Indiecast - Geese's Amazing Live Show + Tame Impala's Weak New Album

Episode Date: October 24, 2025

Steven and Ian open with a quick conversation about online comment sections and how websites are trying to monetize the opinions of online lunatics (1:00). Then they pivot to a Cinema-cast about the new Springsteen biopic, Deliver Me From Nowhere (6:30), and the recent documentary Mr. Scorsese (14:11). They also check in on the Fantasy Albums Draft, where Steven finally does a re-draft (19:16).From there, they discuss Steven's recent experience seeing Geese on tour, and why they are the most exciting young indie band going (24:55). They also review the new Tame Impala record Deadbeat, which is getting killed by critics (32:44). Finally, they do a "yay or nay" segment on the British buzz band Bar Italia (46:35).In Recommendation Corner, Ian talks about the post-punk band Just Mustard and talks about the Indianapolis jangle-pop group Good Flying Birds (51:06).New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 262 here and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [e-mail], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Indycast is presented by Uprox's indie mixtape. Hello everyone and welcome to Indicast. On this show we talk about the biggest indie news of the week, we do albums, and we hash out trends. In this episode, we talk about live geese, the band, not the things in the sky, a critically reviled Tame and Paula album, and we yay or nay, Bar Italia. My name is Stephen Hayden, and I'm joined by my friend and co-host.

Donald Glover is going to cook him in Pitchfork's new comment section. Ian Cohen. Ian, how are you? You know, my dream back in 2004 wasn't so much to write for Pitchfork, so much as to be in the comments of our pals like Mark Hogan and, you know, Rob Mitchum and let them know that their Jimmy Eat World and DeSaparacito's reviews were an affront to God. So, yeah, 20 years late, I'm finally getting to live the dream.

Yeah, so we should just announce here. This was on Pitchfork site coming in 2026. As Pitchfork celebrates us during the anniversary, we're planning to add a comment section into all of our album reviews. That's over 30,000 pieces of music criticism on which you'll finally be able to leave your pitchwork review for the very first time, your review of the review. So yeah, Brent DeCrensenzo. Look out, baby.

You're going to get head hunted by people mad about things you wrote 30 years ago. I'm going to, like, find the Walt Mink 10.0 and say it's really like a 9.3. You know, I don't want to talk about, you know, I was saying before I get wary. of doing pitchfork minutia on this show because I feel like, you know, obviously an important site. Don't want to treat them like they're the center of the universe necessarily. But it is interesting that they're doing this comment section

because it felt like with social media that comment sections had been phased out a little bit, that you didn't have to go to the site to have your, to voice your opinion that you could go out and say it on these platforms. And I'll just say that, I think for pitchfork, this decision, not so great for writers, maybe, but I think it makes a lot of sense just from a business perspective because you have all these lunatics out here,

already complaining about pitchfork scores, doing it on X the Everything app or maybe Blue Sky or wherever, why not do it on the site itself? So you can glom off that traffic, glom up, you know, just get them on your site talking about it rather out in the world. And it does feel like in a way, you know, as I think all sites are maybe pivoting away from social media and trying to create these worlds that they can try to bring people back into. You know, because so much traffic and attention has been siphoned from individual sites, you know, sites now are falling apart. Like there's not really, like that old internet, it feels like it's going away.

this feels like an attempt to try to fortress that in some respect. Like, we want to, all the lunatics out there who are mad about our Taylor Swift review, do it on our site. Don't do it on social media. So, again, like if you're a writer for pitchfork, I mean, is it worse to happen on the site versus on social media? I mean, I don't know. Like, in a way, the comments are easier to avoid than social media to me.

Yeah, because I, like, yeah, maybe people will be chiming in on, like, my military gun review, but at least they probably won't be emailing me or like going on my DMs or whatever. It is like, you know, it's like Principal Skinner going to the burlesque house or it's like I'm only asking directions from how to get away from there. And besides, I'm one of the lunatics. I'll probably, maybe I'll comment on like some of the reviews that I don't agree with. But you're right. Like in most years, if this happened like five years ago, I would have had more existential dread

about it. but I also did read yesterday a 10,000 word article about people who are masturbating 12 hours a day as a subculture. So this seems just like kind of small potatoes and probably a wise business move for the future. It'll probably allow me to continue writing for pitchfork rather than having, you know, the whole site crumble. And, you know. Yeah, I mean, I used to work for a place that had a really robust comment section. That was the A.B. Club, which was one of the more infamous comment sections back in the day, us and Brooklyn Vegan, I think, were the ones most notorious for mean-spiritedness.

The Vivian girls, they had it rough. Well, I remember I once, I interviewed a music critic who shall remain named, this person had written a book, and there was a photo of the music critic with the interview, and the commenters were just cruel to this photo. And the person reached out to me, and they're like, is there anything you can do about it? this. This is like really bad. It's like this is going to make people not want to participate in the site. And I was like, you know, tell me, brother. Like, yeah, I have to deal with this all the time. I mean, I will say the AB Club section had some cool people in it too. There were like a lot of almost like performance artist type commenters.

I don't know if this is going to be a thing now. But, you know, back in the late 2000s, early 2010s, like there would be commenters that had personas and they would act out. in jokes, like over the course of weeks, months, even years. And it didn't even matter what the story was. Like, they weren't even really commenting on the article. They were participating with the other chimps in the insane asylum, you know, and they would interact with each other. So you're going to have that aspect to pitchfork, too. You're going to get like just zoomers saying six, seven on every article probably,

or whatever stupid meme is, being circulated at the moment. So, yeah, it'll be interesting. But yeah, I think it's a smart move. And, you know, as we progress into this uncertain future on the internet, you're probably going to see more things like that. So best of luck to the people over there. Maybe we'll have a comment section.

You can correct our pronunciation in real time. Oh, man. I would love that personally. Let's do a quick cinema cast here before we get into the meat of the episode. Later this afternoon, Ian, and again, we're recording this on Thursday morning, I'm going to catch an early matinee of Springsteen, Deliver Me from Nowhere, the new Springsteen biopic that's opening this weekend, which is getting mixed reviews. I've seen some people who like the movie, some who like it less.

The people that I know personally that have seen the movie already, it's uniformly bad feedback. And we talked about this a little bit, I think, in a previous episode. But it doesn't have a traditional biopic structure. It's focusing on a very narrow sliver of Bruce's life, basically the period where he wrote Nebraska and also was starting to work on Boren in the USA and was experiencing this existential career crisis about what direction he wanted to go in, which, by the way, is something I write about in my most recent book. There was nothing you could do.

available at booksellers everywhere. But anyway, it has an unconventional structure, but it feels like every other aspect of it is very walk-hard. Like, the dialogue in particular I've heard is pretty rough. And then there's also this thing, and I put this in our outline, Deliver Me from Nowhere soundtrack was announced this week. And there's nine songs, nine Springsteen songs performed by Jeremy Allen White,

the star of the film. it's not Bruce singing them, it's Jeremy Allen White as Bruce Springsteen singing the songs. And then there's three more songs that are covers that Jeremy Allen White sings. And he's backed by a cadre of musicians, including two guys from Greta Van Fleet. So, you know, again, I could not be more excited. The thing with this movie with me is that every negative thing I hear about it makes me more excited to see it. because I feel like with a biopic, it's such a debased genre of film. I feel like there's so many things stacked against it for being a good movie,

even in the hands of like the best filmmakers, that if it really leads into clichés and is sort of goofy, that's almost like a better outcome. Like I kind of want it to be bad because I think it'll be a more entertaining experience. Like the worst case scenario is that it's boring. I don't want it to be boring, but if there's like a lot of cringy dialogue in it, I actually think that that will make me have a better time at the cinema. Like that's, I just want a good time at the cinema, Ian.

Yeah, and moreover, if it does have, I mean, already we're seeing some of these lines being memed. Like, some of like just the real, like, talking out what's actually happening for it's like, oh, I see a used car a lot. Maybe I should write a song about used cars. Right, right. Yeah. But when you said that, like, Greta Van Fleet was on this album, but, like, doing covers of, like, I put a spell on you, I think what would really make this movie just, like, awesome is if they did, like, they did in the 90s where you had a song at the end of the movie that recaps what happened. And Greta... Yeah, it's usually a rap song, but, yeah, if Greta Van Fleet did that, also, I'm picturing, uh, yeah, the Kisco brothers, I think it is, them eventually...

I've not kept up with Greta Van Fleet since then. the first album. But I'm imagining them, or maybe even as a solo artist, doing like a Bruce Springsteen thing instead of a Led Zeppelin thing and Rolling Stone giving it four stars. I have a very vivid image of this. And so maybe this is less about Jeremy Allen White as this, you know, multimedia talent so much as the launching of the Greta Van Fleet Guy's solo career. Maybe that's what we'll remember this movie for.

Well, and I just want to say quick, too, you made this. the joke about Rolling Stone giving a Greta Van Fleet Springsteen album four stars. Because, you know, it's the old thing about, you know, Rolling Stone just rubber stamping every Springsteen record or every U2 record. I think we're past that era now because they actually did review the Springsteen box set that's out today, the Nebraska 82, only gave it three and a half stars. So they're not rubber stamping Bruce and U2 anymore. It's Taylor Swift.

Like, that is the Bruce Springsteen of today. That's the U-2 of today. So they're rubber-stamping like pop stars. They're not rubber-stamping these old classic rockers really anymore. So, but yeah, like Taylor Swift is the new Bono here. I think we need to say that. That is the thing. So if you're going to make the jokes,

you got to just imagine Taylor Swift as the new Bono. Yeah. I'm imagining like that one line from pop, like it's the blind leading the blonde. Taylor Swift would have loved that line. That's a good line. I got to tip my head. I mean, look, I love Bono.

I'm a Bono guy. So, like, I'm not trashing anybody here. I am, like, one of the last Bono defenders maybe in the world. And I'm going to be writing about you two in a book. That's, like, my next big project. So I'm very excited to get into that. But, yeah, this movie, you know, it's interesting because it looks like it's going to bomb. Like, indicators are that this movie's not going to do well at the box.

office. And I will say, like, I thought about getting a ticket for this screening I'm going to go to. I'm trying to decide that there's two matinees at the theater by my house. And as a Thursday morning, they're both completely empty, both theaters. So I don't really feel like I have to, I could probably just walk in and not even pay. And there'll be like tumbleweed blowing through the theater, you know, just me and this movie. It really does, because I'm thinking about the Dylan biopic that came out last year, a complete unknown. which also had a soundtrack album that Timothy Shalame did where he's singing Dillon songs, which I think actually did pretty well.

It really is a testament to Shalamay, I think, as a movie star, that that movie did as well as it did. Because I wonder if some other actor was in that, if there would have been interest in that film. Because I don't know, like biopics, they are sort of an evergreen genre, but, like, Jeremy Allen White isn't a movie star. No. You know, he's a TV star. And like, Springsteen on his own, is that enough, like a movie about him? Like, even if this were a more conventional, like, it was called Born to Run, and it was about Bruce and Jersey, like, writing Born to Run and a more conventional kind of uplifting movie.

Even that, I don't know if it would have as much cachet. I think people wanted to see deliver, they want to see a complete unknown because they love Shalame. Yeah, and like the bear I didn't even watch the last season It doesn't feel like that's got as much heat as it used to So Yeah, I think you know like a few years ago I wonder if people would receive it differently

Because he's basically playing carmi in this movie It looks like Yeah Carmi with a guitar Yeah So which I'm not against You know again like I've I haven't seen the movie

I'm only repeating what I've been told I don't think it's going to be great But I also think I'm going to have a good time You know, that's where I'm at. Like, I think I'm going to have a good time at the cinema and also come back on this show next week and I'll probably make fun of it. But I'll also maybe go see it again in the theater. So, you know, that's just, I don't think those are mutually exclusive properties. One thing I want to ask you about quick, speaking of brilliant biopics,

Martin Scorsese has made some of the best biopics of all time. Raging Bull being at the top of the list about Jake Lamata. Last Temptation of Christ, is that a biopic about Jesus? I guess you could say that. I mean, Goodfellas technically is a biopic about Henry Hill. You know, Casino, Sam Ace Rothstein. I mean, he makes films about real people a lot. They don't feel like biopics because he's a brilliant filmmaker

and he makes real movies and he's not just following the playbook that every other biopic follows. But anyway, I'm bringing up Scorsese because I've been obsessed with this documentary that came out in Apple TV last week, Mr. Scorsese. Um, if any of you out there are cinefiles, if you're cinema cast fans and you haven't seen this, I highly recommend it. Even if you know a lot about Scorsese, I learned a lot watching it. There's like a lot of cool home movie footage.

Um, the thing that kind of blew me away watching it was, and I know this a little bit, but just being reminded about like how many great films Scorsese made that people just crapped on when they came out, like King of Comedy. one of the greatest movies ever made as far as I'm concerned. Entertainment Tonight called it like the flop of the year. You know,

and no one liked it. No one went to it. It was treated like Joker 2 in its time. And now it's like this brilliant film. And it just reminds you that, oh, even brilliant people, like the greatest artists of all time,

which for me, Scorsese is like the, started watching his films as a teenager and he's like the artist of my lifetime. him and Bob Dylan are like at the top of the mountain for me. So like they're my biggest heroes. And just realizing that even these people have to deal with like, oh, you can't get your project made. Oh, like people don't understand what you're doing.

Oh, critics are crapping on you. Like in a weird way it puts like your own, at least for me, like my own personal and dignities in perspective. It's like, oh, if even Scorsese can't get respect, then like why should I expect respect from anybody? I mean, even Martin Scorsese is getting crap down by the world. So it's a weirdly reassuring message. As weird as it might sound, it doesn't seem reassuring, but it felt that way to me. But I'm just curious, because I'm more of a movie guy. I'm more of the cinema cast guy than you.

Like, does Scorsese, is he on your radar at all? Do you care about him? Yeah, I mean, to your first point about Martin Scorsese not being able to get money, I mean, I think there also is like a big difference between trying to get a movie studio, to give you $150 million in me saying, hey, maybe we should get the hotel year of 8.3 instead of me. I know.

But even in the 80s, though, like, that's more recent. I'm talking, well, I mean, he was trying to make like less temptation of Christ, which was not an easy sell necessarily. But, you know, he did also just come off a run where he had just made Raging Bull. He had made a taxi driver. He had made, like, again, like the greatest movies of all time.

So you think, why not? Why can't this guy have a little bit easier of a run? road, but it's not. Even he has to struggle. Yeah, and I think maybe that, um, that struggle become part of the narrative, kind of similar to Taylor Swift in a weird way, but yeah, I mean, what, like we talked about with, come on, don't do that. He's not, he's not, he's not, he's not pandering the people though with Max Martin and Shelbach records. I mean, he actually, he, but like Scorsese actually did have real adversity, like, true, especially in like the 80s, which is an incredible decade for him. He's not like getting like an eight,

0 from pitchfork and that's his adversity. Like this guy's being picketed and he's getting like death threats because he made this actually very religious and reverent movie that like morons misinterpreted as like a sort of anti-god film and they hadn't even seen the movie.

So I cannot allow you to equate Mr. Martin Scorsese with this pop star that we talk about way too much on this show. Yeah, and if you disagree in the comments, you're going to have to wait for us to get a comment section. But yeah, like we talked about with the Paul Thomas Anderson discussion, you're the movie guy.

Like when I should have been having Martin Scorsese phase in college, I was probably watching and then rewatching Clerks the animated series or office phase for the 50th time. But yeah, like his stuff's awesome. Like Goodfell's probably is the best movie of the 90s. Raging Bull and Taxi Driver, they are that good. I also think we need to give a shout to the guy. I checked in blue sky for like, you know, like I do once every week. And I saw the guy who wrote the book, Killers of the Flower Moon, listens to Indycast.

That felt pretty cool. Yeah, that felt really cool. David Grant, and he said he reads my stuff. He liked reading my things. So that was a very flattering thing. We had a nice interaction over that. So shout out to David Grand. If you're listening, your attention is very much appreciated.

Goes a Fire Mood, another brilliant film. All right, let's get into the fantasy draft update here because I think we might have a situation where you're going to draft an album. How many do you have one draft pick left, right? I have one draft pick. I kept the open seat of because I had this one album in mind that still hasn't been announced,

but it's been kind of teased. And if it does come out, it is, you know, like a lock for a 90 or better. But I was pleasantly surprised because Rosalia announced a new album. this week and that's you know the next best thing i mean she's putting up bad bunny type numbers typically um could be a late uh charge for album of the year um the only thing that the only thing i have hesitance with and this is for our remember some guys guys um she is no longer working with el

ginchot uh he is the producer who worked on her last two albums and you might remember him or not from getting a best new music in 2008 uh for allegrobin you Bonnet is a jam too. I did not remember that. I'll just say that for the record. I didn't remember it and I never knew it to remember it. So this is the first time I'm learning this. Yeah.

Yeah, it's just crazy that like that guy and, you know, Dan Nagro or Dan, however you pronounce it from, a band as tall as lions, like those are two guys that are running the optimism game. So, you know, whether you're Martin Scorsese or as tall as lions or El Ginchot, never give up. You know, your day may come. So, Rosalia is going to be your last pick. Yes, it will be. All right, that's a good one. I think you're going to run away with this year.

So we have this ongoing mob deep debacle that I put myself into in this quarter. And there's still not a metacritic score. So I'm wondering, you know, I brought this up as an option before. Should I just be forced to pick an album that's coming out next week? Should we do that now or do I need to wait again? Well, if you're in the continent, I'd say pick one. Yeah, pick one next week. Because, okay, because the best choice I have, and it's actually a pretty good choice, is the new Claire Roussay album comes out next week, which I think would probably score somewhere in the 80s.

I don't know, I haven't heard that record yet, but she's historically done well. It's like, how would you describe her music? Oh, gosh, she does, like, do a lot of different things. I mean, the last album was, they described as emo ambient. Right. So it's ambient. I would say that's, like, kind of the. the center, but there's field recordings and maybe it's a little bit more song-oriented,

really well-regarded. But I do like this because it does resemble a fantasy draft in that, oh my God, like all of my wide receivers are injured. Who's the W.R. 2 for the Titans this week, you know? So, yeah, this feels very true to our system. And I did have her on my board when we were drafting and I didn't take her. So it doesn't feel totally fraudulent for me to take her now. There is also a guided by voices album coming next week and a Charlottons U.K.

album, which would maybe be truer to my brand if I took either one of those records. But I honestly don't know if they would end up on Metacritic. Charlottons UK might guided by voices I kind of doubt just because they put out a record every three or four months. So I'm going to take Claire Rose then, taking out Mobb Deep. You can put an asterisk on this season, I guess, for me. going to win. I mean, the Rosalia, I think, locks you in. You did have an album that came out this week, though, otherwise, the Sudan Archives album came out. Yeah, it's 81, despite getting a best new music. That feels like a dud, relatively speaking. I mean, it's not like a, it's not

going to tank the entire team because, you know, I still feel pretty strongly about, you know, Kia and Arm and Hammer. Hannah Francis is still doing pretty well. Yeah, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I honestly think that like your team might be kind of deceptively strong. I really think that your Florence and the machine pick's going to pay off. But yeah, we'll see. I got an oldsters. I got an old team. Yeah, because I got the Mava Staples, Brandy Carlisle, Tortus.

They got a 79 as of today. Tortoise does. Tortoise does? Okay. So I wonder, I mean, is there any chance Sudan archives even goes down? Or, I mean, it could go up, too. Maybe. I don't know.

79 for Tortis, really. Yeah, as of now. Yeah. Okay. So, yeah, I got 84 for Hannah Francis, 81 for Sudan archives. And, yeah, so off to a decent start. I'm just looking up the tortoise here quick. Yeah, okay, yeah, we got all the usual sucks.

The wire mojo. Oh, the quietest? Oh, the quietest gave a, they took a bat to my kneecaps here with the 40. Oh, my God. You would think they were Bar Italia. The growing distance of time and space unfortunately seems to have had an effect on the album, which, while not without its bright spots, is disjointed and lacks the group chemistry that's kept the best work so resonant over the years.

That doesn't sound like the quietest. I understand all those words. I was going to say, that doesn't sound like a FOIA. God, well, it sounds like an insightful take, though. I can't fault them too much, even though it's hurting me in my score. Okay, well, that's the way that is. Again, I'm not going to win. That's okay.

okay we're gonna you know i don't know maybe i should have kept mob deep in tank and try to get a higher draft picnic here or something i guess we don't really operate that way um i did want to talk quick with you ian about geese who i saw last weekend saturday and uh at the amsterdam bar grill in st paul and we've talked about geese obviously on the show new york band put out getting killed uh in october uh was that September? Yes? Early October.

Somewhere. Anyway, recently, this fall, put out their third studio album getting killed. And I think it's fair to say, if it's not the hands-down album of the year for indie fans, it's like in the conversation. I mean, for me, it's hands-down, the indie album of the year. It feels like an event. I think it's a brilliant record, really exciting band. And you can feel the excitement with this group.

It's not just about critics loving this band. It does feel like there's a real organic reaction to this group. And that's been manifested, I think, on this tour that they're currently on. I saw them last weekend. You're going to be seeing them on Halloween up ahead here. And we've talked about this before, but you know, you go on the secondary market now. And the tickets are just through the roof. I mean, like $1,200.

From what I've heard, it seems like this tour, I think it went on sale this summer, June, July, like ahead of the record coming out, but after the Cameron Winter solo record, heavy metal, started having buzz. But really, like in the past month, it sounds like demand has skyrocketed. And these shows, I think he's playing typically five, this band's playing five, six hundred person venues. I mean, that's what they played here. Seems like they could be doing at least twice that size, maybe even larger in some of these bigger cities. I wish I could tamp down the hype here a little bit, you know, the hyperbole being applied to this band, but I can't do it. I saw them. I thought it was a fantastic show. If I hadn't seen Oasis

this summer at Wembley Stadium, this would be my show of the year. Hard to top Oasis for me, personally, but I mean, this Geese show very, very close. And obviously, it's a different situation. an old favorite gets back together and plays this awesome gig that you thought might not ever happen. But then you have this kind of ideal of like a young and hungry, up-and-coming band coming along and just killing it. You know, kind of just doing everything you want from a band like this. And one thing I wanted to bring up with you specifically, because I think you'll appreciate this, is seeing them live, it really does bring out the physicality in their music, more so than the records.

I think 3D country, their second album, is a pretty muscular-sounding, meaty record. Getting Killed, I think, has those moments, but it also has these more delicate moments, too, that are more reminiscent of Cameron Winter solo work. It's like a hybrid of what Geese does and what he does on his own. But, like, live, it is like a jackhammer. And it has a lot to do with,

their rhythm section, the drummer Max Bass Bass Basson, who is like a legitimately great drummer for an indie rock band. And I have to distinguish that because it's a rare thing, quite honestly, to just see a band with a great drummer in this world. And he's killing it. And, you know, in my, I wrote a column about this on Up Rocks that you can go check out. I actually like invoked turnstile in my review, because they're not like turnstile in any other way, but like, again, that physicality element where people were starting like multiple mosh pits during the show. You know, people are going crazy, getting into it. And it's not something that you see in indie rock really that much lately.

You know, this scene has been dominated by indie folk or singer-songwriters or, you know, sort of pop-leaning music. And just to have a rock band that I think has the swag or has the charisma, has the charisma but also can like make you think a little bit about like Led Zeppelin or I even brought up like the chili peppers like 90s chili peppers like some of the stuff in the rhythm section was invoking that for me or evoking that for me um so I don't I think you're really going to like it Ian it does feel like your your your your weight room test that you always apply to music like geese actually passes that while also having you know the indie stuff in there as well yeah I'm stoked about uh seeing um it's

going to be a fun environment. Not totally, like, people will start mosh pits for anything nowadays. That's one thing I've learned, but... Yeah, but, like, not, I don't know. I go to, like, a lot of indie shows. It's different. Yeah. And you can feel it in the room.

Like, there's a level of excitement and intensity that, like, I... It's like, I love Wednesday. I love big thief. You know, like... But it's not the same. Even, like, the Lenderman Tour, which I loved. It is more of, like, a laid-back kind of more stoner vibe. And there's like a stoner vibe here too, but it's like stone, it's like weed cross with like pills.

You know, like that's Dirst style for you. It's got more of like an energy to it that I think really sets them apart. And also just that feeling that you're witnessing a band in their moment, which is a very exciting thing to be a part of. And I think it's why people are, I mean, I hope people aren't spending that much money. I mean, hopefully. But like, you know, people, apparently there's a market out there. people are going to be like, oh, yeah, I'll spend $800 to go see geese on this tour. Yeah, because I was thinking a few weeks ago when I was flying back from Las Vegas,

because, like, you know, with the way things are now, flying anywhere is a logistical nightmare. And they offer you, it's like, hey, if you take a later flight, we'll give you a thousand dollar voucher. And then you find out, okay, the next flight leaves in 10 hours. And then there's two more stops that I was thinking, I mean, I know we can't do this. could, but like, if someone offered you that kind of secondary market rate for a geese ticket, would you take it? Well, no, because you're getting like a guessless spot.

Yeah, I know. It'd be a crappy thing to do. I mean, if I bought a ticket, I would maybe consider it. But, I mean, you know, I think people probably believe rightly that they're not going to be playing these kind of venues much longer. I mean, they really shouldn't be even doing it on this tour. No. Clearly, they booked this tour. and then their popularity just way exceeded the size of these venues.

But yeah, I don't know. They are, I love their records, but I think they're probably even better live. And I had seen them once before. I saw them open on the King Gizzard. King Gizzard. I could not remember King Gizzard there for a second. What a weird thing to blank on. Yeah, I saw them on the King Gizzard tour.

But, you know, they only did like six or seven songs, and it was in a much bigger space. they were basically playing an arena. And it was, I think they were playing some of the getting killed songs already at that time, even though it was like a year ahead of when the album came out. So it was just different. So just being in that space. And, you know, you're around all these kids who are just excited to see this band. Like, this is their generation's band.

So it just really added to the experience. I loved it. I thought it was fantastic. So if you get a chance to see geese, you know, dip into, you know, instead of gambling your money away, just put it into geese, invest into geese. I think you'll be happy. Well, let's transition here, Ian. After raving about geese, let's go to a band that we're not going to rave about in this episode.

And that is Tame and Paula. We talked about this a little last week. They have a new album that came out on Friday of last week. That's called Deadbeat. We didn't get the chance to talk. about the album itself because we hadn't heard it yet, but we've now had the chance to hear it. And yeah, it's interesting. I mean, look, this album's getting slagged by critics.

We had an over-under conversation last week for Metacritic over-under 80, and this album is currently at 66. So not even close. We could have done over-under 70 and still been well under pitchfork. In particular, they were pretty brutal. They gave it a 4.8, which... I'm going to say here at the outset, I don't want to be a contrarian with this record. I don't want to like overreact to the negativity about this album because I do think this album is pretty flawed and a little boring.

But I think a 4.8 is a little too low. I would actually say it's closer to like a 6, which is like a 3 out of 5 stars, maybe like a 5.5, somewhere in there, I would say, which isn't terribly higher than 4.8. I mean, so I mean, I'm picking Knits here a little bit. But it's a really curious record to me because, you know, the big narrative with this album is that Kevin Parker is really leaning into dance music and rave music and like boiler room DJ type stuff, which is obviously a significant part of the record. But for me, the through line with Kevin Parker and Tamipala has been his ability to write really good singles, you know, songs that jump out of records.

And that's been true when he was making more rock-oriented stuff and also true as he segued into more pop-oriented albums. This album is almost entirely lacking in tunes to me. Like, I've listened to this album several times. I don't think I could sing a single chorus. You know, there isn't like a hooky song. I mean, Dracula, I guess. would be the closest, which is also one of the more schlucky songs on the album.

It's kind of like him trying to do Michael Jackson Thriller, like a campy Halloween-type track, and only he's not as weird as Michael Jackson, so it doesn't really come off. And it's so tuneless that it almost feels like a deliberate decision on his part, that I don't want to make a pop record or a rock record. I want to make more of like a record that feels like a rave, where it's not about individual tracks,

it's more about the experience of the night, grooves flowing into other grooves and kind of almost having like a hypnotic effect, listening to it, where it's not really about the individual parts, it's about the collective whole. Yeah. Right.

Do you feel like that too, listening to it? I mean, I feel, because it's like, he's so good at writing pop songs to, like, have a record without pop songs on it. It's like, you must be doing this on purpose. which is a questionable decision, I think, from him. I don't really get it. I mean, I'll see the floor to you here in a second.

I mean, to me, I feel like when you look at the history of, like, rock guys, and I do consider him a rock guy, even though he hasn't really made rock music in well over a decade at this point, even though I think slow rush and currents do have some rocky moments on them. But when you think about rock guys doing dance music, you think of either doing like a dance punk thing, like where you're kind of distorting the grooves, making them more aggressive.

I think of like Primal Scream Exterminator. Hell yeah. A great example of that like swastika eyes. If you're not familiar with that album, look up Swastika Eyes by Primal Scream. Incredible song, very aggressive or kill all hippies, that song, like just brilliant. Or else if you're not going to do that,

it's more of like a psychedelic, druggy thing. Like Noel Gallagher doing setting sun with the Chemical Brothers. You know, that kind of thing. And he doesn't really do either on this record. Like he kind of goes a little bit to the druggie thing. Like there's a track later on in the record that I think is one of the better songs. It's called, what is that? Like, ethereal connection.

Like, talk about like placeholder titles, man. Right. It's like one of the better tracks, I think. I think he's trying to go for a druggie thing. But it doesn't really come off. And I don't know. It just feels like an album where, you know, he typically works by himself.

I wonder if he needed a producer or somebody to come in and just someone to play off of because it feels like an album where it's just missing a gear. It doesn't really, it's like fine when you're listening to it. Like, I don't think it's a bad record. It's just sort of like an uninvolving record. It just, it's hard to really care about it when it's on. And again, I know he can write good songs. I know he can have cool drum sounds.

You know, that's a signature of old Tamapala. Like, it would always have these roomy, kind of 60-sounding Mitch Mitchell-type drum brakes that I think that's what maybe drew a lot of rappers to the music initially. It's kind of like the most Dunyan-like thing about Tame Impala. That's gone. I don't know, it's all on this kind of mid-level. And it never really breaks out of that.

Yeah. When you were talking about, like, hey, I can't remember any of the hooks. I can remember the one from Loser because it's like right over the riff, which is the, it's like the same, it's like singing the riff melody over the riff, kind of doing that, uh, wheezer thing. But, you know, have you ever tried to make electronic, like, have you ever played with like an NPC or you ever play with like, um, you know, like logic, loops or something like that? Have you ever tried those? No, I think I was watching like silence by Martin Scorsese when that was happening. So, so, so I was doing that while you were experimenting with electronic music. Yeah, because, you know, you can get like some pretty cool stuff that comes on. a Mac, but like, I'll tell you what, like, and this is a very, very base level thing. When you're in there, and you could be doing, like, the most basic, like, stacking loops that are, like, in logic, and it sounds like the coolest thing to you, imaginable.

Like, I cannot, it sounds so cool. And then you, like, you listen to, like, people who know what they're doing, and it's, like, oh, wait, oh, so that's why it sounds like that. I think there may be some element of that here. I mean, I'm not acquainting myself to Kevin Parker. I have not written loanerism yet. You know, I could have an El cancho like second. I could have an Elgincho like second act of my life.

Exactly. Yeah, it's like you mentioned, you know, Exterminator. And by the way, I think there's like some drilling going on near where I live. So we're getting some of that element there. But, you know, I think like James Murphy, for example, a guy who was in a pot, like a rock band and then switch to making dance music. Like it's the oldest, it's like one of the oldest narratives. which is that you make rock music in your youth and then you get into more refined electronic music. And, you know, in this process, I think just Kevin Parker lost sight of, like, what he's actually good at.

And I think it's interesting for people to make music that excites them. And another thing to make music that is completely working against your skill set. I do think it has that it just feels kind of uninvolving. It's not even, like, bad enough to be something you would look back on as a contrarian. Like, yeah, people really wasn't, people were really on his level, but actually it's sort of interesting in that way. And, I mean, I think for us as rock guys, it's been a pretty good year for us. Oh, yeah.

This is more evidence that, like, hey, maybe these rock guys are on to something because I thought, man, the last few years, I think have been great for rock music. Yeah. Without a question. Yeah. Because, like, I, even from the slow rush, which, you know, I like about half of it, you get a sense that like I don't think there was unless he was doing that thing that rappers would do in the late 90s where you get a bunch of producers you get like like you know jZ volume three you get five or six seven of the hottest producers you get the backing tracks and you just do your thing over it I think that had potential but you know just the way it happened now I mean it is I would say we've talked a lot on this in the past couple of months. months or this year as a whole about indie artists from the 2010s who have, you know, made stuff

that is kind of mid. But this one feels like a real flop because you think of Tame and Pollitt. Like they have such an imprint on what you think about when you think about the 2010s that this almost seems like the closing of a chapter of indie music in a way that, you know, like a big thief or a Japanese breakfast album not doing so hot wouldn't be, you know? Yeah, I think, yeah, this has been a theme that we've talked about. I wrote about this a bit on my substack, evil speakers, please subscribe. Just 2010's artists putting out kind of, you know, blah records in 2025.

And it's happened so many times that it really does feel like a defining trend of the year. And to your point, I mean, this might be like the cherry on top of the crap Sunday of like week 2010's records. because Tama Pala, like you said, is one of the biggest names, maybe the biggest out of all the artists we've talked about. And this is maybe the most Blah record. Because even like the Big Thief record, which I feel like is flawed, I think it's a lot better than this album. Oh, yeah. And some of the other ones that we could mention, you know, like the Lucy Dacus record, a Japanese breakfast. I mean, there's several others.

I feel like they all have like a little more something going on. Although, again, I do think that there's an overriding trend of kind of just feeling like a little unfocused and maybe unsure of like what to do next. And making music that feels like not bad, but kind of pleasant in a very uninvolving way. Like I feel like that's kind of the through line with a lot of these 2010s artists, have come back. And when you compare it to a band like Geese who, you know, I'm sorry if you're sick of music critics raving about this band, but whether you like or hate them, there is something more sort of provocative of what they're doing where it's like, I love Cameron Winner's voice or I hate it. But I'm not going to be able to just put it on in the background and not have an

opinion about it. And a lot of these 2010s artists have come back with records where kind of this feels like it's in the background. And maybe you're not going to get that mad about it because it's not terrible. But it's also like, are you going to remember it? Are you going to want to put it on again? You know, probably not. And it just feels like a string of very kind of dull, uninvolving records. Yeah.

And I think to the last point I want to make about this, you know, just kind of indie cast, Hall of Faming it. There have been a lot of, you know, orange chair quarterbacking about like what Kevin Park could have done, maybe got to brought in some more producers, like, really get more engaged in DJ culture. Now, if we're talking about like Australian rock guys making a dance record, someone should have just locked him in a room with cut copies in ghost colors and Zonascope. Those records rule.

We're never going to take mid-cut copy. We're never going to take peak cut copy or mid-cut copy for granted ever again. Although that being said, I do want to bring up freer mind, which is kind of like their version of Deadbeat. I gave that like a middling review. and that led to me getting a nickname in the Stereo gum comment section. So that's the kind of community that maybe Pitchfork will start to foster. I mean, I'll say too, like, you know, not Australian, they're French,

but in terms of like, you know, the rock dance hybrids we mentioned are, you know, pretty old. I would say for me, justice, audio video disco, which I think at the time was like not that well reviewed in comparison to their first record, that is a great hybrid of like rock and dance music. And again, it has that element where you're taking dance music and you're just giving it maybe like a little bit of like a rock and roll attitude where you can have these trancy sounding songs. But like, yeah, maybe the drums are a little more rock sounding or the bass is a little more distorted. I mean, I love that kind of music. I think that works really well. And I just feel like, I don't know, he didn't lean into the power of that kind of combination or he didn't take enough drugs.

maybe. It's one of those two, but it's like, I read a story where he talked about like renting an Airbnb in California and like looking at the ocean and making music. There sounds like a cool way. I would love to hang out and do that, but it does kind of speak to the point you said earlier about how you're by yourself and you're working with these tools and you can make pretty cool sounding music like fairly easily. But is it going to be exceptional and is it going to be something that

anyone who didn't make it's going to want to hear. That's the question. And it feels like he didn't really pass that test with this record. I was vindicated for jumping on saying more like dudbeat last week. I feel like- Right. Or lame and Paula? Is anyone... Well, people were doing that one all through the 2010s.

But dudbeat feels like... Dudbeat feels like the one to go to. So let's go to our yay or nay segment here as we're winding. down in the episode. This is the segment where we're reaching out to the kids on the TikTok, on the Instagram, a little bite-sized morsel that they can consume and hopefully give us lots of likes or at least comments calling us old idiots. This week we're going to be talking about the UK buzz band Bar Italia. You might be familiar with this group. They formed in 2020. They put out several records. Pretty prolific band, actually. I'm just looking at

their discography now between studio albums and EPs. I mean, they've got like five albums and three EPs released since 2020. They signed a Medador Records in 2023. And they became this band that like in certain circles people talked about a lot. And, you know, they have all of the classic reference points that you would expect for a band like this, everything from like Pulp to Sonic Youth, basically just record collector music from the late 20th century. And they have a new record that came out this month. It's called Some Like It Hot. So we are going to find out how hot this album is exactly. So Baratalia, cool as hell art rock collective or boring as hell record collector music. Yeah or nay, Ian, what say you? So I'm going to say yay as I debut my crop

rotation theory of British music where you have to have a band like this every couple years introduced into the ecosystem to clear everything out. Like these are bands that look and sound like they were designed in the Lab 2B, and I'm saying, like, air quotes, like, cool. Like you're saying, music critic music. I'm thinking of savages, if you can remember them. Oh, yeah. Crewal, black MIDI. And they're especially fun if they're British, because I think people feel more comfortable

making fun of them than they would if they were an American band. So, yay on form, we need these bands. Nay on the content, I was kind of bored by their aloof post-punk thing when I first heard of them in 2023. This new record is like weirdly divisive because they just I guess have high expectations. But what ended up coming through the speakers was like a C-tier release from the Maximo Park Kaiser Chiefs Art Route era, you know, where bands regularly wore bowler hats and suspenders. Except that this is not as much fun. I don't hear it apply some pressure.

I don't hear it. I predict a riot. So nay on the music. Yay on the concept. So I remember hearing about this band a few years ago, and I liked what I heard. I mean, I have to admit, I'm a fan of indie music of the 80s and 90s. I like post-punk music. I like a lot of bands from England from that era.

So I'm not immune of a young band, like, touching on that era. But I do wonder, like, how attractive is a band like this now in 2025 as those signifiers of, like, old indie music fade away a little bit? Like how cool is it really to sound like a 20th century post-punk band at this point? It seems like something that like middle-aged record store guys like, but not necessarily teenagers who are hanging out on TikTok. And then you have this new album, Some Like It Hot, which is like a slicked up version of what they did on some of their earlier records. It's like better produced, it's a little more concise,

it's like pretty shiny sounding. It reminds me of how in the 90s you would have a band like Sonic Youth that would sign to a major label and then they would start working with a big-time rock producer like Butch Big. Only, like, Sonic Youth already had this great reputation. So, like, they earned, like, their big-time sellout move. But Baratalia has made this kind of, like, 90 sellout sounding record. But, like, not enough people have bought in yet.

You know, so it kind of feels like almost putting, like, the cart ahead of the horse a little bit. So I think for me, I've got to say it's a nay. I appreciate them referencing records that I like. but I just don't know if they're putting their own stamp on it. Yeah, when I first heard of this band I thought of, and this is a deep cut, the Jeff Rosenstock video, wave goodbye to me. There's like this band in the video that just is designed to look cool. That's what I thought of Bar Italia when I first heard them.

So if you have great video, by the way, great song, great video. Go check that one out and you'll see what I'm visualizing with Bar Italia in my mind. We've now reached a 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? All right, so we like to make fun of algorithms. We like to make fun of playlists here on the podcast. But especially nowadays when I have kind of less idea of what's actually out there,

I do find checking in on Apple Music's New and Indy or whatever we're going to call it helpful. And sometimes you get a real fine. And for me, it was an album that is out this week from a man called Just Mustard. The name of the album is We Were Just Here. when I first got wind of these guys, I assume, A, because they're Irish and B, they're on partisan records, that this was going to be one of those talky post-punk bands, like maybe like a B-Tier, Fons-Tains, D.C. But what actually comes across is a really tuneful, noisy kind of shoe, because everything's kind of shoe-gazing nowadays. Rock band that makes me think of Gillaband, we need them back.

Boy, that record ruled. But mixed with maybe more of a joy formidable thing. I know we love talking about Joy Formidable. Oh my God. Hell yeah. Yeah, so I've really enjoyed the singles. I like the album and I'm going to be really stoked when I get to hear this on streaming because promo jukebox is the buggyest promo app imaginable.

But yeah, it's a good record. I like how when there's less big named things, I can be more curious about what's on the playlist because, yeah, there's good stuff out there. I'm just not aware of it as much because I'm not reviewing five albums a week like I used to. So I want to talk about a band from Indianapolis called Good Flying Birds. If you are a GB fan, you will notice that the name of this band is referencing a guided by voices song, specifically a Tobin Sprout song from Alien Lanes. So you know I'm going to be totally on board with this band. Their new record is called Toulos Tate. And this is an interesting backstory a little bit. This

group originated as a sort of a YouTube native project by this songwriter named Kellan Baker. And he actually recruited two members of the band Wishy to collaborate in this band Good Flying Birds. Wishy, of course, this really good shoegaze band, also from Indianapolis. They put out a record last year that ended up on my year-end list. He may be familiar with them. He put out a record called Toulous tape that it was under the name of Toulogad. It was like a 300 copy press vinyl that sold up really quickly. and eventually

obviously prompted him to decide to put it out in a much more wider format here and again he eventually changed the name of the project to good flying birds just to underline the sort of lo-fi jangly pop nature of this project. Again, really good songs I love the lo-fi aesthetic. I'm always going to be on board with that

but again if you don't bring the tunes the aesthetic is just going to be what it is And I think Kellan Baker, really good songwriter, really has studied the tropes of this form. And I think he carries them out really well, unlike Baratalia, I would say. These songs, I think, really stand on their own. And it's really just like a fun record. So again, it's called Toulouse Tape is the name of the album. The group is called Good Flying Birds.

Not to be confused with the Witch Gallagher's project. Oh, the High Flying Birds. Yes. That's Noel's High Flying Birds. Now this is the GBV-inspired project, not the Noel Gallagher side. It's a pretty good songs in the solo project, I will say. I'll defend a little bit of the high-flying birds. But definitely, I'm going to yay good flying birds and maybe nay, the high-flying birds.

At any rate, I digress. That about does it for this episode of Indycast. We'll be back with more news reviews and hashing out trends next week. And if you're looking for more music recommendations, sign up for the Indie Mix Taped Newsletter. You can go to uprocks.com backslash indie, and I recommend five albums per week, and we'll send it directly to your email box.