Indiecast

This week, Steven and Ian are discussing two of the most exciting indie releases of the week. First up is a passionate discussion of  Open Door Policy , the new album from veteran rockers The Hold Steady. Steven appreciates the band’s long-running arc and recent comeback, while Ian has never connected with the Beat-style of what he calls “dude writing.” Next up on the docket is  A Billio...

After a week of banter about Phoebe Bridgers smashing her guitar on 'SNL' and the discourse that inevitably surrounds the annual announcement of nominees for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, Ian and Steven are spending this week’s episode of  Indiecast  reflecting on a simpler moment in indie history. The so-called indie R&B scene of the early 2010’s spawned some of the biggest a...

This week kicks off with an enlightening discussion of which indie bands should release greatest hits albums. Then, Steven and Ian are diving into one of the biggest releases of 2021 so far: Foo Fighters’ tenth studio album 'Medicine At Midnight.' The album doesn’t really sound like anything the Foos have released to date, continuing down the path that began with 2014’s 'Sonic Highways,'...

Despite a handful of  optimistic festival announcements , the return of live music still doesn’t look to be closing in ( unless you live in New Zealand) . With the absence of in-person events, many artists have been turning to both free and paid livestream concerts to keep their fans engaged. This week, Steven and Ian are discussing the pros and cons of a virtual future for the live music ind...

This week, Steven and Ian are once again taking questions from listeners. The episode kicks off with a discussion ska, the oft-maligned sect of punk that people tend to joke about, but also have an encyclopedic understanding of its intricacies. After the recent critical reevaluation of nu metal, is ska next in line for a reinvention? Jeff Rosenstock has been  proudly waving the flag of ska&nb...

There are albums in the indie rock and alternative rock realm that were influential and beloved at the time of their release, but have since been lost to the test of time and sadly — some might say shamefully — left out of the widely accepted canon of the genre. On this episode, Steven and Ian are looking to right these wrongs with the creation the  Indiecast  Hall Of Fame. This week, Hy...

After a long year, 2021 is finally here, bringing with it new episodes of  Indiecast . To kick off the first episode of the new year, Steven and Ian are discussing musical trends that took hold in the 2010’s that might begin to fade out as we settle into the 2020’s. It’s impossible to predict what the next decade is going to look like, musically, but we can only hope that it will be something...

In the second of a special two-part episode, Steven and Ian are wrapping up the show for the year by awarding the highly sought-after Indiecasties to the most surprising, overrated, and genuinely impressive releases of the year from artists like The Killers, Fiona Apple, Phoebe Bridgers, and more. This week, the duo are ready to bestow some trophies upon the albums that best embodied the aesthetic...

Just like everyone, as the year winds down, Steven and Ian are getting reflective. But rather than just continue breaking down the best of 2020 in a standard list form, they are launching the official Indiecast awards show, The Indiecasties. Across two episodes, the duo will be awarding the highly sought-after Indiecasties to the best, worst, and downright strangest releases of the year....

Approximately 25 years after it started, 2020 is finally coming to an end. As is customary in the music world, before one can look ahead, one must look back. Our latest episode is no exception, with Steven and Ian reflecting on a year of excellent releases in the indie world to choose their ultimate top five. Featuring efforts from The 1975, Bartees Strange, Dogleg, Bob Dylan, and more, Steven and...

Something we can all agree upon is that it’s been far too long since we’ve heard live music in person. In 2020, recordings of live shows feel more relevant than ever, with the roar of a crowd imbuing nostalgia for a simpler time. This is the central focus of our latest episode, which finds Steven and Ian digging in to the swath of live albums that are on the docket for the remainder of the year, i...

This week, Steven and Ian are once again taking questions from listeners. One listener was interested in exploring the place of CDs in the modern music industry, both in terms of audio quality, as well as the best method of listening. The result is a spirited conversation about how CDs compare in quality to that of streaming and vinyl, and the sense of ownership that comes with holding in your han...

With Wilco’s 'Summerteeth' reissue coming later this month to (belatedly) celebrate its twentieth anniversary, Steven and Ian are looking back to 1999. While it might not have necessarily been a more  innocent  time, it was certainly a  simpler  time where teen pop and nu-metal ruled the radio waves and alternative rock was starting to become plain old indie rock. For...

This week's episode kicks off with a reader question asking for Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen's thoughts on the artists of the 2000's and 2010's that were hugely influential to the new crop of indie musicians coming out today. Each "scene" has its own central name, but Cohen is quick to assign roles of leadership to artists like Mac DeMarco, Frankie Cosmos, Alex G, and Title Fight. Hyden is also...

After quarantine set in, it wasn’t long before Adrianne Lenker got to work on some more music, opting for a solo project since she was unable to see her bandmates. While Big Thief apparently were able to reconvene and record a new album over the summer, Lenker has shared the result of her musical exploration at the beginning of quarantine, two new solo LPs titled 'songs' and 'instru...

Last week, Steven tweeted a call for questions from listeners that would inform the podcast's new episode, the first entry in a new feature on the show. The curious responses to Hyden's call were wide-reaching, ranging from questions the relevance of Foo Fighters in today's musical landscape to the realistic influence of alternative streaming platforms like Bandcamp.  Most interestingly, howe...

Released only a few weeks after Radiohead's 'Kid A,' Linkin Park's debut studio album 'Hybrid Theory' turns 20 this month. It featured four major singles ("One Step Closer", "In the End", "Crawling" and "Papercut") and has sold 27 million albums worldwide since its release, making it the best-selling debut album since Guns N' Roses' 1987 debut 'Appetite for Destruction,' and th...

It's hard to believe in retrospect, but many music critics in the early '90s assumed that bands who became popular after Nirvana could never last. After the success of Radiohead's "Creep," they were roped in with other bands that fizzled out after their one-hit-wonder, with many turning their noses up at the somewhat nerdy alternative rock outfit. Needless to say, those estimations couldn't have b...

On the new episode of  Indiecast , Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen dissect the new albums by two very successful indie acts who originated in the aughts: Sufjan Stevens’ 'The Ascension' and Fleet Foxes’ ' Shore '. While the rollout of 'The Ascension' took on a more traditional approach, the arrival of 'Shore' came as a surprise, with the release timed perfectly t...

This week, Steven and Ian make the argument that Deerhunter might be the last great American indie band. It’s an interesting claim, but one that makes more and more sense as the discussion continues. It all starts when the duo is digging deep into the band’s 2010 album  Halcyon Digest  in celebration of its tenth anniversary, when they reveal that Deerhunter is the last  band  ...

On the new episode of 'Indiecast,' Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen reflect on twenty years of Cameron Crowe's 'Almost Famous,' using their background as real-life music critics to examine the accuracy of the central plot (there is literally no way that a publicist would let you spend  several weeks  on the road with a band for a profile), the depiction of Lester Bangs, and whether Stillw...

With most of the year behind us, it's time to look forward to what we are expecting from the remaining months of 2020. In our fall music preview episode, Steven and Ian discuss upcoming projects from artists like A.G. Cook, Sufjan Stevens, Bartees Strange, Mary Lattimore, Matt Berninger, Deftones, Lana Del Rey, Idles, Touche Amore, Beabadoobee, and Respire. In addition to the albums Steven and Ian...

On the new episode of Indiecast , Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen look back to 2013, a pivotal year in recent indie history that saw the arrival of some of the biggest names in the genre, and the staying power of some of its veterans.  2013 brought the emergence of artists like Disclosure, Lorde, The 1975 and Haim. Vampire Weekend also dropped their seminal LP 'Modern Vampires Of The City' and Sky...

Bright Eyes and The Killers are both back with new albums. For Bright Eyes, 'Down In The Weeds, Where The World Once Was' is their first album in nearly a decade; for The Killers, 'Imploding The Mirage' is their first since the underwhelming 'Wonderful Wonderful' in 2017. On this week's episode of Indiecast, Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen sink their teeth into the new albums from these legacy indie ac...

Purple Noon , the new album from Washed Out, is the impetus for this week's episode of  Indiecast , which finds Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen digging into the rise and fall of the chillwave genre, starting and ending with Washed Out.  Purple Noon  is an album from a genre strongly associated with nostalgia, but also manages to provide nostalgia for... chillwave itself. In 2020, the gen...