Indiecast - The 2022 Indiecasties Pt. 2: The Biggest Comeback & Rookie Album Of The Year

Episode Date: December 9, 2022

Last week kicked off the annual year-end Indiecasties, an Indiecast segment where hosts Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen nominate the best, worst, and most memorable music moments of the year. Think of it as indie music's Grammys, but in an audio format and with fewer Machine Gun Kelly appearances. On this week's episode, Steven and Ian reflect on 2022 by diving deeper into this year's releases. Their categories include: The “Angular Guitar” Award for Overused Album Review Adjective of the Year (15:44), the Comeback of the Year (23:44), the Most Memory-Holed Album of 2022 (32:34), the Rookie of the Year (42:28), and, of course, MVP of the year (50:12).Along with continuing the 2022 Indiecasties, Steven and Ian answer some listener mailbag questions (7:59). A question about the Grammys voting process and the alphabet sparks a conspiracy theory.New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 118 here or below 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.

Indicast is presented by Uprox's Indy Mix tape. Hello everyone and welcome to Indycast on the show we talk about the biggest indie news of the week, review albums, and we hash out trends. In this episode, it's the second part of our annual Indycaste's award show. My name is Stephen Hayden and I'm joined by my friend and co-host. I wonder who we voted for for Indycaste's MVP? Ian Cohen, Ian, how are you? I'm feeling like Kevin Durant, like you to reel MVP.

I think that was Kevin Duran who said that, right? Did he say that? I'm pretty sure. I missed that one. I'm pretty sure it was either him or Steph Curry, but I'm pretty sure it was Kevin Duran. You know, just being very tearful, talking about his mom. But no, look, you know, just keep publishing those books, keep making the press rounds, and I'm sure there will be more indie castees to go around, you know.

Until I start picking up the slack, you know, I need to be out there. Well, look, I think you. are more than holding your own because just so everyone knows, this is a banked episode. We recorded this a week before you're going to be hearing it. And Ian is playing hurt. He has had a cold for like three weeks now. You sound a little rough when we started recording here. I'm afraid that you're going to die of this cold in the time between recording this and posting.

So I'm going to have to record like a very mournful. preamble to this episode saying, you know, this is like the posthumous, this is the last session that Ian ever did. I'm saying this, hoping it doesn't happen, but I feel like there's like maybe like a 5% chance that this cold that you've had, literally for like a month, I think. Yeah. It might finally take you out in the week between this posting and us recording it. Yeah, this is like the Nirvana MTV unplugged of Indycast or something like that.

But instead of like, you know, where did you sleep last night, like we're going to, I don't know, talk about how hours. Because hours, I believe, did put out now in 2022. That'll be, you know, I'll die as I live. Wait, wait, wait. Wait, wait, wait. Jimmy Neko was active this year and we didn't talk about it. I feel like this is a major oversight on our part, especially for you, the leading hours authority in the music critic community. No, this is 20.

21. But we didn't talk about it then either. How did this happen yet? You know, I got no excuse. You know what I mean? You're living in the past with distorted lullivis. You're not keeping up with the latest hours developments here. I'm a little upset about this.

I feel like we are on the Jimmy Neco beat and we fumbled the ball. This is like you have Judith Miller for the New York Times. on WMD falsely in the early 2000s. That's the number one journalistic crime of the 21st century. This might be number two. Yeah. Us fumbling the hours beat. I don't know how I live with myself, to be honest with you.

Oh, man. Well, at least you admitted it. I would not have known this at all if you hadn't just mentioned it. I really assume that hours broke up like 10 years ago, but they're still putting out records. Yeah, I'm just like hoping that, you know, there's like a Bodine's album that came out in the past two years that you've not mentioned so we can like, you know, balance the scales here. Oh, man. Well, there have been some developments in the Bodine's camp that I don't really want to get into in this episode. But if you Google Bodine's, uh, there is a very kind of sad story

that is, it's not good. It's a very bad development. One of the Bodines accused of impropriety. I'm not even joking here. It's bad news. I didn't think we were going down this road. This is what we get for banking episodes. Without that structure of like, hey, did you catch the latest thing that, you know, St. Vincent did? We just left to our own devices. It goes off the rail super quick. Yeah, I mean, you know, we could have talked about the new Metallica record. But that's already going to be like a, that news is going to be like a week old. I heard a commercial for their local show that they're going to be playing here. They still do stuff like that?

Like not play shows, but like commercials. Yeah, they do. They do. Like they were advertising the tour. And they said 2024 in the ad, but that can't be right. It could be. I don't know. I'm looking at the ad.

I'm looking at the tour dates right now. They're playing here in 20. Wait, they are. They're playing here in 2024? That's optimistic. They're already advertising that. It's August 16th and 18th in Minneapolis, 2024. Like my son, who is 10, he'll be 12.

He'll have facial hair by the time this tour comes here. That's insane that they're announcing this already. on, Pantara is opening some of these shows? Greta Van Fleet is opening too. Oh, but I love this sentence. Greta Van Fleet replaces Patera on show one both weekends in Mexico City. What? Road chair.

They're opening here in Minneapolis for Metallica. That'll be good. Because they have Volbeat. It's opening some shows. They listen to Volbeat. I know they exist. I feel like we've talked about, I feel like we've talked about, I feel like we've gotten like a mailbag question about them like how them and like five finger

death punch and like theory of a dead man like all this like radio rock stuff which it sounds like just by the fact that you've heard a Metallica show advertised on the radio uh you're probably more up to speed on this stuff than i am yeah it's i've i've listened to volbeat they're the they're the cream of that crap i would say because five fighting your death punch who was also opening for Metallica on some of these days. They're the worst. Volbeet, I think, is better than five-finger death bench. Like, yeah, theory of a dead man, awful.

Yeah. Volbeet is that they're like that kind of metal band, like where the vocals are like weirdly melodic. You know, like how ghost, you know, that band Ghost. Like, they kind of have a similar thing, like, where it sounds like a robot is it almost because it's so perfect sounding and it's a little disconcerting you know it's sort of like auto

it's sort of like Eurovision metal if you will right exactly that's a good way of putting it yeah that's a better that's a better analogy so yeah it's either a screaming guy or like a weird like Euro auto tuned you know

guy singing so it's very odd but yeah anyway Metallica two years from now doing two shows at the local stadium here. That'll be incredible. Assuming that that tour is not canceled between the time that we've recorded this and the time that we post. I always imagine like Armageddon like scenarios happening whenever we bank an episode. I'm like a little paranoid

that we're going to miss something huge, but probably not. December's pretty slow. I don't think we're missing anything. The Friday news dump of the year, you know? So let's get to our mailbag segment. Thank you all for writing to us. It's always great to hear from our listeners. You can hit us up at Indycast Mailbag at gmail.com. Our letter today, this is one of my favorite letters that we've gotten. And this is not a question. It's positing a conspiracy theory, which I've never heard before.

But the letter writer presents it in a weirdly plausible way. So I don't know. Do you want to read this one? I do. I do. This one's super interesting. to me. Like, I love that, like, the past couple of mailbag submissions we got aren't actual questions, but they, like, raise more questions than a lot of the actual questions. So,

uh, this comes from Brad from North Carolina. Uh, love the pod. As a Grammy voter, the single most unremarkable and profound fact about the Grammys that no one or nothing has as much influence as the alphabet. It's so simple and embarrassing. A bunch of old boys in L.A. voting and have no clue who or why. Artists and bands can choose to be organized by first or last name. So check out some of these big winners and knobs from the past 25 years. Abba, Bonnie Rae, Beck, Bob Dylan, John Batiste, Arcade Fire, the White Man, Boni Vair, Billy Elish, Brandy Carlisle, Alabama, Shakes, Adele, Beyonce, etc.

And in regards to the general categories, check how rare it is the drop below H. Small categories like electronic folk or Americana are slightly better because they're generally less than 200 submissions. However, Rock, Alternative, and Pop have about 1,000 plus and thus all the old boys barely make it past G. General categories are fatiguing because there's typically 2,500 plus submissions. It has to be a huge name like Taylor Swift for people to get to the end of the list or search it out. So Brad submits that the easiest way to win a Grammy besides like, you know, being back, is to change her name to start with A to C or enter a soft category. Hence why Brandy Carlisle threw a fit last year. She didn't take into account how her alphabetical name would help regardless of category.

And then Brad comes to the conclusion that the Grammys are nothing but a product of her stimulation and nothing else. That's a lot right there. That is, this is a brilliant observation. He's basically saying that all the big Grammy winners, either the first letter or like the second letter, is early in the alphabet, which, you know, last year people were like, why did Jean Baptiste win?

Right. You know, who even knew he had a record? Lo and behold, according to Brad, who is a Grammy voter, it's because his last name starts with B. And I'm like, is this really true? And I was going through the list. And like he said, it's, you mentioned Arcade Fire, you have Daff Punk, you have Bruno Mars, if you're going with the B, you have Adele. I mean, there are exceptions like you two.

Right. They won album of the year in 2006 for How Did This Manol an Atomic Bomb? Did that all come out like 2003? It was 04. Okay. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I don't know. And why did that album win, album of the year? Like, that is not...

What's the Rolling Stone voting block on that? I don't know. But, you know, again, I think that would fall under the Taylor Swift category where people will scroll for Taylor Swift because she's such a big name. Obviously, U-2 is a big name. It made me think that Eminem really should have beaten Steely Dan for album of the year in 2001 if we're going by the alphabet standard, unless they were listed under Dan. The D,

Game 4E, or obviously Steely Dan is very well regarded in the music industry, so maybe that's also another Taylor Swift, U2,

exception, but this theory holds water for me. This kind of makes sense. Don't you think? I mean, first off, like, with you too,

I'm doing a little research and I'm pretty sure their first nomination occurred. This can't possibly be true that their first nominations were for the Joshua Tree. That makes sense because they would have been too hip before then, I think. For the Grammys in the 80s, they would have been too hip.

But like Joshua Tree, such a big record. Yeah. It made them, you know, a mainstream act. So the way I, the obvious way to test this theory is just to look up what ZZ Top has done in the Grammys. just like do the exact opposite. And they have three, count them three nominations, zero wins. They were first nominated for Eliminator, which lost to best rock performance by a duo or group to the police synchronicity.

And then they lost again to the Eurythmics. Otherwise, it was like they were nominated for like a movie or what have you. But I mean, I checked it out this year just to like see, okay, this can't possibly be true in 2023. And the album of the year nominations ends with M. And the best pop vocal album ends

with Lizzo. Like if you take turnstile out of the picture, Ozzy Osbourne is like the lowest guy in the alphabet for a lot of rock categories. And look, I... See? Yeah. The fact that it's like even plausible, I think this speaks to Brad's point

that like a lot of the Grammy voters himself included are just like, uh, what, fucking whatever. Like just, uh,

yeah, like just, uh, I'm gonna take five seconds to look this through. Like the fact that it's even plausible. Makes me think that there might be some, not like a conspiracy to it,

but it just kind of signifies that, you know, most of the people were voting for Grammys, like are probably just like doing it over the, like, you know, like I'm going to the bathroom in the morning, just fill it out,

whatever. Or like they forget the last minute. They have to fill it out. and they just go ahead and do so and takes five seconds. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. Again, this never occurred to me. I feel like this is the end of the usual suspects. Like when you are looking at the wall and you all of a sudden realize the truth.

Because it seems so obvious now after I've read this letter. You know, you mentioned Z-Z Top. I looked up Warren Z-von, another Z artist. W and Z, double whammy. Exactly. And he was not nominated. for a Grammy until after he died for his last record, The Wind. That was the first time he ever got nominated for a Grammy.

Which, by the way, this episode, this is like you're the wind, possibly. Like, if your cold takes you out, you're like Warren Zevon with the wind. I always felt him and I had a lot in common. Yeah, exactly. So, you know, thank you, Brad. This is an amazing letter. This might be the greatest letter that we've ever gotten. I feel like this could spark an investigation, if you will, into the Grammys.

The low-letter conspiracy. It's brilliant. Let's get to our Indycasties part two. Of course, we did part one last week. We did five categories. We've got five more categories this week. Our first award today for the Indycastes is we're calling this Angular Guitar Award.

And this is an award that recognizes the most overused adjective in album reviews in 2022. The title of the award of course refers to many critics using the word angular to describe a guitar part usually for like a post-punk band. You say that there's an angular guitar. Have you ever used the term Angular? I'm going to cop to, I'm sure I've used that in the past. very recently,

um, pitchfork, uh, posted, um, the review I did of the pool kids album. And, uh,

they, you know, they single out a sentence that, like whenever the social media account post the review, they single out a sentence. And for that pool kids album, I definitely used the word angular and it was getting clowned by people who do like pool kids.

Uh, so yeah, I've used that term in 2022. Uh, I don't know. I feel like, can actually use it now because there's like kind of a winking sort of a component to it. Like if you're using Angular, you know it's kind of ridiculous to use Angular.

It's like saying literally because you know you don't mean literal. Yeah. I mean, you know, look, you can't avoid it sometimes. You're going to use an overuse adjective there but for the grace of God. We're not pointing this out. We're not pointing fingers. As they say, when you point a finger, you got four fingers pointing back at you. that's what we're doing. Is that a bad religion lyric?

Probably is. What is your choice for the most overused adjective in album reviews this year? So this is going to I mean, I just love we're like starting out with like the most petty music writer Twitter award.

I mean, for me, it's I don't know. I guess it's like, I don't know if it's ironic or hypocritical or what have you for me to bring this. up but you know I do work in mental health I do work you know in a therapeutic place and I don't know maybe that makes me more wary of artists who use words like trauma and therapeutic and so forth in the album especially like because I get a sense that it's especially when I get in a PR email it just gives me this sense of like cynicism that I think not only you know

makes me wary of like PR in general. But just like the general sense that like therapy and like stuff like that is now kind of being used as this kind of social capital. Like I mean, I think we do kind of joke like it's become a joke like, oh, this is about trauma, this is about trauma, this is about trauma. And I think that with that word, whether it's like therapeutic or whether it's trauma or whether it's trauma or whether it's chosen family. Like, I mean, these are all concepts that, like, can be really helpful to people.

But, you know, when I see them now, it makes me think that, like, people should have to submit an application to write a song about their therapist. Because, like, I mean, I think about it at my job. It's like, you know, I, therapists are human beings, you know, they're not gods. You know, people can go to therapy and, like, completely half-ass it. So this idea that it's like this cure-all or that like trauma is like necessarily or like talking about going to therapy is like interesting. Like I almost like tune it out. I almost like when a rapper talks about like their chain or something like that. Yeah.

I mean I feel like there's an element to it where it feels as though they're trying to inoculate themselves from criticism because I'm talking about a traumatic event. so that inherently makes it you can't really criticize that because of the personal nature of it when I mean really isn't all art from some sort of trauma I just feel like that's like a redundant thing to say a lot of times

it's like with emo like you know oh isn't all music emotional you know what I mean I feel like if you are going to describe a record as traumatic because you know you're talking about PR companies doing this, but also you see writers describing records, like you said, therapeutic or traumatic.

I feel like if you've made a therapeutic record, then I should be allowed to bill you as a listener. Because if we're in therapy here and you are confessing your neuroses, I mean, the therapist gets paid to listen to that. So I should be allowed to bill you if that's what your thing really is. Um, that's a good choice. My choice is an adjective that I feel like I did not see until this year or maybe the year before. And then I felt like I was seeing it everywhere.

And that is radical. Uh, um, and I don't mean radical in like the 80s sense where you're talking about like, oh, that's, it's a radical, uh, you know, way of cuffing your jeans or, you know, whatever. I'm talking about like when people say like radical joy. Oh, man. Radical happiness, which is that also therapy speak or is that academic speak? I don't know. I'd say column A, column B.

It can be used in both components. Because like, you know, like, I mean with. Because like radical joy, like that term, I can, I construe that to mean that there's like something revolutionary about making happy music. I think that's the context when that comes up. I feel like I saw that a lot this year, and it doesn't make sense to me. I feel like it's kind of, I mean, it makes sense, I guess. I think the idea of like we're coming out of the pandemic and going back into the world, and like now you're making outgoing music and that's radical.

Yeah. It's also aligned with unapologetically. Now, like, I think both of those terms, you know, both unapologetic and radical tend to be used more in, like, you know, terms of, like, you usually gets used in like, you know, black community or whatever, like unapologian. Like, it's like phrases that, like, talk about, like, what it means to be, to, like, own one's identity in, like, generally white spaces. But, like, as so many things, like, it gets applied to, you know, a, like, a, like, a, like, a, like, a, like, a, like, a. pop record or something like that where it gets taken out of context as far as like actual radical or actual unapologetic and just becomes like a kind of a buzzword in that sense because I mean there was a time with this and all these other words had meaning but now it just you know like it's a word when you see it like 12 times a day it kind of loses all power also like I think the perennial worst, the most annoying, like, word that gets used in reviews or music writing,

arguably. That's every single year. Like, everything is arguable. That's just, that's just a way of saying, like, dude, you do not believe in what you're saying right now. You're just filling word count. Well, I've been guilty of arguably. Same. I've done this all.

Yeah. So, yeah, again, we are putting ourselves in jail as well. well in this category. Let's move on to our next category. Comeback of the year. This is self-explanatory. It seems like every year there's an artist or a genre or wherever the case may be that has been down. And then it comes back and has a good year.

We talked in our previous episode about how I wouldn't have said this, but I think some people would have argued that Arcade Fire had a lock on this. for a good part of the year and then just fumbled it away. Yeah, just fumbled it away. And so it's pretty wide open right now in this category. For you, what was the comeback of the year in 2022? Well, this, I would imagine that I was hoping that I would be able to say like

Animal Collective. And I think most people would probably argue they do deserve. of that. But in the episode of Endless Scroll that I recorded, I actually talked about them as being my biggest disappointment because the comeback felt like a little manufactured. Indy Slees,

not comeback of the year. I feel like that's kind of like people talk about it as if it's happening. I don't see it. Well, you know, we don't have this category this year, but the Fetch Award. Yeah. For things that critics were trying to make

happen, I think Indy Slees, is the winner of that one. Yeah. Because it just felt like people were trying to manifest that. And it didn't really happen. So there are two options I have for comeback of the year. First of which the kind of like one B would be Beth Orton. I feel like, you know, besides the fact she made a really, really good record,

there tends to be at least in the... What's the name of that record, by the way, for those who don't know? Fuck. I wish I could tell. We don't remember? It's got the song Friday night on it. Weather alive. It's fucking weather alive.

I know this. Weather alive. I know like, Jesus, man. Like this, we're going to do memory hold albums of the year and like we're going to kind of talk about like how I just have like, you know, like Swiss cheese brain after 2022. But, you know, she is indicative. There's usually one artist in any given year who was liked or, you know,

critically acclaimed the 90s and then they go quiet and then they come back. And we talked about this with like Tori Amos a few episodes ago. But yeah, I think it was really cool to see this really good record get a lot of the praise that it deserves. You know, she's not seen as this just, I don't know, artifact of, you know, a time when every trip hop or every electronica record had to have a come down song. But if I'm being honest about best, you know, biggest comeback of the year, I think in 2021, one of the nominees I had was Modest Mouse, if only because their album was way better than I expected. Like, it didn't suck and therefore it seemed to me to be a massive comeback.

But for this year, the fact that like Death Cab for Cudy put out a record that I don't know, like I could legitimately say this might be their best album since plans. Do I think that now? I mean, it's up there with narrow stairs, but the idea of Death Cab for Cutty not only making like a decent record and not just making like a good record, but like a record that kind of stands with some of their, you know, B tier joints, completely inconceivable. Like I really thought that band was done. Like done. But, you know, I don't know whether it was working with John Congleton or, you know, whether it was, you know, the pandemic or whatever. Yeah, this is like a good record and not like one of those Weezer records where it's like, oh, this doesn't suck.

Is Weezer back? No, this is like actually someone that people seemed excited about. Is that also the low expectations award for Ian? Because I feel like you're, it's really, like you said, about Montesmouse, that you are calling it a comeback because it's not totally forgettable that it's a solid record but it's not like a home run it's like a good maybe double yeah right am i hearing you right yeah it's not like at the level of like jimmy world's uh integrity blues which you know really fucked up the game for legacy acts who were just kind of coasting um i would say like i think i gave it like a 7.4 in my

pitchfork review which i think is the highest for it would score any new death cab album has ever gotten. But yeah, the low expectations were there, but I can say this record is actually good. So I'm going to disagree with you a little bit about Animal Collective. I actually think that that was a good comeback this year. I like that record. One thing that might, you know, bring their comeback into question is that they just haven't put out a lot of albums as Animal Collective in recent years. I mean, they had, you know, Centipede H.Z, or Centipede Hertz, is that how you say it? That's how I've been saying it. You know, to the degree I've had to say that album's name out loud.

Yeah, so you had that album. There was an album after that, that I don't even remember. Painting with. I somehow know that album title, but not that Beth Wharton that came out like three months ago. But actually, painting with right before I left L.A., there would be a stretch of Glendale Boulevard that had at least three. three different billboards for painting with. So I get, hey, Domino,

your ad dollars went to work there. That's crazy. Yes, they spent all that money, and I can't remember the album title. I think I already forgotten in the last five seconds since you last said it.

But time skiffs, which was their record from this year, I thought that was a quite good record. But they're not my choice for comeback of the year. I'm going to go with a genre of music that I enjoyed quite a bit this year. This is a genre of music

that goes in and out of style over the years. But it is, you know, one of those lynch pins of, like, culty rock music. And it's Power Pop. I think Power Pop had a really good 2022. Several records on my year-end list fall into the Power Pop genre, including the Motroper record, the second grade record. I've seen the Always record described as Power Pop. I don't really agree with that.

Neither do I. But if you want to call them Power Pop, they're also on my list. You had Tony Molina had a really good record this year. Young Gov who've put out a bunch of really good Power Pop records in recent years. But I feel like there's enough of these records that I think are really good that we can call it a bumper crop. We can say that a trend this year is that Power Pop was back. We'll see how long that lasts. But yeah, again, if you haven't heard, like, Motroper's MTV, second grade's easy listening,

those two records in particular, I think, are dyed in the wool power pop records. Really good. They're both pretty different. Second grade is, I think, more of a textbook-type power pop record very much in that teenage fan club, material issue, going back to like Big Star and Bad Finger, that kind of stuff. whereas Mo Trooper's MTV is more in line with Elephant Six, mid-90s guided by voices, the noisier end of the power pop spectrum. But he also writes just really catchy and beautiful songs.

Play Dumb, one of the catchiest songs I heard this year. A bunch of other songs on that record are really catchy too. So yeah, Power Pop. Get your skinny ties out and your, in your, your sports jackets. Yeah, I think that was my comeback of the year. Yeah, but I think the skinny tie, like, sports jacket, this is more kind of like an Elvis Costello Joe Jackson type power pop.

Well, like the knack, you know, the knack. Oh, right, right. They're, you know, one of the classic power pop bands. They wore the skinny ties. So neither one of, you know, Mo Trooper and second grade. They're not really like in the knack wing. Right. But I don't know.

I had to make a skinny tie joke. though with PowerPock. I feel like that's just part of the thing. Yeah. Bodeeds, the NAC, ours. This episode's got it all. It's great. Let's get to our next category. This is always one of my favorites.

It's also one of the trickiest categories that we do every year because the whole idea is that we can't remember these albums. So to remember them for this category, it's kind of going against the concept of what we're talking about. but I'm talking about most memory hold album of 2022, a record that we can confirm did come out this year. And we know people maybe talked about it for a few days, but it's really hard to remember it at this point.

You kind of said something about this earlier, and I agree with you that I kind of feel like every album, for the most part, is memory hold at this point. Like, it's really hard. to remember most records after the fact. It's because we're so inundated with data in general, not just music, but everything's coming at you.

So I don't know, this category gets harder and harder to pick every year, but I don't know, there are certain albums that you feel like you should have remembered that you just don't remember. So like, do you have a good choice for this? Yeah, I mean, you're correct in that with memory like memory hold has a couple of definitions there's like the records that will probably

show up in like the top 15 or top 20 that um like oh yeah that came out and like i listened to it a bunch and then forgot about it two weeks later as i listened to other stuff or um you know like the weekend comes to mind it's not memory hold but like i get it jumbled sometimes with the one that came out like the year or two before so just about anything that came out in like February, like basically before March is memory hold just as a matter of fact. But there are two albums that immediately came to mind. The first is, you know, not the one I pick for the winner. I would say that the Whitney album is super, like super memory hold in the sense that like it happened.

And this is like a really popular band. But I think for a band of their visibility. the fact that it happened and it was forgotten about, even though it was like their attempt at like a pop record, just, I don't know, strikes me maybe as like an over, not an overcorrection, maybe a correction to, you know,

what their status was before. But then when I thought about like real memory hold, like, no, I swear to God this album really happened. I, you can look it up. There's only one possible winner for this. and this album is MIA's Mata. This album came out in October of this past year on Island Records. It's a major label album.

It had Scrilex on it. It had, I guess, Diplo on there. Cisco Adler is in the credits, which that's a name you don't hear much anymore. Farrell. And I've not, I mean, granted, she had quite a few unforced errors in the in the lead-up to this album. But I have not seen any reviews of this. I did see there was like a profile done in some magazine.

I think it was like under the radar magazine or something like that. And because I saw it like on Facebook and like the editor is like, hey, we did this before, you know, MIA said a bunch of stuff about vaccines. And, you know, we just, we were trying to hear everyone out. But the fact that like MIA like put out a real album. and it's just not been, like, covered at all. Just, I mean, try to imagine what would have had to take place to get to this point. I mean, she played the Super Bowl.

That's true. Yeah, that's a great answer. And it's a great answer because I totally forgot that album came out. Did you even know it came out? I feel like I heard people talking about it in passing. but I in a way I think in my mind I was thinking that oh it got delayed same or didn't actually come out but it did come out you can confirm this yes that it's the thing it's like I'm like oh the reason it has been covered as much is because like you know they're delaying it or whatever but no no this

is like not even like a you know a Friday news dump for like you know like a certain album that came out last week. It came out in October. According to Wikipedia, it did not chart at all, even in the UK, where, you know, I figure maybe they'd have

a shorter memory. No, this album is very real. And it happened. It came out. And here we are. I mean... Wow. Yeah.

Well, I'm going to concede that that's the winner. That's the winner. That's the winner. winner overall. I think that's a great choice. I want to bring up some other picks here, the ones that I had in mind. I talked about this album in the last episode, and it's not my winner, because I feel like this album actually did do pretty well for the artist, but I just feel like for the stature of this artist and how they've done, like, in previous years, like, end of the

year list. I feel like the absence of this record on list that I'm seeing, or it's placement on list kind of like outside of like the top 10 or even top 20. To me it's very conspicuous. And that's Laurel Hell by Mitzki. I feel like that record, it came out early in the year. It had its moment. There's no song from that record that I feel like has really come about. But again, this might be me. I think if I was younger and I was on TikTok, maybe I'd feel differently. So I'm going to bring that up as a possibility, but I don't feel strongly about it. The other choices that I had, and I guess they're going to be tied, and I want to ask you if you can name the album title, right, both of these records. But Jack White and the Red Hot

Chili Peppers, they both put out two records this year. And the first records, I feel like were discussed. The second records, I feel like just fell off the map immediately. And this often happens when artists decide to put out two records. The second one just totally gets forgotten. Can you name for me the second Jack White record that came out this year? Is that the one with the word heaven in its name?

Very good, yes. Entering heaven alive. That's it. Entering heaven alive. Do you remember the first one that came out this year? Fuck no. Fear of the Dawn. was the first one.

I wrote about that record. I thought it was pretty good. Do you remember the name of the second Red Hot Chili Peppers record? The turn of the dream canteen. Wow. Okay, I'm impressed. So let me tell you why I know this. So I've switched gyms.

And the one I go to, they're both 24-hour fitness, but the one I go to now, every single morning, like almost without fail, I see the video for tip of my tongue. which is from the second Red Chilli Peppers

Return in the Dream Canteen but the days I don't see that I see the these are the ways video like wow without fail there's like a Red Hot Chili Peppers album playing on the 24 hour fitness video channel

see you live in Southern California so I was probably setting you up to know the latest Red Hat Chili Peppers record. You can not slip that one by me, man. Yeah, living in SoCal, you are going to know that. Yeah, I don't know. I have to go with the MIA.

I think you're right, but with the MIA record. I mean, that just seems like the most memory-hold record of the year. I mean, that's a great choice. So, yeah, again, I'll throw out return of the dream canteen. But again, you know, apparently in the gym community, especially in SoCal, that's a big hit. By the way, that song's called Tippa, my tongue. It's Tipa. Yes. Yeah, that, that tip of, tipper. Yeah. My tongue. I think with Mitzky, though, I would say that maybe that is a generational cap. Like, I've kind of described that record as,

you know, maybe Mitzky's version of, like, plans to bring death cap to the four again. You know, the record where it seems like a step down, but like it's still very popular. I don't think that this is taking it. Like, I think it's actually gotten some momentum going for year end lists. I've seen it pop up, which, you know, it kind of shows how strong the fan base is. Certainly not at the level of like her previous bunch, but it might just be, you know, how like the national after a certain point would pop up, you know, just like as a matter, or spoon as a matter of fact would come up at like 25 or 12 or something like that, but not be a contender for number one. Maybe that's the phase that am I, or why did I say, MIA? That's the face, that's the place where MISCII is right now.

Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, I mean, she's really big. I think I memory hold it personally, but in the larger world, definitely not memory hold with Mitzky. Let's get to our next category. Rookie of the year. Pretty self-explanatory. This is an artist or a band who put out their debut record this year, or maybe they came on the national scene for the first time this year. Some way they've been introduced to us this year in a big time way or a big time way for us personally. Who is your rookie of the year, Ian? I was considering going Grammy's Best New Artist style and saying, hey, have you ever

heard of this cool new band called Turnstile? You know, just do it. Because I can't think of too many bands who are actually new. coming out this year. But a lot of the candidates for this come in the realm of emo. Ben Quad, a band from Oklahoma City, another band from Oklahoma City, chat pile, certainly not Emo, but their debut came out. And they've been kind of kicking around since 2019. But the band that I want to commemorate as rookie of the year in 2022 is a band called Anxious. they've been around for a bit, like on the, you know, just kind of doing like the triple B,

hardcore title fight worship sort of thing. But they put out a record called Little Greenhouse earlier this year. It came out on Run for Cover and it had that real classic like Run for Cover, kind of Tumblr core sound. You know, there's some Jimmy World in there. There's some Get Up Kids, but also a little bit of title fight as well. but the reason that I have them winning this

is not just because they put out a great record but they've also put out a couple singles later in the year and both of those are like arguably fuck you see what I just did there like Ah see you dropped it arguably

You dropped it arguably man man Oh my God That's okay You know I disagree with that being a bad adjective I'll stand behind arguably Yeah I think it's a conversational thing. People say that when they're talking.

And all you're doing is conceding that there's not a definitive opinion or idea about the thing you're talking about. So I think it's okay. You can forgive yourself for drop it and arguably there. I am unapologetically and radically using arguably. But, yeah, there are two songs that came out suggest that probably even next year we'll have a record that, I mean, could be their version of like bleed American or something like that, you know, because Little Greenhouse is probably a record that they've had finished for like two years. Like so many of the other ones that, you know, bands of that I was thinking of nominating for this. It's like they've been

sitting on their records for a long time and now they're already back to work. I know chat piles already getting back to work on a new record. But anxious to me is a band that if things break right, I'm not saying they're going to be like turn style level, but they could have a kind of a breakthrough because they're super melodic. They're a very, you know, they're a very attractive band. They're all good looking guys who have like backgrounds.

Like one of the guys I think was in School of Rock when he was like 12 years old or something like that. So they can actually say. So yeah, I'm pretty stoked to see what the future holds for them. So I have two choices here. the first of which isn't he's not technically a rookie because he's been in he's put out previous records before the one he put out this year he's also in the band Wednesday so you might know him from that but I feel like m j lenderman really made an impression as a solo artist this year with his record boat songs which my year end list will have posted by the time this episode goes up so I can say that boat songs was tied for number one at the top of my list of the albums of the year.

It's probably my most listened to album of the year. He's just a really funny, wry, heartfelt singer-songwriter, and that record is so great. And I know that the contingent of people who are into that record, I think, are pretty passionate about it. And it just seems like, you know, Wednesday is ascendant. You know, I'm sure we're going to be talking about them a lot next year.

but he's got his own thing going on. So it's going to be curious how he balances that. Because he was like a late comer to Wednesday. I don't think he was like a founding member. He kind of came along later, I believe. But anyway, he's not technically a rookie, but if we're going with the Grammy best new artist thing, he falls under that.

As far as a band that actually put up their first album this year, I have to go with another band that made my year-end list, and this is a record that flew under the radar a little bit, but I really love it a lot. The record is called Bummer Year and the band is called Good Looks. It's a band from Texas, a self-described bar band, a band that has been described as Heartland Rock. I remember the publicist reached out to me like four or five months before this record dropped and was like, this seems like something that Steve Hayden would like.

He said that to me too. And I was resistant to it because I was like, I don't want to be this predictable, but I listened to the record in the first. song on the album is called Almost Automatic, and it's just like a perfect heartland rock song, and it's one of my favorite songs of the year. And the highest compliment I can pay that album is that it makes me want to listen to the rest of the record instead of just listening to that song over and over again. And while no other song quite tops, almost automatic, the other seven songs are really quite good. And I don't know, it's a really interesting record, because they write about mega America and living in mega America

and writing about it in like an empathetic way as outsiders there. You could tell that they're not part of that, but they know people who voted for Trump and they know that they're not terrible people. They're trying to understand them. You know, they write about this in the title track, and it's really interesting just getting that kind of perspective because I don't think there's any other indie rock record

that you could say that about this year but I think it speaks to the uniqueness of their perspective that that middle American perspective that you don't hear very often and it's a very working class type perspective as well

and just a beautiful record I liked it a lot so good looks they're a band that I want to see how they develop I think that they could be a really nice little rock and roll band and I can't wait to hear what they do next Yeah, it reminds me a bit of like drive-by truckers in that regard where it makes an attempt to kind of understand people on the aisle. You know, because like a band who exists in a place like Austin, you know, like Good Looks or Athens or what have you, like Drive-B truckers did.

It's very easy to kind of, you know, separate yourself and like kind of use that as a way to say, but like, okay, we live near them, but look how we're not like them. I really thought that was an interesting component of good looks. And, you know, just something that kind of helped elevate it from being a, you know, kind of a very likable Texas indie rock Rootsie record to something that, you know, had a bit more substance. So, yeah, I think it's a, I think that's a real good choice. I'm very interested to see where things go from here. So let's get to our final indie cast category.

You could say that this is maybe the biggest award of both episodes. It's the MVP. The Indycaste's MVP for 2022. Now, what does that mean? Well, it could mean any number of things. It could be this is the artist that we think made the best music this year. It could be the artist that gave us the most fodder this year. The one that was the most fun to talk about.

The most interesting person. Could mean any of those things. Could mean none of those things. I don't know who you picked, Ian. I'm curious to find out. Who do you think was the MVP? of the Indicasty world in 2022. So I'm not going to do something as dull and predictable

as saying, you know, what my favorite record of the year is because, I mean, like, that's just never what IndyCast has always been about. We are more than music. And a part of me wants to say, like, muse, because this, I mean, they actually put out a record, but they always, you know, it's always like lingering in the back. It's like, how can we fit Muse into this as well? there is a temptation to also say Kate Bush or Stranger Things because I remember there was like a time in the middle of the year where, you know, as things happened in the middle of the year, not a lot of records come out and like, fuck, we need something to talk about.

And so Kate Bush really carried this show or at least carried, you know, indie rock discourse for a few weeks, even a few months. but when it comes down to MVP, like the real stat sheet filler, the five tool player, the answer to that is got to be the 1975. Now, it's not because they put the best record out. As a matter of fact, I would have considered them maybe as like a, I don't know, biggest disappointment candidate maybe in the beginning. But so few bands, whether. whether they're on an album cycle or not, are more dedicated to providing us trends to hash out than the

1975. And especially with this tour, I'm sure you've seen some viral videos where during robbers, there's like two parts of the 1975s show where the first part is like they play mostly new shit and then they play the hits in the second part. There's a climactic part of robbers where Matt Healy brings a guy on stage or brings a woman on stage or, uh, where, uh, what have you, and he like makes out with them. He did that with his bassist. And so, you know, like he is out there. It's December.

We're at a dead time for content. But the 1975, they're the most tireless content creators. And they also put out good music too. So I think it's, yeah, it's, they put up like triple doubles as far as the Indycast requirement. They put out new music, they hash out trends, and even when they're not doing anything, they're just something fun to talk about. Yeah, they are, you know, like the Aaron Judge of our world. I mean, it just seemed like that's the obvious MVP to go with.

They also inspired the most letters from people, the most letters from people who are in the middle of jogging and want to email us just to tell us to stop talking about the 1975. I feel like that's happened on several occasions. So, yeah, you definitely got to give it up to the 1975. for creation of content for us. I'm going to go with an artist who's adjacent to the 1975. This is an artist I brought up last week in the most overrated category. But he's not overrated in terms of giving us something to talk about. And for me personally, I do like writing about this artist because his whole thing irritates me.

but it's fun to parse. And also just this year, he was involved in various news cycles, not just for his music, but also for the film that he starred in with Olivia Wild. Of course, his Olivia Wild romance was going on. Of course, I'm talking about Harry Styles. Harry Styles is my MVP of 2022. Again, not for reasons musical.

Not because I thought he made a great record. In fact, I think his record was, was quite mediocre, but his content was excellent. He was very fun to talk about. There's so many layers with him, similar to the 1975, where you can use Harry Styles

to talk about a lot of different things in culture. He is an avatar for how we talk about pop stars. He's an avatar for sort of the idealization of what people want a young male superstar, musician to be and the limitations of that. He's a great way to talk about the media. He's a great way to talk about spitting on Chris Pine. Of course.

That was an amazing story. So yeah, Harry Styles, I've had my issues with him, but I have to give it up for him as a content creator for us. So he is my MVP. I think Harry Styles in 1975, those are two strong co-MvPs. I don't know if there's anyone really close to them. Not at all. I mean, we, we just need to, like, rename this, like, the Darren Rovel Award.

It's, like, you know, I feel bad for our country, but this is tremendous content. Yes, exactly. I'm just, like, fuck, man, like, because I think about, like, you know, the extent to which these artists really put themselves on the line and sacrificed for Indycasts in 2022. And, you know, what, what will 2020 bring? You know, like, who, who's left? I mean, I think it just goes to show that it's fun to have artists that you can dislike. Yes. You know, like, it's a little too friendly.

Maybe in the music critic salt minds, which is a weird thing to say. I mean, because in many respects, it's not friendly at all. But there's too many artists now that you feel like, they're like sort of insulated from, you know, hostility. But these two artists, you know, whatever you think about them, They are fun to argue about. So hats off to both of them. Thank you for everything you've done for us in 2022.

I hear the playoff music right now. I think they're playing us off the stage, Ian. So it's time to bid a do to another year of Indycasties, but thank you all for listening. We appreciate it. And 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 Mix tape newsletter.

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