Indiecast - The Most Underrated Indie Albums Of 2022 So Far

Episode Date: July 1, 2022

Each week, Indiecast talks about new indie music and hashs out trends. But which albums released this year deserved more attention? In this week's episode, hosts Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen walk through their favorite underrated releases so far in 2022 (31:26).In terms of news this week, Indiecast goes all-in with The 1975 discourse after the band officially announced their upcoming album. Steven and Ian also share their thoughts on MUNA tattooing their Pitchfork score (17:11) and reactions to Alien Ant Farm's "Smooth Criminal" cover resurfacing (24:34).The Recommendation Corner (53:22) this week has Ian giving props to Short Fictons' power pop-leaning Every Moment Of Every Day while Steven shouts out Guided By Voices' new project.New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 95 and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [e-mail], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Indycast is presented by Uprocks's Indy Mix tape. Hello everyone and welcome to Indycast. On this show, we talk about the biggest indie news of the week. We review albums and we hash out trends. In this episode, we are celebrating the exact midpoint of 2022 by honoring our favorite Under the Radar albums. My name is Stephen Hayden and I'm joined by my friend and co-host. He still can get a best new music in spite of a 7.7 tattoo.

Ian Cohen. Ian, how are you? You know, an episode of Indycast is destined for greatness when we begin with a joke that probably requires at least two minutes of backtracking to explain it to our listeners who maybe aren't well versed in the indie pop universe. But yeah, we're going to get to that. We have a ton of banter this week because, so as you will remember, I was on vacation last week. We banked an episode. So we weren't able to respond to the news of. I guess June 20th to the 25th, which I don't think much happened that week.

Was there? I was checking the phone because I was at the cabin vacation. I was on a boat. It was great. But I still, I'm addicted to the discourse, so I'll still check in Twitter. I don't think a lot happened. Yeah, I think it's good that both of us got our vacations in when we did because, I mean, we are really, like, headed deep into, like, the regular season.

We just progressed past, like, pitchers and cats. And we're right in the playoffs as far as banter goes. Not a lot of great new albums coming out recently, but like banter ramping up. Well, I knew my vacation was over because I got back on June 25th, which was a Saturday. And I get back and immediately, banter just starts hitting me. You have the War on Drugs opening for the Rolling Stones in London and they post a photo on Instagram of Tom Cruise backstage at a War on Drugs concert,

which is incredible. And then that same day, you have Goose, Indycast's favorite jam band, playing at Radio City Music Hall, Souda L'Aucho, with Father John Misty and Trey Anastasio.

A huge night in the jam band community. I was like, yeah, my vacation's over now. This is like the bat single. The bat signal is calling me back and saying, hey, get, Or it's like when Superman and Superman 2 gets his powers taken away and then he's in the fortress of solitude and like the world's falling apart. It's like, I got to put the cape back on.

That was like me. But then, of course, the big news of the week. The year. This is the biggest news for us. Well, not the year because we haven't heard the actual song yet. Okay. But the 1975 posted on Instagram what we believe are the lyrics to its upcoming single that's coming out next week

called part of the band. I'm just putting the asterisk on it because we haven't heard the song. These might not be the lyrics. They might just be thoughts that Maddie Healy had that he wanted to get on Instagram, but we're assuming that these are the lyrics.

And we're hoping that they're the lyrics. Oh my God, these are, like we, we, we, we, I'm just mad that there isn't a screen grab with the actual dialogue from the door. is the great fucking lyrics scene. Like our friend of the pod,

Miranda Reiner had actually posted that scene on YouTube, but I tried getting the closed captioning and it's like twice great... The closed captioning is way off, so we got to work on getting a screen grab with that. I didn't know Miranda put that up. Yeah. Oh, wow.

That's doing service to your country by doing that. And I believe in the movie, Morrison is reading the lyrics to Moonlight Mile. Moonlight Drive, yeah. Moonlight Drive. Sorry, Moonlight Miles is the Rolling Stone song. Moonlight Drive is the Doris song. And, yeah, Ray Manz-Ery, played by Kyle McLaughlin, is just like,

those are great fucking lyrics, man. Not being ironic. Totally blown away by Moonlight Drive on the beach. But yeah, so these are the lyrics that we think are from the 1975 single. And you just told me before we started recording that you haven't actually read the lyrics yet. You're aware that this song is coming. Yeah.

So I'm going to get your real-time reactions to some of it. These aren't all the lyrics. I just pulled out some Joyce cuts. Okay, here's the first excerpt. I was living my best life, living with my parents, way before the paying penance and verbal propellants. And my cancellations. There it is.

There it is. Like, we, I think in a previous episode, we were doing a little like off-track betting odds on like whether the the 1975 album would tackle cancel culture and there was like a 99% chance that would happen. Now was it going to be on the first single or what presumably is the first signal

again, this stuff we're going to find out apparently on the seventh what this song sounds like. Well and like was he, because I know he was on Twitter and then he ran a foul of some people for some reason then he deleted

his Twitter. What was the story with that again? I honestly like I consider myself at least on this episode on this podcast the 1975 like you know fan or at least the relative stand I honestly can't fucking remember like Maddie Healy wasn't quite it's not quite father John Missy stops doing interviews level of like the discourse that were robbed of but like Maddie Healy would say some like not offensive but just like dumb shit and I honestly cannot remember. Mailbag, like,

they're going to hit us off. We are just slacking on 1975 discourse. Well, we should say, as a preview, that our next week's episode, we're going to be doing a special report on the 1975. We're going to be doing a deep dive into

their discography. And we'll probably be talking about the single, too, presuming that drops on schedule. So that's something to look forward to. And maybe we can, we'll get the Indycast's intern on that. We can clarify why Maddie Healy was canceled and why he's mentioning it in the song.

I want to get to the next lyric here. And I fell in love with a boy. It was kind of lame. I was Rambot and he was Paul Verlaine. In my imagination, so many cringes in the heroin binges, I was coming off the hinges, living on the fringes of my imagination.

An amazing rhyme scheme there. Maddie was feeling the injures like how many words can rhyme with syringes here Ian I want to ask you a question did you know that Medi Healy did heroin Here's the genius thing about this lyric Because he's never mentioned that like in every single interview right Like he's never talked about that I was like what he did heroin what a shock

He didn't actually use the word syringes Like I think that's binges sorry Yes there that is kind of potentially 4D chess here it's that rhyme that never comes. It's like this sort of Damocles type situation going on. And okay, like this is it. He left it on the table.

It was like right there. I wonder if he's kicking himself right now. It's like, I should have used syringes. He's going to do the Kanye West, I'm a fix wolves type thing where he like goes right back into Amafin. That's what the 1970, Maddie Healy comes like Truman Black, I believe is his handle.

It's like, yo, I'm a fixed. part of the band by putting syringes in there. That right there to me is like quintessential Maddie Healy. It's like, you know, kind of the teasing, uh, you know, teasing, uh, commentary about his perceived sexuality. There's, you know, Rimbo in there and Paul Verlaine.

Then heroin. Like, I mean, what more could you possibly want out of a Matty Healy lyric? Yeah, it's got it all. But I will say that this next excerpt, I think this might be the most irritating. So I want to get your take on this one. I know some vaccinista tote bag chic baristas sitting in East on their communista keysters writing about their ejaculations. I like my men like I like my coffee, full of soy milk and so sweet, I won't offend anybody,

whilst stating the pages of the nation. The whilst is what does it for me. That is what pushes it over the edge and makes it for me the most irritating lyric in this song. he's British so like I know like that's that's something that I really take issue with with American to used whilst but yeah boy yeah vaccinista I've not heard that one before but it does rhyme with baristas and communista and keister which is I don't know is that Borschtbelt appropriation right there I've never I've never heard a communista before that's why I stumbled over that one actually I've never heard of vaccinista before either this

this right here this is like jackpot um i would do and just fly on the wall to be the other members of the 1975 like like i don't think they like wash him right lyrics but like when he hands this in now i just want to say like these these lyrics are i i can't even say whether they're like good there's something they're they're really something and uh wait we're not even done with like he's still going right well yeah there's one more excerpt. I just want to say something quick because you, you were talking about when Americans say words like whilst and how that's annoying when Americans adopt British slang. One of my pet peeves is when people say chuffed. I'm chuffed. Meaning like I'm honored.

I feel, no, you're an American. You can't say chuffed. Today I learned what chuffed actually. Yeah, today I learned what chuffed actually means. It sounds to me like I'm like pissed off or like I'm huffy. but chuffed means flattered, huh? Yeah, you got to be British. You got to be able to say it in the British accent. If you're just an American saying, oh, I'm chuffed that, you retweeted me.

I don't know. That just doesn't seem to work for me. But anyway, I'm getting distracted from the task at hand. We have one more excerpt here. This might be as annoying as the previous lyric. It's a toss-up, possibly. But here it is. Am I ironically woke, the butt of my joke?

Or am I just some post-coke average skinny bloke calling his ego imagination. Actually, that was kind of self-aware. I guess I don't mind that lyric as... That's maybe, like, the least annoying lyric to me. Still annoying, but, like, not as annoying as some of the other things that we just said. We got cancel culture and ironically woke. Post-coke, I mean, he's kind of switching up his drugs here, which, you know, I think...

Look, I'm not going to, like, cast speculation on his, you know, substance regimen, but... Like, okay. So I just want us to like do a little thought exercise with this. Now, I can't remember what your take is on Love It If We Made It, that song. You know, I don't mind that song, actually. It's a song that I liked when it came out and then the discourse ruined it for me a little bit. Because I think that there was too much meaning projected onto it. But I don't know.

I like, I guess I like songs where people just list things. I like, it's the end of the word. world as we know it and subterranean homesick blues so it's kind of in that style I don't know but you don't like that song as a 1975 fan right like aren't you not a huge fan of that song not my favorite

I think it works within the context of the record I don't like when I think when I I don't think that song defined 2018 as like future generations will like look back on this song like you know the same way that you know we use like all along the watch tower to

you know anytime or like like give me shelter anytime like a movie wants to talk about the vietnam war like this will remember this will remind me what it was like to be a music writer in 2018 which is a much much a smaller carving out of the culture as opposed to like oh people are going to know like oh this is definitely 2018 but like with that song in particular and even give yourself a try which i you know is a much better song. Like, if I were to read the lyrics before the song actually dropped, I might feel the same way I do about part of the band. Like, one of the things that I love about the 1975, and we're, let me, yeah, we're going to get deeper into this next episode is that unlike a lot of bands who

are at their, I guess, popularity or critical level, there, you can look at like a band like Hym or Vampire Weekend, like you have to be really creative to think of them making a song that just like completely shits the bed and is like, will be taken to task on an online forum. The not, with every great 1975 song, actually every 1975 song, whether it's great, but especially if it's great, you could see very clearly how badly this could have gone. No matter how high they fly, you can always see the floor below. and that makes them just exciting to me in a way that I don't get from, I guess, I don't know, bands with a better sense of quality control.

Like the 1975's quality control, I think, just kind of happens by accident. And eventually they're just going to run out of luck. They're just, Maddie Healy is playing Russian roulette with that pen every single time. And maybe this is like the one where like everything, the 1975 has just been able to skirt at a pure lucker genius completely falls apart and then we like cast doubt on like whether they were ever good and I don't know maybe there's like a no the next 75 are actually pretty good and then we start that pendulum swing in again yeah you know I I am intrigued by the fact that I think the next that this new album that the song's going to be on I think it's only like 11

songs long so which is like a revolutionary thing for a 1975 record we don't know if these songs are nine minutes long. Let's just... Well, okay, that's true. But assuming that their normal 1975 songs, it looks like it's going to be like an 11-minute, 40-minute record, which suggests that

maybe there is some quality control on this album, and maybe, as you suggested, like this song, maybe it looks dumb on paper, but the music will be really good, and in the context of the song, it'll work. I will say, you know, as someone who likes to make fun of the 1975,

and is fully prepared to do it again, that I do think that Maddie Healy is not so completely unself-aware that he wouldn't anticipate people seeing things like ironically woke or the cancelations reference and not expect people to jump on it. Like there must be something in him that, like, I know people are going to react to this. And maybe that's part of the point, you know. So there is maybe sort of like a willful aspect to this. I don't think he's totally diluted.

I do think that in the wake of that song, Levit If We Made it, it does seem like he does have this pressure on himself to be constantly topical. And that's the thing about this song, is that he's just squeezing so many different topical references in that I don't know. If he nails this one,

if he pulls this from the jaws of defeat, feet and is victorious with this single. I'll be impressed because he's really stacking the deck against himself this time. But maybe he loves the challenge. Like you said, he's playing Russian roulette. He's Christopher Walkin and the Deer Hunter. You know, he's riding it out, writing out the thrill. So I don't know.

I'm definitely intrigued to hear this song. And I'm like, he might hear this in like, you know, Ryan Christopher Walking and the Deer Hunter with like the band Deer Hunter. Maddie Healy might actually do that. I'll just express, like, I love the 1970s, also love making fun of them. Exactly. One of the pleasures of this band, we've talked about that many times. And it's, I've been a fan and I've been a hater.

I've been on both sides of the fence. But, yeah, I'm glad that they exist. I'm excited that they're going to liven up our summer here by putting out new music. It's going to be great. Okay, so should we explain the 7.7 tattoo reference? It would be funnier if we just, like, let it hang without any context. But I think this story is like quintessential Indycast, so we got to get into it. Yeah.

So, okay, so this is band. They're from Brooklyn. Sure. I don't know. Okay, they're called Muna. And they just put out a new record this week. And it's a self-titled record. I believe it's their third album.

And this is a band. I would describe them as like, you know, I don't mean that for this is sound disparaging, but I'm just saying it for the point of doing a quick reference. I would describe them as like an off-brand Hime. Right? Like, they kind of sound like Hime. They're not as well known as Hymn.

They're like sort of like on the B team of Hime. Like indie pop, which, you know, mixing indie rock with like, you know, sort of like a Taylor Swift type sensibility. Like, would you say it's an accurate way to describe them? I would say that's the, that's accurate now. They were on a major label for their previous two hours. albums and it sounds to me like they were kind of doing that.

It was like major label indie pop if that makes sense, which means like yeah, they throw in some hind, they throw in some, you know, tooth out like, you know, Dixie chicks perhaps.

And now they're on Phoebe Bridgers's label. Yeah, satisfactory, also Dead Ocean. So they've got that sort of like Carly Ray Jepson slash Robin, uh, fallen indie pop sort of like it's a sort of narrative you can get behind where it's like oh the major

label didn't know what to do with them but uh now they have like far more momentum than they ever had um as a actual major label band so i'd say like this is one of the bigger uh albums of the summer um and but we wouldn't be talking about that if that if that were just the case there's something else going on with these 7.7 tattoos so can I explain this one? Yeah, you go ahead. Because you brought this to my attention. This actually came out like a few weeks ago, but it slipped over a radar.

Yeah, so they had a profile done at Pitchfork where it starts out with all three of them, getting 7.7 tattoos to commemorate the score that their previous album, I believe, got. And the reason for that is, depending on where you're hanging on Twitter, like 7.7. has become this like kind of badge of honor amongst a certain artists like it apparently like it's a score that's been given to a lot of albums that come from like more of like a queer leaning pop or indie pop i think uh Casey chambers got it recently right uh I I saw a list of these albums a couple of ones I reviewed like the second churches album and Mitzke's bury me at Makeout Creek got a 7.7 And it's an understood inside joke amongst a self-selecting number of people.

And some of them are queer artists. Some of them are like artists who are perceived to have a strong queer audience. Like the recent Casey Musgraves record was on this list. She's not a queer artist, but she has a big, you know, a strong queer following. I will say I thought like a 7.7 for her most recent album was maybe kind of generous. I feel like people generally agreed that like it wasn't as good. it is Golden Hour. It was a pretty good record, but anyway, it's similar to the emo thing

of emo albums getting an 8.0, but not getting a best new music. Exactly. It's like almost, at least for like, you know, long-tailed discourse, it's like better to get like the 8.0 and like mobilize the 12, well, at least for emo bands, like the 12 people who like won't shut up about your band complaining about that. So again, like getting a tattoo, like self-aware, it's a joke. Also, like it's kind of funny that this major label pop act would do it but I guess that's just like kind of a sign of where we're at.

So in this pitchfork story, I think it's like one member of the band is getting a 7.7 tattoo. And when I read that, I felt like this seems like a pretty blatant attempt to shame pitchfork into giving their new record a best new music. You know, because they're sort of calling them out like in a good natured way, but it's definitely a call out. to give their record like a best new music when it gets reviewed in a few weeks and you flash forward to this week, the album comes out,

the review comes out, and they get a 7.8. They get a 0.1 increase. They don't get the best new music. And really, I think the issue is, I mean, aside from just looking at the record on its merits and giving the record what you think it deserves,

it did seem like they doomed themselves by making it an issue in this article. Because if Pitchfork had given them the best new music after that, even if they had deserved it, there would have been people who would have said, well, it's just because they got this tattoo and they made you feel bad about not giving it a higher score in the past. So it seemed like a plan, if that was the plan, that was doomed to the family.

This to me is like stolen valor right here. It's like we, like arguing about scores and like getting like tattoos, Like that is, that's supposed to be like, you know, Reddit lurker type stuff, not pop star stuff. Like, come on, don't, don't appropriate my culture like that. But actually, this story took a turn, like a day or two after the review actually ran. They, they went on Twitter and quote tweeted the review and it's like, yeah, the score is petty, though. Yeah, yeah, exactly. They said, it was great review, but the score was petty.

It's sort of like a, again, it seems good-natured, but the implication being, oh, you purposely didn't give us the best new music because of this tattoo. I got to say that, like, you know, I haven't written a ton for pitchfork in the past, but I have been in these situations when I have written for them where artists complain about the score. And that's just so off-putting to me. You know, this grade grubbing from artists about scores. you know, like my boys and goose, they were reviewed on pitchfork last week. They got a 6.7. I'm sure they were just happy to be reviewed. Like, there's a lot of bands that never even get covered by pitchfork.

So this idea of, like, complaining about your score, I don't know. To me, it smacks of, like, pitchfork privilege here. That there's some artists who just expect a certain kind of score, and when they don't get it, even if it's just, like, a matter of, like, decimal points that they're off. I don't know. I don't like that. That bothers me a little bit. I think what you just did right there is put it in the atmosphere, like pitch for privilege.

That could show up in a 1975 lyric. Oh, my God. I'd be so honored. Maddie Healy, if you're listening, please give me co-writing credit if you end up doing that. Before we get to the meat of our episode, we got to talk about the smooth criminal alien ant farm discourse that was taking place. this week. Do you want to talk about this? You want to explain this to our less online listeners out there, what I'm talking about? Yeah, I mean, when we said, like, we are, like, really in the, we are deep in the shit as far as, like, discourse goes, like, having gotten back from vacation.

So this is, this is, like, again, another quintessential indie cast thing, because we could either call it, like, the best narrative in our year-end indie cast, these are the worst, because it was, like, this very contained thing on like new metal Twitter that metastasize into like an all-day affair. And like the like I spent maybe a couple hours offline yesterday because I, you know, I'd work and shit and I like missed it. And so apparently someone posted the video from Alien Ant Farm Smooth Criminal. You might remember it. They just make a lot of stupid faces and a wrestling ring surrounded by a bunch of like SoCal bros covering Michael Jackson. And someone was like man like they were just feeling nostalgic for it whether they love the song or

whether they like being 11 years old in 2001 either way and so for whatever reason this sets off like a firestorm of like backlash about how we need to really call out this song for being actually terrible that like we cannot we can if we tolerate this then your children will be next type action and it's like I don't remember I don't remember anyone ever liking that song and like

or that we're running the risk of alien ant farm giving being given too much props or whatever like anytime alien ant farm comes up like what the only thing I like to point out is that they released their first single movies

flop completely then they release a cover that was a hit then they released movies of again, and then it also flopped, which is actually what happened with Orgy. They released Stitches, which is a fucking awesome song. Flop, they do Blue Monday, hit, they release Stitches, that becomes a hit. So I guess that was like a trend in the early 2000s.

But either way, it's like, man. Yeah, covering songs that weren't even that old at the time. Like Smooth Criminal would have only been about, you know, 15 years old or so when Alien Anfarm covered it. So it's not like people who were alive at the time wouldn't have remembered the Michael Jackson version. I mean, I think the thing that people

don't like about that song, among other things, is that it seems like it's like a white rock band making fun of a song by a black artist. Like the joke is that they're covering a pop song, which is different than the Orgy cover. You know, I think there's like legitimate love for New Order and there's no irony.

There's no irony in that cover. But if you watch the video for Smooth Criminal, it's like they probably like Michael Jackson, but they're kind of making fun of Michael Jackson at the same time. I don't know. I watched the video because of this discourse that was happening. And by the way, that video on YouTube has been streamed 250 million times.

So I think there actually is a strong audience out there for Alien Ant Farm Smooth Criminal. Like, I don't think all those people are watching it because they hate it. Like, there must be a lot of people who love it. I just looked up on Spotify. It's been streamed 321 million times, which is unbelievable. It's less than I would expect.

Yeah. Yeah. Like, what would have been your guise for Spotify streams? 500 million maybe? Like, I actually, you know, I'll backtrack. Like, I don't know what numbers are, you know, really happening for, like, 2000 era hits. But, like, you know, I'll, like, see, like, a rando Drake song. Like, you know, like a deep cut, and it'll be like 200 million.

So I don't know about like inflation. Like I just remember, I worked at a radio station at that time, like an all-rock radio station. We played that song all the fucking time, which also explains how I know the song movies. Yeah, you know, the funniest thing to me, and this was my contribution to the conversation, is that there's a 20th century master's millennium collection best of greatest hits, album for Alien Ant Farm, which if you remember that this was like a CD series, it had sort of like a silver cover and there's like a photo of the band in the middle. And it was just like these budget greatest hits albums that you could buy at Walmart or Target. And it was for every

sort of band. Like I'm sure like the Jim Blossoms have one. They definitely do. Every kind of like second and third year alternative rock band does. But like the Jim Blossoms have like multiple hits. Like there's three or four songs that like people could name like if you know the music of the 90s. Like what is on an alien hand farm greatest hits? I guess you'd have movies like you said. And then is it just like nine remixes of smooth criminal? I mean I don't like what other hits did that band have? None that I can remember.

But I, the millennium collection like and you see like the modern version of it with like, you know, Spotify will have the essential, you know, fill in the blank here. love these millennium collections because you have bands like alien ant farm and i bowling for soup which has one where it just the font and the picture just makes it look like a super classy affair like yeah it's like well just like the name too like 20th century masters even though like alien ant farm didn't really have hits until the 21st century so i don't know i guess they technically came out of the late 90s but i wouldn't call them a 20th century master it seems like a little inflated for alien ant farm. We need to have a Patreon for like bonus content where we do like in 1975 deep dive followed by an alien ant farm deep dive. I think that's what the people want.

You mentioned bowling for soup and when I was watching that smooth criminal video, the thought did occur to me that this is like a poor man's bowling for soup, which I didn't know that that was possible. You could get, it's like you're already in the bowling for soup lane, but you're like, I want to go a little lower than this. What's like this? But like a little worse. Bowling for soup is just too cerebral, too, I don't know, artsy. Can we, like, just maybe popular? Let's get a little more popular.

Yeah, they write their own songs. So, like, a band that's like this, but they're covering 80 songs. Like, not just singing about the 80s, but just, like, covering 80 songs. You know, that would be great. It's like, oh, Alien Ant Farm. Okay, awesome.

Well, okay, I could see that we're, like, a half hour into this, which is the warning for us to get to the meat of the moment. the episode. So when do we go do that? So we're talking about our favorite under the radar records of 2022 so far. And I think we were pretty strict with defining what under the radar was. I tried not to mention any albums that I haven't already recommended on this show. Did you do the same? Yeah, because a lot of the under the radar, like my first thoughts, like, oh, wait, we did this on

recommendation corner. So, yeah, we're just trying to bring. like new stuff and you know under the radar just in general but maybe even under the radar for like indie cast listeners because i know that like we have a certain i guess brand as indicated up top by the war on drugs father john misty goose slash tray confluence so yeah it might like under the radar we're pretty liberal with it but like i think the the ironclad rule is that we haven't mentioned it thus far on this show yeah so again we're hoping that you come away with uh some recommendations here. This is sort of like an extended recommendation corner, really.

We're going to just be recommending albums that we haven't already talked about that maybe you haven't read about elsewhere, or if you did, it was just maybe swept under the rug soon after like a review ran or something. So we're each going to talk about three albums. Ian, why don't you go first? All right, so the first album I want to talk about is an artist called Grace Ives. She's from Brooklyn.

In 2020, she put out a record called Second, which was very minimal, I guess you would call it, Indie Pop. It was an album that like, well, it's not like, oh, this is a pandemic album. But it just sort of reminds me of like kind of being stuck inside, like just listening to a bunch of songs on Spotify. And it just sounded like someone made it in their apartment. Very charming on that level. Two years later, they are out with a album called Janky Star. Now, I know what you're thinking with like Under the Radar.

hey, didn't this just get best new music, which it did a couple of weeks ago. But otherwise, I've not seen like anything written about it. I looked at album of the year. It got one other review. And also I think this qualifies as an under the radar choice, at least for like what you might expect to be recommended by Indycast. Every thing you might read about this album, you know, brings up like, oh, it's like Carly Ray Jepson. or MIA or like the lyrics themselves, it's very slice of life stuff.

I've seen high maintenance and Broad City brought up with this. So boil it down, it's like some real Brooklyn shit, which usually reflexively annoys me, like those sort of like shows or albums that use like the 20-something experience of like being a kind of broke New Yorker as like the most important shit on earth. Right.

And yet, and yet, I really love this album. It's like an example of like indie pop as I like to experience it. Like we brought up Muna before where it's indie pop, I guess, because of the label it's on or the associations. But to me, it sounds no different than anything I would hear in, say, Ralph's or CVS or any given Netflix rom-com. This is very, it's very charming and small. And I mean that in the sense that it is a pop album about like just basically indie stuff, about being broke, about working at a flower shop. And it's very hooky, but in a way that's like not overselling it. And despite all the recommendations that have been thrown around it, maybe it's because it's like a 10 song album that's like 25 minutes.

It reminds me almost more of Joyce Manor than say like Caroline Polichick or something along the those lines. Yeah, Joyce Manor, if, you know, they made all of their music on a role in 505. It's, it's slick enough to sound like not like completely bedroom artist, but nonetheless, yeah, I'm just really taken by this album. It's a good, it's, it's my version, I guess, like song of the summer type stuff. And, you know, if you, if you think of like the stuff I usually recommend for recommendation corner, like straight up like scream-o shit, this is a little off that path.

But I highly recommend it. So again, Grace Ives, Jankees Star. All right, so the first album I want to mention as a under the radar favorite from 2022 is a record called Days and Nights by a Brooklyn band called Sooner. And if you read my column at Uprocks, this album might not be totally under the radar

because I mentioned it in my mid-year list of favorite albums that have come out so far this year. But I think in the larger conversation about music, I haven't heard a lot of people talk about this album. and I think it's really worth checking out. It is one of those records, I think, that does fall through the cracks easily because it's not really bowling you over the head with something innovative or something that feels like zeitgeisty or of the moment.

It is, for all intents and purposes, a fairly straightforward shoe gaze or dream pop record. And as we all know, there's like a lot of records like that out in the world. But I always argue that with records like this, if you can find an album that actually stands out and it really executes the formula well, that actually is a great achievement because there's a lot of bands trying to do this and they don't quite pull it off, but I think sooner really does come through on days and nights. And I think a lot of that has to do with the lead singer.

Her name is Federica Tasano, and I think she's just a great singer, and I think it really stands out. I think with a lot of bands like this, you tend to have singers that sort of mumble or it's very gauzy, It's a lot of reverb going on. You actually can't really tell what the singer is or what they sound like. But with this band, along with, again, those shoegasy sounding guitars, I think Tasano's vocals really kind of cut through the murk in a really strong way

and give this band a personality that I think a lot of bands in this space don't necessarily have. You know, you feel like they're sort of relying on all the effects of, you know, the delay pedals and, again, the reverb and all the things that you associate with this kind of music. I would say, too, that for people that are a fan of a band like Turnover, which is a band that is, I think, in the emo scene, but also sounds a lot like real estate. They're kind of in that middle area. Sooner to me is another band that I think would kind of slot next to Turnover.

Turnover being another band that I think executes this sort of thing really well. So, again, this is a record that it's not going to bowl you over. It's not a revolutionary record by any means, but I think it's a very well-executed dream pop record. It's an album that I find to be just compulsively listenable, and I really recommend it. So again, it's called Days and Nights. The band is sooner.

That's my first recommendation. I love bringing up albums like that because those are the ones I always feel are missing from my life. Like the ones that like are, it's like the B plus three and a half stars, but I end up listening to that one more than the stuff that is like number eight on my ear. Exactly. Like the albums that you can't really put a hook on

because, oh, it's not about Donald Trump or it's not about the coronavirus. You know, there's no larger narrative to it. It's just like a really beautiful music that you want to listen to all the time. Like that's what that kind of record is. So the one I'm going to bring up next is a band called it's very SEO unfriendly,

a band called praise. And the album is also very SEO unfriendly, which is all in a dream. So before I get into praise, we got to talk about turnstile. One of the band members in praise is also in turnstile. So one of the things that I've been really just watching intently in 2022 is turnstiles. Turnstiles glow up, for lack of a better term. You know, the album's called Glow On.

I think it's kind of intentional. Apparently they're like getting radio airplay on like classic rock stations in Baltimore. So they're not like Japanese breakfast big. I don't think Turnstall is playing SNL anytime soon. But like I've just been fascinated to see like what their big breakthrough means for hardcore or just heavy guitar music as a whole. Like whether they're going to start popping up and recommend it if you likes for indie bands that sound nothing like them or whether they're going to, you know, a bunch of bands that sort of try to do Turnstile get signed or. whether it's like a rising tide lifts all ships type thing. And I'm also open to the possibility that it's sort of like Def Heaven,

where, you know, Def Heaven didn't really open a lane for other metal bands. They just became like the one metal band. A lot of indie listeners liked because a record like praise has really, really flown under the radar. I looked it up on an album of the year. It hasn't been reviewed by any publications. So this one, it's, you know, in the terms of it. style camp they've played a bunch of shows with them and it also sounds a little bit like fiddlehead another

uh breakthrough band of 2021 where it's you know it's slick it's catchy it's rooted in old school emo like you know 80s stuff like borderline youth crew and kind of pop hardcore like sieve or gorilla biscuits um and so it's a record that sounds like grown up hardcore uh it's not like a band you would see in a basement with five people. But it's also not that kind of hardcore where it sounds slick because it's made by guys in their 40s who've been around and it's professional. It's a passionate record. It's hooky. And similar to like sooner, it doesn't have a great hook as far as narrative. Like if you're not checking for this kind of music, it'll probably fall under the radar. It's gotten some good notice on, you know, more punk-leaning sites. But yeah, I'm just sort of surprised it hasn't gotten

a little more traction just because of the Turnstile association. Yeah, you know, I checked out this album after I saw that you put it in our outline and I agree with you. I like the record and I think the reason why turnstile has crossed over and why they get played on the radio is that if you're just the drive-by

listener and you hear their song you know, between like Avenge Sevenfold and, you know, Red Hat Chili Peppers classic from the 90s or something, they make sense. I mean, they just sound like a modern alt rock band. Like, wouldn't necessarily know about their background in hardcore.

And I think you could say the same thing about praise. Like you don't necessarily have to be like a hardcore aficionado to get that band. They just sound like a rock band that has maybe, maybe like they're spiritually hardcore, but they sound more like an alt rock band if you're just listening to them without any other kind of previous knowledge. So yeah, I definitely checked out that album. My second Under the Radar album is called River Fools and Mountain Saints. It's by a Kentucky singer-songwriter named Ian No, that's N-O-E.

And got to get an Ian in there for Indycast purposes. He got a lot of attention back in 2019 when he put out his first record. It was called Between the Country. And it was produced by Dave Cobb, who you may know as the current king of Americana. I mean, this guy's produced albums by Chris Stapleton, Sturgle Simpson, Brandy Carlisle, Jason Isbell. Basically everyone in that space has been produced by Dave Cobb. Ian No, of course, is like, I guess, one of the lesser-known artists that's in his stable.

But he definitely belongs, I think, in that same lane. One way that I would describe him, and I think this is pertinent for our listeners, is that he kind of sounds like M.J. Lenderman, if M.J. Lenderman were more into John Prine than Neil Young. Like, there's a real story song aspect to what he does, and he writes a lot about small-town life. He writes about some of the same things that, like, John Prime would write about. Like, there's a song on this record about, like, a retired guy and, like, his, just his daily life. And it's sort of, like, a funny, sad song. There's another, like, really cool song, very chugally, if I can say that, called P-O-W Blues,

which is, like, a first-person song about, like, a guy in a prison camp, which is, like, a pretty... It's, like, a really kind of a cool narrative. It feels like a movie that you're watching from the 70s, but it's in this song. And this second record, I feel like it hasn't gotten as much attention, even though, again, it's produced by Dave Cobb. I think it's a more like full sound record. It's a fuller sounding record than the first one, although not dramatically so. It's not like a super slick record by any means, but whereas the first record is it is more of like a guy with a guitar type album. This feels like more with him in a band, which again, I would liken that again to the MJ Lenderman record.

I think there's some aesthetic touchstones that both of those records would share. But again, if you're into, I guess, lyrics and you're into storytelling songs, I think that this guy is really doing some, like, really good work. And he's not getting all that much attention. I only see him written about in places like saving country music, like, you know, those sort of Americana blogs out there. I think that this album was also reviewed by The Guardian, but I haven't seen anything on, like, indie music sites about this guy.

But I do think that more than like a lot of people in that space, that this record would appeal to indie listeners, as well as, you know, the more sort of Americana typical audience that a record like this would attract. So definitely check it out. Again, the record's called River Fools and Mountain Saints. The guy is called Ian Noe. Really good record.

Really good Ian, Ian, Ian. Strong addition to the Ian community. Yeah, Ian, Kentucky, like, you, you, got my attention. There you go. See, yeah, you were in Ian in Kentucky for a while. That's correct. So, yeah, that one is definitely in the queue. All right. So the last album I'm going to talk about, this is in like a, it's like a sub sub sub genre that's really been a been a mainstay and recommendation corner of former Tiny Engines bands. Oh yeah. Tiny Engines being the label that, gosh, if you think about the roster they had at one point.

point. It was like the hotel years. We heard of the Behive, awake but still in bed, wild pink. Loaded. Loaded. Illuminati Hotties were on there as well. Just an absurdly stacked roster that... Great ANR business maybe shakier. Can I say that? But they had great A&R over there. They could recognize

talent. Yeah. So I think the last album they ever put out before I guess just kind of everything going to shit was in 2019, it was a band called Pendant. I know there's another artist called Pendant who's like more ambient and like really DeWuerco S, who's like a kind of a big of ambient artist. That's not this band. It's pendant. It's all caps. And so in 2019, they put out an album that was, you know, kind of like a modern shoegaze record. It was really good. Name around your neck. Great song. But, you know, due to the label kind of disintegrating right before its eyes, it

got just kind of buried. And so like a lot of like quite a few, uh, former tiny engines bands, they ended up on Saddle Creek. Um, and so three years later, they're putting out an album called harp. Uh, does this sound like shoegaze a little bit? But it really, really sounds like a lot of stuff that we kind of talk about in, um, Indycast Hall of Fame, which is, uh, it's got some Shugays, it's got house music, there are like, you know, the Amen breakbeat going on. There's a little bit of hip hop. So it reminds me a bit of those late 90s post-beck, like grab bag, alt rock records that just tried to throw drum machines, but like distorted guitars, all in the mix. And, you know, sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't, but it always sounded

interesting. And so, um, this one is new album Harp. Um, it's a lot about, uh, the relationship. we have with his father and just like grief and you know drug use and so forth and um very interesting narrative but like i think with a lot of music of this ilk despite the fact that the narrative is good and it's interesting sonically it just doesn't have like a hook you can say oh this appeals to this person um this is a fascinating record to encounter because like i don't know if all of it's good like sometimes it doesn't necessarily pull off what it's trying to do, but it's always interesting, and that makes me come back to it in a way that an album that's been executed strongly, but in a more kind of generic way, would.

So pendant, harp, another album that I've not seen anywhere near the amount of conversation that should be around it, but I think that's been the case with some of these bands that were marooned after tiny engines broke down. Yeah, the way you're describing it, because I haven't heard this record at all, that sounds really cool. I'm definitely excited to check this out. I love that reference to those late 90s, sort of throw everything against the wall, but the kitchen sink type record. I mean, I think that seems like a cool thing to revive and try to update in 2022. If you love Brand Van 3,000.

No, I'm just kidding. Yes, if you love Citizen King, check this out. It's going to be good. My last album for the under the radar category for 2022 so far is called Dog Hours. It's by a band from Philadelphia called Big Nothing. And I put this band on my list because I was originally going to put good looks on my list, the band from Texas, who put out an album called Bummer Year earlier this year. But I've talked about this band a lot already on this show, and I've also written about them.

So at least like in our corner of the world, Good Looks is not under the radar, although I would argue that they are under the radar for the most part in the indie world right now, and hopefully that will change. But I went with Big Nothing on this list because if you like that Good Looks record, which is in that Heartland Rock vein,

with sort of watery War on Drugs-type guitars, which again is something you would very much expect me to recommend. I think Big Nothing exists in a, similar lane. This is a band that cites artists like the replacements and Tom Petty as influences, which is great, and you can definitely hear it on this record. It's an album that is only 27 minutes long, so it goes by very quickly. All the songs are very punchy. They're very catchy. Again, you can imagine people wearing denim jackets in listening to this kind of music, which is the thing I

like. One thing that I think sets big nothing apart from some of the other bands that I've mentioned is that there are three singers in this band, two men and one woman, and they switch off on vocals throughout the record. And that's something I always like when bands can do that. When you have multiple people who can sing, you can bring different perspectives when there's people of different gender singing that obviously brings sort of like a Fleetwood Mac element into the band, although in this band it's a gender flip. Instead of two women and one man, there's two men and one woman. But again, I think it has a similar effect of really just bringing a lot of variety to this record and really making it feel like a world onto itself. So again, for all my Heartland rock fans out there, you love the war on drugs, you heard about good looks on this podcast and you dug into that record and you really like it.

I think Big Nothing is another band that you can put into that lane and it's really going to scratch that itch. This record, I think, again, it's short, it's punchy, but it delivers the good. It's called Dog Hours. And yes, it's an under the radar record. It doesn't deserve to be, but we are lifting it into the radar so you can all check it out. One thing that I feel, I must mention for, you know,

the people who generally check for my recommendation corner. One of the people in this band is Pat Graham of Spranard, the beloved erstwhile, Philadelphia pop punk emo band. That was like the one band signed to the new J.Tree. Mabel, great record. But yeah, Lamo Records is really becoming a stronghold and

recommendation corner. They have Trace Mountains as well, I believe. Yes. They've kind of staked out this territory where it's like the middle ground between like Emo and like Americana. And it seems like that is informed by

you know, like Slaughter Beach Dog, that band where, you know, that band sprang from modern baseball. Modern baseball was the first band to have a record on Lamo records. And it seems like there's this evolution that's taken place maybe among people in the scene over the last decade where they started up maybe in the emo world

and now they're moving in sort of like a rutsier direction. And it seems like Lamo, like that's their corner right now of Indy Rock. 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 and we just gave a bunch of recommendations, but we're going to be giving two more here. So Ian, why don't you go first? So if this episode was airing like maybe a month later, I might include this album in it because it doesn't seem like it's, you know, getting the traction I think it deserves.

But it came out on 24th. It's an album by a band called Short Fictions. Every moment of every day. The acronym is Emo Ed, which I find to be amusing. They're a Pittsburgh band. They put out a record in 2019 called Fatesworth and Death that I was really into. it's kind of like emo revival revival a lot of it sounded like early the world is a beautiful place this one delves more into a power pop um kind of origami angel sort of uh sort of mode they toured with origami angel and glass beach that was one of the last shows i saw before the pandemic um so with this album it takes the same sort of lyrical conceits from the previous record um about you know they're kind of like hard left politics unionization

but also putting into like, hey, it really sucks to be in a band where you're not making any money. So it's got that element to it as well. It's eight songs. It's super listenable, super catchy. It's, I've heard it describe as kind of a midpoint between the world is and the sidekicks, which is another kind of like indie cast favorite of meshing, emo, power pop, and just Midwestern yearning. Yeah, it's, again, a bit of a record without. a country that kind of falls through several cracks.

Also, the fact is, I'm not writing about music as much as I used to. And now I'm like this might not get reviewed by anyone at all, which is unfortunate, but I would say the younger emo people, please step it up. So, yeah, short fictions, every moment of every day, strongly recommend that. So my recommendation this week is a band you probably have heard of if you listen to this show. it's guided by voices, one of my favorite bands of all time. And look, this is one of those bands that, like, they put out so much music, and they have for such a long time that I think even people who love them tend to be dabblers in their discography. Like maybe you listen to a bit of a new album or you listen to every other album that they put out or something.

It's just hard to keep up with a band like this. But I'm ringing the alarm here because I really do feel that their record that's out today, it's called Tremend. and goggles by rank, very guided by voice's title. I really do think is one of the best things that they've done in a long time. And I would actually couple that with the other album that they've put out so far this year that came out in March called Crystal Nuns Cathedral. I've been listening to these two albums this week almost as like a double album. Because the thing about these records that make them very un-GBB-like

is that they're both tight records that have virtually no filler. Like the Trembler's record that's out today, 10 songs 38 minutes. Very unGBB-like. That is 18 songs shorter than Alien Lanes and about three minutes shorter. And it really kind of shows this new era that Robert Pollard is in where he is writing, dare I say, almost normal rock songs. I mean, they still have the progressive rock element that you would expect from guided by voices. There's definitely psychedelic touches going on. but the pop element that I think has been lacking to some degree in his work over the past maybe decade or so

really comes to the four on these records like these songs are really catchy they're really punchy and again it's the kind of records that I would say like if you are a guy by voice's fan or you've never listened to them at all and you're just overwhelmed by like the output and you can't keep up with everything that they're doing I really think you should stop and listen to this record you will really enjoy it It breezes by. Again, I think that these two albums together represent some of the best and most accessible music that GBB has made maybe since the early aughts,

like around the time of isolation drills. So, yes, definitely check out these records. I actually wrote about them this week on Up Rock, so if you want to read that column after you listen to this episode, I go more in depth about the albums in my column. But yes, definitely check it out. The new Guide of My Voices record, it's called Tremblers and Goggles by Rank. Really, really good record.

Guided by Voices is making 10 song albums. The 1975 is making 11. What is this world coming to? I know, man. It's crazy. I mean, I kind of hope it doesn't continue. I don't want him to just make albums like this, but it is kind of the most radical thing that Robert Pollard could do, I think.

It's pretty amazing. I really love it. Well, we've now reached the end of our episode here at IndyCats. Thank you so much 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.