Indiecast - Beach House’s ‘Once Twice Melody’ Plus: Is It Too Early To Argue Again About The 1975?

Episode Date: February 18, 2022

After the pandemic threw off touring plans for a few years, many big indie bands are making a 2022 comeback with double albums. Big Thief just delivered their 20-track LP and Kurt Vile recently announced a 90-minute magnum opus. But is Beach House's latest project Once Twice Melody effective as a double album? On this week's Indiecast, Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen talk Beach House's new album (40:57); reminisce on their most vivid festival memories (12:05); and decide it's not too early to argue about The 1975 (6:15).Along with diving into Beach House's Once Twice Melody, Indiecast walks listeners through recently announced weekend-long festival lineups, which thankfully still exist two years into the pandemic. Hangout Fest 2022 hit the mark with Tame Impala, Megan Thee Stallion, Jack Harlow, and Phoebe Bridgers. Beale Street Music Festival took a more eclectic approach by booking a mix bag of performers like Foo Fighters, Lil Wayne, Smashing Pumpkins, Three 6 Mafia, DaBaby, and Modest Mouse (20:30).In this week’s Recommendation Corner (52:44), Ian shouts out Pittsburgh band String Machine, whose album Hallelujah Hell Yeah is set to release next week. Steven hypes up Philly four-piece Caracara, an emo band with '90s alt-rock influences who are opening for String Machine on tour later this year.New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. 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 IndyCast. On this show, we talk about the biggest indie news of the week. We review albums and we hash out trends. In this episode, we review the new album by Beach House. My name is Stephen Hayden, and I'm joined by my friend and co-host. He dressed like he was in The Matrix from 2010 to 2016, Ian Cohen, Ian Horamorian. Yeah, I mean, it seemed like just a week ago we were fretting over the broification of Indycast.

But now we just got to figure out how we're... how we're going to endure the latest vibe shift. Look, we're starting off on some real deep Twitter conversations right now. Yeah, we kind of miss the window on the broification of big thief. I think we're too late on that. The vibes just shift so quickly these days. And there's probably people out there who have no idea what we're talking about, and I just will tell you, do not find out.

Do not find out what we're talking about, just ignore it. What I love about Indycast is that, that like we have listeners who are absolutely not, like who have no idea what we were just talking about as far as these inside jokes. And I love that, you know, like, if they had followed anything on Twitter, it's like the fact that you're here after apparently witnessing the war on drugs cover Bob Seeger. Yeah. This is the sort of thing where it's like Stephen Hayden born, whatever year you were born, died, cause of death, war on drugs covering against the wind. Yes, yes. Well, I saw the War on Drugs twice this week. Tuesday night and Wednesday night, which was last night, because we're

recording this on Thursday morning. I won't talk too much about it because I am going to be writing something about the War on Drugs pretty soon. So a little teaser for that. But yeah, they covered against the wind on Tuesday, which was also Adam's birthday. And apparently that is a song that, like, he played for his son, like when he was really little. So there was like a sentimental attachment to it. But they, uh, on the next show,

they kept teasing night moves. Like they would, like he kept playing the opening riff to it, but they didn't actually do it. They actually did that a little bit on the previous night too. So somebody's going to get night moves. But yeah, apparently Adam,

maybe other people in the band, they're on like a Bob Seeger kick, which they've never really like touched on. Whenever I've interviewed Adam or anyone in the band, they've never really talked about Seeger. You know, you've got Springsteen. obviously. You got Tom Petty, Neil Young, the diaspora of Heartland Rock.

Did you just say diaspora? But no singer. Yeah. Diaspora. Is it diaspora? Man, we're hitting all the classics. Like, could be diaspora. Could be diaspora. We'll let the readers tell it. We need an intern. We need an intern of pronunciation.

Yeah, but usually you're wrong about the pronunciation. Yeah, that's true. I feel, I think that could be right. That could be a tomato tomato thing, right? Or am I just wrong? I think you're like straight up wrong here, but, um, could be. Yeah, could be. I, I, I, I, I, that's a word I don't think I've ever said aloud. I think I've only read it. I think, I took a, I took a leap of faith. Yeah, I, yeah, I'm like, I'm like, late period Russell Westbrook. I just take shots. Shoot or shoot, man. Yeah, I, I, I'm shooting like 30%, but you got, you got to, you got to take your shots. Yeah, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with,

Seeger. I love the fact that, you know, Adam from the War on Drugs is naming his son Bruce and playing against the wind. Like, I, I'm not hoping for this because, you know, I like Adam. I like his music. But it would just be hilarious that if this guy grew up to be whatever the 2040 version of a SoundCloud rapper is, just like completely like going against all this stuff that he was raised on just to piss off his dad. That's possible. But, you know, I mean, like my kids they're being exposed to the Heartland Rock in the house and they like to listen to like European

you know DJs that are popular on YouTube I mean that's their favorite music so and that's fine I mean you don't want to force the music on the kids but yeah I don't know war on drugs if you get a chance to see them this is like the best I've ever seen them they sound fantastic I think we talked about this in a previous episode I made the prediction that I thought this would be the tour to see them on.

I really think it is. They have a great catalog. There's great camaraderie on stage. It's very loose. They're taking requests. The set lists were pretty different between the two nights. So it was a great time. But if they're going to do Seeger,

I feel like against the wind or night moves is so much in their wheelhouse of like the widescreen, vast heartland style. Like I want to hear them do like shake. or like old time rock and roll. Like, she'll just so out of character for them. Not old time rock and roll. You don't want to do that one, but like Shakedown from the Beverly Hills Cop 2 soundtrack, which I believe is Bob Seeger's only number one hit.

That was a number one hit. Night moves against the wind, still the same. Hollywood nights, all those FM rock classics. None of them hit number one. But Shakedown, Shakedown, Breakdown, you're busted. Yeah, I love that song when I was 10. Oh, absolutely. And on the new Pedro the Lion album,

they mentioned that song specifically as like the reason he wanted to play saxophone as a kid. Oh, man. Like, overtly calling out the Beverly Hills Cop 2 soundtrack. So, I mean, I think we're starting, maybe we're starting to see that sprinkle into indie rock a little bit. Well, saxophone comes back every 10 years. Yeah, but I'm talking about like shakedown version saxophone, not like Roxy Music, Saxophone.

phone, not like the way it's done Bonnie Vare. Like, I'm talking like, the heat is on, like that kind of stuff. The heat is on is one of the great sax riffs of the 80s. I love that sax riff. We should mention, and this is, speaking of live music, we might be a little too thirsty here, but like the 1975, they announced their first show in two years. They're playing a festival, I think in. Europe. In Japan. It's in Japan. Well, it's in Japan. Yeah. Of course. And I think we're so thirsty for

1975 discourse on this show that we're going to like actually banter about this a little bit. We, we have not had a 1975 album cycle during the life of this show, which seems crazy to me. Yeah, we've been doing this for a year and a half. And, you know, when I, the people I work with, they're really into The Bachelor and like The Bachelorette. And it always seems like they're talking about like, hey, a new episode. just started. It's like, what is the refractory time between episodes? It just feels like there's new ones constantly. And that was how I felt about like the 1975 album cycle. Like they released one and then all of a sudden the new one kicks off. I haven't heard anything about music for cars. That's like the one

that they've been talking about since 2013. How have we been doing this for a year and a half and not a single bit of album cycle. Like, it just, it just seems impossible. My memory is that the last record, I think it came out in, like, April or May of 2020. Yeah. And we started a few months after that. So I think we did talk about the 1975 early, early on. I mean, because that previous album cycle was, like, almost a year long.

It was, like, two years long. I remember they dropped the single, like the first single, which I think was a spoken word track. Like literally, I'm not even joking. Nope. It was like 10 months before the record came out. Yes. So I kind of wonder if that is their pure comedy, like that album cycle, where maybe they're not going to, like Maddie Healy, maybe he's going to go on lockdown now. Like if they put out a new record, he's not going to do interviews anymore because, and look, I, I dinged him for this.

thought he did a lot of megalomaniacal interviews for that. You nailed that pronunciation. That's impressive. Thank you. I have said that word aloud a few times. I'm sure that might be the first time I said it correctly. I kind of stuttered at the beginning. I think I was a little nervous about it.

But I just want, because that album was, it got mixed reviews. Yeah. I wonder if maybe music for cars or whatever the next album is, if he's going to shut it down and maybe not talk as much, which I think is actually a good. good idea in his case. Although I like it when he does interviews because it gives us something to talk about. It might be good for,

it might be good for, uh, it might be good for his mental health, but we got to think about the content here. Yeah. Above all else, we're slaves of the content. Selfishly, I want him to do a lot of interviews because I want to make fun of his interviews. But if I was consulting the band, I would say, Maddie, maybe don't get into an interview

situation because that's when you get into like Oracle mode. That's like when you start talking about being prescient and that you're, you know, I think he called the 1975 the defining band of the 2010s in one interview. Would I mean, would you agree with that? Do you think that's right? It's not, it's a claim worth assessing on perhaps a future episode of Indycast. Well, we'll say, but I know you're excited to talk about them at some point. Totally excited. And I am too, you know, Last weekend, Christaville of Stereo Gum, he posted a tweet where he said that one reason he liked the big thief record is that it was the sprawling record and that it was their version of a 1975 album. He's not wrong.

I did like a bunch of replies to that where I was just, I kind of went back into the standard talking points against the last record. And I realized, like, wow, I am rearing to go on the 1970s. Because Chris does this tweet, and I'm just going, not crazy, but I was, I was like a dog that hadn't eaten red meat in two years. And now I was like just jumping at any kind of thing that looked like meat. I was going to tear it apart. Yeah, I mean, like, just last week I was thinking, like, great. Like, our banter is going to be for the next six months, like Joe Rogan adjacent beef. Like, we need a 19, like, it was that exact thought.

Like, we need a 1975 album. And lo and behold, here we are. Just talking about the fact they're doing one, to my knowledge, live show. I know. Look at us. We're talking about it for like, we're getting like several minutes. We got a manifest here. Like, we've been very good at that.

We got to manifest. Yeah, I got to say that for all, you know, and I have mixed feelings on the 1975. We've talked about this. There's albums of theirs that I like quite a bit. I tend to think that they're a better singles band than an albums band. But there's songs of theirs that I like quite a bit. The last album was, was, um, you know, it was a breaking point for me.

And the album cycle, there was a lot of things that just annoyed me about it. But going back to your point about Joe Rogan, that's such a tiresome thing to talk about. I don't want to talk about that. The 1975, even when they annoy me, I love talking about them. They are a fun band to talk about. So come back, Maddie Healy. If you're listening, maybe he is. Who knows?

Yeah. I know I've said critical things about you, but I... Yeah, I mean it, though. Like, I'm glad he's around. I'm glad there's people like him just like Father John Misty. I know you and I probably flip on that. I think you have mixed feelings about him. I love Father John Misty, but I think you're glad that he's around.

Absolutely. It's fun to talk about him. Yes. We need the content above all. That is the indie cast motto. I feel like we should mention this. I don't want to get too much into this, but there was that story this week about Coachella dropping COVID restrictions, which I think, I think that means that you don't have to be

vaxed to go or you don't need a mask. Is that basically? Yeah. I mean, gosh, you know, I think the show I'm going to this weekend is going to be, you know, you still got to show like 72 hours or like a vaccination. And I mean, look, I think it's indicative just like maybe a greater sense of, okay, like, we're done now, let's get back to normal. It's also like a major outdoor festival. So, you know, I have to take that into account. But, you know, it's just, I see it as, I don't know, maybe

kind of a bummer, but more just the reason for people who otherwise wouldn't go to Coachella, like finding another reason to dislike Coachella. Like, I really wonder, like, what actual Coachella ticket holders think of this. I mean, the average ticket holder, I don't, I don't have the exact demographic breakdown in front of me, but I'm guessing between what, 19 and 24. That's probably the meat of their... Yeah, I mean, that's what it was when I used to go there from like 2008, 2015. It just seemed like a lot of Arizona State students. Yeah. And looking at the lineup, it looks like a lineup for people that age, you know, really like one of the lowest risk demographics out there in terms of COVID.

I mean, it's very unlikely that if they get sick, they're going to be seriously ill or, or, you know, die from COVID. Like you said, it's an outdoor festival. I don't know. Again, I don't want to get too much into this, but I saw some people getting really upset about it. And I tend to align with what you were saying that it seems like we're shifting to more of a, like, well, this is here.

We're not getting rid of it. You can wear a mask if that's what you feel like you have to do. bit like a lot of us are vaxed and boosted. You got to trust the vaccines maybe. I don't know. But yeah, I just, I just know that like even more so than like Coachella quote being like being back, you know, non-vaxed or whatever. Like we're starting to see like all of those festivals coming back now, which I think is more of the return to normalcy than like, you know, Coachella dropping whatever, whatever COVID protocols it had in the first place. Well, and we've talked about this before.

for on the show, you know, talking about Coachella and Bonarue, Lollapalooza, it's become a bit of a drag because you feel like it's the same 20 to 25 acts that get booked at all these festivals. And it's actually a lot more fun to talk about the second and third and fourth tier festivals. These are awesome. Yeah, I mean, I don't know how many tiers there are of festivals. I mean, do we go to fifth and sixth tier? I don't know. But, you know, we're seeing more and more of these lineups. And like you and I were talking about this, you know, just looking at these posters and how it just feels like a random assemblage of acts on some of these. Like there was the Sound on Sound Festival. It's like a new festival. I think it was announced this week. It's

in Connecticut. Yeah. Bridgeport, Connecticut. Which is that near New York? I have no clue. I don't know. I mean, it's in Connecticut, probably. Yeah, it can't be that far. But yeah, yeah, the head lineers, Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds, the Lumineers, and Stevie Nicks. Those are the top three. Then you have Brandy Carlisle and the National. Well, that makes sense. That's a sensible lineup. The third line is great. You have Father John Misty, Black Pumas, and Ziggy Marley. That, now that, you see, you call it a random assemblage, but in reality, like, we, my wife and I have, like, this joke about, like, if you're on, like, dating apps, particularly in Southern California, like aside from like, you know, Taco Tuesday or whatever, they'll say, or fluid and sarcasm, people will say, I love live music, which, you know,

typically means that they see maybe two or three concerts per year. Like, this is what, this is like the type of person who this festival attracts. I've seen it in Southern California. Like, luminaires, the national brand, like, this all makes a ton of sense. You know, it's not trying to be like Coachella where it's like, We want to bring in some of the rap crowd and like some of the indie crowd. No, like we just want the people who might not want to pay like, who might otherwise pay like $50 for three concerts per year and just consolidate.

I'm a 36-year-old office manager. I'm taking my 34-year-old fiancé to a festival. What can I go to, you know, drink some, you know, summer shandy beer and enjoy myself? which I'm not knocking, by the way, because... No, not at all. These are like my co-workers. Yeah, exactly. I think it's interesting on the Sound on Sound Festival that at the end of, let's see,

I think the sixth line, you have Jenny Lewis, and then at the top of the next line, it's Spin Doctors. Which makes me think, was there some negotiation on Jenny Lewis's part where she's like, don't put me below Spin Doctors on this poster? Like, I have to be above the Spin Doctors, even if it's just, like, barely above the Spin Doctors. I don't know. Will they play Cleopatra's cat?

That's what I'm interested in finding out. Yeah, it doesn't say that on the poster, unfortunately. It doesn't say the Cleopatra's cat. Luminaires at the top. I see them at the top of a lot of festivals. Are they still? I'm a little mystified. Not knocking the luminaires.

This is another instance where I don't know how popular a band is until I see a festival poster. One of my most memorable Coachella experiences, as far as like, you know, Twitter is not the real world. I mean, well, maybe this was the case in 2013. So they played at the same time as Grimes. Now, this is like Grimes, like a year after Visions, like very much one of the, you know, the hottest artist in Indy. She played like a tent, one of the tents. And it was a decent crowd.

And then, but like not as much as you might expect. And then right across the way the Luminer. The crowd as far as the eye can see. It was like... What year was that? It was 2013. It was almost like a Calvin Harris-type crowd of Coachella. That was around the time they had their big hit, right?

I think it was a few years after. I feel it was like the album after Hay-ho or whatever it was called. And that song is called Hey-ho, right? It's not like... It's either Ho-Hey or Hay. I'm not looking this up. That's a good song, I have to say. Yeah.

You know, it's... We're not too far away from a vibe shift where we're going to get in some, like, the luminaires were actually good or had some bangers. Yeah, I mean, if that song comes on at a CVS, you're not mad.

You know, it's like, you could do a lot worse than that song. I'm going to finish my shopping, get, you know, like my prescription or like,

you know, my moisturizer or whatever it is, and I'll be on my way, but I'm not going to leave in protest. You know what I mean? Yeah, it sounds like you're hearing like, Hey, Leonardo.

by Blessed Union of Souls. I mean, Blessed Union. Fuck, man. Then you're running out of the store. Because that's one of the worst songs ever. It plays at Ralph's all the fucking time. I'm not joking.

Like that and for whatever reason, Casey Musgraves High Horse. Like, those are the two. Oh, yeah. But otherwise, I mean, like, I love these festivals exist. Like, I really thought that COVID was going to. I mean, the bubble was already bursting. Like, in 2018, 19, you would hear about these festivals. getting canceled for low ticket sales and it's like who the hell's going to these I I thought these

were going to be like chucky cheese or david busters like this industry that just would not recover from COVID but here we are they're like back and in a way weirder than weirder than ever I mean in a way because Coachella I mean it sells out all the time obviously for most of us you have to travel a long way I think these festivals they're regional festivals so if you just want to go to a music festival and you live in the area it's easier to do you do. Can we do a quick shout out to to the Beale Street Music Festival? I think we've talked about... Fun Festival.

Yeah, we've talked about this festival before. They released part of their lineup recently. Okay, and this is honestly... I love that they can release part of it. It's like, oh, you know, like maybe the third line of acts might lure people in. Well, no, I mean, look

at who they... This is like actually a festival I'd want to go to. Okay, so you have foo fighters. You have Lil Wayne. You have The Smashing Pumpkins. You have 3-6 Mafia. You have DaBaby. Oh, that's not good.

Kind of problematic. You have Modest Mouse. Then you have Lindsay Buckingham. You have Toad the Wet Sprocket. You have Soccer Mommy. I mean, again, this is just like a random list. Yeah, that is pretty random. But kind of awesome.

I want to see Lil Wayne and then go see Lindsay Buckingham. I mean, I would totally be down for that. I saw some 41 and then taking back Sunday in Jimmy World and then Snoop Dog. That was, and Machine Gun Kelly was still doing rap at that time. So he was very much down on the lineup. But yeah, it's like, you know, you do 15 minutes or 20 minutes. You go use the bathroom. You come back.

That's a fun time. And also Memphis is a really cool fucking sitting hang out in. I love Memphis. I mean, yeah. It's like that festival I can understand. It's just the other ones where it's like Firefly in Dover, Delaware, or some of the other ones in like Birmingham, Alabama, or, well, actually, you know, I would say that the So What Festival in Arlington, Texas would have been in there, but you got to check out this lineup. It is like, my problem with, like, some of these lineups is that it's always the same, like, 15 or 20 bands, like, you know, how many times can you book soccer, Mommy and or Japanese breakfast? This one, I don't know if you've seen this lineup,

but it's got like all the metal core, all of like the punk, the mall wrap. Mainstream festivals won't touch this shit with a 10-foot pole. And now you have like Ray Shremard and Haight-Pread as like headliners, like the main and Black Bear, like two chains and Alexis on fire. I don't know who this is for, but this is the greatest lineup of 2022.

I love that. Nothing's coming close. I was just looking at the Hangout Festival. That's the one that's in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Okay, that's the one. On Sunday, you have Tame Impala, Megan the Stallion, Jack Harlow, Phoebe Bridgers, the head and the heart, and sublime with Rome. So it's like a little bit of like internet-y, indie rock.

You've got some rap in there. You have like Americana, singer-songwriter stuff. And then you have Sublime with Rome. Yeah, how is Glass Animals not on this? Like glass animals, like this is the epitome of like every time that someone wants to put on like Spotify's indie, like feel good indie playlist or like mood booster. Those are the two that really get a lot of run where I work. It's always like glass. Like I look at it's like, oh, who is this?

Glass animals or Lewis the child. This is like this is the center right now. So the Hangout Festival like when we look back on 2022 or like, you know, there's a period movie made about this time. It's going to sound like that. I can't wait. I cannot wait to be, to have 20, 22 nostalgia in 10 years. Yeah. After 10 or so, five shifts.

Well, let's get to our mailbag segment. Thank you all for writing in. If you want to reach out to us, we're at Indycastmailbag at gmail.com. I'm also going to make a request. We haven't begged for ratings in a while, but wherever you go to get our podcast, if you could give us a good rating, maybe leave us a review. that helps our show, helps us grow our audience. So only if you like us, though.

If you don't like us, keep your mouth shut. But if you love us, be effusive, five stars, talk about how smart we are and how lovely our voices are. And how you think it's charming that I can't pronounce any words. Yeah, we're just going to have bonus content where Steve mispronounces words. Yeah, I think when we get... It's like ASMR. When we get the Patreon, we'll just have me, saying words that I've never spoken out loud before.

I can't wait to see how you pronounce ethereal or what, like all these music critic words. I can do ethereal. I can say ethereal. But, fine. Yeah. That one I feel okay.

That's not a word I really use in conversation, but I think I can say it. Yeah. We have two questions actually this week because we have a lot of stuff in our mailbag. We're trying to empty it out a little bit. You want to read this first one? Yes, I do. So this one is from Ryan from the, as they call it, the Oso Indycast state of Wisconsin. I think it's the most Indycast state.

He didn't say what town though, Ryan? What town are you from? What's up with that? Yeah, it's very Indycast to identify which non-major city in this very indie caste state that you're from. But Ryan asks us, is it time to coin a term for the post-pandemic bounty of music heading our way this year? I think Ryan just did it. It's the post-pandemic bounty. Beach House and Big Thief have already graced us with double albums

and Big Thief has another double album's worth of songs in the can. Kurt Vile just announced a 90-minute 15 song opus. Beautiful. That sounds like a three-part indie cast episode. Can't wait. And Black Country New Road have released two albums a year apart. Animal Collective and the Killers released out months ago and teased their follow-ups are already completed.

And Wim Butler has teased that Arcade Fire have two albums worth of material ready and that LCD sound system is poised for a comeback next year. Inner pole seems to have hunkered down as well. Is the post-pandemic double album a growing trend, or does it feel so bountiful because the last few years have been so comparatively dry? It feels like the extended break have given multiple bands a second or third win that's breeding new life into indie as a whole. So what do you think?

Well, that is a really good question, Ryan. Thank you, my fellow Wisconsinite. I'm not a Wisconsin night anymore. I'm a Wisconsin native at this point. Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, it does seem like we're seeing a bumper crop of double albums. Certainly this month, we, you know, two of the most high profile indie releases have been double records. As you said, Ryan, we've had instances of bands or artists putting out albums in quick succession.

And it does seem like there's this backlog of albums that were probably recorded. a year or two ago that weren't released because artists weren't touring and they didn't really see the point of releasing music if they couldn't go on the road. It's interesting to me to place this in a broader context of a popular music because really what we're talking about here, you know, albums like with 18 songs, 20 songs, it feels like that's been the norm for like big hip-hop records for a while now. I mean, I feel like every Drake record has like a minimum of 18 songs. to 20 songs.

Yeah. The last Kanye record was over 20 songs. I think that was like 28 or so songs. Yeah, it lasted fucking ever. Something like that. And it seems like in hip hop, you have artists treating albums almost like playlists, you know,

because they know people are going to be listening to these on streaming platforms. So there's not that need to package an album in the traditional way, like where it was going to be on a physical product. You can just have as many songs as you want. want. The more songs you have, the more streams you're going to have, it's going to benefit you in the end. I mean, I'm always bored by the, like, is the album going to survive conversation that has existed for as long as I've been reading music writing. People were talking about that when I was a teenager. It never goes away. It is interesting to me that, I really think that

albums continue to exist because artists like albums. Yeah. And they train their audiences to continue to think of albums as these discrete packages. When, again, with the technology we have now, we really don't need to package it that way, but there's something romantic about that. And I think artists who grew up with albums, they want to be part of the same lineage of the artists that they grew up listening to,

so that's why they want to make a great record. And it's not just indie rockers. I mean, big pop stars also think about albums that way. So I don't know. I mean, it is interesting to me to think about a future where artists move away from albums a little bit, and they do, you know, for lack of a better term, just do a data dump of all the songs that they have. Or they release songs over a period of time, which is what Big Thief and Beach House have done. I mean, Big Thief put out almost half of their record before it came out over the course of about two months or so.

And so as Beach House, it is a way to kind of keep yourself in the conversation. longer than just dropping an album, having reviews come out, and then people move on to the next thing. I mean, I think that helped the big thief record, you know, have an impact, don't you think? I mean, the way that it was rolled out, I mean, because it felt like there was a lot of excitement about those songs. And instead of it just being a one-week phenomenon, it felt like a couple months people were talking about that record. Yeah, I mean, I think it helped the fact that a lot of the songs were very good. Right, of course. It was not altogether different than like the last 1975 album in terms of the way it was rolled out, you know.

But yeah, I think, you know, with what Ryan's talking about this, this trend, I think that it's important to note that all of the bands he mentioned are, you know, big names, the sort of acts that like, you know, we're certainly hit by the pandemic, but like not shit. If this goes on for another six months, like, I don't know if we can continue as a band. A lot of bands, and you would read, like, you know, fairly successful bands like, you know, Foxing or Protomartor were saying that, like, you know, if live music is taken away for another six months, like, I don't know if we continue. And so these type of bands, they could afford to wait. And it just makes more sense to release them as, you know, something that can predate a tour. And also, you know, like a double album.

Yeah, why not release them all? I mean, like, you could release two albums in the same year, but I don't think that has the same sort of impact as, like, a double album. Like, a double album makes a statement, whereas, like, releasing one album and, like, an album, like, 10 months later, like, I can't think of too many situations where, like, the second album was, like, more celebrated. Right. It always gets overlooked. Although, I mean, I guess the, like, big thief, two hands. UFOF was the big one.

It was, but, like, not from two hands. I ended up being, I think overall the UFOF overshadow two hands, but not kind of won the song battle of 2019 for Big Thief. Yeah, I just want to see that, I just want to see, like, this reminds me a little bit of like the late 90s when every single like rapper, even ones that like had no business releasing a double album did so, like yuck mouth. And I think Mac 10 did. I want to see like just the kind of like B tier of indie bands. like which of them think like, yeah, a double album, this is the wave right here. I don't want to, I don't want to like randomly insult an indie band by like putting them in the mix.

But yeah, I just really hope that this spreads to, you know, bands that are aside from like the top tier. Just see like which ones are really feeling themselves right now. I mean, there is something about coming out of the gate with a double album that would feel really audacious. and if it worked, I think critics would just go crazy for. I mean, an example that comes to mind immediately, and I don't know if this is technically a double record,

but there's like 18 songs on it, is Liz Phair, exile, and Guyville. I mean, that was like this. And she had had some heat because she had put out, you know, girly sound tapes and things like that. But that was like her official debut. And, I mean, I think in terms of length, that album's probably only like in the 60-minute range,

but it was 18 songs. It felt like a meaty statement of purpose. Obviously, you had the Rolling Stones, Exile on Main Street angle, that was pretty appealing. But I don't know, I love double albums. I love the idea of our artist just stretching out and going for greatness. So I would kind of like to see maybe an up-and-coming indie band just be like, I'm going to go for it. Like, Barty's Strange. I'll throw out his name.

He has a lot of heat right now. Yeah. What if his next record's a double record? I think he could do it. People would be psyched for that. And that would maybe, and if he nailed that, that would, like, put him at the top of people talking about, you know, young indie rock artists. So, yeah, I don't know. We'll see how well it worked for Beach House.

So we're going to talk about that in a minute here as far as whether they pulled off their double record. But we have one more question. Yes. And I'll read this one. This comes from, let's see. This comes from Sean from Nashville. Sean from Nashville. We must have had a Nashville listener before now.

Oh, God, yeah. Is this the first one? It can't be the first one. No, it was probably like someone from like, you know, Franklin or Ched. Like, you know, some, like the kind of outskirts of Nashville. The greater Nashville area. Nashville, one of my favorite cities, though. Nashville Metro.

I'd love to get back to Nashville. That was one of the last, that was the last city I went to before the pandemic. I haven't been on a plane yet since the pandemic. Anyway, this comes from Sean. I need your help picking which concert to attend later this spring. We get questions like this from time to time where people will write in and they'll have a conflict on their schedule, two artists that they like playing the same day. I always like helping people solve these issues.

It makes us feel like we have a utility, right? I mean, don't you feel like it's like... We're a public good. We should get like government sponsorship. This is like car talk for us. Like people, you know, instead of asking about their car problems, You're asking us about your indie rock concert problems. Anyway, the two shows that are conflicting for Sean, you have Jack White, who is playing an arena,

I think it's Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, is the name of it, I think. And gang of youths. Playing the same day, and he's saying gang youth, obviously they're playing a smaller venue. I'm going to guess, are they playing the basement east in Nashville? I'm just going to throw that out there. Or are they playing the exit in? Fuck if I know, dude. They're playing the basement east.

One of those two. I've been to the basement east. I saw a guided by voices there, which was amazing. Anyway, he's asking us to pick which of those two. Jack White in the big arena. He's probably going to play some new stuff, but, you know, he'll be playing ball in a biscuit, I'm sure. Seven Nation Army, you know, some white stripes nuggets. Does he?

Does he play white? Oh, yeah. I think that was, okay, yeah, because that was a big part of this question. He did that on SNL. did ball and biscuit on S&L during the pandemic and it was pretty great. And I've seen him play solo and he does, he definitely does white stripes stuff. Okay. Well, does he play steady as she goes or like the other.

I don't think he, he may do that. He's not the vocalist on that one. That's true. That's true. Anyway, or you have gang abuse. They have their new records dropping next week. So one of those two. I think I know what we're going to say here, but I'm curious.

If Sean came to you, Jack White or gang abuse. Who should I go see? Who are you going to pick? Well, I mean, the calculus changes now that I know he's playing like white striped songs. And I know that like Jack White Show means something a little more special in Nashville with third man and all being located there. Like, it's going to be a great show. And if you're still like a bit, I don't know, uncomfortable about being indoors with a bunch of people,

like the outdoor amphitheater really helps with that. Oh, right. It's the amphitheater. It's not, it's probably a send amphitheater. Yeah, so, I mean, you got those things going for you. And also, I think it depends. Like, Sean didn't quite bring up like if he likes Gang of Youth more than Jack White. Like, if you're Jack White Superfan, yeah, that's probably the show to go see.

That being said, Gang of Youth haven't toured America in a long time. And as a matter of fact, for the last record, they didn't tour America a lot just in general. So the thing about Ganga Youth is that like they are hungry. They really want to be like they want to be a huge band. Like they have an ambition that's very, you know, very refreshing, but also very obvious. And so they're going to play that basement east, that place where you can see guided by voices as if it were an arena. And they're going to kill it. Like I have absolutely no doubt about that.

And they're the kind of band that when you see in a venue like that, you think, wow, they should be playing. stadiums, not just because they should be more popular. They should. But, like, you could totally see how that band could scale up. You know, it's like this would sound like, you know, you can see like a band like, say, soccer mommy and think like, okay, yeah, they're going to be, they're going to be playing bigger venues. But you don't, I don't know if it necessarily add anything to see it at a big venue.

Ganga youth, Dave is, Dave is a rock star. Like, there's no other way to say it. Yeah. It's interesting because I feel like this probably. A decent size segment of our audience who aren't that familiar with gang abuse because this is a band. Their last record was in 2017. It's called Go Father Enlighteness.

And it was one of my favorite albums of that year. I wrote a lot about it. They were touring after that record. They toured quite a bit in 2018. They actually ended up opening for the foo fighters on their arena tour. So I've seen gang abuse in a small club that held about 200 people. And I've also seen them in an arena. So I can say that they actually.

are really good in a big space. But then the pandemic happened, and I'm curious to see if they've lost momentum because of that. I know here in Minneapolis, they're playing First Avenue here, which is about a 2000 capacity, much bigger room than they've played other times here in the city. So I don't have a sense if the show is going to stay there,

or if they're going to go to a smaller venue. My hope is that they can continue the momentum that they built with the last record. We're going to talk more about this next week, but I think the new record certainly justifies them maintaining the momentum. But just to speak to Jack White, I've seen the White stripes, I've seen the rock contours, I've seen Jack White's solo.

He is, and I know people like to take shots at him because it's easy to take shots at him, but he really is one of the most charismatic rock stars of his generation. Like you see him on stage, he's got it. He's a great guitar player. He has a tremendous presence. He's a really good performer. But, you know, Jack White's not going anywhere.

And I have a feeling that he would almost prefer that you see him when he's a grizzled old bluesman. You know, it seems like that's what he's building toward. Like, when he's in his 70s, that might be peak Jack White, like when he's doing his Bob Dylan moves at that time. So there's going to be other opportunities, especially if he live in Nashville. I mean, you might see Jack White, you know, eating hot chicken on the street corner in Nashville. So see gang abuse. You might not be able to see them at a venue like that again. You may not get to see them all that much at all because, again, they're Australian band.

I know Dave currently lives in London. They're not going to be coming around all the time. So see them now. See Jack White the next time he plays. I'm sure you'll have plenty of opportunities. Let's get to the meat of our episode finally. we had a lot of banter and mailbag waiting to get to Beach House here. I hope people weren't chomping at the bit for us to get to this record.

But we're finally here. There's a new Beach House album out today. It's called Once Twice Melody. It's their eighth record. And it's their biggest album in terms of length. There's 18 songs on this album. And as we've said, they've been rolling out songs over the past couple months. has been a lot of buildup for this record.

It's interesting that it comes one week after the Big Thief double album, which it's a young year, but I think it's safe to say that Big Thief, that album will go down as one of the years most acclaimed albums. I'll put this question to you. I'm curious to hear what you have to say about this. Is more Beach House better Beach House? Is piling on the Beach House songs, does that help this band, or does it in some way hinder them?

because I think it's safe to say that this band has a vibe that's very specific and they're very good at it. But is it almost like having like a really nice perfume where you love the scent of it, but if you dump the whole bottle on yourself, it might be a little much. Like, is that where we're at with Beach House with this record? Or like I'm thinking of like Cap and Crunch Albury's cereal or something like that. Maybe I'm going with more of like a cereal metaphor here. but I mean, man, we're talking about vibe shifts here.

Like, I like more Beach House in the sense that, you know, this is their first record in four years. And you know what? I like Beach House. I would like more Beach House. But when I listen to Beach House, like, you know, any of their records, not once do I think, you know what, I would really love if this were like 30 or 40 minutes longer.

I mean, A, because I usually don't have like 80. minutes of free time to do anything. But secondly, it's, you know, you kind of want something to contrast the vibe that Beach House puts on, you know, like I usually end up listening to something extremely aggressive after Beach House just to balance things out. But I do kind of like the fact that they did, you know, this double album because, I mean, in some, I don't know, I will certainly not call Beach House underrated or taken for granted. Like Beach House is a huge fucking deal. It's similar to the conversation we have a spoon last time where people are, oh, they're so consistent, like, they don't, the fact that people don't get as excited about that as they do for, like, say,

like a Taylor Swift record. It's like, no, no, Beach House is properly rated, properly beloved. But doing a double album makes me kind of, like, is this going to be like a weird white album sort of double album, or is it going to be like a Drake album where it's like 90 minutes of more or less the same vibe? And I'm, I'm thinking it's more to a more towards. the latter this time around, unfortunately. I mean, that's the thing. You know, when we were talking earlier about double albums, part of the attraction for me is that typically a double album canvas,

it allows an artist or a band to really stretch out and to do things that they wouldn't normally do. So you really get a different perspective on what the artist does. You mentioned the White Album. You know, they're putting Revolution No. 9 on there. They're putting Honey Pie on there. You know, they're putting tracks that probably wouldn't have made a conventional Beatles album.

Or, you know, smashing pumpkins. They do melancholy and the infinite sadness. You have porcelina in the vast oceans. And we only come out at night. Like all the, either epic tracks or kind of weird tracks. And that's what's really great about it. And it also helps those albums, I think, as listening experiences, because it's a more diverse thing.

You're not just hearing the same thing over and over again. I would say that's true of the big thief record. I think that there's things on that album that they haven't done before and that they might not have put on a 12-song record. This Beach House record, I don't think, really falls into there. It feels like a 12-song record that has six songs added to it. Almost like the CD edition of, you're getting bonus tracks on an album. And none of the songs are bad.

I mean, again, like Beach House to me, it's almost like they've perfected the formula so much that they can't fail, you know? at worst it's just going to be not as good as the last record. But it's never going to be bad because the singer's good, the soundscapes are pretty, it just works. But when you have rigged the game like that, I also feel like the possibility of hitting like a peak is also reduced. You're just in a smaller sort of lane like where you're not going to hit a deep valley,

but you're not going to hit a huge peak either. and I don't know if that's really a criticism but I just feel like that's true of Beechouse for me I have a hard time and I've said this before I have a hard time differentiating between their albums even this album if you had slipped me

Depression Cherry and said this is the new Beach House album I don't know if I would know that you were tricking me you know because it just feels like they do what they do I mean you were talking about this The Apple Music, the write-up, they compared them to ACDC.

Yeah, I think Beach House has fewer songs about balls, but, I mean, like, otherwise, the comparison's not altogether wrong. I like that comparison. Obviously, not sonically, there's nothing similar, but ACDC has a similar thing where they had a formula, and they did it on every record. You could say the same thing about the Ramones. The Ramones had their thing, and they did it over and over again. The thing about the Ramones in ACDC, certainly ACDC, like no album is longer than like 40 minutes. The Ramones, every album is probably about like 32 minutes. Right.

Would you want like an 80 minute Ramones album? Yeah, I don't know. I wouldn't want a 50 minute Ramones album. You know, I wouldn't want, I love ACDC so much. I don't want to hear Brian Johnson for 80 minutes talking about, you know, balls and, you know, all that kind of stuff. It's like 40 minutes. That's good. That's enough.

Balls and sex and the manifold topics of ACDC. But actually, I would actually like to hear an 88 minute B, our ACDC or Ramon's album. I wouldn't want to hear a 50 minute one because like once you get to 88, then you can get kind of weird. I mean, like a live record I could see. Okay, yeah. Because I'm, you know, I'm sure there's ACDC live albums that are like 80 minutes long, but of like original material, that would be a little much. And again, it's just because of the formulaic nature. of the music. And you love that formula.

You want them to, like, I wouldn't want ACDC to deviate too much from what they do. And I don't know if I'd want Beach House either, but it just makes the double album experience more difficult, I think, if, when you're so sort of locked into one vibe. Well, I think they're

like locked into a vibe that has like kind of incrementally different vibes in there. Like, you might read a review of this record and talk about, like, how they're really spreading their wings where they, you know, they do a song that sounds like, uh, you know, spiritualize, but they also do one that kind of sounds like Mazzie Star, or they sort of do one. And it's like, yes, these are different, but it's, it reminds me of like, you know,

when I think about people I know who review a lot of like electronic music where they can like really talk about the granular differences between like ambience. It's like, oh yeah, gas and stars of the lid. That's like, you know, apples and oranges. It's like to them, it really is. But to someone like myself. It's like, yeah, I don't know how you tell how this one's better than the others. But I listen to this record. It's good. I enjoy it. I don't think it will cause any sort of beach house backlash. But man, I just want the one. And I think we can use this as like a metric to measure double ounce from here and out. The that's my grandma moment. Like that happens on the big thief record where it just sort of completely, if you feel like you're zoning out of it after having listened to a record for

60 some odd minutes. It's like, oh, hey, that's my grandma. Like, I really wish Beach House had that. I don't think that fits with their personality. But, yeah, I just kind of wish that they really embrace the opportunity to maybe, not reinvent themselves, but like give us an opportunity to think of a way to think of Beach House differently aside from like, you know, the Husky vocals and like the smooth slide guitar and the organ. Yeah, I don't, like, I don't think that. I don't think that. this change, I don't, like I don't, for a double album, I think this doesn't really do much to change the conversation. Like, I don't think there's ever going to be a beach house backlash, like, ever going to be a beach house backlash, nor do I think that, you know, they're going to make

something similar to say, a teen dream, which, you know, elevates them to a different tier of indie band. Yeah, you know, the other tough thing with Beach House, too, is that you really don't get anything lyrically from them. And not just that, I can't even critique the lyrics because I don't really know what she's singing ever on Beach House songs. I love her voice. I keep saying, it's Victoria LeGrand, is the singer of Beach House. She's got a great voice.

And I've seen them live. They're a beguiling live band. I mean, it was like one of the most dimly lit shows I've ever been to. Like, you can barely see the band. It was just like being in a dark room and listening to Beach House, which is, maybe the ideal way to receive this band, you know, light a candle and zone out and listen to the band. But, yeah, you don't get much from this music beyond the vibe.

Maybe some people do. Like, I really think that. They must. Yeah. Like, I sometimes, like, read reviews. They mention the lyrics and it's like, oh, that's really, I didn't know they were saying that. Like, maybe they just don't, like, emphasize it. But I don't know.

I really think in 10 years there's going to be people who maybe like collegiate level analyses of Beach House lyrics. Yeah, I mean, I see Beach House, and this is already true because like we said, this is their eighth record. I believe their first album came out in 2008. Six, 2006. I still love that record. I still love that self-title.

We're still, so like we're like 16 years now into their career. So they are definitely like a legacy band or their approaching legacy band status. I could definitely see them still putting out records in 20 years and people liking them. I mean, they have that feel to me of like a Nick Cave type artist or like a Leonard Cohen type artist who is always going to be cool. You know, there's always going to be something cool about them. And it's just such easy music to listen to that, you know, it seems like they can age into this very well. Like there's nothing about this music that makes me feel like, oh, you couldn't play this when you're 60, you know? In a way, it might even be better when they're a little bit older.

They're like Jack White. Instead of like grizzled old blues men, they're like grizzled mystics. Exactly. Grizzled, you know, dream poppers. Yeah. So, yeah, I think they have a long life. God bless them. You know, we're not a fusive fans, but not haters either.

I mean, I like the band. I think they're good. They don't blow me away, but I like it. And I like this record. We've now reached the part of our episode that we call Recommendation Corner. where Ian and I talk about something that we're into this week. Ian, why don't you go first? Yeah, so we're going to get a bit of a log jam in the upcoming weeks of like smaller

records that I really like. So this one I'm going to do for an album that comes out actually a week from today because there are quite a few I'm going to talk about in the next few weeks. It's a band called String Machine from Pittsburgh. They have an album coming out called Hallelujah Hell Yeah. And the sound of this band makes me think that that, actual name of the band should be hallelujah hell yeah because it's a it's a very uplifting kind of i say this with all love blog rock throwback like if you like the annuals if you like margot and the

nuclear so-and-so's if you like anathalo if like actually those names mean anything to you this is the sort of record for you because it's a little bit rustic it's a little bit arcade fire celebratory um you know let's all get eight people together and make a bunch of joy indie rock type music. And the thing about this record is, despite all of its ambitions, it's still about like 27 minutes long. Like I had a 30-minute commute home yesterday. I listened to this Al Minutes entirety.

Still had time to go. Yeah, Pittsburgh, low-key, one of my favorite cities for indie rock of late. You know, they have short fictions and also Code Orange. I guess they still count as a Pittsburgh band. But, you know, this is a sort of record that might go overlooked because it is so, out of step with the vibe shift of the times. But, you know, if you think back about like 2005-2008-era indie, just something that seems, you know, at a step with now, but also maybe this is exactly what we need,

string machine have done this better than any band that I've heard in quite some time. So, hallelujah, hell yeah, string machine, great band, great record. doesn't ask a lot for your time and if you're into this sort of music you'll really be into this. Yeah, I quite like this album a lot too and I actually feel like this band could catch on because I think that there is

a lot of people out there a silent majority, maybe not a majority but a silent constituency that are dozens of us. That likes a lot of the bands that you just mentioned like bands that came out in the mid-aughts. You mentioned bands that kind of came and went but I mean I think Arcade Fire like early Arcade Fire

is like a pretty good point in comparison for this band. I would also say at the risk of alienating some people out there that the Decembris came to mind when I was listening to this group as well. Like early Decembris records, I feel like, I wonder if there's ever going to be a Decembris revival. There was a period where they were the band that people who didn't like indie rock love to put up as the epitome of modern indie rock. When there's some good Decembris records out there.

Come on. Like the first several, I think, are really quite good. And if you are a fan of that kind of music, like Ian said, this band I think does that style of music as well as anyone I've heard in a long time. And it's not just, you know, amid odds revival, they're good songwriters. These are good songs. And it's a very digestible record. I mean, this is a band that could make a double record. I'd be curious to hear their double record.

Yeah, their last record was really good. It came out, and Death of the Neon came out like 2019. I think end of 2019 and this just takes everything that record did but makes the songs more hooky, more concise. I mean, yeah, this should be a big deal, but I also think

it kind of needs a little bit of a push from people like ourselves. Yeah, well, yes, that record drops next week. Definitely check it out. I'm backing up Ian on that one. I'm going to mention a band. I know you like this band so we can do a double recommendation for this band as well, called Kara Kara,

band from Philadelphia. Their album's not out until March 25th, but I've been really digging the early singles. I actually got a promo of this album, so I've heard the album, and I like it quite a bit. The latest single that came out this week, it's called Strange Interactions in the Night. Really good song. This band is actually touring with String Machine. So that'll be a good tour. I hope that comes up to Minnesota.

This is a band that, you know, I see them classified as an emo band. Will Yip has produced them. He produced the new record. Of course, he's associated with a lot of bands in that scene. But to me, this is basically like a 90s alt rock band. At least like on this record, it reminded me of obviously Jimmy Eat World, I think, is an obvious reference point. But also, you know, stuff like Third-Eyed Blind. And I don't know if they actually are influenced by this band, but a few songs reminded me of the tragically hip.

For our Canadian listeners out there, I know they're going to appreciate that reference. But again, it's just really earnest, open-hearted, anthemic, big sounding, shiny guitars-type rock music. And there's also a real emotional heft to the record. It's been described as a druggie album about recovery. The songs about overcoming alcoholism and dopamine addiction. And again, this is another type of band where you might say, oh, this feels like out of step with the times, but I think there's a lot of people out there who like this kind of rock music. You know, love that kind of, again, big, shiny guitars of 90s alt rock.

This album delivers. It's really catchy, really beautiful music. Yeah, and I think, you know, they were called Emo back in the day because, you know, their first record, Summer Megalith, great record. Love it. It was originally produced by Jake, who used to be in modern baseball and now does Slaughter Beach Dog. Yeah, and now they've kind of moved towards that. you know, that will, that will yip production, uh, reminds me of late period,

pianos become the teeth. Um, and yeah, I mean, there is like glimmers of less fashionable alt rock, um, some third eye blind going on in there, you know, maybe some, like, something like reminds me of like, like, Duncan Sheik. I don't even know what that. I was going to say, Toad the what Sprocket at times reminded me about. Again, stuff I like. Um, yeah, but like that kind of hooky earnestness that, that, But yeah, like similar to like, similar to like string machines, similar to gang of youth and also I guess like similar to Black Country New Road. It takes these like sounds that people would for years identify with this kind of empty uplift or like this vague sort of catharsis. But, you know, integrates it with very like personal stories about like you said, like recovery from alcoholism, you know, death.

And also like caracaroids a lot about like how opioids are still destroyed. some parts of Philadelphia. So I see it as like the sort of album that people could just like here. It's like, oh, this doesn't sound like, you know, hyperpop or digitcore or whatever. This is not what people. But like, I think that there is a desire for this type of music. And if it finds the right audience, I think it'll, you know, get as acclaimed as it deserves to be. Well, that about does it for this episode of Indycast.

Thank you so much for listening. We'll be back with more news and reviews and hashing out. next week. And if you're looking for more music recommendations, sign up for the indie mixtape 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.