Indiecast - The Dog Days Of Summer-cast Feat. Vampire Weekend, American Football + Father John Misty

Episode Date: August 2, 2024

Today's episode begins with Steven and Ian dipping into Sportscast discourse about the Olympics and Jordan Love's recent historic NFL contract (2:20). After that, they delve into the week's new releases, which include a Smashing Pumpkins album not even Steven and Ian care about (11:25) and an Ian fantasy draft pick that might have been a reach. They also talk about the recently announced American Football tribute album (17:42), and Steven's experience seeing Vampire Weekend live this week (21:23).In the mailbag, the guys answer questions about the validity of predetermined "farewell" albums (33:40) and their feelings about Father John Misty's Pure Comedy in light of a new greatest hits album for FJM (40:30).In Recommendation Corner, Ian goes the Swedish emo band I Love Your Style while Steven talks about retro country singer Charley Crockett (52:04).New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 200 here 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 X (formerly 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, review albums, and we hash out trends. In this episode, we talk about, well, lots of things. It's the dog days of summer. What else are we going to do? We've got sports and also American football, the band, and also the sport, as well as a yay or nay on farewell albums and Father John Misty's Pure Comedy.

Oh my God, this is what I love to do. My name is Stephen Hayden, and I'm joined by my friend and co-host. He's calling this the second white dudes for Kamala Harris Zoom call. Ian Cohen, Ian, how are you? I realize that if I'm going to survive these next three months, I just have to accept that we are rerunning the 2016 election playbook. But if we're going to do that, can I at least get like a hotel year album or a Frank Ocean album them or, you know, pity sex to get back together.

I mean, 2016 gave us a lot to endure that whole bullshit. And I don't think we're, as you can tell by the intro, these are lean times in new indie rock. Well, you know what it means, too. This is 2016. Chance the rapper come back. Hell yeah. He's back, baby. Coloring book.

2.0 coming here in the next three months. Yeah, I don't know. Again, I don't want to turn this into politics. politics cast. I think it gets a little too fraught. But when you have the white dudes for Kamala Zoom call and who's on this thing, you got Sean Aston from Lord of the Rings, you got Josh Gadd. You got Mayor Pete, of course. You had the dude. You had, I believe you had Jeff Bridges there. Bridges showed up? Yeah, it was funny. Like, I'm pretty sure that happened where it was like, hey, like, this is like literally the white dude. You know what I mean? Like, that was a

actually pretty cool. Yeah, I mean, I'm a, I kind of feel like that's beneath him, but it's a righteous cause, I guess. Yeah, democracy's at stake and so forth, so. So, pivoting away from politics cast, I just want to do a quick sports cast here. I'm curious, are you following the Olympics at all? Because the Olympics are going on. Apparently there was like a crazy opening ceremony last, I guess, Friday. I did not watch it. The French metal band Gojira played, which is crazy. And there was like some sort of like Last Supper sacrilegious presentation. Again, none of my business wasn't paying attention. I'm really just following the Olympics via social media and podcasts. And from what I've

ascertained from those avenues, one we found a way to extend is Jason Tatum elite discourse? Beyond the NBA finals. We have that going on. Two, and this is going into your backyard of sports, apparently Joel and Bede is like posting literally zero minutes in some of these games. So now we kind of have like a, is Joel and Bede elite? That discourse happening again. Katie Ledecki, she's dominating and swimming.

I found that out. Other than that, I've not really been following. Are you in the Olympics? Do you have Olympics fever? Yeah, like, I am totally okay with Joel Embed load management in the Olympics. You know, we need them to get to June in 2025. I could give a shit about, like, if it's not the second round, second round of the NBA playoffs and then you guys can bow out again. Exactly.

That's your NBA finals, the second round of the Eastern Conference finals. Yeah, I've also been following the Olympics through Twitter and associated memes. And I'm thinking it's kind of like, you know, Formula One, how they're just like guys on my timeline who really, really, really are into the Olympics in the same way that they're into like Premier League or things like that. And although I haven't really actively watched it, but due to my wife and I's schedules, we'll catch together 10 minutes of like whatever's airing at 8.30 p.m. Last night, that was synchronized diving. Ooh. Yeah, which is, it's insane because, you. I have no idea how they judge because it's very clear that like the Chinese and the North Korean

teams are like way better than the Americans. But when I watch them side by side, I can't tell the difference. It's sort of like how people who review remastered albums like are seriously telling you like yeah, man, they really boosted the mids by two decibels on this one. It's it's very distinct. I can't tell. But yeah, I mean, I'm just happy Go Giro was in the news again. I saw him play at Dio Daler's Death Tones in 2019. Just the music, whatever, but like they were shooting off dry ice cannons every five seconds,

and the drummer throws his sticks into the audience every five seconds. And, you know, they're also French and kind of look like Phoenix if they grew their hair out. So, yeah, Goji are like the most French metal band. I do love the guy in your social media feed that just obsessively will tweet about the Olympics,

like everyone is watching. it so there's like tweet things out of context like oh this is incredible or oh my god did you see that it's like what are you talking about like no it's like when Donald Trump got shot it's like the same sort of thing where it's like everyone's just like saying like one word sentence is expecting you to be following along with them okay so I haven't been watching the Olympics but one thing I have been watching and I have been watching this fairly often I have to say is going on YouTube and watching highlights of the Packers versus Cowboys playoff game from last season.

If you will recall, Packers went into this game as seven-point underdogs, going into Dallas there, and they just absolutely demolished the Cowboys. Really the closest thing I have to football porn in the last several years, just like one of the most purely enjoyable sports experiences that I've had really in my life. but certainly of the 2020s, probably like the purest, most fun I've had. And I've been watching this because my boy, Jordan Love, just signed a contract, new contract, four years, $220 million, $75 million guaranteed. I guess he's technically now the highest paid player in NFL history,

or he's tied as the highest paid. I think it's with Trevor Lawrence and Joe Burrow. Trevor Lawrence just signed a huge contract. And, you know, I see people talking about this because, you know, Jordan Love has really only played, like, half of a great season. But, like, that half was, I think, freaking incredible, like, unbelievable, really came on in a big way. I'm loving it. I'm loving this contract extension. I'm going all in.

I'm not, I'm going to withhold any skepticism I have and just be happy. So I don't know. I don't know if I'm delusional to feel this way. I guess I'm curious for your perspective as an outsider here. Do you think it's insane that the Packers did this? No, not at all because A, it's not your money and it's not my money. What do I give a shit? Like what Jordan Love's getting paid.

But you mentioned Jason Tatum. And I think right now Jordan Love and Jason Tatum are now the highest paid players in the history. of their respective sports, which would feel more wrong if it wasn't going to be irrelevant in like two months. I think like it wasn't that long ago or Jared Goff signed like the biggest contract in NFL history. And these things move so quickly that, you know, whenever you read an offseason preview in football, you'll see things like, you know, Kyler Murray is on a really team friendly $45 million contract in 2024. Look, given the money, people are excited. it's certainly better than the icy white Packers uniforms,

which I just saw, which I'm not a fan of. But I'm just kind of a strict abolitionist for the salary cap, though, because I want to see if there were, you have to understand like Econ 301 level concepts in order to understand like what NBA teams or NFL teams are able to do in the offseason. But I'm a strict abolitionist when it comes to the salary cap

or even the draft because, I mean, yeah, it's like a lot of money to give to a guy who was the quarterback of a three and six team not that long ago. But I just want to see what like LeBron will get on the open market. You can make the argument of LeBron and like Pat Mahomes are some of the most underpaid people in the world based on what they could conceivably get paid. Well, let's set those two people aside because they're acknowledged as great players. I'm looking forward to next offseason when your boy, Purdy is going to be making like $65, $70 million a year. Just assuming that the Niners are good this year, which they probably will be.

And I'm sure Purdy is going to be good again. I think he's a good player. He's going to make bank if they make it into the playoffs and make it to another Super Bowl. That's going to be just sports talk radio, podcast, ESPN, first take. It's not going to get any better than that. Talking about Brock Purdy, making that much money. It's going to be amazing. I can't wait for it.

Yeah, I mean, it's monopoly money in the NFL, though, right now. There's going to be new record set with every new quarterback contract. And, like, it's crazy, too. Like, in the NFL, like, left tackles now are making, like, $20 million, $25 million. That job is hard, man. Absolutely, absolutely. You know, but... Yeah, it's like quarterback, receiver, edge rusher, and then like left tackle, like somewhere in that mix.

Like are the people who are making the serious money right now in the NFL. And running backs get paid like music critics. You know, you get like 50 cents per yard or something like that. But, I mean, I'm okay with like Brock Purdy getting paid $65 million because like, you know, they call them like a game manager. But you see like all like these CEOs of entertainment companies or banks or whatever making like. like 10 million bucks like what the fuck does this person do so if you're going to be like a manager of a football team you know I think it's fair to give that guy 65 mil and you know what he can live in the middle class part of Santa Clara with that kind of money so you know I'm

I'm happy for Brock Purdy on that regard and you just know like in 20 years we're going to have the biopic mr. Irrelevant for Brock Purdy's story it's going to be amazing um all right let's finally talk about music here on indie cast transitioning out of sports cast this is like a weird time of the year because you know we're moving into august now everyone this is the time of year that people take their vacations uh not a lot of people are paying attention to what's going on and uh you know entertainment or whatever looking ahead like september october we've got like a lot of big albums coming out then but now you know it's a it's a little strange uh today one of the big records coming out is a new

smashing pumpkins record. It's called Agorei Mae. I think that's how it's pronounced. Yeah, you know better than me because you actually know the title of the album. Well, I'm literally reading it off the internet right now. This is the 13th Smashing Pumpkins record. You know, I feel like we are obligated to report that a new Smashing Pumpkins album exists

because where else are you going to get this news out in the world? it's really hard to figure that out. Do you, are you going to listen to this album at all? Do you have any interest in this record? I was actually going to ask you when the last, when was the last Smashing Pumpkins album you listened to like more than all the way, like more than once.

For me, that was Sear, I guess you want to call it like CYR in 2020. I reviewed that record. It was actually a fun album to review, even though it was about 85 minutes long. And I listened to it in chunks. But I'm absolutely not going to listen to this record. I like, but I am interested in just like conceptualizing like what in what reality does Billy Corgan make like I'm not talking about like how Weezer albums if they're not awful you'll see Weezer fans saying like yeah man like you know this is pretty good. It's like definitely their best since um fuck I'm just thinking of all the Weasor albums I reviewed and forgot immediately. Uh like is Billy Corgan capable of making a good album in 2024. capable or likely i think uh no i think i think capable i think that is he like one of those

dudes whose like brain is just so broken by wrestling and podcasting and info wars that like whatever allowed him to have this the god speak through him to write like tonight tonight or you know cherebrock or even uh eva adore or like some of the good songs on machina like Like, does he have that in him still? He's capable. He's not likely. That would be my answer to it. Because he's a talented guy, obviously.

He has the means or the ability to do it, but I don't think he's likely to do it. We should mention that the previous Smashton Pumpkin's record, which I guess it was released over the course of, you know, about, I guess, six months or so. It was like Adam or Aitam, that rock opera in three acts. So that's like a 33-song album. that came out last year so now we already have another smash him. So he's I mean whatever you want to say about Billy Corrigan

he's energized man he's ready to go and I wonder if he's already working on a rock opera about Joe Biden dropping on the election against Donald Trump. I feel like there's something there that Billy Corrigan could write about will that be the great Smashy Pumpkin's comeback of course not it'll be terrible and no one will care about it

but he's definitely capable. I don't think he's likely. There's also another record out today, and this is pertinent for our fantasy draft. There is a record from Michel Endigicello. Did I pronounce that correctly? Yeah, Michelle Andegiochello. I think there were actually,

back when Plantation Lullivize, that first album of hers came out, like with, I think that's the one with if that's your boyfriend, her big MTV hit. They had like commercials telling you how to pronounce her name. Really? Okay, because whenever I did that with, they did that with Arrested Development's Zingalama Duni as well.

Okay. Because, I mean, I'm the person who pronounced Brat as Brat, which is the correct pronunciation, by the way, on this podcast. So that name always presents, like, it's a very dangerous proposition for me. But anyway, she has a new record out today. It's called the Gospel of James Baldwin. Actually, it's called No More Water, the Gospel of James Baldwin. And you drafted this for your fantasy albums quarter three team. And it was kind of a crazy pick, I have to say.

This is definitely not an album that I expected you to take. And I was looking at Metacritic, and I don't see it on Metacritic yet. So I don't know if it's actually been reviewed anywhere, or maybe it just doesn't have enough reviews yet to show up. Yeah, I feel like I might have gotten too cute with this one. But whatever, like you fuck it, dog. Yeah, right now, Claro's up at an 83. So that's looking good.

Cassandra Jenkins, holding steady at 88. Really, really screwed myself over with that Los Campesinos review, because that's a 90 at the moment. Ah. Yeah, they're crushing it. That is the textbook example of the only people who are going to write about this are people who like this band. Hell yeah.

Because everyone else doesn't really know them or maybe care about them at this point. so they're not going to review it. So it's really just the super fans left. I saw a lot of Los Campesinos writing, I feel like. Or maybe it's just people that I follow where things were showing up. And I was like, man, is this been bigger than I think they aren't? Or am I just following, like, devout Los Campesinos fans? I think it's probably the latter.

It's a little bit of both. I think it's a little bit of both. I mean, they're not huge, but, you know, they play pretty decent venues, like in the rare. amount of times. They just tore so infrequently because there's seven of them and they have families. So they can play like a good show wherever they go. They're, you know, I don't know how popular they are, but like they're popular enough. You know what I mean? Yeah. But yes, they're popular enough and also a lot of the people you follow are into them. There's also, this album's not coming out today, but it was announced this week. And this is definitely pertinent to

Ian as well as the the followers of Ian out in Indicastland. There is an American football covers album that was announced this week, I guess in conjunction with a reissue of the 1999 self-titled record. And it looks like these artists are covering the album in its entirety. Am I correct on that? Yeah. So the one that's got the really cool cover with nine versions of the house. a different times of day. That's the covers one. The one that's wrapped in gold foil, like it's a,

like a 1999 bad boy record. That's the reissue. And yeah, I made fun of like remasters people earlier in the episode, but when I listened to the new version of Never Met, the remastered one,

I'm like, oh yeah, it's like, I can talk about a nuance. Basically the drums and the bass are louder. That's more or less it. But yeah, the covers, I mean, this brought to mind

whether there's ever been a good covers album. I mean, I think the one that's most, you know, fresh in our minds is the talking heads one from earlier this year where you had like Powermore and Kevin Abstract and it made absolutely no sense. To this one, I mean, I never really thought Iron and Wine was like a guy who ever listened to emo, let alone American football. But I like what he did with Never Met. It wasn't a straight up cover.

Like, this just had to clear. the bar of don't do to this what you did to such great heights um you know brad cook is on this one and it aligns with my uh kind of uh suspicion that there's more of a straight line from the first american football album to the self-titled bony bear album than people realize i think there's a lot of midwest emo style guitar on bony vare bony bear and so yeah i've heard this album some of these songs sound like Boney Bear. That's more or less it. On this record, we have Blond Shell is here.

We have Ethel Cain. That one's great. Ethel Cain doing for sure. And I would say they're on the sort of younger side of the cover artists here. You got like Manchester Orchestra showing up here, which you would expect I think in this context. They do the song

Stay Home. You have John McIntyre, Chicago indie rock legend, Midwestern. Kingpin. He's doing the one with the Whirlitzer. You have some other acts here that I'm not that familiar with. I don't know if you are. Yeah, Yvette Young is like an instrumental guitar player, so, you know, they're doing the instrumental song. Novo Amour is like kind of a, you know, we have Boni Bear at home type person. Like their music sounds like Boni Bear, so honestly sounds like that. And yeah, I mean, uh, some of the songs are straightforward. Others like

Ethel Cain, it's like nine minutes. It turns like a three and a half minute song. Like a nine minute post rock song. So I don't know. Like it's a fun project. Anything that gets these guys back out on the road and back in the news is great. I've heard they're probably working on another record. And I'll be up for it.

So yeah, I mean, look, new American football news. Who's not into it? They'll probably have a new merch drop. I'll probably buy that merch. This is just how it goes. for me. Well, speaking of covers, transitioning here to a new topic, I want to talk about a concert I saw this week. I went to go see Vampire Weekend. They played here in the Twin Cities, Minnesota. They played two shows here, actually. I went to the second show on Wednesday night. Great show.

You should really go see Vampire Weekend if you're a fan on this tour. I think that they're at a point in their career. They got five albums, a lot to draw from. They're playing, like pretty significantly different sets every night. Just a great mix. It's a very well-constructed set, as you would expect from this band. It has almost like a stop-making sense type vibe to it where like the three original members, they come out at the beginning of the show. There's like a banner behind them that says Vampire Weekend.

They play, you know, three songs or so. And then the banner drops and it's like the expanded line. of the band. So you kind of get in this like unfolding narrative arc. You see like the original lineup. Now you see like the current lineup on stage. There's a part of the show that has kind of like a jamier, headier feel to it. It's about two or three songs. Kind of like a second set type vibe even though it's all one set. And then they close out like with a bunch of hits at the end. Very satisfying. Main set's about two hours. And then they come out and this is where covers come in, they do this thing in the encore where they take requests from the audience,

but it's not Vampire Weekend requests. It's like basically any song that you can think of, you shout out at the band and then they try to play it. And this part of this show obviously is always different because people always requesting different songs. At the show I saw, they attempted to, and I'm saying attempted to cover because like a lot of these songs, they clearly have not rehearsed. Like really none of the songs have they rehearsed because it's just people shouting out songs. So like they play Don't Look Back in Anger by Oasis.

That actually came together decently well. They did hire by Creed, which sounded shockingly good. Hell yeah. Really good. What else did they do? They did sabotage, which I think they've done a few times.

They did Rambling Man by the Almond Brothers, which was kind of a train wreck, as you might expect. But I really, liked it personally. Because the thing with Vampire Weekend is that they're such a carefully considered band. Their records are, again, very well put together. They take a long time to

make. With Ezra, I think he's a very deliberative type artist. He's putting a lot of thought into his songs, a lot of thought to the production. And this encore is kind of out of character for them, because this is them really, again, letting it all hang out, being very loose.

Being, frankly, chaotic. It's a chaotic encore. I thought it was interesting because I was tweeting about this show a bit as I was watching it and there were some people in my mentions who were like, I don't really like the encore because they didn't appreciate how

again un-rehearsed these covers were because the band was literally just playing impromptu I really dug it. I like it when bands deviate from the script and do things that you wouldn't expect from them, things that are

unpredictable. Things like where you're just trying something and it might not work out, but it's still kind of cool to see someone make the attempt. I'm all for that. I really dug it. I thought it was like a great accompaniment to this, again, main set that I thought was very well performed. And again, kind of impeccable in like the manner that you would expect from Vampire Weekend. But then just to have this chaotic encore, I really liked it. I don't know.

I don't know if you have any take on. this you haven't seen the band on this tour yeah i think i miss their west coast swing what you're describing sounds awesome um i am like so up for that because right yeah i mean i i just like this is just a band that's like never really made a wrong step uh in terms of like how they've uh progressed whether sonically or just like their entire vibe um you know like they're like doing the jam band thing but it's also like kind of fun and uh look man i've i've I'm an old-ass dude who probably isn't going to stay for the encore anyway these days because, you know, I got a parking lot to beat.

But I just love the idea of like Vampire Weekend, like totally fucking up, rambling, man. And now I'm going to just like spend, you know, the next 20 minutes. Like I'm going to be here doing IndyCast, like locked in. But like my mind's going to wander to like, okay, what would I, what would I ask, like, a vampire weekend to cover if I had you know like a direct line to Ezra the mind the mind boggles

well and they also did this was like in the main set they did a cover and they've done this before they covered Joker Man by Bob Dylan they closed this and that was like not part of the encore it was like an eight or nine minute cover it wasn't because like a lot of these covers that they're doing

in the encore they're playing it for like a minute or two like they're just running through it. And it is funny because this being Minneapolis, of course people requested Purple Rain because that is the thing you do in Minneapolis to pander to the Minneapolis audience.

In this case, the audience, like, wanted to hear Purple Rain, but a lot of times artists will just play that song unprompted because they know Minneapolis audiences like love that sort of thing. Like, I remember I saw Paul McCartney, and Paul McCartney played Purple Rain. And you feel like,

what McCartney's doing? this too like but this was also like right after Prince died so I think it was in recognition of that as well but I think they had tried to play Purple Rain the night before and like Ezra didn't know like the first verse of the song so it was I think it went okay but it was a little bit difficult so like the night I saw they just did the chorus it's kind of hard to know like what Prince is singing at the beginning of that song it's like not super clear and I feel like that song is really about the chorus and the guitar solo.

What I know, I figured it out. Yeah, I mean, Proper Wayne's like, it's like, in some ways it's so long, it's like hard to, you can do it whatever way you want, but like also it's Prince, so you don't want to fuck it up. I've realized that they are about to play Philadelphia in the near future. So Ezra, if you're listening, Chris, if you're listening, I forgot some of the other members. C.T. Hooters. C. Yes.

Hooters and we danced. Play that in Philly. Oh, man. That would be a good one for sure. All right. So I want to get to the mailbag here in a minute because we have two really good emails this week. But before we get to that,

I want to bring up a very non-Indy rock topic. This is a very non-indy rock episode. We occasionally have like non you know, sort of indie centric episodes. I feel like this is one of I want to talk to you about ACDC here for a minute because I had a column that went up this week on uprocks.com

which you can go read online where I wrote about ACDC wrote about my favorite ACDC songs I wrote about 30 tracks and then the ostensible excuse for this is that the 45th anniversary of Highway to Hell was in July but that was just like a bullshit excuse.

I really just wanted to write it. I wanted a professional reason to listen to ACDC last month. And I was like, I'll just do a list. And then I can listen to ACDC in the summertime, which is something I like to do. And I had a very good time listening to ACBC for a few weeks and working on that. I thought it was interesting because I saw you commenting a little bit on the list.

And it sounded like you had like a little bit of a beef with me. Because I didn't include a song that you love by ACDC. And I'm surprised that you have an ACDC song that you would be upset enough about to complain about me, not including. I just wanted to give you the floor here. Do you want to air your grievance with me? Like, what did I leave off that you thought should have been on my list? Yeah, big gun number one. Look, I've never bought an ACDC album, not even in like my Columbia House days.

but I did own the last action hero soundtrack. So, yeah, so I just love how, like, ACDC did have, like, a phase in the 90s where they were still on MTV alongside, you know, you would, you would watch, like, MTV and see, like, a Bush video and, you know, perhaps, like, Dr. Dre or Snoop and then, like, ACDC. The big takeaway that I got from this list, like, the thing that really stunned me was that Thunderstruck is from. the 90s? Yes. Yes. The Razors Edge. 1990. The same album with Money Talks. That's the first ACDC song I remember hearing on MTV or whatever. Yeah, because that was the record that came out when I was like 12 or 13. That was my first ACDC exposure, really, was Thunderstruck, Money Talks. And then I did get the Razors Edge

from Columbia House back then. So I did have that album as a youngster. At which point I was exposed to classics like Mistress for Christmas. One of the great deep cuts

from the Razors Edge. But yeah, Thunderstruck's total 90s song. That record was produced by Bruce Fairburn who was the same guy that did like all the Aerosmith records from that time. So, you know, pump and get a grip. So he was bringing the 70s bands back in a big way in the 90s.

So yeah, no, totally. Thunderstruck 90s song. Sorry, I forgot Big Gun. I didn't have the last action hero soundtrack, although I'm familiar with parts of it. I think what the hell of I, Allison Chains is on that record. So yeah, good stuff. Big Gun.

Lots of songs in the ACDC catalog that have a title like Big Gun. gun. There's a lot of gun type songs and also a lot of songs that feel like they're talking about male genitalia. Like the double entendre of big gun. Definitely there.

Hard as a rock from the album Ballbreaker. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, I didn't write about I didn't have any songs from Ballbreaker on there. I did have one person complaining about a Ballbreaker song in particular not being on the list. I

I can't remember which one it was. But yeah, I don't know. ACDC, the least indie rock band maybe ever. Like, if you're looking for the antithesis of indie rock, probably it's ACDC. They have no sort of indie rock tendencies to them. Unless I get, you know, I guess drive-by truckers would be maybe the closest. Yeah. They have some ACDC in their DNA.

But anyway. No open tunings. Like, yeah. No drum fills. It's such a fascinating institution. Yeah. Shout to ACDC. I'm very yay on ACDC.

Yeah, it's such a fun band to listen to in the summertime, too. It's the perfect summertime band. Love it. All right. Well, let's get to our mailbag segment. It's always great to hear from our listeners. You can hit us up at Indycast Mailbag at gmail.com. we have two really good emails this week so let's get into it you want to read the first one

Ian yeah and I'm thinking you're letting me read this one because this guy Zach he's from Bellingham Washington as he mentions it is Death Cap for Cudy's hometown home of western Washington University so Zach says so this is the announcement of Japan droids final album fate and alcohol has got him thinking about band's final album In your opinion, what are some notable examples of final albums in indie? I am specifically talking about examples of bands who go into the studio with the explicit goal of an album they are making being their last, rather than an album being the final album doing into an timely breakup or someone passing away.

How do those albums hold up in relation to the rest of the band's catalogs, and are there any examples where a band's farewell album wound up being their best? Feel free to broaden the perimeters of final album if you need to. Thanks for the great news reviews and regular hashing out of trends. you to a provider over the years. The best part of my Friday morning routine, Zach and Bellingham. Oh, Zach, that's very sweet.

Well, thank you for writing in. By the way, the ballbreaker song that someone complained to me about not including in my ACDC column is Love Bomb. Did not include Love Bomb on my list. Looking at some of these other ballbreaker song titles, you have Cover You in Oil.

The Honey Roll. Yes. I love that title, the honey roll. So good. Caught with your pants down. Hail Caesar. Is there some sort of sexual condition? Yeah, maybe.

I don't know. Burning alive, that's probably like a venereal disease song, I'm sure. Hard as a rock, of course, as the first song. Anyway, enough ACDC cast. Yeah, this is an interesting thing. You know, we've got the Japan droids record as a farewell record. There's like another farewell record, too, that was just announced. Wasn't there?

Am I blanking on this? I mean, if you're talking about the zenith of the art form, childish Gambino's, Bandos, Don, and the New World, yes. That's it. That's the one I was trying to think of. I think it's kind of weird when this happens, quite frankly, like when someone says we're making our final record because just a sense of finality to it,

it seems unnecessary and also like, how do you really know this is going to be your last record? Like you don't know or you're confident, you're not going to change your mind in 10 years that you're going to want to do this again. I mean, Sturgle Simpson kind of did this recently when he said that I'm only going to do five records as Sturgle Simpson and then he puts out a record as Johnny Blue Skies.

Like I don't know if there's going to be. to be like Johnny Blue Skies droids album maybe coming out, Japan droids if they change their mind. I think the only time it really makes sense to me is if there's some sort of like health issue going on, some tragic circumstance that requires that it be a last record. The most famous example of that being the last Warren Zevon record, the wind, like where he publicly announced that he has cancer and, you know, it's a terminal illness, and then he makes one last record where all the songs are about this. He's bringing in all these guest stars. I think in that sense it makes sense as a farewell record. But otherwise, I don't know.

I mean, in a way, the most famous farewell record ever, although I don't know if it was announced ahead of time as such, but I think the band themselves felt like it was going to be their last record is Abbey Road, the Beatles. Like, you read about that record and they went into the studio with the idea of, let's make one last great record because they had just worked on what it would later become let it be. It was originally known as Get Back. You know, they're working on that record and they didn't really feel like it was

very good. And it didn't come out right away. And they're like, well, let's do one last record that's actually good because they do Abby road, but then let it be, comes out after that. So that's technically the last record. But anyway, I don't know. There's also David Bowie's Black Star, I guess, would maybe fall under the Warren Zivon camp, but like, it's a little bit different because he didn't announce ahead of time that he was sick. Like, people didn't know that he was about to die until the record, you know, the record comes out, then he died, I think, two or three days later. So, like,

so, so the Zvon record to me is maybe the best example and most appropriate example. of it. Otherwise, I don't know. It's like, why put that restriction on yourself that you're never going to feel like doing this again? I don't know. It just feels weird to me. Yeah, and there's also that Leonard Cohen album. You wanted it darker that came out in 2016

where he passed away not too long thereafter. But again, he didn't say that this is my last record. He didn't say it. But like, yeah, it just, you know, by the time your endless come along, it like has this extra air of gravity to it. So, yeah, I mean, I think

It was really hard for me to come up with examples of albums where a band goes in with the express intent that it was their last record. Because, you know, like, you listen to a moon-shaped pool. That seems pretty obvious that it's going to be their last album. It ends with true love weights. But, you know, as far as like a explicit, similar to Japan droids, where the band goes in, it's like, this is the last one. I'm thinking about a album where this is the last one is an album. actual chorus and big sigh brand new science fiction um you know that was going to be their last album and of course uh their demise was expedited by um many of jesse lacey's uh wrong doings but um you know i don't

think that that was the best brand new album but i think that was a example of a band sticking the landing it all so much of it was just about their legacy and uh looking back on a career in music and it wrapped things up quite nicely. And of course, like, it also got a lot of critical acclaim because that just like kind of make up call for the previous 10 years and they became super influential. I mean, I thought of like the new Lewis Campesinos one as potentially like a last album, but they're like, no, we're not done. We just might take seven years between albums going forward. All right. So again, you got, again, we've got brand new and Warren Zvon, Two problematic people putting up farewell records.

I guess they are the legends of the form. Let's get to our next letter here. This comes from Nick in Boston. Nick and Boston, just a classic sports talk radio. You know, moniker right there. Hi, Stephen Ian. With Father John Misty announcing a greatest hits album this week. And yes, that is true.

there was a greatest hit's album announced from Father John Misty. It's called Greatish Hits. I followed my dreams and my dream said to crawl. And that's coming out pretty soon here on August 16th. And there's one new song on the record. It's called I guess Time Makes Fools of Us All. It's the last song on the record. It sounds like Father John Misty doing gaucho by Steely Dan.

It has the vibe of that album. So, of course, I love it. I think that's a fantastic song. Anyway, back to Nick's letter. I think it's time for a reappraisal of the 2017 Pure Comedy album cycle. Oh, Nick. You're a preacher of fire on this one.

I first started listening to Father John Misty with I Love You Honey Bear, and shortly after the release and promotion of the first singles off pure comedy, it became clear to me that Josh Tillman was turning the proverbial knob up to 11 on the Father John Misty persona. I recall a series of think pieces and conversations with friends and family. And family. He's talking to his family about this. Talking to his parents.

That's amazing. To the effect of what is this guy's deal, especially after his performance of Total Entertainment Forever on Saturday Night Live. Looking back on pure comedy, which almost certainly marked the peak of Father John Misty's mainstream and popularity, has your perspective on this album cycle changed in the last seven years, especially considering how Tillman handled ensuing album cycles. And how do you view Father John Misty's place in the Indy Rock zeitgeist in 2024 and beyond?

That's from Nick in Boston. I'll let you go first on this, Ian. I have a feeling people know what I'm going to say, but I want to hear what you have to say about this. All right. So I want to just like parse the question. question here from Nick because he's asking what our thoughts are on the album cycle. And if we're talking about the album cycle of pure comedy, this is like when you look at baseball stats from the 1920s and you see a guy like Nap, Blashaway bat like 450 while also going off to fight in like

World War I. Like you're just seeing stats that are just so impossible to wrap your head around. They wouldn't be topped until like Barry Bond's Royd era. One of the greatest album cycles of all time. That is a first ballot 99% Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter style Hall of Famer.

They don't make them like that anymore. And specifically, Father John Misty doesn't make them like that anymore. I just don't think that anyone really has the swag to pull it off. But as far as the album itself,

It wasn't an album I listened to a ton in 2017. Like, I listened to it a couple times. You know, it came out during a weird transitional phase in my life where I was like moving across the country. And I hadn't really listened to it much since. For whatever reason, I listened to it earlier this year. Just like something inspired me to do so. And, you know, I find that some of the things that bothered me about it back then, like,

I don't think it's quite as clever or insightful as it thinks it is. That being said, if I had heard this album at 20 or 22 when like, you know, it was like a little more cynical and like just getting a, you know, a sense of like how fucked up things are, would have changed my life. I would have been a full on FJM tankie. The music is incredible, though. There's some incredible songs. I'm growing old on Magic Mountains. Awesome. And it's funny because when I reviewed Fleet Foxes to crack up another album I listened to recently because of 100.

or Biden. And I, like, in 2017, I'm like, yeah, this is actually the better album of the two. Fleet Foxes got their comeuppance after everyone was saying, you know, that Father John Misty was like the better of the two. But I think Pure Comedy is held up a lot better. I still like Crack Up, but it is a very impenetrable album. Whereas, you know, pure comedy lays out of its cards. Even if I'm not like a super fan, I'm so happy that album exists, though, Pure Comedy.

I can't think of anyone who could pull that off in 2024. So if we're talking about the album, Pure Comedy, my mind hasn't changed at all because I loved it in 2017 and I love it now. As far as the album cycle, I love that too in 2017. And I love it even more now. I love it because Father John Misty, Josh Tillman,

is so much more fun to interview than practically any musicians that you're going to talk to in 2024. And, you know, he doesn't give interviews anymore. I mean, he'll talk occasionally to people that he's friendly with, but, like, he's not really doing the press tour. He has not done it since pure comedy, which is like Michael Jordan retiring in 1993, as far as I'm concerned.

If you're talking about, like, just goat interview subjects, especially, like, in indie rock world, he's Michael Jordan of the 2010s. Like there's no doubt about it. There was something about that interview cycle. I was thinking about this this morning that I think made it especially appealing to me and also I think particularly destructive for him in terms of his public relations, which is that a lot of what he was doing, I think, at that time, was this sort of like meta

commentary on music journalism where whether he was talking to journalism, or he was, you know, on social media, he was making fun of music critics and music journalists a lot. And doing it in a hyper-focused, specific way that made it clear that he knew what he was talking about. He wasn't doing like the standard musician, like, oh, you're writing your reviews in a basement somewhere, you know, that kind of just generalize stuff that doesn't have any impact. I remember him once doing a bit about male music critics in their mid-30s who post, photos of themselves, like with their cats, and use it as the avatar for their social media accounts, which was such a specific comment, extremely accurate for a certain kind of guy in the mid-2010s, that it was devastating.

In a way, it's kind of like the JD-Vance thing, except with the cat ladies, except this target was way more deserving. You know, the people that JD-Vance was targeting don't deserve that type of scorn. these people probably deserved to be poked fun of a little bit. And again, these are our people, so I feel fine making this comment. I didn't post a cat pick, but I could fall under that umbrella in many other ways. But he would do things like that, and I think it just alienated to him with the exact wrong people, people that were inclined to interpret everything he did through, like, a negative lens.

And to me, like the sister record to peer comedy is Norman fucking Rockwell, which came out two years later, very similar musically, very similar thematically. But the reception of the Lana Del Rey record was much different because people, it was almost like Father John Misty in reverse. Like the scorn that Lana Del Rey got at the beginning of her career set her up, I think, for a lot of people that felt like she was treated unfairly. to look at that record as like an ultimate sort of coming of age for her. Whereas pure comedy, it was a record that people could look at and say, well, maybe we overpraised Father John Misty early on, and now we can use this as an excuse to hit this guy over the head or lower him a peg a little bit.

I think both records are great, and they should be looked at, I think it's more similar than maybe that they are. because, and I think even the artist themselves would probably feel that way. And if you told Lionel Ray that peer comedy is a sister record, to her record, I think she would take that as a compliment and vice versa. So, I don't know. I still have hoped that Josh Tillman comes out of retirement, has his last dance, if you will, era with interviews.

Although, again, I totally get it if he doesn't want to do that. He doesn't need to do it. As far as the Zyte guy's question, you know, the thing with him, too, as far as doing interviews is that I think Tillman my impression of him is that he's actually like a pretty nice guy and I don't think he actually enjoyed

the provocateur role even though he was good at it and I think the last seven years shows that because he's not like a Maddie Healy who I think does enjoy playing the heel sometimes like Maddie Healy's never going to stay away

from doing interviews no matter how many times he gets cancelled he's not going to stop because I think he does enjoy that. To his credit, like, as much as I get annoyed by him sometimes, I'm glad he's around because he's another interesting person. Like, I want to read his interviews, even if they make me want to tear my hair out sometimes. But I don't think Tillman actually enjoyed that.

And I think he does have a place in the zeitgeist where he's not in the zeitgeist. He's, like, outside of it. And if you like his music, you can find it. But he's not really someone that feels like he's part of, whatever the dialogue is in music right now. It feels like he's very deliberately stepped back from that. And I would expect that when he puts out a record next,

that he'll probably still maintain his distance from that. Yeah, I'm like just surprised that he, I mean, he calls it great-ish hits. I would figure that if we were really dealing with 2017 era, Josh Tillman, he would have called this out like contractual obligation or just something that, you know, makes fun of the fact that like a great especially a greatest hits album in this era is only because like people are trying to just like wrap up their record deal but yeah i mean i do like the comparison to norton fucking rock well an album i listened to a few weeks ago and in the same way musically it's magical sometimes it lays on a bit thick in a way that like makes it seem a bit

dated but yeah i'm i'm so happy both those exist i'm really hoping those two like make a full-on album or a tour just so you can see because I mean like we're not the first ones to say like yeah Laude Del Rey like Josh Tillman's that for guys or vice versa very similar artists glad they exist we'll listen to anything they put out

All right we've now reached the part of our episode that we call Recommendation Corner where Ian and I talk about something that we're into this week Ian why don't you go first All right so one of the most underappreciated Swedish emo bands you know, like everyone's got their top 10. But a band called I Love Your Lifestyle.

They're putting out a, their first album since 2020. It's kind of funny how a lot of the emo bands I'm mentioning on Recommendation Corner lately are working on like a war on drugs-like timetable. But this album is called Summerland in parentheses, Torpa or Nothing. They've put out a couple of really good records in 2019, the movie, 2020 as well. it's kind of in that oh-so-oso-o-o-motion-city soundtrack it's not really emo

it's almost more like the new pornographers early albums kind of way but yeah I think that they get underappreciated because they're Swedish and this album is mostly in Swedish unlike their other ones but you know what sometimes it's better

for me to listen to an emo in a language I can't understand that is that helps it sometimes more than it hurts it so yeah if you want like kind of a teaser to the new oh-so-oso album that drops next week or you like the max seal one that i recommended a few weeks back uh this is right in the middle of that so i love your lifestyle summerland parenthetical torpa or nothing so this week i i set out a tweet saying that i've reached the point of the summer

where i only want to listen to music that appeared in an episode of eastbound and down or that could have conceivably appeared in an episode of eastbound and down so that means like a lot of of, you know, like classic rock, blues, funk, and in particular country music. I've been on a real country music kick lately. If you saw a column I put out this week, I wrote about my favorite albums of July 2024. And along with, you know, reliably indie rock records like the new WAND record, which I finally did get a copy of, and it's really good.

The Ben Saraden record that you wrote about, Alora, great record. pretty much the rest of my list is like all country records. I've been really into that. One artist in particular that I've been really enjoying in recent weeks is this guy Charlie Crockett. And if you are an Americana listener, you're definitely familiar with this guy. I've heard him described as country GBV

because this guy puts out a ton of music. I believe he's put out something like 13, 14 records like in the last nine years or so. he's actually put out two albums in 2024 the most recent came out like a week or so ago it's called Visions of Dallas and you know the thing with Charlie Crockett and this is true of like a lot of artists

who put out a lot of records is that the downside of putting on a lot of records is that the albums can kind of blur together a little bit and with Crockett he definitely has a style that he sticks to it's this very kind of classic 60s, 70s, country sounding type vibe.

And it's communicated by his album covers, which definitely have that feel of like old, you know, Whalen Jennings and Merrill Haggard type records. And that style, I think, there's a high risk of it becoming hokey in a little too sort of reverent of the past. With Crockett, though, I think his redeeming factors are, one, his voice.

He's a really good singer. and it's a voice perfectly suited for this kind of music. And two, I think he has really good taste in terms of production and just his band. His records always sound incredible, and this album is no exception. And I feel like it's as good of an entry point as any album in this catalog. If you're curious about this guy, if you've heard about him, Visions of Dallas, I think it's worth dipping into. I will say there's a song on this record called Killers of the Flower Moon, which is, yes, a song based on the story

that's in the book and as well as the movie. The thing with the song is that it's only about three minutes long. So if you're a little sort of put off by the length of the Scorsese movie, maybe you can listen to this song and it's almost like a trailer for the movie. It gives you everything you need in a much more succinct package. So again, love this record, having a really good time with it. It's called Visions of Dallas by Charlie Crockett. Good stuff.

Yeah, like ACDC, Eastbound and Down, guys named Charlie Crockett. Yeah. This is summertime in the Indicast. I love the fact that Charlie Crockett is a guy who exists in 2024 and not like 1970 Bakersfield. Yeah, exactly. And also, he's like a distant relative of Davey Crockett. You can't even make this stuff up. Really good stuff.

Thank you all for listening to this episode of Indicast. We'll be back with more news reviews and hashy out trends next week. And if you're looking for more music recommendations, sign up for the indie mixtape 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.