Indiecast - A Rom-Com About An Indie Music Critic? Plus: New Albums By Nine Inch Noize and Friko

Episode Date: April 24, 2026

This week's episode opens with the first-ever Sportscast of the Amazon era (01:38) followed by a conversation about the week's new releases, touching on Foo Fighters, Failure, Metric, Noah Kahan and more (05:51). After that, the guys check in on the Fantasy Albums Draft (16:47), and then discuss new albums by the Chicago band Friko (21:38) and the Trent Reznor/Boys Noize collaboration Nine Inch Noize (28:54). Then they talk about the new romantic comedy "Mile End Kicks," a period piece about a young indie music critic living in Montreal in 2011 (35:32). Finally, they wrap with Ian recommending the latest New Pornographers album and Steven talking about the big essay in his newsletter on 2020s alt-country, with special shout-outs to recent albums by Brown Horse and Florry (54:34).See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Indicast is presented by Amazon Music. 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. In this episode, we talk about new albums by 9-inch Nails and Freco, and we review the new indie music critic rom-com, Mile and Kicks. I thought we were the only indie music critic rom-com. My name is Stephen Hayden, and I'm joined by my friend and co-host.

I wonder if he thinks it's appropriate to do a sports cast on the Mike Vrabble Diana Rossini's story. Ian Cohen. Ian, how are you? Yeah, I mean, you and I have had some difficult conversations about this. But, I mean, you look at Mike Vrable as a guy who got humiliated in the Super Bowl and then had an age-appropriate affair. I'm wondering if there's a section of the Patriots fan base that sees him as like the

bravery to Bill Belichick's The Killers. Oh, man. You mean in terms of the scandal? Yeah, exactly. It's like, man, if you're going to, if you're going to be a Patriots head coach, I mean, And there are certain things that they expect, which is to be the team that wins the miserable to watch Super Bowl. And then, I mean, I don't know, like Jordan Hudson came after the fact.

But what can I tell you? Yeah, that's more of a, you know, a University of North Carolina-era scandal for him than it is a Patriot scandal. Just like I don't claim anything that Brett Farr did with the New York Jets. Anything you did after the Packers, I don't claim. It is, I don't feel great that this is the first sports cast of the Amazon era. I feel like they're not going to be too pleased that this is what they purchased. I only bring this up, it's a weird gross story,

but the morning that we are recording this, there was a story that broke that Mike Brable is going to go to counseling on the third day of the NFL draft, which seems a little odd. That's awesome. the third day of the NFL draft where you let the 22-year-old intern pick your guys. And look, if he has to go to counseling,

you know, good for him. Although I'm unclear on what he's getting counseling for in the situation. But at any rate, if he's getting counseling, good for him, the third day of the draft is a little strange. And it just, a lot of people are speculating there's going to be another big story about Vrabel dropping

and that this is a preemptive strike for that. So maybe that's already broken by the time this post. I do feel like this was apropos to bring up just because later on in this episode, we're going to be talking about a movie about an indie music critic who gets involved romantically with two members of a band that she's covering sort of, but she's also acting as their publicist. So there's a related thing there, perhaps. This is maybe a tortured tangent. But I'm just wondering for you, Ian, who do you think has a less ethical relationship? with their sources. Sports reporters or music journalists?

I mean, you know, Diana Rusini could, you know, she can't say the Patriots won when they didn't, but someone in a romantic relationship with a band can say the album is good when it, in fact, is garbage. So I mean, I don't like, yeah, I mean, Mike, like, I don't need my NFL coaches to be, you know, morally upstate. I mean, there's like the John Gruden thing, which is disgusting. But, like, you know, if Mike Vrabel has, like, a side piece, like, how I don't see how that is anyone's problem if they're consenting adults. I think we, and this is a very rare circumstance where music writers can have power, I guess, or leverage. Yeah, I mean, it gets back to the whole. Not even romantic relationships, like friendships, I would say.

Oh, sure. You know, I've been there before. I mean, I'm sure there are instances where music journalists got involved with the musician that they were covering. I don't think that's common occurrence. In the Whisper Network, you don't really hear stories like that. But what is common is, this person is my friend, and I'm going to write about them for this outlet. I do think that that's a common thing, and that is bad. On this show, you and I don't have friends, so people don't need to worry about that.

We are ethically sound here at Indycast because we're just antisocial loners on this show. So if we like a band, you can rest assured that we have no friends and we don't have to have any kind of, you know, biased things going on. But yeah, I don't know. The sports world, I mean, I do agree that I don't want to be the moral police either. I do think that if you're a reporter, you shouldn't be involved romantically with the people that you're writing about. I think that's generally not a good idea. Even in this world where journalism is quickly eroding and it feels like it barely exists. Even then, I think you have to have some level of decorum and ethics in these matters.

Yeah, but you also have to consider that when you see a journalist doing their job, it just creates this like pheromone that is irresistible. Like you see some, I mean, like you, people can't be held accountable for their actions when they see me at like a show and I'm clearly tweeting something clever, whether or not it's about the show. Like, we, we can't be held accountable for that. That's true. Yeah.

You know, the raw animal magnetism of a music critic. It's well known. People have written poems about it and songs, the powerful allure of a music writer, especially if they're middle-aged. Yeah. And you've got some graying going on or balding or, you know, you've got a gut. That's very attractive. Let's talk about some new releases that are out today.

Just going to do like a rundown here. I'm looking at what's coming out today. Just get people an idea of what they might want to look. look for as they go to the record store, the streaming service, wherever you might go. There's a new Foo Fighters album out today, Ian. It's called your favorite toy. And I'm not going to make the obvious joke. Yeah, speaking of, like, you know, adult, secret liaisons, if you will.

You know, the Foo Fighters are a band. And I kind of love this relationship I have with the Foo Fighters where I don't consider myself a fan, but I own most of their records and I feel like I have an opinion on most of their albums. They're a band I know very well without really being a fan and part of that is just being a music critic

who's interested in mainstream rock bands. I am fascinated by their trajectory but they are a band where it's really hard to tell one album from the next with the Food Fighters. Yeah, you said Footh fighters are a band and I'm like, you could stop right there.

I'm thinking of a future. Foo Fighters box that called Music Exists and look I used to do like I guess semi ironic but like I really meant it rankings of like Hot Pockets so I can't begrudge anyone who actually did a Food Fighters album ranking list which you actually did

I was like gonna make a joke about it then I did I did it but I did I wrote one for uprocks yeah and it was a fascinating exercise there are I will say I think the first three albums I think hold up I do like the 90s albums the self-titled color and the shape and there's nothing left to lose. And I even have affection for one by one, which is from 2002.

Yeah. I know I'm getting into the weeds deep with you right now. No, no, I was there right with you. Do you know one by one? I do know one by one. And I love how you mentioned in your article that this was the time of your life when you were like just getting like drunk every night and listening to Queens the Stone Age. Exactly. And I'm like, yeah.

I mean, I was like 20. and 2002, I've like talked about this before, particularly the, you know, the second half of it. That was like a really down bad time. And I just remember like, you know, being back home, like thinking my next step and watching MTV, almost as much, if not more so than I did in high school. And, uh, that's all my life. That's the one that like kind of rocks, right? Yeah, it's definitely, yeah, there was this trend of bands making their metal sounding record.

Because like Weezer put out Maladroit the same year. And I think of Maladroit and one by one being in the same class. Absolutely. It's these like K-Rock bands that are going to make more metal-sounding records. And then immediately after pivot to making just super radio-friendly music forever after that. But if you're a real head, maybe you like one-by-one. Other albums out today include there's a new album by Failure, Location. lost. I don't know if this is their first record

in a while. I don't know if you were a fan of failure. Yeah, look, stuck on you, amazing song. It's like, what if Weaser was a heavy shoegaze band? It was one of those songs I heard on the radio once in 1995 or something like that and spent years trying to find it.

But they've become like one of these bands that have become strangely influential or at least name check over the past decade because every band if they're not making Americana type rock, they're making heavy shoe games. And I mean, I think they put out a record maybe like seven years ago. They're always just sort of around.

Yeah. And yeah, they're a band that like never really got into. I feel like everything they did, hum did better. Not mad at it, but yeah, stuck on you. Amazing song. They have a record called Fantastic Planet that I'm a fan of. And I wouldn't really liking them to hum. They are more of like the foo fighters version of hum.

where it's just like really catchy radio songs. And when I say that, I mean that as a compliment because like 90s Food Fighters, I think, wrote really good radio songs. I think failure did that too. But as their name says, or maybe it preordained, like they weren't ever really a big band. So they have that fortune in a way

in retrospect of being a band that has songs that sound like hits that didn't become hits. So they're right for rediscovery in that. I know there's like a documentary about them too, which I'm surprised. by, but anyway, they have a record out. New metric album, that's a band I've never really listened to, Canadian band, Emily Haynes. Do you have any metric opinions?

Yeah, I remember seeing metric in Athens, Georgia in 2005. They play with this band South, who you might remember from Paint the Silence. Oh, yeah. I think five people were there, but it was like so sad. I'd never been to a show like that before. But I will say that metric, they are part of this. upcoming broken social scenes stars metric megator of all the arts and crafts or paper bag bands metric might be the most popular of the bunch that is a very sneaky they got shooters band people love

metric totally totally yes so um yeah uh hustle rose awesome song don't go super deep otherwise yeah uh noa con has a new album out and that's getting really great reviews that i'm a little skeptical about if you want to bring up chaotic good here again. Is Noah Khan a chaotic good client? If we're going to put on the tinfoil hat here in conspiracy theory. I don't know if you've listened to Noah Khan at all. For those who don't know Noah Khan, very successful singer-songwriter, I would describe him as like if Zach Bryan was from Massachusetts

and was even more influenced by Mumford and Sons. so it's like a Zach Bryan thing but not a whole lot of country in it and like a Northeast singer-songwriter version of that and he's selling out like Fenway Park he's doing stadiums all over the country this album got like four and a half stars from Rolling Stone I saw NPR

rave review of it I've heard the singles they didn't seem all that different from other Noah Khan stuff I've heard I don't know he seems like a nice guy There's a documentary on Netflix about him, talks about his issues with anxiety. He's done a lot of talk trying to raise the profile of mental health.

That's all positive. His songs, though, just seems kind of bland to me. There's songs here and there that I think, all right, but I don't know. I don't, I don't, I understand the popular appeal, but now that he's getting all this critical shine, I don't really get that. Yeah, I mean, you want to talk about the 2002 Food Fighters one by one era. of both of us being in our own separate ways down bed. When I saw the Rolling Stone review of this album, I thought I was immediately transported back to 2002

and thinking I would absolutely go to Best Buy by this album based on the Rolling Stone review. Even if I'm like, I'm kind of skeptical, but I got nothing better to do, and I do have $8 to spend. It's totally a Best Buy album to me too. This is like the, it's like a badly drawn boy. Oh, now we're taught, like, have you fed the fish era?

Yeah, exactly. If he wasn't a British guy, he was a guy from Massachusetts. Like, that would be no one. I'm just transporting everything to Massachusetts here. You're making this guy's out like the dropkick Murphys or something like that. He is, though. He's very, I mean, because he writes songs specifically about that region. He makes a lot of, like, regional references.

So Massachusetts looms large in his legacy. He's like the big time Jonathan Richmond here. I do think Noah Khan should cover Get Up Kids Mass Pike. That is like a song I could hear him doing. It would probably, it would help out my book. But yeah, with Noah Khan, I don't think I could name any of his song. Like I know stick season, but like, I can't say I've, you just named one. Yeah, I did.

But I don't remember what it really sounds like. But every time at work when there's like a pop playlist and there's like a male vocalist, and it's clearly not Harry Style. or like a country guy, I ask like, is this Noah Khan? And the answer is always yes. Yeah. So that's kind of my experience with him.

Yeah. And it's interesting you mentioned him selling out stadiums because I saw this other thing where apparently post Malone and jellyrolls stadium tour is like not selling very well. Oh. I don't have a sense of where post Malone is at this point. And Jellyroll, I just wonder if people finally got enough of that guy.

I felt like there was a period in 2025 where it was jelly roll nonstop. The world was a bakery and serving up jelly roll constantly. It was no good. Maybe people are getting wise to that. There's also a band that has a new record out. I don't know if you've heard of this band. I've been getting a lot of emails about this band, so they have a very active publicist called Portrayal of Guilt.

This band sort of seems like how every year there's a black metal band, that crosses over and regular music critics get into it, it seems like this could do that band. They're definitely black metal aspects to the music, but also pretty poppy in a lot of ways. Have you heard of this band? Yeah, I reviewed one of their albums in 2021. They were kind of do,

they were a band that would open for Death Haven and Tusha Amore in that sort of vein. So I'm familiar with them. And then they put out an album immediately after that called Christfucker, which was much more like black metal. and kind of edge lordy and they've been you know i haven't really kept up with them in the time since but this one at least sounds like kind of interesting i read the review today uh you know from a guy i trust and it talks about how there's like kind of bad chester influence there's also like a

houston rap guy so it sounds interesting at the very least but yeah i think they're kind of outside they're more in that like kind of run for cover uh label sort of deal like you know they're not that far away from being screamo but i think you're right Right. I think neurosis is obviously, they take it up the, they're not black metal, but that's like the critical metal album that you're, that's already locked down for sure. All the critics get together and they decide which black album metal album are we going to get into. Just like which jazz album are we going to get into? Usually the jazz album we're going to get into. It's a collaboration with a DJ of some kind. That's a good way to get the crossover critical love. All right, well, let's move on to our fantasy album draft here. And it's not going well, Ian, for either one of us. This is our first draft again of the Amazon era.

I'm just going to keep declaring first of the Amazon era in this episode. I wonder if we're a little rusty, Ian, because you have a pick that's up and I have a pick that's up. Neither one of them is doing very well. Let's talk about yours first. You pick Jesse Ware, her record, Superblood, which actually came. out last week. Jesse Ware, of course, long-running British dance pop diva. I feel like has usually been money in the bank for music critics. albums have been reviewed very well over time. I mean, this is, this was like relatively high for you, wasn't it? Yeah, I mean, this is, this is, I'm going to

dovetail everything with the NFL draft. This was sort of like the Ty Simpson pick where it's like, I got a bad feeling about it, but it kind of looks the part. By the way, if your team's picking Ty Simpson, this is a guy who is being compared to Kenny Pickett repeatedly, but someone's going to do it. Yeah, we got a good old-fashioned rock fight so far, you know, like NBA playoffs, like Nick's Piston style. And what this album really, you know, the way it presents itself to me is, as I mentioned, at the NFL drafts out of the day we record. I cannot count how many hours I've spent, like, reading NFL mock drafts or, like,

scouting reports. It's kind of a stimming thing I do throughout the year. And one of the running themes is finding out what constitutes old in the NFL. Like, you know, the Eagles have to consider life after A.J. Brown. You're not because he throws the entire organization under the bus because he's 28. Jesse Ware, I think, has hit that skill position player hits 30 wall, where they were someone who was going to get you 1,000 yards and 10 touchdowns, and then they tweaked their knee and all of a sudden they're out of the league in a year.

77 is not a total flop, but it's definitely an underperformance. And the places that are responsible for that, like pitchfork and paste, they definitely turn on her heart. I thought her last two albums were pretty overrated, and there was, I think, some underlying resentment towards it. Like a lot of people who are really into like dance music and house and so forth and disco thought it was like kind of cruise shippy or like H&M core. You know, someone who, Jesse Ware, I think she made a pretty cany pivot in 2020 with

What's Your Pleasure, which is an album that really took advantage of, you know, the the pandemic being a time for us to dance and like to forget about our troubles. and I think that kind of carried over to, yeah, that feels good the next one. But yeah, it's sort of like where everything finally caught up to her. And, you know, 77's not bad. It's not going to tank the entire thing. But that's only because your pick also. I think it's going to go up a bit.

But yeah, it's definitely not performing the way I imagine you expected. Yeah, we'll talk about Fricco in a second. But I just want to follow up on some of the things you were saying about Jesse Ware because again, this was an artist, I feel like, would have been a lock for a mid-80 in previous years, maybe five, six years ago. I would not have doubted her ability to perform well with critics at that time. And just hearing you talk about it,

it did make me think about how, you know, like for writers of our generation, there was probably a bit of a rubber stamping going on whenever there was a new spoon record or a new national record. And then you saw this new generation of critics come along who probably read all those reviews and felt like these people are just overrating these albums, and then they end up taking shots at them a little bit to even the playing field. I wonder if something's now happening with Jesse Ware, that late 2010's, early 2020s core of reviewers who are just going for Jesse Ware.

Now you've got these young kids coming up. They've been reading all these Jesse Ware reviews, and I think there is a bit of a reactionary thing that probably happens, where is this album that much worse than what she's been doing recently? I don't know. I feel like she was doing some cool stuff in the 2010s, and then it felt like it was being reiterated in kind of a tired way. But she was getting excused for that,

and maybe this is like a long time coming in terms of a correcting or a market correction of her reviews. I think early on she was sort of like the kind of indie version of Adele or something like that. But that first record, the one where she samples big punch. to share that song rocks man i love that song yeah she had some cool stuff back in the 2010s shout out to jesse wear um let's talk about freco here and we've talked about this band recently we talked about them a bit when we uh we were doing the uh the fantasy album draft this is a band from a young band uh they put out their debut record a few years ago called uh where we've been where

we go from here that i was a big fan of like i said i put it in my uh year end list that year i think it was 2024 that that came out. Yeah, because I reviewed that one. Yeah. So we were talking about this album, the new record, which is called Something Worth Waiting for, which currently has a 76 on Metacritic, a disaster, or it would be if Jesse Ware had done well. I mean, now it feels like we're both pretty even. But, you know, we were talking about this record potentially being like a level-up record, something that critics would get behind. And maybe this would be one of the breakout bands of of 2026. And I want to be careful with how I talk about this because I don't think this is a bad record. It is a record I like overall. I think it's a solid B, you know, like three and a half stars,

7.0, maybe a 6.8 type album. I mean, I'm curious for your case, for your take on this. I don't know if you feel differently, but it's the kind of record that it feels a little like a disappointment. I think because I really like the debut and it felt like, oh, they're going to crush it on the second album. And the second album feels more like a lateral move to me than a progression. It doesn't feel like they've really nailed it. And I don't really know what it is about the album that makes me feel that way. When I listen to it, I just feel like something is missing. And I'm not sure what it is, but I just know that it doesn't have the wow factor.

I think that I wanted. It may be even expected from this record. So it's a tricky thing where it's an album I like, but the way I'm describing it makes it sound like I like it less than I do. Do you relate to that at all? Do you like it more than I do? What are your feelings on this? Yeah, I mean, I was a little apprehensive about talking about this album publicly

because I feel kind of the same way that you do, which is that because I cannot not think in NFL, draft metaphors. You know, this was sort of like when you see, when you saw like a year ago, the 2026 mock drafts, we see like Drew Alar or Cape Clubnik, like, you know, it's like they're definitely going to go number one, you know, they have clean tape, they're toolsy, you know, they do stuff we like, they do it well. Their first album is perhaps the only one I can think of that actively name check the yuck

self-title as a major influence. And it's like, yeah, you know what? like this sounds like a sort of album that would have been reviewed by the person in mile end kicks in 2011. Right. I say that positively. But it would have been the albums that this inspires, you know, because this is definitely a indie rock of the aughts type revival record.

Absolutely. You can hear Arcade Fire. You can hear a wolf parade. You can hear a lot of those maximalist indie bands that you and I, of course, came up listening to and writing about. And there's something very appealing about that for people our age, but also I think younger listeners who

are going back to those records and like them. And the thing about that kind of music is that I think it's easy in a way to be that kind of band, but it's hard to nail it because you are operating at this operatic emotional pitch where every song

has to be an epic. Every song has to just make your heart explode. And you listen to this record and it feels like every song opens with this kind of quiet guitar strum or, you know, like a murmured vocal and then it just builds and builds and there's crescendos and then by the end it's super loud and you're supposed to be blown away. And I just felt like, I'm not really feeling blown away here. Even though I appreciate a lot of what's going on on the record, it doesn't quite pay off in the end the way that it needs to for this to really work. Yeah. And there are two things I can't.

stop talking about first of which is the NFL draft the second is Bush's second album Razor Blade suitcase and I had a thought recently about their songs swallowed where I said if it was 10% better it would be awesome but and I think this is kind of in the same sort of sphere where

I think of it and I think you like the Rap Boys album more than I do but it might be due to expectations or the fact that like it's been fairly humdrum Q1 Q2 but this is an alma of expectation for and I needed to knock me on my ass because I know we don't get a lot of records that can level

up like this of this sound and it didn't quite get there for me which you know I want to be and maybe I'm just like being impatient because like they're a young band this is album two maybe they get there with the album three because that is not that is something that tends to happen but um I think if anything this album is a victim of my own expectations and my own thirst to be knocked out in a specific way by this specific kind of music. But I also think that this is going to be an album that I'm going to enjoy more once it's actually on streaming. And I'm not doing it through the media player. You know what I mean?

This happens a lot. Yeah, I mean, well, I was sent to CD by the record label. So they knew who they were dealing with. So I've listened to this in my car on CD. And just to reiterate what you just said, you know, they are a young band. and I'm going to be excited to hear their third album. I mean, I think that they are on a path. I think they have a lot of talent and a lot of potential.

And maybe we'll feel differently in six months when the expectations have been cleaved from the album and you can just listen to it as a record. Because I think there is a lot on the record that is enjoyable. And I really like their aesthetic. I'd like to see them live too. I bet they'd be a really good live band. But yeah, I just felt like, I wouldn't even say 10%.

I feel like they're about 75%, 80% of the way there. It's just missing that gear that would really kind of kick it up to something that was really special. Beyond what it is now, which I think is, again, it's like a B level record, which is a really good level of B. A lot of bands don't even get to that level. But it's not, this is going to be on my E-R-N list for sure and be one of the records that I go back to as one of the great albums of the year. At least that's what I'm saying now. I've often changed my mind on stuff like this. Yeah, this is an album if it came out in 2012, which it absolutely

could have. I would have happily put it at like number 38 or 36, but that's also because I would be listening to like 200, 300 records. I need, like I need albums of this sort to hit more immediately. That's not Frico's fault. That's mine. But, you know, this is where we're at right now. You know, okay, so Freiko got a 76, Jesse Ware got a 77. You know who we didn't pick that just came out recently, and they're in 81. So like not a world beating score, but much better than what either one of us is doing. Nine-inch noise, the Nine-inch Nails Boys Noise record, which I think we were joking about a little bit last week. We were.

But I feel like coming out of South by Southwest, coming out of Coachella, excuse me, that set was really well received. I feel like Trent Reznor is now on his fourth or fifth revival at this point. There's just new waves for Trent Rezner. It feels like every five or six years. And this album, you know, where he's collaborating with this German electronic DJ named Boys Noise, and they've been doing a bunch of shows together. And this record is like Boys Noise reimaginings.

of classic nine inch nail songs. And I listen to it. It's a lot of fun. I mean, obviously nine inch nails music really lends itself to this sort of thing. I mean, you can, there'll probably be people doing this in 50 years,

you know, some sort of person, you know, reorganizing, reimagining, remixing nine inch nail songs, and they're going to sound good then too. Is this the modern version, Ian, the EDM version of Neil Young

and Pearl Jam, collaborating together. Since you brought up the Bush thing, I feel like I got to make another mid-90s reference here. But yeah, Trent Resner, he's just, he's deathless, I feel like, as a cool reference point. Yeah, I was thinking that no 90s alt-rock superstar has aged better than Trent Resner, but then I'm like wondering if any 90s celebrity in general has age better. You know, he's absolutely jacked. He's continued to stay relevant through his soundtrack work. Like, this is someone whose soundtrack work might actually have superseded new nine-inch nails music. And they released just enough new music to be on tour.

And I've heard just nothing but amazing things about the live show. And which made me more excited about this than any nine-inch nails thing since The Fragile, I guess. Because there's just this interesting musical angle. It's technically a live album. And, you know, I don't know if this is secret shame or like a quasi-ye-nay-nay, but I'm pretty a la carte with nine-inch nails, even as a 14-year-old. I'm like, yeah, I like the Downwards Biled singles. But, you know, when I hear this album, like, I think it's song two that's like, the God is dead

and no one, like a heresy, I think. I'm right back where I started when I was like 14 and thought, you know what, this feels like a bit much, you know? So because I don't have the nostalgic attachment the way I do with like smashing pumpkins, which by the way, I do think Billy Corrigan is seeing another 90s alt rock guy having a moment. He can't stand that. So he's like getting on stage with somber and trying to widow his way into things as well. I appreciate Nine Inchdale's existence, but my favorite Nine Inchdale song is probably LaMere from the Frasel because it's an instrumental.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I like them more than you do. I just feel like their music now, it's even with the God is Dead stuff, to me it just seems like new order. You know, like what that was in the 80s, that's what Nine Inch Nails feels like to me.

Just like really well made in hooky, like electronic rock music. And the songcraft of Nine Inch Nails, which I think, you know, they, people love them obviously in the 90s, but I think that the craft of Trent Rezner's work has really come to the fore more since the 90s. I think in the 90s his image was so predominant in the music.

The album covers, the music videos, just the way he carried himself, that when you hear this music 25 years later, it just hits as such well-made pop music. And really well-made rock music too, but the pop aspect of it, in the same way that you can listen to Blue Monday or true faith or these songs that just seem indestructible.

These Nine Inche Nail songs have the same quality and they can withstand any new person coming in and changing it up. And I think there's something about Nine-A-N-H-N-H-Nail's that's unique too and that Trent Resner can do these things and they don't feel forced in the same way that maybe Billy Corrigan being on stage with Somber feels forced.

That feels a little more like, let's bring up the old time, and sing this oldie. You know, with Resner, it doesn't feel as much like that. It is more of what it felt like for Trent Resner to collaborate with David Bowie in the 90s. Like how Bowie could hang out with these younger people. And he didn't seem like Grandpa trying to be a cool guy, even though technically that's what it was. But he was such a cool, timeless figure that he could do that. And he could just exist in these different contexts.

And it would make sense. and Reznor's been able to do that in a way that I think is surprising to me a little bit because I think those 9-inch Nails records I love those albums but they're very 90s and how they sound

and just the way that they carry themselves as these like angst creation machines you know you could you could have seen a time where they would have been ghettoized as 90s relics but somehow they've broken out of that and have this universal

appeal to them. Yeah, I think that Nine-H-Dhals is eternal. You brought up New Order. I think of them more like Depeche mode, where, you know, you see David Gahan at like 60, but it still sounds convincingly like him. And, you know, you can say what you want about the new music. I think, but like, yeah, the archetype is eternal. This music will always be relevant.

It'll always find an audience. It's not like Weezer. I mean, Weezer will always find an audience. but you know nine inch nails Trent Rezer has done absolutely nothing to sully the brand which I think makes this I'm not mad about nine inch nails does but it's not they're like I will

I will believe you when you say it's amazing but will I go the extra mile to spend 150 bucks to get tickets I don't know if I'd go there if someone set me there I'd be so stoked but I'm probably not going to pay for it well let's talk about the movie that we teased in our introduction it's a new romantic comedy that is maybe playing in a theater near you if you live in a big city.

Otherwise, I'm sure this will be coming to streaming very soon. It's a movie called Mile End Kicks. And this is a movie that Ian and I, we've been talking about amongst ourselves for a while. I don't think we've talked about this yet on the show. Might have mentioned it in passing, but we definitely haven't dedicated a substantial time to it. So this is a movie written and directed by Chandler Leveck, who is a Canadian writer-director who made her debut for feature films in 2022 with a movie called I Like Movies, which is a coming age story about an awkward teenager working in a video store.

I kind of want to see that movie after seeing this movie. She's also directed a movie called R roommates, which is a Netflix movie starring Adam Sandler's daughter, Sadie Sandler. So she's got a foothold clearly in the more mainstream world of filmmaking. This new movie, My Island, kicks out, however. This is more like an indie film. And it's an autobiographical work for Chandler Leveck. She used to work as a music journalist in Canada back in the early 2010s, which is when this movie is set. And in the movie, there is a doppelganger for Chandler Levec called Grace Pine,

played by Barbie Ferreira from the show Euphoria. And it's about how she becomes romantically involved with two guys in the same band while living in Montreal in 2011. In 2011, and writing a book about the Alenus Morissette album, Jagged Little Pill. You and I were pretty skeptical, I would say, about this movie based on the trailer, which, like most trailers, is pretty reductive. And I think made the movie look cornyer than it was. You and I also are coming at it, obviously, as people who were also music critics working in this era, not in Canada, in America, but you and I have pretty direct connections to this music world,

the milieu of the film. So I had some skepticism going in, but I'm just going to say at the top, I really like this movie, a lot. And I feel like we could talk about the rom-com aspect of it, but really, I think for this show, it's really about how accurate this film feels as a representation of like what it was like to be a music journalist in 2011. And I have to say, you know, you and I, we have to be careful about how we talk about this movie because the sexism of this world in the early 2010s is a big theme of the film. And I feel like a scene where two guys in their 40s talk about this movie could be a scene

in the movie. So we have to be careful here. But I am a fan of the film. And I'm curious to get your thoughts on this. I just want to say, hope I'm not giving anything away here. We were watching this at the same time, basically. Like, we each had screeners. We were in different parts of the country, but we were watching at the same time.

And you texted me at one point to note that in the film, the Grace Pine, the film critic, the music critic, I mean, gets a promo copy of the Joanna Newsom album, Have One On Me, which you pointed out, out in 2010, not 2011. So, which is, I think, more of a condemnation of nerds like us, that we would even notice something like that. Yeah, it's like the most me thing to do.

Like, my wife, I was happy we got a screener because I think my wife accurately predicted that if we were to, it's playing in like two theaters in San Diego at like three o'clock in the afternoon at 9.45 at night. She predicted that if we were to see this in the theater, it would be us two and maybe like two other people and me just screaming like, come on at the screen like every five minutes. And the first part of the movie definitely lends itself to that because of that one thing where it's like, this out came out in 2011. Like what kind of operation is Merge magazine running? And then in the very next scene, and I don't think, I think this is in the trailer too. I don't think this is much of a spoiler because it happens to the first.

two minutes, but you see this like group of four or five, you know, middle-aged music critics having a conversation about who scrodo. It just reminds me of like one of my least favorite movie tropes, which is when you see like a buddy cop or like two law enforcement guys who have been together for 25 years and you see him in the car and like they're trying to show how they've been through thick and thin by having these like deep conversations that they probably would have had in like the first week of knowing each other. look, I'd ever worked at an office in 2011, but music critics were not talking about Kusker Do and the Minutemen.

They were talking about Wu Life. Where's the Wu Life representation in this movie? Wu Life was constant in 2011. We all know this. Do better. Well, I mean, I think the point of that scene isn't the specific, isn't Husser Do necessarily. It's this idea of like men talking about music and not caring about the opinions of women or keeping women locked out of the conversation.

which is something, again, as two guys, we can't speak to how that feels viscerally. Like, I totally understand that. I would just say that the guys who are standing in that semicircle, they also don't like most guys. Like, they're just dismissive of everybody. Yeah. I would say, which is not to, you know, downplay how awful guys like that were to women in this scene back then. I'm just saying they're awful to people like me, too. So just keep that in mind.

But I just want to say that overall, I was kind of shocked by how detailed this movie is. I actually think it's for the kind of movie that it is, I thought it was like incredibly accurate as a depiction of music writing. I thought there were a lot of details that rang true. It's not perfect. But also, it's not a movie about music writing. It's a world about these, it's a movie about these characters. and the details are just the world that they inhabit. But I don't know.

There's a plot point in the movie where the main character gets a book contract with 33 and a third, which is the book series of those little pocket-sized books about albums. And her advance for the book is $500, which is a terrible advance, by the way, in publishing. It's practically nothing for publishing. But I just thought the fact that they referenced 33 and a third And don't really explain it I mean I think there's one little thing where she says Oh yeah it's a book series about albums

But then also you know gets that Crappy Advance nailed down Also the bit about how she wrote like 400 articles in one year Yeah that's cap You know there were so many things about what it was like to work for an alt weekly At this time which I did I was on staff at an Alt Weekly in 2011 that I thought this is way more accurate than it even needs to be as a depiction of this.

So any fear that I had going into it that it was just going to be this sort of stupid representation of the world, it was really put to bed. I don't know if you feel the same way. But I was pretty impressed by the very simulitude of the movie. Yeah, I mean, and it's not just the fact that they have Toro Imoa and Lower Den's posters up in her room. But I think the 33 and a third, I think that was the real turning point for me with the movie, because my concern was that it was not going to, that it was going to be a movie about someone writing a 33 and a third, not like a romantic comedy that just so happened to take place in the rise of Arbitus Records.

But once they said the advance of $500 and just set the stakes of this person is taking three months to do like this writer's retreat in a more, expensive city to write a book and get $500 advance. That's what really, like, drew me in because it's like, I think too often if, you know, in the rare circumstances where a music critic is represented, uh, in film or TV, it's two very kind of, it's, you know, similar stereotypes where they're either an insufferable snob or just like, uh, or just a different type of, uh, snob. But, uh, yeah, this made me think like, oh, this person like, knows how to do the deal.

They really capture the experience of like sitting at a computer and just thinking like, oh my God, I spent an entire day writing three paragraphs and this all sucks. You know, it is, I think at the end of the day, a cringe rom-com and I say that positively. But there's also points where you could see it being a, I guess like a other wrestler-style cautionary tale about how being a music critic will ruin your life. I don't like there's some things that are romantic about this movie about like being in that sort of art space. I love how there's like a character who's clearly supposed to be grimes. But I don't think they romanticize it.

I mean there's certain aspects they have to for dramatic license. So it's not just something that appeals to people who know like a pitchfork joke when they make it. By the way, there are pitchfork jokes. They feel natural. They get it out of the way super early. But yeah, it feels organic to the world And they're not really jokes Making fun of Pitchfork

I feel like they talk about pitchfork in a way That again felt organic Yeah It's just part of the atmosphere I mean I think with this film It is an interesting experience watching it If you like live through this world Because I agree it doesn't romanticize it

It's clear that she is writing about Her own experiences Dealing with not just other writers, but also dealing with bands and like the complications of being a woman in these spaces where you're trying to interview people, but then there's also this weird underlying thing going on a lot of times when you're interacting with these artists, especially if you're around the same age. Yeah. Which is what people, you know, were at that time. And you and I were closer to people's age back then. Then certainly we are now. I did however, when I was watching the movie,

I would say I romanticized it, but there was a certain nostalgia for the world that it depicts where it does feel relatively robust in terms of a media environment, as well as a band environment. You know, the idea that this band would have any aspirations to being like a big band, which is what they have,

it feels very much tail end of the indie era, which we've talked about many times on this show where, you know, 2011, it's still felt like the 2000s at that point in terms of the music scene, but things were in the process of changing. And the world that this movie is depicting, I feel like, was over pretty soon after 2011. It's a snapshot that where you could maybe still at the last moment feel idealistic about going to a loft party and seeing a band that looks like pavement. and like the lead singer loves Ariel Pink and he's like wearing a dress on stage

but he's actually like a misogynist you know like they got the American Apparel underwear like yeah it's there are very there are some very specific details where it's like if you were there in 2011 I'm like yeah they this person like was in the field for real and the thing about this movie that I appreciated

is that like every character is complicated including the main character and Barbie Ferreira shout out to her I don't know if she was embedding with, like, female music journalist. She just seems like so many music writers that I've met over the years. She's very convincing as a music writer in this film. But I think Chandlin Levack, she does a really good job of seeing the world as it is from her perspective now,

which is where I think a lot of the more jaundiced views of the film come from, especially again of her male co-workers. I mean, there's a scene in the movie where she's involved in a, I don't want to get too much away, but there's a scene in an office involving some sort of romantic act, and the guy in the scene is wearing a hold steady t-shirt. By the way, during the screener, like, watching the screener, it's got the name Stephen Hayden

at the bottom the entire time, so you see that. as part of this scene. And Jay Baruchel plays this guy. Yeah. A Canadian comedy legend. So she's clearly looking back on this with a sense of perspective that maybe she didn't have at the time. But I think the film also stays true to what her perspective was probably like when she was 22 and actually living through this stuff. And how, yeah, it is exciting going to your first party or the first time you smoke weed with a guy in a band or whatever.

it is. And it stays true to that. So it has a little bit of that almost famous, like, romance to it in that respect. But I think she also brings a clarity of perspective to the material that would come from an older person looking back on it. And I just think that balance is really tricky and she's able to pull it off. And just how she's able to depict the main character, too, as being really flawed. It's not like she is this sort of idealistic character. that comes into this bad situation. Like she has her own bad moments and shortcomings and just feels like a really human character. And yeah, you know, the movie's not perfect, but I don't know.

I found myself really liking it. And I feel like it's a movie I'm going to end up thinking about after, you know, now that I've seen it. Yeah, likewise, you know, I felt like at the beginning, you know, if we were to talk about it, it would be like ice cast talking about, like, one battle after another because we're clearly, like, or like Irish full cast doing the same for sinners because like we are the villains in this movie. Even like the awful Ariel Pink lead singer has more redeeming qualities than any person.

And yeah, it's like if you see a gray bearded guy wearing a band t-shirt in this film. Yeah, it's over. He's Voldemort basically in this film. Yeah, I do, but I do like how balance and how rich each character felt. Like no one, you know, there were certain points that like, yeah, you have to kind of gin it up for dramatic effect.

But they felt like very real people. Like the band itself, the dynamic felt realistic. You know, the person who takes her in off Craigslist felt realistic. I remember, like this was like 2011, 12 were the only times I was like writing full time as a music writer. And like when she go, there's a scene where she like looks on Craigslist. And I just remember that was such startling clarity. And I do look back on that time. where it did feel like, yeah, I'll get money from MTV, Hive, or Live Nation TV.

There was more of a robust media ecosystem. And it is also the tail end of, you know, that indie rock as the center of discussion. This is also something that happens in the first minute of the movie. The band Islands is seen as kind of a god. So that should give you a perspective of its time. But this is a rare movie where I like it more after I finish it. And as more I think about it, I think, like, how difficult it was to pull off a movie of this ilk, whether it's, you know, about the music writing itself or like the cringe rom-com thing, which, you know,

certainly not in short supply. Big Yay, I really thought Barbie Ferreira did an excellent job of, like, being that person. And, you know, when I was watching with my wife, she would say sometimes whenever Grace did, it's like, man, she sucks. And it's like, yeah, like, everyone kind of sucks. Like, this movie is as much about music writing as it is. about how when you're in your early 20s, you have an endless capacity for self-inflicted misery.

You know, whether it's self-destruction and self-absorption. Yeah, our bodies are so resilient at that time. And also just how relatively low stakes it is when you look back on it, but at the time it feels like everything. Oh, absolutely. Like she's writing this book. And like you said, she has three months to do it. and she's getting 500 bucks for it.

But for her, you know, it's like she's writing like the Great Gatsby. You know, like she has to move to a different town, which you don't have to do to write a 33 and a third book. You don't have to move to a different town to write the book, but I think the movie's self-aware about that. Yeah, when you're 24, you might think you have to. Right, exactly. It's this epic journey, and she's trying to figure out who she is

and she's not perfect. She's making these mistakes, but she's moving forward. And yeah, a really good movie. And look out almost famous. You've got a competitor in the rom-com starring an indie. I guess William Miller wasn't an indie music critic. He's just the music critic. But this is like the new player in that realm, a very small genre.

Maybe there's going to be a bunch of rom-coms now starring music critics. Yeah, maybe if they adapt Ryan Shriver's upcoming memoir to a biopic version. Shout to Ryan. I am both excited and anxious about whether or not I appear in there as well. So, yeah, maybe you do as well. But yeah, big fan of the movie. I'm just thinking if they adapted my 2012, the big dramatic scene is where my girlfriend breaks up with me

because she thinks I'm spending too much time doing an interpol oral history for the 10-year anniversary of Turn on the Bright Lights. That actually did happen, but that relationship wasn't really going anywhere anyway. Well, and I think in retrospect, we can agree that she was probably right, that you were spending way too much time in that oral history of Interpolis and The Bright Lights. Hey, man, I got a Carlos D interview. Those things don't, like, come up every day. 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, once you go first? So what I'm going to do right here is lean into my status as a 40, mid-40s bald music writer and recommend a album that's a couple weeks old from a band that you already likely know if you're a fan of this podcast. The new pornographers put out now a few weeks ago called the former site of and you might think like, but why is this in recommendation quarter? I know who they are. You know, they are a supergroup or were a super group responsible for one of the best first three

albums runs of the 21st century. But, you know, in the time since Dan Behar, of Destroyers left the band. Nico Case has taken on less of a role. the drummer Kurt Dahl, who was amazing on Twin Cinema. He's gone replaced by another drummer. I think you probably know what happened to that guy

before he got replaced. But, you know, it's sort of a band that has put out records consistently and none of them, like, you know, they make a little bit of a ripple, but I don't think much about them. But this is, they're not back, but they found a new kind of lane to operate in.

This is like a low-key late career peak in that it's worldly without being political, which is always a risk because, you know, it's the creative vehicle of A.C. Newman, who, with all due respect, is very much a blue sky type guy. You know, it's softer without being weak. It's catchy without them relying on the same old power pop tropes. And it's just a really pretty and often sad album from a guy who's taking stock of what it all means in 2026. And this is a rare new pornographers album that I find it affecting as opposed to just catchy. And so this is probably not an album that's going to get a whole lot of run on year end list or things like that. But I find myself going back to this a lot more than albums I was more

excited about at the outset. So if you haven't kept up with this band, maybe check this one out. It's definitely better than the one that came before. Yeah, I like this album too. And I've actually made the argument that what people used to say about Spoon, that they're the most underrated indie band around doesn't really apply to Spoon anymore because they're not underrated. People keep calling them underrated so much that they are now, I think, properly rated. I think new pornographers now, they're the new most underrated band in indie rock. I think over the course of their career, the first three albums are perfect, but they have more, like, good to, like, very good albums than I think they get credit for.

And this belongs in that camp as well, I would say. Over on my substack, stephen.hyden.substack.com, I did a big feature this week on 2020s Alt Country, did a big survey of it. I wrote like a 4,000 word feature on it, did a long playlist, 50 songs, twangy favorites from the decade. And the piece was inspired by a record that actually came out a few weeks ago by a band from England called Brown Horse. They have a record out called Total Dive.

And it's a record I love a lot. But it is an album that made me think, isn't it weird that a band from England is called brown horse and singing songs called like heart of the country and hairs and sounds like they came out of Tulsa, Oklahoma. I think it just goes to show that this kind of music, which has been bubbling up in indie rock for several years now, MJ Lenderman, Waxahatchie, Wednesday, it's really reached a point in 2026 where you're seeing, I think, a pretty large number of artists who are inspired by those figureheads of the genre in 2020s. and have really kind of created an aesthetic of all country that seems specific to this time

in contrast, I think, with what was going on in the 90s. And I think that's really interesting. So I wrote a big thing about it. I actually like this Brown Horse record a lot, but they are a band straight from central casting, I think, with indie rock. I would recommend this album in the same way if I were a horror fan, recommending a great example of the genre. Whereas if you love horror films, you're going to love horror films,

you're going to love this movie. And I think with Brown Horse, if you love Alt Country, if you love Twangy, All-American-sounding indie rock, even when it comes from England, I think you're going to really like this album. I also want to do a really quick shout out to the band Florey, another great Alt Country band, this one from America.

They put on a live record this week called Smells Like Flory, Live Like Hell. And it is a tremendous, tremendous record. I'm a big fan of this band anyway, but I kind of think that this live album is the definitive document of this band. They're a fabulous live band. You really get a sense of like the chaotic nature of this band when you hear the live record. I mean, their albums are pretty chaotic too, but just the energy and the swagger and how this band like genuinely rocks in a way that even bands that I love in the genre don't do quite as much.

Flory, they're just a firebreed. hard-charging rock and roll band, definitely check out this live album. I think it captures them at their best. And I also wrote about that a little bit in my big Alt-Country feature as well. So if you like Twangy music, twangy indie music,

please check up my substack. I think you'll enjoy the essay. That about does it for this episode of Indycast. We'll be back with more news reviews and hashing out trends next week.