Indiecast - Arctic Monkeys + Dry Cleaning, Plus: The Return Of Sportscast

Episode Date: October 21, 2022

The UK rock scene is clearly alive and well since two of this week's buzziest albums come from bands across the pond. On the latest Indiecast episode, hosts Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen share their thoughts on the much-hyped albums from two UK artists: Arctic Monkeys' The Car (28:42) and Dry Cleaning's Stumpwork (40:34).Because it's MLB playoffs this week, Steven and Ian bring back Sportscast with some obligatory baseball banter (:25). They talk the Padres and the legacy of San Diego's music scene. The city is not only Blink-182's hometown, but it's also known as the breeding ground for ska bands like Slightly Stoopid and Sublime.In this week's Recommendation Corner (49:56), Ian mentions the Philly band Knifeplay, whose new album Animal Drowning manages to pull off a a darker edge that’s missing in most modern sheogaze. Meanwhile, Steven shouts out Field Medic, who writes lo-fi Bob Dylan-inspired music that carry heavy subject matters on the new album Grow Your Hair Long If You're Wanting to See Something That You Can Change.New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 111 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 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 indie mixtape. Hello everyone and welcome to IndieCast. On this show, we talk about the biggest indie news of the week. We review albums and we hash out trends. In this episode, we review new albums by Arctic Monkeys and dry cleaning. My name is Stephen Hayden and I'm joined by my friend and co-host. I wonder if he's pulling for the Padres or the Phillies. Ian Cohen.

Ian, how are you? Yeah, last night the Padres were the biggest one-hit wonder out of San Diego since Iron Butterfly. Was that a Dennis Miller voice? I don't know if our audience can get. That's like George Burns I think. That was like, hey babe. You gotta be like, hey babe, what's up with the Padres, babe?

You gotta throw like a bunch of babes in there if you're going to be doing Dennis Miller. I'm basically doing Dana Carvey's impersonation of Dennis Miller. Hi, babe, hey babe, Dennis Miller. That, I think, my impersonation is terrible.

It's way better than mine. I think it was better than yours. Can I just say, because we're starting off this episode. We're going to do a mini sportscast episode right at the top here. We did sports cast last week. And I believe I said that I thought the Padres had momentum and that they could beat the Dodgers. And I'm basing this entirely on listening to sports podcasts. I did not watch a single baseball game this year until the playoffs. But I listen to sports podcast every week. So I'm aware of how, you know, I'm aware of how teams are and who's on the rise and who's not. Padres, they beat the 111 win Dodgers to advance.

And the Phillies, they beat the defending champs, Atlanta Braves, they're in. Now we have the two Ian Cohen. This is the Ian Cohen Subway Series here because you live in San Diego and you grew up in Philly. Were you born in Philly? I was indeed born in Philadelphia. Wow. Philadelphia. born and raised. That's correct. Yeah, it's interesting because on Friday, or not Friday, on Sunday, I watched the Eagles game at a Eagles bar in San Diego and you just see like this fascinating type of guy hybrid where there's like the Brian Dawkins jerseys, but they're wearing Nixon watches and like board shorts and vans. It's, but there's, there's dozens of us, quite literally in San Diego. That's like the Fresh Prince arc. Like you start in Philadelphia and you end up in

Southern California. There's a bunch of fresh princes living in Southern California. You're not in Los Angeles, I guess. You're in San Diego, but still close enough. I'm in the middle of the country. It's all the same to me. Eagles, by the way, we'll get back to the Padres and Phillies. Do you have faith that this is for real with the Eagles? They're looking good. They're undefeated. The NFC is terrible, including my team, the Green Bay Packers. Awful team. We stink. We are dreadful. Can I just say that if I were to rank my least favorite sports franchises, at least two of like the top, like top 10 would be the Giants and the Jets. I hate New York NFL teams, the most unwatchable teams ever. But because they're in New York, we have to hear about these garbage teams. And this year, they're both pretty good. And they beat the Packers on consecutive weeks. just awful. It's like not only do we look like dog shit, but we have to

lose to these boring ass New York NFL teams. I feel my voice rising already. This is the fun about doing sportscasts because we can get the sports talk radio emotion. You know, indie rock is more laid back. We can be total sports talk radio here. Yeah, I've never heard. Are you feeling good about the Eagles, though?

Like, are the Eagles for real, you think? I mean, I think they're about as real. you can get in the NFL where, like, I would say 90% of the league currently is unwatchable. But I want to take this opportunity. Like, I've done the Philly Sports Talk radio guy numerous times on this episode. It's one of my favorite recurring bits. I mean, is there an equivalent for, like, the Packers? Because, you know, they're not the type of team.

It's like, oh, we got to go, like, except for Reggie White, I guess. Like, oh, we got, like, why don't we go ahead and trade Aaron Rogers for Tom Brady? Oh, again, this is just a terrible accent. I have no fucking idea with the accent. Look, no, sports talk radio everywhere is a bastion of insanity. If you're listening to Wisconsin Sports Talk Radio after the Packers Luz, you're definitely going to get like, you know, Herb from Pulaski. Like, get Aaron.

What the heck is going on with this guy? He's dating all these, like, famous ladies, and he's doing these commercials, and then he can't get on the field. You know, it's like that kind of stuff. So, yeah, Herb from Pulaski, sounding off big time about the Packers right now. And justifiably so. I'm basically Herb from Pulaski at this point when it comes to the Packers. Just a dreadful team, an unlikable team too.

Rogers rolling his eyes after overthrowing people in the flat every single time. Just awful. But anyway, let's get back to Philly's Padres here. are you on the Padres train or are you like going hometown like Phillies? Well, you know, I think as like a Packers fan, you know, you might relate to one team being kind of the only game in town. Although like there is nowhere near, like the Padres are nowhere near sewn into the fabric of the community as the Packers are. But you know what? Like Philly's got a lot of good stuff going on.

The Sixers are great. The Eagles are great. The Flyers exist. You know, hockey. Everyone makes the playoffs. And it's like for San Diego, I. I don't know. Like, I'd rather see them win this particular series, if only to, like, draw a spotlight on San Diego in a way that hasn't really happened. Gosh, I don't know, like, ever. I mean,

like, Anchorman might be in the last time that San Diego did something that, you know, the nation as a whole paid attention to. I had this conversation the other day, and people were like, well, you know, we have, like, great weather and, you know, it's, like, really beautiful here. but like that's true all the time. Like, I am just welcoming the smattering of, like, San Diego jokes I've seen so far. And, like, I welcome it all. Like, I want people, like, I want to know what the stereotypes are for San Diego. Because, you know what?

Like, most of them are probably pretty true. I mean, look, I'm pulling for the Padres. I like that team. I like the fact that they haven't won a World Series before. I like that they were an underachieving team in the regular season. And now they're turning it on. the playoffs. Although, you know, we're recording this on Wednesday morning. Game one was Tuesday night. Phillies won two zip. There's a game Wednesday afternoon. So by the time this post,

because I think game three is Friday night. It is. So by the time this post, Phillies could be up two zip or it could be tied. It's in San Diego. I would think that they'll tie it. I would think that will be one one going into game three. I hope they tie it because if they're down two-oh, going into Philly, that Philly Stadium looks like a madhouse. It's crazy. The people... It's insane. During the game on Saturday night, where the game, I guess it would have been

Game 4, the Padres clenched. Like, I would hear the announcers talk about, like, it's an insane asylum in Petco Park. And, you know, it's just like people acting super chill, but like they're excited. Like, there's... I've never seen people happier to be at a baseball game. Whereas

if you watch the Phillies game earlier that day, It was like straight up like a mosh pit the entire time. You just can't equate how people in San Diego get excited compared to how people in Philly get excited, which you know what? It's a great contrast in styles. I don't think, you know, you can root against either of these teams. So it's good as opposed to the A, which is like the Astros and the Yankees, the two least likable teams in major league base. aside from the Cardinals. Yeah, if the Phillies win, I'm fine with that.

I'm just pulling for the Padres. I think it would be cool for them to make through the World Series. I was thinking, you know, to bring this back to music, because we're going to be now transitioning slightly out of sports cast into indie cast. You know, as you may know, I don't know if I've mentioned this on the podcast, but I recently wrote a book about Pearl Jam. It's called Long Road. And Eddie Vedder, famous baseball.

fan, loves the Cubs, but he also has a big San Diego part of his history, lived in San Diego for a long time. That's where he got his start in music. That's where he was when he got the Mama Son, Mama Son tape that got him into Pearl Jam, all the mythology with that. He went surfing in San Diego and wrote some of the biggest songs in Pearl Jam history after that. He doesn't seem to have any affinity for the Padres. I've never heard him talk about the Padres. I'm curious about that. I mean, he can't jump

allegiances at this point. He can't be like Drake just showing up to every game. Whoever's winning, that's like where Drake shows up to. I feel like Eddie Vedder, he's ride or die with the Cubs. I just wonder if he ever had a phase as a teenager where he

was wearing like a Tony Gwynn jersey for a while, you know, just dabbled in it. And then ultimately decided to go with the Padres. I believe that there was a Padres Cubs series in 84. I think they played each other in the playoffs. Am I wrong with that? I think you're correct.

That was like the Padres have been to the World Series twice in their history and got swept one time and won one game the other time. And you're talking about like the Tony Gwynne Steve Garvey era. You know, that one blip of national relevance. You know, like I imagine that, I don't know, Eddie Vennie. better being like, from my understanding, like a sullen team, probably doesn't want to identify with, you know, the local baseball squad, although in many ways Eddie Vedder is like the prototypical Sandy Hagen, like the kind of guy who literally writes songs going surfing, you know,

worked at the Chevron and like hung out at like all the like the trashy rock places. But, you know, I think that like I'm just a little, and also I just think that it's kind of funny that the band that got accused of ripping off Pearl Jam, like Stone Tull Pilots was an actual San Diego band. Right. Although you've said that San Diego doesn't really claim STP. Because in my mind, they're the biggest band from San Diego, but I think you've said that like they haven't been embraced in the same way other San Diego bands have.

Well, I think they're embracing the fact that they're a popular 90s act, and that always plays well in San Diego. but like they, you know, I think of like Scott Weil in it like more in terms of like Velvet Revolver. Like they just seem more like a Hollywood sort of band. But, you know, San Diego, it's funny. When I think about like growing up in Philadelphia as opposed to like living here in San Diego now, like in the 90s, as hard as it is to believe right now, like San Diego was so much cooler than Philadelphia. Like when I was growing up, like, yeah, we had wean. but like the only bands I knew about that like identified as Philly were like

Hold on a sec, wean is from New Hope though. They're not from Philly. I mean, how close is New Hope to Philly? Pretty close. I mean, like,

Spirit, like, Freedom of 76 is a Philly song. I would say that like, I suppose. Yeah, look, back then we were pretty desperate.

I mean, like we were like, oh, cool. Like G. Love and Special sauce were blowing up. Oh, the Bloodhound gang, they're a local band.

God lives underwater. What are voice to men? Boyst to Men. What's that? Boys to men, boys to men, Motown Philly. That was the shit in the 90s. You had boys to men at the time. And the fresh prince, yeah.

Yeah, so you weren't bumping, you weren't bumping, you know, Motown Philly back in the day? Oh, absolutely, I was. If you went to any bar mitzvahs at that time, which I did, you would hear, you know, you would hear boys to men all over the place as immortalizing the Ween Song, Spirit of 76. But I love, I love, that was the days, too, like where they wore like the red sports jackets it's in the blue jeans. Yes. I think they all wore that.

That was a great uniform, very early 90s. I want to know, have you ever watch it's gonna blow? It's like the San Diego version of a hype. No, I have not. I didn't know that San Diego

would have been big enough to warrant a hype style documentary. For those who don't know, hype, it's a movie made in 96 about Seattle. But San Diego had their own sort of documentary about how things were getting overblown in the local music scene. Absolutely, because after Seattle blew up, just about every single city in America had its run as like the next Seattle. And, you know, San Diego, like in the early 90s, I mean, Screamo was more or less invented there.

There was like a time where it was like white belts and Spock haircuts. like that was the shit back then. But, you know, you had like Drive Like Jayhu, Rocket from the Crypt, like the Locust, the early rapture. And yeah, there was like a time where major labels were like sniffing around San Diego for these bands. And, you know, like later on,

you had like Pidback and Blackheart procession, cattle decapitation. Like San Diego had not only like a pretty cool music scene, but like a really abrasive music scene. Like one that like really, like really. really cuts against everything that you would expect nowadays because, you know, most people's, like, view of San Diego music is based on, like, some combination of, you know, Blink 182, slightly stupid, POD.

I think people just assume Sublime is from San Diego, like, you know, or... Yeah, they seem very San Diego to me. Like, the very strong San Diego vibe was Sublime. You know, one band you're leaving out here in the San Diego Rock lineage, switch foot. One of the great Christian rock bands of the last 25 years. I don't know if Riley Walker is listening right now. He's a big switchfoot acolyte. So yeah, they're holding it down in the screamo scene, in the grunge scene, in the Christian rock scene.

And now they have a good baseball team. So yeah, I'm pulling for the Padres. If the Phillies win, that's cool too. We have a lot of, I'm sure, Philadelphia indie rockers listening to this show. Although I feel like they're more football. I don't really hear indie rockers talk much about baseball. I feel like it's more Eagles and Sixers, but maybe you're jumping on the Phillies bandwagon, too.

That ends our episode of Sportscast. We will now start Indycast here by getting into our mailbag segment. Thank you all for listening and writing into our show. You can hit us up at Indycastmailbag at gmail.com. Today's question is actually well-time because it's setting up theme for this episode that I feel like we're going to return back to throughout. So we have an unintentional theme episode in a way being set up by this letter. So do you want to read this letter, Ian?

Indeed, I do. So this comes to us from Patrick and Riverside. I was just leaving a little gap there to see if you're going to do a pain lies by the Riverside joke. I know you've been posting live t-shirts of late, but whatever. We don't have that select. That's right. Yes.

No, that's a good point. I guess I'm just thinking of live being by a riverside in Pennsylvania. By the way, live. They're from York. Not close to Philly. Are they closer to Pittsburgh? I would say closer. They're like in the middle of the state.

They're like almost closer to Maryland. They were very proud. I feel like them being from York, that was a big thing for them. I think they actually have a shirt saying that they're from York. Like they were just waving the flag for York. What famous industries in York? Isn't there like a some famous business? I don't know.

Maybe you're thinking of Scrant. I don't fucking know. I don't know if we should cut this part out or leave it in for the awkward comedy value of it. Anyway, why don't you read the letter here from Patrick? All right. So hi, hey, Stephen and Ian, or Steve and Ian. And probably I'll be seeing UK bands, the House of Love, Swade, and the Manic Street preachers in the Los Angeles area within two weeks of each other, the London Swade, if you happen to be from the U.S. I've never seen any of them live. These three groups never had much of a following in the U.S. in the 90s. That being said, I've always gravitated to the U.K. Rock Sound over the U.S. Indie Rocksown. In high school, as someone who didn't quite get Nirvana, it was refreshing to hear Oasis. The Killers are one of my favorite U.S. bands because they so often sound British. Both of you enjoy bands from either side of the Atlantic. How would you describe the differences between U.S. Indie and U.K. indie rock?

The sound, the culture, et cetera, regards. Patrick in Riverside, California. Yes. Thank you for that question. And, yeah, this does relate to what we're going to be talking about in this episode because we're talking about two big bands from the U.K. or I should say one huge band from the UK and one band that is on the rise in the UK. So I was thinking about this question,

what are the differences between US indie and UK indie? I really think it's bigger than just indie rock. I think you can just talk about rock music in general going back to the Beatles. And I think the thing that has always distinguished British rock bands in comparison to American rock bands is that British rock bands have always embraced the idea that you should be looked at as much as listened to,

that you should look as cool as you sound. There's a stylishness, I think, to British bands that is inherent throughout the history of British rock that is different from America. I think America has always resisted, affectation, pretension, or at least the perception of being viewed as pretentious. And British bands always lean into that, I think.

And there is something, appealing about that if you like a more theatrical type of music. You know, like when I think about indie rock, going back to like the early days of indie rock in the 80s, the quintessential 80s UK indie band is probably the Smiths. And the quintessential American band from the indie world at that time would probably be like the replacements or REM. and I think you can see what I'm talking about when you look at those bands. You have the Smiths, they have very stylized album covers. You have Morrissey, throwing the daffodils around.

There's a certain, I think, I think there's less of a hang-up with British bands about embracing new technology and embracing different kinds of music that isn't just straight down the middle rock music. I think you can see that with the Smiths as well. And I think that just carries through to what we hear today. I think British bands are typically a little more forward-thinking than American bands. And I think we're going to see that in our conversation today. Whereas Americans, I think we always kind of go back to a core idea,

whether it's, you know, folk music or the blues or punk music, you know, something that's more simple and direct. I think that's what Americans are. And the Brits don't have those kind of roots. so they can maybe go in more different directions. Does what I'm saying make any sense to you? Do you agree with what I'm saying? Or like, what would you say distinguishes UK versus US Indy?

Totally. I think that I think you hit it right there. And I also, I'm like getting the sense that Patrick might be our age because, you know, in high school, someone didn't quite get Nirvana as refreshing to hear Oasis. And, you know, this kind of aligns with what you were talking about in your Pearl Jam book where liking one of the most popular bands on planet Earth could still constitute like some form of rebellion just because there were so few options.

There was a great Onion article from back in the day I remember the headline. I think it was just like one that was just the headline that said British girl exotic enough. And, you know, that was like my approach to UK bands throughout the 90s and early 2000s. Like I didn't know jack's shit about indie rock. But if I wanted to differentiate myself from my peers, like liking UK bands was just like, some wild shit. It doesn't matter if like Wonderwall or Champaign Supernova was playing constantly on MTV. You know, like it's one thing to like Oasis, but like the Verve, like holy shit, they might as well have been pavement. And that... Right. Well, and I think with Oasis too,

they're the most straightforward of those British bands of the 90s. If you compare them to the verve or especially blur or pulp or suede, you know, Like those other bands, I think, are more of what I was saying before, more theatrical, more willing to embrace music outside of just straightforward rock. Whereas OASIS was a band that you could play in a bar in the middle of the country, and their songs made sense playing next to like whatever classic rock song was playing before or after it. And I think that's why Oasis was way bigger than those other bands. You know, like in America, like the mainstream, like rock dude is always going to be a little skeptical. of a dude like Jarvis Cocker or, you know, like Brett Anderson from Swade, you know, there's going to be some resistance from like the plaid wearing 37-year-old dude from Iowa, you know,

like they're not going to, a lot of those guys aren't going to embrace that, but Oasis, I think, was more palatable to people like that. What was the guy, Hugh from Pulaski or something like that? Herb from Pulaski. He bought, what's the story of Morning Glory, but he did not buy, you know, I'm trying to think of a pulp album title, his and hers. He did not buy his and hers back in the day,

but he did buy What's the Story of Morning Glory? Yeah, I think back to, you know, particularly that in late 90s, early 2000s era, where it's like, I want to buy as many UK band albums as possible. They use strings and synthesizers in their music. Like, that stuff was just so radical to me back then. But even nowadays, I think there's still the biggest difference aside from like the aesthetics or like just the cleverness or like the disposition is that

I think a lot of the bigger UK indie acts are actual bands as opposed to you know the United States where like the bands at the level of say idols or wet leg and like let's just be abundantly clear these bands are fucking huge like even in America like they play big venues out here even like the landfill shit like sports team like yard act Um, those are bands, whereas I think the bands, the acts at this level in America tend to be, you know, solo artists who kind of get folded into bands, you know, like Japanese breakfast or Mitzki or things like that. And, um, I do sense like more, I don't know, like a progressiveness from UK acts. Like, even the ones I don't like, um, I still can listen to them and think, okay, well, they're trying to do something new here. And maybe I'll like them, you know, later on because, I mean, some of the acts, like this year like you know black country new road jockstrap gillab band that album that just came out like i did not like them like a year or two years ago but they just kept progressing in a way that now i'm like whenever i'm like tired of like u.s bands like trying to replicate varucca salt or third eye

blind for the 80th time you know these sound like really refreshing and like trying to actually do some new shit and so i tend to be a little more um patient with them in their progression than I do with like American bands who I could just see yeah I know what this is happening here this kind of sucks good luck with all that and again I think it's also a lot of these British bands past then present are fun to look at you know even bands that aren't like you said especially progressive like idols I don't think is necessarily musically progressive but whether you like them or not like they put on a show they you know they they are going to grab your attention. If you see them at a festival, the lead singer is, you know, very visually

grabby. They have that guitar player dude that like strips down to his underwear and runs around the stage. Very grabby. You know, a band like Wet Leg, very strong aesthetic. Visually, I mean, they are fun to look at on stage. They have a certain glamorous charisma to them that I think a comparable American band might not have or like feel more self-conscious about embracing. Again, I think with a lot of American bands, there's a self-consciousness about performance. That British bands, I feel like they don't have that, you know? They're not as a British bands generally, they don't seem as fearful of like looking silly or, again, pretentious or affected. You know, this is something that they feel like we're in a band.

We're going to do this. We're going to totally buy in. and even if it doesn't work, at least it's entertaining. You know, like, it's impossible to think of an American band going as over the top as Muse, for instance, to bring up an indie cast favorite reference here. There are ridiculous Prague rock bands in America, but I don't know. I just feel like the way they go for it, it seems uniquely British to me. I think the American bands who go Prague tend to not be in conversation with the mainstream.

in the same way that like muse is like Prague rock in America that's like just like kind of like compartmentalized outside like you could go without Prague rock we're asking the UK perhaps I don't know maybe it's like the long tail influence of Genesis or something like that but I'm like totally open to the idea that like we're getting this completely wrong and that we're just going to get this like litany of emails and letters from our you know UK listeners talking about like how We had this like just completely reductive take on them. Well, you know, they might see Americans in a different way than we would, just as they would see their, you know, home field teams differently.

You know, I'm sure Americans seem more exotic to them in the same way. That British bands seem exotic to us. So, and obviously there's a long history of Americans making it bigger over there first. and then coming back here, you know, from like Jimmy Hendricks to the Strokes to, I can't think of a more modern example, although I'm sure there is. But all, again, like, you know, if you think about Hendricks and the Strokes being two big examples of Americans that hit it big in England and then the British buzz helped sell them in America, they look great. You know, they wrote great music, Hendricks and the strokes, but they also have a very strong visual aesthetic. You know, you want to look at them as much as listen to them. And I just think, yeah, the Brits are really good at that.

All right, well, let's get to the meat of our episode. We're going to be continuing the conversation here about UK bands with our first album that we're reviewing today, which is The Car. And it's the seventh record by Arctic Monkeys. It's their first album in four years. I wrote about this album this week. it's a record that I really came to enjoy which will probably not surprise Ian

because I was a big fan of the previous Arctic Monkeys record Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino which came out in 2018 that was my favorite album of that year and I've revisited it recently and I still love that record I have a lot to say about the car but I feel like I've already said it in my review

which if you haven't read it, please go to Uprocks and check it out. I'm curious to hear what you have to say, Ian. You have a much different opinion of Arctic Monkeys than I do as well, you know, as you feel differently about Tranquity Base Hotel and Casino, and I assume you're also not a fan of the car. Am I being presumptuous here? Do you actually love this record? Are you going to surprise me with a positive take on the Arctic Monkeys?

I kind of wish I did like this album more. like I was like kind of prepared to you know I I love a by low candidate when it comes to indie rock like I love getting into bands when like they have kind of slipped from the consciousness like one of these days I don't know we're doing indie cast in 2026 and turns out I really love the new ice age album or something like that um but with arctic monkeys you know it's been an uphill battle since the beginning I feel like they are kind of a generation gap band for me like I know for a fact that I know for a fact that. if I was like 10 years younger in 2006, I would have loved that first album. But, you know, I think I heard it as like, you know, just another British band with a dumb name and a lot of hype. And I like, I bet you look good on the dance floor. But like, otherwise it just, you know,

the sound didn't quite appeal to me. And, you know, I can appreciate their consistency, but they never changed in a way that really, you know, drew me in. And I did try with tranquility. in 2018 solely because, you know, they were doing something so different that perhaps it would allow me to hear them in a different way. But when you took away like the rock music, all it left was this sort of thing that like really repelled me in the beginning, which is that. And this is going to come up with our next conversation as well. But like the one thing that I have a lot of

trouble connecting with in music is cleverness. You know, particularly when it's done in a way, that's like also like luch or suave like you know i i feel like that's kind of true of like power pop i think that's true of like the lineage of roxy music that like leads down to pulp and franz ferdinand um yeah it just does not connect with me which is really weird because i would figure like you know out of the both of us i am the one who's lived on the coasts where as you are the you know the midwest you're locking down the midwest um but you know maybe you're you're already marinating and suave, you know, living out there in Southern California. You see suave on every street corner there, whereas I have to connect with records to get my allotment of suavness.

So maybe that's why we have different feelings about this. I want to just ask you quick about the cleverness thing, because this has come up before, not just with Arctic monkeys, but with other things. So like, when we talk about cleverness, I think of a band like Los Compesie. For instance, I think that they are like a clever band if we wanted to find clever as a band that has funny lyrics. Why aren't they annoying to you? Is it because they are more of an upbeat punky type band? Like, is that a more acceptable kind of cleverness in your mind? I think you nailed it right there because, I mean, look, I love Los Campesinos.

You know, I had a huge das racist phase. So cleverness, like, it's cleverness in conjunction with, like, coolness, you know, because, yeah, Los Campsino lyrics are, like, hyper-referential, but they're about, like, food and soccer and indie rock or so forth. Like, I never view them as, like, trying to be, like, clever in a cool way in the same way that, like, you know, Alex Turner or Jarvis Cocker, you know, like, Los Campsino's don't strike me as a sort of band that would show up in, like, GQ ever, unless, like, the editor happened to really love them. And so, yeah, I just can't, I just can't connect with what is they're doing. And I think that you also hit on a point of, you know, what it, I'm, like, immersed in suave. Like, especially AM, that album will just always remind me of, like, Coachella. Like, not even just, like, the sense of being there, but, like, the crowd and just, like,

the relationship with music. It just does not appeal to me. And like that doesn't mean that they're not good at what they do. It's, I don't know. If I were younger, I would just talk about how like Arctic monkeys are like kind of like a disease or a plague on music. But now I can just, I don't know, my version of maturity is that I can say, yeah, it's not for me. And the car, it's so not for me. I mean, I loved this is hardcore when I was 18 when that came out because I thought it made me seem so mature and smart.

than my peers, but there's this been this strange turn of events where, you know, I loved music like this at an early age because it made me think of like what I would be like as an older, you know, wiser person, but now I've actually reached that age and like I want the verb. I want like Oasis. I want the dumb shit. Like this just does not connect with me at all. See, my path with this record is that when I first listened to it, I was a little disappointed because I, And this is such a basic impulse with this band, but I was hoping for a little more of like the new Fonzie leatherjacketed like rock music of AM to filter back into Arctic Monkeys. I thought that maybe they would have a little bit more of that after the left turn of Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino, which again is a record I loved, but I was also not sure if that was where I wanted them to head permanently. the thing I realize listening to the car

is that the band that existed on the first five records no longer exists. I mean, they do in sort of like a literal sense, but I think at least on record, I really feel like these last two records are like Alex Turner solo records that the other guys happen to play on. And you can see in the way that these records were made

that essentially Alex Turner did everything on his own, you know, including write the songs, record instrumentation, reworking the recordings, you know, giving them up to where he wanted them, and then he brought the rest of the guys in. And you wonder to what degree are the other guys even necessary on these records. I think on the car, you know,

getting back to the cleverness question, I do feel like Tranquity Base is more of like a clever record, and I'm putting clever in quote marks. There's a chilliness to that record. And there's also, I think, in an overt comedic aspect to that record, which again, I really love about that album. But I think it's different than what we're getting on this new Arctic Monkeys record. Even if it is similarly like low key, I think that the feel of this album, to me, is much different.

To me, this is a, it's a warmer record, but it's also a sadder record. If you look at the lyrics, there's a lot of, you know, references to looking back at your past and wondering how you got to the point where you're at and feeling like you've reached a point in your life where you've moved on from your childhood or your 20s or you're entering a new phase of life. And to me when I listen to this record, it feels like an ending of sorts.

I don't necessarily mean that I think Arctic Monkeys are going to break up after this record, although I wouldn't be shocked if that happened. I mean, I think the reason why this band will continue is that it's such a bankable brand. You know, like Alex Turner can work under this umbrella and play arenas for a long time. He may not be able to do that as just Alex Turner, although he could probably do that in the UK. But I don't know.

There's a melancholy to this record that I think really drew me in over the listens of it and writing about it. And I think that does separate it from the predecessor record. And in my mind, it also transcends the sort of cleverness issue that you're talking about, that it's not just about making sly one-liners over, you know, loungy music. I think that there is a real emotional component to this record. And again, like a real melancholy that I think makes it different. And I just wonder where they go from here. You know, it's hard for me to believe that they're just going to go back to making, you know,

music that sounds great in rum commercials. Doesn't this album sound better in like a rum commercial? Like, I'm thinking like the early Arctic Monkees sound better in a beer commercial. But like for rum or something like a high end liquor, like that's totally tranquility in the car. I think it's not really party music though. Like the title track is probably my favorite song on the record. and that's a really haunting song. It's this beautiful sort of orchestral folk type music,

and then there's like this just tortured guitar solo in the middle of it that just really kind of blows me away every time I listen to it. It doesn't make me want to drink rum. It makes me want to drink like whiskey in a dark room, like that kind of song. So if there's like a whiskey in a dark room commercial, maybe you'll want to play that song.

but, you know, again, like, I am a big booster of Tranquility Base. I would encourage people to sit with this record for a bit. I do think it's well-timed with the time of the year. You know, I talk about the Always record, being a great fall record. This feels like a great fall into winter album. It has that vibe to me again. It has the feeling of an ending to me, not necessarily of the band, but it feels like the end of this phase and we'll see what happens next.

I just love the idea of a rum, like a rum, like, I don't know, Bacardi or some variant of that, like, making commercials with, like, someone just drinking alone in a dark room listening to this album. It's like, that's what we're going for. We're going for the alone drinker right here. It's like, nope. I mean, maybe that's what's going to, like, change my views in the Arctic Monkeys. I'll stop thinking of them as like a Coachella band and more of, like, I don't know, like a drinking alone sort of act.

Yeah, this is a wintry record to me. And rum is not a wintry drink. I can't imagine a context where you want to drink rum by yourself. That is like you're drinking a fruity drink by the pool type liquor. I don't know. It would just exacerbate your depression, I think, if you were sipping on rum by yourself. Because you would just feel like I should be partying with this, but I'm just a miserable sad sack listening to the car.

This doesn't work. Let's get to our next. record here, and it is called Stump Work, and it's by a band called Dry Cleaning. You may remember this band from way back in 2021. They put out their debut full-length album, New Long Leg, one of the most acclaimed indie debut albums of that year, maybe the most acclaimed. And, of course, they came after a series of well-received EPs.

This is the new record, Stump Work. and this is another band where you and I differ. I feel like I am embracing these stylish UK bands, at least these two particular bands. And I'm wondering if you feel differently about this album. You know, we talked about New Long Leg as being part of this, like, wave of post-punk bands that have come out of England in the last few years, you know, where someone is talking over like loud, clanky, chunky,

post-punk guitar riffs. And new long legs certainly can be grouped under that umbrella. I don't think that the new record would fit under that umbrella because musically this record is I think significantly different. It's a quieter record in a lot of ways.

It's a more melodic record. You could say that it's more American sounding. I mean, I think the band themselves have said that this record is more influenced by like 90s indie rock. I think they mentioned. pavement specifically as an influence, which you can hear in some of the guitar tones that exist on this record. Again, it's not quite that more naughty, loud, gnarly sound that you heard on New Long Leg. It's more melodic. It's prettier. But you still have Florence Shaw, the lead singer,

doing that deadpan, monotone vocal over it. I have to say that I like this record more than I expected. When I heard New Long Leg, I came around on that record after being turned off initially by the hype. I eventually came to really enjoy that album, but it did make me wonder, how is this band going to move forward? Because this seems like a pretty narrow musical lane that they're in. And it seems like the path forward is, we're just going to change the music that's behind Florence Shaw, and that's how we're going to do it. So maybe the next record's going to be like a trip hop record where Florence Shaw talk. over it, and then they're going to do like a country record with Florence Shaw talking over it.

You know, maybe that's going to be the thing and it's going to be great. I'll say that. I think that they hit the mark, though, with the second record. I quite enjoy it. Is this the record that made you come around on dry cleaning? I mean, I feel like this is like theoretically the kind of album that would make me come around on dry cleaning because, you know, like one of my top albums of the year is Black Country New Road, which, you know, had a similar sort of lyrical approach on the second record compared to the first, but just something flipped and,

you know, a band that I really disliked the first time around I like now. You know, when I gave this album, like, honest listens, especially I think it's easier for me to like, you know, enter this record without the hype. You know, I tried, I felt like I enjoyed it more for the reasons that you talked about. Like, even if it does have John Parrish producing, it does have more of a cleaner sort of melodic sound to it. And, you know, like, look, Florence Shaw, she has great lyricists, like, comes up with a lot of great lines. I love looking at them on paper, hearing them.

Like, it's good as well. But, like, I... This gets to a question that was asked of us in a previous episode where it comes down to how much effort are you willing to expend getting into a. an album that you don't immediately love. And, you know, if this were 10 years ago and dry cleaning were one of the, like, I think it's fair to say that they are a A-list, like, you know, control the narrative type of-the-year type band.

I would have put more effort into this to like be, to at least grasp dry cleaning and have an opinion over it. And now it's like, do I want to listen to this record? Or do I want to listen to turn style again? for like the billionth time. And, you know, I guess that just kind of speaks to where I'm at right now. I just don't know if, like, this record really hits the... I guess I'm allowed to not like what other people like.

Like, there's a part of me that feels such guilt that I'm, like, on the outside of the narrative and not able to appreciate so many of these bands. But, you know, like, it's not... Well, I think that's a totally acceptable and common reaction to this band. it's part of what makes them interesting. And we can link this with our bigger conversation about UK bands that I think dry cleaning is another example of a group that is highly stylized. You know, like they have a style that is very distinctive. It's also a style that in its own way is pretty abrasive.

It's not abrasive musically. It's not screaming at you with loud guitars. It's abrasive in the sense that this band will irritate a lot of people. They are well-reviewed music critics like them But again, if we're going to talk about Herbin Pulaski We're going to talk about the 37-year-old dude from Iowa and the plaid shirt This may not be a band that they necessarily connect with They may love this band

I don't want to like You know Typecast people I'm just saying that I think that there's a certain cap On how popular this band will be Due in large part to Florence Shaw Who I think is also the best part of this band Like if you love this band, she is the star of the show.

If you don't like this band, she is the thing that's going to turn you off from them. But, you know, she is a person who is so low-key and deadpan that she does have her own charisma. It's that old cliche about if you speak softly, people will lean in and pay attention to what you're saying. Like she personifies that to a T. It's just interesting. You mentioned Black Country New Roe. or Black Middy, all these bands, they are all love it or hate it type bands.

It's really hard to kind of be in the middle on them. They're either going to be bands that you connect with because you love what's eccentric about them, or you're going to be like, this is the most irritating shit I've ever heard. I think that's true of all those bands. Yeah. I think with dry cleaning, though,

there's less that I do think that they have the potential to be divisive. And, you know, like if you add a little bit, of like pop to what they do. You end up with like wet leg who is easily the biggest new band to come out in 2020. But like I have the maybe you're just like hanging in different circles, but I haven't heard that negative reaction to dry cleaning that I have to, you know, Black Country New Road, especially to Black Middy. I think that like with, and maybe this is the thing that like turns me off with dry cleaning is that we talked about this concept of like shittiness in regards to the 1975. And I think with a lot of people who like, you know, dry cleaning, especially critics,

you can sense that, like, critics are coming into this with, like, they not only, like, you know, they're, like, actively rooting for dry clean, but they, like, kind of see themselves in Florence Shaw as well. It's like, oh, they're, they're clever. They're deadpan. They see, you know, the detritus of modern life, uh, in all things. I think that there's an identification with dry cleaning that doesn't quite happen with say gillaband or uh you know black middy like they seem a lot more alien in their own way so um i just think that like dry if dry cleaning were more abrasive in the way that you're describing or at least even like personality wise um you know perhaps i would cotton to that more maybe that's going to happen on album three maybe that's the one that does the trick

and like after you know critics are like tired of you know praising them for the same stuff that's and I'll swoop in and be like the band's defender. I'm always about the buy low. So you don't think that there's people that listen to Black Middy and think, hey, I also sing like a frog and I like crazy time signatures. Like this band is speaking for me. You don't think that there's people out there

who are saying that about Black Middy? I mean, there's got to be at least a couple people to connect with them on that level. I think they do, but I don't think like people see themselves as Georgie Grip, which by the way, I love the opportunity to say this guy's name is like legitimately Georgie Greep. Can you come up with a better fucking name for like an abrasive British postpunk band? I just don't think there's like that same level of like identification with like the human being.

Like I don't think they have like a worldview that people tend to, you know, kind of emulate on Twitter to the same degree that they do with like this band or wet leg for that matter. Like for the most part, I think most people have had no fucking idea what black middy are talking about at the time. We've now reached 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? So we have a very, well, not only a very rare Wednesday recording of the Indiecast, but a very rare Wednesday album drop. This is a band that I've talked about on Twitter and on stereo gun before called Knife Play. They are a Philadelphia dark shoegaze dream pop band that's been around since 2019. And they put out today their album Animal Drenuous.

I'm all shoe gaysie dream pop like those qualifiers will almost always make me check out a band But you know I I look back on the I look back on the years and I think about so many bands that I listen to and enjoy it just completely forgot about after two listens So it's it's easy to like make accessible interesting music in this realm But it's like really hard to make memorable music and so when what knife play does here makes them stand out in a way that makes me think this is going to be kind of a landmark in this genre. They not only have like actual hooks and like actual lyrics worth paying attention to, just the sound of this record is phenomenal. They work with Jess Ziegler, a Philadelphia guy who's worked on War on Drugs records,

a Sunday day in Glasgow. So, you know, you know it's going to sound like super professional and polished. And they do have like an abrasiveness, a dark, darkness, for lack of a better term, a shittiness that you don't typically hear in Dream Pop or Shugays. It's not just bands trying to do, it's not just the band trying to do the same old like My Bloody Valentine or on the other end like, you know, a deaf tones kind of thing. I'm stoked to hear this. There's banjo on it. It reminds me a little bit of like Serena Manish, if you want to remember some guys from 2005 a bit.

Some like Red House painters kind of like gloomy folk happening as well. but you know I would love to say hey it's like perfect for this time of year but it's like 90 degrees in san Diego today so if you happen to be on the east coast maybe you got that like 50 degree drizzly weather that will make this album totally make a lot more sense yeah right now in Minnesota it's in like the upper 30s lower 40s so it sounds like this record to be good for that I've checked out this record I saw stereo gum call it one of the best albums of the year in any genre I don't know if I'd go that far but it is a good record. Is it fair to say that this is kind of like

what DeF Heaven would have sounded like if they had just gone the shoegaze route without any of the black metal stuff? Ooh, I didn't think about that, but I think that's like kind of a fair assessment. So if that interests you at all, like if DeFaven started out as that kind of band, yeah, if that's what gets you involved.

I wouldn't, and I can imagine Knife Play opening up for, you know, I can imagine a knife play opening up for death heaven. They're sort of like, I don't know, maybe more if like greet death started out more fulky than they did. Right. Definitely a good record worth checking out. I want to talk about an album, and this is a very long album title. It's called Grow Your Hair Long, if you wanted to see something that you can change. It's by a singer-songwriter named Kevin Patrick from San Francisco who records under the name FieldMedic. I first wrote about this artist back in 2019 when he put out a really good record called Bade Into the Dawn.

And he's put out albums since then, and he put out several records before that. He's a very prolific artist. And to me, he's really intriguing because on one hand, he's this very online lo-fi indie musician. And he writes about a lot of the things that you would expect someone like that to write about. Depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts. just the sort of modern condition of feeling alienated in this overmediated technological society. So that's true of him on one hand. And on the other hand, he's an acolyte of Bob Dylan.

And he's drawing a lot on the roots of folk music. And you could tell that he's a student of that. And I love that combination because a lot of times when you listen to folk musicians these days, they're really trying to recreate the past. You feel like they have an archetype in their mind of what a singer-songwriter should be and it's fixed in say the space between like 1962 and 1972.

And Patrick is able to take that archetype and bring it into the modern age, singing songs that can connect with people now while also drawing on those traditions of the past. And you hear it on all of his records and I think it really comes through again on this new record, and I'll save the entire album title again. It's called Grow Your Hair Long,

if you're wanting to see something that you can change. If you're looking for a modern version of folk music, something that has the emotional connection that you get from Great Bob Dylan Records of the 60s, but you want it to feel like now. Listen to FieldMedic. This will be right up your alley. This new record is really good.

A lot of his records are really good. It's a deep catalog. And I think you're really going to like it, if that's something you're looking for. I love the fact that if you like take bits and pieces of your description, like just the album title and like the things about like depression and suicidal thoughts and like being very online, someone might think you were talking about the 1975. Well, I was going to say that.

It's a very 1975 type album title, but a much different sounding record. So definitely check out that album, FieldMedic, really good stuff. We've now reached the part of our episode where we have to say goodbye. So thank you all for listening to this episode of Indycast. We'll be back with more news and reviews and hashing out trends next week. And if you're looking for more music recommendations, sign up for the Indie Mixape 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.