Bandcamp Picks: Los Angeles Wildfires

As it goes, Merry-Go-Round Magazine is an independent, online culture magazine based in Los Angeles, CA. While our reach has become much more global, and our writer base has expanded far beyond our SoCal roots, it will always be an LA mag. I sat with my car packed during the fires, prepared to leave on Wednesday the 8th in case the Sunset fire jumped the 101 and I had to bail. Our film editor Kevin Cookman had to evacuate his home because of the Altadena fire. So needless to say, it’s been a strange few weeks for a few of us at the magazine. I wanted to use our first Bandcamp Picks back in 2025 to highlight a handful of charity compilations that are donating their proceeds to various organizations around the city. I’d also like to flag these two spreadsheets that have circulated around, both spearheaded by publicist and friend of the magazine Judy Miller SIlverman: the Support The Music Community – Fire Loss + Resources and a new one, The LA Giving Spreadsheet- Re-use, Recycle. This column relies on the hard work put in by producers, labels, artists, and industry people far and wide, so anything to give back to those who help make the music that we love to write about is appreciated! Cheers! — Editor-in-Chief, CJ Simonson

LOVE LOS ANGELES

Organized by Hit the North Records

Full disclosure: I helped the tiniest bit with this compilation!

We have, of course, been fans of Hit the North Records for a while. They’re a Los Angeles-based label, and we’ve supported their artists via interviews, premieres, and various live showcases throughout the years. LOVE LOS ANGELES features a number of artists on HTN, including a few SoCal acts like Kurupi and Double Wish, but it’s a pretty wide-ranging compilation from tons of indie artists, big and small.

My reputation would proceed me if I didn’t first highlight the legendary Kevin Devine covering Lana Del Rey’s “Video Games,” a spindly and distant guitar rendition that’s worth the price of admission alone. Devine headlines the release along with artists like Shannon Lay, The Album Leaf, Winter, Pachyman, Matt Pond PA., and Cold Gawd, but I’d like to take a second to shout out a few acts who we’ve championed on Merry-Go-Round throughout the years, because I think it’s important for me to acknowledge that while I helped a bit with it coming together, we’ve been fans of many of these artists for a long, long time:

• We had Lost Film perform a showcase Merry-Go-Round threw a few years ago in Maine, and they provided a wonderful session version of “Little Things Forever” from their excellent album KEEP IT TOGETHER, which I wrote about here
• Similarly, we had Famous Friend perform at Permanent Records Roadhouse for our ninth anniversary last year, and Zach delivered an excellent acoustic version of his single “Blue.” You can check out my piece about the EP TANLINES here
• I’ve been a Carriers stan for a while now, and I have the receipts to prove it—I wrote about their debut NOW IS THE TIME FOR LOVING ME, YOURSELF & EVERYONE ELSE back in 2019. They’re beginning to have a moment again with their latest string of singles on Brassland, and the distant, solemn songwriting on the submission “Good Dreaming” might be my favorite on the whole thing
• We’ve covered Ducks Ltd. a lot throughout the years—I wrote about them back when they were known as Ducks Unlimited, Luke Phillips interviewed them last year, and Jack Probst just wrote about them for our Top 50 Albums of 2024. They deliver a fun alternate version of a standout from their 2021 album MODERN FICTION, “Always There”
• MILLY are one of our favorite Los Angeles bands, and we had the good fortune of premiering one of their videos years ago. Writer Zac Djamoos also praised their 2022 album ETERNAL RING, a review worth revisiting. Their B-Side “Ruby & Hazel” is a delightful slice of blown-out fuzz at the top of the compilation
• We’re about the biggest BRNDA fans around, between Chris Copland making their excellent album DO YOU LIKE SALT a Bandcamp Pick and Taylor Ruckle writing about it as one of our Best Albums of 2021. They’ve fittingly delivered an early version of “Service Loser” from that album, a frantic, cutting rock song that is even more raw and tangled here
• Our first show post-COVID was headlined by the great Los Angeles rock band Jagged Baptist Club; we ran an interview with them courtesy of Devin Castaño a few years ago, and I wrote about their debut album here; the demo of “The In Between” from their excellent 2024 release PHYSICAL SURVEILLANCE is slower, but equally filled with catharsis and pathos and a great addition to the compilation
• I’ve written about Late Bloomer a few times for MGRM, but most recently I wrote about their excellent album ANOTHER ONE AGAIN for our Top 50 Albums of 2024 list. They were kind enough to send over one of their unreleased B-Sides and, as you can guess, it rips, a haze of loud, melodic garage rock and melancholic choruses. It’s an essential song to own if you love the band like I do
• Music Editor Ted Davis wrote about Arthur King back in 2021, specifically his ambient record CHANGING LANDSCAPES (ISLE OF EIGG); we’ve subsequently written about quite a few records from Los Angeles-based imprint AKP Recordings over the years. They were kind enough to deliver a few tracks to this comp, including a 16-minute ambient release from King entitled “Live at 2220”
• I don’t want to say too much, but I can tell you that in the upcoming weeks there will be writing on the site covering the artists Delivery, Morpho, and zzzahara, so keep your eyes peeled there and listen to their contributions here as well

Was this a self-serving way to write about this compilation? Maybe. But I couldn’t think of a better way for us as a magazine to say we wholeheartedly support the release than by showing you that we literally have put our editorial behind the artists on it, and it’s cool to see so many on one release. 100% of the proceeds will be going to the Mutual Aid LA Network (MALAN). You can check out the massive 88-song compilation over on Bandcamp!

FOR OUR FRIENDS: A DISASTER RELIEF COMPILATION

Organized by Aloha Got Soul

I’ll admit, I was not familiar with Aloha Got Soul prior to discovering this on Bandcamp, but that’s a faux pas I’m glad is in the past. The Hawaiian label spawned from a blog of the same name in 2015, describing themselves as “committed to exploring every corner of Hawaii for the best music, regardless of genre or generation.” And unless you happen to have some kind of encyclopedic knowledge of modern Hawaiin music, that description alone should have you scurrying to various social channels to give them a follow (here’s their Instagram)!

If you wanted a good place to start, you might’ve lucked out with FOR OUR FRIENDS: A DISASTER RELIEF COMPILATION. The 52-track comp features quite a few artists local to Hawaii, both on the label and otherwise. The opening number is a five-and-a-half-minute groovy instrumental passage from Honolulu-based artist Holden Mandrial-Santos, a sexy, spacy fusion of psych guitar rock and dayglow R&B that will immediately have you looking into Mandrial-Santos and his band Temple Waves (who also contribute a demo on this record). Spock’s hazy dub “Pilipuka Riddim,” Luca Young’s sprawling ambient passage “Absence of Light,” and Natsu Summer’s crooning city pop reggaeton song “緒に夢を見ましょう” are just a few of the many thrilling discoveries throughout. The compilation is donating proceeds to any GoFundMe or donation links on the Support the Music Community spreadsheet spearheaded by friend of the magazine and Motormouth Media publicist Judy Miller Silverman. You can grab a copy of the compilation here on Bandcamp!

BACK IN THE GARAGE – LOS ANGELES FIRE RELIEF COMPILATION

Organized by Soggy Anvil Records and Back In The Garage Sessions

I think I was first made aware of the Back in the Garage sessions back in 2022, when Mini Trees graced the space with a beautiful acoustic rendition of “Moments In Between” from her excellent album ALWAYS IN MOTION. But regardless, the session series has become one of the only reliable video session series in SoCal over the last four or so years, and a great hub for emerging artists. Go follow them on YouTube and Instagram right now.

The garage in question, as it would happen, is based in Los Angeles, and a majority of the music they’ve recorded dating back to 2021 is local—as they mention in the album announcement, five artists that have come through the garage have been displaced by the fires, including rising country troubadour Cooper Kenward, whose house is fully gone. With the help of Soggy Anvil Records, Back In the Garage have compiled a collection featuring selections from the last several years of sessions; it ranges from the oldest session still up on the page’s YouTube, Sophia Wolfson’s dazzlingly sparse rendition of “Billboard,” to the last artist to grace the garage last year, Darlin Brando. You couldn’t ask for a better place to start than the comp’s opener, Kenward’s devastating ballad “Over Easy,” but I’ll also highlight AJJ’s bombastic folk punk song “Children of God,” Esther Rose’s soulful, stripped-back recording of “Dream Girl,” Ella Luna’s hauntingly enchanted version of “Laundry,” and Zach Bryson’s empty saloon number  “The Love You Give To Me.” At 57 tracks it’s an impressive collection, and 100% of proceeds are going to MusiCares and the Pasadena Humane Society (there will be a limited edition vinyl pressing of the release as well, limited to 100—which might even be sold out by the time you read this). You can grab a copy over on Bandcamp.

2025 LA FIRE RELIEF COMP

Organized by Nicholas Pedroza (Astro Nick, Bedridden)

If Nicholas Pedroza is reading this, I hope he won’t take what I’m about to say as a slight, as that’s not at all how I intend it: Thank GOD for a short charity compilation! Every record I’ve written about in this roundup (and frankly any charity release I’ve ever written about in the past) are all massive. This, by definition, is a good thing—you’re getting a huge bang for your buck, money is going to charity, and hopefully you’re discovering some cool new turns along the way. That’s all, unquestionably, great. But… thank god for the comparatively brief and succinct 2025 LA FIRE RELIEF COMP Pedroza spearheaded, a blazing 16-song collection of rising modern slowcore, noise rock, and indie pop acts that you can listen to in under an hour.

The compilation opens with two of Pedroza’s projects, Astro Nick and Bedridden, before continuing on to a number of equally exciting names, including They Are Gutting a Body of Water, Computerwife, Sleep Habits, and Shower Curtain. The one song I’ll shout out is a melting downtempo electronic track called “Plan” from two artists named Fieldy and Scott Hale, whose only SEO presence has ironically led me back to friend of the mag Eli Enis’ Chasing Sundays piece covering this very compilation and similarly pondering who these two mysterious figures are. If two of us are Googling them to learn more, there must be something to the song, right? Proceeds to the compilation are going to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, and you can grab it over on Bandcamp right now!

STAYING: LEAVING RECORDS AID TO ARTISTS IMPACTED BY THE LOS ANGELES WILDFIRES 

Organized by Leaving Records

Leaving Records’ massive 98-track compilation STAYING has rightfully seen a fair amount of press coverage since its announcement. It’s a who’s who of emerging and established artists, with a tracklist ranging from live cuts from established art pop veterans like Julia Holter, Hundred Waters, and John Carroll Kirby, warm instrumentals from ambient legends like Steve Roach and Laraaji, exciting compositions from crossover weirdos like André 3000, Kenny Beats, and Reggie Watts, to tons of rising names we’ve covered here on MGRM like Total Blue and MIZU.

Each longer song on the record is worth immediately flagging, often lingering, hypnotic passages of music from disparate corners of the ambient, electronic, and jazz worlds respectively—Peaking Lights’ urgent electro-psych cut “For Real” and Guy Blakeslee’s weightless new age riff “Reprieve” are both standouts. Other (shorter) highlights include Kevin Haskins (of Love and Rockets and Bauhaus) doing a scuzzy, lo-fi version of Nancy Sinatra’s classic “These Boots Are Made For Walking,” a blissful glitch pop moonshot from Baths and Rachika Nayar entitled “Dried Apricot,” and a spacy waltz from Eddie Chacon called “Fate.” You can buy it digitally for $15 right now, but it’s also seeing a physical release both on cassette and an abbreviated version on vinyl. Proceeds will be going directly to GoFundMes for those affected. You can listen to and pre-order it here.