Indiecast - Steven And Ian's Favorite Albums Of 2023 So Far

Episode Date: June 9, 2023

Last week Steven and Ian had to bank an episode because Steven was on vacation. Which is why they did their first all "Yay Or Nay?" episode rather than address possibly the most annoying music story of the year (and maybe decade?) so far — the short-lived dating relationship between Taylor Swift and The 1975's Matty Healy, and the insane online reaction it sparked. Sadly, they do touch on this kerfuffle briefly this week (:25), but only to note that in terms of annoying music stories, this thing is basically Everything Everywhere All At Once, an unstoppable juggernaut that can't possibly be topped in the field of irritation.Speaking of annoying stories: Steven and Ian also address the recent takedown of Hannah Gadsby's "It's Pablo-matic" art exhibit in the New York Times, and whether the cathartic reaction to the review speaks to a larger backlash against the "therapeutic" and prescriptive art of the Trump era, and how that might translate to the indie world (6:39).Finally, Steven and Ian set about sharing their favorite albums of the year so far (16:21). While Steven shared an unranked list of 15 favorites this week in his column, here he and Ian each share their ranked top five lists for the first part of 2023. Incredibly, there were zero overlaps in our picks!New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 142 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 Uprocks's Indy 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 reveal our favorite albums of 2023 so far. My name is Stephen Hayden, and I'm joined by my friend and co-host. He can't wait to finally talk about the Taylor Swift and Maddie Healy breakup. Ian Cohen.

Ian, how are you? Yeah, I mean, I hope we realize how hopelessly behind the times we are. just by mentioning that relationship. Like, Twitter's moved on to Baby Gronk, the Drip King, the Orange Sky, New York. It's like that Simpson's episode where Homer is about to plunge to his death in his car, but like he gets saved by a big trash pile in the ravine. That's the great part about the internet. Like, no matter how annoying or aggravating a story sounds,

like there's always going to be a soft pile of trash, which we can make a landing. but we, I mean, we just got to address this, you know. We got to at least acknowledge it because, you know, we had our episode last week. We did our first yay or nay episode, which got a really good response. We have a bunch more yay or nays in our mailbox. Look, I don't know if we're going to do that very soon. You know, we can't, I don't want this just to become like the yay or nay show. But that could be like the number one music podcast.

You know, that could be like a million dollar idea. But we didn't do a show last. week, that was a banked episode. So we missed out on the Taylor Swift, Maddie Healy business, which I think was advantageous for both of us. You know, we were talking about what we're going to do on the episode this week. And like I said, we're going to be talking about our favorite albums of 2023 so far. So that's a big topic. We're going to get to that here in a minute. But I was like, we need to talk about, we need to at least acknowledge this story because we're going to be doing the mid-year indie casties next week.

And I was just thinking about one of our usual categories, most annoying music Twitter story. And this Taylor Swift Medi Healy thing, this is like the everything everywhere all at once of annoying music Twitter stories. Like, it's a juggernaut. I don't know if anything's going to even come close to it. We may not even do that category because it just seems too obvious. I mean, this seems like it could be potentially the...

the most annoying music Twitter story of the decade. I don't want to get ahead of ourselves. It's only 2023. But, you know, and I don't even want to get into the particulars of this. I just, like, want to, like, acknowledge it as a story. And as an annoying story. Because once you get into the nitty-gritty, my brain does a self-lobotomy. I can't even think about it.

But just the fact that this was a thing that people were so upset about, and they were doing, like, multi-tweet threads about it, you know, wrestling with the ethics of this whole thing. It really is like the worst aspects of like the internet and the way we talk about things now. It was like a perfect storm of horribleness. It was really a thing to behold. And again, I was glad that we didn't have a show last week. And I know you're glad too.

You were like very reluctant to even acknowledge this story this week. You're like, I cannot even acknowledge this thing. And I kind of forced you to at least joke about it here at the beginning, because we're going to move on here quick. But like, because you had like real world experience with this story, right? Like, weren't like the Swifties in your office talking about this? Yeah. I mean, when we have like three or more people together having a conversation at work about non-work things, there's like a 95% chance it's going to be about Taylor Swift. And, you know, for me, I think just the general issue I have with discussion of the music is that I,

I try to explain it that like when you're listening to Taylor Swift that like does not acknowledge a universe that might exist outside of Taylor Swift. And this is just kind of broadened the universe to also include, you know, Maddie Healy and the National. And, um, but I got to say like I'm actually, I think if we can even just even tease at the possibility this is a net positive, Azealia Banks coming out of the woodworks to say that like Maddie Healy's no James Mercer? Like, can the Gallagher brothers come up with, like, a bigger insult to Maddie Healy's ambitions that, like, yeah, you don't have as much swag as the guy from the shins? This is, like, the best thing she's come up with since she said, like, Grimes smelled like a roll of quarters. But, like, is it possible that Azealia Banks just loves the shins, like, that she wasn't putting up James Mercer as, like, an insulting counterfeit? Oh, I know. I don't doubt that she

loves the shins, but it's just like, it's not saying like, hey, you can't fuck with like Harry Stiles or you, you're not like as, you know, badass as the weekend. It brings up like the most like, and again, I love the shins, but the most like indie kind of wussy act. Like, this is how I see you. And to top it off, you don't write as good of a song as him. And Azealia Banks, I agree with you. Madi Healy, you have not written a new slang. You have not written a record as good as Owen Verde World or shoots too narrow. I would throw Port of Morrow in there too. I haven't listened to that one in a very long time.

But I'm kind of a wincing the night away defender, yeah. Wincing the night away, the difficult third album from the shins? Yeah, I don't know. I don't want to get into this story. I just had to acknowledge it. I think there was also a part of me that wanted to torture you just by bringing this up because I knew how much you didn't want to talk about this, how you actually have people in your real life talking about this,

which I do not. People who are not familiar with the 1975s music and have only interacted with the whole Maddie Healy phenomenon through the lens of swift-eism. It's really a sight to behold. But, I mean, we do need to talk about baby Gronka getting rizzed up by Libby. No, I'm kidding.

I know, like, if you've been on Twitter the past, days, like you've probably seen those words in combination. And I've like probably spent 30 minutes of my time trying to understand what the fuck any of that means. Yeah, I saw that this morning and I was like, you know, I'm 45 years old. I'm not going to dig any deeper into this. There is another thing I wanted to talk to you about before we get to our albums here that happened last week that isn't related at all to indie rock, but I think that there is like a broader thing with this story that came out last week. And it was the New York Times. review of this art exhibit in New York that was curated by Hannah Gatsby,

stand-up comedian of Nanette fame, and it's called It's Pablomatic, instantly iconic title. It's about Pablo Picasso, and it attempts to wrestle with his legacy as, on one hand, a very famous painter, and on the other hand, a very famous asshole. and how do you reconcile those things? And this review in the Near Times is just a scathing takedown of the exhibit. Apparently the exhibit is very glib, not very well curated, lots of very lame jokes. Apparently, like, a lot of, like, body part type humor in there, which is weird.

And the review is one thing, but the reaction to it was very interesting. because people just love this review and they reacted to it in a way that I think is indicative of something that's bigger than just like this art exhibit that like most of us outside of New York wouldn't even know about or care about. And even bigger than Hannah Gatsby,

it seems like people were reacting to this review in a visceral way reacting to pop culture of the Trump era, which I think Nanette is like one of the sort of trademarks or landmarks of, of that era of pop culture. And there's two sentences here, or it's about four or five sentences, that I want to read that I think is pertinent,

perhaps to also the indie music world, if you will. This elevation of stories over art, or at least comedy, was the principal thrust of Nanette, a Sydney stand-up routine, which became an American viral success during the last presidency, shortly after the wrongdoings of Harvey Weinstein,

were finally exposed. Nanette proposed a therapist, purpose for culture, rejecting the trauma of telling jokes in favor of the three-act resolution of stories. And then a little bit later in the piece, the writer writes, not long ago, it would have been embarrassing for adults to admit that they found avant-garde painting too difficult and preferred the comforts of story time. What Gadsby did was give the audience permission, moral permission, to turn their backs on what challenged them and to enable a preference for comfort and kitsch.

I just feel like that's about something bigger than just this exhibit. And it does feel like maybe right now there is a growing backlash to resistance era art. You know, we talked a few weeks ago about the dare in indie slees. And I don't want to emphasize that too much because as we discussed in that episode, the dare isn't actually that popular. Like there were way more take-down pieces. of that album

than the streams of the DARE's music would seem to justify. But I think there is something out there right now where there's a certain exhaustion with that era and maybe the pendulum is swinging

in the other direction. I don't know. What do you think about that? Yeah, I think people were just stoked about this, not just because you know, they've been harboring some sort of grudge, about, you know, this particular comedian. And, like, also, you know,

Nannet's been described as kind of, like, anti-comedy in the sense that it was, like, elevating stories over jokes. But, like, the actual exhibit itself, I looked at it. Like, there, it's just, like, captions on Pablo Picasso artworks. It, it reminds me so much of, like, these, um, sponsored or suggested sites you get on your Instagram fee, where it's just, like, the lamest, like, sub-barstool jokes.

But yeah, I'd also, this is the kind of review you never, ever, ever, ever get in the music world anymore where it feels like, holy shit, like this is actually taking something down that it could stand to take down. Like with TV and movies, even the pans are just like whatever. The Ted Lasso is not going to get completely undone by, you know, a slate review. But, you know, I thought about this in conjunction with the boy genius. show I went to this past Friday. And look, I had a really good time. Everyone had a good time there. I wouldn't, you know, necessarily combine these two things. But what stood out to me about Boy Genius, which is, I think, kind of more of a post-Trump phenomenon, even though it started in 2018. But, you know, they did a land acknowledgement prior to going on, which, you know, like, nothing against

that. I think it was illuminating and, you know, well-intentioned. They did that at Coachella too. Yeah, which makes out a lot of sense. Should we explain? Should we explain what that is? They basically brought out like Native American people to do like a statement about how this land used to belong to Native Americans. And it was taken from, right? Is that what it is basically?

Well, yeah. I mean, they had a couple of members of the Kumai tribe, which, you know, is the land here. And just talking about like how we were on sacred ground and they did a chant for a couple minutes. and like the crowd fucking loved it. But, you know, that was like kind of part of an overall bigger picture thing that I saw with Boy, Genius, just about like the wholesomeness of it all. And whether there might be some pendulum swinging. Well, I think that what they provide is far different than Annette, which is more of a,

that was more of like a pedantic, like this is the way we need to think about things in the Trump post-me-2 era. and But it does remind me I mean, again, that sentence I read from that review that it's a therapeutic purpose for culture which I think has been the way that art has been framed in like the last five or six years

that it is about that we should be looking at art as a way to process trauma and to like go through this therapeutic process and that's obviously a function of art but it does feel like art for art's sake or art that's irreverent or art that might be transgressive in some kind of way. Like that has been pushed to the side in some ways even been delegitimized.

And I do wonder, and again, like the dare is like an imperfect example because I don't think, I think the dare has been a little overhyped in comparison to like actually how many people listen to that group. But that is a group that's just like, hey, we're just making dumb music about sex and drugs. And there is no therapeutic use here. It's just pure hedonism. And yeah, like the wholesomeness thing, I do feel like there is a little bit of like, okay, we've had a lot of that lately. And it does feel like a little tiresome at this point.

I don't know. Maybe that's my Gen X point of view, though, because that's a much different world than what young people live in now and what they're looking for. But at the same time, it is, you are young people. Like, isn't there like a desire for something that's not wholesome when you're 18, 19, 20 years old? I feel like there is, but maybe there's not. I don't know. I'm curious to see how that unfolds, though, because we are in a very sort of therapeutic, wholesome type moment. And I don't know if we're at the end of it.

It feels like maybe we are, but, you know, we'll have to see. Yeah, maybe we're just at the beginning of it. And this is more or less like where things are going right now. Because I think there is an irreverence in Boy, Genius, that, you know, Nanette and a lot of the Trump-era stuff lacked. Like, it's more self-aware. It's more funny.

There's humor to it. And also, like, you know, you mentioned the dare. And we'll talk about the idol at some point. But I think that is an example, like the idol like the dare is kind of a failed attempt to combat what's been going on because it thinks that it's smarter than it is. But we'll talk about that later on.

Well, yeah, it might be a failure. statistically, but if there's a lot of people who watch that show, and the weekend, also, he is the most streamed artist in the world. So obviously, there is an appetite for, like, what he's selling, like that more sort of decadent thing. I haven't watched that show yet. We need to watch that show and talk about it next week. I also will mention that, you know, with the way culture is right now, like, yeah, there are, there's the festival that has, like, Clara, who is really great, by the way, and boy genius. but you know you could probably go like wait a few weeks and go to the grade A festival with like suicide boys and ghost main and you know that that that crowd is being serviced I want to just be very very clear about that but it's just that I don't know maybe it is like the 90s where there are people who are into hooty and the blowfish and people who are into like nine inch nails and you know now we think of it as 90s music but at the time it was seen as these like very separate uh very separate enclaves whereas now. I'm busting crack, rearview and downward spiral back to back, baby.

Well, speaking of those two great albums, let's get to our favorite albums so far of 2023. I have a column this week on Up Rocks where I wrote about 15 albums that I love from the first five and a half months or so of the year. So please go read that. That's an unranked list. I just listed the records in alphabetical order. On this show, though, we are actually stepping up and ranking our records here. So we each have a top five. I haven't seen your list.

You haven't seen mine. I'm curious if we're going to have any overlap. How many records do you think we're going to have overlapping in our top five? Zero. You think zero? I think there's one record that you would be surprised is in my top five that I think might be in your top five. We shall find out. So we'll see.

I have, yeah. Oh, I won't say anymore. Let's start with number five on our list. What's your number five favorite album of 2020 so far? I mean, we got to say the song of the summer of 2023 for the 27th consecutive year, Hooty and the Blowfish, Tucker's Town. Oh, man. That's a good one.

Fairweather Johnson. Yeah, you're going with a Fairweather Johnson pick. I love it. Also, the cover of I Go Blind is on that record. Wait, no, I'm sorry, that was a B-side. My bad. Hooty fans don't write in. We failed our hooty cast contingent.

Yeah, what's your number five record? So, you know, I don't know if by the end of 20, 23, this is going to, you know, rank higher than, say, like, the fireworks album that we talked about on the first episode of the year. But this one's a fast riser, and I just kind of kind of strike while the iron's hot, so to speak. I'm putting Gia Margaret's romantic piano at the number five spot. This is an artist who has been most likely described as like a singer-song. writer, they're on Jaguar, great label. And this album is almost, as the title implies, it's almost entirely instrumental. And there's one vocal track in the middle. And this is a mortal lock for the album. I'm probably going to listen to the most in 2023. It's about 27 minutes.

Extremely beautiful, not lightweight. And to listen to this album, it takes about the same amount a time for me to get to work when I need a very calming presence or when I'm walking my dog in the morning half asleep. It's got Yoni Wolf from Y on there and David Bazan was not expecting those guest artists. But, you know, I don't think we've ever talked about the artist grouper on the pod. It's an ambient sort of singer-songwriter project that, like, there's a huge cult behind. I've never gotten too much into them. But this album seems to function in a way that what I hear other people get out of grouper in that it's not too gauzy, it's not too distant. It's got a lot of really interesting mixing and field recording going on and just a lot of emotional

variance for what is essentially at its core like an instrumental piano record. So yeah, not expecting to love this one as much as I did. But yeah, I think that this is just something I see myself listening to a lot. getting a lot out of. Fitting the mole of like, I usually need to get an ambient record or an instrumental record or like a kind of avant-garde electronic record. This seems to fit all three, but it does so within the scope of what would otherwise be seen as a singer-songwriter.

Wow. I don't know this record at all. Came out a few weeks ago. So the way you're describing it, it sounds very intriguing. I am going to go check it out. That sounds really cool. You know, you're showing your diversity here, too. people were expecting straight emo, and you're giving them an instrumental piano record.

This is like Ian Cohen spreading his wings, letting people know he's covering the whole spectrum of music. I love it. Was it Gia Margaret? Gia Margaret, yeah. Okay. So for right number five record, I know you know this record, and I think you like it. Maybe not as much as me.

We'll see if it's in your top five, but it is a record called Infinite Spring. It's by an artist called Superviolet. And this is a solo project from Steve of the former Ohio emo band, The Sidekicks. And we talked about the sidekicks earlier this year when they broke up and lamented their breakup. They were always this underrated band. They weren't underrated in the emo scene, but they never really got their props in the mainstream of indie music. But as much as I like the sidekicks, I feel like, Superviolet could potentially be an even better project for Steve.

Steve, by the way, how do you pronounce his last name? Sholak? Solic? Sholak? I don't know. Okay, because I actually looked up interviews with him on YouTube to figure out how to say his last name, and he always says, I'm Steve from the sidekicks. He would never say his last name.

So maybe he doesn't know how to pronounce his last name either. So I won't feel bad about that. But, no, this record is, in a way, like, the mature, singer-songwriter record that you would expect someone like this who's been in maybe more of like a youth-oriented band before this now he's moving in a more mature direction sometimes that ends up being you know kind of dull but I think in his case it really is a mature record in that you could see his songwriting really blossom like on this record I hear echoes of big star I hear echoes of figure eight era Elliot Smith of summer teeth era wilco so many beautiful melodies

really smart songwriting. It just is like the epitome of like a great power pop slash heartland rock type record. And if you know anything about me, you know that's squarely in my wheelhouse. And I think looking at, you know, the first half of 2023, this is one of the best examples, if not the best example of that kind of record. So it's number five on my list, Infinite Spring, Superviolet. You're a fan of this record, right? Fan of this record, not my top five.

But yeah, it's really cool to see the goodwill of sidekicks transferred into this. And I mean, you're right. We've joked about this on the pod before, but it is like the dead center of like the indie cast event interest. Yeah, absolutely. All right, number four. All right, so I'm going to play a little more to type with this one. This is from a band called MS Paint from Hadysburg, Mississippi,

with their debut album Post-American. And we talked about, like, on the Dare episode, how it's a little disappointing that indie sleeves or just the thought of it. Even when we're talking about bands like model actress or Mandy, Indiana, it always tends to come from a very narrow New York City centric idea of it. And I think that, like, that sort of sound of, like, dance punk, so to speak, was way, way, way more broad than just like DFA or The Rapture. And MS Paint kind of runs in hardcore.

circles. They have Ian from Military Gunn doing guest vocals, and they're on convulsed records, which is a hardcore label. But there are a band who doesn't have any guitars. They have a bass guitar, but for the most part, they're synths. And this album draws from some of the more underappreciated bands from the dance punk era such as The Faint and Death Room Above, 1979, you know, with the bass-led songs. And this album just takes those, but it applies it through a hardcore prism. And it's this music that gives the impression of being dumb fun. It's very up-tempo and very physical and dancey, even though it's about, you know, as the title implies, societal collapse.

There's even some rap rock thrown in there. Like, there's some very much like Wu-Tang flows going on. And this just strikes me as like a debut of a band that's just doing something new. and exciting and it's, you know, we're probably at the end of the year we'll talk about like how in the post turnstile realm, bands like this and military gun and fiddlehead are kind of taking the, taking that momentum and shifting it more towards, you know, like stuff that might be more traditionally hardcore. And yeah, I think this, like I cannot wait to see this band live. I think they're going to be touring with military gun in the fall. So, yeah, this one, like, I liked it when it came out, and it's just been very, like, I'll listen to Gia Margaret on my way to the gym,

and then I listen to this at the gym. So I'm going to be listening to these a lot. You know, when you were talking about this record, because this record also did really well on the stereo gun list. Yeah, shout to them, man. I think it was like a top five records on that. It was like number three, which is what happens when you have, like, a voting list of like five or six people.

You know, it just made me think about that conversation we were having two years ago about like rap rock and new metal and like whether that was making a comeback. And I feel like it didn't really happen, at least not in the indie world. But then you're talking about the rap rock influences on this record. I mean, do you feel like that's still percolating out there as a reference point for bands, like, you know, bringing that in and integrating it into what they're doing? think that there's always going to be like some element of it like you're not going to get bands that sound exactly like limp biscuit or what have you but i think with this there's it's it it's in the

sense that like sometimes like fugazi could have like a very rhythmic not necessarily melodic approach to vocals um but yeah there there's definitely some like rap and rock but not necessarily rap rock yeah and if you're in a scene where people don't have conventionally good singing voices. It seems like a good, you know, alternate route. You know, you go the guttural kind of rap rock way to go. All right, well, that's a cool record. And again, that's getting a lot of buzz. I feel like I didn't hear much about that record until recently. And now it's like, maybe I just didn't see the pieces earlier in the year. But no, there hasn't been like a lot of mainstream hype about it. Like MS paints a band that's been kind of bubbling for a while. But

I think that this is going to be more of a long tail thing as far as mainstream goes. Yeah, like the stereo gum thing really took me aback, because I'm like, wow, this is like higher than the Boy Genius record on this list. They're not wrong. They're not wrong. Yeah, right. Well, you talked about Gia Margaret being your most listened to record of the year so far, and my number four album is my most listened to record, I think, of the year so far.

and it's a record call Dead Meat by a band called The Tubbs. This is a British band. They're a punk band, but there's something about this band that reminds me of like the British folk groups

of like the 60s, talking about a group like Fairport Convention, for instance. And I think it's because the singer, Owen Williams, as a voice that's reminiscent to me of Richard Thompson, you know, the great singer-songwriter

and guitarist of Fairport Convention. He also sounds a bit like Bob Mold of Husker Doe in Sugar Fame. Of course, Bob Mold is very influenced by Richard Thompson, especially on his acoustic records, like that 1989 album, workbook. Very Richard Thompson sounding. So I've heard people also liken this guy to Bob Mold as well, and that would make sense. But this is a band they play really kind of zippy, melodic,

you know, I was going to say pop punk, but that's not a very good description of it. that band Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever is a band that came to my immediately when I listened to this group. But again, because of the vocals, it has like this really kind of rich British fokey feel that really draws me in. And I could imagine these songs being played at half the speed and still working. You know, like they could be played as a dirge and I think it would work.

But as it is, it's just a very fun, upbeat, 27, 28, minute record. All the songs are just really well written, you know, just like two-minute gems, like, left and right. And, you know, the title of the record is like a little, it's a bit of a red herring because it's called Dead Meat. And the band is called The Tubbs. It just sounds like, like, they're setting you up for this band to be like one of these post-punk, like, barking talk bands, you know, like that there's been so many of. in recent years, like idols or something, like in that vein, but they're totally not like that at all. Again, very melodic band, a great kind of combination of a punk and folk. It's just been a

stew I have not gotten sick of this year. I've listened to it a ton. So yeah, great record. Dead meat, the Tubbs, my number four record of the year so far. Number three record. What's your number three? Okay, so this is kind of like cheating because it's out next week. And, you know, just given the fact that we have this episode and an indie cast these next week, you know, I want to give this an opportunity to shine and not just like kind of stuff it into recommendation corner whether or not that happens. But this is, again, very much a dead center pick for me. It's the new home is where album, The Whaler, which is out on 616 next Friday. I'm going to be writing about it. And we talked about their 2021 album. I became birds. which was one of my favorites of the year. And one of the few, if only, album in the emo world of the past few years that felt like the arrival of an exciting new voice as opposed to just like a good album that didn't expand beyond itself.

It sort of reminded me of the hotel year, you know, not so much in sound, but in the way that it presented this band with a very charismatic front person who also challenged a lot of bands in the scene to think more deeply about the art they make. and also like maybe a little bit shitposty. So, you know, with that setup, if that previous album, which was 17 minutes long, but they were very adamant that it was an album, it was written about the front woman Brandon McDonald's transition for male to female. If that one was like home like no place is there, this album is more like their goodness, which is that it's more expansive, maybe less anthemic, but also more unique.

and if there's one thing that we love here on Indycast, it is a concept album about 9-11. This uses kind of 9-11 in the same way that Neutral Milk Hotel uses like the Holocaust and sense that it's like not actually about that, but it's kind of a thematic thread where it talks about, you know, American Decline. There's one song called Daytona 500, which is sort of like a M.J. Lenderman song, except if they were taking acid as opposed to smoking weed. There's a song about Chris Farley on there,

which I enjoy quite a lot. It's produced by Jack Shirley, who also produced Joyce Manor and Deaf Heaven Sunbather. And yeah, it just strikes me as a emo album of actual vision, which are really hard to come by. There's a lot of albums I like that are enjoyable,

but this one strikes me as like something that might be a landmark. or something that like this scene can organize around. So a couple of the singles have been released. The album drops next Friday. I'm excited for it and you should be as well. Yeah, I like the last one. I haven't heard this record yet.

I'm going to check my inbox again to see if I was sent a promo of this. Otherwise, I'll just wait till next week. But I did like the last record. Is the Chris Farley song as good as the Adam Sandler song about Chris Farley? What can be? They actually, it's not necessarily about Chris Farley, so to speak, but no more than like Daytona 500 is actually about like auto racing. But the fact that like there is a song called Chris Farley on there just kind of shows you that this is a band that is like very serious but like also kind of shitposty and online. So I, they do so in a way that isn't like Tumblr Snark.

So did you write about this record? I am going to write about it. and my thoughts will arrive early next week on a website to be named later. Okay, well, we'll look forward to that. So my number three record is called an inbuilt fault. It's the most poorly named album of the year, but it's my number three favorite album of the year. It's by a British singer-songwriter named Will Westerman,

who goes by the name Westerman. And the thing you have to understand about my connection to this album is that I've been on a big kick lately of listening to Sting solo albums. The first four Sting solo albums, as a matter of fact, I will defend. And maybe I will defend in print at some point. Nothing like the sun and the soul cages in particular. Speak to me. I loved those records when I was a kid.

I was a prodigious VH1 watcher. So the adult contemporary of the time still speaks to me, and those are two beautiful records. And I think my renewed love of solo Sting has in some way informed my love of this record, because Westerman definitely works in a soft rock vein. I've described this record as if Sting made a Bonny Verre record. Because there's also bunny bear elements to what Westerman does. I would say that there's less of sort of druggie haze to Westerman's music than there's the Bunny Bear.

Bunny Bear Records are an adventure sonically that people love or hate. I think Westerman is working more down the middle in terms of making, I think, pretty faithful-sounding adult contemporary records that would have been big hits in the 80s. But now, in this modern moment, somehow classify as indie rock in some bizarre way. But this is a beautiful record. He's been active for a while now. you know, he put out his full-link debut back in 2020.

That record was called Your Hero's Not Dead. That was a good record. But this record, I think, really represents, you know, him leveling up. Like I said, it's a record that I think could have come out in, like, 1989 and been a fixture in, like, your dad's minivan. Like, it would have been the record that he had been playing every day as he drove you to school. And, like, you'd probably hate this record. But then 20 years later, you'd have to be a little bit. have nostalgic feelings for it.

That, I think, is what this record is. And I really love it. It's really beautiful. I suspect this is not your kind of thing at all, Ian. I fuck with it a little bit. I like the last one. You know, I haven't spent as much time with that. But, yeah, there's definitely a lot of, like,

Boniverse-type sting-type textures. And, look, so many people have staked out their claim as Steely Dan revivalists. the stingling is like wide fucking open for you. This is like, you need to take it there. Because like 10 Summoner's Tales, that to me is just like one of the classic Columbia house. Oh my God. 12 albums for a penny records of its time. One of my favorite moments from the Sopranos is when Carmela is in the kitchen and she's listening to Fields of Gold.

It's like so perfect. Like that show was so brilliant at like, oh, this is the kind of music that people actually listen to. It's not like the wire where David Simon would just have people listening to like coolest shit music, you know, no matter who they were. It's like David Chase was like, no, Tony Soprano loves Journey and Carmela loves Sting. Like she's a suburban Jersey housewife. She's going to put on fields of gold, pour herself a glass of white wine and just imagine, you know, Sting giving her a massage or something. That is what the dream is. So I don't know.

I think Sting just needs to be more memeable and maybe then Sting can have his own Steely Dan type comeback. Because I'm telling you, first for our Sting solo records, you don't want to fuck with that guy. Those are strong records, man. Adult Contemporary Gold. I'll go to the mat with that.

Yeah. I'm just thinking of like the most 1993 song imaginable. It's probably me because it's like Sting with Eric Clapton but also Michael Kamen. And like this was on that TV. Like this was the stuff I was taking in alongside like, you know, Nirvana and Dr. Dre. Well, there's also that song that Sting, Brian Adams. All for Love, yeah.

Yeah, who's the third one? Rod Stewart. Rod Stewart. Wow. Like, I'm impressed that I knew it that quickly. By the way, y'all, this is not a bit. Like, this is straight improv. We did not plan to talk about Stingby.

Yeah, exactly. Well, you know, that's what we do on the show. All right. Number two, what's your number two album of the year so far? All right. So, um, so it's an album from a Billy Woods and Kenny Siegel called Mapps. And before, you know, I talk about like what this album brings to the table. One thing that surprised me a lot, or not really surprised me a lot, actually quite the

opposite. It was not surprising at all. Uh, in the 2022 year ends is how, you know, Kendrick Lamar's album, um, was met with kind of mixed reviews. it ended up making every single year end list anyway. And I think that was emblematic of how there aren't a ton of event rap albums, at least critically speaking. You know, like a lot of artists who are doing that throughout the early 2010s, like Kanye, Drake,

and Kendrick, or either really fell the fuck off or just not making as much music. And a lot of stuff on the more artsy side, like the post-Earl sweatshirt stuff like Mike or wiki or whatever, that stuff seems a little bit too insular. And Billy Woods, as, I mean, this guy has been around forever. He, like, was hanging out with, like, death jokes people in the early 2000s. And he's someone I really enjoy. He kind of is in between those two worlds. And he's made albums that, like, were acclaimed over the past couple of years.

But I felt like he had kind of hit his ceiling where it's like, yep, Billy Woods, another album, kind of know what he's doing. with this album he reunites with a producer that he that he worked with on 2019's hiding places which was my favorite work of his before then and what he did here is made himself like 10 to 15 percent more accessible and it just completely opened up this guy's entire thing and you know it's one of the most acclaimed albums of the year I believe it's gotten the highest pitch forks score of 2023 so far and you know for people who are totally familiar with Billy Woods, but, you know, like has, has indie-based taste in hip-hop.

He's kind of this midpoint between Mob Deep and Mad Villain in that it's very thoughtful, very dense, but also, like, very, very New York City in terms of, like, talking about, like, the danger that's always lurking. And there's a real emotional undertow of this album about being on tour all the time about like being separated from your friends and family about how new york has changed in the pandemic and um there's also a feature with from sam herring of future islands on there for the single so um yeah i think that i don't think that this album is by any means like the new mad villainy or something that'll fill that role but you know if you're interested in like hip hop like a hip-hop album that still

feels like an event still feels like a complete work. This one, the hype is justified. As a matter of fact, it might even be a little underrated, even as hype as it's been. Wow, really?

Because I feel like this record's been pretty hyped. It's that good. And, you know, maybe that's just like a symptom of like not having a lot of hip-hop albums to really rally around. But like, yeah, this one is as good, if not better. You know, it's like the,

I think we use that as an indie cast. category to talk about Punisher when that came out in 2020 where just an album that's as good as it's hyped and actually better. So speaking of hyped albums, my number two album is Ratsaw God by Wednesday. And I feel like we started

talking about this album in January, talking about like how this was going to be the most hyped indie rock record of the year. And it's proved to be that so far in the first half of 20, 23. But the thing about this record being hyped is that I feel like it actually delivered. Like I did not see

really any kind of backlash against this band in a way that I might have expected after last year how Big Thief got so much praise for their album and then you started seeing people like clowning on them for their like promo shots and you know saying that they were overrated or boring or whatever I haven't seen that with Wednesday and maybe it's just because they're not as popular as Big Thief yet but this is a record that I think is what you would want from a band like this who's been around now for a few years and they've been beloved critically. But it hadn't made like the record that you feel like could put them to the next level. And they're very easy to cheer for and you want them to make that record.

And then they step up and they actually make that record. And it's just got everything that I would want from an album. I wrote this in my review that I feel like this is a band that is designed specifically for a person like me. because this record exists at a midpoint between like Drive-by trucker, Southern Rock Opera, Lucinda Williams, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, and Smashing Pumpkin, Siamese Dream. Like if you just combine those records,

and if you want to listen to all three of those at the same time, where you have like the themes of Drive-by Truckers, you have like the guitar fuzz of Smashing Pumpkins, and you have like the lyrical acumen of a Lissendu Williams. And again, I'm not, I don't want to overhype. I'm not saying like, oh, they're like as good as all three of those people. I'm just saying that there's elements of what those people do in Wednesday, and they combine them in a way that feels unique to them.

And I don't know, it just really delivers on this record. So looking at my list, you know, I said that on Uprocks, I published a list of 15 records that I really liked. And I ranked five for this episode. But like the top two are the ones I feel most solid about that I feel like, okay, these are my top two. And Wednesday, it's number two, but in a way it's like one B to the 1A that I'm going to talk about here in a few minutes.

I know you like this record. Is it your number one or did it not make your top five? Not in my top five. Like, I haven't connected with it as strongly as you have. And I'm kind of surprised it isn't your number one. You know, I'm trying to like, I'm drawing a blank as to what I expect to be your number one. But, like, I mean, I figured that was going to be it. My number one has kind of snuck up lately.

And again, I'm going to let you talk about your number one first. I'm very curious what your number one is. Because my number one, I feel like could maybe be your number one too? I don't know. What is your number one? Well, you mentioned how Wednesday is an album that feels like lab designed to appeal to your interest. And I think you've made the joke either on this spot or on. on your Twitter about how paranormal like sounds like it was made in a lab for me, which it is.

I mean, you know, so number one so far, paranormal after the magic. And, you know, there are times, like, is a little bit of like, you know, inside baseball. Like, whenever I write a review that gets best new music, like, there's always a part of me that has to, like, you know, wonder, like, whether I'm excited about the opportunity to write about it in that way, like, whether I'm, like, hyping myself up too much. or and then I usually give myself a little break from the album and then come back a month later. And like this one's even better than I thought it was like when I first heard it. I was not certain about whether this artist who released the scene in the next part of the dream in 2021,

an album that was, you know, I found this basically on band camp. And it was self-recorded like really, really low-fi. And I wondered like whether the songwriting was really there or whether the charm would be lost. they actually learned how to like produce in a real way. And this just blows the last one out of the water. It's a 60-minute album, but every single second does something interesting sonically. It's just so engaging and so immersive.

And like the Gia Margaret album, it's very, it presents an emotional arc despite having no lyrics that I can understand. It's entirely in Korean. And just pulls in from just about everything. form of music I love. There's a lot of shoe gaze in terms of the overwhelming in the red sound, like kind of M83 style shoegaze. There's emo in terms of how it, you know, project its lyrics. There's a lot of 90s alt rock. There's a lot of like intel, like like like lap pop going on from like 2003, like Caribou. It's just like a love letter to all the music I've ever really loved.

adult. And I just, I cannot get enough of this album. I do I think it's going to make them famous by no means. It's still, you know, kind of a niche record. And I don't see them as someone ever revealing their, like, also they're anonymous. They have played live. But yeah, I, I just see this as kind of a niche album, but just something that it just fulfills my needs in a way that's like almost embarrassing. Okay, so that is not my number one. I do like that record. My number one record, we talked about this on the show, and we were both a little skeptical of this record, kind of indifferent toward it. And since then, I have gone from being a little annoyed by this record to just being incredibly delighted by it every time it's on.

It's a record that I feel like I'm becoming addicted to. I love listening to this record when I'm done working, because it's a great like quit in time. It's Miller Time type record. Caroline Polichek. No, it's 100 gecks, 10,000 geeks. I don't know. This is a band.

This is going to be like a very old man type comparison. But I do think that there's an element to this group that's like reminiscent of like what the Ramones did in the 70s, like where they looked at trash culture that they grew up with. And they did this homage to it while playing. like music that was like sort of like genius idiot level type music you know

the music that on some level was so stupid that it became brilliant and I think like when I listen to this record I feel that way I feel like this band does to the internet like what the Ramones did to like the trash culture of their time like this band takes everything that's stupid about the internet and they somehow elevate it

by dragging it down into like the murk of various different sonic references. I don't know. I just find this record to be so delightful whenever it's on. It is the most fun record of the year. If I could make another comparison that might make you angry or maybe you'll think it's pertinent. I mean, I think there's an element of like Japan droids. I think of them when I listen to this band because that's another band that is taking all these things from like culture, some things that are kind of trashy and they're just stripping it down to the bare essence and just

making it all about like one pleasure point after another. Like we're not going to have anything that's boring. It's all it's going to be pleasure point, pleasure point. We're going to shovel sugar into your face constantly. And I hear myself describing it and I feel like this might just sound totally grating

if you haven't gotten into this band or if you haven't listened to them. But I don't know. This is a record, again, that like I feel like I did a 180 on as the year went on. And it's just become a record. that like I, it's the record I enjoy listening to the most that's come out this year so far. So for me, it had to be number one.

Yeah, it's definitely going to be up there for me. And I, like, we, we have this phenomenon happen so very often where once you get outside the blast radius of an annoying narrative, you can actually enjoy it now for what it is. And maybe, I don't know, maybe the hype has died down enough about this band that I was able to, you know, appreciated for what it is. I am shocked, though, that you have mentioned the Ramones and Japan droids as reference points, and like the one that stands out to me so much. I'm honestly shocked you've missed this is wean. Well, yeah. Yeah, yeah, them too, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. I think I just meant like in a very narrow way about, I think with the Ramones, like, just do, like taking something that, again,

like trash culture and somehow spinning it into something where it becomes elevated, even if like the execution is actually leaning into the stupid aspects of that trash culture. It like is, it becomes genius because it leaned so hard on the stupidity of it. Like that's what reminds me of their moments. And with Japan Joids, it was just again like the pleasure points. Like Japan Joids, I felt like on Celebration Rock, they just took like the greatest moments of like all the great rock records that you love and just line them up. And it's like, we're not going to have any of the boring parts.

It's just going to be like the uplifting parts, one after another. And like, that's why that record is so great. And I think in that narrow way, I think that's what 100 Gex are doing on this record. But yeah, wean, yeah, like Pure Guava era, ween, totally in that vein. And I think that's another thing that may be, I mean, these are all old men references. Like, I feel like for the core audience of 100 Gex. Yeah, they're already washed if we're making these. These are irrelevant, but I think for like, you know, because I've heard people say, like, I don't get this record. I hate this band. You know, if you are an older person, I think that there are references to like old man groups that if you can kind of appreciate that element of what they're doing, it may be a way into this band. Because again, I think this is like the most pleasurable record of the year. Like, it is the record that makes me smile the hardest when I'm listening to it.

Yeah, we are full-on gecks. You know, this kind of speaks to the, we always like threaten. It's kind of similar to sometimes they, sometimes they'll show like soccer games in other countries with no announcers. Like that's like a kind of gimmick they do. Like maybe we're just going to do an episode where we just go in and not like we promised not to look at Twitter for an entire week. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I think it is like you said, the black. last radius of the

commentary, but I also, I don't know, I mean, sometimes you just don't get a record right away and I feel like that was true for me with this record. I think there was so much with this band of them being the sort of like revolutionary group that they were going to like change music, that

that became a way to judge the record. You know, it's like, well, this isn't going to change music. This is just, you know, whatever it is. And that's just the wrong way to approach this album. And I don't think that they're really intending to be like a paradigm shifting group. To me, this is just like,

again, we want to line up all of the fun, stupid things that we love and hate about the internet and just put it together. And nothing boring. Just a half hour of like high after high after high. And it totally works. It's like, it's totally like that kind of record. I think every couple of years you have like that kind of record.

It might be a rock record. It might be like an electronic record. It might be a rap record. but that's this record, I think, for 2023. Maybe this is like the kind of reaction that we were talking about to the the kind of moralism of art. You know, maybe it's not going to be coming from like a, like a nuclear negative review of like boy genius.

It's going to like kind of coexist with Pablomatic. Which by the way, like Pablomatic does sound like the name of a hundred geck song. Well, we were joking before we started recording that. I want someone to use AI to make the good doctor say, it's problematic. Can we get him to say, like, I'm a surgeon, Dr. Hahn, and then he says, it's problematic, like, in the same voice. Like, I really want to hear that. I was just thinking about my favorite lyric of the year comes from the 100 Gex album, Dumbus Girl Live. I'm so happy I could die, put emojis on my grave.

I'm the dumb scroll alive. Genius. Genius. So great. All right. All right. Brilliant. Shout to St. Louis.

Yeah, man. Damn. Just I love it. Chef's Kiss. That about does it for this episode of Indycast. Thank you all for listening. 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 Mixedape newsletter.

You can go to uprocks.com backslash indie. And I recommend five albums per week. and we'll send it directly to your email box.