Indiecast - The Mid-Year Indiecasties

Episode Date: July 2, 2021

Late last year, Steve and Ian created the Indiecasties, a special, highly sought-after distinction honoring the best, worst, and downright strangest releases of the year. This week, they’re bringing back the segment for a mid-year review to award titles like Most Valuable Album Cycle (MVAC), Memory-Holed Album Of The Year So Far, and Most “Festival Band” Festival Band to the best and brightest of the first six months of 2021.In this week’s Recommendation Corner, Ian is plugging South Carolina outfit Adjy, whi released The Idyll Opus (I-IV) earlier this week. Steve, on the other hand, is shouting out Summer Of Soul, the new Questlove-directed documentary focused on the Harlem Cultural Festival during the summer of 1969.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Indycast is presented by Uprox's Indy Mix tape. Hello, everyone, and welcome to IndyCast. On this show, we talk about the biggest indie news of the week. We review albums and we hash out trends. In this episode, we're going to be giving away our mid-year award for indie rock semi-excellance, the Indycasties. My name is Stephen Hayden, and I'm joined by my friend and co-host, Ian Cohen. Ian, how are you?

So if you're anything like me, one of the first things you do in the morning is check Facebook memories. This is actually a very useful tool for me at work. It helps generate small talk, which I need to access throughout the day. And also, you know, how else am I supposed to remember what day I saw Soldier Boy at the American Apparel in L.A.? Turns out it was June 23rd. But for today, it's important because I look at like the past 10 years of July 1st. And what I see are Spotify screenshots of Japan droids. I see one of Pup, Constantine. and it just dawned on me how indie cast really blew an opportunity to celebrate Canada Day. I really can't believe.

What was that? It's July 1st, right? Oh, you're asking me like I know, I don't, but... You're further north than I am. I'd imagine this would hit closer to home. I'm practically an honorary Canadian. Well, so July 1st, we're missing it by a day. Okay.

But yeah, shout out to Canadian. out there. We have a lot of Canadians who listen to our show who write in all the time. There's something inherently Canadian about Indycast. I can't quite put my finger on it. Well, you know, I'm a lifelong resident of the Upper Midwest. I've lived in Wisconsin and Minnesota, so I'm practically Canadian. You, I mean, you're, you've lived in the East Coast, the South, and the West Coast, so you're not really Canadian, but you're musically

Canadian. Yeah, musically Canadian, you know, like I think for all of us there's something kind of modest when you talk about like indie cast semi-excellance i'm not saying you know canadian bands are semi-excellent but it's that modesty in there you know there's something about that um there's something kind of homespun about what indecast does and um yeah i i i think that's why we we tend to poll pretty well in the in the great white north you know we might have to do a tragically hip oh god yes shout out to the tragically hip um we are going to be doing our indi Casties today. This is our second indie casties. Yes. I guess it'd be like the second biannual because you do it twice a year.

I was thinking, you know, we're now. Hold on, hold on. Wait, is it, does biannual mean like every other year or? I always get that shit confused. That's a good question. I was saying it meaning twice a year. Okay. But you could be right. Yes, biannual is twice a year. There's some other thing where it's once every two years. Biannial. I think is. Biannial. Yes. Okay, so I was right. All right. It's our second, bi-annual indie cast. And Binaural is a mid-tier Pearl Jam album.

Let's just, you know, that part there as well. That's right. So, you know, we're now officially into the second half of 2021. And I was thinking how, I feel like the mid-year list is like a relatively recent phenomenon. Like, when I first got started in this business, I don't remember that being. that being a thing. But now I feel like most places will do some sort of mid-year

list. So you're actually, you're like double dipping into the list. You know, content mill. And it's funny because people complain about how the year-end list, they go up now like in late November when you still

have a month left over. And like the mid-year list and I'm guilty of this, the site I work for Uprox, we did this, it goes up in early June. So you're really talking about five months, not six months. And you're doing that for obvious reasons. You're trying to get ahead of the curb because once you don't want to be like the 10th list that goes up because people are less likely to read it. But yeah, I mean, am I wrong? I mean, I feel like this mid-year thing is relatively new, right? I think it's relatively new. And also, I do think the

drift is also relatively new where it gets like earlier and earlier in the year. But, you know, like we've talked about this at our year-end list. I love lists. I cannot get enough. I, enough of them. And especially like as, uh, you know, in 2021 and even 2020 as like more and more albums come out and you find yourself being more difficult to keep up. Like, this is a good time to catch out because I, I don't think there are many albums that come out on the 4th July weekend. Uh, maybe there's a lot of Del Rey album happening. I don't know. We'll get into that during our indie casties. But I just love when after a year where it seems like publication, just like kind of chasing after every trend and every little news story where we can break it down and say,

okay, here's the stuff that we really, really like. And, you know, the fact that it's happening earlier and earlier, well, I don't know. Like, maybe we're just going to be able to break, eventually we're going to, like, break the mold and, like, the year endless, it's going to be, like, the fiscal year going forward where, like, the number one album is, like, the one that gets, like, announced in June. Well, you know, I've seen this thing already where some places do a list three months into the year. So they're doing quarterly lists. I think I see, I feel like Vulture has done that.

Yes, they have. Yeah, they've done that. So that might be the next frontier. We're doing quarterly lists. It's like shareholders. You know, if we're going to get, if we're going to like integrate billions into this conversation and we must. Yes. You know, it's like we got to please the shareholders.

We got to show exponential growth over each quarter. You know, here's our Q3. Like, where are the blockbusters, man? Like, we... What if there was, like, an episode of billions, like, where Axelrod was, like, shorting certain albums? Like, if they were going to do, like, well, like, okay, I'm going to short the Lucy Dacus album. I'm going to short the Lucy Dacus album. I'm going to guess that that album is not going to get the best new music from Pitchfork,

which it didn't which it does which come on I think it deserved to get that but that's beside the point like maybe Axelrod has a has a hunch

that that album's not gonna get best to music he's got inside intel from people but actually well that reminds me that's that reminds me the succession episode where they actually

shorted a I guess it was like kind of a fake gawker or something like that like where they bought the I think it was I mean I think it was maybe like a fake vulture

and they bought it and then they eventually shut it down. Right. Oh, yeah, that was a big, that was huge on media Twitter. That was like hugely sucking up to media Twitter. But like in my billions episode about Axelrod shorting on, you know, speculative pitchfork scores, I think he dispatches Dower Bill to the pitchfork offices. And Dower Bill, he like corners, let's say Jeremy Larson, friend of the podcast. podcast, pitchfork reviews editor. He like does something to Jeremy Larson, like where he

forces him to lower the score. So there's like some like chicanery going on. That's why Jeremy's got a broken collarbone, you know. He'll up, Jeremy. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. I saw that on Instagram. Shout out to Jeremy Larson. Hope you're doing okay, pal. But, you know, that could have been like a good billions episode. Yeah, Brian Koppelman, if you're listening. And there is like a non-zero possibility that's happening right now, right, Steve? I hope so. I hope he's listening.

Brian, yeah, take notes on this. I don't think it's too inside baseball to have Bobby Axelrod shorting pitchfork scores. I think that would be a great episode. I think Jeremy would love to be a guest star. He could, like, play himself in the episode. It would be great cross-marketing for everybody. I think we're on to something. Yeah.

This could be a great idea. It's a pitting gold here. Yeah, absolutely. Maybe that will be in the end of the year indie cast. If this actually happens, that could be an amazing thing. But we have a lot to get into with the Indycasti, so unfortunately we're not going to be doing our mailbag segment today. We do have some great letters that we could have read. Probably most of them in Canada.

Exactly. And hopefully more. Because, again, we do observe Canada Day here on Indycast. Shout out to our Canadian listeners and all of our listeners. If you want to write us a letter, again, our... our email address is Indycastmailbag at gmail.com. So definitely hit us up. We're going to get back to the mailbag next week. I feel like we're probably due for an all mailbag episode pretty soon as we move into the lean months of summer for music news. July is still like, it's still like kind of

a delay where it's like festival season in most years. So the music industry is kind of centered around that. But yeah, July, we're definitely going to be hitting the mailbag hard. So, yeah, so please hit us up. Send us some. good letters, we'll get you in the episode. But for now, it's time for the second biannual indie casties. So if you're not familiar with the indie casties, we're not doing the conventional mid-year roundup where we're just talking about notable albums or songs.

We have specific categories of things that are going to be honoring the historic events that have happened already in 2021. The game behind the game, let's just say. The game behind the game. And I'm really excited to get into it. So why don't we start with our first category? First category of the night. And it's a big one.

These are all big ones. There's no boring categories at the Indycasties. Some are bigger than others, and this one's pretty big. This one's pretty big. It's most valuable album cycle, also known as the MVAC. Yeah. And should we talk for a minute about how we're defining value here? I would absolutely, yeah, let's talk about, let's talk about like what value actually means

because, I mean, I think most people would imagine that this is giving tribute to the album cycle, which did the most to elevate the album, or like the one that had like the best promo or the best, like, singles, but, like, what does it mean to us when an album is, an album cycle is valuable? Well, it's purely, um, we're talking in terms of self-interest. here because we are part of the content creation machine for the music industry and

yeah we're not looking for like you said the album cycle that you know garnered the best reviews or put the best focus on the record we're really talking about the album cycles that were the most fun to talk about for us that we could talk

about many times in our show even during like the lean months in the early part of the year when we were still on lockdown and there was not a lot going on, there were some album cycles that just were given us gifts.

Yeah, and not like, and not in the sense that, like, with that raw, I think it was the Roswell Kid album from 2017 where people got like a potato in the nail. Or like when young, or when young thugs sent, I think they sent a snake to certain publications to promote his new album.

Like, we're not talking about those kind of gifts. This is more like we wake up on Thursday and it's like, hold on, we got some new banter. Like the stuff that just arrives on your doorstep, like the Daily News, this is who we're talking about. Like the people who are really, like, who are really sowing the seeds in the content farm. Yes, absolutely. So let's get to our nominees. The nominees for most valuable album cycle are St. Vincent's Daddy's Home, Lana Del Rey's chem trails over the country club.

Already this is just like this is a clash of the Titans. Yeah, this is heavy hitters. This is like the best picture category like in the 70s. Every movie was a classic. Demi Levato, we didn't write down the album title for this one. What was this album called?

That is a sleeper. I believe it's called Dancing with the Devil. Dancing with the devil. Is it really? That's what it's called? I believe it. No, it's Dancing with the Devil, the Art of starting over. Dancing with the devil, I believe, was like the documentary. Okay. So, wait, so the whole, so is the album this called? Dancing with the devil,

ellipses, the art is starting over. Now, like, I know, that's the whole album title. Yes, it's very coheed in Cambria. Shout out to them. But like that is the, so this is exactly what we're talking about where we can't even remember the album, but we can remember the content. Exactly. You know, the album itself is this vestigial organ for banter. Exactly. Yeah. But man, I'm not going to forget that album title.

Again. If we don't have this, is that like the album title of 2021 so far? We don't have that as a category. No, that'll be up there. Also, well, I'm like, I'm hesitant to actually continue, like, making fun of this because, I mean,

if we're talking about the album cycle itself, we know that, you know, making, you know, even joking about this artist can present a massive backlash. But yeah, that's, that is the sleeper,

I believe in this. And the fourth, and I'm just going to like, this is predictive. This is strictly on speculation. I'm going to put Ed Sheeran in there because I don't think that there's going to be an album that's, I haven't seen the video,

but like just the sheer, like, did like the lack of quality control like it seems like a weekend rip off like ed shearin's always a guy you could dunk on but like i think this one could be like monumental and like it gives you everything it gives you like a pops that like it gives you the target of a pop star but like you could kind of take the gloves off because i can't imagine the ed sheer and stan army being anywhere near as vicious as those of some of the others so well yeah they're used to it i feel like they they're probably in a good headspace where they're like,

oh, we'll this tune out music critics who, you know, to be fair, they have not done anything to stop Ed Shearin. Ed Shearin, you know, who's dominating the world. Didn't he dress up as the Joker? Yeah, it's sort of like the weekend, but also the Joker.

Oh my God. Yeah, it's so, I mean, just based on that nugget alone, I'm extrapolating over what I assume is going to be an hour cycle. Like, we could be looking at like Man in the Woods times 10. Oh man. Man of the Woods. Yes.

That's one of the great album cycles of all time. Yeah, classic. You're really comparing it to the greats already. Yeah, busting out to find China for this one. So again, St. Vincent, Lana Del Rey, Demi Lovato, Ed Sheeran, those are the nominees. And the winner is, and I think we're unanimous on this, right? Absolutely. St. Vincent, Daddy's Home.

Yay. So, yeah, we're unanimous on this one. I think that Lana Del Rey was. a strong number two. Strong number two, but that's like, it's like in the NBA where, like, LeBron James is nominated. He'll, like, finish second or third for MVP voting each year. And that's because you kind of expect that sort of excellence, you know, but I think with St. Vincent, this is like, uh, Yokic, you know, coming, like someone who is, who, who has been like a real player for a while, but didn't it just takes things to the next level in an otherwise week year?

Because, I mean, a lot of the way album cycles, you know what you're. going to get, like, St. Vincent somehow leveled up to this new level of villainy and back, like, I don't think in 2017 when mass deduction came out, we would think, oh, yeah, oh, A, we're going to have a podcast, but B, like, St. Vincent will take up several episodes in terms of the content being generated. I think that they went full heel turn, not intentionally, but I think that the heel turn is at least somewhat complete, but actually, we're going to talk about her in a future category, which we can talk about, like, how maybe the heel turn isn't quite what we thought it was. But, yeah, the dad going to jail, I mean, it brought a little bit of everything. Yeah, I mean, I actually

feel to some degree that the heel turn is, is deliberate on her part. And I think maybe I've changed my mind on this a little bit. I like her. embracing this role because to be honest, St. Vincent to me, and we talked about this, when the album came out, I think she's very talented. She's got a lot of things going for her. She's great musician. But musically, I've always found her to be a little dull. Like, her records haven't really connected with me on an emotional level. And I have to say that Daddy's home, because of the narrative about her father and making the album about her dad going to white-collar prison and then coming home and and uh st vincent initially using that as an excuse to

talk about the you know the prison system and then backing away from that and other interviews um it just was way more interesting to me than like a lot of her other records because of all this other stuff going around it so uh i think at the time i was a little more annoyed about it but now i'm i'm embrace i think i'm into it a little bit and uh Yeah, this, again, that's a great analogy that you made, Lana Del Rey to LeBron, because, yeah, you expect Lana Del Rey to come with a strong album cycle. But yeah, St. Vincent, yeah, she really stepped up with Daddy's home. And, yeah, it made this record more interesting to me than I think it would have been purely as music.

Yeah, it's, it's, you got a little bit of everything because then you got some people like dunk, just like straight up dunking on some things. and then the backlash to that. And, you know, when the album finally came out and the cover, like evoking Harry Nilsson, there's just, it's a very rich tapestry to unravel. And so, you know, even if the record itself, like, didn't give me a heck of a lot of, you know, pleasure from a straight-up listening, it's like what Darren Rovell said. I feel bad for our country, but this is tremendous content.

And St. Vincent, multiple indie cast nominee. Yeah. Dominating the year. Dominating the year. Yes, she is, you know, what, she's like the Quincy Jones of the indie castes. She's Nicola Yochitch and Quincy Jones. That's like, that honestly sounds like the sort of thing usually here in like a St. Vincent review where it's like, it's like David Bowie, but also Prince.

Exactly. So congratulations to St. Vincent for winning the MVAC at the Indycassi's mid-year review in 2021. Let's get to our next category. It is the music writer Twitter story of the year, or I guess of the half year. Yeah. There's absolutely no way this one won't be the music writing Twitter story of the year, though. Well, yeah, I mean, we don't want to spoil anything just yet. Again, similar to the first category, these are the stories.

that gave us a lot of grist for the mill here, things that we could talk about and have fun with for Music Writer, Twitter, which Music Writer Twitter can be, shall we say, a rough place, maybe even a miserable place sometimes. But these stories helped, well, not all the stories, some of the stories made it miserable. But I think certainly the one that's going to win, and I think we all know probably what's going to win,

that brought a lot of pleasure. Oh, yeah. to this dark corner of the internet. Yeah, it's, it's, it's, these the stories which, you know, like Steve is saying, like, some of them, like, really just, you know, it just makes you, like, I got to quit Twitter because there's absolutely no way humans can sustain under these conditions. And then, then they're the stories where everyone just kind of binds together and you just realize that, oh, wait, these people, uh, I interact with all day on Twitter.

Like, we have like 99.999% things in common. and we're just fighting over like the 0.001. Exactly. So let's get to our nominees. First nominee, and I'm putting this in quote marks, is it okay for old people to like Olivia Rodriguez? And also let's just mention that old people in this context is like 30-year-olds.

30-year-olds living in Brooklyn. Is it okay for them to like Olivia Rodriguez? They're old souls. Yes, this was a topic that was discussed ad nauseum on music writer Twitter. in the early part of 2021. Again, maybe not bringing the sunlight that we were referring to earlier. I mean, this was an example of the sunlight, really. But it was a very notable story in this corner of the world.

The next nominee, the Eve Six Guys' Twitter account. I like the fact that, like, similar to Demi Lovato's album title, you just kind of know it, like, tangentially. Do you know the Eve's side, Eve Six Guy, Eve Six Guys' name? No idea. No idea. I think it's Max. Max? Okay. Sure. And I think his account started in 2020, but it really, I think, really started to blow up in 2021. Eric Alper. Yes. I love the fact that he has like a bill, like Eric Alper just in general, to those who like in it, who haven't been so online brain poisoned if you're listening right now. Eric Alper is, I, I, I, I, I, Like just the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, muddy waters combined when it comes to like the quote tweet prompt. Yes. Like calendar.

Like every July 22nd or whatever, it would be like, what was the song that made you feel like you're in high school again? I'm going to call him the Ramones of the tweet prompt because it's so simple and straightforward. And you think, well, how is this going to work? And yet people just respond to his tweet prompt. He just goes to the bank. He's got 750,000 followers. And all he does all day is ask people, like, name an album that you liked last year. And 20,000 replies.

And do you fit, is it pot? Like, this just came to me. And, like, I felt like my heart die a little inside, which I think is, like, you know, kind of the main point of having this category. Does he think he has, like, an assistant or an intern? Well, you know, there was a billboard. profile of him that ran this week. And it's, I didn't read the whole story because I was so irritated by the haircut. The haircut, I mean, he seems like a sweet guy. Yeah, happy Canada today. He's

Canadian. Nothing against them, but I don't know. Just, and just the idea that he was garnering a huge profile to me. I was like, why are we writing about this guy? Even though I understand it. When I think about like all of the, you know, the pitches I've made, not to Bill Ward specifically, but to like other publications that have been, you know, kind of rejected, I think, like, or just think if you're a musician, it's like, wait, I think we're making a dope album. And then all of a sudden, like, this guy, he gets a big billboard profile. I can only imagine what that must do to someone's self-esteem. Well, I think you say, I got to get retweeted by Eric Alper. I mean, that's the only shot that I have for anyone to hear my album. Anyway, enough about Eric Alper. The final nominee,

E. Fartlow. Oh, God. And we won't even be dramatic. Yeah, do away with the suspense. This is like, you know, this is like Daniel Day Lewis and there will be blood. I think in this category, you know, you don't have to worry about the other nominees,

I don't think. The winner of the music writer Twitter story of the half year. Yeah. E. Fartlow. Yeah. And I'm just going to assume that, like, that if you followed us along this journey this year, you know what we're talking about. Like, this is a former music writer. I think

still identifying somewhat as a music writer, or at least a culture writer, went like a real pivot into, you know, aggressive Zionism and then got called Eve Fartlow because her name's Eve Barlow. And then Seth Rogen made a, like, kind of a fart emoji. And then she compared it to pogroms and did on Fox News. I mean, like, I think in general, COVID times, you know, as terrible as they've been, are sort of like the steroid era for music writer, Twitter. Like, it's just, there's just so many heavy hitters, like, being artificially inflated by the fact that, you know, none of us can go outside.

And, like, this is like, this is like Barry Bonds, like straight steroid era. Like, you're, I mean, it's in and of itself, it's impressive. Like, you can't get this kind of action if you don't have some sort of. sort of like, uh, next level capacity, but also it's just amplified to a degree which we will never see again. Like, even if you think it's like illegitimate, you kind of have to sit back in awe of this particular story. Yeah, I mean, I feel like, uh, this is, it's hard for, it's hard for me to imagine anything in the second half of 2021 surpassing this. Or 2022. Well, yeah, I really, we're so early into the 2020s. I don't want to be presumptuous, but this feels like all-decade team music writer

Twitter stories. I mean, I feel like we're going to be here in 2029 in December, and we're going to be like, nope, it's still E. Fartlow. E. Fartlow was a moment in time that will not be repeated. It was historic. We all knew, we all remember where we were when we first saw Fartlo. It's been burned into our consciousness. It's just one of those. marks in time that we that we use to measure our lives. Yeah, Doc Al is throwing a no-hitter on LSD, that sort of thing. Exactly. I'm like really heavy on the sports metaphor.

Well, I mean, I'm going to go, this is like the Challenger explosion of a music writer Twitter. This is the 9-11 of music writer Twitter. This is, you know, it's like on this level of just history making music writer Twitter story. there's going to be like songs by like toby keith or whatever whatever the toby keith of the day is like making songs about this particular thing have you forgotten yeah I know

are they gonna about e-fartlow do you think like I really think that there's the possibility of like someone writing a song about this maybe not like directly referencing it but just maybe inspired

or like I feel like we're gonna maybe see this seems like the sort of thing that we're gonna see like referenced in some oblique way in a movie or a song where people say they were inspired by this I like that you're trying to actualize this we're really good at that

this into the world. Like, indie cast if nothing else, is really proven prophetic in terms of, you know, actualizing some of the, let's say, less serious jags that we go on here. I mean, I would not be shocked if, like, Rivers Cuomo writes a song called Fartlow. I mean, that just seems like something he would do. That would be the next Weezer single. I would not be shocked. All right, we got to, we have a lot of other categories.

We're like any award show. We go on for too long and then we're going to end up rushing at the end. So let's get to our next category. This is Memory Hold album of 2021. This says a lot because no, like any album that we talk about here has to be like by definition, less than six months old. Yep. Less than six months old. And what we mean by Memory Hold is these are albums that we are pretty sure existed at one point.

And yet, as soon as they came out, it seems like everyone instantly forgot that they were on the planet. And yeah, you can go to Spotify and look them up and they're technically there. But are they really there? You know, we can't confirm that, really. So let's get to our nominees. Kings of Leon. And I'm not even going to like say album titles because part of this category is that I don't remember the titles of a lot of these albums. Kings of Leon, I think, was basically just

people talked about that being released as an NFT. I forgot about that. That was the big thing. Of course you forgot about it. That's why it's nominated. NFT, by the way, that could have almost been in our previous category.

We can't talk about that because I still don't fucking understand what it is. Yeah, I don't either. Even the billions episodes that get into crypto, I'm like, oh God, I really could. use an explainer right now. Let's get to our next nominee, Nick Jonas and Zane. Yes, the male, the male, like, we're, we're pop-timism failed. Yeah, and I have to say, this is a strong nominee because I literally did not know this album existed until you put it in our

outline. So I don't, I don't think I remember. There are two separate albums, but both, I think, in a similar, both in a similar vein of like, this is the next big male pop star. And like, like Zane's a particular pet one of mine because like magazines have always tried to play and it's like this is the edgy guy from One Direction it's like this guy's edgy he's like dangerous and it's like effortless cool of Zane and it's like this is the most try hard cool imaginable. Is it fair to call him the

the J.C. Shazze of One Direction at this point? You'll have to I can't honestly remember whether that was the edgy one so he was like the second in command to Justin Timberlake and we all know what happened in Timberlake and then J.C. Shazze kind of faded away and obviously you have Harry Stiles. He's the big

he's the big gun. Although there's another guy too. Isn't it Liam somebody? Yeah, probably. The guy who did, Neal the guy who did slow hands which is not an Interpol cover. I heard that song and I heard that song the other day. I'm like, oh, this is slow hands.

Next nominee, Slater Kinney. And then we have, and I added this one at the last minute, the Black Keys. Although we talked about the Black Keys on this show, but I don't remember much about that, other than the album title, Delta Creme. But, you know, again, Black Keys, at one time, one of the biggest rock bands in the world.

They're not sure. They're probably popular. Yeah, they're still really popular. I mean, there was a Blues covers album. So, you know, it wasn't an album of originals. So maybe that's why it gets in here. So again, the nominees, Kings of Leon, Nick Jonas, and Zane, we're grouping them together, even though they didn't make an album together, Slater Kinney and the Black Keys.

And this isn't a unanimous choice. We did a split ballot on this one, right? So I'm going to announce them both for the audience here. My choice, Kings of Leon, Ian's choice, Slater Kinney. So why did you pick Slater Kinney for this? So, I mean, for Slater Kenny, it's like. Like there's just like kind of a general malaise around this band that feels pretty incredible given that I think for a lot of, you know, the past couple of decades, there's been a real kind of

shift into kind of seeing them. Maybe it's not just like one of the best bands in the 90s, maybe like the best band of the 90s as far as indie rock goes. And, you know, when they came back in 2015 with no cities to love, that was, you know, highly celebrated. I think it was their first album in 10 years. And then in the time since, there's been. this sort of slow drift to the point where like a newsleader kidney album like I think as far as like

it's about like new modest mouse album sort of quality which is just really hard it's really amazing to behold just how like there's this sense of like maybe it's not that great like you see people you see people struggling in real time with it and to the point where you kind of sort of just want to forget about it because I mean people could blame you know St. Vincent on the center won't hold, the one that came out and I believe 19. And this one, it's like, well, you know, they're back. But like Janet Weiss is gone. And I would say that there's the malaise around this band.

I keep coming back to the word malaise because they, Slater Kinney, have gone from this, I guess, like this legendary, unimpeachable sort of band to a band that like, it's just like, okay, like new Modest Mouse album, you know. So, the thing with them, though, is that I'm not convinced that Janet Weiss is out for good. I feel like at some point she could be brought back into the fold and then they're going to be right back. Yeah, that's a good point. And that'll be a record that people get really excited about. Yeah.

And they're also going on tour with Wilco. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I think they're going to have a profile. To me, I pick Kings of Leon because, you know, if anyone's going to care about this record, it would be me. because I've written about Kings of Leon. I own multiple Kings of Leon albums. I can defend their first, say, four records. I authentically enjoy those records.

This is an album, again, I cannot think of the album title. I have listened to it, but I don't remember any of the songs. No one really talked about this record other than in connection to the NFT. I went on Spotify I mean the the songs have been streamed some of them like a fair number of times you know a couple million times so it's like there's people listening to it

but again like this was similar to the Black Keys one of the biggest rock bands in the world at one point and I feel like they've totally fallen off the map in a lot of ways don't you feel like maybe they've fallen off our map well yeah again I feel like

if they go on tour and I believe they are going on tour, I'm sure they're playing amphitheaters and arenas. So I don't think they themselves, they still have a career, obviously, and they're always, I think, going to be able to tour on their back catalog. But this particular album, to me,

just seems like a total non-entity. Which is not to say that I won't be, you know, grilling out later this summer and drinking some beer, maybe a little too much beer, and then be like, I'm going to put on the Kings of Leon album, and I'll tweet something ridiculous,

like, oh, this is actually an underrated classic of 2021. We're already priming the pump for, like, the Indy Castes year end where we talk about, like, how the Kings of Leon, we just didn't understand their, like, multifaceted vision in March or whenever this album came out, which, by the way, the name of the album is when you see yourself. Oh, there you go. Yeah.

I don't know. Not a great title. I'm not... It's there. It's a very like... It's almost like you just pull off like the Banana Republic shirt. It's like, yeah, this is a blue shirt. It matches.

Yeah, this is a word for today. I think their previous record... Walls? The one where they're like in the... It looks like they're in milk. In their faces. I think that's walls. Yeah.

That is the one. Yeah. That's another questionable choice. But anyway, let's move on to our next category here. Fine. Most festival band festival band. Ah, yes. And, you know, this has been one of the joys, I think, of early 2021,

is that we are now back to having live music. We've been having all these festival announcements. And it's fun to look at festival posters again and parse who's on there and to make jokes about how the lineups are similar or how they're not. similar. There's some kind of bonkers lineups that have been announced. Who's leveling up? Who's like, who's in the tiny font? Like the Tree Fort

Festival in Boise, it's like like Navy SEAL eye chart. Right. So it's fun. It's fun to have this back. You know, we love having live music back and it's fun just to have something to talk about with all these festivals. And one of the things that you talk about these festivals

is you start noticing particular bands who see to be on every festival. You can't get away from them. So this is what this category is for. These are the bands who just seem to be on every festival so far this year. We have Japanese breakfast. Cassandra Jenkins.

Yeah, the triple crown, pitchforked London, Paris, and America. Yeah, she's like the, if we have like a subcategory just for pitchfork festivals, Cassandra Jenkins would be cleaning up in that category. glass animals Glass animals Who I think only exist on festival posters You see I thought so too That was the case prior to 2021

But they have this enormous song called Heatwave Which You know at work when people listen to like Spotify indie chill playlist Or like any related one That song is on there That song like probably has like in the billions Of Spotify streams

Wow I'm just I mean, they were always, like, a band that sort of just kind of existed on festivals. But nowadays, it's like they, Heat Wave has about 380 million plays. Dang. Yeah, I just wonder, it's like, how did that happen? Because usually it's like, oh, a song gets big on the radio or, um. That'd be playlist, right?

Like, yeah, the universe sort of just decided this glass animal song, which is like, noticeably better or worse than any. one that came before is now like an actual hit. Well, you got heat wave. I think people are excited to get outside. There's probably a theme. You know, like Lord seems to be honing in on that too. It's like we're getting out of the house.

You know, let's hit the beach type vibe. And then we have Lord Huron as our final nominee in this category. And similar to what you were saying about Glass Animals. This is a band that like doesn't get a whole lot of shine from the music press, but they do very well on streaming platforms. They do very well at festivals. You know, they have a great career and good for them.

Yeah, interesting band. Like in 2010, they were like the epitome of like Silver Lake Hipsterdom. Those EPs, those first couple of EPs, super good. And then they just kind of pivoted to, what if we did like a little, like flee foxes, but without like all the kind of wrangling about like what, you know, what artistic creation means for us as a millennial. the old generations. Like, let's just make like kind of a, like a chill Fleet Fox's album.

And you know what? They've rode that to the top. It works. It works. People want that. They want it. They've outlasted anyone who might make fun of them. Also, like I've interviewed Ben before.

Cool guy. Like, I just like respect the heck out of like how they've been able to navigate this industry. It's like, you know, we always think as music critics, oh, people want really talky post-punk bands. No, they want pleasant Fleet Fox's sounding music. Yeah. like never ever ever underestimate the power of like americana indie like maybe i'm just sort of biased because like i live in like southern californ

that's big everywhere yeah that's big in the midwest too people yeah that that that's that's money in the bank if you do that well i think you're always going to have an audience no matter what um the winner of the most festival band festival band is japanese breakfast this is probably more of a slam dunk than you would think because when it's a band like Japanese breakfast who comes kind of from the Indycast Firmament as opposed to like glass animals or Lord Huron like those bands that just kind of

seem designed to do festivals like Japanese breakfast is on I think like just everything except for like you know pretty much everything except like the strictly rap festivals or like the metal festivals. I don't think she's playing that like nine day festival in France, which is just all the metal bands. Get her on there. Get Michelle on there, man. She would kill. Come on. Yeah. She'll be on on the chill out tent or whatever that is. But yeah, it's like I have to respect to strike when the

iron's hot. Like, and the iron cannot be hotter for her right now between the book and the movie and video game. Like, I don't know what it's like. I don't know what the festival experience is like for a band to be on festivals, but like they are taking every single one, and I imagine that they could take like five to ten years to make their next album. So congratulations to Japanese breakfast and good luck. She's earned it.

Congratulations on that. And yeah, make the money. Get those festival dollars. Our next category, we're calling it the Them album of the Year. album of the year like the kind of arrested development her like that maybe that would be the better old

yeah so this is a category that we're spotlighting albums that have done very well critically this year that we personally are not that hot on and you know it's fine to have disagreements a lot of people really like these records but Ian and I maybe we're not totally feeling them we're not really sure why they're getting such critical acclaim.

So these are the nominees in this category. The Weather Station record? Yeah, that's like pretty much the, like, that seems to be the one that shows up the most on these mid-year lists in, like, the top five. Which is a good record. I enjoy that record. It's good. There's other records that I like more than that,

that are in the same lane, you could say. But that's a record that a lot of people have jumped on. I think people appreciate the climate change angle of that record. What's it called again? it's called... Ignorance. Man, I am like really carrying

the fucking weight on this album title thing. Yes, you are. Well, that's why I rely on you. You can just... The wags. You can spit them out. Very wags-esque.

St. Vincent, Daddy's home. She's back. That's super interesting because like as much as like people, you know, you and I talk about like whether or not people have like turned on her or whatever.

This album is like extremely well reviewed. Same with Lana Del R. Yeah, St. Vincent always does well with critics. I mean, they were not, they were gonna like, she's too big to fail, I think, in terms of that. She is like, you two, uh, how did this manel an atomic bomb era? Ice Age, uh, is next. Uh, yeah.

A perennial conversation topic on Indycast. You know, we ought to give them some credit. We could have almost put them in the album cycle category just for us because we like to talk about Ice Age and take shots at them. A lot of people love Ice Age. Yeah. But that's like kind of small potato. Like, you know, you get like the kind of...

That's like more like sub-tweeting rather than like super tweeting. Yeah, in our world, it's a big deal. Maybe not elsewhere. You put Wolf Alice in this category. I feel it... Yeah. If we were in England, that would be the case.

I don't know if they belong here. Oh, but I... Like, I would be... It's in there because I reviewed this album. And when I was reviewing it, it had like something... It's critical. claim right now is not anymore because it went down a little bit but this was like at the level of like stankonia or like a Fiona apple album or like to pimp a butterfly like the discrepancy but like this was like the British press is back in action and they are talking about like how Wolf Alice's third album is like their okay computer uh whatever third album because here in America there's still a band that I feel like it's I think they played on rock radio here but

Yeah, probably at this point. They're definitely not media darlings here in America. But yeah, in England, though. Yeah, it's just the discrepancy between the British press and like what I was actually hearing. To me, it's like, go ahead and read the reviews, Steve. Like, you got it. And then we have, this is maybe an honorary nominee. We have Bo Burnham's inside.

Yeah, we're going to poke that there again. Yeah, I'm not going to delve into that too much. The Bo Burnham heads out there, very passionate. it. And God love them. I'm glad they like that special. And we'll leave it at that. So the winner in the Them album of the year category, and really is this a big surprise. And I think this is unanimous. I think I could say this is probably unanimous. The winner is Ice Age. The perennial winner, you know. I think this one was more fun for me because like every

every, it's very rare to see this level of wishful thinking to say that like, oh, this is going to be the song, this is going to be the album that like people kind of like they learn to love festivals again and go outside. And it's, it's, I mean, got like this, I almost have to respect it because like in a way they are a very indie cast sort of band in that like we kind of have to just sort of theoretically imagine its effect. a festival crowd. In reality, they're probably playing, you know, the same, like, two or 300 capacity rooms

in San Diego that, like, I saw, like, dodo's in. But, yeah, it's,

you gotta just respect how hard people go. In the same, like, it's almost also, like a, uh, you two,

how to dismantle an atomic bomb, and we're all, like the David Frick. Yeah, you know, I like how we're both a little apologetic now about taking shots at Ice Age. Like,

we're both qualifying our criticism. of them because, you know, we don't want to be gratuitous, I don't think. But, like, it is true that they were on a bunch of mid-year-less. Before that, this album was very well reviewed. And, like, at the number 15-ish spot, let's see. And I think the sticking point for me, and this is probably true for you, is that on paper this should be a band that we like. There's a lot of elements to this band that, like, again, if I'm reading about them,

I feel like, oh, this sounds like a band I would love. And I've been tricked by that so many times with Ice Age. I feel like I give their albums a shot every time. And it just never connects. And it never comes together in a satisfying way. And, you know, it just becomes one of those things where it's like, well, this is the rock band now that's going to be praised by all these places. Like, why not band X or band Y? You know, I mean...

Why not literally any other band? But, you know, they don't win for me in terms of putting out great records, but they did win an Indycaste. So congratulations to Ice Age. Let's get into our last. I look forward to Ice Age winning this exact category again in 2020. Yeah, or if we're doing a year-end category. I feel like, you know, they have like an E-Fartlow level lock on this category. Let's get to our last category.

that is the most fun narrative of 2021. I feel like we've done a lot of cheeky categories here. So it's nice to end on something positive. These are things that we were really excited to see people talking about or people writing articles about just these narratives being in the ether. Our first nominee, the armed, just the whole thing around the armed. And them doing interviews about lifting weights

and getting super jacked. They're a fun band. That was fun to talk about. The ska revival. Oh, yeah. Which was a lot of fun. You know, you can't not be happy if you're talking about ska. Yes.

The Jim Blossoms dunking on that guy because they played at the NBA playoffs as a representative of Arizona. The Phoenix Suns have had Jimmy World and the Jim Blossoms as their halftime shows. and they're in the NBA finals. Absolutely. And who knew that Arizona had such a good musical lineage? I mean, those two bands alone. Aside from like the meat puppets, that's pretty much it.

Oh, it's true. Oh, that could have the meat puppets. I mean, but, you know, I'll take those three bands. Those are, if you're giving me those three bands, that's better than I would guess, like, two-thirds of the states in America. Yeah. It's definitely better. You know, my home state of Wisconsin, you've got Bonnie,

air, the Bodeens, and the Violin Fems. That's actually a pretty good top three. I'll take that. Promise ring. Promise ring. Jesus. Promise ring. Rainer Maria. Dye Cruising. You got to put them in there? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Actually, Wisconsin Rules. I'm sorry. We actually do have a lot of good stuff.

And then, finally, and I added this at the last minute, the return of live music. Just being, this dovetails with our previous conversation about most festival band. festival band, but just being able to have concerts back and to talk about this stuff, I think has been really fun to have. So the winner here, I don't know what your winner here is, but I'm going to say live music. How about you? Are you in the same page? Man, I would say the Sky Revival was like, you know what? I want to say it was fun,

but it generated a little bit of backlash. Like, I just think the Sky Revival was like, it was great to talk about because you could see who's like really excited and like who's been just waiting for 20 years to get this back in the mix. And you know, the truth matter is, like the no plus ones podcast at Dan Ozzie and Dave Anthony brought it up. It's like not like these bands like all of a sudden sold a lot of records or getting a lot of critical acclaim. It was just, yeah, let's talk about Scott. Like it's it's ready to happen. this music is fun and also I think it's one of the most fun narratives 2021 because I feel like in part we kind of help actualize it. Wait, so are you saying Scott is your pick?

Yes. Okay, cue the applause. We have to, you know, let's remember this is the, we have to adhere to the structure of our show here. I feel like this is like the end of that Oscars where they weren't sure if Moonlight won or like La La Land one, you know, It's like, there's like two different choices. But, but no, yeah, I agree. I mean, the ska music revival to me, yeah, again, like ska to me is such a good-hearted kind of music that it's hard to be angry at, even if I can't listen to it for like a really long time. You know, like about 15 minutes of ska, it's like, okay, I've got it.

You know, but I love that it's there. I love the people who are really into it. And yeah, I cheer for it. It's an ascendant genre. It's something that's always around. Like, people like to assume that it goes out of style, but there's always going to be people out there waving the flag for ska. And you know that they're true boo believers in it.

Like Jeff Rosenstock. I mean, he was waving the flag for ska when I interviewed him five, six years ago. No one else was talking about ska. And he's still talking about ska, and he helped bring it back a little bit. Yeah. Oh, my God. They're doing this. They added a ska dream show.

in L.A. So that's, yeah, if we want to talk about like the kind of bringing it all back home, like, dude, they're, they're going to be doing like an actual show for that record Skoddream. So, Matt, you made me think,

when you said bring it all back home, you made me think about like the reggae songs that Bob Dylan has played in the past. Especially during his Christian period. There was a period like where he was singing about God, but then he was also bringing reggae more into what he was doing. It's a very interesting. convulence. And that's where we put the Axel Rose,

give me some reggae in for knocking on heaven's door. Like, but yeah, I mean, as much as I love the Scott revival, I have to say, again, that like the return of live music and the return of festivals and just being able to have that to look forward to really is like the feel good story to me of music discourse in 2021.

That, you know, some of us have already seen concerts. I think a lot of the concerts are going to be taking place later in the year. Again, we've talked about this August and September. in October. I think the first one I'm doing is turn style in October in late August. On the day that this episode post, I'll be driving to Eclare to see a jam band festival.

So that'll be great. I'm excited for that. So yeah, lots of things. The brand is strong. Yes, lots of things to look forward to. So we have gone long on this ceremony here for the Indycassi, so we don't have time for recommendation. corner. We'll get to that next week. I guess, I mean, we can do a quick shout-out. I just want to do a

shout-out to the Questlove documentary that comes out today. You can see it in theaters and on Hulu, Summer of Soul. It's really great. I would go recommend checking that out. Do you have an album you want to shout out quick? Yeah, I want to give a shout out to an album called, from a band called Bigger, Better Sun. They are from the Oso-O-O-So Extended Universe. It's an album called Just to Wellness. And so, yeah, it's a great power pop album. If you like Oso Oso, one of the people in the band produced, the Unahon mixtape. This one goes a little bit more in a power pop direction, but like super, super, super, super fun music. Very catchy.

Just low-key, but like very excellent at what it does. It's very hard to find out to do this, this well. All right. So that does it for our episode here. Thank you for listening. We'll be back with more news and reviews and hashing out trends next week. And if you're looking for more music recommendations, sign up for the Indie Mix Taped 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.