Indiecast - Reviews of New Albums by Brandon Flowers, Weezer and Wild Pink

Episode Date: August 21, 2026

Steven and Ian begin by paying tribute to Frank Beard of ZZ Top, who passed away this week at age 77 (1:40). Then they talk about a recent backlash to Audrey Hobert and whether it's related to the aesthetics of NPR's Tiny Desk Concert (10:21). After that they discuss new songs by Fontaines DC and Gang of Youths (22:54) before reviewing new albums by Brandon Flowers (33:08), Weezer (42:48) and Wild Pink (49:45). In Recommendation Corner, ian talks about Sueter7 and Steven talks about Westside Cowboy and Brennan Wedl (58:00). 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. We review albums, and we hash out trends. In this episode, we review new albums by Brandon Flowers, Weezer, and Wild Pink. My name is Stephen Hayden, and I'm joined by my friend and co-host. He just learned Zizi Top's drummer didn't have a beard, even though he was named Frank Beard. Ian Cohen.

Ian, how are you? untrue psych 201 my second year of college i wrote frank beard in the case against nominative determinism so i'll pull that one out of the archive yeah i got suit that's it's funny i think that i was looking it up and uh i think nominative determinism was uh created by someone like named frank snowman or something like that and he ended up being a snowman i i love nominative determinism but uh i mean like i'm just like thinking about like the conversations that must have went on within the band and they're like So you cannot grow a beard. Like he probably wanted to and he just couldn't.

We had a mustache for a long time. And the rest of the guys in Zizi Top didn't have beards for a while, like in the 70s. I don't know when the beards came in. Because by the time that they became an MTV band in the 80s, the beards were iconic. But if you look at early photos of Zizi Top, no beards. But then at some point, Frank Beard, the joke or the funny thing was Zizi Top was that his name was Frank Beard, and he didn't have a beard, and Frank Beard passed away this week. That's why we're talking about this. Frank Beard, drummer for Zizi Top, one of the great bands of all time to come

out of Texas, passed away at the age of 77, and the New York Times obituary. The headline says, Frank Beard, beardless drummer for Zizi Top, dies at 77. So the New York Times led with Frank beard not having a beard. Is this a respectful tribute to a rock and roll giant or does it diminish his many accomplishments, Ian? Well, funny story. So a few weeks ago, like a someone at New York Times, like what's the word for that? Like a stringer at New York Times? They reached out to me about an obituary and what I learned is that this person was a drummer and they were asking me, to speak on this drummer in advance. Like, this person is in no,

there's no threat of them dying as far as I know, but I guess they just wanted to get ahead of the game. That's what you do when you're a stringer at the New York Times. So you were being interviewed for a quote. You weren't being asked to write the obit. No, yeah, I was being asked as like an expert quote here, which was a very strange experience. But nonetheless, it's like, oh, cool, this is, you know,

this is what you do when you're trying to rise up the ranks in New York Times. Like they want to give you some work. And I just feel bad for this woman because there was like another drummer they could have asked about, but it wasn't when I've written about. I'm not going to say who. Was it Dave Grohl? It was not Dave Girl. I'm just trying to think of who would merit an obit being written in advance, like a drummer who's famous enough to warrant that. So it's not Dave Grohl. Yeah, I'll tell you afterwards because like I don't want to put her on blast. But once I tell you who it is, you'll like think, oh, yeah, that makes sense.

It's not Janet Weiss of Slater Kinney. It is not. No, it's someone from not, it's someone from the 70s and 80s. Someone, oh, is it Don Henley? I don't think of him as a drummer first and foremost, frankly. But it wasn't him. Is it the guy from a Night Ranger that sang Sister Christian? Singing drummers, we need to have an entire episode about that.

Oh man, I'm just dying to know who this is. Zizi Top, of course, a great band. Curious legacy with this group because I was on Blue Sky this week, which you're laughing already. It's like a great setup for whatever it is I'm about to say. But I was on Blue Sky this week after Frank Beard passed. And I noticed people were really effusive about Zizi Top on Blue Sky. There was one, I was going to say, tweet. I think they call it Skeets.

on blue sky? I think they'd have not change that yet. So they're called skeets on blue sky. One person, there was a popular skeet saying that Zizi Top is the only white rock band to successfully incorporate blues.

And it was a viral skeet. People loved it. And there were a lot of people just enthuseding about Zizi Top. Now, I don't think that's true. It's like not even remotely true. No, it's not. I mean, you know, a lot of great bands from the 60s and 70s, that was their whole thing. You were a hard rock band and you'd have a blues element to what you were doing. But it just made me think, like, ZZ Top does have the status, I think,

among people who maybe don't like classic rock. They love ZZ Top. Like the Eliminator stuff or like Tush or like LaGrange? I don't know. I don't know how deep it goes because, and I'm wondering why that is was Zizi Top because they are a great band. I love Zizi Top. I was listening to Trey Ombray's before we started recording, their album from 1973. If you're not familiar with Zizi Top or you only know the MTV stuff, that is a great album to start with.

1973 has the green cover, Tray's Ombres. But they're a great band, but I don't know what would make them more palatable to like the Blue Sky user, as opposed to like, you know, the Almond Brothers or, you know, the Stones or Zeppelin or something. Well, I have a guess towards that because, I mean, I think if you were to make like a, like they're the only band to incorporate blank, you know, I think disco or dance, like that would be on the MTV era, that would be not true, but it would still be something that you could potentially levy as a, as a hot take. But I think with ZZ Top, there is a kind of contrarianism to them because not, you get to say, you, you get to say,

Like, no, don't think of the, don't think of the MTV stuff. Don't think of legs. Don't think a sharp dressed man because, like, the Allman Brothers were always the almond brothers, right? Because then you could talk about how Zizi Top has this, you know, this catalog of, like, Texas Blues Rock, you know, before the beards. It's a pretty pre-packaged music knower take to have. No, I think that makes a lot of sense.

I think there is an element of ZZ Top, like you were saying, where they are a famous band. I feel like most people have heard the names Zee Zetop. So they're famous in that regard, but they don't necessarily have, they're not as overbearing a presence on classic rock radio

as Zeppelin or the Stones are. I think people... Or the Eagles or even like the second tier of stuff like ACDC, you know? Yeah, where maybe you feel like, oh, I've heard this a million times or I've heard people say a million times that this is great and I'm sick of it. I'm not even

you're going to give it a chance. Whereas Zizi Top, it's like, oh, they're kind of like, yeah, they were on MTV, but they have, like you were saying, this back catalog that is fairly unheralded, it feels fresher. Maybe they just seem like a safer band to reference. They're not a merch band either, you know? You see the ACDC T shirt and like Target or Hot Topic. Like, I've never seen a ZZT shirt. Well, I've seen rockers wearing an Eliminator T-shirt.

That was like a fashionable thing. I've seen like photos of Julian Casablancus in 2003. I was about saying, you're just going to say Julian Casablancus. He would have an Eliminator shirt. But there were other, I've seen other indie rock people have the ZZ Top Eliminator T-shirt. Actually, it's funny because I was in Brooklyn recently interviewing two people for IndieCast, video interviews. in one of the interviews, the one that hasn't gone up yet, the person brought up ZZ Top, just out of the blue.

And this was before Frank Beard died. So we actually ended up talking about 70s ZZ Top for a bit in this interview with this person. I guess I won't announce it yet who it's with. Someone we've talked about on the show who has an album coming out in the fall that we've talked about anticipating. If you listen to this show, you probably have a good idea who I'm talking. about. But I was just wondering, is there like a woke element to ZZ Top? Is there like a woke one that I'm not like that would appeal to the blue sky user? I'm not aware of it. I mean,

sharp dress men, you know, her legs. I mean like, you know, it's a little gender normative those two songs. But right. Yeah, but I think if you watch like the videos, it's clear that like the women have all the power. It's true. It's very empowering to. So yeah. It's kind of an anti-incell sort of thing. It's like, yeah. Get the car and then, you know, like, don't be on the sidelines. Like, just get, you know, let the spirit of Zizi Top guide you. Right. Yeah, you know, the power of beautiful women who are driving cool cars.

You know, that is what ZZ Top was endorsing. I just want to say, too, that one of my favorite celebrity sightings I've had in my life is I saw Billy Gibbons, who is now the sole surviving member of Zizi Top. Right before the pandemic, I saw him. at Dan Tanas in Los Angeles. Hell yeah. So that's one of my favorite celebrity sightings. He was in and out, but I saw Billy hanging out.

Still got it. Still got it. One thing I wanted to bring up to you, this is more depressing, I guess, discourse that we've had this week. More depressing than Frank Beard passing away, so you know it's bad. I don't know if you've noticed this, Ian, but there was a lot of conversation this week about the pop singer-songwriter, Audrey Hobart online. And I guess it was sparked because she was recently a guest on NPR's

Tiny Desk concert. I think it went up last week. And for those who don't know, Audrey Hobart is, I think she's like 26, 27 years old. She is the daughter of a successful TV writer. Her brother Malcolm is also a pop songwriter, singer, getting a lot of buzz on streaming platforms. Audrey really rose to prominence because she was a collaborator with Gracie Abrams on her 2024 record, which I do not know the name of. We'll just say, Secret of us. There you go.

And then Audrey Hobart put out her own record in 2025. And that was called, I was going to say, blame the clown. But I think that's the Twisted Teens record. Yeah. Shout to them getting signed to Subpop. Now this is the Clown. Yeah. Yes, Twisted Teen, signed to Subpop this week.

And I'm sure we'll have more to say about them. They're going to have like another record, I think, out. 2026. Audrey Hober put out a record in 2025 called Who's the Clown? And, you know, look, I don't want to get too deep into her music. It's a not for me, mate, Liam Gallagher situation, for me personally. She has this, like, goofy sense of humor that she marries to these very industrial strength pop hooks.

For me, it's like, it hits me like cheek face. for Taylor Swift fans is how I would describe her music. Hey, isn't Cheekface the Cheekface for Taylor Swift fans? Maybe so. Maybe Cheekface is the Audrey Hobert for indie rock fans. But I don't know. Are you a fan of Hobart's music? Do you have anything to say about it?

Honestly, like this is the sort of deal where it's like not even like, I'm aware of her existence, but like I am so divorced from pop music that doesn't get played at my job that I have yet. to hear. I'm told it's a good time to listen to Audrey Hobart. But, uh, yeah, Pitchfork just ran a big piece. And the headline was, it's a good time to listen to Audrey Hobart. So for anyone out there upset that we're talking about this right now, just know that Pitchfork also wrote about her this week. So she does have some cachet in the indie world. Yeah. I think the best thing to happen to her was the last Gracie Abrams album because she made like, my take, my understanding is that she wrote like

the one song that people actually like aside from Rolling Stone on the Gracie Abrams album and I can't recall the last time someone else's album like did more for a person who's not on it. You know what I mean? Because now it's like oh this is

clear, this is where the talent was. We will never underappreciate you again. And yeah, I think it is someone who if you want to have a kind of parisocial relationship with pop arts, which I think is like just a, this is part of the

culture now. She seems more like relatable, like more cool, more someone you might know in real life. And so she's kind of like the friend of the lead in the romantic comedy. Like it feels like, it feels like that's her character. Like I'm the funny comic relief goofball, but I also write really good pop songs. So Gracie Abrams being more of a conventionally glamorous singer. and Audrey Hobert being maybe more of like an every person type pop singer. Not for me, but I understand the appeal. Where I want to take this conversation, less on the qualities or deficiencies of her music, I want to talk about tiny desk concert for a second,

because this has been something that's been a mainstay of music internet content now for almost 20 years. It started in 2008. And in the indie rock world, you know, tons of music. musicians have been on this over the years. And I would say that a lot of musicians have benefited from being exposed to this because NPR is a big platform. These videos usually get a lot of traction. And it's similar to MTV Unplug what that was in the 90s and that the idea I think is to present bands and artists in a more stripped down, maybe every day type environment. You know, they're not on stage. They're performing in an office. It looks like the actual office

NPR, there's desks and shelves with CDs on it and stuff. I've got to say, I've never been the band of these videos. There's something about it. I understand what the point of it is in terms of just presenting these artists in a different way than you would normally see them. It's not them performing on a stage or in a music video type situation. So I get that. But I've always felt that there was something kind of. precious about the presentation of these videos.

And I really feel like as we get further away from when this format was started, which was the end of the 2000s, that the aesthetics of it feel a little dated. It feels a little like first Obama administration type video content. And one thing I've noticed lately is that whenever there's a viral clip of someone performing, online. And it goes viral because people hate it. And that's what's happened with this Audrey Hobart thing. Hobo Johnson. That's a perennial. And that's an old video. But I feel like that gets brought back all the time. And there's other examples of this. But I feel like Tiny Desk has become a fairly consistent generator of these clips. And look, again, I'm sure it still does a lot of good. and I'm sure you could find examples of performances that people really liked that have gone viral lately.

But I just wonder if the aesthetic of this video is at this point maybe a little self-defeating, where you have someone like Audrey Hobart who I think her usual thing is maybe a lot for people. It seems like the kind of thing that you either love it or you are going to find really irritating. But then if you put it in the context of like a tiny desk, performance, which is even more precious and cutesy. I just feel like there's a recipe there for not putting the artist in the best light and

really almost provoking people into saying negative things. Is there any validity to this? I mean, am I alone? Because a lot of people love these videos, so I could be totally on my own. But I just, there's something about the presentation of it. I don't think it presents the artist in the best light a lot of times. Well, it is absolutely like a frozen in Amber Obama Corps 1.0 aesthetic, right?

You know, the fact that it's NPR as opposed to like KexP or something like that. Which, yeah, the KexP videos, they always look great, but they're just like in a radio studio. I mean, it's a pretty kind of, and that's also stripped down, but I don't know. there's that doesn't read as again precious as the mpr stuff does yeah you mentioned mt v unplugged and i always think back to uh uh eric clapton's triangle guy uh and you have to have like some kind of gimmicky stuff because yeah i'm thinking about like turnstiles like mosh pit like that to me was kind of corny um the ones i always see um shared in a positive way are the ones that rappers are on And, you know, it's like, oh, like, you thought they were, like, not actual musicians.

Like, it's got that sort of late 90s college quad show sort of deal where it's like you were either getting Jurassic 5 or like Black Star and like, you know, it's like, oh, they're playing acoustic guitars. They're playing instruments. This rap music is actually real music now. I understand it. Yeah. So, yeah, there's that element of it for sure.

But, and look, I think it's true. like the tiny desk does more good for the artist than bad but um yeah when it goes bad it goes bad though it goes bad i feel like you're right clearly they've they've helped more artists than hurt them there's no question of that but i feel like when the wrong artist is in that format that something happens and it it puts them in a light that seems really intolerable to people Well, you'll have to tell me whether people are feeling it on blue sky. I know she's like getting dragged on Twitter, but right, you know, like again, like when I look at like the aesthetic, like the banjo, the kind of not puppetry, but like kind of clown sort of aesthetic. Like it's not not tune yards and I know that like, you know, probably still holds weight at blue sky.

So I don't know. Maybe you'll do a little bit of exploring in that realm and come back with the real info about the ski. Maybe we're going to bring back Blue Sky as an actually influential platform. We'll just have a segment called What Does Blue Sky Think of It's. And that'll be the counterpoint maybe to whatever opinion we're giving on music. So Frank Beard, yes. Hobart, they probably like Hobart over on. Oh, yeah, they're Hobart.

Yeah, they're they're full on Hobart over there. So, and I'm sure they like Tiny Desk. I remember last time I was on Blue Sky where I allowed comments was I made a comment about David Burns cover of Olivia Rodriguez's driver's license. And this person replied to me, I forget what they said exactly, but they said, I cannot believe that you would say something negative about David Byrne. Have you no soul, sir. I'm trying to clock what kind of accent you're going for there. I guess they're branch. It's my blue sky accent, I guess.

I don't know what it is. But just the idea that you would knock late period David Byrne, that's taking the Lord's name in vain on Blue Sky. Like if you were to say something negative about American Utopia, I feel like you would have to be protests outside your house. Like if Blue Sky were a more influential platform. So, but maybe Frank Beard would be more important. a bigger deal now. I could be wrong about this. Yeah. It's been a minute since we've, you know,

created a new bit, you know, like yay or nay or what have you. So yeah, maybe like getting or an intern, we maybe we make up a blue sky consultant and we bring them on like, like Pimpot 3,000 or whatever. That could be good. Speaking of video content that I can fully endorse, I mentioned a minute ago that I was in Brooklyn recently doing some video. interviews for Indycast, and one of them is going to be coming out in a few weeks. But the first one came out this week, and it is a great conversation I had with Taja Cheek of Lorraine. We talked about her album last week, Fatah Morgana, great record.

I think we're both fans of that album. I sat down with Taja in Brooklyn in early August, and the video went up this week, and it went really great. You can catch part of the interview if you just go on YouTube, go to the the Indycast YouTube channel. If you want to subscribe to that, you can get all of our videos. We're gonna be posting the full video

that Ian did with Ben Gibbert, that this will motivate me to get that up by the time this video posts. But that's a great interview, you're gonna wanna check that out. And we're gonna be doing more of these as the weeks go on. So it'll be cool to see that channel grow.

But please support us. If you can like us, you can subscribe. That helps to get us into the algorithm. rhythm so we can compete with the Fantanos and the Biados and all the other YouTube people. So please help us do that. Before we get to the albums we're talking about today, I did want to bring up, there were a couple songs that were released from records that are going to be coming out soon. I feel like one thing that we definitely need to talk about is the new song from Fontaine's

D.C. The song is called Marianne. The album is called Dopamine Chamber, and this album is going to be out October 16th. I would expect this to be a huge album in our corner of the world Ian in the indie rock world. Fontaine's DC has really become one of the big bands that people care about in the indie rock world. You and I were both a little skeptical, I think, of this band for a long time. They started out more as a talky post-punk band on their early records. But then their album from 2024, Romance. I had so many people coming up. to me when this album came out saying, I know you've said critical things of Fontaine's DC,

but you have to dig into this record. It's really, really good. And I agreed with them. I finally wore down. This album, romance from a few years ago, turn me around on Fontaine's DC. I think you're in the same Bodian with that record. Yeah.

Yeah, romance is one of, if I were to like re-rank my 2024 albums, like that would be somewhere near the top. And I just, yeah, that to me was like, it just had so much color to it whereas the stuff they were doing before was just like kind of grainy poetic uh you know sitting at a bar with like the dog your copy of bukowski type stuff but yeah i was really excited about how much i like that album it hasn't really inspired me to go back to their older stuff but um it sounds like this new one is kind of

working it's definitely not going back yeah i i would say and look i am in the middle of writing a book about you too, so please take this comparison with a grain of salt. And of course, I could be accused of laziness because Fontaine's DC is also an Irish band. But I do think that in some respects, you could make an analogy to romance being their Octune baby. And maybe this next album's going to be their Zeropa, which would make me very excited if that is the case. I mean, this new song, Marianne, which is a song I like a lot, I don't know how you feel about it, but it is, it's kind of this like trippy dream pop sounding record that is definitely moving, I don't know if it's further away from like sort of guitar-based rock,

but it's definitely staying in that romance zone. I just wonder if this is going to be a record where they kind of go even deeper into that, a la you too on Zuropa. I mean, that would be my prediction. And if that's the case, I'm totally down for it. It'll be interesting, I mean, this is absolutely going to be, you know, top draft pick prospect for the next fantasy draft. But I'm curious to see whether this one, I guess, aligns their popularity and critical acclaim with, like, I mean, they're big on blue sky, I bet.

But I wonder if, like, Twitter is going to, the more Twitter bunch is going to, you know, bash at them or just like kind of, okay, yeah, they're okay now. You know what I'm saying? Well, I feel like in Europe, I feel like those people love Fontaine's D.C. Oh, yeah. Maybe states, I mean, I think really it's maybe like pitchfork, honestly. If we just like want to be specific about. I think them like maybe stereo. I just think like the people in like our circle.

They're not as on board with them. Yeah, it feels maybe, but I don't know. Because from the grassroots, they're a bad. that I feel like I hear about a lot. When I talk to people who care about music now, and I guess there'd be people like around our age, maybe they don't, I wonder, like, is the 23-year-old music writer, are they into Fontaine's D.C.?

That's maybe adjacent to what we're talking about with some of these other indie music sites. I don't know where they stand, but I do feel like they have like a pretty broad constituency that they appeal to. Because there is an element of them that is like a rock saviour, if you want to use that term. They have a bit of that, especially from their early records. But then I think they've moved in this more experimental direction that at the same time also feels bigger and bolder and more arena ready. Which I think, again, is why I would compare it to like an octoon baby.

So I don't know. It's a cool thing, though, that I think they've been on lately. Yeah, and I think like Jeremy Larson at Pitchfork really said, yeah, our 2024 readers poll is just that people complaining about Fontaine's DC not being on the list. I'm pretty sure that's like a common thing. Oh, did it make the list at all? Yeah, I don't think so. No. Oh, wow.

And yeah, they're a big in real life sort of band. Most people I know who are like into any new band from the past 10 years, like it was either Fontaine's DC or Black Middy. Black Middy was more for like the people who were like into Nick Cave and postpunk or what have you But yeah, I'm excited about this album, you know It's just big rock music You know I think of romance being along the lines of like You know like a getting killed or a glow on these just like these big colorful Expansive

I could buy this on CD rock records I think back to you know Z by my morning jacket as Ooh maybe this one will be the maybe it'll be the evil urges that would be See, you're saying I could buy it on CD, and I'm saying I did buy it on CD. Fontaine's DC romance. It's in my car as we speak. So, yes, really good record. Also have to talk about a band that is big in the Indycast world, for sure, and also a big band around the world.

Gang of Youths have a new song out this week called Things Take Time. I have to recuse myself a little bit when talking about this band, because I, I've become like pretty good friends or really good friends with Dave, the lead singer, and songwriter this band. So I'm not really impartial with this group. I was in London last year. I spent some time with them there. I've heard other music that might be coming out at some point. I cannot be specific about that since there have been no announcements of anything beyond this song.

But I'm curious for your take on it, Ian, because it is a different. Sound for this band for those who don't know this gang abuse I would say The album that really got me on board with them was Go Farther Enlighteness which came out in 2017 Which was a very much a record that integrated a lot of sort of vision quest in Drogh you know whether it was Elements of Arcade Fire or like national and like their boxer era even going back to stuff like you two in you know like Joshua Tree era you too in you know like Joshua Tree era you two and you two and And this new album is continuing their direction away from that.

I mean, their last record, Angel in Real Time, I would say, was also a pivot from that. More it's sort of like an electronic direction with that record. Whereas this song definitely has, to me, almost like a classic songwriter vibe to it, like a Burt Bacharach, pop, 60s thing. You know, like Glenn Campbell, Wichita Lineman type thing. Which is interesting. It's curious with Gang of Use, too, because they're a band that I think in America, they're more of a cult band. But there are places around the world where they play arenas, and they're like a huge rock band.

And this song, if you're in that audience, maybe feels like an even more dramatic pivot. Because it doesn't feel like a song that is designed to be played in arenas. It feels like it's more for like a smoky jazz club or something like that. But I think it's a really cool song. I'm curious to hear what you think about it. Yeah, it reminds me of a continuation of The Kingdom is Within You from the last record. Right. Kind of go into more the piano horns thing.

And I enjoy this song as well. You know, you mentioned some of the influences of Go Father Enlightenus. Like, and what I love about Dave is that, yeah, it sounds like Arcade Fire. It sounds like to Pandroids. It sounds like the Moner. He's like, yeah, I love all those records. Right. It's like he was not like that was such a.

Like, that was such a fun interview I did with him back in 2018. And, you know, I read the article that was in The Guardian where they're talking about, like, being content now. And, you know, he's run out of tragedies to talk about, which, you know, gives me a little bit of pause. I think the quality control with this band is high. And at the same time, what is Ganga use without their colossal vision quest ambition, at least one or two songs per album where they completely go over their skis? I have nothing to base this song, but I'm worried a little bit that this could be a Japan droids type situation where, like, look, I love, you know, near to the wild heart of life, but, you know, they got girlfriends and they were, you know, had more money. And it's like they lost something crucial because, like, you know, Gang of Yus, they make great songs. But when I, like, when I want to listen to Gang of Yus, I don't want to listen to anything else.

I want something that's an hour long bringing me through the ringer. And maybe that's what happens. Maybe this is just kind of a faint in the same way like Unison was for the last album. But I'm just glad to have them back. Yeah. And hopefully we'll hear something more soon about a new album. Again, no album has been announced. But normally when a band just puts out a song, they're not just putting out one song.

I think it's usually a safe assumption to think that there's going to be more. So definitely will be fun to have that record out in the world and talk about it more. Well, let's talk about albums that are out or will be out. I guess there will be out by the time this episode posts. This is a big release day for albums. The next couple weeks actually are pretty big. Next week there's an Interpol album and a new Mike D solo album. I wrote about both of those on my substack, but we'll talk about those next week.

Have you heard the Mike D album? Have you gotten that stream yet? I have not. Okay. And yeah, and Interpol I saw them live last Saturday. Oh, you did? Okay. Yeah, so I have some things to say about that.

Yeah, the Mike D record is interesting. I'll table any conversation about that for next week, or if you want to go on my substack, evil speakers, you can read about it right now. But let's talk about some albums that are out today, starting with one of the, I'd say more surprising records of the. year, it's the new Brandon Flowers solo album. It's called Thrasher. And this is a record where if you've heard the singles, you're certainly aware that this is a pretty big departure for Brandon Flowers instead of the usual thing that you would expect, synth-accented rock, big anthems,

you know, songs that you've heard from the killers. Brandon Flowers went to Nashville and he gathered all of these old-school studio cats, including Charlie McGraths, including Charlie McClure. Koi, one of the most legendary session people, a guy I got to interview earlier this year. Harmonica player, he's like all over many of the 60s Bob Dylan albums, and he's played on everything from that to like Leonard Cohen. He was on Wien's 12 country golden grates, or gold country grates. Anyway, Brandon Flowers, collaborated with all these people in Nashville, and he made a dyed in the wool country record, not an alt-country record, not.

a I'm trying to be an outlaw singer from the 70s type country record, but like a 50s and 60s style country record. I'm talking like Ray Price or to reference Glenn Campbell again. That range of like maybe like late 50s to late 60s. That is the frame of reference for this record. So pedal steel, yes, but also melodious harmonica whales, really cinematic sounding strings. Like the country metropolitan sound of Nashville music from that time. And it's affixed to the types of songs that Redden Flowers has always written, these story songs about down home people, people who are struggling, people who are trying to reach transcendence,

something that he, I think, really put a focus on with his record, or with the killer's record pressure machine from 2021, which I'm a big fan of. That record didn't do terribly well in the marketplace, but I think it's actually one of the best killers records that have been made, certainly post hot fuss. And this record is kind of like that album, except Brandon Flowers is making music that the people in these songs might listen to in their trailers, this kind of, again, old school country type music. And I have to say, you know, along with this being maybe a somewhat surprising pivot for Brandon Flowers, I'm also surprised by how much I like this record. I am a fan of this album.

I think it works really well. I actually made me think of, and this is another apt comparison point for Brandon Flowers, it reminds me of the album Western Stars, which is a record Bruce Springsteen made in 2019. That's the album that has a horse on the cover. you know, Bruce was wearing the cowboy hat a lot during that period and all the music videos. So his record isn't strictly a country record, but it is a similar vibe in terms of plugging into sort of a 60s production aesthetic. And I just think that Brandon Flowers, you know, he writes these broad songs that are very romantic

and earnest. And when they don't work, they can tip into cornyness. I think even when they work, they can tip into cornyness. But it actually works really well, I think, for this production style. His voice sounds great. The band sounds great. I just think it's a really good record from a guy that I think has actually put out some of his best music in the 2020s. Do you agree with this at all, Ian?

Am I totally going overboard in my enjoyment of this album? Are you going to check me right now? Well, first, you know, since you are of the two of us, the envoy to blue sky, were people upset that the first song was called Tiger's Blood, which is named after like a two-year-old Waxahatchy song? Was this like Mac DeMarco and Mitzky Cowboy Gate 2018 all over again, or did nobody notice? Well, I can't say that I've been on Blue Sky to the extent that I know what the pulse was on Tiger's Blood by Brandon Flowers.

I mean, I do think that that's a phrase. that, you know, people are free to, I don't think, like, Katie Crutchfield invented that phrase. So I think it works. Maybe it's even an homage. I would think that Brandon Flowers probably knows that record. Oh, totally. So it may even be a tip of the cap to Katie. I don't know if he's talked about that or not.

I will say plans is also not a tip of the cap to death cap for cut. It sounds nothing like that album. But, yeah, I think you're right about, like, the times when it works, It's still a little, like, kind of hammy. Like, I'm thinking, like, the swisher sweet dreams. I'm like, Brandon Flowers never touched a swisher sweet, man. Like, you know, that's what it was he know about that. Well, he grew up.

You know, I wouldn't be so, I mean, the guy lived in Las Vegas for a long time. You don't think Swisher Suitets. You don't think he's ever in a casino and, like, paid $2. Oh, he's seen other people do it, yeah. For Swisher Sweet. I mean, I mean, well, he has this song on the record. It's the last song. It's called The American Dream, I believe.

And he's singing about. being picked up by Elvis in a Tesla and how Elvis is still alive and he's clean and sober now. And then Brandon Flowers tells him about Lisa Marie and Elvis starts crying. And it's one of those songs where if you're not me, you might roll your eyes at it. But I loved it. I like, this is a great song. It actually reminded me of Pocahontas, like when Neil Young is singing about like Marlon Brando. and it has a similar vibe to that,

like this sort of hallucinatory thing that's very kind of dealing with American mythology. But I was totally on board with that. So if you're like me, you're going to hear that and you're going to be like, hell yeah, but I can also see people just cringing hardcore. Well, I think what I appreciate about this album is that when I heard, you know,

Brandon Flowers doing a country record, my thought was that he's either going to do some like Tucker Wetmore type shit or do like the alt country, you know, the MJ Lenderman, Waxahatchie sort of route, which he is completely unsuited for. But it is a real specific vision of one man. I mean, I think, you know, Tiger's Blood kind of sounds like Gaslight Anthem song. But beyond that, I'm kind of pleasantly surprised how much Vegas showtune type country comes in there.

There's Mariachi stuff, you know, like American Dream. it is a very idiosyncratic take on country or like roots music as it were because it's not like this downhome gut bucket stuff it's more like what you know like Vegas but also the Utah of it all you know what I'm saying like it's it's that nice sort of merger of like the Utahification like the dirty soda ification of the United States plus like the Sunbeltification of the United States it really feels like kind of old school but current in a strange way. There's really not much like it right now. Well, you know, it has a bit of that like 70s Elvis Presley. You know, like when Elvis was in Vegas and he was making a lot of records that sounded a lot like this,

where it was country music, but it was also, yeah, the glitzier form of country. I think if this record had been either a record that sounded like Guaxahatchie or MJ Lenderman, you know, that indie alt-country thing that's been fashionable or if it were just a straight-up like I'm trying to be Morgan Wallen now, so I'm going to do

like country with trap beats on it and like the Pat McAfee record. Like if he had made his version of the Pat McAfee record, then you could be cynical about it. But he's made this record that I think is like pretty specific and unique to

Brandon Flowers' aesthetic and also the period of time that he's drawing from. And it's a record that I'm not sure a lot of people are going to get or even like. But if you are on its wavelength, I think this is going to be a record that you love. And I am on the wavelength with this album, for sure.

And as a fan of pressure machine, which was him kind of working in like a Nebraska Bruce Springsteen mode, like a lo-fi downbeat story songs about small town losers essentially. This is like him singing about the same subject matter, but with a much different audio palette. to it that I think is really interesting and appealing. So thumbs up from me for this record. One record that I'm not going to give a thumbs up to is the new Weezer album, Ian. This is a self-titled album, also known as the Gold album. And I was just thinking about this, we don't

have to spend long on this, because we have this Wild Pink record that I think we both like, that we're going to want to talk about. But I was just thinking about with Weezer, you know, I wrote about this how, like how many times have we gone through this with Weiser, where people are like, oh, Weezer used to be good. And I wish they could go back to making, you know, songs that sound like the Blue album. And then they come back and they do that. And people are like, yeah, this is great.

And then Weaser kind of goes back to doing what they normally do, some goofy thing. And then it's like, oh, no, they're sounding like the first two albums again. Yay, let's listen to it. I feel like we've gone through this. I don't know how many times. Many, many, many times. And this album, I think, is another attempt at that. Carly Hartsman is on this album.

She sings on a song. Did you know that there's been nine Weezer albums since that S&L sketch in 2018? Which I feel like was the peak of this conversation about Weezer, like, where people like to argue about Weezer. I think what I'm getting at is the thing that's the thing that, this album brings home for me is that it's been a long time where since I was even annoyed by Weezer. Because there was a time I feel like where if you were in a room with like bookish-looking people that liked guitar music, that you could start a conversation with them by saying, what do you think of the new Weezer? Like that could be a thing. And that seems like such a long

time ago now. I don't know what to do with this band. They're not, what, they're what? They're washed? What are you going to say? They're just such an interesting proposition because they are like, I'm not like putting, they're just, they obviously have fans and they just kind of keep making music and I don't know what the demand for it is. I mean, obviously like the, what's that? Yeah, like, what's the demand for new music really from this band? Yeah, it's... But yeah, because they put out a lot of music.

There was that thing they did. It was called Seasons, I think. Yes. Like a winter album in the spring. So that was... I mean, I think they put out like five or six albums in the 2020s already. Yeah, this is their 20th full length, if you count. Wow.

Which is insane. And, I mean, do you remember the last one named after a color? How many have you reviewed in your time? what's the fifth best week like it is they are so much we like they've been around making music on a very public level for 32 years man like yeah what would that equivalent be for us like when you know the blue album came out like that would be if like the Beatles were still making music right well i mean they feel to me a little like erosmith yeah that's a that's a much better comparison of 90s Salt Rock where they just keep chugging along and they will occasionally pop up with something that

catches on. And the Africa cover, I feel like, was the last thing that really popped up for them, which just shows the diminishing return. Well, has there been something since? Apparently, like, the song they did with Best Coast became like a TikTok hit. This was on 2014. I think it was, what was it? This is one of the albums I reviewed and did a.

you know it's like hey they're not back back but hey this is like better than you think because i mean like this album it's the most weezer album since the last one but i don't even think it's not like with you two and r em where it's oh like this is their best since automatic for the people or what have you what the always the always conversation you have with weasers like hey this is actually not that bad and then you forget about it by the time they put out their next one Like, they need to put out a really, like, awful album. And then you read, I was like, hey, this is actually not that bad. And I think this album is, like, really designed to be a not that bad.

See, I feel like it is more, I feel like it's intended to be like the return to form type of thing. Oh, yeah. And I think having Carly Hartsman on there, a young vital artist that was certainly influenced by Weezer. I mean, you can hear that in Wednesday's music. I'm sure she listened to the blue album in Pinkerton. when she was a teenager. It feels like having someone like her on the album is the signal, like, yeah, we're acknowledging our history and we're still connected to what's going on now.

And look, there's no question their influence is indisputable. And the great music that they had made in their life, that's locked in. I mean, you're not going to take that away from them. But I just am bemused by this cycle that you just talked about, that I talked about at the beginning where it's like you write Reiser off and then they do the thing where it's like well we can bring back the guitar tones that you remember and you're going to get excited or that's the thing that's designed to do and I just don't know if that works anymore to me I feel like that ended in like the mid-2000s or with that S&L sketch like where they argued about late period Weezer versus

period Weezer. I kind of feel like that should have been the end of Weezer. That should have been like, okay, we've all recognized the bit, and we've had a good laugh, maybe this is it. And then it's 10 more years, and it's like, wow, okay, we're still doing this. All right.

I'm coming back. I didn't listen to the season albums, but now I got the gold album. I'm going to listen to this, and I don't know. I just, I can't do it. I can't. So you're not saying the presence of Kenneth Blue the producer from getting killed has really updated the sound.

Kenny Beetz, apologies. I enjoy your work, but this album isn't doing it for me. We're having Rob Riggle in your music video, doing a wacky cameo along with some other, you know, C-less celebrities. I'm sorry. Best of luck to you. Can't wait to do this again in the year.

I know, exactly. If we say this now, we're going to be on our deathbeds and talking about, you know. The silver album or whatever. Exactly the silver album. The Chartreuse album. I cannot believe that, dude, that would be such a weezer thing to do in like 2024 to come out with the Chartruise album immediately after Brat. Oh, my God.

Don't even put that out in the world. Let's get to the album I think that we're both actually excited about. And that is the new album from Wild Pink still coming down. This is their sixth record in 10 years coming after 2024's Dulling the Hall. Horns, which was produced by Alex Farrar, the guy behind many popular indie rock records of the mid-2020s, worked with M.J. Letterman and Wednesday, along with other acts, Hotline T&T. Wild Pink has had an interesting trajectory, and look, we've been a fan, we've both been fans of this band since they first put out the self-title debut in, I think that was 2017 that

that record came out. Yeah. And there was this long period where they were making these really, I would say, Heartland Rock, coded guitar albums with clever lyrics. And, you know, John Ross in interviews would talk about how he loved, like Jackson Browns, I'm Alive, or Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers into the Great Wide Open, like these boomer rock records from the late 80s and early 90s. He also kind of sounded like Death Cat for Cutie.

even though he didn't really listen to that band. And he would make like these clever pop culture references in his lyrics. He just seemed totally out of step with what was going on indie rock. And then something kind of amazing happened with dulling the horns in 2024 where he worked with Alex Farrar, who was a trendy producer at the time. But really, you know, didn't change all that much. Like the guitars got louder, essentially, and crunchier.

Things sounded maybe a little less delicate than they did on the first, you know, three or four records. And Wild Pink, I think, suddenly had a different kind of cachet. John Ross's lyrical perspective was a little less out of step. There's, like, a lot of rye flannel-clad tunesmiths now that, like, talk about sports and movies and their lyrics. He did it before a lot of other people did, but he accidentally started to fit in with what has been going on in indie music, and now I feel like Wild Pink is really on the rise.

You showed me this, the new record was reviewed by the Wall Street Journal of all places, which is great for them, excited for Wild Pink. And now they have this new record still coming down, which is very much a continuation, I think, of dulling the horns. Again, the sonic character of how this band has changed, much louder guitars, crunchier, more straightforward. There's pedal steel on this record, which John Ross has always put on Wild Pink records, at least going back to a billion little lights.

But even that now feels a little more of a piece with other things that are going on in indie rock right now. This record is like nine songs. It's just like a little bit over a half hour long. It's like one banger after another. It's actually, I think, like a really good record to start out with if you don't know Wild Pink. because it just flies by. Every song is great as they normally are on Wild Pink Records. But I'm really proud of this band, if that's not weird to say.

Because they have been a mascot band for us, you know, along with gang of youths. But I'm fascinated by how, again, I feel like they almost accidentally found a scene or a world that they could be a part of that maybe made it easier for people to get into them. Yeah, I agree. I mean, the word on their early albums, I mean, particularly 2018's Joke in the Fur and 2021's Billion and Little Lites, still my favorite of theirs, was that they were the War on Drugs meets Death Cat for Cutie, which, you know. That's us. That's our show, baby. That's us. And, you know, I think it's super interesting how by the end of 2026, this and rap boys will be two of the most acclaimed indie rock records of the year because you look back at, you know, you can have it back, which feature Julia Steinner on it. They're a band that's really intertwined.

You feel like they would have plateaued at your favorite band's favorite opening band and that they'd maybe be just touring with each other for eternity. Because for so long, and I get we talked about how annoying it is when we do this, I heard a billion little lights, which they had like a Grammy winning producer. It was on like a bigger label. It's like, how is this not like hitting? Like how is this not? Same with I love you so much.

in I think that was 2022 maybe that was another record where it's like man this is they're going for it's got Julian Baker on it It's this wildly diverse record It seemed like a musician's band like a lot of musicians seemed to like well-pink for a long time But they didn't really ever get written about and I think it was because They I think for writers You need to be able to connect a record or a band to something bigger or else it doesn't feel important Yeah, I feel like that's what happened with Wild Pink even though the music was really good and they built this catalog that I think is like one of the most consistent

catalogs in indie rock in the last 10 years. I mean like their record, there's not really a weak record. There's some records that are better than others, but like at the baseline it's like very good. And it goes to excellent for them. Yeah, I don't even know if there's like any bad songs. You know what I mean? Right. Yeah.

And it is interesting how dulling the horns, which, you know, they change labels and John Ross picked up a baritone guitar, which, you know, I think Phoebe Bridgers plays one and it was on the Desa Paracitos album, but it was the same guitar tone. It was a very narrow, very loud sound, and that one seemed to hit in ways that others didn't. I mean, you could look at the fact that he was opening for MJ Lenderman, and that kind of opened up that lane for him, not necessarily as like the next NJ. Lenderman, but like somebody who could be, you know, if you like the MJ Lenderman, check out this band, right? It's kind of similar to like Ryan Davis,

like how he got shine for people because of Lenderman, and it wasn't, but he was doing something like Lenderman before Lenderman. Yeah, exactly. People now had a reason, because Ryan Davis had a similar thing where he just had a long career, couldn't get a lot of attention,

and then he toured with Lenderman, and people were like, oh, this is really good too, and there's already a back catalog here that I can explore. Yeah, John, from the very beginning, was writing in this style, and you hear it now, and it makes all the sense in the world, right?

Because, like, this album, you know, sort of like dulling the horns, and I think this does it better than dulling the horns, which is, like, Tom Petty's song with a blown out baritone guitar. Like, that's what he's doing. And, yeah, and that is something that people can't get enough of nowadays.

You know, Wednesday Extended Universe, rise singer songwriters, and it doesn't sound opportunistic. It doesn't face the same. I guess skepticism that, you know, you see maybe other newer artists who are doing this sort of thing. My favorite part of this record is I think the song's called Simple or it's either called Simple or River. It's like, Keep It Simple Like a River, which, you know, invokes Magnolia Electric Company and Neil Young. And then he just says Simple River.

And it's like, yeah, that's it. Purest Form right there. I do agree that this is going to be a record that I think is going to get even more love than dulling the horns. I think it's got the momentum. I do miss pretty wild pink. You know, songs like Amalfi, family friends, dumped it at the greet retreat. I do miss that element of it, which is why I would put this maybe a shade below a billion little lights. I like this record a lot, and I'm hoping it expands the audience. And, you know, because how prolific he is, I hope he moves on to something different. By the next one, I think he's taking this sound as far as it can go. This is

perfection of the form. We've now reached the part of an episode that we call Recremedation Corner, where Ian and I talk about something that we're into this week. Ian, why don't you go first? So speaking of, you know, speaking of albums that are the province of one single solitary person, I want to think, I want to bring up the Diary of a Polarizing Figure, a new country rap project from, I'm just playing.

I'm a little disappointed. We haven't been able to talk about that one at length. And by the way, that is, people were like, oh, that's an AI. No, that is absolutely. Absolutely the product of a very, very specific person. Yeah, we didn't have much McAfee content in this episode. Maybe we'll get to him later. Yeah, if that album came out in July, we would have an entire episode. Oh, my God.

Yeah, we would have had a deep dive. That would have been like, we would have treated that like user illusion one and two and MTV in September of 91. All right, but instead I'm going to talk about an album that it's entirely in Spanish, so I'm going to butcher the pronunciation. it's sueter sueter s u e tere 7 and the name of the album is toto salio bn and la sincere via kien i looked it up and it's it might be like a reference to uh whoville um like the grinch that stole christmas or something like that but i don't know to describe what this album sounds like you know as fun as it is to see six-wave emo revival revival type stuff becoming the thing in the genre of late and i'm seeing the Rittonello form and first day back this weekend over for Jeune.

I do miss the genre blending stuff, like the fifth wave where it was very computerized. It would get into Shugay's laptop, emo. And does the Argentinian Paranoil interest to you? Wow. Because that's basically what it is. It's got Shugays in there. It's got that laptop twee thing that people are talking about. It's emo.

It's also in a completely foreign language, which at least to me, is a little. an issue when you're listening to Emo, with a lot of the six-way bands that later take me out of it. It's an album I discovered a couple days ago, so I'm still just getting accustomed to it, but a lot of interesting sounds. It's just a really cool album of sounds.

And the songs are catchy too. Can't wait to spend more time with this one, and hopefully you will too. Yeah, that sounds really cool. So as we said earlier, there's a ton of albums that have come out today, and my recommendation corner is overflowing. I do want to mention quick,

the debut album by West Side Cowboy. It goes on, which I wrote about on my substack. I've talked about them, I think, on this show before. British band, really good band, really anthemic band, and an interesting counterbalance to some of the more Praguegy bands that have come out of England in the last, you know, five, ten years, the black middies, the black country new roads. This band is very deliberately an antidote to that.

I interviewed two of the guys in the band, and they're a fan of those groups, but they really wanted to do something much more simple and direct with that record. And if you love just old school indie, that builds to big climaxes. West Side Cowboy, you're going to want to check that out. But I now might even want to put more focus on

in my recommendation corner is the new record by Brennan Weddle, a great singer-songwriter, originally from Minnesota, who is only 29, but when you listen to her sing, she sounds like a casually weathered woman in her 70s. and when I say a woman in her 70s, I'm referring to a specific woman in her 70s, Lucinda Williams. Lucinda Williams has been a reference point for many artists in the last few years, but Brennan Weddell to me is the person who comes the closest, certainly to sounding like her,

and also to writing like her. She plays country rock with a real authentic punk edge, and she writes these great story songs about women in the midst of major life pivot points in her life. And she does it with this voice that has an incredible range while also sounding very specific at all times. Like she can howl like a great rock and roll star or she can talk in a conversational way that makes it feel like she's telling you some deep dark secret. This record is produced by Katie Crutchfield and Brad Cook. Brad Cook, of course, is the person who has produced all of the Americana-tinged Waxahatchie records that have come out in the 2020s. And they basically just let the singer and the song speak for themselves on this record.

It's no frills production. And it doesn't really need a whole lot of bells and whistles because Brendan Weddle, really, really good singer-songwriter. The lyrics are great. Music is great. I love her voice. I just feel like this is an artist. She's announcing that she is going to be around for a long time when you listen to this album.

So Brendan Weddle, her self-title record, check it out. And also check out that West Side Cowboy. Really good record. That about does it for this episode of Indycast. We'll be back with more news reviews and hashing out trends next week.