Indiecast - Is Nirosta Steel The "Underdog" Indie Phenom Of 2026? Plus: The Fantasy Albums Draft for Q3

Episode Date: July 10, 2026

The guys begin with Steven questioning Ian over whether his Belgian wife is to blame for the U.S. losing the World Cup match to Belgium, the most controversial Sportscast yet (1:06). Then they discuss the buzzed-about album "My Skyscraper" by Nirosta Steel, an unlikely critical hit by a 69-year-old former collaborator of the late, great Arthur Russell (11:36). After they talk about the week's new releases, including albums by Jack White and Panda Bear & Sonic Boom (32:55), followed by the latest Fantasy Albums Draft (41:34), featuring upcoming releases from Phoebe Bridgers, Gilla Band, L'Rain, Empress Of, and Julia Jacklin (41:34). In Recommendation Corner, Ian talks about Proun and Steven talks about Tracey Nelson (58:50). See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Indicast is presented by Amazon Music. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Indycast. In this show, we talk about the biggest indie news of the week, review albums, and we hash out trends. In this episode, we do our fantasy albums draft for Q3, and we debate the online sensation, Narasta Steel, and whether it is the new Cindy Lee, and hopefully you know what all of those things mean.

My name is Stephen Hayden, and I'm joined by my friend and co-host. You can blame his Belgian wife for the U.S. losing in the World Cup. Ian Cohen. Ian, how are you? Yeah, that's a little bit of lore right there. My wife was born in Belgium, otherwise, like, lifelong San Diego. But that means I'm the only person who was ethically rooting for the United States to lose on that particular game.

Plus, I like the fact that those Belgian uniforms, the ones that are based out of surrealism, look like the last two turnstile albums mashed up. Yeah. I just want to go back to what you were saying, because I think you skipped over this. You are admitting that your wife is not a natural born American, that she was born in Belgium. You are admitting that publicly, right? Yeah, I guess. Yeah, I guess that's how it works.

So your wife, I've met your wife, incredibly nice, lovely, awesome person. However, it is her fault that the U.S. lost to Belgium in the World Cup. So I don't know what to do with this, Ian. I feel like maybe we have to deport your wife here back to Belgium. This is for natural-born Americans. That's what America is for. That's what specifically American soccer is for. I don't know if you've followed online,

but it's so funny how, you know, at the same time that the birthright citizenship is on the verge of being revoked, like you have Donald Trump trying to bring Flo Bologgan in, who was like literally kind of like my wife, like her, family just happened to be in New York City when he was born. So that gives him citizenship. Yeah, now they can go back to, now the right one can go back to legislating the WMBA. There's a bunch of Texas lawmakers who feel like Caitlin Clark is being racially profiled at work. So that's their new thing now, now that our, the USMNT is out of the World Cup.

I just feel like, you know, because we have NFL season coming up here pretty soon. Can we make Donald Trump a Chicago Bears fan? I would love that. Can we get Donald Trump to all of the Bears games, especially all the Packers Bears games? Because the guy is a bad luck charm in sports. Like if he is cheering for your team, you are going to lose.

The one game of the Knicks lost in the NBA finals is the game that Trump was at. You get Trump out of there. They have the greatest comeback in NBA history. It's unbelievable with this guy. The negative mojo Trump has. I think teams are. to be paying to get Trump to their rivals teams, you know, and get him in there. Like for me, I want

him in bears gear. I want him wearing, you know, the Iceman, Caleb Williams gear for all of the Packer Bear games. Just, just bear him up. Bear down. Donald Trump, just bear down, baby. The guy's unbelievable. He has, like, an incredible track record for making people lose. You got to give him his props. I think he was also, well, not actively rooting for the Chiefs when they play the Eagles in the Super Bowl, but the Chiefs had quite a few people who were actively rooting for him. So, but yeah, beyond that, I just, I mean, I hate what happened. But I do love the fact that there's always a question of like whether Americans can embrace soccer in the way of their European counterparts.

And now that they see just how corrupt and quid pro quo FIFA is, people, for like, yeah, we're on board with this now, now that, like, we're allowed to take advantage of it. Because, I mean, we've seen in the World Cup, like, to the degree that I can understand anything on a granular level, that the reps are clearly out to get certain teams like Iran, Egypt. And I think it just goes to show how far America has to come in order to be, like, a world competitor in that the most blatantly corrupt thing in damn near FIFA history, or at least since Qatar got the World Cup. was for their advantage and they just got blown off the field by like an okay European team. Yeah, it was strange. It was almost like they were taking a dive in that game. I mean, to be four to one in a football game or a, we'll call it soccer game.

Well, at least in a knockout round, that's the sort of stuff you see when it's like, oh, it's Curacao versus Argentina or something like that. Right. I will say, though, and I feel like most, maybe not most Americans, but I feel like a lot of Americans probably agree with this, that, you know, it would be nice to see the U.S. advance, but like we really have no right to be advancing. I would feel like we would be impeding on the European sport or like the South American sport or the Latin American sport. Like, it's not our sport. Like, we shouldn't advance any farther than, you know, we got to the Sweet Sixth. team, I think, did we? Yeah, yeah. And we've been to this point before.

That's pretty good. I mean... We're like Gonzaga. We're Gonzaga here. You know, like we're not going to win at all, but we'll get up there. We'll compete in the tournament. And, you know, we can feel good about that. But it's not ours to win.

No. I mean, it makes me think of how... The best comparison I can think of is, let's say, like, 2003, 2004, when, you know, Run the Road came out and you were hearing a lot of, like, grime rappers, you know, Dizzy Rascal, Wiley, the streets. And, you know, it was cool for a moment that the UK had a rap scene, but it's never going to supplant America. It's just like not their thing. There's just something that gets lost in translation.

And, I mean, you know, we were alive in the 90s when the World Cup first came to the United States and they beat Columbia and that guy ended up getting killed for the own goal. Like, that was, you know, that brought the MLS to America. that brought a bit of excitement. And every year, there's just this question of whether this is going to turn America into a soccer country. Have you ever been to an MLS game? No, I haven't. It looks incredible. Well, not MLS, but I'm sorry, I was talking about the World Cup games.

On TV, look incredible. But MLS is it pretty lame? I mean, it's like the difference between seeing like a really good off-Broadway show and then you go to Broadway. way to see the World Cup. I mean, it's cool. It's nice in that it's accessible. But the cheers, it just feels like in a lot of ways, like fans of the MLS or what have you. The tenor is like that of a children's soccer coach.

Like they're really encouraging them. And it's just, you don't get that same sort of venom that you would at an NFL game or like your average Dodgers Padres game. I think it's cool. I prefer soccer to be the forum of, you know, like the joke there is on Twitter where there's like someone saying like truly disgusting football at like 3 o'clock in the morning before normal people should have opinions. Well, don't even say football. It'll just say like, abysmal, exclamation point.

And you'll be like, what are you talking about? It's like, oh, it's seven in the morning. You must be watching a soccer game. I mean, the great thing about sports. And it's the thing that, well, I mean, one of the great things about music is that it, It isn't definitive, that people have their own opinions and there is no such thing as the best. It's people deciding for themselves, what is the best. That's a great thing, the subjective nature to it.

But with sports, I think people love the clarity of it. They love that. You go to a sporting event and it's usually obvious who's the better competitor and who is not. And I think that even trumps nationalism ultimately. Like with the World Cup, as much as you might want to be in the American Homer and you want the U.S. team to advance, it's like you see some of these teams from around the world. You're like, I'd rather watch these great teams from around the world. You know, like, they're the real deal. Like, you always just want to see the best.

And you could be the biggest patriot that there is. And it's like, I don't want to see the B team anymore. I want to see the A team. So I love that about sports, that the national. I mean, eventually gets put aside, and it's like, yeah, let's get, I don't know, whoever. Who are the best World Cup teams? Like, let's get France and Paraguay or whatever. Not Paraguay anymore.

They lost, but yeah, I want, like, I want Mexico, England, like, day after day after day. Right, right. Yeah, that's, like, what I want to see. Or even, like, you know, Cabo Verde versus Argentina. That was just legendary. You just, you want, I mean, the World Cup's great because, like, you can actually just root for countries. it's like the most essentialist version of nationalism, but in a way that's just like purely soccer based.

You can root against France as a country. You can root against, you know, like Argentina. That's what I, and you just can't replicate that when it's, you know, San Diego FC versus the galaxy. I think too with this with soccer that no sport has benefited more from flat screen TVs. than soccer. As opposed to the old TVs, which, I mean, many people listening won't even remember this, but, you know, back in the olden times, when you had the old TVs that were square shaped, and now you have the flat screens that are, you know, like the letter box shape, essentially.

It just gives you a better view of the field. And I feel like I remember watching soccer in the 90s and just being bored. And now you watch it, and it's all of a sudden become like one of the best things to watch on TV. And I think it's just because, of that view of the TV screen that you get. And also, obviously, the crowd being into it, like being able to see the crowd in the middle of these games is a big part of it. And the no commercials thing is incredible.

But, yeah, it's just become like a great TV product where, you know, they say about football at this point that being at the game is actually worse than watching it on television. It's like the one sport really where you want to watch it on television, at least with NFL games. I think with college you want to be there. Soccer has a similar thing, but I don't know. I think the view that you get on television of the action has got to be superior to being there. I mean, the experience is better, but depending on where you are in the stadium, you know, like if you're in one of the end zones, I feel like that wouldn't, I feel like that'd be much worse than watching on television.

Absolutely, yeah, that's like kind of the crux of Chuck Klosterman's new book. Right. Yeah, he says that about American football. I also feel like that's true of some. Also a great band live, but what's that? Yeah, there you go. Well, let's transition here from the clarity of sports to the debate of music or the objective taste of music. Depending on how online you are, you might have heard about a new record that came out.

suddenly last week called My Skyscraper. And it is a record by an artist who bills himself as Narasta Steel. And I think I'm pronouncing that correctly. You can correct me if I'm wrong, Ian. No one has ever actually said this name out loud to me. I've read it online a million times this week. I don't know if anyone's ever, I don't know if anyone's had an in real life conversation about this album yet.

This might be the first time. I don't know, man. And at the Fourth of July party I was at, like someone came in saying, yo, man, this is like an 8-8 at best and 15 people to start wailing on this guy. Messed up the entire function. Many such examples. Right. So anyway, this record, again, it's called My Skyscraper. And it is the product of an artist named Stephen Hall who was a one-time collaborator, collaborator of an artist named Arthur Russell, who if you aren't familiar, he was a cult hero musician who passed away in 1992.

but before that he became, really he wasn't famous at all in his time. He became famous after he passed away, but he became known for his association with the avant-garde music scenes in New York City in the 70s, but mainly in the 80s. He started out in the classical world. He was a composer and a cellist, and then he eventually moved into dance music. And his records became prize in retrospect as these sort of examples of like

outsider art pop. with disco overtones. If you're curious about Arthur Russell, he's a really fascinating person. There's actually a great documentary about him that came out back in 2008 called Wild Combination. I'm not sure if that's streaming anywhere.

I'm sure you could rent it or maybe find a clandestine stream somewhere, but very interesting documentary about Arthur Russell. Anyway, Stephen Hall was a collaborator of Arthur Russell, and he's made his own music. And this new record that came out last week, My Skyscraper, is actually a compilation of recordings

that Hall made going back to the 1980s into the 2020s. And it's a record that has been gaining a lot of attention online in social media, particularly in music critics circles. I believe that the day that we're recording this episode, Pitchfork, has run a review of this album that gave it a 9.0, Best New Music. I expect other people to be talking about this album quite a bit. If it hasn't already conjured this comparison in your mind, there's also an element to this album that I think will remind some people of Diamond Jubilee,

the record by Cindy Lee that came out a few years ago. Not so much in how it sounds, but in how it's been talked about. It's a left field critical success, an album that would have otherwise had, No publicity at all, but it's now getting a lot of critical attention. And I think a lot of genuine kind of groundswell from people who look at it as a refreshing counterpoint to a lot of the more sort of considered or self-conscious or polished indie pop music that populates the mainstream. It's also similar, I think, to Cindy Lee in the sense that it's a record of old music.

I mean, some of the music is literally old. But it's a music that evokes a different era, an era that no longer. exist. In this case, the New York City of the New York City music scene of the 1980s. I have a lot of feelings about this album. I've been listening to it this week. Again, it's been very praised online and among music critics. But before I give my take, I guess I'm curious for your take, Ian. What do you think of this album? Is this the left field feel-good indie story of 2026 in the same way that Cindy Lee was in terms of of people just kind of getting behind an underdog record

and turning it into like a semi-well-known online phenomenon. I mean, first and foremost, it makes me miss Pitchhork Music Festival because this is the sort, like, this is the sort of thing where you need to be like in person arguing about this stuff. And for me, the past like 10 or some odd years, it was like, okay, this person's drunk, I'm not. And I'm just going to like hear this. And it's a great unifying.

force but it's so funny to me that we can say the new cindy lee like that this is a kind of album now and i think los thuthanaka was kind of like that as well in that it's this uh this i think it's cool that there's an actual thing that people are excited about in 2026 we had not gotten that so far this year but you're not not at not on a discourse level then no not at and we should say that This is like a pretty fringe thing at this point. Oh, way fringe. When we're calling it a phenomenon, it is definitely a phenomenon depending on who you are following on certain social media platforms. But I think it is worth talking about because a lot of those people are music critics.

This record is starting to get a lot of buzz in the music press or in what remains of the music press anyway. And I do think it's going to be a factor in when people talk about their favorite albums of the year. Yeah, and the other big story, it makes me think of the other big discourse of 2026, which was the chaotic good geese thing. And people talking about how, you know, that was a sci-op. That wasn't real. That was, you know, just a bunch of bots making people love taxes or what have you. And I just think it's funny when you compare it to what is, I guess, legitimately a more organic phenomenon like this or Cindy Lee where it's basically the same thing. 15 people, like the same 15 music writers running in the same Twitter circles and who write for the same

publications amping each other up. Like this is a scenario where like you actually can put your thumb on the scale. And so, you know, that is in some ways exciting, but it also gets the catch 22 of discussing music online, which is it's really, really hard to be enthusiastic without being really annoying and you know i think that is going to color uh some people's relationship with this record myself included especially if you're not amongst that inner circle of music writers i mean um as far as like the record itself it really does remind me of cindy lee in that it is a modern phenomenon in that it is it's something that you can discover more easily uh in you know with online the way like you can gather music online, but the music itself is like old sounding.

It's actually in a weird way of vote of no confidence about new music in that if, you know, Cindy Lee being number one in 2024 and this one potentially being 2026, it kind of questions whether like modern sounding music can create a masterpiece on that level. With anything, it reminds me of, I mean, you definitely were around for this, the 2004 release of Smile. Oh, yeah. In that it's like a new old album, except instead of, you know, like the Beach Boys, it's like the smile of 1980s New York City. Which is a more, I would say, relevant reference point for a lot of younger music writers at this point.

Like that the way that music writers of our generation romanticized Brian Wilson in the late 60s, I feel like Arthur Russell, not as famous clearly, but. I feel like he has a similar romanticized image or persona with that cohort of writers. Oh, yeah. He's like the ultimate process guy. And by that, I mean, there isn't like an album, like an unknown pleasures that would lead to Arthur Russell becoming over exposed. You know, the legend of him is that he did so many different things. And so much of his catalog is like demos or unfinished work. And so he's a lot.

he's quite easy to romanticize in that regard and this gives you the ability to experience that in real time which I think is like what could be better you know it's not evoking 80s in New York City is of that era and it's an era that you know it it's it's beloved for a reason that was a time of like big social change it's like one where you know the AIDS epidemic wiped out like a generation of people who could have been alive for this day to influence art and politics. Arthur Russell being one of those people who tragically passed away from AIDS.

Yeah. And so as far as like the album itself, it's long. It's like Cindy Lee in that it's very, very long. It's about 80 minutes. Yeah. Which, you know, look, I bought Metallica's load when it came out. So, you know,

I'm not like, I'm not completely immune to the charms of an 80 minute album, but I guess like the way it presents itself is less of an album than a compilation. The sequencing, it doesn't feel like super considered. There's like some acapella stuff. There's stuff towards the end that I'm not super into. I like the parts that sound like kind of like chill wave or bedroom dance pop. I think those come up more in the beginning, less so the stuff towards the end.

Yeah, I mean, I think in terms of the sequence. saying, you're right, it doesn't feel like it's been crafted in a traditional album way, but I do think that the most accessible tracks are at the beginning. And I would say accessible and best tracks are at the beginning. And, you know, we should say Stephen Hall is, he's still alive. He's still with us in case that wasn't clear. And I think part of what's appealing about this record is that, you know, he's in his late 60s. he's someone where if you're familiar with Arthur Russell's career, you know who he is,

but he's still someone who is like a new artist in a lot of ways, I think, to a lot of people we're going to be listening to this record. And again, that idea of this being like a left field underdog record, I think is a big part of the allure to it. I mean, you mentioned earlier about how some of the praise online has maybe been a little bit annoying, and that's going to color how people listen to it. I mean, I think with a record like this, extra musical aspects of it are always going to be a big part of it. And you could argue that extra musical aspects are a part of how every record is received. But, you know, an album like this, similar to the Cindy Lee record, I mean, the narrative is a big part of it. With Cindy Lee,

it was, this is an artist who, you know, has been around for a long time, is now putting on a record on a Geo City site, you know, doesn't have a publicist, isn't doing a lot of the, you know, social media things that we see in the indie world now, there was a sense of almost purity to it that you were hearkening back to a different time in not just indie music, but the internet. And I think that there is something similar with this album, as you said, harketing back to 1980s New York, which is a world that many of the people listening to this have no firsthand experience with, including us. Like, we don't have that either. And I think you're Right, and that it's not a record that is evoking that or emulating that, like we've heard from a lot of indie artists.

This is something that is authentically of that world. So I think that there is something special to it in that regard. And I'll just say, and I think you and I feel the same way. Like, we are in favor of critics getting behind records like this, records that feel like they would be ignored if not for music critics standing up for them. And at a time when we're endlessly talking about, like, what do music critics make? matter. Like, why do we need these people? Well, it's because of records like this. Like, we would not be talking about this record if writers weren't stumping for it. That speaks to the influence of critics. You know, they still do have some influence with a record like this, and I think

that's admirable. As for the album itself, um, I do think that this record is more of a dropbox dump of demos more than it is a, like, a coherent album. You know, like, if this were like, like a CDR that your friend gave you and said, I downloaded all of this stuff off of a media fire and it's cool, like listen to it. I think that would be almost like a preferable way to receive this record than as a album that is being presented as a best new music record. I actually feel like that's going to undermine this album in the long run because people are going to come to it expecting something that I think is a little more considered than it actually is. You mentioned the length of this album, which I don't have a problem with.

I like a lot of long albums. But there is a part of this album. You were joking about this online. You were joking about this before I actually listened to this album. There are two songs at the center of the album that are combined, I would say, about 24 minutes. One track is about nine and a half minutes. The other is 13 and a half minutes. And it's basically Stephen Hall playing an acoustic guitar and working his way through these songs.

And I don't really think that they're songs. I think that they are essentially sketches where maybe he was playing in the studio looking for a song. And it's the kind of thing where if you were putting out like a deluxe edition of a classic album and you needed some like bonus tracks, like you would put these on as the bonus tracks, but then they would be pointing toward. finished songs that were great, and you would look at these as sketches. But on this album, we just have the sketches. And I think some people are going to listen to this and think he's capturing a feeling, and that feeling is more essential than maybe what is actually there in terms of the music.

And there are songs that I like that are like that too. So I'm not arguing against the legitimacy of that. but I'll just say that for me listening to this album. This is an internal part of the record. I think that this is the part of the album where if you love this album, it's going to be the heart of the record. You're going to point to this and say, this is why this album's great.

But I think the majority people are going to get to this part of the record and go, I'm shutting this off and I'm not putting this on again. You know what I mean? I think it has that. Because after that, the album, I think, gets even more abstract and it gets more, I would say, sketch-like. Like the songs, like the songs, like the tracks that feel the most like, like they're the most thought through or the most finished are at the beginning.

And I think that kind of sets people up for something that the rest of the record does not deliver. Because once you get past maybe the fourth or fifth track, it starts to get, I think, it starts to feel unfinished in a way that I don't think is to the benefit of the album in a way that isn't compelling to me, but it just feels a little tedious. And then it gets more and more tedious as the album goes on. Yeah, I mean, hold on one sec. All right, yeah. Well, I mean, Ian, you can keep that in to reflect the process-driven nature of neurosis deal, or you can cut it out. But yeah, I mean, look, I'm not opposed to a middle album gauntlet.

I'm thinking of visiting friends from Animal Collective Song Tongues. Or really, you know, the ambient part of Microcastle, which is, you know, about half the length of one of those songs. But yeah, it's it, I would just be curious, not because I think it would, you know, kind of prove, oh, this is just this online thing. I would love to hear what a, for a lot, not like a normie, normie, like someone who might otherwise not be listening to indie music at all, but someone who's like on the outer rim of online music discussion, like what they might think of, uh, that one song, Y-H-E-M-A

with the, where it's the falsetto or the acapella. It's like, what does it normie think of this stuff? Well, I mean, I think where I would make a distinction from the Cindy Lee record is that, like the Cindy Lee record is long. I mean, it's a double album. But all the songs are about three or four minutes and they're all, to me, they feel like they've been, like they're fully considered. It feels like this was the work of a songwriter and a musician who worked on these songs, saw them through, and finished it and put it on a record. And to me, that's an album that you don't have to be a music critic to love. Maybe you think it's too long, but on a song by song basis, the Cindy Lee record, I think,

totally can stand up to any record that comes out in a given year in terms of. of approachability. And look, not everything needs to be approachable either. I don't think that that is the gold standard for music. Again, there's lots of music that I like that would not be considered approachable. I mean, my favorite band of all time, guided by voices, 90% of their catalog, most people will listen to and go, this is tedious noise. But I just wonder with this album, how much of it is intentional and how much of it is,

these are tracks that were in against someone's dropbox and we're putting it together and we're releasing in here and I mean it feels like an album that's ultimately designed for a coterie of people who love Arthur Russell and want to dive into anything that was tangential to his music and I think if that's how you're approaching this album you're going to find a lot here to enjoy but if you are more of a you know a person who's kind of coming in not knowing much about Arthur Russell or just like a regular music listener, I think it's going to be a tough hang. Yeah. Yeah, this either makes me wish Pitchfork Festival still exists

or make me wish I was like 62 years old again, like 2005 style where I would buy a CD just immediately after reading a Pitchfork review and then just write a blog about how mad I was that I didn't like it because I spent 18 bucks on it. I missed that experience. That's what this kind of gives me where it's, you're listening to something with just because there was like a good review and then you could be mad or not mad.

And I don't know. I think that's kind of what a lot of people miss. You know, like, because when Cindy Lee first came out like that reminded me of the clap your hand say, yeah. Not the album itself, but the phenomenon. So I think it's great to have like we should have one of these every year. You know, we should definitely have one every year. I mean, it'd be great to have several of these. every year. But yeah, again, I think the principle of taking a record that would normally not be

in the conversation, like this isn't the Olivia Rodriguez album or something. I mean, this is an album, again, music critics proving their worth. Like, if there weren't music critics, this album would not be talked about. I mean, we're music critics and we're talking about it. So I guess that's a self-realizing prophecy, but I do think that critics do have the ability to take a record like this that would just be in the morass of releases in a given week and elevate it and turn into something that people could talk about. And look, I would say, check this album out, listen to it. I do think it's an interesting record. Aesthetically, there's a lot that I like about it. I like how it sounds. I like the world that it comes from. I find I'm just as interested in that as the

people who love this album. I just think that as a collection of songs, I don't think that there's a lot of songs here, I guess would be my observation. It's a collection of aesthetic signifiers that are great, but they don't really come together, ultimately in the end. But listen to it, check it out. And for me, I hope I'm wrong. I hope this record grows on me, because I always love to love music Ian and I would rather love this album than feel skeptical of it. Yeah, this is also a time

where I wish we had like Mad Mike Colin show. It's like, hey, let's hit the lines right now and you get like, hey, what's going on, Peter from Wisconsin and just have them like rail at us? Love it. That's, yeah, maybe one day if we do a live indie cast. Instead, we just have

sub-tweets. That's all you have. No call-ins, just sub-tweets. Let's get to the week's new releases. These are the albums that are going to be out today that you can go to your streaming platform or choice or even better go to a record store by these albums. I know Ian, you're going to be heading to the record store today to buy the new album Adam by Adam Lambert.

I know you're a big Adam Lambert fan. Singer and queen. I was about to say he's like in one, he's like in Def Leopard or Journey or like one of those bands. Oh, Depp Leopard is still Joe Elliott all the way. I should know that. They didn't replace him. No, former American Idol contestant, and then he joined Queen.

And I've heard that they were better than ever with Adam Lambert. I bet they were like Freddy Who when Adam joined. His album's called Adam All Caps in that. Finn Wolfhard of Stranger Things fame has a new album. In The Hour of K—oh, I'm sorry, that's not his album. His album's called Fire from the Hip. Allison Russell's album is called In The Hour. of chaos that's also out today.

Was she in Strange of Things? No, she's not. Just Finn Wolfhard. Gotcha. Are you a Wolfhard guy? I know you're a wolf mother guy, but how about Wolfhard? You got like, again, I'm like sounding like really out of sorts, but was Finn Wolfhard the guy who was like in Pup videos or was that the other guy from Stranger Things?

That's how I tell him apart. I think it was Wolfhard. Okay. Could be wrong. Yeah, shout to him then. I should say, by the way, many, many people. pointed out to me that I was wrong last week when I said the replacements are not in our bank of your life. They are in our bank of your life. For whatever reason, I had a brain blockage

where I was thinking, I was thinking of Bob Mayer's book about the replacements. And for some reason, I was thinking that that was correcting the replacements not being in our bank of your life, but they are in our bank of your life. So to the 37 people who pointed that out to me, I appreciate that. I am correcting the record right now. He should just go as Wolfhard, by the way. Finwool. He should just, because he's got Wolf Parade, you got Wolf Mother, you got Wolf Alice.

Wolf Alice. Yeah, Wolf Alice. Wolf Eyes. Wolf Hard would be a pretty good name. There's a new Jack White record out today called Frozen Charlotte. I haven't heard this record yet. I'm going to write about this on my substack. Evil Speakers. I know all the fans out there love it when I plug my substack. So I'm doing it again. I really like the last Jack White record, the record no name. I thought that was the proverbial return to form for him. So I'm interested in hearing this record and I'm going to be writing about it as a 48 year old man.

Do you have any interest in Jack White at this point, Ian? He, I think I saw like he's divorced now, like him, Jack Antenoff. It's a messed up summer, man, for some of our big indie cast, cast of characters. It's hard to be a Jack. Hard to be a Jack in the music business right now, at least in ways of love. But I have a feeling that they're both going to be okay.

I think they'll probably find somebody else very soon. Jack White, I think, has been, this is not his first rodeo as far as divorces go. Because he divorced Meg White. That's his first wife. and then there was someone in the middle, Karen Elston. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then there was this latest wife.

I don't know if he's had another wife in there. I think he's, this would be... He's not putting up Ben Fold's numbers just yet. Or Steve Earl. Steve Earl's been married six times, I think. Is Folds, how many times has you been married? Quite literally, the Ben Folds five. Five times?

Okay, Steve Earl, I think Steve Rolls six times, so he's got one on him. Panda Bear and Sonic Boom made another record. I like their last record. I can't remember the name of it, but I remember being good. Yeah, it was like, the new one's like a question of time,

but yeah, the one before that was, they've kind of gone in this like bubble down. A question of when, it's called. Question of when, yes. And question is a question mark.

Yes. The word question. But yeah, Panda Bear and Sonic Boom. Also, more 48-year-old music out there. Parts and Labor,

they're back. Set of all sets is the name of their record? Anything to say about them? You know what? I do like some parts in labor songs like Noor Nye's a great song. There was one record that came out. I want to say it was like 2009.

That one was like pretty cool. But otherwise, look, I mean, we support our own with receivers. That was the one. We support our fellow music critics, don't we? I think so. We do. Show me the body. there are a new record it's called Alone Together

I don't go deep I don't go deep on show me the body they're the banjo guy they're like I've seen that they're like one of those bands where I've either seen them open for bands I like or they've opened for bands I've liked but I can't say that I've ever listened to

a album of theirs I just know there's a banjo involved and speaking of opening for people suki Waterhouse says a new album I'm called Love Land I feel like Sukey Waterhouse I've seen her open for, I know Father John Misty, I believe she opened up for him. I saw that too, yeah. I think somebody else. The Rolling Stones, who opened for nobody, their new record, Four in Tungs, is out today.

This is another record I'm planning to write about on my substack, which is called Evil Speakers. You know you love it out there. I purposely have not listened to many. I listen to the first single from this album where they were, they did the AI music. video. I mean, you saw that where they de-aged themselves, which I hated. I mean, look, when I'm 80, I'm going to look old as hell. I'm going to emphasize the wrinkles. I want people to know, I survived all this shit, man. Like, I lived. Look at what, look at what the world has done to me, and I've lived. So don't be de-aging yourself. Look old when you're old.

Yeah. With evil speakers in the year 266, you're going to hear like those. crags, you're going to get that grain in your writing voice. It's just going to be like, you know, an R a hundred times because like I'll dozed off on the R and I'll just be leaning forward. But I think Robert Criscoe, he'll still be older than me at that point because he'll still be reviewing records. I think we're going to figure out a way to keep all the music critics alive. So he'll be giving A's to like buck 65 records in 20, 266.

The Temper Trap Sure A secretly popular band Yeah, very much so I was about to say I get them confused With trampled by turtles But the Temper Trap is absolutely

Like one of those bands That we should It would be fascinating To just like go deep On that sort of Like I think of them as like Mid 2010's like Racking up huge Spotify numbers

I know you You'd probably throw them in With like the Lord Hurons Of them all Are they Americana? I thought they were more Cindy right I thought they were more kind of like a war on drugs, vibe-rock type thing.

They're Australian. Huh. The more you know. Yeah. Well, I'm just looking at pictures of them. They're wearing hats. I'm seeing some hats. So, hence why I'm thinking there might be a little more Americana.

Yeah. I don't know. I mean, it says indie rock alternative rock is how they're, I don't think they're Americana. Okay. I'm pretty sure they're not Americana. I mean, a lot of the aging rockers, they start wearing hats. I mean, I've joked about this many times on this show. This is true of music critics, too, that once you get to a certain age as a music critic, you need to start wearing hats and some kind of interesting eyeglasses.

So you detract from all the other things that are wrong with your breaking down body. So you need to look like a bass player for Elvis Costello at some point. if you're going to be like a male music writer in his 50s, which I'm getting very close to that. So when I start wearing hats and interesting glasses, just know that I'm self-aware about what I'm doing, that I know I'm wearing the costume of the middle-aged music writer. So just get ready for that.

Let's do our fantasy albums draft, Ian. Yes. So I won the last quarter. Our first quarter back after the break, the first quarter of the Amazon era, I won. So maybe I'm going to be the winner during our corporate era. You know, like, I'm the corporate era winner.

You were like the indie era of Indycast winner. But the corporation era is going to be all mine. So what do you think about that? Do you think this is going to be a thing or do you feel confident that you could turn it around? I mean, I was rusty. I'm not going to lie. You know, I was still utilizing a lot of indie style.

I feel like there's probably like a guy to buy voices parallel in here. Are there major label albums generally well celebrated or not? I would say at this point they are. Okay. Yeah, do the collapse in isolation drills? I think they do pretty well. You know, they're not as beloved as the mid-90s classics, but I think people, they don't turn their notes up at them as much.

So I'm due the collapse and you are B-thousand, I guess, in terms of the indie cast. fantasy draft winning eras or something. I don't know. We're getting too deep in the weeds with this. Let's do the draft. Since you lost, I'm just going to let you decide. Do you want to go first or do you want two picks after the first?

I want two picks. Okay. Well, I'll go first then. And I, okay, I feel a little... To me, there's one slam dunk in the third quarter. and I'm I feel like I'm maybe psyched myself out by not taking this because oh is there going to be a backlash against this person

but I really don't think so because again I think with the big outlets this person's going to for sure get great reviews no matter what so I'm going to say Phoebe Bridgers is my number one pick do you think there's any danger in that pick I mean I was not sure if you were going to like pass on I knew you were talking about her. I was wondering if you were going to pass.

If you did, I would pick it. I mean, there could be some backlash, you know. The single wasn't, like, rapturously resumed. No, it wasn't. But then again, it's been long enough. I think you're 100% correct in that there is a pretty high floor for this one. Like Rolling Stone and, like, the Guardian and places like, they're going to give it a high score. Yeah, they'll be fine.

Unless it's terrible, which I don't expect it to be. I think it will at least be pretty good, in which case it'll get great reviews. Pitchfork, you know, I expect they're probably going to give it like a 7.8. I'm going to call that right now. Haven't heard the album at all. I'm calling a 7.8 from pitchfork. I would say that is the over under. Over under 7.8?

You think it could go lower than that? I think it could be lower. I think that's what I would say is the kind of that that's what I'm thinking if I had to guess off top. No lower than 7.3 and no higher than 8.1. I'm saying that's the range. Yeah. For pitchfork. Having not heard a note of this album. A bold prediction. I've not heard a note of it, but I would still say that that's the range. Yeah, we're working on vibes. Okay, so you get two picks now. What do you go in with? All right, so, you know, I'm a little hesitant to use a lot of the same strategies that I've done in the past. And I think I've been burnt more than a few times by going left of center R&B.

But I think that's because I pick left of center R&B artists who release albums pretty frequently. But Kalila does not put out albums very frequently. I think this new avatar is coming out Friday. Her first one, I think, in three years. This is about as close to a slam dunk as you could imagine. I can't picture this not I haven't heard it but I can't picture it not getting you know rave reviews everywhere I would say this is like at least a high 80s I feel really confident in this one so that's going to be my first pick okay and then after that um ooh man I'm going to go

with Lorraine okay this is another um I guess you would like it's indie rock but there's some R&B influence into it. And, you know, her last two albums have done very, very well. They've also been very good. So that also helps. So Fadamara is the name of it. It comes out in, I want to say, like, August or something like that. But, you know, the first two singles are good.

You know, it could be a situation where it's maybe not as hyped as their previous two. I killed your dog in fatigue. But nonetheless, I feel really confident that this is a very, this is a very, a high floor record. Okay. And her last record was that I killed your dog? I think that was her last number. Yeah, I killed your dog.

2023. Another. Yeah, that made my year end list that year. I really liked that record a lot. Yeah, I had her on my list. I was going to take her in my top five if you didn't end up taking it. So that's a really strong one. My next pick is, so I get two picks now.

You do. My next pick, a little bit of recency bias, because I just saw a profile. this band published in Pitchfork. So I know that Pitchfork loves it based on this. Well, I guess I don't know that for sure. I don't know what the score is going to be. But I have a good feeling that Pitchfork loves this album. They're also a band from Ireland that's critically acclaimed. So I think that they're going to do really well in the UK press.

So I'm going to go with Gila Band. Man. That was going to be my next one. Their album comes up September 25th. It's called Pugnello. And I'm a fan of Pugs. I assume this is a Pug reference. Yeah, they're like a, I think we describe every band from Europe as post-punk.

I don't know if they're strictly post-punk. I mean, they're a band that, like, uses, like, a lot of effects pedals, and it's, like, very aggressive. Not a ton of pop appeal, but, like, they do have, like, a pretty big influential reach, certainly among bands in Ireland but I think I like a lot of groups coming out of the air they kind of feel like

they're the new like whatever idols was a few years ago maybe like Gila band's gonna be like that next band that has that kind of shine to them

they're like less rock than idols are but they have a similar kind of like punk aggressiveness to them I don't know I think this record's gonna do really well

in the press for sure yeah I love their last album most normal used to be called girl band but they changed that so uh okay was that like a uh like a like a like a like a like a like a like a biden era thing like yeah absolutely 100% we're a bunch of guys we don't want to call ourselves girl band yeah um that was 2021 which is kind of surprised like because yeah i would think oh yeah it definitely happened in 2020 but it happened in 2021 uh and then my next

pick i'm going to go with a person i've been talking about a lot this year i expect this record to do very well critically you I expected to do well with me. And I wanted to do well critically because I'm a fan of this artist. This is Lorelei. That album comes up September 11th. It is called The Singer in My Band. I don't know if this is going to get off the charts reviews,

but it's hard for me to imagine it getting panned. I think it's going to be a very solid metacritic score between, say, like, 81 and 84. I would expect it to be in there. Just chalk it in. Can't miss draft pick. Not going to carry my team maybe, but we'll do very well. It won't let me down.

So I'm picking them next. I think that's a good call. Both of those were on my list. I didn't know how much Gilliband was on your radar, but yeah, that was going to be something. I just read about them before we started recording. The draft reconnaissance came through at the last minute. Dang. All right. So, you want to talk about slam dunks. I am going to go with the reissue of Wien's 12 Golden Country Greats, which it, nah. I mean, that was... Oh, see, I almost thought you would go with that. That would probably do really well. Yeah.

Because usually when you look at Metacritic, the top rated album is always some reissue. And the only people reviewing that are going to be people like me who love it. Yeah, we're not going to assign it to like a 23rd. speakers on there, yeah. Like a 23 year old, just say on NYU, they're not going to be like, yeah, you write about 12 country golden grades, you know, or 12 golden country grades. They're going to give it to, okay, who's the grizzled person that we haven't given an assignment to in a while? Give it to that guy, and they're just going to rubber stamp a rave on it.

But we don't do reissues, I think, right? No, we don't. Yeah, we shouldn't. So anyway, okay, so what's your real, you have two picks here. all right so i'm going to go with one like i don't know a ton about this artist but i do feel like this has a pretty high ceiling i'm going to go with tyla and her new album apop uh she's won some grammies uh she's south african dub the queen of poppiano uh pop and um mappiano i don't i really wish i'd learn how to say this better but um you know she won a grammy with her last

album i think her uh self-titled did really well um and i think this is going to be like maybe a kind of makeup call for people who weren't really paying much attention to her before. So this sounds like a really, this sounds like a really high ceiling to me, at least as far as pop artists goes, because, you know, there are a lot of like big pop records that are coming out, but like, you know, well, I'm not going to mention it because you could pick them, but they're, the big pop records might be coming from artists who could be a little past their prime. So I'm going to go with this one. This one seems like it's on the up and up.

And yeah. So as far as my next pick, you know, there are a lot that I'm thinking maybe, but nothing feels like a slam dunk. I'm going to go with a band that I don't think this has a really high ceiling, but I know that this is going to be loved by, you know. It is a new band that I think older critics love. and that is a band on subpop called Sweeping Promises. Yes, I had this on my list. Okay. The fact that you had it on the list gives me is very promising to me because, like,

maybe this falls under the radar, but they're, you know, they're based out of Lawrence, Kansas, you know, shout to Apple Ced Cass and the Get Up Kids and the anniversary, all the bands from there. But they kind of play kind of a synth punk sort of deal. I think that they are the type to kind of... in at like let's say number 46 on most year end list it's you know it's angular it's dance punk it's kind of 80s-ish i feel pretty confident in this one so um is it a record that sounds like one i would love maybe not but nonetheless i think that this is the young band for old heads picked yes no that's a good way of putting it yeah definitely a band that um yeah for whatever reason a certain subset of critics

I think really gets into them. Although they don't have much of a reach beyond that. Like that feels like they're sort of like a younger version of wussy. You know that bad wussy? You're like Robert Crisco loves. You know, like a band like that, that I feel like if you go to the show, it's like Robert Crisco and like three other people in wussy shirts. Like that's like the wussy van contingent who no shots, you know.

Yeah, they look like us, but they're not us. Yeah, exactly. So, okay, so I have my last two picks here. And I'm just going to go with two people, again, similar to this is Lorelei, that I don't know if they're going to put out, like, the best album of the year or the most critically acclaimed album of the year. But it's hard for me to imagine them not landing in that 81 to 84 zone on Metacritic. The first one I'm going to pick is a singer-songwriter from Australia named Julia Jacqueline. Her record comes out. Let me look here.

September 25th, I know that because I was going to pick it too. Yeah, and I've got, that's also the Gila Band Day as well for me. So I'm going right to the end. We're going to make this dramatic. Her record is called The Gem. This is her fourth album overall. And she's been putting out record since 2016. And I feel like she's just like one of those artists who has never been at the center of discourse,

but she's always been respected and loved and always, gets good reviews and the people who like her music really get into it. I haven't like gone deep on her albums, but I respect what she does and I've always enjoyed her records. Her album from 2019 Crushing in particular is an album I remember really getting into. She's also in a band called Fantastic Furniture. That's a good, pretty good rock combo. So I just expect this record, again, unless it's totally awful to do well, be a very solid performer. for me. So I'm going to go with her. And then for my last pick, I'm going to go with another singer-songwriter who's been around since the mid-2010s. This is a Honduran-American singer-songwriter named Empress of.

I was looking up her records on Metacritic. She always does really well. Her last album came out in 2024, for your consideration. How did that album do? Hopefully that album didn't fall in the other ones I looked at did well. Let's look. That album has an 85. I just think that she is like money in the bank, mid-80s, I'm Metacritic, really solid. Again, like not a dominant person in terms of critical attention, but I think it's someone who is definitely respected and has a long career, a good track record of doing well. So I'm going to go with her at number five. You know, each time that you're like,

I'm going to go with a singer-songwriter, I'm thinking that's like when, you're like making a little joke about picking Charlie X-E-X, which is a funny way to introduce her. Who is still on the board, by the way. She's one of the big ones on the board. We got a Shania Twain record on.

I almost went with Shania Twain. Just because I feel like there's a lot of critical goodwill toward her. I think anything she does. I did something similar with, who was that? I can't remember. Never mind.

Mountain goats are on the board, Ian. Bebadoobie is on the board. We've talked about her. There's a Wild Pink record on the board that we both love, that I'm sure we'll be fans up. Anyway, what are you going to pick for your last? Man, you know,

there's a part of me that wants to pick like Charlie XXX for like, you know, to go for the win or just like that, but we're going to talk about it anyway, but I'm going to do something boring and kind of like with you, with, uh, I just pick something that is, you know, going to be released on a indie label, but is kind of coming from the, uh, you know, kind of a Latin American pop, uh, perspective. Uh, Lido Pimienta has an album coming out. I know the last one, Miss Columbia did really, really well. And so, uh, since the fact is that, um, they haven't put one out in a very long.

long time. Leads me to believe this one will be received as well as well. So the name of this album is Carabinia. It's out in July, I believe, July 17th. So we will see how that goes next week. I'm hoping it's got Nelly Furtado on it. It's only eight songs. So I'm hoping that this doesn't end up a situation where we have to like repick because it doesn't end up on Metacritic. So I feel pretty good about this one though. I can't see it getting less than an 85 if it ends up on there. So, yeah. All right. So that's it. So your team is Kalia, Lorraine, Tyler, sweeping promises, and Lido Pimenta, and I am Phoebe Bridgers, Gila Band. This is Lorelei, Empress of, Julia Jacqueline. I really like my squad. I think I'm going to win again, but we'll see. I don't know.

I think you're going to win again, too, to be honest. We'll find out. Phoebe, don't drop the ball for me, please. We've now reached the part of our episode that we call Recommendation Corner, where Ian and I talk about something we're into this week. Ian, why don't you go first? All right. Speaking of bands, I should have looked up how to pronounce. This band's name is spelled P-R-O-U-N.

It's Prown or Prune, maybe. I'm thinking it's Pround. But they have a new album that came out a few weeks ago called Maybe Luck. It's got a house on the cover. What more do you need? And it's not like, it is kind of indicative of what kind of music you're. you're going to be hearing on it. It's been kind of hard to find good music in the realm in which they operate. They're a band from Austin, which is a little emo-coded, but very squarely within

indie rock, so it's not 90s throwback stuff like first day back, and it's not Midwest emo, which is more like pop punk to me. They've played with J-SOM, Lomelda, boxing, and I think that sets the agenda for the kind of music they make. Band Camp has tags of emo, folk rock, and gay, which is also, I think, a pretty good indication of what kind of music they make. And I would say that if you wished Big Thiefs UFOF had 25% more American football influence, which I don't think it was influenced, but there's something there. This is the sort of album that will fit your needs. So prune, prune, pround, whichever one it is, maybe luck.

That's a good album. All right. I want to talk about a record called Hercules by an Arrude. artist named Tracy Nelson. And I have to say that when I first heard about this record, I thought Tracy Nelson was the name of the person in the band. But it turns out that Tracy Nelson is a band name or a project name. The actual person in this name, his name is Austin Knoll. He's a songwriter and singer, a songwriter singer, not just a singer-songwriter, who is based in New York City. And Tracy Nelson is the name of his mother. He named his group after his mom, very sweet.

And this record is another in a line of records that I've dubbed the Lenderman, records that have followed M.J. Lenderman's path after Manning Fireworks made him one of the leading figures in contemporary indie rock. M.J. Lenderman is actually on this record, as well as some of the other members of Wednesday, including Carly Hartsman. I would say that what sets Noel apart is that while he is hanging out with these musicians from North Carolina, he does bring more of a city perspective to these songs. I actually feel like this record sounds more like a Brooklyn indie rock record that happens to have some twang on it. And I think that's to the records benefit ultimately, you know, because I wouldn't even really call this like an alt-country album, even though it has some of those elements. It actually kind of reminds me of like Jonathan Richmond records, like when he went into a country direction.

but it was still like Jonathan Richmond music. This is like those records, but it's like Jonathan Richmond after he took an edible. You know, like there's a real kind of hazy, lazy quality to a lot of this record that I think is really enjoyable. It's kind of perfect for this time of the summer. So it's a really good record. Definitely in that zone again, the music that we've heard a lot this year, which at some point I think this is going to get oversaturated. but I think it's still working at this point on this album. And I would definitely recommend it.

And again, the album is called Hercules. The artist is named Tracy Nelson. Definitely check that out. That about does it for this episode of Indycast. We'll be back with more news, reviews, and hashing out trends next week.