Indiecast - 2021's Unsung Albums (So Far)

Episode Date: June 4, 2021

Somehow, 2021 is already nearly halfway over. With the world getting ready to emerge from our collective cocoon, here’s to hoping that the second half of the year will bring more joy IRL than the first half. Despite the lack of in-person interactions over the last six months, one thing that hasn’t been lacking is the release of exceptional new music. On this week’s episode of Indiecast, Steve and Ian are digging into some of the year’s best albums that might have flown under the radar.Ranging from punk and punk-adjacent efforts like Fiddlehead’s Between The Richness and Field Music’s Flat White Moon, to the good vibes of Jimmy Montague’s Casual Use or Sunburned Hand Of The Man’s Pick A Day To Die, Steve and Ian cover a lot of sonic ground in their picks.With much of this episode dedicated to music you might not have heard before, there is no Recommendation Corner this week.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Indycast is presented by Uprocks's Indy Mix tape. Hello, everyone, and welcome to IndyCast. On this show, we talk about the biggest indie news of the week. We review albums and we hash out trends. In this episode, we're going to be talking about our favorite unsung records of 2021 so far. My name is Stephen Hayden, and I'm joined by my friend and co-host, Ian Cohen. Ian, how are you? Well, I'd say that things are looking up, at least for me, as far as the unspoken but unmistakable.

rivalry which animates Indycast between you and I I mean right now you got the books You've got what probably twice as many Twitter followers as I do I know who keeps the lights on an Indycast However

Hold on here Okay I'm just gonna say though That There's a lot of Ian Cohen I feel like The core of our audience Are devoted Ian Cohen heads Maybe I'm wrong about that

But anyway, what were you going to say? Yeah, so, I mean, you're pretty much laughing me on all of those metrics. However, I think that there is finally a non-zero chance that I might be represented in a feature film, which I don't think you can say that yet. So there has been... You're talking about the chain smokers movie, about emo night. Yes, I'm not just talking about the chain smokers movie nor the emo night movie, but the EDM-pop duo, the chain-smokers, is a... among the backers of a scripted feature film every night is emo night. So I learned about this in variety. That's where I get all of my emo news. Um, yes. Look, man, I, I, I DJed those nights.

Um, you know, maybe they'll have me as just like the old head hater in there who tries to stand in the way of, you know, the couple who, it's set in the universe. It's in the extended universe of emo night. So that's all I know so far. Look, man, I'm not, I'm just, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm This is a thing where I'm like, I am glad this exists. I think it's impossible to hate on it. First off, because it's objectively awesome to see chain smokers emo night together at last. But look... Yeah, like, did the chain smokers show up?

They probably did. Your nights? Like, were they lurking in the back? Not mine. So what... Okay. Was there like a champagne room at the emo night? There might have been, dude.

Like, by the end, you know, look, I can't... I just want to say, like, society has progressed beyond needing to hate on emo night. Like, you know, there are four elements of, I think it's four elements, four or five elements of hip-hop. This is really embarrassing. I don't know whether it's four or five. But, you know, in the same way, there's like four elements of like fourth wave emo, which is like capos, telecasters, black and red flannels and hating on emo night. Like that no longer exists.

Like, A, emo nights don't really exist. But like, I spent so much time. like gatekeeping and like talking about like how when they played like panic at the disco or had you know um guys like uh mark the mark hoppice or something like that come along to like DJ and just kind of like you know not push any buttons how this was like bad for the genre or whatever but like let's let's face it man like these shows themselves where they are what they are they were uh club nights for like assistance at talent agencies so What, I mean, what if, what if the movie is great?

Yeah, what if it's great? What if the chain smokers are, see, this is my dream of a chain smoker's emo night movie. Okay. The soundtrack would all be chain smokers and Chris Martin, covering emo classics. So they would be covering, like, Rites of Spring, you know, into Sunny Day real estate, you know, going through all the waves of emo. I think that would be a beautiful thing.

And maybe, you know, a rights of spring cover by Chris Martin and the chain smokers, that could get like a billion streams on Spotify. And all of a sudden, like, Guy Piquiato, is that how you say his name? I'm not going to even try to. It's spelled guy. This is embarrassing, man. I don't know how to pronounce. It's Gikikato.

I don't know how to pronounce the names of the guys in Fugazi, nor do I know how many elements there are in hip-hop. My whole life is a fucking lie. I should have never got off on this topic. Someone can correct me on this. Because it's spelled Guy, but I'm pretty sure it's pronounced ghee. Anyway, geier guy. He gets a billion streams, courtesy of this Chris Martin, chain smoker's cover of Rights of Spring.

And he's like rolling in like a diamond encrusted yacht. I don't know, man. And the emo heroes of the past are being upheld by the chain smoker. It's like, what a great thing that could be. I don't know. You hear things a lot about how rich Fugazi are, especially E. McKay. Or I. Mackay. Like, this is so fucking embarrassing that I don't.

There's so many weird accent marks in, like, the names of punk legends. We need to talk about any other band right now because, like, Chris Martin. I can talk about Chris Martin. I know how that's pronounced. I know it's Ian Mackay because when I was in college, I interviewed Ian McKay for my university music television show. It was on the university TV station. And because Fugazi played at UW O'Clair in 1999 in the Student Union, and I was wearing a leather jacket because I had just seen Donnie Brasco and I was into leather jackets.

And I called him Ian McKay. And he corrected me on the air. Now, that deserves a movie. That deserves a movie right there. That was a fine moment in my journalism career back then. I got to ask you, did you watch the Bo Burnham special on Netflix inside? You know, this is an example of something that this is a phenomenon that I find myself encountering far more often over the past couple of years where something that I wasn't, like I didn't have the release date marked on my calendar. So I find out about it through Twitter.

And it was like over holiday weekend, I think it was on the Sunday of Memorial. I've just been like, I've been like just watching straight up billions this whole time. So, like, it's kind of, oh, but we got to talk about billions at some point. We'll talk about billion. We've got to put that to the side, maybe next week. Yeah, so I've been, I've just been not up on, like, whatever's been happening as far as the rest of pop culture. But you haven't seen it. No, but it's been ruined on both sides on Twitter because there are the people who are like, oh, this is, this is not actual comedy.

It's just like a dude talking about, like, mental health and so forth. Yeah. And then there are people like, this is fucking brilliant. I just have PTSD, I suppose, from like the earliest Bo Burnham stuff from when I worked in talent management and comedy. And this was like the height of funny or die or like when comedians were starting to pivot to YouTube and making songs. So forgive me for being a little hesitant to dip my toe back in this water. I mean, I went in because people were talking about it. I don't follow Bo Burnham that closely.

I mean, I brought them up in the context of this show. because I sort of think of him as like emo Hamilton. Oh, Lord. Or like Indy Rock. Like Hamilton for like emo kids or indie rock kids. That's what I feel like. That is the least appetizing description I think of her anything, man. Oh my God.

So, you know, I looked at it and that's a snap judgment perhaps, but I just felt like this isn't my thing. But I saw a lot of people talking about it. As you said, there were a lot of people talking about how brilliant this was. There was a feature in the New York Times where. their comedy critic talked about how this is like a reinvention of the comedy special form and I thought, well, this sounds interesting. So I lasted about 10 minutes.

I couldn't get through more than 10 minutes of it before I had to bail. And I have a couple issues with this thing. I think the first one has to do with like musical comedy in general. I think if you are a musical comedian, you at the very least shouldn't take yourself seriously. And if you do, I just feel like it kills it.

So I had this tweet the other day where I was talking about, you know, I just watched the Bo Burnham special where I tried to watch it and I said that I was glad that Weird Al never had a depressive face. You know, that Weird Al was only just funny. And then after that, I remembered this story about Weird Al, this insane story. I don't know if you, did you hear the story about like how his parents died? Uh, no. Like, okay, so this was in 2004, and both of his parents who were in their 80s, they died in their home of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Like, you know, there was like a leak or something, and they didn't realize it, and they passed away, you know, at the same time. And what makes it even weirder, at least for me, is that Weird Al was in Appleton, Wisconsin. Oh, that's when this happened. That's Hayden territory. That's my hometown. And I was living in Appleton at that time. I was working in Appleton. Weird Al was there to perform a show.

And he actually performed that night. After learning about both of his parents dying in this terrible accident. And I thought, man, even after that, Weird Al still went out and did eat it and, you know, dare to be stupid. Like, even then he didn't do the, like, the, I'm serious now. I'm going to talk about my depression type thing. And not to say, you know, if that's, look, if that's how you want to express yourself, I think that's great. But I'm just saying that, like, I kind of respect Weird Al for, you know, keeping it funny, you know,

like that he could still do that. It's sort of mind-boggling to me that he could do that. Yeah. So I'm not here to bury Bo Burnham, but to praise Weird Al. Again, you've got to tip your cap to the legend. The Babe Ruth of musical comedy, because I just think that's amazing that he could do that. My other thing, too, and this speaks to like a broader point that we're going to talk about, because we have a listener question that's related to this.

I don't know how you feel about this, but like, you know, the thing with the Bo Burnum special is that he's really trying to convey the toll that being in quarantine took on people mentally. you know, the effects of being isolated and how that gradually, I think, drove a lot of us crazy a little bit, which I think is a totally legitimate observation, you know, and I think a lot of people can relate to that, and that's, I'm sure why a lot of people have responded positively to that special. But I know for me personally, I'm not interested in art that recreates the anxiety of what we just went through. I kind of want to put that behind me at this point. I guess I'm looking right now for art that's uplifting or fun or like party oriented.

You know, and I don't know if that's shallow, but I just feel like I don't want to go back to where we just were. I feel like maybe we're coming out of that and I want something different. Like, how do you feel about that? Yeah, I mean, I think, I feel like my, you know, consumption of news, my consumption of like art has changed in the past year. not that I'm like looking to avoid any art that is explicitly inspired by COVID or anything like that, but I think it just more speaks to the online poisoning or, you know, the Twitter poisoning, if you want to get more on the nose about it, where like, look, you're not, it doesn't really illuminate anything for me. Like, I am aware of this.

I like the things that like kind of look at, look at this from a different angle. Because, I mean, look, I know what it's like to live in COVID. I live through it myself. And this gets back to other things that we discussed last week about, like, whether or not you have to relate directly to art. You know, because I think with Bo Burnham, he presents himself as like one of the good guys. And I think that's been a pervasive thing. It's been happening in comedy where it takes on like more and overtly, political or like you want to be like a good guy in a lot of ways.

And I think Bo Burnham does that. It also happened with like John Mulaney as well where people were just like absolutely devastated that he went to rehab, got divorce and started dating Olivia Munn. I think it was. And it was like it was extremely similar to what you see a lot with musicians where you root for them as if they're like sports teams or whatever or you want them to be like this moral arbiter. Right, it's not just cheering for them to make great art.

It's like, I want you to make great life. Yeah, I want you to be, I want you to be this avatar for this, you know, moral, like this sense of morality that I have and I like to express the world. And I mean, that's probably why I find myself like diving into billions so head first right now. It's just like completely amoral. They all, they're all terrible people. But they're just doing sick things with money. And like, granted, I know that that's, like, that was also made in like the Trump era and so forth. I don't think it was a political show and by any means.

But I don't speak for everyone, but I do find myself kind of wanting to opt out of like being in the narrative so damn much. And I think this is why I cannot possibly watch this Bo Perndham show. Also, like musical comedy, like, man, I don't know. My version of hell happened in like 2010 when I was just like watching nothing but like Funny or Die, like fake Lonely Island comedy videos. Like this is when Lonely Island was like really popping off more than ever and like it kind of shifted from doing stand up to doing musical comedy or skits or things like that. And I just spent every day hating my existence to the point where I could probably relate

to, I don't know, these comedians you talk nonstop about depression now. But, I mean, you mentioned the Lonely Island. I think that's another good example of what, I mean, I think that that's a good musical comedy. Yeah, they're good. Do not get a fucked up. Lonely Island top notch. You know, where it's just silliness.

You know, I'm on a boat or, you know. Or pop star. Don't Stop, Never Stopping. The funniest movie of the 20th century, by the way. Where they're, you know, I mean, I think they work because they both. love pop music and they're making fun of pop music. So there's this duality of affection and mockery going on, which I think is usually the most effective form of musical comedy. I mean, that's what Weird Al does. Weird Al is making fun of popular music, but he also

clearly loves it because in order to really know something well enough to make fun of it, you do have to love it. If you just hate something, you can't really get inside of it the same way that a fan can. So, I don't know, like that Bo Burtum special, it's weird because he is almost like an indie singer songwriter on that special in a way. You know, it seems like the distance between what he's talking about and what, like, you hear a lot of singer-songwriters in modern indie are talking about in the musical reference points are like the same and like you and like in a way I feel like well Phoebe Bridgers is funnier than

you like you know what I mean like you kind of sound like Phoebe Bridgers but like she's I think on Twitter she'd probably be funnier than you are at least when it comes to like beefing with David Crosby and and all that sort of stuff so anyway you should check it out at least watch the first 10 minutes the way I did uh I'd be curious for for the indie for the indie cast cause I will watch it. Like, I've endured worse. Can I ask how deep are you into billions? Second season. Okay. Yeah, I just, what was the big one that, what was, they, they had, I saw the episode with Dined Out. I saw the episode where they had a car seat headrest, fill in the blank. I saw, I think the last episode I saw was the one with the astronaut who tells this really

convoluted metaphor about Wilco and Jay Bennett and like Jeff Tweedy and how that relates to love and why she wants to go into space. She didn't get the job, by the way. So, yeah, I just, I feel, also I think there was like a very, very deep beach slang cut put in there as well. Oh, yeah. Yeah, so I just. There's a gang of youth song, I know, in an episode. Dude, like, I'm, I should, full disclosure, I'm friends with one of the creators of that show, Brian Coppelman, who's a big music head.

he actually, like, worked in the music business for a long time. He, like, discovered Tracy Chapman. Whoa. He was, like, he played, like, a pretty pivotal role in the early careers of, like, counting crows and the wallflowers. I mean, he's got, like, he should have a music. He has his own podcast. He should have a music podcast. Fuck, man.

But, yeah, I'm curious to hear how your Billion's experience evolves with that. But that'll be it for a future episode. For now, let's go to the Indycast Mailbag. And, again, thank you to all those. those people who have left reviews, it turns out that if you just ask people for compliments, they'll give them to you. They'll give you nice ratings. Like our reviews and our ratings have shot up, which has helped the show tremendously.

Our bosses are very happy. I got a compliment from one of our bosses the other day, thanking me for begging for compliments on a podcast. So my bosses are happy. Everyone's happy. So thank you for leaving reviews. We could always use more if you haven't left one yet. If you haven't left a rating, if you could do that, that would be tremendous.

And also, keep writing us letters. We get so many emails, and it's so great to hear from our listeners. We're at Indycast Mailbag at gmail.com. Drop us a line. It's always great to hear from you. Our listener today is from jolly old London, England. It's Kyle. Kyle from London, England.

This is amazing. I think we've had people from Australia in the mailbag. We've had, obviously, Canadians. Canadians love us. We're going international. This is beautiful. Ahead of our world tour, our post-pandemic world tour, we're going to be going on. This is the question from Kyle.

Hi, Stephen and Ian, big fans of both of you. Thank you, Kyle. My question is about era-defining albums. I know you're discussing the best albums to date in 2021. Kyle getting ahead of us here. I think last week we said we were going to talk about the best albums so far in 2021. We're actually talking about. Yeah, we pivoted a little bit.

We're going to talk about unsung albums just so we're not repeating what a lot of other people are talking about. Anyway, but I was wondering if you think we'll have a COVID-19 era defining album and who may be the artist behind it. Or because of our over exposure to music, do we not get era-defining albums like what's going on or maybe American Idiot was more recently? We'd love to hear your thoughts on this. It doesn't seem like any artist has even thrown their hat in the ring yet. All eyes on Kendrick Lamar maybe. Thanks, Kyle. He calls himself Indycast Hightman.

All right. Which is great. Thank you, Kyle, for waving the flag in London. So he's wondering, is there an album that defines, I guess, the pandemic era? When we look back, people are going to say, this is the album that defines this era in the same way. I guess he's saying that he feels like American idiot defines the bush years. And what's going on would define, I guess, the Vietnam era, early 70s. Turbulence.

America. Yes. Yeah. Civil rights era. I have some thoughts on this, but I'm wondering, Ian, what do you think about this? Is there an album that stands out to you as era-defined? Yeah, so I mean, I mean, we could argue whether or not American Idiot truly defined its era, but like, I think I get what Kyle's saying in that he's looking at albums that were intentionally error defining. Like they, not so much musically, although you could say that, but ones that like took on the initiative to make an out that like people could look back and say yes, this is like a classic.

this spoke to all of, you know, all the social turbulence and upheaval that was going on. And I don't think, of course, we haven't gotten it yet. Because when you look at the albums that were like definitive of 2020, you know, like fetch the bull cutters, punisher, they were both, I feel like almost certainly made prior to the pandemic. So like if they commented on it, it would be unintentional. And so if, you know, you're talking about like Kendrick Lamar. actually I think if we are going to look from a historical standpoint, I am fully confident, regardless of what you think about the album, Charlie X, CX, how I'm feeling now, is going to be seen

as like a bit of a tipping point because that was, that's the first album I can think of that was made specifically in quarantine about going out to clubs when like it was still theoretical. So I think that's going to be important from a historical perspective, even if it isn't seen as like a quote classic album. But, you know, the question is, I think we're relying on pre-COVID people, like say, you mentioned Kendrakema or Frank Ocean or Beyonce or whatever to make the definitive COVID album. And I just see this as such a watershed like Grand Canyon chasm of a moment between before and after

that I think it's like impossible for an artist who was functioning in the pre-COVIDs times to make the definitive album. I think that even, I don't even know if like an outlet. album is going to be the thing that defines it all because, you know, when we even look at like 2021, the albums that like are, you know, celebrated right now are the ones that might top the year end list. They don't really explicitly, you know, talk about COVID. I'm hoping that it becomes like more organic. Like in the same way that you talk about Bo Burnham, like trying to put his stamp on the last couple of years. Like I would, I would, I would love it if we don't

get a explicit COVID-defining album. I would just want to see albums that, like, are popular now that are universally beloved, but, like, talk about more eternal human existence rather than, like, wearing masks or, you know, the malaise of, like, seeing Joe Biden come in. So if we don't, like, please, and please, Green Day, do not try to make American Idiot, too. Oh, man, that would be amazing. Okay. You just put that into the world like Billy Joel Armstrong,

writing about Boulevard of Broken Masks and all that. Yeah, you make a, you made, I think, a bunch of really good points there. You know, there's this distinction, I think, between albums that people heard during COVID and then albums that were made by artists in reaction to COVID. You know, you mentioned the Phoebe Bridgers album, Punisher, the Fiona Apple album, Fetch the Bloc, bolt cutters, which neither one of those were made during COVID, but we heard those albums during COVID.

They seemed to speak to feelings that people had at the time of alienation or isolation. And so they were sort of accidental COVID albums. I also think this isn't an album, but I think for a lot of people, you know, that Olivia Rodriguez song, driver's license, will be a song, I'm sure that a generation will look back on and say, I remember listening to that song a bunch during the pandemic. when I could only drive around in my car and I couldn't hang out with people. There's something about that song.

I think that probably speaks to that experience for people of a certain age. And it just makes me think about probably the last huge disaster that affected America. And I guess the world, like before COVID, which would have been 9-11. And I think at that time,

like when I think back to 9-11, the album I probably think of first is, is this it by the strokes? Because it came out around that time. I remember listening to it. Around that time, it's a New York band. There was something about New York, how it existed before 9-11

that seemed to come from that record. And you compare that to, say, a record like The Rising by Bruce Springsteen, which was what you were talking about. That album was made in direct response to 9-11. It was written about 9-11. And look, I love Bruce Springsteen, but there's no question in my mind.

that is this it is the more sort of 9-11 record for me even though it was an accidental record and I think that's how these things often work. The records that just happen to coincide with a moment

unintentionally I think those are the ones that resonate more than if you are on the nose talking about the thing that we all dealt with. Look at Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I mean they've talked about that how the songs like Ashes of American

Flags. That's another one. Like nothing at all like it came out like a year in 2002 officially but you know it was Jeff Tweedy doing his songwriting that he talks about and how to write one song where it's just like cut up language or whatever and yet there was something it just speaks to

something in the atmosphere. Yeah I think sometimes you can be more profound when you're not trying to be. Yeah. Then if you have it in your head that I have to make this grand statement about this thing that we all went through. I have to say, too, that I've heard some records that haven't been announced yet

that are going to be coming out later this year that were, like, made around COVID. And one thing that I feel like unites them is that they're actually looking forward and not backward. That there tends to be, and I don't know how broad this is going to end up being. It could just be the small sample size of records I've heard. but it seems like a lot of artists felt compelled to go against the anxiety and the despair and to look toward something on the horizon that was more hopeful. And I actually feel like that is a better approach, at least for me, again, to kind of go back to what I was saying about the Bobernaum special, I know, this is true for me,

I guess I question like how much of an appetite is there out there to dwell on all the horrible parts of the pandemic after the fact. I don't feel like there is. I don't want to see a TV show. I don't want to see like a Chernobyl like HBO prestige series about the pandemic. Maybe in 10 years that'll be interesting, but like not right now. You know, I, because we just went through it. I don't want to stay mired in that.

I want to move forward. So let's move forward with our episode. here that was like i i think i stunned you into silence there with uh with that monologue yeah if you ever think about like doing your own one-man show man uh i i think this is the ultimate pivot you're going to get your one-man show and i'll be left in the dust again well you know we'll see i mean i feel like this show sometimes is a contest to see who can get canceled first and maybe you'll get canceled and i'll have my own show but i could get canceled too i i i i'm I feel like it's even odds on either one of us.

So let's pivot to the meat of our episode, which is talking about unsung albums of 2021. We were going to talk about our favorite albums of the year so far, but, you know, there's, we end up talking about the usual suspects a lot. Who needs to hear us talk about Wild Pink again? Yes, exactly. Although, it's funny because it's really unsung.

Well, exactly. I mean, and this was something I wanted to touch on briefly before we talk about the records that we're going to talk about, because there's unsung in the greater world and there's unsung in our world. Like Wild Pink, I would say, is unsung in the greater world. They're not unsung in the Indycast world. The same could be said of, like, Raleigh Walker, or Home is Where, or, I don't know, any number of bands that we've talked about on this show.

But we're not going to talk about those bands that we've talked a lot about already. We're going to talk about stuff that maybe. we touched on in a recommendation corner once like two or three months ago but you've probably forgotten about it by now um but yeah we have three albums each that we want to talk about that have come out in 2021 we feel like they didn't get as much love as they deserved so we're going to give it some extra love and hopefully you'll all be inspired to check it out so ian want you go first all right so the first album i want to talk about is one that i wrote about about a week or so ago fiddle heads between the richness um you know it's a band that is in some ways a super

group members of a Boston hardcore band called Have Heart, Basement, which is maybe one of the most popular alt rock bands of the Tumblr era. And this album is going to be, I think it's going to be forever unsung because the style of music that they play. Our friend of the pub, Miranda Reiner, wrote a definitive piece on OrgCorps on her substack recently. And it's, it's, it's, it's, I've been looking to describe Ordcore without using the term for so long because like, what are my editors going to know about that? But it's that, like, you know, the kind of gruff, but literate, point and shout kind of punk rock that is just no frills.

And she points out that, like, it may have gotten killed by Emo Revival, which was more kind of wimpier and artier and indier. And, you know, this is a style of music that was, like, really, really huge, but, like, outside the critical sphere. And fiddlehead's not pure ordcore, but, like, when you listen to it, it's 10 songs, 25 minutes. in that vein of hot water music, they bring up Archers of Loaf as a main influence, like not pavement.

Pavements too weird and wimpy. Arches of Loaf are kind of the more muscular of the 90s slack rockers. And, you know, it's interesting because it's not an album that's gotten a lot of hype on, you know, typical, like critical sites, but you'll find, like, people who are, like, on music Twitter but aren't reviewing albums, like, might. say album of the year for this one. And to me, it's, there's just this discrepancy between like what you would hear it as. Like you, like you said, oh, gruff, got gruff guy vocals. I'm tuned out. But the songs themselves are like just really well written as they're catchy. They're emotionally

evocative. They're about, you know, pretty resonant topics like, you know, the pointlessness of higher education about like trying to redefine yourself as like in a relationship and your 30s. And to me, it's, like, not all that together different than, like, say, Waxahatchy in spirit in that it's just, like, really well-crafted, like, timeless in a way. Except the problem is it's timeless in a style of music that has never really gotten much favor. Am I wrong to, like, liken them a bit to a band like The Hold Steady?

I mean, I feel like they have some of that, too. I think so. I feel like if you like the Hold Steady, you would like this band. Yeah. It's funny when the Orchcore thing, I remember I saw that, I saw links to that in my Twitter feet and I got that mixed up with Crab Corps. Oh, God, dude. What a rookie.

What a rookie mistake. Attack, attack, man. The bands that, like, yeah, they would get into that, like, crab battle stance, like crouching their legs and, like, do that stomp thing. They're, like, umpalumpas. Yeah, these are. That was amazing. Yeah, crab core and, like, orcore, maybe, like, the polar opposite.

But I could. But it looks the same. You know, I'm just saying, I'm looking at a Twitter feed quickly. It looked the same just purely from like a word thing on Twitter if you're glancing at things quickly. Fair enough. Back off, man. Back, I'm sorry. I don't know org core.

I'm going to watch Bo Burnham. You're going to watch attack attack stickly video 10 times in a row. Don't think I haven't already done that. I mean, again, I already had crab core on the brain. I need to get org core on the brain. But yeah, that's a really good record. I would also recommend that as well. My first record I'm going to talk about,

I feel like is really at the nexus point between me and Ian because there's some classic rock influences going on in this record, but also the musician in question has ties to fifth wave emo, even though this is not an emo record in the least. It's called Casual Use. He goes by Jimmy Montague. His real name is James Palco. He used to play in a band called Perspective, a lovely hand to hold.

Fourth wave, their fourth wave. Their fourth wave, or core. I have some homework to do. Out of your element, Steve. So he used to play in this emo band, and now he's moved on to this solo project that is, again, the farthest thing from emo. The reference points here are early Steely Dan, like, Michael McDonald-era, Doobie Brothers, 70 soft rock to the extreme. And, you know, there's a lot of people who work in this vein,

and it ends up sounding really derivative and kind of twee. And, like, you know, like they heard, like, one Randy Newman record, and they decided that they were going to, you know, make a piano-based throwback type homage. But with casual use, you really feel like Palco has done his homework. And more than that, he just seems. like a really great songwriter to me. And also a really good arranger.

I mean, this album has lots of horns, lots of string sections. This is a really beautifully arranged record, even though I'm sure he was working on like a pretty small budget. And again, the songwriting is totally on point. And I tweeted this the other day and I don't think I'm overselling it. But like I said that like to me what this record sounds like is like the Jim O'Rourke records that Jim Orrourke made in like the late 90s, early 2000s, where he was making these sort of arty soft rock records.

Then, of course, he came into the Wilco camp around Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. And casual use just sounds like a record that Wilco could have made if Jim O'Rourke joined the band after Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and they had this idea to make like a Chicago record. And I mean Chicago the band, not Chicago the city. That sort of indie rock. post-rock, combined with

like really good old-school songwriting chops. I feel like that's what this record has. So if that is in your wheelhouse, I think you're going to like this record as much as I do. Again, it's called casual use.

The artist is Jimmy Montague. Go buy it on Band Camp today. And also go check out perspective of a lovely hands-the-holds last album Lousy or Pepe Sanchez, which is definitely a classic a fourth wave twinkle. So you get two for one on this one.

All right. What's your next record? All right. So I tried to, I mean, I tried to kind of expand the scope of what we were looking at for unsung records because, you know, recommendation corner is usually me turning in some album from like the emo slash hardcore sphere that people might not otherwise hear. And, you know, they tend to be like younger bands or bands that are on small labels who just face an uphill battle in some way or another. But I wanted to think about, I don't know, there's a kind of. ageism that occurs in criticism where a band that's been solid for a very long time puts out a record and they're kind of taken for granted. I think it happened with Antlers this year, Maguire, another one. And the one I want to talk about here is a band called Field Music. It's a little,

it's not at all what I usually talk about, but I think about this band because they've been making music since like, they've been making music since 2005 to the point where one of their original members was in Maximo Park. That's how far back they go. And they've been going, they've been mostly sticking to this XTC slash wire sort of sound. People always bring up XTC as a band that like should have more acclaim or more influence. But, you know, most music sounds absolutely nothing at all like that in the Indy sphere. But, you know, I checked out their new album, Flat White Moon because, you know, it's just one of those days where I don't know what I want to listen to. Let's check the promo pile.

And I was really surprised how much I enjoyed it. Like they were a band that kind of existed. and who's been very consistent. There's no, I looked on AllMusic Guide. There's no one album that you need to check out first. But what I hear is almost similar to the Jimmy Montague record where the songwriting's like really clever. It's like really expertly crafted.

And it fits alongside a lot of the post-punk that's happening now in the UK. Like post-punk in that, like in the squid, Black Country New Road sort of mode, it's usually in like kind of the fall or, or, Ganga 4, but like Postpunk also included XTC and wire, like something a little more tuneful. And I think with this record, it's not gotten a lot of acclaim, but because it's a little bit more classic rock, there's a little bit of Led Zeppelin in there and, you know, just more classic 70s singer-songwriter things going on.

But I think sometimes what's more valuable than discovering like this new band that no one's talking about is discovering a band who just has a very deep catalog that you can dive into. And I mean, this theirs is quite daunting and it's very, very even. But at the same time, I don't know. I'm excited to like go back and discover like, maybe I'm a field music person. But I think I wanted to give this one a shout because like you shouldn't like overlook bands just because they've made seven or eight albums. And there's no way they're ever going to be like one of the, you know, central nodes of whatever narrative's happening. yeah i totally agree with that and i like this band too again i haven't gone deep on them because like

you said they have a lot of albums it made me think you were talking about x tc there was that period in the mid aughts where there were there was like a small x tc wave like you remember like future i fucking love that first record oh it's so good and like early early kaiser chiefs you know there was like a kind of like a like a drums and wires renaissance with xTC and now like yeah they're far removed from the discourse. But yeah, I mean, speaking of bands with a lot of records, XTC, dig into them if you haven't heard them. They're really awesome.

The record I want to talk about next is Uncommon Weather, and the band is called The Reds, Pinks, and Purple's. And this is a band on Slumberland Records. And I don't know if all of you are familiar with Slumberland Records. It's an indie label. They were founded in D.C. And then they, I think they're currently based in Oakland, California. and they're synonymous with this form of like jangly sad dude guitar pop.

Probably the most famous band to come from that label would be the pains of being pure at heart. But you also have bands like the softies, I think Allo Darling records out on Sumberland. And this label, they've been around now, I think, for about 30 years. And they've always had the same aesthetic. they haven't really changed. They've always kind of had that sound. And, you know, there's this thing in music that people, you have to constantly change and reinvent yourself.

And that's all great. But I also have an appreciation for artists or even labels that have an aesthetic that they have honed to perfection, and they just perform that very, very well. And I think Summerland is always good at finding acts that kind of fit in their niche. And the reds, pinks and purples is the best. best current example of that. It's a project by a guy named Glenn Donaldson. He had another group called Art Museums in the Outs, and I remember getting into them and it was kind of a similar

aesthetic. But this record on Common Weather, again, it's just really good songs, and it's perfect if you are a sucker like me for jangly guitars, you know, shambolic rhythm sections that may just be a drum machine, kind of murmuring, sad guy, vocals. Uh, it. It's, you know, you maybe like a droning organ underneath everything. And just beautiful songs that you can drive around in your car if it's a rainy day and just feel, just kind of revel in your own sadness. You know, like that's this kind of record. And again, he's not reinventing the wheel by any stretch of the imagination.

It's not connected to any of the greater narratives that we have about pop music right now. It's just a really good example of this aesthetic, and I really, really like it a lot. So again, it's called Uncommon Weather. The band is called The Reds, Pinks, and Purple's. If you like any of the bands I just described in the last two minutes, you are going to like this record. Yeah, I think Slumberland released that Peel Dream magazine album that we talked about. Yes. That's true.

So, yeah, Slumberland always sneaks in something that we're going to talk about on Indycast, at least once you. Spook School. Like they just, I do appreciate they have a very specific aesthetic. I don't know. Like I always think of like, you know, pins on like a denim jacket or something like that. You know,

just this like real like college rock, like college college rock. Like. Yeah. As it existed in the 80s. Like the old college rock. Yeah. Yeah.

So, I mean, good, you know, good on them for being able to like continue, you know, because I think there always will be an audience. for this kind of music and, you know, shout to them for being able to find it. So, yeah, it's, you know, good for them.

But, yeah. So the album I want to talk about is, you know, not altogether different than the one you just mentioned. So it's a band called Subsonic I, their new album that came out this year. It's called The Nature of Things, or Nature of Things. I want to make sure I get that right. So this band, before I get to tell you what, like, what this band sounds like, I think we've mentioned in previous episodes that always like the one that has a L-V-V-A-Y-S might be one of the most

low-key ripped-off bands in modern indie music I think that there's anywhere from like 20 to 30 percent of the albums that would probably be candidates for this type of show sound like always and they've made two albums I think since 2014 and there's just this big always side of whole that so many bands try to do where it's like kind of poppy kind of college rocky kind of 90s but like if it's not done really well it's the most boring shit imaginable um yeah what they do seems easy but it's actually extremely hard because it is simple and this and yeah and always nails it like their two albums are great but yeah a lot of other bands I feel like did they take the slot that yuck used to have I feel like yuck had that slot and then always yeah but

But I kind of upstage them. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, Yuck isn't in the same way. And I think the same can be said of the drums. Like, the drums are a band that, like, a lot of bands out there are, like, racking up millions of Spotify plays by sounding like the drums. I don't know how, I mean, the drums are, like, one of the most low-key popular bands of the past 10 years.

But, you know, but I feel in a lot of ways, like, my ears have become immune to that kind of sound or maybe I'm just, like, not living in 2011 anymore. but Subsonic I is a band that falls under the radar because A, they're from Singapore. And, you know, even with the attention that's being given to, I guess, like, international pop, indie rock from Asia still tends to not be given a lot of attention, particularly if it's like not somehow picked up on like a bigger label. But subsonic I's been around for a while. I love the fact that their 2017 albums called Strawberry Fields. Ooh. Yeah, it sounds nothing like Animal Collective, but nonetheless, the connection seems too strong to not exist.

But yeah, but this album is just, it's very unassuming, but if you, if you're looking for a band that does the drums always, like kind of early 2010's indie rock quasi-surfy, quasi-wavy. It does it like extremely well. I think also because there's like the slightest tint of emo in there. I actually found it on a fit. I actually found it through like a fifth wave emo list. And it's like, yeah, this sounds nothing like it. But the fact is I think a lot of the fifth wave emo people are like really just out there plumbing through the, you know, the Asian indie rock market. And so yeah, I think this album isn't going to like be in my top 10 or what have you.

nonetheless, it's one that if they were, if they were like from Chicago, they would probably be doing like the one-third. This sounds like the band that would be like doing the 130. I've never heard of this band slot at Pitchfork Fest. Or they'd be on like a label like Fire Talk or something along those lines. But yeah, it's really hard to do this stuff well. And I think that they are doing it well enough where it deserves mention. Man, that sounds really cool. I love the fact, too, that I just like to imagine you with like a metal detector, but it's like an emo detector and you just like wave it over a song and you're like, ooh, I sense about 5% emo in here.

This could be good. That is the secret ingredient. That's, you know, if there's if there's some twinkle or if there's like behind the female vocals, like a guy who cannot sing for shit, like that makes it immediately stand out to me. It's just the pinch of oregano that gives it that spicy tang, you know, that. that tanginess that you're looking for in the record. Absolutely. So the last record we're going to talk about in our unsung records episode is an album. I talked about in a previous episode in Recommendation Corner,

but that was about three months ago. And who remembers three months ago? And I haven't heard a lot of other people talking about this record. So I'm going to bring it up again. It's called Pick a Day to Die. It's by a band called Sunburn Hand of the Man. And you might be familiar with this group because they've been around for, about 25 years. They got started in the late 90s, and they've always been this underground phenomenon.

And it's kind of hard to describe them as a band because they really are more of a collective of musicians and record collectors and all these different people who come in and out of the group. If you go on their Wikipedia page, there's like dozens of people listed. So it's hard to know exactly who's ever in this band. but I would say that if you're unfamiliar with them, rather than just picking like a random CDR out of their discography, because they had tons of releases,

tons of like self-made releases, I think pick a day-to-die is a great place to start. And especially for my people out there in the indie jam community, this is the record that if you haven't already heard about it, this is the one you're going to really love. And the way I always described this album

is that it kind of, sounds like if the Grateful Dead sounded more like Cannes, you know, the great German band who, in their own way, was a jam band. I mean, in the studio they would jam for hours and hours, and then they would take the best bits of those instrumentals and they would turn them into songs. And there's actually a great live album that just came out from Cannes from 1975. That's great. And it's pretty jammy and there's like lots of long songs. Lots of great grooves, that kind of crout rock vibe going on. And Sunburn Hand of the Man has the same thing where there'll be tracks that are these sort of abstract sounding guitar instrumentals,

and then they'll just kick into like a killer groove that goes on for several minutes. And it's the kind of record again that like if you are into jammy rock, if you're into post rock, if you're into just records that aren't predictable, this is the album that. you're going to really want to embrace. It's a record I like a lot that I've, that I, that I, that I, I, that I, I, that I, I, that I, I, that I, I, that I, I, that I, I, I, I, I, that I, that I, I, that I, I, I, it's great writing.

It's great, sort of, meditative, uh, type, uh, type music to, to, to, it's, it's an album I really like a lot again. It's called pick a day to die. It's by sunburn hand of the man. Definitely go check that out. Yeah. In, in the, in the midst of, uh, trying to rediscover some burn hand of the man, um, I actually found, I like, I like dug real, real deep in the pitchfork archives.

Apparently they have this one called Headdress that got a 9.0 best new music. I think it was like the fifth best new music ever given. But it's been kind of relegated to the digital dustbin history. I can't find this one. Was that like in 2000? 2003. 2003. Yeah.

The lead is when Carl Jung carved his symbols of mankind onto the face of his beloved Cuban lawn jockey. And it goes on from there. So real. old school. I love these ones, the ones that you've forgotten about completely. Yes. It's funny because that style of writing, it annoyed

me at the time, and now I'm so nostalgic for it because it doesn't exist. Like that type of, like, music writing has gotten so professional now and it's so slick. And in a lot of ways it's better, but like that Wild West style

of music writing, I have a soft spot for. Anyway, we'll have to talk about that more in a future episode. That and Billions, we have to table both of those conversations for a later episode. For now, we have to say goodbye, but thank you for listening to this episode. We'll be back with more reviews and hashing out trends and all that stuff next week. And if you're looking for more music recommendations, sign up for the Indie Mix Taped Newsletter. You can go to uprocks.com backslash indie, and I recommend five albums per week, and we'll send it

directly to your email box.