Indiecast - New Music By The War On Drugs and This Is Lorelei, and Looking Back at 9/11 Albums

Episode Date: September 11, 2026

Steven and Ian begin by paying tribute to a shuttered Scottish music publication that was a big part of the fantasy album draft (1:35) before discussing Geese finally commenting on the Chaotic Good scandal (5:35). After that they talk about the new War On Drugs single and whether a new album is coming (16:43), and then transition to a conversation about memorable albums released 25 years ago on 9/11 (24:05). After touching on some new releases by Bloc Party, Brian Fallon and Sylvan Esso (39:40), they review the new album by This Is Lorelei (44:39). Finally, in Recommendation Corner Ian talks about No Joy and Baths and Steven talks about The Tubs (52:52).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. On this show, we talk about the biggest indie news of the week, review albums, and we hash out trends. In this episode, we talk about a new War on Drug song, the new album by This is Lorelei, and our memories of albums released or associated with September 11th. My name is Stephen Haydn, and I'm joined by my friend and co-host.

He didn't know how good he had it with the skinny until it was gone. Ian Cohen. Ian, how are you? I'm going to honor my promise to get a little TV cast with it on each episode where I can. And if you like our fantasy draft, this is the equivalent of the Mad Men episode where Sterling Cooper, Draper Price is about to lose Lucky Strike. For our fantasy draft, the skinny is something along lines of 20 to 30 percent of our business at this point.

So we might have to do a new, we might have to do like a new bit. We might have to bring back the intern, yay, nay. Who knows? Yeah, yeah, the fantasy draft does feel endangered as all of these publications disappear unless Metacritic gets with the modern media landscape and starts incorporating substacks into its score. Maybe that will revitalize our draft. Yeah, it's like billboard taking, like doing like streaming instead of, like they have to

take the whole into account now. You have to, you have to. So the skinny, which is a Scottish. music publication, or it was a Scottish music publication, you may know that if you're a regular listener to our show, as we've been joking about here a little bit, when we do our fancy album drafts, we rely on the cumulative scores compiled by Metacritic. And one of the outlets that Metacritic always used was this Scottish music publication called The Skinny. And we would make jokes about the skinny, just because what in the hell is the skinny? We have no idea what this is.

We are ignorant of the Scotland media of the Scottish music scene. News broke this morning. I actually got a DM about this, but then people were also tweeting it at me before we started recording on Thursday morning. That the Skinny, which was this newspaper that apparently was given away for free in Scottish record stores, which is something I think you used to have in America. I remember that in the 90s seeing that. I wish I had known this when I was in Scotland two years ago. Like I would have went to a record store in Edinburgh and tried to see if I could find one.

I mean, I would have loved to see The Skinny now just because of us seeing the Skinny all the time in Metacritic. And I just love that they still had something like that because for me, that was like one of the first kinds of music writing I ever saw would be just these free papers that you would see at the record store. but the skinny has ceased publication. It was announced Thursday morning. The listener who DM me, the news, called it a big loss to our country. And yeah, I mean, look, we've talked about this on the show. Clearly in America, we have seen a disintegration of the old school music media. And it is happening internationally.

And they're dealing with the same circumstances. that we are, I mean, this is a free newspaper apparently. I don't know if they had a website. I would guess that they have an ad-based business. The fact that they were still doing this in Scotland is kind of amazing to me, actually, in 2026, a free newspaper. It just doesn't seem like something that in America we see much of anymore. But all love and respect to the people who work at the skinny there in Scotland. You were beloved in your country. You were beloved in your country. apparently a lot of people love reading you. And it's just a sign.

You know, things are changing. They're shifting. It's all podcasts now. It's all substack newsletters. It's AI. Just wiping out traffic for the old school places. Yeah. And the beat goes on, I guess, with that.

I mean, we're part of the problem and part of the solution. In conclusion, IndieCasses is a land of contrasts. Yeah, we're rolling with it. You know, I had a book event. week, which by the way, my book came out this week, is this it? The never-ending rise and fall of the strokes and rock and roll, which I will try not to plug relentlessly in this episode. But anyway, when I was at my event,

someone asked me about the future of music journalism, which I feel like this is something I'm asked about constantly now. In every interview I do, I've been doing a lot of interviews for the book, and I just end up saying the same thing over and over again, that for myself, I think of myself as being a sales, in shark-infested waters, and you're just moving from one piece of detritus floating in the water to the next.

You just want to keep swimming. You want to keep all your limbs, and you just have to try to adapt to everything that's going on. It's a hostile environment out there. If you want to get paid for dispensing music opinions. But I don't know. I think we all have our arms and legs still. Yeah.

I think I do. It looks like I do. we swim on. Speaking of media outlets that are still up and running, Rolling Stone, Thursday morning, again, this is when we're recording, they just put out their cover. Because apparently Rolling Stone still does a cover. There's still a print rolling. Do you see print Rolling Stones in the wild?

I absolutely do, because I go to Barnes & Noble a lot. I was going to say, activity. You're a Barnes & Noble, like, regular. You're like Norm from Cheers, except you're going to Barnes & Noble. and Noble, like to buy a coffee or just to hang out or what are you doing? You know, if we just like, well, we want to kind of stay out and like just, you know, see what's happening for like 20 minutes. But like for me, you know, while my wife is looking at books or what have you, I'll definitely

sneak over to the periodicals and, you know, see what Rolling Stone looks like nowadays and also see what no less than five gun related magazines that are still very much in print. like soldier of fortune just ones with like guns period at the Barnes and Noble there's yeah there's a soldier or fortune maybe I mean I might be miss I might be misremembering

but there is like no there is at least three or four magazines with guns on the cover wow well we know that the gun people are still reading so so bless them the irony it'd be interesting if the gun magazines you know, start having like a music column, you know, they're like, we want to broaden our audience. So like, let's start doing like a little music thing. Yeah, the 21 gun salutes like the version of like Pitchfork's best new music.

If you're listening, by the way, if you're like one of those people at the gun magazines and I assume you make $250,000 a year. Yeah. Because you're the only game in town. Hit us up. You know, we're all about collaborations in this, these roiling seas. Yeah, the standards get lowered as the, the, the standards get lowered as the, you know, because the years go on and you look at your starving children and you're like, oh wait, we got to do something.

So wait, so there's a music fan at the Gun magazine and he has a little extra money in his freelance budget to assign record reviews. Yes, I'll give you my take on. This is Lorelei in the gun issue. That'd be great. Anyway, Rolling Stone, they still have magazine covers. On the cover of this new issue is Geese, none other than Geese. The discourse, generator for shows like ours. It is literally true. When you look at our numbers for daily or for weekly downloads for each episode, if we talk about geese, if we talk about Phoebe Bridgers, and there's maybe a couple other people, considerably higher the numbers are. Our numbers are pretty consistent, but if you get a geese, it's like a little shot of cocaine, a little shot of like traffic cocaine to the system.

So we're squeezing them in here. But no, they're on the cover of Rolling Stone. The timing seems a little weird. Getting Killed came out a year ago this month. So I'm not sure the timing of it. It's not tied to a record. Maybe Geese is gearing up to announce a new record. My assumption is that there'll be a Cameron Winter solo album before another Geese album.

I don't know if you have any thoughts on the timing of this. I mean, I know they're going, they're touring. this fall and you know playing like much bigger venues than they did for the getting killed tour you got Cameron's live album coming out I mean I'm just saying this like not having read it or what have you but why question it I mean like there is quite literally a rock is back rolling stone cover yeah the very week you release the book about that exact thing it's that's true you know geese instead of the Binds, which, yes, I cannot keep my promise to a promise to not plug Steve's book. You should buy it.

You should buy it twice. If you want to hear about Bines, you want to hear about Longwave, it's all there. But, yeah, between that and Turnstile being announced as a guest on Saturday Live, I think Dakota Johnson is hosting that episode. You know, inflation, two's a trend nowadays. So you can say that Rock, at least the way we like it, is sort of kind of that. Well, yeah, on the cover of the Rolling Stone, the geese cover, you see geese, and then at the top it says long live rock, with an exclamation point. And when I saw that, it made me think of what you're talking about, the famous cover with the vines on it in the early 2000s, where it says, rock is back, and it's the vines, and then you see the strokes and the white stripes in the subhead. which, and I've made this joke before,

but it's like talking about the British invasion in the 60s and putting Jerry and the pacemakers on the cover and then putting like the Beatles and the stones like in the subhead. Were the strokes ever on the cover of Rolling Stone? They were later on. Okay. But not that, but not before the vines. The vines were on the cover first.

But anyway, I feel like the takeaway from this article is going to be the band's comments about, about the whole chaotic good situation, which they haven't talked about before to the media. And Cameron Winter's response, I think, is perfect. I just want to say, I love Cameron Winter. Love his music. I love how he carries himself.

I think he is, he gets it. He knows how to act, how to be in interviews. And his whole stance with reporters is very, like, mid-sense. 60s Bob Dylan or like early 2000s Julian Casablancus like very standoffish but funny I think he's actually a lot funnier than Julian Casablancus but this is the pertinent paragraph uh winter is less defensive when I ask about how he felt about the assertion that his band's breakthrough was the result of a shadowy mind control campaign I thought the same thing I really did he says that seemed like a reasonable explanation so he's sort of agreeing with the idea that they were uh

that the hubbub around the band was ginned up. We were just like, oh my God, this whole fucking thing is fake. We were having a meltdown. Then we marched up to our label over email, the relevant team members. Like, how long have all of our fucking fans been fake, you sons of bitches? And then after he's kind of cracking wise there. And then he gives a more serious answer. We learned that we should show up to Zoom meetings about how our record's going to be advertised.

And then a little bit further down, talking about the specifics of the campaign, it wasn't comments or fake fans or bots or anything, Winter Ads. It was low effort TikTok posts that were used to boost the algorithm. They showed us samples. It made me feel better because they were so shitty. So basically saying, we didn't know the specifics of this. You know, we just kind of thought it was like a campaign to boost our record. kind of like what you would expect him to say, I think, here.

But I don't know. It also sounds like he could have come out. I'm sure everyone in the band was pretty annoyed by that whole controversy. And there's actually a quote from someone else in the band, who I can't remember what it is. But they basically say, like, hey, if you think our fans are fake, come to our shows. There's like a lot of people there. It's clearly not just bots who care about our band.

But I don't know. Cameron Winter just has that, like, perfect, I'm above this thing and I'm going to be snarky about it. I don't know. I just feel like that's the best kind of response. Yeah, I'm looking forward to this. There's definitely going to be some poll quotes. And, you know, because we don't have access to chaotic good,

we got to boost our numbers the only way we know how, which is to talk about the geese interview time and time again. You know what? Maybe what we'll do is like a reaction, like when the actual story drops, we can do reaction video, you and I. Well, the story's out. Oh, it is. Okay.

Yeah, the story's online. And it will be, I'm sure, well read by the time this post. I mean, that's where I'm pulling these quotes from. Gotcha. Is that, yeah, you can go online and read it. So, you know, or maybe you want to wait until you get to the Barnes & Noble and buy the physical copy because you're the old school bookstore. So for you, it hasn't dropped yet.

But for people who are online, you can read it. Just, you know, go to your Rollingstone.com and you can read it there. Yeah. I didn't know if they, like, dropped just like a preview or what have you or the whole thing. But, yeah, if it's anything like my experience, having Rolling Stone back in the day. I'll be talking about this like three weeks from now when it finally comes out, you know? Well, when the live record comes out, too, there'll be another fresh wave of Cameron Winter talk.

But look, again, I get why people want to hear about it. They're a great band. They're an interesting band. Cameron Winter, love his quotes, love his music. And it's good fodder for the cranks. The cranks out there, too. the people who hate the band, they love talking about geese more than anyone.

So everybody wins. We can all unite under the geese banner. And yeah, you mentioned turnstile is going to be on SNL because they announced, I think, the first four weeks of hosts and performers. And this is their first time. I was kind of surprised they haven't been on yet.

Seriously? I wonder if they've been asked, but it didn't work out. I feel like it would have come up by now, but you think there's going to be like a mosh pit? I don't think they're going to go like Tiny Desk mode. I do wonder if they're going to be like the guest star. They released that kind of like a remix reimagination version of Never Enough like a week or two ago.

And there's like Elton John on one of the songs, Slaters on it. Maybe they'll do something along those lines. But I imagine it'll just, it'll be like pretty standard issue stuff. Was it a situation where Elton John was doing a remix of one of his own songs, like that Duelapa song? No, he plays piano. And again, missed opportunity, he is not the guy who does Magic Man on the last song on Never Enough. Alex G. has a really, really good version of it on the remix album.

But he plays, I can't remember the song, but he plays piano and he harmonizes with Brendan Yates. And it's just like really jarring, but like, I can hear it. It works. It's a pretty interesting, it's a pretty interesting record. Elton does that every now and then. He was on that Queens of the Stone Age record, like lockwork back in the day.

Elton, like, he's, speaking of old school guys, I mean, he's still that guy that goes to the record store. He has, like, one of his minions go to the record store and buy, like, a stack of CDs. You know, like, he's notorious

for just being, like, a huge music collector and he'll get, like, the new albums every week. Like, he keeps up on stuff, Elton John. He's a hip cat. We should, Elton John, if you're listening, which you probably are. Yes. Come on Indycast.

It would be great to have. have you. And Bernie Toppin too. Bring him on. We'll bring them both on. Let's talk about the new war on drug song. Yes. We can rock being back along with Brock. Yeah. The Rock is back. There we go. There we go. Three's a trend. Exactly. So the war on drugs have not put out a record since I don't live here anymore, which came out five years ago. I think that record also came out in September. Yeah. It was around the time I got married. So I kind of associate that. It was like September, October, 2021.

So it's been a while. And they released this single. There is no new album news attached to it, but I feel like it's a foregone conclusion that there will be a new album. I'm not saying I have any insight or knowledge of that. But, I mean, this has become a trend lately where artists release a song. And they don't necessarily say, oh, it's from this new album.

It's almost, to me, it feels like they're trying to double dip with the publicity, you know, where someone, some PR genius figured out at some point that we're losing potential exposure by pairing an album announcement with a new song release. So let's do the song release, get some press, and then we'll do the album release, or the album, you know, announcement. like a month later. Am I being sent?

I mean, I feel like this is the strategy. Do you think I'm wrong? I mean, it seems like that's the way that they're going with this. Yeah, I mean, I'm an album person, so I get a little bit disappointed whenever something is presented as a one-off. But then I remember nearly 10 years ago, nine years ago, the War on Drugs did the exact same thing with thinking of a place, which...

Oh, right. Yeah, which made sense, okay, this is an 11-minute song. But, yeah, like a month later, they announced a deeper understanding. But yeah, I also noticed that the label for this song on Apple Music is super high quality records. So I don't know if Adam has his own little subsidiary within Atlantic. Yeah, he does. That's his label. Oh, for real.

Yeah, yeah. I know like the live records, at least like the last one, I think, was a super high quality label. So that'd be Adams. So, yeah, I assume that that's within Atlantic. Gotcha. that he's not just putting out records on band camp right now. I really doubt that. I mean, these War on Drugs records,

which by the way, the song is called Who's That? And it's a great song. I think it's a great song. And I'm going to say the thing that everyone says about this song, which is that it sounds like the War on Drugs. They're not redoing the formula. But they put up music so rarely now. I feel like we're in a three to four and now five.

year cycle with their records where it feels like, oh, I've heard a lot of people imitate the war on drugs, but I haven't heard the actual article in a long time. And then they come back and it's like, oh yeah, Adam is still extremely good at this. So the song is great. I remember this song because this annual Drug Sember show that they do in Philadelphia, they played this in 2025 with Joe Walsh wasn't on this song, but Joe Walsh was at that concert. So I have the bootleg of that. They played this song in another new song, which presumably will be on an album, which presumably will be announced soon.

But yeah, I mean, are you into this song? I really love it. I'm a war on drugs homer, but you're a little more impartial. How do you feel about it? Yeah, I like how it, I mean, it sounds a little bit, not more band camp, but there's kind of a synthier, and I say this, like lovingly, cheesy or 80 sounds like the synth and the Elvis enunciation on the chorus and just like the verse melody that feels a little bit less earnest I guess than a deeper understanding I mean I when I think back to

I don't live here anymore my favorite song the one I go back to the most is the title track which has those the choral vocals from Lucius in in there and I I've always wondered whether Adam could expand the 80s arena rock that he does to like Bon Jovi or Defleppard, like go like Desmond Child or Mutt Lang because I don't, you know, I don't think there's that much distance between, let's say, born in the USA, Tunnel of Love and New Jersey or hysteria. I think it would be kind of nice to introduce some more levity of that sort. And yeah, I think he, I think he nailed it. I think there's excitement around it because like, yeah, since Lost in the Dream, which was, what,

like 12 and a half years ago. He's only released two records, man. Yeah, I mean, he... There's not a lot of drugs out there. He is a... Well, and there's two live albums, so you put that in there, which are, in my mind essential.

But yeah, he is an old school... I'm holling up in the studio and I'm gonna, like, craft records for a long time. And, you know, he's in Los Angeles. I'm not sure exactly how much time he's in Los Angeles or in Philadelphia. Hopefully we'll get a chance

to talk to him at some point. I feel like that might be the cards for us, we'll see. But, you know, I know when he was doing, like, the last couple of records being in Los Angeles, that was, like, a kid in the candy store for Adam because he just loves studios. And there's so many still, like, classic studios in Los Angeles that you can work in. And, yeah, I mean, this song, I think, and along with the other song that he played, that they played at the Drug Sember Show, again, just classic war on.

drugs and uh you know i had a train of thought here and i'm totally losing it i think i'm just lost in the dream i was about say i had a train of thought and i lost it as like very much an atom lyric right but uh yeah hopefully we'll get a record this year or i'm maybe early in twenty seven i'm hoping i'm hoping early twenty seven because we need uh we need some ten pole stuff that year actually this week i think we got our first like legit 2027 album announcements from SoulGlow and Lires. So yeah, I think we're at this point where if there is an album being released, it's going to be early.

Q1, 2027. I hope Adam does that just so we can make sure that we have enough material with the fantasy draft probably going the way of the dodo. Yeah, and I just feel like we're... It's kind of too late now to announce an album this year. Unless you're going to do the quick release, which does. doesn't seem like their style. I feel like they're going to do the traditional ramp up release and get it early next year. But I'm excited. I'm excited to see them live again. I feel like they

tour all the time, but they never come by where I live, which of course I'm taking as a personal affront. But I'm trying to think of the last time I saw them. Actually, I saw them with the national when they did that tour together. But I think that's already like three years ago. Yeah. Three or four? I don't know. Time is flying. Can't keep track of it. Speaking of time flying, Ian, this is a segue. This week, our episode is coming out on September 11th.

Yeah, I was about to say, like, flying, time flying, yeah, the avian metaphor. Well, you know, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? Put that aside. The 25th anniversary of September 11th is coming up. And I was thinking about 9-11 albums, in part because I have this book that just came out about, Is This It? And I feel like that album is one of the big records that's associated with September 11th.

Even though it didn't come out on September 11th, it came out in America about a month later on October 9th, 2001. But obviously because of the New York connection and the residents that that record had as sort of a post-disaster. record, a, we're young people and we're still going to try to live our lives in the shadow of this apocalypse at the turn of the century. That being a reputation of Is This It got me thinking about other 9-11 records, records that actually came out on September 11th, as well as albums that are accidentally relevant to the day. And I'm wondering, before we get to September 11th, because I do want to talk a little bit about, like, just what I was doing and what you were doing on that day. Let's just talk for a minute about accidentally relevant September 11th albums,

meaning albums that are associated with that day that were just, that somehow evoked something about that day, but without having any kind of literal connection to it. Like, Bruce Springsteen The Rising, I think, is the ultimate album directly inspired by 9-11. Like, that is a record about 9-11. But then there's albums like Yankee Hotel Fox Tribe. Wilco, which was actually came out in 2002, but it started to be streamed by the band later on in September. That record is, I think, associated with September 11th. You know, you've got the lyrics and Jesus, etc., tall building shake, voices escapes, singing sad, sad songs, things like that, even the cover kind of evoking 9-11. Ashes of American flag. Ashes of American flag. Yeah,

exactly. There's so many eerie, accidental parallels to that. I think of Kid A as being a 9-11 record, even though that came out like almost a year before 9-11, but I feel like that was a record that a lot of people connected to 9-11 just in terms of like how 9-11 felt to live through, the confusion and alienation of that album. I think connected with a lot of people. I think like you too, Although you can't leave behind ended up being a big 9-11 record. I mean, there's like an airport on the cover. And then, you know, they... I didn't think about that part.

But then they played, you know, at the Super Bowl a little bit after that. What are other, like, accidental 9-11 records? Yeah. I mean, yeah, the Rising is one of the few that is directly 9-11 and its rap equivalent diplomats, diplomatic immunity. But beyond that, I would think that... turn on the bright lights, of course, NYC.

That's like a year after. So you associate that. I don't necessarily associate that with 9-11. To me, it's a New York record. But you connected to 9-11? I do because I was spending like a good amount of time in New York at that juncture. And yeah, I think it is a 9-11 album in the sense that a song like NYC is going to hit a lot harder in the rare time. people who don't live in New York are feeling more sympathetic towards New York.

And that was something that like really, you know, I think it eased my ability to like, is this it? Because most of the time it's like, oh, this is like New York hype. But it's like, no, I think I'm going to go. I don't think I'm down with this. And I loved, is this it at the time? I loved turning on the bright lights. I would also put Ryan Adams gold in there, both in the sense of the song.

New York, New York. And that is an album that is, you know, fused within my mind as far as fall of 2001, whether or not I think of it as like 9-11. It was just like everything about fall. It just kind of blends together. I believe American's not really a 9-11 now, but it's like one of the most like obvious examples of how clear channel changed things. They had to like rename it to Jimmy World. Weirdly enough, I mean, the ultimate one is the blueprint, because that's the one I bought on 9-11. I did not buy some of the other albums released that day, like Slayers, God Hates Us All.

So now we're trying to, hold on a second, because now we're transitioning to what I mainly wrote about, which is albums actually released on 9-11. Because we have these other albums that are accidentally relevant that were released on the day, but for whatever reason we're kind of around that record or, or, people maybe listen to it a lot around that time. But then you have the albums actually released on September 11th. And this was, again, a time when albums came out on Tuesdays, not Fridays. And I feel like we've talked about this in the past.

I actually feel like that's an underrated strike against music writing when albums moved to Friday because the weekend is like a discourse void. You know, you don't really have public conversations about music. necessarily on the weekend. Maybe you do on Reddit or something, but certainly with like the media, it doesn't happen. And then you have this reboot on Monday morning where it's like we have a new week. It's almost like you lose that opportunity

to talk about these albums after they come out. Whereas in the old days, it would come on on Tuesday, reviews would come out around then. And then you kind of have the rest of the week to talk about it. And it was just like a different situation. I'm not saying that was better back then, although I have nostalgia for that. But anyway, that's neither here nor there.

You mentioned the blueprint. That was the most famous record, I would say, released on September 11th. It ended up topping the charts like the week after. It sold like half a million copies. Should mention also Nickelback, Silver Side Up. Really? Yeah, that came out on 9-11 with how you were. That felt like something that came out before, huh?

No, 9-11, baby, right here, Silver Side Up. And that went six times platinum. So I think that's the best-selling album that came on September 11th. It's outsold even the blueprint. You've got Stone Gossert's debut solo album, Bayleave, came out on that day. The soundtrack to Glitter by Mariah Carey came out on September 11th. Some would call that an artistic 9-11, although it was probably too soon to make that joke at the time. You mentioned God Hates Us All by Slayer.

that being one of the most controversial album titles, surely, for an album that came out then. The microphones, the Glow Part 2, came out on September 11th. Yes, it did, yeah. A second Glows hit the towers, yeah. And I feel like I'm a little too old to be a microphones fan. Like, I feel like I, I feel like people slightly younger than me like revere that record.

I don't know if you're a microphones fan. I got the album cover tattooed on my arm, So, yes. Oh, shit. Okay. So that album totally passed me by. See, at the time, I would have been much more invested in, like, rock in the suburbs by Ben Fools, which also came on at September 11th. Oh, my God.

No, that is my personal, that is, like, one of the worst songs. Oh, yeah. Because I remember we played, I worked at the college radio station at the time. And, like, we got all the clear channel notifications. Like, yeah, if you got to play a Cura. song from Standing on the Beach, do not play Killing an Arab. We can't play Blow Up the Outside World by Sound Garden. Bleed Americans now called Salt, Sweat Sugar. But yeah, the rock in the suburbs is, that is just one of the most, just the worst fucking song, man. I hate it so much.

Yeah, we can't, Clear Channel was like, we can't play rock in the suburbs, not because of any kind of sensitivity, just that we cannot play that song for artistic reasons. And then there's the album that I ended up writing about the most, and the album I bought on September 11th, which was Love and Theft by Bob Dylan. Great, great album. And in a lot of ways, the opposite, I mean, in many, many ways, the opposite of something like the blueprint, where Bob Dylan, at this point, this is the beginning of Bob Dylan really forsaking any type of connection to, like, modern rock or modern

sounding music. I mean, time out of mind was his album before that, worked with Daniel Lanwa. So there was this sort of postmodern Americana sound to that record, where you had, you know, sort of the Bob Dylan thing, traditional music, but then you had what Daniel Lanwa does, these, you know, avant-garde soundscapes surrounding him, which I think is a great combination. But with Love and Thept, it was the beginning of Bob being like, I'm making pre-modern music. I'm making music that goes back to like pre-rock and roll, really. And a record that I did not get, really, I did not understand it, I should say, when I bought it on September 11th. It's very strange to be on September 11th, and listening to a song like Bye and Bye on Levintheft, where Bob Dylan

Dylan is singing, I'm singing Love's praises and sugar-coated rhyme. And it sounds like a Bing Crosby song from like the 1930s. That's what I was rocking on September 11th. But it's a record that I now love. one of my favorite Bob Dylan albums. But I was just thinking how, like on September 11th, like I had just turned 24, and I was working for my local newspaper at the time. I was on staff, and I woke up hungover on my couch because I had just gone to visit my girlfriend

who had recently broken up with me in the Twin Cities, and I drove home from that, and then I think I went out to a bar with a friend of mine, I woke up, hungover, and I remember turning on the TV and the Today Show was on, and I really was not paying attention, really, at all, until I got to, like, the newsroom where I worked, and that's when I learned that we were under attack from terrorists. And then I had to go out and interview. I remember they sent me to a senior citizen home to interview old people about Pearl Harbor. That was my assignment on September 11th. because I was not near ground zero.

I was just doing human interest, like, local angle type stories. So that's what I was doing. That's my memory of September 11th. I don't know if you have anything more profound than that. Yeah, I mean, I can probably bit and piece together a very similar story from my very drunk and down bad early 20s. But, yeah, I have an extremely vivid recollection of that day because, you know, despite the fact that it took place during my year of college where I was like either drunk or hungover 80% of the time, but Tuesday may have been one of the less drunk hungover days that week. I remember sitting on the steps outside of

Cabal Hall, which is where the music majors hung out at UVA. And the sky was just unusually bright blue. That is one of the details that sticks out in my mind. And, you know, I had heard something was happening. Like I went to a class. I attended a class and finished the class and, you know, figured, oh, this thing, it's bad, but maybe it's like Oklahoma City level or whatever. It'll get back to being normal. And so at that point, I was able to go to Plan 9 music immediately when it opened by the blueprint, listen to it enough to the point where I could go to the gym. I went to the gym before things started to really make sense. I saw my newspaper editor. It's like, yo, man, this is dope as fuck, man. Have you heard takeover yet? This is crazy.

And then everything started to sink in And by that point we probably did what we did every single night Which was, you know, get drunk, listen to Willie Nelson or Johnny Cash or is this it? And you know, wonder if my brother was still going to make it down for the UVA Penn State football game. He did not because that game got canceled. And, you know, the most, the thing that really stood out to me was you couldn't leave the football stadium at half time anymore and come back. You used to be able to do that and get like more drunk at home and use the bathroom. I went to a wedding, maybe not that weekend, but the week after.

And that was really surreal because it was kind of a military family. Yeah, it was just a, and also I think I listened to toxicity a lot by System of a Down. That was another unintentional 9-11 record. But that in Slipknotts, Iowa, man. But yeah, that was just like a semester for the rest of the year. we would just get drunk, listen to Is This It? The blueprint and my burned copy of I Get Wet from the radio station, you know? Yeah, man.

I was going to say good times, but it wasn't good times. It was a weird time. But, you know, there's also, I don't know, when I think back to then, I do think of the juxtaposition between like the obviously historic thing happening, but then you still have your own real. life bullshit going on. Like I was, I'm sure as self-absorbed about my own, like, recent breakup than I was about the, you know, the American Empire coming to an end, you know?

I think that's how these things always are. Like, you have your own life. And even when there's this horrible stuff going on, your own brain is myopic enough to, it doesn't totally block out your own stuff, you know, even though it's kind of funny to think in retrospect. to think about these things that aren't important anymore, but they were really important to you at the time. Yeah. And, you know, there was no one more self-absorbed or self-pitying than me at 21 years old. So, you know, I was just like, man, it's like, oh, what's going to be like at the bars now?

Like, oh, the football game's getting canceled. And yeah, it's, I mean, I don't want to say it was like, it was just so bizarre, especially because, you know, Virginia's not New York City, but like, a lot of the people that go to that school end up moving to New York. They work in like D.C. And it was scary. It was strange. You know, I had friends who like one of my good friends, Neil, you know, he's a, he's like Indian and he

would get harassed just because he's like a brown guy. My same with our boy, Jamil, you know, who was at UVA at the time. And, you know, it was pretty scary for people like him as well. And, you know, but for people like me, it's like, well, classes are canceled. Let's get fucked up and listen to us. VH1 storytellers. There you go. Let's talk. Let's get back into the present tense here and talk about albums that are out this September 11th, 2026. Not a huge release slate, but we'll run it down here quick. There's a new block party album, Ian. Anatomy of a brief romance. You are one of the most famous silent alarm boosters. Do you care at all about this album? Yeah, and a weekend in the city. Yeah, I'm glad you brought this up because I've been.

dying to find a way to integrate the new TikTok trend of UK poo. Have you heard of this? No. So I guess I'll summarize it by saying it is like TikToks of like just the worst UK rap you've ever heard, which is really up my alley because grime music is one of the few genres where the parodies are almost better than the real good stuff, you know, like man's not hot or MC Grinda or Junior Spesh. And what I learned about this new block party album from the Reddit emails I get is that they were posting the new block party songs in UK poo, especially the new song Pigwig.

Look, man, Kelly, the elite singer, he's living his truth now. I don't think that's artistically rewarding. But yeah, this is the new songs, I don't know if you've heard them, but you would be shocked to hear what block party sounds like now. one of the choruses like, you know, today was such a vibe or something like that. It's been pretty grim. This, yeah, it is getting savage on block party Reddit. Wow, block party Reddit. Just having a meltdown.

I might have to go check that out. Yeah, I don't know if they're, I don't know if they're melting down so much as melting down over the fact that people on TikTok are just clowning it incessantly. Oh, man. All right. Well, this actually makes me more interested in this album, I have to say. So I'll have to check that out this weekend. There's a new album from Brian Fallon. It's called Not Bad for New Jersey.

And I'll just say, I've gotten to know Brian. I consider I'm a friend. So I'm not really impartial when it comes to his music. But I will say that you could take this with a grain of salt. I think this is my favorite of his solo records. And the thing about this record is that, you know, Brian's solo work tends to have this sort of world weariness to it sometimes. And I think it suits the songs.

But I know one of his albums is called Pain Killers, which is, I think, dealing with a pretty heavy time in his life and very soul-bearing type stuff. But that side of Brian doesn't really line up with what it's like to talk to Brian or to hang out with him. He's like a really funny guy. And he's also like a huge devotee of like big time, like, stage. medium rock type music. Like he loves that kind of stuff. Even though he comes from this punk background with the gaslight anthem,

I mean, the guy can just talk about like 80s rock like nobody else out there. And I feel like this album manifests that side of his personality more than like a lot of records that he's made in his life. Like he has like Phil Colin of Def Leppard doing a guest star and playing like this face melting solo on a song. All right. Man, like hysteria has entered the chat again. Hell yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, exactly. And he just has that part of his personality of this record. And I think it's a lot of fun. And I really like it when he goes there as an artist and turns up the rock and roll emotionalism up to 11. So really, really fun record. I like it a lot. So in my biased opinion, I like New, not bad for New Jersey quite a bit. Sylvan Esso has a new record out called Owl. And then there's like a little symbol.

next to it. I don't know what that means. So, so again, to just talk about people that I know here, not trying to name drop, but Nick Sanborn, old school Milwaukee guy. I knew him back in the day when I lived in Milwaukee. He used to bartend at the Cactus Club back in the day. You Milwaukeeans will appreciate that reference. So always happy to see him doing well. Silvanessa, I haven't heard this record. I'm sure it's good. I don't go deep on Sylvanessa. I don't go deep on Sylvanessa. I have to say, but they are like a quietly huge band, I feel like. Yeah, I really scored points with an ex-girlfriend because I got a Sylvan S.O. There was a good chance that anywhere from like 75 to 90% of the women I have dated since

like 2000, since that first record came out like Sylvan S.O. So I respect it. And then there's a new album from the English band The Tubbs. It's called Hard Life. And I'm actually going to talk about this more in a minute in Recommendation Corner. So let's table that for now. Let's get to the big indie record that's out this week, which is The Singer and My Band by This is Lorelei. This is, of course, the solo project of Nate Amos, who's also in the experimental pop group, Water From Your Eyes. And I feel like for this record, this album, the singer in my band with This Is Lorelei, this record is getting a huge push. I'm seeing coverage of it everywhere.

There was a New Yorker profile this week. He was on our show, which, by the way, if you look at your Indycast feed, this was originally an Amazon music exclusive. But now it's available to all listeners. So you can go, you're going to see that interview right next to this episode. So make sure to listen to that. I talked to Nate last month when I was in Brooklyn. He's a great person to talk to, really smart, really interesting, just talking about his creative process and just kind of the state of indie music right now and like where he where he sits with that.

But I feel like we've talked about this before with this, this is Laurel I because, you know, this record, it's been a while of building for this. I feel like people knew this album was coming out for a while. It really feels like Nate Amos has been a big name in terms of like other people covering his songs. Box for Buddy, Box for Star, his record from 2024 was one of those kind of slow build records that people discovered along the way, and it has a lot of fans. And he has this thing where I feel like he's really respected and loved. He's also someone that seems to me to be about the work. Isn't necessarily like a Cameron Winter type, like a big personality,

but it's just like a guy that makes really good records. And this album in particular, I think, is a really great record. It is, in a way, I think, the most normal sounding album he's made. Like, if you listen to Water From Your Eyes, or you even go deep with the band camp albums that this is Laurel Eyes put out, which is a lot. I mean, there's dozens of releases that he's made over the years. He has gradually moved from being this more outsider artist, experimental person,

to making records that are pretty straightforward indie Americana albums. Although I feel like the reference point for him is still more wean, 12 golden country grates than it is like 70s Neil Young. You know, there is still that like edge of, I don't want to call it parody, but like a somewhat like left of center approach to like bluegrass country music, twangy, Indie. rock, which I think actually plays to his benefit. I think it makes this record more interesting than it would have been if he was just doing like a straight kind of M.J. Lenderman type record. But I just think as a songwriter, as a guy who writes melodies, it puts together like songs with lyrics. I just think

his songcraft is so strong. He's such a good songwriter. And I think that really comes through on this album. Yeah, to the point about the media push or what have you. I have like kind of a focus group slash group text of friends who I would say are pretty much squarely in the encased demographic. They're about five to eight years younger than me. So maybe, you know, in that 30, late 30s, early 40s age range, used to read pitchfork obsessively and then just sort of stopped, but are still somewhat in the loop. Like one out of three of them knows who Nerasta Steele is. And one of them texting me is like, who is this, this is Lorela. It's being shoved down my throat this week, which means.

means exactly what you said, that they're being covered in like the three publications that are still doing, you know, big time profiles that, you know, Normies might read. So, you know, New Yorker, Indiecast, all on the same level. And it's interesting the kind of dissonance between the, I guess, what you would call the hype and the actual product. Like, I remember when like the DeMorasa Steel album came out, people, some people were saying, oh, they're trying to do Cindy Lee again. And, you know, maybe it's the Rolling Stone cover,

but I'm wondering if 2026 needed a getting killed style talking, like, you know, something that like we could talk about even when the album's not out. And, you know, water from your eyes is not that kind of band. And, you know, this is oil eyes, not that band either. You know, they've been past couple of years, all the reissues, their covers, your favorite band's favorite band. And, you know, nothing about this feels, quote unquote, indie. star. It's actually pretty a low-key record. You mentioned 12 golden country

greats. I would also maybe bring up white pepper, which it was seen as like kind of the quote normal wean record. Right. And yeah, this feels like a kind of standard, a good singer-songwriter album rather than like a big leap or something to capture the zeitgeist. You know, it's going to be a pretty, it's not the sort of thing that's going to, you know, rock a 92 on Metacritic or like sweep number ones. But it's definitely going to be like, it's more like an always Blue Rev than getting killed. Yeah.

At the risk of comparing things to other things, which I always do. But that's what it feels like to me. It's enjoyable. I could probably put it on in the car. Yeah, I think always is a good comparison, not so much musically, but in terms of the type of appeal that it has. I feel like always was the kind of band that was never at the center of a conversation. But five, six, seven, eight years later, people look back and they go, oh, those records are

good. And I actually want to listen to that more than maybe something that was more hyped at the time. And I think this is Lorelei will, I think it has that same kind of appeal. I think this record definitely has that kind of appeal. And it's interesting about the being shoved on your throat thing. I feel like, look, I'm trying to sell a book right now, so I'm sympathetic to people trying to sell things. And, you know, this also touches on the War on Drugs thing I was talking about earlier, you know, however you're going to try to get your name out there, like, I, I, I, I, I, I, I understand it. And I think it's a very difficult thing where there really is no middle ground between you're totally ignored and you're shoving something down people's throats, you know, because, like you said,

there's so few media outlets that have, like, a mass reach that if you're at more than one of them, people feel like, oh my God, I'm seeing this everywhere, when in reality, it may only be like a relatively small piece of like what you're actually consuming on a daily basis. It just feels like that because there's so few things that we see more than once now, I think. You know, most things we see, we see them once and then they're gone. So if you see things like a couple of times, which you have to do that in order to get people to check out your thing, I've seen this.

study once that you need to say something seven times before people are actually compelled to check it out. And so, yeah, I mean, I'm sympathetic, I guess, is what I'm saying to Nate Amos, as being someone who is trying to sell something in the same week. And I'm not getting the same kind of push as he is. The New Yorker, I'm still waiting for my profile. Hasn't happened yet. So please hook me up with that. I would love that for my book. But yeah, I just think that, it's so easy in a way to appear overhyped in a media landscape where there isn't a whole lot of things going on anymore. Yeah, no skinny.

Yeah, it's a completely decimated landscape. But I'm going to push back on that study because, you know, Mike Jones only said back then, Ho's didn't want me. Now I'm hot. Ho's all on me four times and still tipping and not seven. And I think it's stuck around pretty, it stuck around well enough. We've now reached part of our episode that we call Recommendation Corner, where Ian and I talk us about something that we're into this week.

Ian, why don't you go first? So I'm going to double dip on two EPs, which are about 15 to 20 minutes in length. One is from band called Nojoy, Big Life, Big Leaf, and Baths, who have a new EP out called Three Negative Pop, question mark, songs. And I associate these two bands together because I saw them play in maybe 2017, 2018, which is really interesting because they have little in common besides I like them, and they're from like 2010. Bath started out as this post-chillwave LA beat scene dude and Nojoy were probably best known at that time for being friends with Best Coast. They were playing a kind of dream poppy

shoegaze hybrid. But they both evolved and showed a lot of really interesting longevity. They put out really great albums in 2025. Listen to Bath's gut if you haven't yet. And Nojoy put out a record that was really cool last year produced by Fire Tools. And these EPs are, just following up on what those two albums provided, which is a extremely fascinating, homoerotic electronic prop and electro-damaged art rock that sounds like it could have come out on Grand Royal or it also could have come out last year. They're a real good testament to bands sticking around. You know, you could have been like a remember some guys, but you kept going, even if you're on your own label and the attention isn't as there as much, you can still do

really rewarding things. So I'm always going to look forward to these two artists putting out music and that includes the EPs that just came out. So I want to talk about a band that I referenced earlier that has an album out today. That band is the Tubbs and their new record, Hard Life, like I said, is out today. And this is their third record. I'm a big fan of the previous records that they put out, Dead Meat and Cotton Crown. And it's funny because this is like a relatively young band. I think that the band members are in their early 30s.

But they often get compared to artists who are like, twice as old as they are. You know, like Richard Thompson and Bob Mould in particular. The lead singer of the tub sounds a lot like those guys. And it just makes me wonder sometimes, like, does this band ever get depressed, that they're not getting, like, the kind of audience that geese gets, that it's just like middle-aged, like record collector types.

Like, I guess me, I would put myself in that category. I actually think that they deserve that kind of audience, that younger audience, because there is something very carefree and fun and rock and roll about this band. They really match this sort of punk rock energy with more of like a folk rock, British folk type sound that really is tied, I think, again, to the vocal resemblance that Owen Williams, the lead singer has to someone like Richard Thompson, who is a legend of British folk, was in the band Bearport Convention, among other things,

has had a long solo career and albums with his ex-wife, Linda Thompson. But yeah, it's like, I feel like this band is sort of cursed in a way to appeal to people that just want to talk about shoot out the lights and how great of an album that is. But if you're younger than that, if you're not in your 70s, if you're in your teens or 20s, I do think the Tubbs have a lot to offer for you, especially if you like really fun and melodic and memorable folk rock with some punk rock energy songwriting. So the album again is called Hard Life. The band is called The Tubbs. Really good stuff. Check out this record and then go listen to the other albums. They're all really good.

Yeah, one of the friends of my group texts, the 41-year-old guy who makes kind of garage rock in bands, he went to the Tubbs show in San Diego and he said like 10, 20 people were there. So yeah, I do think they could definitely command a younger audience and hopefully this one will do it. They would have had more people, but more, I'm guessing a lot of the fans like broke their hip on the way to the show. So we got to get some younger people at these tub shows, I think.

It was on a Tuesday night, and people our age are no longer going to the bar. Yeah, exactly. Thank you all for listening to this episode of Indycast. We'll be back with more news reviews and hashing out trends next week.