Indiecast - New Albums By Waxahatchee, Adrianne Lenker + Rosali

Episode Date: March 22, 2024

Steven and Ian begin this week's episode with a very non-indie rock topic — the story about Bruno Mars owing $50 million to a Las Vegas casino (4:29). They shoehorn a brief Sportscast about the emerging gambling scandal involving Shohei Ohtani, lamenting the bad side effects of gambling while also hoping to get some gambling sponsorships for the Fantasy Albums Draft. Speaking of which: Ian is killing Steven once again in the Fantasy Albums Draft (10:47), and Steven is thinking about firing his general manager (i.e. himself).Next the guys review the new album by Waxahatchee, Tigers Blood, which Steven likes more than Ian (16:36). They also talk about two other big singer-songwriter albums out today, Bright Future by Adrianne Lenker and Bite Down by Rosali (33:46). In the mailbag, a listener asks whether Steven's neighbors like his patio music, and then another listener asks about Indiecast's favorite albums to play on airplanes.In Recommendation Corner (54:32), Ian talks about the new album from Bedbug while Steven recommends the comeback record from Restorations and a new archival concert release from Bruce Springsteen.New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 181 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 Twitter for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Indycast is presented by Uprox's indie mixtape. Hello everyone and welcome to Indycast. On this show, we talk about the biggest indie news of the week, we review albums, and we hash out trends. In this episode, we talk about Waxahatchy, Adrian Linker, Rosalie, Bruno Mars, patio music, all the best topics. My name is Stephen Hayden and I'm joined by my friend and co-host. He's not at all bothered that he wasn't interviewed for Slate's pitchfork oral history.

Ian Cohen, Ian, Ian, how are you? Actually, you can put in the newspaper that I got mad. I'm seeing some names on that where I've like done more Das Races. Like I've done more reviews of Das Races side projects than some of these people have done things total. Like, you know, step up your game. Review a couple of waves electronics projects before you speak on the history. Nah. Yeah, also Dan Lassack of Dan Lassack for Scroobious Pit fame.

I gave that project, which I haven't, I haven't thought about it in a long time. It sounds sort of like the streets if they were more concerned about like conscious rap. I gave them like a point two back in 2008. I do appreciate how that guy got a line in the oral history where he said that review actually like did a lot of good things for their career more so than five would. They interviewed Dan Lassack, but not Ian Cohen for the pitchfork oral history. History will absolve me. Slate. Slate.

Okay. So if you don't know what we're talking about, this week, slate.com. They published an oral history of Pitchfork. And they interviewed, I believe, somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 people, including musicians, commentators, as well as some people who actually worked at Pitchfork. And look, I mean, they obviously put a lot of work in. They interviewed 40 people. There were three different writers on this. it's a fairly long piece.

It's fairly comprehensive. I do have to say as I read it, I thought it was interesting who they interviewed and who they did not interview. I feel like there were people that could have been interviewed that maybe should have been interviewed and they weren't in there.

And I'll include you in that. I also want to shout out one of my other podcast husbands, Rob Mitchum, who's written many reviews. he brought Dad Rock into the lexicon because of his Wilco Sky Blue Sky Review. He's not in there. And there's other people in there who aren't, there are, there's other people who are not in there that I think have had a big part of Pitchfork's history.

And look, you never know. Sometimes people aren't in there because they didn't want to be interviewed. You know, maybe they were approached and they turned them down. But I don't know. I just thought that was interesting. Some interesting choices. There were writers in there, I mean, to say nothing about you. There's writers in there who have written few.

reviews than I have. And I have no role in pitchfork's history. And I'm like, I've written more reviews than you. Like, what are you doing in here? So I thought that was interesting. The other thing I thought was interesting, and this isn't just Slate doing this, there seems to be this belief that pitchfork has already shut down. Yeah. We have to eulogize pitchfork. It's like, if you go to pitchfork, they're still putting out several reviews every day. You know, they're publishing features. They're doing basically what they've always done, but with a much smaller staff. I mean, God bless the people who are working there still, very trying circumstances. I have some idea of what that's like when I was at Grantland and Bill Simmons got fired.

It's kind of a similar thing. Like, you have people on the internet acting like you're already dead. And it's like, no, we're not dead. We're trying to keep this body going here. You're not helping by doing this. So, you know, this impulse to eulogize a site that's still going and hopefully will continue to carry on and, you know, thrive in the future, it seems a little premature to me. We may have to do another oral history of pitchfork at some point. The oral history of the oral history.

And maybe you can get into that one. Maybe we can put Dan Lassack to the side for a second. Get some Ian Cohen love in a pitchfork role history. I don't want to spend a lot of time on this, but I feel like we have to talk about one of my favorite music-related stories of all time. And this, well, not of all time, but of like recent times, I'll say. And this has nothing to do with indie rock.

I'm sorry, but there's a story this week about Bruno Mars, the pint-sized pop star that we all know and love, allegedly owing $50 million. That's $50 million. $50 million in gambling debts to, I think it was the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. That sounds about right. Yeah, and I think he's doing a residency there, or either at that hotel or some other hotel. And look, we should say that the hotel came out and said that the story isn't true,

and I think Bruno Mars also denied it. But I'm sorry, if you walk around with a fedora and a pencil-thin mustache, a story about you owing $50 million in gambling debts is like a thousand times more credible. You know, like the pencil thin mustache is such a giveaway. It's very suspicious. But I don't know. This kind of relates in my mind to the show, Hey, Otani's story too going around this week. And I guess we're going to do a little sports cast here.

It's like a mini sports cast. But did you see this story? Like his interpreter got fired because, there was like some sort of like wiring of money to an offshore bookmaker. And now people are, you know, very reasonably questioning, is this related show, Hey, Otani? Is he betting on sports? Do we have a Pete Rose situation possibly brewing here?

Is gambling just ruining everything in the world? Are we just becoming like a gambleholic society? Because gambling is really permeated. It's permeated sports. I mean, I wish it would permeate music criticism. I would love some Draft King's money. Maybe we can get them to post odds on the fantasy draft, fantasy albums draft. That'd be amazing for us.

Draft Kings, please reach out to us. We want to get in this corruption that's taking over the world. But I don't know. I hate gambling personally. I like watching gambling, like poker movies and, you know, that kind of thing. But I hate gambling myself. Like, are you a gambler? Are you going to be owe $50 million?

Am I going to have to bail you out at some point, Ian? Yeah, we're going to have to go on Patreon and put out new episodes every single day for, you know, one of us catches the gambling bug. But, I mean, like, I hate gambling too. Like, I am way too anxious about money at all times. That being said, you know, not to skip ahead to one of our mailbag questions, but I'm going to, Europe this fall with my wife. And that's only because I won my fantasy league, which I guess you would call that gambling, but it's like a one thing I do like once per year. Wait, wait, you want enough money? Wait, you want enough money to go to Europe in your fantasy league?

Yeah, Jaden Reed, man. What? Jayden Reed. What? Look, it's enough to like buy, to mostly cover the flights. Jeez, Louise, man. This is crazy. That's gambling, my friend. If you're winning enough, if you're winning airfare money to Europe, you are gambling. You are entering Bruno Mars. It's like entry-level Bruno Mars. Yeah, I feel like we, you know how like, I guess one or two years ago there would be like either a documentary or like a mock or like a biopic about like the opioid epidemic?

Like I feel like in about five to ten years we're going to see that with, you know, draft kings or any of these other micros. gambling sites. Like, I really do think it is a plague upon our society. Also, like, with Bruno Mars, I mean, does the fact that, like, it was $50 million make it less believable or more believable? Because, you know, if it was like three or four million, like, if it was that, like that guy might be dead already. I don't think you can walk around owing $4 million, like, or even like $500,000 worth of gambling debts in a, you know, that's. Las Vegas and still walk around like with you know both of your thumbs well I mean look I don't know anything about the inner workings of casinos I'm purely speculating here I mean if he's a whale

yeah so to speak and I know that term because I've seen casino 50 times but if Bruno Mars is a whale maybe they let him run up 50 million dollars because maybe in the past he's one comparable amounts of money so they're just like oh this guy's swinging back and forth it seems like a pretty big tab to run up. And again, the casino denied it. I'm sure the casino doesn't want it out there, that they're like giving a celebrity $50 million with a rope. Yeah.

You know, that's... So here's a gambling term. You know the deal. You've probably seen rounders enough times. Yeah, but, you know, yeah, I mean, the gambling thing is crazy because, you know, when I'm not recording podcasts, I am listening to exclusively,

sports podcasts. Like, I don't listen to music podcasts ever. I only listen to sports podcasts in my free time. And they are all, it's just wall-to-wall gambling ads. And you have the gambling ads, you have the host, they gamble too. They're given gambling tips. It really does feel like you're in a schoolyard and there's like just 50 drug dealers surrounding you, giving you free drugs. You know, like you're a kid and all these drug dealers, they're trying to turn you into like a crack addict or something. That's what I feel It feels like listening to these sports podcasts. It's not going to work because I hate gambling.

I have personal experience with gambling addicts in my family. Not a good scene, really, to be around. But again, if Draft Kings wants to come in and sponsor our fantasy albums draft, I do like money. So if you want to give us money, that'd be amazing. Speaking of which, fantasy albums draft, let's do the update here. I'm angry. I'm angry because I can see my season. It's not technically over, but it's basically over.

So the new Waxahatchie album is out today. It's called Tiger's Blood. And that was your number one pick. Very good number one pick. It's currently at number 91, or it has 91 score on Metacritic. I had Julia Holter, which, did that drop today? Yeah, that's also out today. And that one's putting up big numbers too.

So, I mean, that was a valiant effort. It was. I got an 89 currently. I'm Metacritic with Julia Holter. But right now, our combined score, I have 424. You have 353. You have one album left, and that's also out today. That's J-L-N.

J-L-N. J-I-N. J-L-N. She's a footwork producer, got Philip Glass on her new album. That's like an optical illusion because it looks like J. Because like the L and the I, it looks like Jiln. Yes. So it's J-Linn though.

Yes. Okay. Anyway, J-Lin's going to mop the floor with me because you only need a 72 to overtake me. J-Lan's going to sail through with that. What do you think she's, like, what would you guess would be her medicine? Metacritic score. We're going like 85, 86. Yeah, I think that's like a floor. And just to put this into perspective, I'm looking at Metacritic right now.

And like, I'm going to read you some of the albums that have done worse than 72 in the past couple of weeks. Justin Timberlake and Bleachers, that's it. Like the new Dandy Warhol's album is clearing a 72. Oh, God. So it's going to be a route. Yes. I mean, you're going to beat me. by like probably 13, 14 points,

which means I'm 0 and 2 in our fantasy drafts. And I'm looking at my team here. I mean, I think I picked well. I mean, I guess Katie Kirby was the miss because I think she was high 70s. 81. 81, okay. So, I mean, she did well too.

I mean, I guess the smile was about the same. That's an 83. You just hit really high. you just hit really high I think I did well but you you were just really strong even like I wonder what you would have done

if you had kept the jazz album probably about the same because like what did you replace the jazz album with I believe that was Jalen okay so Jalen so we'll see but it's all going to be academic because you would have won with VJ. Iler

you're going to win with J. Lin God damn, I'm firing my GM. My GM is out. I'm firing myself. I'm going to put in a new GM. I guess we'll pick next week for the spring. Fantasy albums draft. I got to get my shit together here.

I'm like really upset with myself. I thought I could win this quarter and tie it up. But I'm 0 and 2. All right. My GM's out of here. Yeah, maybe you need like crowdsource. Maybe you need to like crowdsource. for the next one.

Like instead of mailbags, you're just going to like kind of search for the next like Sam Hinky or whatever. But you did like you. I'm not a crowdsourcing yet. That's just like desperation at that point. If I go to O and three, maybe I'll crowdsource.

But I feel like I can pull it together for the spring quarter. Yeah. I mean, you did. These were good picks. It's just that like the ones I did did like three or four points better each time, which you know, like that that adds up.

You draft one, Katie Kirby, you know, the smile. I think Faye Webster, this was probably her least, you know, least strong performance. But it was still good. It's just that, like, that's true. Yeah, it's just that I just had. And also, like, you know, mannequin pussy, like Julia Holter, those are like best of the year type scores. Yeah, it's just that yard act, yard act did well for me. You know, Calyuchus did really well for me.

me. You put a, I wouldn't throw out the, I wouldn't throw out the blueprint just yet. You know, I think that maybe next time, uh, depending on like where the draft picks fall, you know, you'll, I think you're still in the mix, you know, right now you're just looking at, you're like the pistons to my, you know, early 90s bulls. Wait a minute, no, I got that all wrong. You know, the bull, you had to be, I've already forgotten, I've already forgotten the last dance. You're like the trailblazers during the Jordan era. See, look at you. You're just comforting me. This is how pathetic I am right now.

Like, you're not even enjoying your victory. You are trying to comfort me. No, I know. Look, I feel good about my performance. I'm just a little upset that I'm going to get blown out here. I feel like my team was better than that. I'm a little stunned. I'm going to fire my GM, and I'm going to rehire my GM because it's me.

I'm just going to fire my GM, though, out of anger for the week, and then I'll rehire him in time for next week's, draft. But yeah, congratulations, Ian. You did it? Yes. I mean, look, Jalen might fail. Jalen might put up Timberlake numbers.

You never know. That's not happening. It could happen. It's not over till it's over, but it's probably over. Yeah. Let's talk about the big album this week, your anchor, your number one pick. By the way, I think you've had the number one pick in the first two drafts. I think you had it in the first one, too.

Probably. Because you took Because you took Taylor Swift No didn't I take Sufyan with the first pick? Oh, that's right Because I thought you would Yeah, that's right I took Taylor Swift. Did I take Taylor Swift?

Yeah, I can't. No, I definitely had Taylor Swift And you thought that was just like a brilliant Sort of like picking Janice Out of Greece in the second round Or like Nicola Yotich Type maneuver Well, I would have taken that though.

I think you must have had the second pick And you got two picks there That must have been that must have been it. Who can remember? We need like an Indycast historian to revisit that episode and tell us what the order was

because I would have definitely taken Taylor Swift. That was on my board. But I don't remember. Indycast in the 2023 redraftables. That's us. Indycast historians, if you can revisit that episode, send us an email, let us know what we did.

Because frankly, we record these episodes and I immediately delete them from my memory. I don't remember what we say. So if someone could do that, that would be great. Let's talk about the big album of the week, the big album on your fantasy team. And that album is Tiger's Blood by Waxahatchie. It's the first Waxahatchie album in four years,

following up her very successful and acclaimed 2020 album, St. Cloud. And if you like St. Cloud, you're going to like this record. Has the same producer, Brad Cook. Has that same kind of wised up country rock sound to it. I think it's a really strong record. MJ Lenderman is all over this album and I've talked about MJ a few times on this podcast and being a fan of him so I'm glad to see him

enter the Waxahatchy Fold. We've talked a little bit about this album this week so I know you're not as into it as I am and I want to hear you talk about that but I also want to talk about the overall career of Katie Crutchfield and Waxahatchie going back to 20. 12, the first Waxahatchee record American Weekend. I did an interview with Katie this week, and we

talked about the entire discography of Waxahatchie. I had her talk a bit about each album. And just going through it like that, it was very interesting because she has had one of the more fascinating evolutions in Indy Rock over the past decade plus. For those who don't know, the early Waxahatchie records are quite different. from the last two. She really started out making these noisy DIY indie rock records. I think in particular, like Surreli and Salt, which came out in 2013, and then he had I.B. Tripp in 2015.

Those two albums, I really liked revisiting when I was doing this piece because of the noisiness of those records. And there's almost like this 90s aesthetic, very kind of pavement guided by voices type feel. and I think it's very natural to split her catalog up into pre-Brad Cook and post-Brad cook. And Katie did that herself in the interview. Like that was the first thing that she said. She said, like, I look at my catalog as pre-Brad and post-Brad.

And it was pretty obvious talking to her that she prefers the post-Brad. I wouldn't say she's dismissive of those early Waxahatchie records, but I think she said, this is a quote, I feel like I figured it out on these last two albums. I thought that was an interesting statement because I feel like there's probably some people who would disagree with that. And maybe you're one of those people.

Again, I like the last two Waxiatchie records. I mean, St. Cloud, I think, is a great record. Tiger's Blood, I think, is like a little less good, but it's a really strong album. But where are you at? How, like, where are you out with Waxahatchie, and do you feel like she has figured it out, or do you like those earlier, noisier records? So, you know, my first, I want to talk about, like, this really fun experience I had with Waxeahatchie prior,

like in the pre-Brad era. Like, I was at Coachella one year, and I remember seeing this, you know, this kind of younger, looking very indecoded woman in front of me, and she had on her arm a tattoo of the album cover from Rilo Kiley's, the execution of all things. And, you know, I just like, like, hey, that's like a really cool tattoo. It turns around. It's like, oh, that's Katie Crutchfield. How about that? Like, I think they were, they were playing Coachella that year. And so, you know, naturally, uh, someone who's going to have a Riloh-Kiley tattoo is going to make music that I enjoy when they're doing more kind of the indie rock thing rather than the, you know, wised up Americana bit. So, um, prior to St. Cloud, um,

I found that I liked Waxahatchy a couple of songs at a time. You know, I liked La Luz from Ivy Trips, Silver from Into the Storm, Coast to Coast, Breathless. A lot of songs I like, but they tended to be the atypical ones. I also felt like this was an artist I'd probably like more if I were in college or something. If I was just having like a messier sort of life. I remember saying Surulian Salt reminds me of having roommates, which, you know, a lot of people didn't appreciate. but, you know, I figured in 2018 when I saw them open for Jawbreaker, you know, which may not be the friendliest crowd, but I figured that Waxahatchie was probably going to go the way of, say, like, a Frankie Cosmos, like a, you know, sort of indie rock songwriter that was, you know, kind of peaked in mid-2010s and, you know, went on to make like respected records, but perhaps not an A-lister. And, you know, St. Cloud, boy, that's like a real right.

time, right place record. You know, it's, it's associated with the pandemic, but I don't see it in the same light as, say, like, Fetch the Bull Cutters or Punisher, which were more prone to Twitter performance. I think it really integrated Katie's, you know, story of getting sober and just kind of finding serenity and peace through the shittiest time of her life. And I think a lot of people really needed that kind of record in early 20 and throughout 2020. And also the fact that, you know, Lucy's Cindy Williams had been like a major, major, major, major influence on indie rock leading up to it, but she leaned into her southern roots and really made that comparison stick. And so I think that St. Cloud for her, and, you know, the album cover is fucking awesome.

It really presented Waxahatchy as like a total package, like her putting on a show in the way the previous ones had it. And it really just elevated her career to like this new level. I also think that it was the kind of record that an artist makes when they want to put together a sustained career. You were talking about how when you saw her in the 2010s and you felt like, well, this is going to be an indie rock band that has their moment now, but they're going to fade a little bit. And when you listen to those 2010 records, you know, like American Weekend, she made when she was 21 years old. And it sounds like a record that someone would make when they're 21 years old. It's a very young person's record, I think mostly in the best sense.

I mean, just the intensity of it, the rawness of it. And then as she grew into more of a band-type outfit, again, making those noisy, kind of chaotic records. I mean, when you listen to those records, I feel like you can hear the substance abuse on those records. There is a sort of lack of clarity with those records. And in a way, I mean, like, the lack of clarity is like what I like about those records. I like how messy they are. Again, like the 90s sort of aesthetic they're going on, I think is a really appealing part of albums like Ivy Trip. I mean, Ivy Trip was an album that I remember liking at the time.

But when I revisited it for this piece, I found myself really loving it. I think that's a really kind of underrated record in her discography. And then you get to St. Cloud, and you feel the clarity. I mean, it's there in the vocals. The vocals are much more prominent. The melodies, I think, are allowed to breathe a lot more. I mean, she talked in our interview about how she's always had this inclination to write poppy melodies. And when she was younger, she felt like she had to obscure that because, you know, it's not a very sort of punk rock thing to do.

Like, to write these kind of very, almost like country music type melodies and hooks that were part of her path. and she has that also in her voice as well. But it seemed like she was trying to conceal that maybe early in her career, and then St. Cloud was about embracing that and really leaning into it. And again, I think it's the type of record, and this is also true of Tiger's Blood, where, you know, it's easier to be a person in your 30s making this kind of record. You know, like if you look at someone like Lucinda Williams, or she's also talked about Tom Petty being another influence,

like these are the kinds of records that those artists would have made too. You know, like you can't make the sort of in your bedroom intense record when you're like 33, 34. I don't think it hits the same way. You know, if you don't allow yourself to grow up a little bit, it ends up becoming a caricature, I think, a little bit. So, and she's talked about this in interviews, kind of like leaning into getting older a little bit and embracing that on the record. And it's something that I've really enjoyed as a fan of her music and I like the journey that she's been on. But I could see people who love those early records, maybe not vibing on this stuff because it doesn't have, again, that sort of chaotic quality that those early records had. And if that's what you came here for, you're not going to be responding to these, again, more sort of straightforward, clear, craftsman-like records.

she's been making lately. Yeah, I use the term like craftsmen. And I think that there's a lot of talk like that around like, around this record of like craft and construction and like sage truth telling. And, you know, everything I said about St. Cloud, I can believe it as a music critic. I can say that objectively. And still, when I, I remember trying to get into it in 2020 and hearing what other people, what other people did and probably want to listen to something else. by the end of it. And I can acknowledge that's like a me thing. Yeah, I thought that it was just too tasteful. And I know that like that's again, that's a me thing. But you know, the reason that I, this was my number one pick, like my I wouldn't trade it for the Beyonce album pick is that she's basically running it back with way more career momentum, I think, than she had in 2020, which is why I find

myself more frustrated by this record than I am with St. Cloud because I've read the many profiles, you know, it's all pitchfork oral history and Waxahatchy profiles right now. And I read the lyrical quotes and I'm thinking, yeah, that's a well-constructed lyric. I get what she's getting at. And yet when I listen to the record, it's so tasteful to me. You know, I don't get gut-wrenching. Ah, okay. Well, look, that's such a music critic word. I mean, I love that. I know what you mean. I know what you're saying.

You feel like it's really pretty and well-made, but it doesn't make you feel anything. I think that's what you mean when you say that, right? Like you can recognize that it's well-made, but it doesn't hit you in an emotional place. Yeah, like, I read the lyrics and I'm like, okay, I can see where she's getting at. And like when I'm like, but when I'm done listening to Tiger's Blood, which is enjoyable. The melodies are great. The vocal performances are great. I'm like, I don't exactly know what is trying to get put across.

Well, I mean, can a song just be a great song, though? Like, I just feel like, I just feel like she's writing great songs. I mean, again, I know what you mean, but I don't think that music just has to be this sort of like young person, adolescent, like, angst fest, you know? If that's what music has to be, I'm sorry, like, then you have to stop making records when you turn 30, you know, because that kind of thing just, I don't think is, I don't think it scans as authentic once you reach a certain age. You know, there's a certain thing that you can do when you're 21 that if you do it when you're 31, it just seems forced. And if you don't allow yourself

to grow up a little bit and embrace other forms of expression, then you're going to stagnate. You know, so I don't know. I mean, you can't really argue with someone who's like, I don't feel anything from this. I mean, because you either feel it or you don't, but I don't know. I feel like she opens herself up a lot in her music. And what her earlier records had in terms of intensity, I think that her later records have in terms of just improved craft. And look, craft is like an underrated thing. It's not very sexy, you know, it's someone who's just really good at what they do. But I'm impressed by that. And I get a lot from that. And just like, like the songwriting, I think, is really top-notch on this record.

So that's where I would be. Can you call it underrated if this album is probably going to be like album of the year or at least top three for really? No, I said I didn't call the album underrated. I said craft is underrated. Oh, okay. Because crap, because again, like music critics use words like tasteful or they might say, oh, this is musical comfort food.

That's my least favorite phrase, by the way. If I see musical comfort food in a review, I am deleting the review. view from my mind because it's such a like condescending thing to say about a record to say that like because people they usually use that term to describe a certain kind of guitar rock and yeah it's really implying that like it's easy to make that kind of music that it's really easy to make like a likeable well-made melodic catchy record when that's really hard it's really hard to make a record like that that's good because there are so many different kinds of records like that. So if you can make a record that is melodic, catchy, has great instrumental tones on it and it just works, that's not easy to do. So like to call it

musical comfort food, like, oh, this is just, like, someone just like crap this out. It's not challenging. It's just blah, blah, blah. It's like, look, any kind of music you like is comfort food. Even if it's like a guy screaming into a microphone and doing all the usual sort of like punk rock moves. Like that's comfort food to a lot of people. Even if people might say, oh, it's more challenging or abrasive or emotional or whatever. Like people who like that kind of music like other records like that. So it's comforting to them. So you could describe any kind of music as comfort food.

Anyway, that's my rant on that. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there's like, it's so funny how, you know, people who are like into idols or like into, you know, Steve Albini type. There's a new Shalak record being announced this week. And, yeah, there's a lot of music in that realm where it recreates, like, something that people were doing in 1992, but people still assume that it's just as challenging and abrasive as it was back then.

Like, comfort food is an eye of the beholder thing. And I think just to kind of round out, like, the conversation here on Waxahatchy, like I do like it like if I think of it as like again I don't want to like undermine what Tom Petty does but Tom Petty songs when I hear him on the radio you know it doesn't give me this profound spiritual experience but I'm like oh that's a good song and yet I think I'm maybe more frustrated with the framework of this record because it always gets called like gut wrenching or sage truth telling and like I want that I want to feel that but you know I can say that like I believe everything people say about the way they feel about this record, if that makes sense.

Like, I don't think people are being conned. I don't think it's just a sort of, yeah, I can appreciate this. And, you know, I'm probably going to listen to the frail body record instead, or the Knock Loose record, more this year. Because I go to the gym a lot. So, yeah. Well, knock loose, that's comfort music for people who like that kind of music, you know, for people who want to go to the gym.

That's your comfort music or your comfort food or whatever. So in our conversation about this record this week, it was funny because you said that the Waxahatchie record is actually your number three singer-songwriter record that's coming out this week, which I thought was a pretty funny thing to say. And quite honestly, it's probably my second favorite singer-songwriter record of the week. Because my number one singer-songwriter record that's coming out this week would be Bight Down by Rosalie, which I think is one of my songwriter record. would be Bite Down by Rosalie, which I think is one of my favorite albums of the year. I interviewed Rosalie last week. You could still read that on Up Rocks. I've talked a little bit about this record already, but Rosalie, she was a singer-songwriter. She was based in Philadelphia for a long time, but now she's in North Carolina.

She's had some connection to the War on Drugs. Actually, like the first time I heard her sing was on a War on Drugs bootleg from 2019. She just has like one of the best voices, I think, of anyone right now, just an incredible singer, really good singer-songwriter. The last two records that she's made has been with this great band from Omaha, Nebraska, David Nance and Mode Sound. And I've described this record as like Sandy Dennis jamming with Crazy Horse. Like it's a beautiful sounding singer with like a really kind of raw rocking band backing her up. And then of course there's the Adrienne Linker reference. record, which is out today, Bright Future. And I know you're a big fan of that record, right? Is that your favorite singer-songwriter record of the March 23rd sweepstakes or March 22nd sweepstakes? Yeah, do your homework. We also have Kenny Chesney and Maynard James Keenan albums out this week and Gary Clark Jr. So, no, but I do like the Adrian Lanker one a lot. And it's an interesting tie into the way you described

like Waxahatchie's earlier albums being more raw in 90s and indie. And Adrian Lanker's is, it sounds kind of demo-e. You know, there are a couple of songs where you can hear like the tape machine calibrating and

it's a lot stranger than I expected because, you know, you typically think like, or at least even based on the previous Adrian Linker albums that they'd be like really raw and stripped down. And this one is, but it has this, it keeps me kind of off balance, uh, especially with like the first song, Real House. It's six minutes and just gets into very,

you know, devastating lyrics about her upbringing. And yeah, there's like a lot of weirdness on big thief records though, too. I mean, I don't think that's like a new thing. Totally. Totally. No, not, but it's just interesting to, you know, the, especially with the last big thief record, it was a little more jam bandy. You know, you have a song like Spud Infinity. but this one is just kind of more kind of studio tinkering, very idiosyncratic. And the songs are just really great as well. I like the Rosalie record too. You know, that's, I thought it was sort of like that weather station record from a few years back,

but like more uptempo and rock and less about like climate change, I guess. But these are both good. I mean, like all three of these records are come from a very different. angle, even if you might want to consider it all kind of rootsy singer-songwriter, indie-approved albums. It's a real boom time for people who fall under that umbrella. Yeah, I mean, the Adrian Linker record I like, but it's similar to her other solo records where I feel like these are demos for a Big Thief album that's never going to get made. You know, like I just like her working in the framework of Big Thief.

I think that that band adds an extra dimension to her songs that they don't have on the solo records. As good as the songs are on here, I just feel like, man, I wish she was with the band playing these songs. I think that they would sound better because she is essentially on her own on this record. I don't think there is really any other instrumentation for the most part. I mean, it's basically voice guitar and like you said, maybe like some studio things going on. But it's a... There are guests. She does have other musicians on this record, but it's pretty stripped down in that.

It's not like a Waxahatchy record or Rosalie. Yeah, it's not a band record. And it's not her working with Big Thief. And, you know, again, like Big Thiep is a vehicle for her songs. But I do think that that band, I mean, they just work so well together. And they really bring something else out, I think. In her songs that she doesn't have on the solo record. So, like, for me, I like the record.

but there's a part of me that just wishes that, oh, bring these to Big Thief. They could take this to a different place. But look, I'd rather have more Adrian Linker music than less. So if she's going to do solo records along with Big Thief records, you know, we all win out. So I'm glad she's doing it. And you know that's going to happen.

Like this band cannot stop making music. Well, I mean, for their last record, New Worm Dragon, I believe in you. I mean, they reportedly recorded like 45 songs, and they only released 20 of them. So, you know, there's like 25 songs or so sitting in a vault somewhere. I don't know if they're ever going to come out or not, but, I mean, they could load that up at any moment. We could have a big thief record for our fantasy draft in the spring for all we know. You know, we don't know.

Because like this Adrian Linker record, I think it was announced after our draft because I feel like one of us would have picked it. I feel like I'm almost positive this album was announced right after we drafted. And maybe that would have been the difference for me. If I could have picked Adrian Linker, maybe she could have saved my season. Adrian, why didn't you announce earlier? Adrian, please. I don't think it was for the original draft, but I do think it was when both of us got a chance to replace stuff like with you, a serpent with feet. And, you know, right now it's clocking in it at 87.

I don't think it would totally turn the tie, but it would make it seem a little. little bit more close. These are like the, you know, when you're bombing three's in garbage time and making the score seem less of a blowout than it was. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I would love to see. I would love a big thief album in our fantasy draft. I would love like, you know, it's only a two-person draft so we can't like trade up or maybe we can. I don't know. We introduced trades to the next one. I don't know. I wonder where we're at with big thief at this moment. You know, that last album was so acclaimed, but I know that there's people that, you know, just lose their minds anytime there's like a big thief band photo that comes out.

They're like an easy target for mockery, I think. So I don't know if there's going to be a backlash against that band. I mean, if they do release the leftovers from New Warm Dragon, I believe in you, are those going to be great songs or are they going to sound like leftovers? Or are they just going to leave those in a vault and record a whole other album? I mean, who knows what's going to happen, but I'm excited to find out. Let's get to our mailbag here. We haven't done a mailbag.

I don't think we did one last week. We ran out of time. Oh, no, we did do. Do we do a mailbag last week? I think we did, like, one question. Man, I cannot remember a goddamn thing about any of our episodes. I'm getting concerned about my memory at this point. Yeah, we're like big thief in that way.

We just, like, put out so much material. It's just hard to sort through it. I guess. I don't know. I feel like a senile old podcast host here. Thank you all for writing in. It's always great to hear from our listeners. You can hit us up at Indycast, Mailbag at gmail.com. We have two letters this week. You want to read our first one, Ian? Yes, I do. All right. So I'm glad I'm reading this question because it's really one posed to you and only you. So this comes from Andrew in Minneapolis, first off. Yeah. So, Stephen, I've been wondering, how do your neighbors feel about your patio music?

Maybe this is one of your neighbors. Wow. Yeah, maybe Andrew. Andrew, do you live in my neighborhood? Are you hearing the tunes from my patio? Are you, do you want to come over and hang out? Or are you annoyed by the music? I might need a follow up from Andrew on this. My neighbors love the patio music. I'm really good friends with our neighbors. very lovely couple with two beautiful kids that my kids like to play with. In my adult life, I've never had neighbors that I liked. I've always had weird neighbors.

Well, what I mean is that, in most cases, I didn't even know who they were. You know, like, I didn't get to know them really. When I lived in Milwaukee,

I had an insane neighbor who we worried might break into the house and, you know, murder us. But here, it's great. I only have, like one neighbor because I live on the corner. So I've got like the, you know,

I got the side yard here and then you got the street. And then you get the neighbors to our right. And they're fantastic. I know my neighbor Josh, he's very amused by my silver CD boombox. When I got that out and I'm playing tapes, I think he's very amused by this

that I'm playing tapes. And I'm like, tapes are coming back, son. I'm leading the charge. See, this is why you got to move to the Midwestian, because you can sit on the patio, play music with your neighbors, has some drinks, it's a great time. Because you're in San Diego, beautiful weather, but don't you live, like, in a building or something? Yeah, I live in a condo complex, my wife and I.

So, like, having neighbors mean something very different in the Midwest than it does in San Diego or, you know, like, L.A. or what have you. Because, like, my neighbors, like, I, like, literally share walls with some of them. And so, yeah, it's an interesting. mix of people because where I live, you have people like my wife and I, and then you have, you know, like some non-traditional families where you'll see like cousins and aunts and whatnot cycling out. And then there's people in their 50s and 60s who have lived here for like 30 years and are like really just hanging on. And then you got like San Diego, like condos full of San Diego

state students whose parents bought them it for the semester. I'm like five minutes from campus. And so I'm like so lucky in the place I live right now because I don't think any of my neighbors like music. I'll walk like two minutes to the left and there will be people who are like blasting the shit out of bad bunny at like nine o'clock on a Wednesday. Kind of similar to the way I was when I was in college. So I've thought back a lot on how I treated or was completely inconsiderate of my neighbors when I was, you know, 22 years old. Of course, then again, I'm thinking I live in a college town. People have to expect that you're going to have obnoxious neighbors. So yeah, but yeah, I'm a headphones listener pretty much 90 to 95% of the time anyway. So I don't know. I, I'd like lay out on the lawn with my headphones,

but I don't think I would, you know, include my neighbors in, you know, me kind of sip in, sip in a drink and listen to the new knocked loose. Yeah. See, it's so crazy to me, though, because you live in San Diego, which I feel like would be like patio heaven. Because it's always like 78 degrees there. You know, you got perfect weather all year round. It's like that Twilight Zone episode where the guy who loves to read, there's like an apocalypse and he finally has time to read all those books. And then his glasses break.

You don't know what I'm talking about? Have you seen this episode? Yeah. But it's, there's like May, Gray and June gloom, which are real. So for like two straight months, it's great. I mean, it's very real. It's 68 degrees. Yeah, the problem is, it's like, yeah, it would be great to have porches, but like, there's no land.

You know, none of us have, none of us have yards, none of us have basements. Very few of us have porches. And so, you know, that's like kind of the tradeoff. They call it the sunshine. They call it the sunshine tax. It's too nice. So you have no room. That's why you got to live in a place with, you live in a place with, you live in a place

With worse weather, you have like the space of a king. It's amazing. So that's why I take the worst weather. I like to have the space. But, you know, I can see it would be nice to be in San Diego as well. I'll read the second letter. This comes from Tim from New York. And then he put Manhattan in parentheses.

The Tim Manhattan. Here we go. That's your new name. You're Tim Manhattan. Or Manhattan. That's the guy Bruno Marzo's money. Tim Manhattan. He's on the line.

He's got two big hit men with him. You better pay Tim Manhattan. How about Timmy Manhattan? I like Timmy Manhattan more than Timmy Manhattan. Or Timothy Manhattan? That's a good one. Maybe. Yeah, Timmy.

We're going to go with Timmy. Timmy Manhattan. Here we go. Big fan of the pod. Thank you. Thought of this question when I was in the situation earlier today. You're sitting on a plane on the tarmac about to take off. The flight attendant tells you that the Wi-Fi is not working.

You only have time to download three albums from Spotify, or it doesn't have to be Spotify. It could be any streaming platform. To listen to on your flight, what albums do you choose? Here's what I went with. Grown Backwards by David Byrne. I don't know that album. I've never heard of it. I'm not up on David Byrne's solo albums.

Microcastle by Deer Hunter, I do know that album. And in Rainbows by Radiohead, I know that album as well. three comfort albums that for me are endlessly relistenable. So I think he's asking us what three albums would we download if we were on an airplane? I just want to say I love this question, by the way, and I immediately had answers for it, because I've been in the situation before. But how about you, Ian? Is this relatable to you, this scenario?

Absolutely, because I've been thinking about this with our upcoming trip to Europe. up and like I've not been on a flight, like an international flight since I was 17 years old and I had like, you know, this the case logic sleeve of CDs and somehow I got by. But, you know, typically when I'm on an airplane, I have like 20 years worth of hour-long mixes already downloaded on Apple Music. I write about them at my substack, iancoen.com. I recommend you check it out. Good plug. But yeah, good plug. You're not the only one who's got a plug. here. But, you know, I, when I think about like airplane albums, I, I just cannot sleep on an airplane for extended periods of time. Like, it doesn't matter if I'm doing a red eye or leaving

at 6 in the morning, which is, you know, when the vast majority of flights leave in San Diego. I can sleep for like 30 minutes at a time. So the ones that really hit the spot for me in this situation are they have to be kind of quiet and pretty enough where I can, you know, doze off. for a while, but not ambient enough where I'd be like bored out of my skull and frustrated that I can't sleep. So I would group these into albums that are like typically 70 to 80 minutes in length because I wouldn't typically listen to them unless I'm a captive audience. I can't listen to these in my car. I can't listen to these when I'm like doing notes at work. And the first one that came to mine and I'll do this with all the requisite qualifiers about the person's quality as a person.

person, but, you know, Sun Kill Moons, April, pretty much perfect for that scenario. It's like 10 songs, 80 minutes. Most of the songs are about travel and just gorgeous music from a very ugly person. But in that, in that round, I'd also include Yola Tangoes and nothing turned itself inside out. And also, I know it's not the first three Sigur Ross albums, because Bonn is technically their first, but any of the, you know, a Gaita's version, the one with the embryo, the one with the fetus on the cover or the parenthetical album or tack.

These are albums I can't really listen to, you know, in my car or at work, because they're so fucking long and also a little sleepy. But if I'm on a plane, they are really, really good in that regard. So, yeah, it can't be any, and it has to be something I'm familiar with as well. So we're like kind of putting this

in between 2000 and 2008. Okay, so for me, okay, I'm going to split this up into different parts of the travel experience. My number one album to listen to when I'm at the airport and I'm walking through the terminal is Stories from the City, Stories from the City by PJ Harvey. I don't know why, but I always want to listen to this album when I'm walking through the terminal to my gate. And usually I'm listening to like the first bunch of songs. So big exit, uh, good fortune. I might skip ahead to this is love. Basically all the hits off that record, but sometimes I'll let the album run through. That's such a great airport album. I don't know why. I can't explain

it. There's really no airport, uh, you know, overtones explicitly on that record. I just love it as an airport album. So that's my airport album. If I'm on the plane, I'm seated, getting ready to take off. and like usually I don't pay for the airplane Wi-Fi so I'm already going into airplane mode on my phone so like now I am going into the downloaded albums Steely Dan Gaucho and or Donald Fagan's the Nightfly great great albums if you're on an airplane

you're in this sort of like recycled air environment it feels a little unnatural and I feel like Steely Dan Gaucho it's a recycled air very natural environment type record. So perfect for that. So now we're in the air.

And maybe I'm like, I want to have a, I want to order a drink here. I'm going to order like a Jack Daniels on the Rocks. I have a Stevie Ray Vaughn live album from 1983. That's the stuff. I think it's a bootleg. It's like from Ripley's. I think it's in Philadelphia.

That is the ultimate I'm drinking Jack Daniels on the rocks from a plastic cup on an airport. plane album. Just great airplane music. Steve Ray Vaughn, 1983. I think it's a bonus disc on the reissue of Texas Flood, the first Stevie Rayvonne album. Great live album. So those are my three picks. I guess three slash four, because I'm getting the knife fly in there as well. But yeah, I love this question. The downloaded the downloaded the night before the trip, because I want to soundtrack it, like what am I into? But I do have albums that are just on my phone for this very situation.

I don't know if I've ever felt like more, I mean, I'm like quoting the one Stevie Ray Vaughn song I know Pride and Joy, but yeah, I love the fact that we're doing SRV cast. Oh my God, man. Like we're getting into guitar world type music. Dude, you have no idea. We're going to get some fucking Derek trucks up in this shit. You have no idea like how excited I would be to do an SRV cast. That might be next baby.

We'll see. I've read way too many guitar world and guitar magazine features in the 90s to not know stuff about Stevie Ray Vaughan, even though I've like never, ever listened to his music. Like I know pride and joy. I know that one of the two Pearl Jam guitarists, I think it was Mike McCready. Was he the one dressing up like Stevie Ray Vaughan early on? Oh yeah. Oh, yeah. No, no, no.

Okay. That was McCready with like, yeah, the flower, like the billowy shirts and the scarves. vest in the hat yeah perfect love i dude stevie ray vaughan big fan love love stevie ray vaughn srb cast coming your way very soon you've not reached the part of our episode that we call recommendation corner where ian and i talk about something that we're into this week ian you go first all right steve i don't know if like there are times where you get promos and the recommended if you like list just seems like way too tailored to your taste where it just is like unbelievable and so i got one of the recently where it said built a spill cap and jazz Alex G the microphones radio department

modest mouse broken social scene I don't know how a band could all sound like that but this is in reference to the new bed bug album pack your bags the sun is growing and like it actually is true this is an album that I've really gotten into over the past couple of weeks it came out on the 15th it's you know getting pretty well received amongst people who check for this music they've been kicking around the indie sphere of, you know, they're not from Philly, but they kind of sound like it sort of thing. And yeah, this reminds me most of all of early. The World is a Beautiful Place and I'm no longer afraid to die. It has that quality of being like very like handcrafted, but ramshackle. The songs go in very interesting directions. The vocals will probably annoy some people,

but they work for me. And you can just see like the kind of community and love that went into this album. It's a nice, it's a nice compliment to, and I say this as a compliment, like the well-crafted stuff we've talked about earlier in the episode. This to me just strikes as like sprawling indie rock that I love so much. I've seen comparisons to early Modest Mouse as well. This is basically Ian Cohen recommendation corner. core. And if that means anything to you, I think you'll like this record as well. You think there are bands just making records to end up in Recommendation Corner?

Like they've gamed it out where they know, okay, this is the kind of shit Ian goes for, this is the kind of shit that Steve goes for. I mean, probably not. But maybe there is one band out there that is in the lab, just working on Recommendation Corner Rock, you know, because they know what we like. That'd be amazing. Well, there is a new restoration albums out this week too. So I think we have to mention that because it's pretty down the pike for us. Oh my God, Restorations. Yeah, we got to definitely shout them out. Got to check out that record. Really good record. It sounds like they haven't been gone at all. You know, first album in 10 years, I think.

18. They had an album come out in 18. Okay, first album in six years. Long time. And that album is called Restorations. So, you know, look it up. It's called Restorations. It'll probably say the year next to it so you know which album we're talking about. But really good album. I'm going to put that in my recommendation corner, along with the other choice that I had this week. And you could call this musical comfort food, if you will. But the Bruce Springsteen archival site, he's set up on nugs.net. He's posting his most recent shows.

He also posts classic shows from the past. And I think he did this last week. He posted a show from September 21st, 1978. The third show of his all-time classic run at the Capitol Theater, Passaic, New Jersey. The show from, I think, is September 19th is widely regarded as maybe like one of the best, if not the best, Springsteen shows of all time. This show is also phenomenal, and it's also in just pristine soundboard sound. Sounds incredible. If you haven't dipped into Bruce Springsteen bootlegs before, this is a great place to start.

It's a phenomenal show. If you are a fan, if you're ahead, you probably have this already. It's just a fantastic thing. Again, go to Springsteen. Just look up live Springsteen downloads on Google. It'll take you to the nugs.net website. Download this. Listen to it, enjoy it.

Play it on your patio. Invite your neighbor Josh and his wife Vanessa over. Listen to some beautiful music on the patio. It'll be outstanding. Is there a crossover between patio? Is there crossover between patio music and plain music? because like I'm listening to this and I'm thinking, man, is this going to make my flight a little more epic or do I need to like get on the porch with it? Like maybe we can spend another episode to sorting that out.

I think there's some crossover because you're sitting down. You want to be relaxed. I think that the patio thing is the music is in the air. It's not just in your headphones. So like like, like Seguer Rose, for instance, I don't know if you're going to play that on the patio. But like you might play, you know, PJ Harvey on the patio. That could work, especially that album. That's her most patio-friendly record, I would say.

Stories from the city, stories from the sea. But anyway, yes, we can pick that up in our next episode, along with SRVCast, which I'm very excited about. Thank you all for listening to 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 Tate 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.