Indiecast - Our Most Anticipated Indie Albums Of 2023

Episode Date: January 13, 2023

The holidays are officially in the rearview mirror and 2023 is in full swing, which means it's time for a new year of fresh music. It's rare for musicians to drop projects so early in January, but Indiecast is looking forward to the year ahead with hosts Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen naming their most anticipated indie albums of 2023 (33:05).To kick off this week's episode, Indiecast discusses the biggest music news of the week. The Coachella lineup dropped (7:15) and M83 gave us some major 2010's nostalgia by announcing their return (18:24). Plus, Big Thief revealed they're inviting teachers and students to attend sound checks on their upcoming tour, which is both earnest and probably pretty boring for middle schoolers (12:53).New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 121 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 Mix tape. 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 our most anticipated albums of 2023. My name is Stephen Hayden and I'm joined by my friend and co-host. He is anticipating a time when I won't make him record indie cast earlier than usual. Ian Cohen.

Ian, how are you? You know, I was thinking this morning about, like, what would be the most antagonistic thing I could say to Steve this morning, which, you know, could be either a, like, talk about the fact the Packers lost at home to the Lions with a playoff spot on the line, or I listened to Park Life this morning. I actually did listen to Park Life this morning. It still holds up. Okay, so, yeah, we're recording on Monday this week, because I'm leaving town for a few days. So we're going to be missing some indie, some indie rock news, I think, this week possibly in this episode. We'll get to that because we're anticipating some things. But there's going to be other things that we miss. But it's my fault that we're recording early.

And as Ian just alluded to, it's the day after another horrible Aaron Rogers choke job in January. I could do like a three-hour sports cast. Just venting. about this. We're also, we're recording before your team, the Georgia Bulldogs, play in the national championship game. So we don't know how that's going to turn out.

I think you're probably going to win. You're playing TCU. Yeah, I feel like, look, I'm not trying to tempt fate here. Like, I feel a lot less anxiety than I did last year when they were playing Alabama. And, you know, if, like, I'm being honest, I think they're going to fucking tombstone this team. But I just love the fact that, like, me as, like, a Georgia

Bulldogs and Eagles fan is coming into this episode like just super confident and whereas you know the Green Bay Packer is one of the most like story and successful franchises in all sports like you're the one with like the hard luck story.

Not lately. Not lately. I mean choking like dogs and we're not even in the like we choke now we're choking before the playoffs like normally we choke in the playoffs now we're not even getting to the playoffs.

Now we're not even getting to the playoffs. playoffs. We're getting in a situation where everything is lined up perfectly for just kind of win at home against the team that has nothing to play for. No, Aaron Rogers, a choking dog once again. I'm telling you, I could do a three-hour sports cast on this, but you know, by the time this posts, this is all going to be like old news. No one's going to even be thinking about Aaron Rogers unless, you know, he does some stupid interview with Pat McAfee where, yeah, I don't know. Which is almost certain to happen, so we'll get to that next week.

Yeah, all right. But anyway, you went to a show this weekend. This was like an ultimate Ian Cohen show, right? Because it was Joyce Manor, Pup, and Jeff Rose's side. And they played like an arena in Southern California? They literally played the Long Beach Arena. You know, there was a similar show in 2019 where it was Jeff Rosenstock, Joyce Manor, and AJJ, and they played the Hollywood Palladium, which is like a two or three thousand cap place.

And I thought that was like the culmination of like this whole thing. I get to Long Beach Arena this Saturday. First off, it's a convention center. So on the other side, on like one of the other buildings, there's an anime convention happening. So you have this huge line of like Joyce Manor and pup fans. And on the other people dressed up in like anime. cosplay so that's a great that is just great merger I mean I thought

car seat headrest was in town or something but this is like this is a literal arena it is like a 14, it holds 14,000 people now mind you like that's you know the upper seating and there was probably like 6,000 people on the floor which is a fuckload

there's a lot of people there and I mean it was an arena rock show it wasn't like you know Joyce Manor playing this I mean they played the same set you would see, you know, at like in a thousand-cap place. But I think they were recording it for a live album, and they sounded fantastic. It was such a fun show. And, you know, I also, I got to give a shout out to Zach from Denver. Like, he turns around and is like, hey, man,

I listen to the podcast every week. I love being, I love being recognized from Indycast because, like, our listeners, no punishers in that crowd. People say hi and they love the podcast and they keep it moving. Yeah, I've been bought many a beer by an Andycast listener who recognized me at a show. I got recognized a few times at last time I saw Wild Pink, which was like, that was like a club show. and I swear, like three recognized encounters at that show,

which if you're going to get recognized from Indycast, it better be at a Wild Pink show. I mean, that's square in the middle of where our listeners would be. Yeah. Could that bill playing an arena

anywhere else in the country? Do you think, like, if that bill, because I'm thinking, okay, Southern California, like, could that bill do 6,000 people like at the, like the Hartford Civic Center or something,

like the New York City area show. I could probably do it there too. Maybe. I'm guessing. I mean, like, you know, like Joyce Manor came out and it's like, we're Joyce Manor. We're from right fucking here. I mean, they're from Long Beach.

And I don't know if like they have that sort of poll in like, you know, any other part of the country. But like, I mean, let it, let the record show. This is still pretty fucking impressive. So, I mean, this, this, I mean, Jeff Rosenstocks technically. an LA guy now too. So, um,

I don't know if this would happen in Hartford, but I, I would love to see them try. Um, you know, like, they were all, it was just such a, the vibes are so good at this show.

Like, I just can't even begin to talk about like, how much like, this is dudes rock in the flesh, but like dudes rock meaning like the kind of non-toxic masculinity. And, you know, like it was like,

I'd say like the gender split. of the crowd was like half and half. So, you know, dudes rock, not just for dudes. That's good to hear. Yeah. I bet that, I mean, if that was like a package tour, they'd definitely be doing 2000. Oh, yeah. Cap and lots of places in the country.

That's a pretty loaded bill. One piece of news that hasn't broken yet when we've recorded this, but likely will by the time this post is the Coachella lineup. And we're operating on rumors. at the time of this recording, but I think it's pretty reliable. Yeah. Like, the rumors are bad bunny,

black pink, Frank Ocean. That sounds very Coachella-E. You know, I, the only one that might be iffy is Frank Ocean. Yeah. You don't know about him.

And they actually might announce him, and then he'll back out later. I could see that being a scenario. But, I mean, I don't know how much we want to talk about. about this because we don't know for sure this is happening but I feel like

it's probably going to be this. Yeah, I think that for both like or at least like floating the rumor that Frank Ocean is playing is the best way to keep your festival in the headlines long after it's sold out and the line has been announced because I mean I think about the God

the last time I went to like an LA based festival might have been 2015 or 16 FYF where like Frank Ocean was the headliner and like I think it was like two or three three days before the festival, he pulled out and Kanye replaced him. That was the weekend I saw. Two of the headlenders were Kanye and Morrissey. And again, this just kind of shows you how long it's been since I've actually been to an L.A. Festival. Look, I mean, I just hope he will bookmark this if it does turn out to be true when the year ends come along and people talk about like, you know, the hegemony of like,

you know, rock dudes or what have you. Like, Coachella is so far beyond the pale of that. And, So, I mean, look, all three of these people are going to put on great shows. It's not like, you know, when I was going to Coachella and, like, the last year I went, I think was 15, where you get, like, Drake as, like, this kind of trial balloon, but also, like, muse or arcade fire playing for, like, the third time. Yeah, I mean, now I'm at the point with Coachella where I would be surprised if a rock band was a headlighter. Yeah. You know, like you said, six, seven years ago. you still had

like the obligatory at least one rock band in there like nine times out of ten it would be the chili peppers Metallica maybe I mean Metallica's got a new album that would be an interesting one I don't know I just feel like

their demo is so far beyond that you know like we were talking or at least I was talking last week hoping for an oasis reunion and there was a time where that would have totally been in Coachella's wheelhouse and I if this prediction comes true,

I wouldn't expect them to play Coachella. That would be like Glastonbury. That's a total Glastonbury type show. But I don't know. They're just so far beyond booking rock bands now that I don't really, I can't envision one other than maybe like a band like Tame Impala,

which is like kind of a rock band, but you can also imagine them not being a rock band. I wonder, like, when Vampire Weekend puts out an album, could they headline? I mean, we've made this conversation before. Yeah, I think they could headline. Or they, yeah, I think they certainly could. But, yeah, I mean, Oasis, it wouldn't be as bad as, like, when they had blur slash the stone roses try to anchor the Friday night in 2013, which is, like, one of the most pathetic displays I've ever

seen at Coachella. It was, like, so historically bad that they had to just, like, completely reimagine it. I think that was the turning point. Like there must have been a person involved in booking who, you know, was really into indie rock and alternative rock from the 20th century. And then that bill happened. And they put that person out to pasture. Like, okay, you're done. We're only going to go on Spotify streams now.

Like whoever streams well, that's who's going to be booked as the headliner moving forward. because we've turned the page from these big rock reunions that used to be our bread and butter. Our core audience, like, does not care about the stone roses or any band of that generation? Stone roses don't care about the stone roses. Yeah, I mean, I like the stone roses. I would go, but I wouldn't go to Coachella to see this. You know, that's the thing. It's like the audience for that, they don't want to go to Coachella.

Yeah. And the Coachella audience doesn't want to see that. It's just incompatible, you know. It doesn't have to do with, like, is rock dead or not? Like, we don't have to write these think pieces. I don't see them really anymore. Or, like, you look at the lineup of Coachella and you're like, well, there's no rock bands here.

That means rock is dead. No, it just means that this particular festival, their audience isn't interested in that. And that's been true for a long time. But again, you know, this conversation will be hilarious if the lineup is announced. which is after we record. What if Oasis is on there? What if?

Emergency podcast, you're going to record remotely. We're going to be, like, doing one of those YouTube things where, like, you're recording in your car or something like that. Yeah, it's good. Yeah, that would be, that'd be DefCon, 4 or 5, whatever the highest thing is. Yeah, we always forget the high, oh, God, this is like another Kanye conversation. Oh, yeah, yeah, that's true. Yeah, we got to pivot from that.

So we got to talk about this big thief story that dropped last week. And, you know, compared to some of the big thief things that dropped in 2022, this is very innocuous. But there was a story about how Big Thief is inviting kids and teachers to their sound checks. And the quote from the band is, our hope is that students would be able to come see the sound check. and ask questions and share in a discussion about creativity,

music, playing, shows, songwriting, or whatever, exclamation point. So when I saw this story, I had two reactions. The first reaction was, and this was, I'm going to say my, this is actually my second reaction,

but I'll say it first. My second reaction was, this is so pure in earnest that it feels wrong to make fun of it. Like, it's coming from, like, a nice place. I understand the sentiment behind it. So, hats off to them. TAT.

Wanting to have conversations about art or whatever. That was my second reaction. The first reaction I had was to roll my eyes at this. And look, I'm a fan of big thief, but this just seems like a very big thief idea. You know, it doesn't seem very practical. Like, I've been to soundtracks before. And they're really boring. They're not that exciting.

They're working through, they're basically just trying to figure out the sound in the room. And when I've been in those situations, I always feel like I'm in the way. Like, I'm standing in the middle of an office that I don't work in. And maybe, like, one person knows why I'm there, but nobody else does. And basically, like, the band is usually okay about it, but, like, the people who work for the band or the people in the venue, they always treat you, like, why are you in my office space? Like, you don't need to be here. You're just taking up room.

And now you're going to have kids in that situation? I don't know. It's very weird. Like, what did you think of this? Yeah, I had to laugh when you say, like, I take my hat off to them because, like, when I think of big thief, I think of Buck Meeks and, Buck Meeks and enormous hats. Yeah, this is like the most big thiefy, big thief thing to do. It's like when Matt Bellamy talked about how he wanted muse concerts to, like, incorporate

magnets and shit. Like, I mean, I've been to sound checks and I don't know if, yeah, they're like boring and also stressful at the same time somehow, you know, like they're trying to get the levels right or make sure that, you know, Buck Meat has all of his hats and like, you know, alternately tuned guitars. And I'm just like wondering, like what age of kid they expect. I mean, have you ever been on a field trip with one of your kids? Have you ever been like the chaperone?

No, I haven't, but I know that my kids do not care about indie rock. I've played indie rock in front of them. They do not care about it. They do not engage with it. They like video game music. You know, music that is on Roblox, basically, is what they're into. So I feel like this is going to be a teacher who loves Big Thief, and they're going to impose this on their students who may be fitfully interested in like why this,

why we're watching this band. Yeah, because this has to happen after school, you know, like, it's not like, oh, hey, field trip at like one o'clock, yay, we miss math. It's, you know, like the, when I think about like field trips nowadays, now that I have, you know, like friends who are parents, it just seems so stressful for the adult to, like, corral all these people together, have them on the school bus, like, probably good. go to a part of the city where it's like difficult to navigate it i mean that's true i don't know how much you know you have to love big thief to pull this off and i we really need to have our

indycast intro and do some follow up on this you know to see like if anyone takes them up on the offer but that's just all i can think about whenever i hear about a field trip it's just i put myself in the position of like you know the 36 or 42 year old parent or teacher who is just trying and earn as to keep their shit together as they try to like get 12 kids to focus on one thing. And I just imagine the process, because you show up to these venues and there's always at least like one really cranky person who is like, why are you here? Yeah. And you have to explain to them and they never like believe you like why you're there because

you don't have the sticker on or whatever. And which you talk about it being stressful. It's stressful to visit these things just for that reason. Like I always feel like I'm about to be kicked out. I'm like, dude, I'm writing about this band. They said I could be here. And, yeah, the grumpy person never believes you. It's like, why would I make this up?

And, like, why would I just be standing here? This is, like, boring as shit. Like, I don't really enjoy this process. Like, I'm working here, man. I'm working. But now you're going to have, like, 20 kids running around. That cranky guy at the venues is going to blow a gasket, I think, over this policy. But, yeah, if you're a teacher out there,

do us a solid take your kids to the big thief sound check we want to know how it goes so um this next thing we may have to cut this out because we don't know for sure if this is being announced we we we think it's being announced before this post and it's a new single from m83 uh which is called oceans niagara and uh because we're highfalutin critics we we we got an early stream of this song. Oh, yeah. I'm guessing there's going to be an album coming out connected to this. I don't know.

I haven't heard that, but we have a single. And you are like the chief chronicler of AM83. Would you say in the music critic community, like you've interviewed Anthony Gonzalez like 15 times or something? Like, not 15, but 4, which might as well be 15. You know, from the rollout of Hurry Upward Dreaming, which is, of course, their massive breakthrough album in 2011, up until Junk, which came five years later. I interviewed him four times. Once for the album, another time for the Oblivion soundtrack that he did with this Tom Cruise blockbuster where he did the soundtrack, just an altogether miserable experience for him.

Another time where they reissued M83's albums and last time for Jum. And yeah, this is just fascinating. He's just a fascinating person to follow because every single time I interviewed him, the fame of this band had just continued to escalate. And he just seems like a very private, normal guy who was kind of sort of freaked out by how big Midnight City became. And, you know, junk was in a lot of ways of reaction to that. But this time, it sounds like, you know, M83 doing M83 in a way that reminds me. a little bit of, you know, from last year, like Animal Collective or Precancellation Arcade Fire. Just coming up, coming back from like a pretty, you know, like a pretty diffuse past decade and just doing what you love and reminding you why you love them in the first place.

And for M83, this is like kind of a, it's kind of a big deal because even without them around over the past six some odd years, you look at things like stranger things or like the Ghostbusters rebrand. boot and they all seem to have like M83 flavoring to it, even if they're not involved at all. So, I don't know, there's something kind of daring about it, even if it is, you know, M83 doing M83 things. He's trying to remind us like what we loved about this band, even though there's so much like M83 inspired stuff going on. Yeah, this single, I thought was pretty good. I enjoyed it and like I'm an M83 fan, so M83 doing M83 is in my wheelhouse.

I will say, though, that there are instances sometimes where an artist or a band so perfectly executes what they do that really do no fault of their own. It makes, like, anything that comes after feel unnecessary. You know, like, this thing is so perfect. Like, you have no hope of ever topping it. You know, I feel like people say that about the strokes a lot, but is this it? Like they just nailed the strokes thing and everything after has been just reiterating like what they did on that record. I don't necessarily agree with that because there's strokes albums I like almost as much as this is it. But that's an argument that's made.

I would make that argument like with M83. I feel like Midnight City, which I still feel like is probably the best like indie song of the 2010s. Like if I had to pick a single, that would be the one that immediately comes to mind. it's so perfect that it's like what do you do after that because everything else just feels like diminishing returns I think junk as you said was a reaction to the success of that song and the album but it was like he was dodging that issue it's like I'm going to make this quirky album that doesn't even attempt

to really try to top what I did before match it in this album maybe there's enough space from Midnight City now, like where he can do the retrenching type record, and it'll feel different. Maybe people are just appreciative of what he does. But I don't know. That is a curse, though, with some bands, an artist that you can almost make too perfect of a record or a song that you can't ever hope to follow it up. Yeah, like, hurry up, we're dreaming.

And let me just say that, like, 2003 to 2011, M83 is like one of my favorite runs. of music of all time. And hurry up we're dreaming. It was, you know, he intentionally designed it after melancholy and the infinite sadness. It was such a perfect distillation and expansion of what M83 did. Which in and of itself

was something that people have copied even before that. That, you know, like, I'm hoping he gets like a new abnormal. Like whatever that Strokes album was called where they kind of did the same thing, but it wasn't like you know, angles or something

like that. So it was celebrated to a degree that it might not have been had it come out like two years after hurry up we're dreaming. I love this band. Anthony's a cool guy and I think he's gotten enough space from Junk which I mean he was freaked out by Midnight City and he would admit it

and Junk was a really good way for him to kind of give himself some distance. I thought this guy was just going to do soundtracks with his brother for the rest of his life but I'm just glad they're back and you know I'm glad that we're we got our big announcement of 2023 so we can really feel like we're moving forward in this year that we know of anyway there could be other ones that we missed that we'll have to get to in our next episode uh let's get to

our mailbag segment thank you all for writing in you can hit us up at indecast mailbag at gmail dot com uh i like this letter this week uh do you want to read it i do so this is cheers from danny and gilong it's it's either g long or g long in australia either way like cheers from danio in australia that would be lots of australians write us i love it uh hi stephen and i'm a big fan of your podcast and have a question for you what are your feelings on faith no more and specifically their best cd angel dust i like how he said cd this is a very cd album oh absolutely angel dust was very important to me and my friends and our teenagers and i still very much enjoyed playing it today In his 2015 pitchfork review, Stuart Berman rightly called Angel Dust a modern classic,

and I think it is in the same league in quality, not so much legacy as other big alt-rock releases from the 90s, including Blood Sugar Sex Magic, Nevermind, Siamese Dreams, and Super Unknown. However, no one really mentions Angel Dust when they discussed music from that era. Has this classic record been unfairly forgotten? Cheers from Danny. Yeah. So I made a joke once on Twitter that if you,

you were a teenager in the 90s, you had at least one friend that was way, way into Faith No More, and Mike Patton, you know, Mr. Bungle, all that stuff, and like Angel Dust specifically. Like for a certain breed of alt metal fan, Angel Dust is like OK computer of the 90s. Absolutely, you know, just like this sort of shape shifting, paradigm shifting, you know, just mind-blowing type record.

you mentioned Danny mentioned some like big time alt rock classics there and he's wondering like it has this record been forgotten relative to like never mind or Siamese dream I mean I don't think it's been forgotten because it wasn't even really noticed by most people like it's a record that

for people like Danny and scattered people throughout the world this is like a huge record and for most people Faith No More is the band that did Epic and that's it As far as my own feelings about it I own this on CD

I own this album on CD Hold on is it like your original one Or did you re-buy it recently? No I re-bought it like a year or two ago But I think I enjoy it more as an object Than as an album Like I like owning it on CD but I don't listen to it a ton.

And I hope that doesn't sound bad. I mean, I appreciate this record. But the thing about Mike Patton is, like, I've seen him likened to Frank Zappa, and I think that's a really apt comparison because Frank Zappa is a genius musician. I think most people would recognize, like, he's a great guitar player.

He writes really complicated music. He's clearly an intelligent guy. But he's also like an obnoxious bore. You know, like he's kind of unbearable. And with Mike Patton, I feel like there's both those elements. Like he's clearly a talented vocalist. And people have talked about like his vocal range being, I think he's got like a four or five octave range or something like that.

And on Angel Dust, you can hear like what he does as a singer. There's some really beautiful moments. Like the single from that record, Midlife Crisis, like the chorus I think is really beautiful. But then there's also vocal affectations in that song that are really kind of annoying. And he's also singing, there's that line in the chorus where he goes,

Are you going to do the Mike Patton voice? Are you going to do it? I'm not going to do it. I was thinking about doing it. No, like your menstruating heart, it ain't bleeding enough for two, is the chorus of that song. Which is something that I think,

when I was 14, I would have thought that was really edgy, and now I just think it's kind of dumb. You know what I mean? Like, I don't know. Like, again, I think with that record, specifically in this Mike Patton in general, there's always these moments of brilliance

bumping up against kind of obnoxious things. So like Zappa, it feels designed to be a niche type record in the way that those other records that Danny mentioned, aren't. I mean, how do you, does any of the square with how you feel like, are you a big Angel Dust fan? Yeah, I, like, I should send Danny, like, a check for, like, $100 or something like that, because this is, like, an effective form of, like, exposure therapy. Like, when, when you mentioned

the album, Angel Dust, I'm, like, really back in, like, sixth grade, watching MTV for six hours a day, like, eating cheese. It's waiting for the, uh, midlife crisis or a small victory. MTV exclusive Kairon to come up. Like, I am there in a way no therapist is able to get me. But, you know, I bought this CD. I owned an Angel Dust T-shirt for some reason. Despite the fact, I know, right? Despite the fact that, like, I don't think I ever listen to this album all the way through.

One of the things I loved about your Pearl Jam book was talking about how, you know, to someone who's like 12 years old or at least in the early 90s with like more of a culture, how something that is like, I don't know, not at the level of, say, like, Metallica or Boys to Men can still be seen as, like, countercultural. And that's what, like, Faith No More was to me as a 13-year-old. I haven't listened to this album in probably 30 years, but I remember RV and Be Aggressive. Those are, like, kind of the more novelty songs on the album. And, you know, I know that it was super influential on a lot of, like, bands, like, deaf tones and

corn. And so, you know, I was kind of interested in re-listening to it and just to see how it's held up. Listen to the other day and boy, I did not like it very much. The production just sounds like ultra-dated, like those synth sounds. And, you know, that's not in and of itself something that would prevent me from liking it. Like, I think dated sounds can be very interesting. But RV is like the fourth song on the record, which I thought it came later. That seemed like a very much a deep cut. And this reminded me not so much of Zappa, but like tool. And not in the way

it sounds, but in the sense of like there's this kind of like, oh I'm like, look at, like this discerative condescending sort of intellect that again, I found to be very compelling when I was 13 years old. Like I remember listening

to like a Dennis Leary stand-up CD and thinking, oh yeah, this is a fucking true. This is a truth teller right here, man. Like this guy's saying what we're all thinking. And like, when I hear it now, it just seems to me to be like, you know, like the type, we all know a Mike Patton type of guy. And like if they're not, they're not like, they look down on people who would listen to Joe Rogan, but like in some ways, there's like some pieces of similarities. So, um, yeah, not, not a fan. Uh, yeah. And I think like

when I likened it to Zappa, that was what I was talking about the Yeah. Like you said, that that kind of superiority of like complexity, you know, like because this is not you know, because I think there was probably a, like a certain

breed of fan that would scoff at like Pearl Jam or Allison Chains. You know, as being kind of dumb guy music and that this was like more elevated. And I think Patton probably looks at himself like that too.

That's the impression that you get from the records, and it is something that makes it annoying, even though there's parts of it that I think, again, I think are really kind of amazing. Like, there are compositional things on this record that I think are really cool. And again, as a vocalist, Patton does, like, a lot of interesting things. It's just that some of those interesting things I find really irritating.

So, you know, the beauty and the ear. rotation go hand in hand. I feel like with his music for me. All right, well, let's get to the meat of our episode. And by the way, I think we broke our half hour guarantee. I was complaining about the Packers for too long. I apologize for that. We're talking about our most anticipated albums of 2023. We each pick three, by the way. So we have six total. Have you heard any of your albums yet? I haven't heard any of mine. None. And, you know, none of these have you. None of these have even been announced. Like, I don't know if they exist.

This is all based on, you know, speculation, but, like, I think I have enough intel. And again, like, I'm not saying, like, oh, yeah, someone from the label, you know, slid me, like a demo or something like that. But just from contextual clues, I can imagine that this year will end with us having seen these albums come out. Well, let's get into it. Like, what's the first album on your list? All right.

So I'm putting Black Country New Road on there, which, you know, they just put out an album last year and the year before that. But, you know, I think about this band in terms of, I think in a lot of ways, the current critical, you know, the current critical scene is a reaction to, you know, those couple of years when the, you know, when the world revolved around deer hunter and like animal clubs. collective, like, you know, and it's, I guess it's hard for people to kind of conceive of that now because it's such an anomaly. Like, you know, the 90s was a lot more like right now than most people are willing to believe. But I think it's just kind of hard to imagine, you know, not just, you know, deer hunter and animal collective, like, leading the charge, but also like indie bands that are that prolific and dynamic and change from album to album and are constantly, uh, workshopping new music. I think one of the fun things about Animal Collective is that when they put out an album, that was the end of that cycle. And when you saw them live, you would see them do songs from what would become the next album. Black Country New Road is like that.

They were like that and they have to be like that now because Isaac Wood, the front person who led Ants from Up There is gone. And I saw them perform with Black Middy, who's another band I would put in that category. and they played entirely new music. It was like 45 minutes of all new stuff. It sounded kind of of a piece with what they were doing. It's very grand orchestral, a lot of eight-minute songs. But I'm interested to see how they adjust because, you know, Isaac Wood was, in my view, like one of the main draws of this band.

I loved his lyrical style. But I think he was the, I think he was like the most annoying. like people who don't like Black Country New Road and there are a lot of them. It was a lot because of him. And now they have like three or four vocalists, all of whom, you know, are great vocalists and great songwriters, but they kind of lack that charisma or presence. So, you know, I'm, A, I feel like they're definitely going to put out a record because so much material is built up.

And I'm interested to see, like, whether this is like, you know, post-Sid Barrett, Pink Floyd or maybe like new pornographers type situation or whether they kind of lose what made them special. Either way, I'm just like excited to see what they do next because they're just constantly working and they're just so much talent in this band. Yeah, you know, because you talked before, I think about seeing them live

and all the different, having like three or four different singers rather than just like one front person. And I'm actually really intrigued by that. Like I want to hear what, record comes out of that. It's funny with this band because in my mind, they remind me probably the most

of like 70s prog rock. You know, like they have that vibe to me, especially like a British 70s prog rock band, like Genesis or like gentle giant, that kind of stuff. And it's funny that they've already lost their front person because that was like a hallmark of those bands. Like they would, you know, like Genesis lost their lead singer. You know, Peter Gabriel and then like Phil Collins ends up being the six.

So maybe like one of these. new singers will be like they're Phil Collins and like they'll actually go on to this great pop success in the wake of Isaac Wood leaving. This is a band that like I'm still in the zone of appreciating what they do more than enjoying it. Like ants from up there is a record that I think like exhausts me more than exhilarates me but the animal collective comparison makes sense to me because it does harken to a time where you had bands

that would irritate people because of what they're doing just because they have like sort of an experimental almost confrontational type style and I do like that idea I like the idea of like a band like that that isn't designed

to make music that just sounds good on your laptop while you're streaming music at your job. You know, because I feel like that's what most music is now. So I appreciate what they do. I'm intrigued by this, whatever they have next, even though I haven't fully embraced them yet. But yeah, I'm glad they're around,

and I'm waiting to eventually be blown away by them. Yeah, I just like the fact that if, when they piss people off, it's because of the music, not because, like, you know, their music is, you know, kind of anodyme, but they're just annoying posters. Right, exactly. Well, maybe that gets to my first album on my list of anticipated records. So we talked about this album a little last week, but not so much about the music.

It was more about the conversation around this band, which I think is kind of sad because, you know, like Big Thief last year, I think the conversation overtook what was in my mind a great record. And I feel like it's, it could happen to this record I'm talking about. It's the new album by Wednesday, which we know we'll be coming out at some point. And I think some people may be out there in Music Critic Land have heard. I have not heard yet myself. I'm very excited to hear it. But Wednesday to me, I want to put the music first here because, you know, you were talking about deer hunter and animal collective before.

and we were talking about them being confrontational type bands. I think Animal Collective more than Deer Hunter. And I think just this idea of like indie bands that have like really good, exciting discographies. You know, that's something that we've been missing a little bit. It seems like bands bubble up. They put out a record or two and then maybe they fade away a little bit. I'm putting my stock or I'm buying stock in Wednesday being a band. Like around the horn.

Yeah. that's like a Bill Simmons thing, I think, is buying stock. But a band like Big Thief. I keep liking them to Big Thief, but I think there are similarities there. But how Big Thief has already like a strong catalog that I think people are going to be talking about in 10 years and the way that we talk about Deer Hunter Records now.

I think Wednesday has that potential. The last couple albums of originals, I think, are really good. I was trying to describe you to someone in 2020, in 2020. And then you had twin plagues that came out in 2020. 2021. And I guess my hope is that this new record is like their Halcyon Digest. You know, the album, like, where it all comes together. It feels like, okay, this is the one.

This is their moment. I feel like it's leading up to that. Like, the stars are aligned. They just have to deliver the record that lives up to the moment. I have to say that, like, they put out a single last year called Bull Believer. It was like this eight-minute song, I'm assuming that's on the record. I guess I don't know that for sure. I wasn't crazy about that song.

To me, it didn't fit into what I love about Carly Hartzman songwriting, which I think she's really good at doing these sort of deadpan, slice of life songs set in small towns that are really evocative, and she sets it to music that really kind of creates a sense of mood that is, I don't know, there's somewhat foreboding,

but also there's something kind of warm and comfortable about it at the same time. If that song is on the record, I think it'll probably make more sense on the record than it did as a single. But I don't know. I'm excited for that record. I hope we talked last week that we feel like there's goodwill out there among them with critics, that they want this to be great. I'm one of those people that want it to be great, but we have to hear it and see if it actually lives up to that moment. Yeah. Speaking of their vast discography, I was revisiting this mix I made from 2019,

and like the real heads will remember Deva Sweetly. It's a Carly Hartzman's kind of emo-leaning band from the early days that no longer exists. Check out that album. It's a really interesting leap from that to Wednesday. Yeah. Yeah, I haven't heard that record. I've heard of it, but I've not dove into that. You'll be shocked what it sounds like. So what's your next anticipated album? You know, speaking of pivoting to Emo, we got to talk about Emo. You know, I published recently on Up Rocks, my list of my favorite Emo albums from 2022. And in it, you know, I talked about how there was a real lack of like this big flagship album.

I feel like a lot of the bands that really were bubbling up in Fifth Wave, you know, are just biding their time. And I think some really good albums will come out from this world. I know the home is where a record is done, awake but still in bed is doing their thing. Those albums will come out and I feel like they'll be well received and perhaps maybe make a little impact outside of Emo Twitter. But the one I'm most excited about is the one where I have like the least amount of information and like the least idea of what it's going to sound like. And that is Glass Beach's second album, which will not be called the second Glass Beach album. their one from 2019 is still probably my favorite record that has come out since that time just came completely out of the blue such a really awesome fully formed aesthetic just took

its sound in so many different directions and also annoyed people which I always love about that it's kind of like the 1975 where even when there's songs that are just like uniformly excellent you could hear the ghost of like a version of it where everything just goes completely wrong and it's unlistenable. Everything feels like it's on the table for them. And I think they have this kind of cult following around them where it will just be, and it'll just be interesting as opposed to just like, okay, here's a band I like, here's a good record.

Like I have no idea what they're going to do, whether they're going to like be more confident, you know, because they self-release and self-produce their first one or whether they're going to overthink it. it could be like what was the fiery furnaces out and that came out after a blueberry boat it was like one that like people

fucking hated it was the one they did with their grandma right yeah it's rehearsing my choir yeah so we could get something like that or you know we could get

uh of Montreal's been a band they compared to maybe they do their hissing fawn are you the destroyer again like I think what you know Wednesday

Black Country New Road Glass Beach I think they all, if I could unify them, it's that, like, I have no idea what's going to come of this. And that's more exciting than, say, you know, a band that's, like, consistent. And, you know, maybe they'll do their thing in a way that is more fully recognized. Yeah, you know, I have to say, and this is going to sound like sacrilege to you, but the aspects of that record that I like the most are the more of Montreal, like aspects, the sort of cosmic psychedelic funky parts of it as opposed to maybe the more straightforward

emo stuff which I kind of find grading on that record. So like if they move more in the of Montreal direction I think I'd be on board for that because that's a band you don't I don't really hear them being referenced very often but I think at their best they actually had like a really cool sound and they were great live yes at their peak um so I don't I don't know. I may have just totally irritated you. I'm good. By saying that. But I would, but I guess, because this is another band.

This is definitely a thread with you that, like, Black Country New Road has, like, a lot of ideas. And they're throwing a lot of stuff against the wall and doing it in a way that is going to alienate people. But for the people who connect with it, it's going to just blow their minds. That's what, that's what, that's what we love here. this side of indie cast like just again like a lot of this is just me being nostalgic for like you know the 2004 to 2009 sort of era of like post indie rock where like you could just like clown a band for like having a whole bunch of ideas and some of which work like you know rather than nowadays where it's it's like fairly safe music but like you have to find like other means of like laundering

your dislike of a band you know it's like oh so-and-so made a bad post. Oh, fuck yeah. Now it's time to capitalize and say I never like them. Yeah, there's just a certain, like when people say they don't like Glass Beach, I totally fucking get it. Like, it's sort of like even the 1975 where it's like, yeah, this, like, you can't love this band and not recognize how it would annoy the shit out of some people. Well, my next record, and I've already referenced Peter Gabriel era Genesis in this episode. why not just talk about Peter Gabriel himself? Oh, yeah.

Because he is, I think, putting out his first album in 21 years this year. And it's called, and I don't know how to pronounce this. I'm just going to say I slash O. Yeah. Like, before there was a Bonnie Verre, there was Peter Gabriel doing things like this. That's a good comparison. I think that's like a, that's a very astute comparison. Well, and Peter Gabriel has covered Bunny Bear, and I think you listen to Bunny Bear, he's clearly a Peter Gabriel fan.

There was a single that dropped, I think it was last week that is from this record. It's called Panopticam. Very tool-esque. Yes, it is very much. Brian Eno was involved in it. I think it's like a pretty good single. I don't know what to think of this album. He has, I think, been working on.

on it for like 20 years. It's not just that like he's waited a long time and now he finally worked on a record. His last album came out in 2002. It was called Up, which is quite a good album, by the way. Actually, Stereo Gum had a good 20-year retrospective piece on it last year. That's worth looking up. But there was talk in 2002 that Gabriel was going to follow up

up relatively quickly and it was presumably this album. So he's been dabbling in this, I don't know how often he's been working on it in the last 21 years. I don't know if it's like every year or if it's like in fits and starts,

but it's the kind of album that even if it's not good, I know I'm going to enjoy thinking about it because it is like one of those records that I'm sure is just absurdly expensive. You know, it has so much labor

and again even if it's not very good I know it's going to sound amazing like the songs might be shit for all I know but it's going to sound amazing it's going to be played by amazing musicians it's going to just have again just tons of money put into it and really it's like the kind of record you don't hear that much

anymore you know like we talk about you know these boondoggles that came out of like the late 20th century like when the music industry when the music industry was just flush with cash, you know, Chinese democracy being like the most sort of obvious example. But, you know, there's less well-known.

I mean, there's that, there's that corn album. Untouchables, yeah. Which is, I think that costs like $4 million to me. Well, apparently a big,

well, first off, like no one can ever confirm these numbers, but I think a lot of it with corn. I love this fact. I interviewed them last year for their new album is that they kept like their entire road crew and such, like on retainer.

So they wouldn't go like, because, you know, it's hard for those people to make money. And they kept them on retainers so like they wouldn't go get other jobs. Also, I think if we're talking about super expensive albums, like how did they spend this much money? We got to talk about the darkness one-way ticket to hell and back. Apparently that was also one of the most expensive ones, but I'd aggras. That's super expensive. Again, just like these amazing sounding opulent albums, like I'm always going to be drawn to that. So along with just being a Peter Gabriel fan, which I am, just the idea of this being an album that's been in the works for 21 years, it's like, I've got to hear this album, you know?

Yeah. And so I'm excited to hear it for sure. Yeah, I think with Peter Gabriel, this seems, he seems kind of like a Kate Bush type in that. I mean, look, he's never really left the discussion, you know, in your eyes is always going to ensure that he's, you know, able to make albums every 20 years that cost $5 billion. dollars but yeah i feel like there's maybe like a bubbling like peter gabriel not renaissance or reappreciation but he becomes someone people talk a lot more about as an influence or just a touchdown because i mean fascinating career yeah and there is a peter gabriel kate bush duet on so don't give up great song throw that in stranger things that that would be a good uh sink yeah i'm just thinking

about like in the same time period where i was like you know the a four and mentioned watching watching MTV at 8 hours a day. A lot of songs from us. Like those videos are definitely popping. Like steam digging in the dirt. Oh my. Kiss that frog.

If you want to remember 1992 or 3's like computer aesthetics in the most accurate terms imaginable, go find the Kiss That Frog video. I did not expect us to be talking about fucking Kiss That Frog in 2020.

And I mean us, the first song, come talk to me, which I believe, I don't know if Bunny Bear covered that or not, maybe not, but that's a song that, you know, if you love Black Country New Road in a way that kind of predates like that arcade fire, epic, just orchestral type rock, great song. Anyway, what is your last anticipated album of 2023? All right, so it's in this vein of the first two in that it's like kind of occult act that people love, but I don't know if this band annoys people all that much. But it's definitely like an us first them sort of thing.

I'm fairly confident that Los Campesinos are working on a new record. Things move pretty slowly in this camp. You know, they have like six or seven members. Most have kids. They're all huge soccer fans. So maybe they took a couple months off to watch the World Cup. But, you know, this band has had a pretty steady amount of appreciation since 2007 when Yumi dancing came out. And, you know, I feel like we, I feel like they're just still underappreciated.

When I look back on their discography, which, you know, they were very, very active early on and now, you know, took four years between no blues in 2013 and six scenes, their last album in 2017, that it's easy to kind of do a re-listen and appreciate just how distinct this band is. I think similar to Wednesday, they incorporate sports references in their lyrics a lot, which I think more indie band should do. But, you know, do I think that if this band puts out something, it'll be, you know, their best album, which I think No Blues is their best album. I'm not sure about that. I think they're younger, or I'm sorry, I think they're older, a bit more mature, maybe not as beholden to like, you know, their wildest ideas they used to be. But nonetheless, this is, I mean, there are a ton of albums I could throw out here.

that like I'm looking forward to as I think they might be awesome. Empty country comes to mind. But this one is more just kind of a personal thing in that put out a new record. I want to talk about Los Campesinos. This is like the let me do my thing with a legacy band type pick. You know, as you were talking about them, it occurred to me, like, is this your hold steady? Los Capacinos? Absolutely.

Like, this is a super influential band on like a lot of the music. currently love. What I love about Los Campesinos amongst many things is that they actively stumped to be included in emo conversations. Like they are, they, they, they want in on that, which I fucking love that because it's like the opposite of every other band that emerged from that era. Like they started out trying to sound like pavement. And then they just evolved into a more like overtly emo sound. And, you know, they, I love, yeah, that is my whole steady. there you go. Yeah, because

and I thought of that comparison just because both bands are like islands onto themselves, like where they've created this almost like a mythology within their own lyrics. I feel like when I hear fans

talk about Los Capacinos they talk about the lyrics and I mean, you were just doing that just now. And it's like, there's no impact outside of those islands. Like if you love the old steady, there's like,

if you don't, like they're the easiest band to ignore if you don't like them. But like, if you are in that world, you're in it and there's a lot to enjoy. And which kind of seems like the best place to be if you're a legacy band, rather than trying to compete with whatever, like, the new thing is. Like, just talk to your audience, you know, be with your audience and be, like, the purest version of yourself that you can be. I just feel like that's a good way to move forward of bands of that vintage.

My last anticipated record is kind of in the same boat as your last pick. It's another culty band. This band I think is probably less culty than Los Campesinos. But for those who love this band, I think they'll be excited that Super Drag has hinted, or I think even said on Twitter that they're going to put out a record in 2023. for the rest of you who have no idea who super drag is. Superdrag is this band that originated in the 90s. They had a hit off their first record called Sucked Out.

That was like an MTV hit. And then like for most of the world, they kind of faded after that. But like for the true heads, like the real classic super drag albums came after that. And I think I have Super Drag on the brain because, you know, for 2022, I was talking about how for me, it was like a really good year for Power Pop Records like Mo Trooper and Second Grade and Young Gov

and there's a few others and Superdrag is like one of the great Power Pop bands I would say of like the last 25 or so years and for those who want to dig into this band I would really recommend 1998's Head Trip in Every Key

in 2000s in the Valley of the Dying Stars just both again great power pop records. I feel like people reference teenage fan club from this era, but they don't talk about super drag as much. I mean, again, I'm guessing Mo Trooper, if you're listening. I think you do listen to the show.

I'm guessing you're a super drag fan, but there's a lot of people out there who maybe aren't into this band, but they, again, they have some records that I think our listeners would enjoy. I would consider those two albums that I mentioned to be potential Indycast Hall of Fame candidates. So I'm excited to hear what they do. I feel like power pop bands age maybe better than like bands from other genres. Like I have more hope that they would make a good record than like a lot of bands.

It just seems like if you're a middle age band, you can still make power pop. Yeah. You know, like older guys can make good power pop. Maybe they even make better power pop records than like younger guys. So yeah, this is going to be a good record. Yeah, I feel like if you're like a younger person making power pop, you kind of secretly wish you were like, you know, 40 something or at least lived in the 90s. And Super Drag is a band that I've seen referenced by a lot of bands in that vein that you mentioned where, you know, as someone who grew up listening to Alt Rock Radio, like Super Drag is the I'm not going to attempt to do that voice.

But it's just like, oh, really them? Because like it was similar to like people would say like, yeah, Harvey Danger. That's like a really good band actually. I think that, you know, one of the nice things about, you know, the music industry being where it was in the 90s and like these bands, like fastball or example, like having one hit is that so many people like own that CD and like justified, try to justify spending $18 that they become attached to it. And they can, you know, have a second life. Hum is a great example of that. They had like one hit, but, you know, they're just, they're just so massive. influential because I guess a lot of people bought, you know, that record and, you know, loved what they did,

aside from stars. So, yeah, I'm excited that you're excited over Super Drag. I would also include apparently, like, Folk Implosion is doing a new album. We're going to center, like, if you're, if you're a 90s band that have, like, one hit and you're, like, making a go of it in 2023, we might just dedicate an entire episode to you. I really hope that Folk Implosion and Super drag drop on the same week. All right, well, and I hope so, too. A faux-conplosion, Super drag episode, that's going to do numbers for

us. It wouldn't for most podcasts, but I think for this show, that might be one of our biggest episodes of the year, so fingers crossed for that. Thank you all for listening to this episode of Indycast. We'll be back with more news and reviews and hashing out trends next week. And if you're looking for more

music recommendations, sign up for the Indie Mixape newsletter. You can go to uprocks.com, backslash Indy and I recommend five albums per week and we'll send it directly to your email box.