshirt on duty can answer our questions. More likely, though, questions, critiques and the like will melt away upon taking Alienatör’s Pariahs and Regrets out for a test drive.

2. Side-Line Magazine‘s United 1 – The Freya Files and United 2 – The Odin Files by various artists (Side-Line)

If you’re even somewhat aware of The Bad Penny‘s devotion to democracy and whole-scale rejection of fascism, it’ll come as no surprise to you that we included these two comps – both released Friday – in our latest Bandcamp Freebies roundup. In fact, we just published an illuminating conversation with Bernard Van Isacker, the Belgian magazine editor and music fan who helped see these Ukraine-supporting collections to fruition. Learn a thing or two about the Ukraine/Russia war that could determine the fate of democracy in that part of the world, and throw down (as little or as much as you want) for these two darkwave compendiums.