Indiecast - A Big Day For New Releases + Pitchfork's Best Albums Of The 2020s So Far List

Episode Date: October 4, 2024

Steven and Ian begin this week's episode by discussing Ian's upcoming trip to London, which is quickly interrupted by a quick rant by Steven about the (improving!) state of tour T-shirts (4:06). Then the guys commence a conversation about Pitchfork's recent list of the best albums of the 2020s, and what some notable exclusions and slights say about the changing critical narrative for the decade (12:23). After that, they take stock of a big release day for albums and review the latest from Wild Pink (30:59), former Black Midi frontman Geordie Greep (37:12), and the new supergroup The Hard Quartet fronted by Stephen Malkmus (45:41).In Recommendation Corner, Ian talks up the emo band Ceres and Steven reps for the fine indie-heartland rock group Trace Mountains (51:04).New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 209 here and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [e-mail], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.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 Uprox's Indy Mix tape. Hello everyone and welcome to Indycast. On this show we talk about the biggest indie news of the week, review albums, and we hash out trends. This episode we talk about the pitchfork half-decade albums list, as well as new records by Wild Pink, Giordi Grie and the Hard Quartet. My name is Stephen Hayden and I'm joined by my friend and co-host. He's going to London this week, so I'm speaking in my British accent.

Ian Cohen, Ian, how are you? Yeah, but next week's episode, just to give everyone a little preview, I do plan to come back for my UK trip, you know, doing a kind of a talk singing thing about the absurdity of modern life. So I might not do the accent. Maybe that's going to be my innovation in the post-funct sphere, like just do the same thing except it's American. Well, because you have to decide, like, what accent.

And I'm trying to decide what I was doing. That was sort of cocked me. because there's like the London accent, you got the Cockney accent, you've got maybe like the more sort of like Northern England accent. I know we do have British listeners, so if you want to write in and tell me what you thought of my accent, I would appreciate it. Do you have any plans for England?

I'm actually, I think I'm going next summer, so maybe you can do some recon work for me and let me know like where to get the best fish and chips and all that and the best spot of tea. Right. That whole thing. But do you have any plans yet? I can't, I mean, less than you'd expect.

I've been like very particularly planning out the 10-hour flight. I am like way more concerned about how I'm going to pass that time than a week in London. I've got Mr. McMahon downloaded. I mean, the deer hunters on Netflix, that'll kill some time. Ooh. Have you seen that? I did so long ago, though. Oh, man.

But, yeah, the thing about like whenever my wife and I, travel like we're not really night owls and neither of us drink so like we don't really go out to bars at night i mean we got a couple of uh we're gonna see hadystown um that that uh musical and also the mean girl's musical just you know because it's london we're gonna see some musicals but i did look on song kick just to see if there were any um you know shows that might be interesting and i do have the opportunity to see the streets in london so i mean that would kind of be that would be kind of a experience to yeah i mean maybe uh you know like has it come to this hits harder live or fake street hats um but yeah i mean we're we're we're we're keeping it pretty light um probably just gonna

you know eat travel around see like all the basic things and uh yeah come back uh in the very the very first night after i get back i'll go see foxing and then tusha morey the next night uh yeah it'll be great i heard that the food isn't very good in England. I mean, the British food probably isn't great, but I'm sure I'm going to eat well. Yeah, I mean, I would imagine that they have great Indian food there. You have the big Indian community there, so that would be good. Yeah, because, again, I'm thinking about going next summer, and people have warned me that the food isn't very good, and the dentistry is not very good in England.

So if you're looking for a big meal or you're looking for a root canal, you may not want to go to England. But other than that, great place to go. well that'll be great we're actually recording this week on Tuesday so we may be missing some big indie rock news if something happened if like Mark Kozlick put out a

comeback record and we don't comment it on it in this episode just know that it's because Ian is traveling overseas we had to record a little bit early can I just go on a quick sort of rant about tour t-shirts again like I've talked about this on the show

Do you mind if I do this again? I couldn't stop you even if I wanted to, but yeah, I do your thing. I'm only asking as a courtesy, because I'm going to barrel forward anyway. But I've talked on this show about the state of tour t-shirts and how, in my opinion, it's never been as bad as it is right now. And I go to a show. I want to support the band through purchasing merch. I go to the merch table.

And there's so many t-shirt options where it looks like the lead singer has a friend, or maybe like a romantic partner who has a passion for graphic design. And they've never really owned a tour t-shirt. They don't know the specifications of the genre, what you should do, what makes for a satisfying tour t-shirt. So you just end up with like a just a blob of graphics conflicting with each other. And it just looks terrible. And I can't in good conscience spend 20, 25, 30 bucks.

on this mess of a t-shirt. So this has been a problem for me. But the reason I'm bringing it up because I've gone to a bunch of shows lately where the t-shirts were excellent. And I've actually bought three tour t-shirts in the past week. It's crazy.

I'm tour t-shirt crazy. And it's because the artists are returning to the fundamentals. And with a tour-a-t-t-shirt-crazy. with a tour t-shirt, again, what you want. The name of the band clearly printed on the front of the shirt. The album cover on the front of the shirt or some tasteful graphic. Like some sort of metaphorical thing that denotes the band.

And then on the back of the shirt, the name of the tour and the tour dates. And maybe the year that the tour happened. But something that marks the t-shirt in time. That's what a t-shirt has to deliver. Now look, if you want to give your friend or romantic partner some work, feel free, but you need at least one option that fits to the description I just described. And I have to say, saw Sturgil Simpson last week, incredible show, great tour t-shirt. I saw the National War on Drugs, Lucius. Really good show, fantastic t-shirt.

And then I saw ELO on their farewell tour this week. I bought a shirt there, too. So I just want to say, give us at least one option for the, you know, the traditionalists out there. And we will spend the money. So that's what I did this week. And look, I wanted to get the Sturgle's shirt because that was a great tour, historically great tour. And it's very specific to that tour. Because, again, I feel like a lot of these tour t-shirts, they're just sort of generalized for the band of the artist.

But I think it's good to have a tour t-shirt that's specific to that tour. Because you'll be like, oh, you like Sergio Simpson. Oh, you saw the Why Not Tour. Oh, my God. That was a great tour. Or you saw the Zen Diagram Tour. That was a great tour. Let's get back to the fundamentals people.

I think you will see an influx of merch sales if you can give that option to the people. That's the end of my rant. I don't give any comments on that. Well, I think for your sake, getting the ones that are specific to a certain tour, you know, I'm only like tangentially aware of like the D-pop or T-shirt resale business. And, you know, the ones that have like certain dates on it, I know go for a lot more money than just the more generic one. So really, you're investing in your future by getting these. Throw it on there, man.

I feel like we got away from that. And maybe it was because it was viewed as sort of an old-fashioned type thing to put the tour dates on the back. But the tour dates on the back is a convention of the genre of concert T-shirts. And I believe it should be respected. I think, like if you're making a horror movie, You know, you got to deliver a bloody third act. If you're not delivering the goods, then it doesn't work. You can do everything else unconventionally, but you got to deliver the goods of the genre

to satisfy the audience. And I think with the genre of the concert t-shirt, bad name on the front with some sort of tasteful graphic or album cover, tour dates on the back. All I'm saying, very simple. It works. Do it. Please. Yeah, or just me, too.

Like, do the one for the weirdo. You know, it's like the Simpsons episode. where like, you know, Marge makes like Maggie the real cake and one for Homer to ruin. You need to go to those. Yeah, have two options. Have the graphic slop and have the traditional version. And people can decide. Give the people a choice.

Don't just give them all graphic slop. Because a lot of bands are just doing the graphic slop tease. And it's no good. So anyway, that's my free advice to all the bands out there. So this is early in the week. So we are going to do a fantasy draft update, but we don't really have any scores yet. Nope. And this is a huge week for you, actually, because we've got three albums,

Godspeed you, Black Emperor, Blood Incantation, and Yasmin Williams, or Yasmin Williams. I believe I'm pronouncing Williams, so Yasmin Williams. Three big records for you dropping this week, so I guess we'll have to wait until you get back to see how you did. Yeah, it's like those games where, like, those games where, like, like those weeks in the NFL where like a lot of your players are like doing the London or the international game. And so you have to have your fantasy team up and ready by like five o'clock in the morning. So I guess that's sort of what's happening here. Yeah. By the way, I could see. I know that there's an NFL game in London happening while I'm there. I think it's the Jets Vikings. I'm not going to go to

that shit. Yeah, you go see A-Raj. Go see A-Rodge. Come on. It could be good. The Vikings look great. They destroyed my team this last week. Yeah, no sports cast, despite the fact that the playoffs are starting today. If you follow us on Twitter, you know absolutely none of us are like willing to talk about the NFL at the moment. But baseball, I mean, that's... Yeah. I've not watched one inning of baseball this year. I've not watched one at bat. I hate to say it. I used to be a baseball fan when I lived in Milwaukee. Milwaukee, a great baseball town have not really paid attention at all.

They're in the playoffs, and so are the podrays, and so are the Phillies. So, you know, in a couple weeks. The twins are too, right? Aren't the twins in? No, I don't think so. I think they kind of flopped big time. The tigers are in it, but not, and so are the guardians. But in two weeks, like, you know, perhaps after our hopes are completely dashed regarding

the future of like Jalen Hertz. Jordan Love. The baseball likers will log on. I don't know, man. I still have faith. We were down 28-0. We made it a game in the second half. I'm going to assume that we're going to carry that momentum forward and be okay. We also started horribly last year and finished strong. So, too early to give up. You're coached by a buffoon. So you were in a different place. Maybe they're going to fire him before the season's over. Plays him with Doug Peterson, man, because that guy's gonna get fired too let's like get the band back together deuce two seven's nick foals still available we get him out of retirement let's just like redo the philly special vibes man like this isn't

working for me is dick for me is i don't think he is i think he i think he's dead i think buddy ryan is also passed away um so rich cotite might still be alive and kicking i don't know ray roads Like how, wait, nope, Vermeel's alive. Oh, no shit. He's still alive, baby, 87 years old. So, no disrespect to Dick Vermeel. We thought you were dead, but you're alive. So maybe bring him back.

He was a good coach for the Philadelphia Eagles back in the 70s and 80s. Who knows? We'll see. Anything's better than the buffoon you have right now. So get him out of there. Let's talk about this pitchfork list. Pitchfork, which I was reading all these think pieces earlier this year, Ian, saying that pitchfork was dead. Do you remember that?

That was like in January, February? It absolutely was this year, and I do have to remind myself of that. But yeah, it's alive. They were like, think pieces up the ying yang about this. There's a big oral history where they're interviewing all the people and they're throwing dirt on the grave of pitchfork. But they're not dead. They're doing the thing. They're reviewing records,

and now they're doing this big retrospective thing this week where they counted down the best songs of the 2020 so far, which we're not going to talk about. I don't know how you feel about this. Like ranking songs for a particular year, not to mention like a half decade or a whole decade, I can't do that. There's just too many songs.

Yeah. If you're talking about songs by a particular artist, that's one thing. But if you're just talking all the songs released since 2020, how do you rank that? That's impossible to me. My brain can't wrap around that. I mean, albums is hard enough, but it's a little more tangible to me than songs. I don't know. Maybe that's just my old brain speaking.

But I've always felt that way. Back in the day with the Pazzen Jop Ballot, I never filled out the songs part. Yeah, neither did I. I just can't do it. It's too hard. Yeah, those are actually fun to look back on because when you look at the songs, and of course they're like towards the bottom, they're like kind of seen as a side show. You do see that like how things haven't really changed all that much since 1998 or 1999.

Like the albums are like, you know, super serious, but they might put like mbop at number one or like things of that nature. It was like that gene for like. loving, frivolous so-called pop was always there. Yeah, that's where the critics got a little saucy on the songs list. They're like, oh, wait a second, you think this is a trashy pop song? What if I told you it's the third best song of the year? What would you think about that? You might think it's a little, you know, a little unconventional.

You get what you give, like stuff along the way. Like, I think Ba with the Ba was also, because I have to like look back at these things to do my, you know, anniversary pieces. Stuff like that ranks, yeah, way higher than you. Was it? What's that? Did I say that right? No, no, no.

I'm just laughing at that being on the Pazzoa list. Oh, it absolutely was. They fucking loved kid rock. Yeah. Did only God knows why make the songs list? That would be like the funnier choice, I think, to put only God knows why. Right. Probably not.

But I kind of like that song more than Ba with the Ba. Yeah. But that was the one that they played on. The Simpsons, and so, you know, I got to get a shot. Right. So anyway, they put out a songs list, and then today, or the day that we're recording, which is Tuesday, they put out an album's list. And of course, Ian and I doing boots on the ground music journalism, we clicked on the

link and we looked at the list and we took some quick notes so we'd have something to talk about on the podcast. I'm just going to run down the top 10 albums on the pitchfork list. Number 10, Waxahatchie. Number nine, I'm going to take a deep breath here. Chicaquanamini, Condori, I totally, I blew that worse than I thought I would. Yeah, we only had like 10 or 15 minutes to practice pronouncing it, but... Now you pronounce it.

Yeah, I would say, Chukumamani Condori. That's how I would say it. There you go. I said it fast. I said it faster, though. Never heard of that record before. Never heard of it. Are you familiar with that record?

You know, I'm familiar. Like, I know it exists. Like, I saw it. I think it made a pre. Well, I mean in the sense that, like, you know, it may have made into your end list, but I didn't really get a chance to check it out. I don't know if it's on streaming. But, yeah.

Number eight, Rosalia. Number seven, Charlie XX. Six, bees. Mm-hmm. Number five, Beyonce. Beyonce is Renaissance, not Cowboy Carter. Four, Siza. Three, Cindy Lee.

Number two, playboy Cardi, number one, king pussy eater, scoop on your grinch. No, just kidding. It's Fiona Apple, fetch the bold cutters. So that's the top 10. And I don't know, I scanned the rest of the list. I don't know. Did you, you didn't dig deep because we didn't have that much time. But do you have any thoughts on the top 10?

I mean, the top 10, you know, I was kind of. like half joking, but not really when I said, like, watch out for a whole lot of red the Playboy Cardi album to be at number one, because that would be the most immediate and unmistakable way for the new Nobels generation to plant their flag. Like most Playboy Cardi albums, I find like the first 15 to 20 minutes of that album to be fucking awesome. And then I just like kind of get like a little tired of it. But yeah, I mean, it's number, they definitely kick the tires on it. That's what I take from that. I also think possibly that Cindy Lee and Charlie X-E-X will switch by the end of the year. So this is just sort of a way to, you know, kind of play both sides in that. Otherwise, you know, I feel like Fiona Apple. Like I tried, I tried on many different ideas about what would be number one. But like this, it kind of had to be that. You know, it's, it's sort of like putting like loveless at number one on the 90s list, even as they, you know, reimagined what it means to be pitchfork. Like, you still have to, you can't alter the deep. You know, you can't alter the DNA too much. So, um, but looking through the list, I, uh, I scanned through the list and like,

I thought they actually did a pretty good job. Yeah, I was just going to say about the Fiona Apple. I wonder if that will be number one at the end of the decade. I doubt it. Yeah. This, this feels like the last concession maybe to, well, not classic pitchfork, pitchfork two point if we want to call it that or is it three point oh. God only knows, man. The most recent, the most recent era of pitchfork that ended, uh, earlier this, uh, earlier this year. Um, um, The fetch the bolt cutters feels like, okay, that's kind of like where we were. And if you look at the list, 11 through 20 feels more like sort of where Petch Fork was earlier in the decade.

It seems more reflective, I guess, of like where, if you look at the annual list that have come out, that's where you have in 11 to 20, a big thief. You have Caroline Polichick. You have Always. You have Lana Del Rey. That's where they all are. They're not in the top 10. You know, like V's is ranked higher than Big Thief and Caroline Polichick, which again is not really where their coverage has been.

But like you said, there's a new regime coming in and maybe there's some changes going on. One of the most striking things to me, and we were talking about this before the episode started, you know, one thing that's always interesting with these lists is to see what rises and what falls. And we've seen what's been rising on this list. And for lack of a better way of putting it, it's sort of like under. ground hip-hop, making a bigger showing in the top 10 that you might expect based on where pitchfork's coverage has been. A big surprise to me, or maybe it shouldn't be, D.B. Bridgers, Punisher at number 44. I wrote a column last year where I was like just guessing where I thought critics would be on their half-decade list. And I said, I thought Punisher would be number one for a lot of

people. I was thinking that was like a candidate to be number one for real. And look, this is just one website. There will probably be other half-decade lists, and I wouldn't be surprised that Punisher was at number one or in the top five. I'm a fan of that record. I don't love it as much as some people, but I like Phoebe Bridgers. I like that record a lot. One thing that's undeniable to me is that that is one of the most important records to come out this decade in terms of influencing other artists. I mean, it's just the signpost of this decade that if you want to sort of encapsulate what was going on in the early 2020s, I think Punisher is just a record that you would automatically point to. But bigger than just Phoebe, no Lucy Dacus on this list, no Julian Baker, no Boy Genius on this list.

Well, Boy Genius had a song at number nine. I think in the 90s. I'm looking at it's 92. not strong enough. So on the songs list, they made it. But like way towards the ass end. Way toward the end.

And it's fascinating to me because it's like, has the critical community already decided that that era is over and maybe kind of cringe? Like, is this what we're saying now? Because it feels like that a little bit. Because pitchfork, I mean, they were one of the most enthusiastic sites for the Boy Genius record. And that whole sort of community or umbrella

of artists. I mean, they reviewed the record very warmly. They wrote about the Madison Square Garden Show in like a pretty worshipful review. I don't know if you remember that. Like, it was a very like effusive review. And, you know, no judgment on that. It was just like, yeah, we were, we're excited about this record. We're excited about this band. We consider them to be important. I mean, I feel like Punisher, like it's always hard with these lists because it's like, You're talking about your favorite records or the records you think are the best, but when it's an institutional list like this, you also are talking about important records or significant records.

And I feel like Punisher should at least be in the top 20. It feels pretty low to me. But it does feel like a statement from Pitchfork that, you know, this is like, oh, we loved Reflector when it came out, gave it a 9.2. And then like a couple months later, we're like, ah, maybe not. maybe not kind of change your mind. You know, we don't feel that way anymore.

It feels like that's happening here. So very, very fascinating to me. Yeah. I mean, to play a little inside baseball here, when I wrote recently a 20th anniversary piece on Arcade Fire's Funeral, one of these incredibly interesting quirks with Pitchfork's treatment of that album came when it was like, you know, it was number one in 2004. And then when they did the half-decade list, like three months later,

it dropped to number 45, like behind shit, like, you know, Deerhoof and Vicklusky. And then by the end of the decade, it was back up to number two. And I feel like maybe Punisher is in this sort of odd space where it's not like old enough to, you know, have a kind of second win. It's just like just new enough to have maybe a little sort of backlash because, you know, the Boy Genius record, actually, I would say pitchfork is one of the less enthusiastic sites about it. It gave it like a pretty strong review. It was like an eight point something.

I mean, it was not. I'm going to look this. It was an 8.2, which is like, you know, that's like Madlo for a record of that. That's like what you give the, I don't know, like the Chukamanani Kandori thing the first time. I don't know. Maybe relative because people went way over the top. Yeah. But they were still pretty enthusiastic.

Yeah. I think another interesting one was how long. the Tyler the Creator record was from 2021. That was like in the 90s. So again, I don't think people are like, you know, on some kill your idols type stuff. But I expect that to be way higher. Yeah. Otherwise, it's there's a lot of, you know, personal favorites of, let's say, the highly

online community making itself known. And I think that it just kind of reflects how fragmented things are. you know, it's like a repository for, you know, certain subcultures. But I don't know if it really makes a statement as a whole. I contributed to that list. Two of my favorites made it. So, yeah, looking through it, you know, SoulGlow was on there. Turnstile was pretty high.

You know, I feel like it acquitted itself pretty nicely. But I think the bigger thing is how a lot of this new regime, like Nobels is like, it's not really like album-oriented. music, which I find to be very, like, it prides itself in a lot in like this ephemorality and how quickly the trends change. But I'm also writing from the perspective of a 45, 44, getting ahead of myself, a 44 year old dude. And it's kind of exciting to know that like this stuff is, I'm not going to get all that. Like I was 25 years old at one point doing these lists as well. So, God's the-

Who's reading pitch for it? That's always my question here, because you know, because when they put out lists and then they do the readers polls, it's a pretty distinct difference, I think, a lot of times. Oh, boy, genius is going to be like top three if they do it when they do the readers. Absolutely, they will be. Like that kind of like down the middle indie rock, I still think there's all big constituency out there for that sort of thing. And like, look, not that they have to just cater to the tastes of their readers,

they're allowed to diverge from it. But there are parts of this list that I think where the disconnect feels pronounced to me. but maybe I'm wrong. I don't know. But I just wonder where they're at in relation to the people who actually read pitchfork. Because I always wonder, I mean, this is something I think about because I make my living as a music critic. Like who's reading this stuff? And I don't know if it's like 21-year-old kids.

I mean, to me, like that audience is not at the forefront of reading music reviews. But that's just the gut feeling. I don't have demographic information. on that but I just don't feel like that's the core audience for music writing. Yeah. And I think that's just kind of the tension at the center of it all where it's like, yeah, if like there were people who are, if there are people who are 21 and 22 and reading it as enthusiastically as I was back in 2002, like, you know, that's what they'd be into,

like stuff like these, stuff like Playboy Cardi and whatnot. But like, is that what people are in? Again, I'm just, you know, that's, it's someone else has been. ball game. I'm just on the fringes. But yeah. You know what? I think they did. I think it's interesting. I'm definitely going to find stuff I haven't heard before, so that's exciting. I want to hear the breakup album, Phoebe Bridgers is going to write about her and

Pitchfork. I think this will be a good breakup record from the critical community writing for Pitchfork. I would not put it past them to make some sort of like funny comment about it on Twitter. I don't know. We'll see. I don't know. To me that It's not a conscious statement, but I think it's reflective of a shift for sure. Because there are other artists from around the time that record came out that did very well on this list. And that is a record that I just think, it's a big record. And to put it in the middle of the pack, it feels pointed to me. But we'll see.

Could be wrong. We'll see how that develops. That's why we love this stuff. That's why we're doing fancy album drafts. We love to see the fluctuations of critical opinion. and commenting on it. Very interesting to me. Speaking of fluctuations in critical opinion,

let's talk about some new albums, Ian. This is a big release day. If we have to talk about new stuff, fine. No, it's great. Look, a big, big day. And we've already talked about, you know, big day for you, fancy albums draft. You've got three records that are out today.

There's some big albums that we're not going to talk about in this episode, in part because maybe we don't have the record, like cold play. apparently has a new album out today. I think it's called Moon Music. It is. No idea what it sounds like. I don't know if this is like they're all that you can't leave behind.

We're going to do like a classic Coldplay record, which all kidding aside, I would be super into. I'm not even going to front. If they did like a throwback to rush a blood to the head, just we're going to go old school, I'd probably be into that. I don't think that's happening here. Like I saw, they had a single. It's like featuring like, uh,

There was like a, oh my God, who's on it? It was like a hilarious. This one featured Lil Sims Burn a Boy. It has like, it's called We Pray and it's also got a JZ sample in there somewhere. But also there's a song, one of the singles, like Tim Rutilly from Caliphon is credited on this. Because they sample a Sylvan S.O cover of a Caliphon song. So yeah, Tim Routilly, if that gets platinum, he's going to get a platinum plaque. Get that bag, man.

Good for you, man. Good for you. And look, Coldplay, top 10 streaming artists still. And they are the biggest band in the world. I mean, there's no question. They're still huge. People like to kind of talk about them,

like they're irrelevant now. They're huge. Like, their ability, Chris Martin, his ability to shepherd that band through the current era where, I mean, it just seems impossible that a group like that would still be, you know,

have some sort of relevance. I mean, I don't know how, a lot of those streams are probably for older songs, but still, like, I mean, they're with, they're up there with, like, the Olivia Rodriguez and the weekends and Taylor Swift's and all that. So, good for you, Chris Martin, and good for you, Tim Ritelli. You're going to be rubbing shoulders with all those people. There's also a new album by the smile out today. It's called Cutouts, the second record by the smile to come out this year. We're not going to talk about the smile. I feel like the conversation about that man is always the same. And like their records, to me, have been consistently very good.

But what else is there to say at this point about the smile? You know, they're a good band. They're really good. I hope to see them live at some point. If they kind of come close to me, I'll definitely go see them. But we really don't have anything else to say. If you're interested in the smile, you probably know about this record. Go listen to it.

I'm sure you'll enjoy it. So let's talk about, we're going to talk about three records here that are out today, that we do have an opinion on. The first is Wild Pink. And for those of you who listen to the show regularly, you know that this is sort of like a mascot band for Indycast. Wild Pink is almost in that smile territory where like maybe we're out of things to say about them.

And I mean you and I specifically. I feel like we've written about this band a lot. But look, I do want to give them some props here because the new record out today called Dulling the Whole horns, I think it's a great record. And I'm going to say it, with this album, they passed the five albums test. Oh, yeah. Five, very good records.

They are one of the most consistent bands going right now. We love them here. Let me ask you something about just Wild Pink in general, their catalog. Again, we're a big fan of this band. One thing that occurred to me as I was thinking about their catalog and the five albums test is that I don't know if they have like a. consensus best album out of those five. I feel like if you ask people who care about Wild Pink,

they'd probably all give different answers. If I had to pick one, I feel like Billion Little Lights might be the one. Yeah, I feel like that's right in the middle. Is that the consensus best? I think it is. It literally sits in the middle of both, you know,

their discography as the third record and also like what they kind of do as a band. But, you know, I, yeah, I think, I think it just, if not the consensus, I think it would be like the first one you would recommend. Yeah. And I, I, it's my favorite for sure. I mean, not for sure. I mean, I love you so much.

It's also extremely good. But, you know, sometimes like, you know, the first album, which I think doesn't get a lot of attention. Like, that's really good at what it does. But it's also something they kind of grew out of. But this new one kind of circles back. It's like more like the first. album than any of the previous three, in my opinion. Yeah, it sounds like the first one made by a band or a person, John Ross, who's been making records for a while, and this is his fifth record. Like,

it just sounds like a more refined version of the first record, even though it's also like noisier probably than previous Wild Pink records. I mean, like on the, I love you so much, the previous one, that really felt like like a big swing type album. It reminded me a lot of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot actually. I mean, there are a lot of kind of Wilco-S things

going on on that album and it does have maybe more of like an experimental. I'm putting experimental in air quotes here type vibe to it. Whereas this one, it's like, yeah, the guitars are louder. It does feel like maybe returning more to, I mean, they get put in the email Lane, and I'm always resistant to put them there because I know John Ross doesn't listen to that

kind of music. He is a stalwart kind of classic singer-songwriter listener. It's really only because of his voice, I think, that people put him there. He has like a Ben Gibbard quality to his vocals, but otherwise he's got tunnel of love and Graceland and, you know, albums like that on his brain, Jackson Brown, like that's where he's coming from. Yeah, I also think because he was on tiny engines in 2016 or 2017. It, you know, kind of put them in that, in that ilk. And also, if you listen to the Wild Pink songs that were before the self-titled, like Fourth of July song they still play.

Yeah, you could see that happening. But, yeah, this album's got a lot of baritone guitar. And I got to give a shout to the baritone guitar. Oh, yeah. Baritone guitar. Yeah, just really grungy. If you liked, there was a song, Stucking on the Birdshot from the last album that sort of sound like Yesu or Godflesh.

That's, it's sort of like, uh, you know, it's not, the war on drugs is like the most overused comparison for this band, but it's like not wrong. If you can imagine, uh, songs like, uh, you know, like one, like the shorter war on drug songs played like doom metal, but it, they're like kind of up tempo in three minutes. That's kind of what this thing does. Um, a lot of sports references. Uh, it's, I mean, it's too perfect that for a good segment of MJ Lender Mends upcoming tour, Wild Pink is opening.

Dudes could not rock harder. I'm stoked about that. Yeah, that's a really good pairing. And I'm hoping, because I, you know, I think that's going to be a well-regarded tour, a lot of people getting into it. And I'm hoping that that helps out Wild Pink's platform because I do think if you like M.J. Lenderman, Wild Pink is going to be in your wheelhouse. And you probably also listen to this show anyway.

I mean, these things are very closely aligned. But yeah, I mean, this record, they do have that issue of like, we're just good all the time. And, but we're not maybe breaking the paradigm in a way. I don't know. It's a hard band sometimes to write about because something that's just consistently good all the time, similar to, like, the smile thing. Yeah. you know as a writer you need like a narrative or some sort of narrative hook and you're not getting it here and it's through no fault of the band it's just they're a great band I guess the narrative hook for me here is that they win the five albums test or they pass the five albums test so congratulations to wild pink on that proud yeah I think that yeah I think I'm just um I feel relieved with this one kind of similar to the last boxing album where I'm like I'm done trying to be like why isn't this band bigger because like that's the most annoying shit and I think they're just just kind of reached a point where they are who they are and the people who will ride for them

and even if they were to get that like surge of like critical favor it doesn't mean shit in 2024 so i'm just going to sit back and enjoy this and also the mj lenderman wild pink tour comes closest to me valentine's day uh happy valentine's day micah that's what we're probably going to do all right let's get to our next record that's out this week and it is the debut solo record from I guess we'll say former black bitty member. Are we certain that they're done? Yeah, it seems like they're, it, the hiatus seems pretty permanent.

Okay, well, former for now, Giority Grip. He has a new record out called The New Sound. You should look up Giority Grip, by the way, when you're in England. Maybe you can go get some, you know, I don't know. I'm trying to think of something like, you'd have to do something appropriately wacky with Giority Grip. You can't just go get a bite to eat.

Go shopping for Chiawit. pain mail or something like that, I don't know. There you go, perfect. He has a new record out today called The New Sound. Look, we've talked about Black Midi on the show before. We talked about them recently when they announced this hiatus or breakup or whatever you want to call it. And I think we come from a similar place with this band where we both saw them play live and were blown away by the live show.

Just a very instrumental, instrumentally formidable band. I mean, just very exciting to see. I think particularly on their first record, which in retrospect seems like a pretty straight album. I mean, what they did after that, they really kind of went off the deep end with some of the more kind of like sticky aspects of their music. But now you have Giority Green breaking away from the band. I guess because he felt like he couldn't express himself in Black Midi. Like he had all these other even more insane ideas that couldn't work in the band so he's now going to have a solo record. And look, we talked about this guy before, about how we appreciate that there's an artist who is willing to be polarizing and to push people's buttons and to even just be just flat out annoying.

Because you don't get a lot of that in certainly popular music or even in indie rock these days. But I'm kind of at the point now with this guy where I want to give him less credit for that. Because at some point you'd have to deliver the goods and just make a really good record. that you actually want to put on and listen to as opposed to enjoy on a conceptual level or enjoy talking about or thinking about as opposed to, you know, listening to it as music. And to me, this record represents that. There are some really cool moments on this record, music that I really enjoyed. This is kind of a hackneyed description, but it kind of reminds me of like, like if Steely Dan

did as much coke as people joke about them doing when they made gaucho, like it would sound like this record. Like if gaucho was just way herky jerkier, it would have a resemblance to moments on this Geordie Grie record. And I like that idea. Again, I like it conceptually. But when I listen to the record, it's just exhausting. It's a record that, and I hate saying this,

but it needs like about 45% fewer ideas. There's just too much. There needs to be an editor to come in and say, look, focus on this. This is a cool idea. This is a cool rhythm part. This is a cool riff. Let's develop this.

Let's not throw in like 15 time signature changes and really kind of blow it out and make it berserk. I just feel like as music, as a listening experience, it's just not very pleasurable to me. And as much as I respect his originality, his willingness to experiment, to be different, to be annoying, I just can't co-sign on it as a record. Does that make sense to you?

Yeah, I'm a greep. I'm a weirdo. That seems to be the kind of message getting across here. Yeah, there's like the Steely Dan piece, I mean, like I'm by no means a Steely Dan expert, but like there just does seem to be a lot of character studies about like uh kind of uh sex weirdos on this thing which uh i mean go for it uh but yeah with with this right it's sort of like how um the comparison i have a lot of comparisons i mean to me it's more like mars volta where it's like you watch at the drive-in

you know not because like the lyrics make a lot of sense because like you want to see them like wreck shop and then they kind of go way in the other direction um yeah whenever i would like read what Black Middy songs are about. It's like, yeah, this is like a Rachamon, like, character study of obscure 18th century Ottoman princes. At least that's sort of like what I got John L to be about. But it's like, yeah, I don't need all that. And, yeah, the thing about this record is that it sounds way, it sounds so much like Black

MIDI. It's sort of like how, you know, when, like, Red House Painters became Sun Kilmoon. It's like, dude, this is your band. Like, I don't, it's like the same people. It's like I don't think you were having your ideas restrained. But it reminds me like trying to, first off, I want to talk about the first song. Like, holy, holy, the first single. I can't think of anything I liked less upon hearing it in 24.

And the weird thing is like so much of the record is like it. I don't mind it as much. There are some like, you know, legit cool parts. But I'm reminded of this time, like this ex, I was playing her. the monitor, the Titus Andronicus album, and she, I just remember like the most astute piece of music criticism I may have ever heard. She's like, huh, they're still going. Like, I think this was about like a pot in which to piss. And it's like, that's how I feel about this album as well, where it's just like, oh, you're still at it, huh? And I do think you're right in that, like,

I can appreciate how it exists. Like, it's cool to see people taking risks and being divisive, even though I think a record like this isn't really at the center of discussion, but it's like, yeah, I'm going to listen to this for the pot and never again. I don't think, I can't imagine getting anything out of this other than like, oh, that's really cool. I can't even begin to conceive how someone makes this kind of music. But yeah, I think it's just another example of like how I think people don't realize how good we had it with Black, with Black Country New Roads, and from up there.

Well, that's irritating too, though. I mean, that's another record where I would be like, I like this conceptually, but it annoys the shit out of me. So, like, I mean, it isn't, like, I wonder, like, where you draw the line between this and Black Country New Road

because I do think there's quite a bit of similarity there. I mean, to me, like, when I think about, like, Prague Rock, like the Prague Rock I like, it's bonkers, it's out there, it's experimental, but there's always some sense of, like song going on. No matter how things get blown out or how long it gets, you still have some sort of thread that to me guides you. Like you listen to Genesis in the 70s.

It's like 10 minute songs, but it's still like a, it's still a song and it makes sense. It doesn't have the feeling of just throwing a bunch of shit in a pot and with no recipe. And that's what I feel like a lot of this is. And Black Country New Road, I guess you would maybe say there's more of a song there? To me, it's the same sort of British theatricality nails on a chalkboard type stuff to me, where I appreciate the idea of it,

but I cannot get into it as music. Yeah, I think we're Black Country New Ro, and like, I know this is like the most cliche thing for me to say, but it's like kind of a, it's like a low-key emo record. Ansfer up there is almost entirely about, like, you know, this guy kind of having a mental breakdown and like being sad about a girl,

and, you know, whereas, you know, Black Country, or we're as Black Midian. But it doesn't deliver the Red Meat that an Emo record does, though. Like, it's a very convoluted record. Okay. Well, you knew that in the record. I don't at all. Goodwill Hunting. That's got a great chorus.

That song's actually inspired by Kurt Vile. That was an interesting thing that they mentioned about it. But they need a new record. Like, what, like Black Country New Road with that new ass lineup. Hit us up, man. We're going to need new shit to talk about in 2025. Did they make the pitchfork list? They did not.

Yeah. Not surprised. Let's get to our last record that we're going to be talking about in our roundup of releases out, what, October 4th? Is that the day? October 4th, yes. And it's the new album, the first album by a band called the Hard Quartet. This is a super group made up of Stephen Malcolmus, Matt Sweeney, Emmett, Jim White. And look, I feel like we periodically get records like this where you've been.

get luminaries coming together, you know, people that were in indie bands, say, like in the 90s, 2000s, they come together, they make a record. And it's always like pretty good. But you hear it and you forget about it pretty quickly. You know, I'm trying to think of other examples of this. Like Wild Flag was kind of like that. Oh, yeah. Remember that record? I absolutely remember Wild Flag. Which was, you know, talking about Paid and Jop back in the day. I believe that was a top 10 record whenever that came out with like maybe 2011, something like that. Yeah. But, you know, instantly kind of forgotten after it comes out.

So when I heard about this album, I had grouped it in my mind that it would probably be like that. But then I'd listen to the record. And I got to say, like, I really like this record a lot. I like this record more than I was expecting. And look, I'm a middle-aged music critic. So take my words with a grain of salt there. I am the person that this is directed at, most sort of directly there, I guess.

But I don't know. It's an album that is giving you what you would expect, which when I say that, it sounds like a criticism. But it's actually a really good version of what you would expect. Like to me, it sounds like a Stephen Malcolmus in the Jicks type album with maybe like a wow. Zowie-Zowie type vibe to it. And then you occasionally have songs that remind you of Superwolf, you know, which is like the Matt Sweeney element going on. Again, I know that sounds like, oh, this is just like a predictable record.

I think it's like a really good example of that kind of record. And look, I love Stephen Malcolm's work with the Jicks. I'm a fan of Superwolf. So again, I am inclined to like this kind of record. But I don't know. This record, it definitely exceeded my expectations. I really like it a lot. I don't feel like these guys just got together because they're a good hang,

even though I'm sure they are. I'm sure these guys have an amazing fantasy football league that they're all in together, and they're probably cracking jokes, and it's hilarious, and it'd be a great time hanging out with these guys. But it actually feels like they brought some good songs to the table as well. So, I don't know, I like this record a lot. I'm just going to guess that I like it more than you do, just because I feel like you are normally pavement skeptical.

But I don't know. I'm on board. I think this is a really good record. Yeah, I mean, I was pretty content to just come on podcast and talk about how I watched some Zwan videos where you can see like Matt Sweeney and David Pajou just like completely just like disassociating trying to act like they like Billy Corgan.

But, you know, I listen to this record because like Georgie Grip, I'm doing it for the pod. And yeah, I mean, I kind of like it. You know, it's interesting because like pavement and slint are like the two big time indie touchstones that like I enjoy way, way, way less than my peers. But I hate to say it's like a good hang, you know, it's Malchmus doing his thing. It's, you know, like Matt Sweeney doing his thing. I don't think Jim White's probably in the pod in the fantasy football group chat because he's

Australian. Or maybe he is. I don't know. His beard's definitely fantasy football. adjacent. But yeah, look, I think that this is a record that a very specific demographic is going to like, you know, and we're in it, and they'll get their GQ profile, and they'll get the next GQ profile in 2034, and they come back for LP2. But, yeah, I mean, I think they already got the GQ profile. Yeah, that's how the band was announced. Yeah, that's how I actually found out about it.

Yeah, that was like the sort of entry point in the world, was the GQ profile. So I don't know if they get another one this year. That would be a lot of G-Qu profiles for the hardcore 10 years from now when they like when they start looking a little bit more like swans instead of swan, you know, or they're like looking more old and grizzled but extremely cool looking. Malcolmus is always going to be handsome. Yeah. I can't imagine him. I mean he looks older now obviously but like not that older. I mean he looks like, you know, he's not slanted and enchanted malchmus, but he could be

Terror Twilight Malkmus for all we know. Still, like 25 years later. Yeah, I think that's what Billy Corgan really resented about him, because like, Billy Corgan would always talk about how he's, like, not as good-looking as, like, certain people, and, like, that included Tom York.

But, yeah, I do wonder if they're, like, Sweeney and Malchmus are swapping pumpkin stories in the group chat as well. Oh, man, that'd be beautiful. All right, we've now reached the part of our episode that we call Recommendation corner where Ian and I talk about something that we're into this week. Ian, why don't you go first? I mean, there was just a lot of candidates for this one. And, you know, maybe I'll talk about,

like, some of them next week, like the Fred Thomas album that just got announced today. I think that's, you know, that's another guy who I'm always in the tank for. But I'm going to talk about one specific record that I've been listening to a lot over a longer period of time. It's a band called C-E-R-E-S. They're an Australian band that had two albums that, had two albums that that I really enjoyed in 2016 and 2019. They were both produced by Tom from Los Campesinos, so they're in that kind of extended universe, and they sort of sounded back then

like early Frightened Rabbit, kind of self-pitying, emo-curious indie rock, and I figured they broke up. That is not at all the case. They've been teasing this album called Magic Mountain for a while, and it is, I don't even know if you would call it a compilation or a double album or a final statement, but it's 26 songs, but it's only 67 minutes long.

Um, if you like, you know, the song like KMS from the new Los Campesinos record or maybe like Gang of Youth songs that were three minutes long, you're going to love this like because that's pretty much all it is. It's not like a 67 minute album where it's like a journey. I mean, it kind of is, but it's just like 26 really good songs one after the other. Um, I, it's a lot. I'm not going to, I'm not going to deny that. But if you liked any of the singles they put out, you're going to dig this. Really underrated band, perfect for recommendation corner. So Saris, Magic Mountain.

I just realized that a triggering thing for me, triggering in a good way, is when someone says an album has 26 songs over 67 minutes. Like when you said that, that instantly made me interested in the record. And I was like, I don't know, but 26 songs in 67 minutes? Okay, I'm into that. I like it. Well, I think it might be 25. It's 25 or 26.

I can't remember. Well, now I don't care. Now he says 25. I don't care anymore. I want to talk about a record called Into the Burning Blue by a band called Trace Mountains. And we were talking earlier about Wild Pink. And Wild Pink, Et Trace Mountains to me are bands that in my mind are related in part of the same genre, which you could call Lost in the Dream Corps. These are bands that followed in the wake of the War on Drugs in the mid-2010s and really

love that record clearly and took elements of that and put it into their own music. And with Wild Pink on their latest record, I feel like they're moving away from that, actually. This record sounds the least like the War on Drugs that I think that they've ever made. I mean, Billion Little Lights to me is the peak of them really working in that style. with Trace Mountains, I feel like they've gone closer to that with this record. I've been a fan of them for a while. I like their records. They're a record in 2020 called Lost in the Country.

They had an album that came out the year after that called House of Confusion in 2021. Big fan of both of those records. This album, it has the same vibe of those records, which is taking that like heartland rock sound and really transporting it to like upstate New York. So, like, if you've been to, like, the Hudson Valley, for instance, you know the mystical vibes that go on up there. Beautiful part of the country. And I believe Trace Mountains is based there or thereabouts. So it has that kind of, like, more rural part of the heartland rock type thing.

The real Heartland, if you will. This album, though, it really feels like, oh, we actually heard, I don't live here anymore as well. And we're plugging that into. what we're doing. And look, I'm sure bands don't like it when you compare them so often to other groups. And I don't mean this as an insult because I do think that that was a template war on drugs created that a lot of bands have imitated. I've heard many artists try to do that.

Trace Mountains to me is one of the few who do it in a very distinctive way and in a way that makes me want to listen to it and not just listen to the war on drugs. And this record in particular, again, I think it's very much in line with the previous Trace Mountain Records, but the songwriting just continues to deepen and get better. And I don't know, this is a band I really enjoy. They're probably even less known than Wild Pink, but they have a similar level of consistency where they just deliver good records. And if this is the kind of music you're into, it's like Money in the Bank each time they put out an album.

So Trace Mountains, a new record, Into the Burning Blue. really good band, really good record. Yeah. I'm kind of surprised we didn't talk about this one last week. As far as Lost in the Dream Corps, they had an album called Lost in the Country, and the first latest record is called In a Dream. So, yeah, they're definitely not shine away. Yeah.

It's a seven-minute song. It's a sparkling, beautiful kind of synthy rock song, and I can't get enough of that. I know there's lots of you who can't get enough of that. So if that's your thing, go on the patio at 10. dusk, play this record, it will be an excellent, excellent experience. Yeah, I like it too. Thank you all for listening to this episode of Indycast. We'll be back with more news reviews and hashing out trends next week. And if you're looking for more music recommendations, sign up for the Indie Mix tape 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.