Month: August 2020

Like many whisky styles, there are plenty of misconceptions that newbies have surrounding scotch. The first is that you have to be a well-to-do, older type with a walrus-y grey mustache and gingham suit to enjoy the stuff. This is completely untrue — we’ve highlighted scotches perfectly suited for any palate and income this very week! Another is that Scotch isn’t for women. On top of being misogynistic (and intellectually boring), it’s totally laughable to think that a woman wouldn’t enjoy a high-quality dram. The third scotch myth is that all Scotch taste the same: smoky. This is just silly. Scotch whiskies vary based on ingredients, aging, where they were made and even the water used in the distilling process. Try drinking a glass of Bruichladdich followed by a glass of The Balvenie and try to tell us all scotches taste the same. You’ll be flabbergasted.

The final scotch misconception just might be the most damaging to the industry at large. It’s the willingness on behalf of the drinker to stick to single malts made only by the most well-known brands like Glenlivet, The Macallan, and Glenfiddich. Nonsense. There’s a wide world of brands and bottles that don’t get the same hype that these big names enjoy just waiting to be discovered by you.

Experiment! Riff! Try stuff! Compare!

In that intrepid spirit, I agreed to share my personal list of the “most under-hyped scotches on the market.” Unlike the Ultimate Spirits Challenge, this isn’t a bunch of tasters sequestered in a hotel for days on end. It’s just me, my palate, my personal sense memories, and what connected when I sipped it. Sláinte!

Glen Grant 10

ABV: 40%

Distillery Name: Glen Grant Distillery

Average Price: $50

The Story:

Like many distilleries, Glen Grant was founded in the 1800s. The specific year was 1840, and it was founded by former Aberlour employees, brothers John and James Grant. Its flagship whisky is Glen Grant 10. Matured for 10 years in American ex-bourbon oak casks, this Gold Medal winner at the San Francisco Spirits Competition also earned 95 points in Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible.

This is the kind of bottle everyone should know about it. Yet, they somehow don’t.

Tasting Notes:

Aging for a decade in casks that formerly held bourbon gives this Speyside single malt a rich vanilla template that is complimented by hints of sticky toffee pudding, dried cherries, and subtle autumnal spices.

Why it’s underrated:

Even though it’s won acclaim from the pros, it remains largely ignored by the average drinker.

AnCnoc 12

ABV: 43%

Distillery Name: Knockdhu Distillery

Average Price: $51.99

The Story:

It might be confusing that the whiskies from Knockdhu Distillery are caked AnCnoc. There’s a reason for this, though. The distillery was founded in 1893 and the whiskies carried the the name Knockdhu until 1994 when they were re-branded as AnCnoc to avoid confusion with the nearby Knockando Distillery.

The second name they chose means “the hill” Gaelic.

Tasting Notes:

This award-winning whisky is known for its light, soft, and very mellow flavor. You’ll be treated to indulgent chocolate, cinnamon, sweet vanilla, and sweet vanilla on the palate, with a final flourish of warming Christmas spices.

Why it’s underrated:

Much of the reason this bottle doesn’t get the hype it deserves is the name itself. Drinkers might be confused and turned off by the strange name, thereby dismissing this amazing expression.

Aberlour 12

ABV: 43%

Distillery Name: Aberlour Distillery

Average Price: $42.99

The Story:

Aberlour, founded in 1879, finds itself in the midst of a large number of distilleries (Cardhu, The Macallan, and Glenrothes to name a few) in Aberlour, Strathspey, Scotland. Its flagship bottle is its 12-year-old. It’s the best gateway into the malts from this distillery as it’s soft and smooth from double casks maturation is both American oak as well as seasoned sherry butts.

Tasting Notes:

The result of double aging is a mellow, perfectly balanced whisky with cocoa, vanilla, and sweet honey from the oak that’s complemented by the crisp apple, sweet dried fruits, and caramel from the sherry casks.

It all ends in a warming, velvety, subtly spicy finish that you won’t soon forget.

Why it’s underrated:

Aberlour has been cranking out high level offerings for over a century, but has always played second fiddle to the bigger names of the area.

Jura Seven Wood

ABV: 40%

Distillery Name: Isle of Jura Distillery

Average Price: $79.99

The Story:

While Islay gets all the press when it comes to island-based Scotch whisky. The nearby Isle of Jura and the aptly named Isle of Jura Distillery definitely shouldn’t be forgotten. Sure, you can grab a bottle of one of its aged expressions. But to truly immerse yourself in this island whisky, you have to purchase a bottle of Jura Seven Wood, a whisky blended from whiskies from seven different oak casks (including ex-bourbon American oak, Bertranges, Vosges, Allier, Jupilles, Troncais, and Limousin barrels).

Tasting Notes:

You might think mixing together whiskies from so many different types of barrels would muddle the flavors — but it actually creates a highly nuanced, complex whisky with hints of rich chocolate, subtly bitter espresso, cinnamon, ginger, dried fruits, and just a whiff of subtle smoke.

Why it’s underrated:

Jura’s biggest public relations problem is that it’s located on the wrong island. When people talk about island malts, they always mention the distillers of Islay and even Orkney, but sometimes forget Jura.

Speyburn 10

ABV: 40%

Distillery Name: Speyburn Distillery

Average Price: $36.99

The Story:

The Speyburn Distillery was founded in 1897 and (you guessed it) it’s located in the Speyburn region. How they managed to get the rights to name their distillery after a whole region, we’ll never know. Also, even with this name, the single malts from this distillery are often overlooked in favor of other distilleries.

Hear this now: An award-winning offering like Speyburn 10 shouldn’t be missed. No matter the reason.

Tasting Notes:

This gold medal winner at The San Francisco Spirits Competition gets its water from a tributary from the River Spey called Granty Burn. The folks at Speyburn believe this water is the reason for the high-quality of the juice. We tend to agree, but we only know what we taste and that’s orange zest, roasted, cinnamon sprinkled apples, star anise, and just a hint of smoky herbal flavor.

Why it’s underrated:

Speyburn 10 flies under the radar because of its price. Some people assume the juice inside is lower quality when they see the low price tag.

Craigellachie 13

ABV: 46%

Distillery Name: Craigellachie Distillery

Average Price: $59.99

The Story:

Craigellachie is known as the “bad boy of Speyside” because of its bold, rich, uncompromising offerings. Its flagship bottle is its 13-year-old. One of the various bottles first released in 2014, this non-chill filtered robust whisky is the perfect way to get started with some of the lesser-known Speyside malts while feeling like a rebel in the process. Because while the region is known for its fruity and sometimes floral malts, Craigellachie 13 is anything but.

Tasting Notes:

The original bad boy is robust and complex from aging in both ex-bourbon as well as ex-sherry barrels. The result is a bold whisky with hints of vanilla, rich honey, lingering caramel, dark fudge, and sweet cream that finishes with a subtly spicy kick.

Why it’s underrated: Part of the lack of hype surrounding Craigellachie is the fact that it just joined the market in 2014. Prior to then, the distillery made whiskey for blends almost exclusively.

If there’s anything to say about the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 And 2 demo, it’s that it knows what most fans want. The montage of skaters, new and old, doing tricks in real life plays while Rage Against The Machine’s “Guerilla Radio” fills your ears. The start menu for the Warehouse demo has Goldfinger’s “Superman.” It’s exactly what fans associate with the Tony Hawk series, and that original music coming back is a huge part of the buzz for the remastered edition of the skateboarding classics.

The first two Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater releases were good video games, but no one needs a port of a game that was first released in 1999. But a lot of the new, and how it works, will have to wait. We’ve seen much better visuals from the other elements of the game’s trailer, but the Warehouse demo — out on Friday for those who pre-ordered the game or bought a burrito — is the first chance we’ve had to see how THPS 1 And 2 will play, and it’s hard not to feel the immediate pull of nostalgia at play here.

The Warehouse is an extremely thin slice when it comes to a demo, which presents two potential avenues of thought. The first is that we’re so close to the release date that this is what the game is going to be, which is a faithful — if not overly nostalgic — recreation of the original games with some updated graphics and capabilities that will delight anyone who has played these levels and heard these songs before. The other possibility is more pessimistic: the rest of the game might not amount to much, and nostalgia is all the title has to offer.

Judging that for sure here is silly, but the most important thing here is that the Warehouse demo feels like a Tony Hawk game. The two original songs included in the demo bring an immediate smile, and the new ones — Billy Talent’s “Afraid of Heights” and “Lose Control” from Tyron Briggs — fit the mood of the game. The entire demo is playing a two-minute skate session with Tony Hawk, so the create-a-park and other customization options will have to wait. But the 900 and his big moves are there, and once your fingers dig up the control scheme from under the sands of time, you start to feel good about what you’re doing here.

Hearing the sound effects for hitting gaps and activating signature moves is a nice reminder that even if it’s a bit different, you’ve definitely played this game before. And it does have some new options to offer in the demo. There’s a subtle rewind effect of sorts that happens when you fall, allowing you to get on your board faster and also remind you that, yes, this is video game skateboarding after all. And while the demo’s features are limited, we do get a glimpse at some of the new tricks and trick mapping changes you can make if you’re feeling like some experimentation.

It’s hard to determine too much off a very limited demo, but the verdict for anyone who loved the first two games is that this appears to deliver on the concept of “remastering” some beloved classics. The game played mostly clean and it just felt good to be back in the Warehouse again. If the rest of the game can match the familiarity and ease the demo had in bringing back those good feelings, get ready to go hunting for a lot of SKATE tapes next month.

One of the first movies to get a “quarantine bump,” so to speak, was Five Feet Apart. The 2019 weepie drama, about two hospital patients with cystic fibrosis who must stay six feet apart to reduce the risk of infection (hence its resurgence), wasn’t very good. But it doing well at the box office last year and on digital this March/April was a good thing, because it exposed more people to the delightful Haley Lu Richardson. You might know her from Split, or The Edge of Seventeen, or Columbus, or Support the Girls, but if you don’t, add them all to your watchlist before her new movie comes out on HBO Max next month.

Directed by Rachel Lee Goldenberg, Unpregnant follows a pregnant teenage girl (Richardon) who travels with her former-best friend (Euphoria‘s Barbie Ferreira) from Missouri to New Mexico to get an abortion. Along the way, they get entangled with the cops over a stolen car, ask Giancarlo Esposito (Gus Fring!) for help, and try to do that thing from movies where you jump onto a moving train. It’s not as easy as it looks.

Here’s the official plot synopsis:

Unpregnant tells the story of seventeen-year-old Veronica, who never thought she’d want to fail a test — that is, until she finds herself staring at a piece of plastic with two solid pink lines. With a promising college-bound future now disappearing before her eyes, Veronica considers a decision she never imagined she’d have to make. This tough and never-taken-lightly decision leads her on a 900-plus mile road trip to New Mexico over three days with her ex-best friend Bailey, where they discover that one of the most important factors in your life is who your friends are.

Unpregnant premieres on September 10 on HBO Max.

Back in January, Rob Lowe went to the NFC Championship Game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Green Bay Packers. He dressed for the occasion by wearing a black hat that had the NFL logo on it, which led to a bunch of people getting a whole lot of jokes off via social media and Lowe making the obvious Chris Traeger joke about the entire thing.

Lowe is a sports fan, and it turns out that another major American league wanted to take out a bit of real estate on top of his head. Lowe appeared on the Talkin’ Baseball podcast alongside his son, Matt, and explained that Major League Baseball used two-day shipping to get him a league hat after the cameo.

“I do!” Lowe said when he was asked about whether he has an MLB hat. “I almost [wore it]. I can go get it. I have an MLB … literally within 48 hours of wearing that hat, the MLB sent me their version of it. I have it in my closet.”

As he mentioned, Lowe was not wearing that hat during his podcast cameo. Instead, he opted to go with a hat that he has worn recently that spoofs the Houston Astros logo by putting an asterisk behind the “H,” in reference to the team’s sign-stealing scandal.

In April, Yves Tumor dropped Heaven To A Tortured Mind, which is one of the most critically acclaimed albums of the year so far (including by Uproxx). Now the experimental artist is continuing to drop terrific work stemming from the album with a new visual for “Strawberry Privilege.”

It’s technically a lyric video, but this one is more than just words on a screen. The clip stars Tumor and Julie Cumming (who sings on the song) and was directed by Jordan Hemingway and Collin Fletcher. As the lyrics flash on the screen, they are accompanied by colorful and distorted videos of the two vocalists, making for a psychedelic experience overall.

The clip also arrives alongside exclusive new Merch that Tumor is selling on their Bandcamp page. Additionally, Tumor is also the subject of a new Highsnobiety feature that published today, for which they were painted by Ssion’s Cody Critcheloe. The paintings were presented with a piece of text written by poet and musician James Massiah.

In July, Tumor shared something called Anonymous Club, the website for which reads, “Anonymous exists to be a machine for inspiration. A machine that brings dreams to life and shapes pop culture. Anonymous is a platform for sound and culture It is a machine for inspiration. […] Anonymous helps artists create their work by helping them occupy their ideal world. We imagine a place where things are possible in order to make them more possible. We promote fantasies to inspire others, we make them real to inspire ourselves. […] Anonymous was created in order to fill an empty space in culture. Anonymous operates instinctually, going where it feels needed and allowing ideas to evolve organically and become what they’re meant to be.”

Watch the “Strawberry Privilege” video above and revisit our review of Heaven To A Tortured Mind here.

Amber Bain has been making music under the moniker The Japanese House since she released her debut EP back in 2015 but it wasn’t until last year that the singer released her acclaimed debut album, Good At Falling. Bain has been working on new music since and is now releasing a new EP along with the focus track “Dionne,” which features Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon.

On the atmospheric track, Bain’s voice croons over soaring synths and a driving beat. “I know it’s not very sexy when somebody loves you this much and knows you this well / But that the way it is,” she sings. Vernon’s voice arrives at the intricately layered chorus with a washed-out vocal track crumbling under crashing snares.

Speaking to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe about how the collaboration came to be, Bain said she was honored by Vernon’s verse because his music has been of great influence to her:

“It’s kind of crazy because I’m obviously a massive, massive fan of his music, I have been since he released that first album. I think there’s certain moments in your career where you have to part of how magic it is, is you have to say to yourself imagine telling yourself that this is going to happen 10 years ago, I wouldn’t be able to believe it. Almost, I can’t wait for my friends from school that he was friends with, we loved Bon Iver to hear this song. It’s just madness. It’s really nice to still have that feeling of being amazed and feel there’s something really special and magical. I guess there are certain things when you’ve been a musician and you can play a big venue and then the next time you play a big venue doesn’t feel the same. But with this, it’s just I still feel like a teenage girl, just like myself.”

Listen to “Dionne” above and find The Japanese House’s Chewing Cotton Wool tracklist below.

1. “Sharing Beds”
2. “Something Has To Change”
3. “Dionne”
4. “Chewing Cotton Wool”

Chewing Cotton Wool is out now via Dirty Hit Records. Get it here.

I can’t lie; when Cardi B says “I want you touch that little dangly thing that swings from the back of my throat” on “WAP,” I did a double take. I chuckled. I even rolled my eyes a little. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great line. It’s just that I’ve heard worse — much worse — over the course of my years on Earth listening to hip-hop music. Which is why watching so many people — Republicans, reality television stars, random commenters on Twitter, and this idiot — grabbing their rosaries and clutching their pearls over the content on “WAP” has been a disconcerting experience for me.

In November last year, Chicago rapper Dreezy instructed listeners, “When he hit it doggystyle, grab his balls from the back” on Hitmaka’s ladies-only “Thot Box” remix. Less than six months later, City Girls’ JT boasted, “This pussy so ghetto, this pussy speak ebonics” on a song called “Pussy Talk.” Just about two weeks ago, on “Muwop” — what may prove to be the introductory song of her career for new listeners after her appearance on XXL‘s Freshman cover — Mulatto co-opted the hook from Gucci Mane’s 2007 hit “Freaky Gurl” 13 years later: “Make him give me brain in the front seat of the Hummer.”

I say this to say: Raunchy raps are hardly unexplored terrain in the world of hip-hop — especially for women, who often rebut complaints about their content with reminders that they’re just keeping up with the fellas. In the continuum of raw, filth-filled freestyles and salacious soliloquies, “WAP” does occupy an unprecedented nexus. It’s really the first time — at least, it’s the first time in a long time — that such unfiltered references to sexual escapades have come from the top-selling artists in the field and especially without the benefit of innuendo or double entendre.

On “WAP,” Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion explain in detail all that they plan on doing to their paramours and expect in return. In Cardi’s verses alone, she promises to “do a kegel while it’s inside,” roleplay with disguises, and gag during fellatio with the aforementioned uvula action entailed. But where critics of the song — which even includes US congressional candidates — are mistaken in their objections is their insistence that “it’s gotten worse” or that it never has been. Their comparisons to more respectable MCs miss the mark as it becomes clear they haven’t really paid close attention to these alternatives or to the history of rap as a whole.

You certainly can compare Cardi to her immediate predecessor on the raunchy rap throne, Nicki Minaj. Before this year, the Queens rapper’s biggest hit to date was “Anaconda,” a direct reference to the size of her lover’s junk. A sample bar: “Let him eat it with his grills and he tellin’ me to chill.” Before that, Nicki dedicated lines on previous hits like her verse on Big Sean’s “Dance (A$$)” remix to requests for directions to the “best ass eater” and promises to “bust this pussy open in the islands of Waikiki.”

“What about Missy Elliott?” You may protest. As the next in the lineage of tremendous stars with near-universal pop appeal, Missy kept her image as squeaky-clean as Nicki’s hoo-hah in “Dance,” right? Get serious. Have you listened to Missy Elliott’s No. 1 hit single “Work It?” Did you think it was about a job? Were you so focusing on deciphering the reversed section of the hook that you missed Missy’s command to let her “search ya” if you “got a big [elephant trumpet]?” Maybe you forgot about Missy’s dismissal of the one-pump chump on “One Minute Man” or weren’t yet of age to truly grasp what “getting ur freak on” truly meant.

And let’s not forget that while all this was going on, women like Khia, Shawnna, and Trina were telling anyone old enough to turn on a radio when, where, and how they wanted to get down and dirty. Khia’s “My Neck, My Back,” released in April 2002, was a moderate hit, peaking at No.42 on the Hot 100 with a chorus that said, explicitly, “My neck, my back, lick my pussy and my crack.” Shawnna appeared alongside Ludacris, king of rapid-fire, raunchy raps, on songs like “What’s Your Fantasy,” and “P-Poppin‘” — and we all know what the “P” stands for. Her own biggest hit interpolated Too Short’s demands for oral; “Gettin’ Some” went platinum in six months. Shawnna is also one of only nine women in the history of rap to reach No.1 on the Hot 100.

Trina, meanwhile, is considered a whole racy genre unto herself, filling her lyrics with lines that could make even a professional sex worker blush — or work that much harder. Her single “Pull Over” from debut album Da Baddest Bitch guarantees she’ll “Slip him off the bed, throw him on the floor / Turn on the cameras start the freak show.” In the self-titled lead single, Trina even nasty-brags “I make him eat it while my period on.” The worst part? She’s not even the only female rapper to make this boast, with Rah Digga throwing in a menstrual punchline on her own debut album Dirty Harriet just a month after Da Baddest Bitch‘s release.

You may have noticed we haven’t even gotten to Lil Kim or Foxy Brown yet, largely credited as the originators of the raunchy rap style (Kim more so than Fox). Tell you what, you can have “Magic Stick,” as a treat. The point is, “WAP” is in no way novel or a huge departure from a tradition of buttoned-up, bars-first, housewife-able female rappers in the vein of MC Lyte — who also has her share of sex bars, to be honest — or Rapsody (ditto). That’s to say nothing of all the men who told women that it “Ain’t No Fun” if the homies can’t have some (a song whose radio version is basically just an instrumental) or to “Get Low,” or to “run girl, I’m tryna get your body wet” (the clean version of David Banner’s “Play“), or to “Put It In Your Mouth.”

From the aforementioned Akinyele to Too Short to Juicy J to Ludacris to The Notorious B.I.G., men’s sexually explicit raps breeze by with nary a comment. It’s when women try to take back some of their agency in these fantasies that concerns about “the example we’re setting for our children” reach the volume they have in the past week or so. The comparisons to “respectable” female rappers fall short and get batted down artists like Noname and Chika, who post their own tawdry bars in response to quell those fallacious arguments. And rap’s history of celebrating uninhibited women looms over it all, reminding us that before there Megan and Cardi came up with their catchy acronym, the women of hip-hop have been proudly praising the power of the P all along.

Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

In the same podcast where Justin Long relayed the story about Adam Sandler explaining to him why his Drew Barrymore rom-com bombed, guest Charlie Day also spoke about his experiences on the set of Going the Distance. It was still early on during Charlie’s days at It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, so Going the Distance was actually his first studio film. Before that it was all “unwatchable horror films.” And fun fact: Charlie Day’s wife and Sunny co-star, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, also had a bit in Going the Distance with Chris Pratt, of all people, but their part got cut from the film.

In any respect, Day — who refused to audition for the role because he knew everyone wanted him for it — had a great time on the set and ended up befriending his future Horrible Bosses co-star, Jason Sudeikis. “It was fun,” Charlie Day told Justin Long on the podcast, “because we’d shoot all day and go out and party at night.” He then relayed one of his favorite memories from working on the Going the Distance set, and it involved Drew Barrymore punching a co-star.

“We were hanging out [at the hotel bar], and we’d been drinking a lot. And there’s a female actress who was in the movie — I won’t name names — and somehow she got in her head that she wanted to have a punching contest with Drew [Barrymore]. I don’t know how or why she got this idea, but out of the blue, she’s like, ‘Let’s have a punching contest. And I’m thinking she’s very young [and over her head] and Drew is going to kill this girl.

“So, Drew was like, ‘Yeah. This sounds f**king great. And she’s like, ‘Go ahead, punch my arm.’ So, the girl punched Drew’s arm and she’s like, ‘Oh, pretty good.’

“And then it was Drew’s turn.

“Drew punched this girl so hard in the arm that, from her shoulder to her elbow, in like 45 minutes, she had a bruise that looked exactly like Africa. It was the most well-defined bruise — you could navigate a ship in the ocean according to this bruise. It was instantaneous. I have never seen a body do that so quickly … she is lucky she didn’t break that giant arm bone.”

Charile Day does not name who the actress is, obviously, but the “young” actresses in that film were Kelli Garner and Natalie Morales, FYI. Meanwhile, here is that deleted scene between Chris Pratt and Mary Beth Ellis, who play a married couple that hates each other, separated on a plane by Drew Barrymore’s character. Maybe deleting this scene is why it bombed!

Source: Life Is Short with Justin Long

There have been rumors in recent days that Kanye West’s presidential campaign has received support from powerful Republicans who believe his candidacy could draw votes away from Joe Biden and help Donald Trump get re-elected. However, based on a new poll from Politico/Morning Consult, it doesn’t look like Kanye will sway the election that much either way.

In the poll of registered voters, Kanye earned just two percent of the votes overall, and only two percent of votes among Black voters. Furthermore, Biden’s 9-point national lead over Trump is unaffected by Kanye’s presence, as his lead remains the same whether or not Kanye is on the ballot. Kanye performed so poorly in this poll that he actually finished 7 points behind “no opinion.”

Ron Christie, a Black Republican strategist and former aide to Dick Cheney, told Politico of Kanye’s campaign, “I think a lot of people of color view Kanye’s bid for the presidency as a quixotic one, and they don’t see him as being legitimate for the office. It’s more of yet another Kanye publicity stunt. Democrats traditionally get 90-plus percent of the black vote. I think a lot of people are going to look at Kanye and just say, ‘I don’t think so.’”

This morning, Kanye revealed that he is “starting Plan A,” which, for the sake of his White House dreams, is hopefully something that makes him a more appealing candidate.

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

“I think if you go three records back, we were an emo band,” John Rossiter says. We’ve reached the inevitable part of our interview where the 31-year-old Young Jesus frontman is asked to place his group in a particular scene, and I can sense his discomfort. My seemingly simple, straightforward question is surprisingly difficult to answer for a band whose incredible new album, Welcome To Conceptual Beach, covers enough sonic ground to encompass Sigur Ròs, Sun Ra, the Dave Matthews Band, and numerous points between and beyond those acts.

No, there’s nothing “simple” about Young Jesus. Nor should there be.

“Sometimes the genre tropes of emo and indie rock can be a bit suffocating to us, so we just never paid attention to it,” he says, in a shy, earnest voice that can’t quite conceal the justifiable pride he has in Welcome To Conceptual Beach, hands down one of 2020’s best and most exciting indie-rock records. At a time when many artists seem content to mine the same relatively narrow sonic and thematic terrains of long-established archetypes — “the punk band,” “the confessional singer-songwriter,” “the indie-pop star” — Young Jesus strikes out with an uncommonly bold sound that aspires to the overpowering emotional directness of indie’s grandest classics from the ’90s and ’00s, while also exploring experimental, even esoteric instrumental textures deriving from jazz-inspired improvisations that often push their songs past the 10-minute mark.

Which is to say, Welcome To Conceptual Beach has the gut-level drive of watersheds like The Lonesome Crowded West or In The Aeroplane Over The Sea without relying upon the familiar indie-rock tropes those records codified. In fact, one of the most profound pleasures of Young Jesus — which formed in the aughts when Rossiter was in high school, cycling through different members before solidifying with its present lineup of bassist Marcel Borbon, drummer Kern Haug, and keyboardist Eric Shervrin three years ago in Los Angeles — is how unpredictable this band can be. Songs have a way of transmogrifying. The album-opening “Faith” drifts into a visceral math-rock breakdown before shifting to a disquieting, Pink Floyd-style space-rock jam. “Meditations” similarly lurches like a surly woolly mammoth with meandering Spiderland guitars cut with a mystical flute, until the tempo suddenly shifts at the midpoint and the song becomes a furious rocker. “Pattern Doubt” is among the tracks that largely ditch guitars in favor of an acid-jazz saxophone and fluttery keyboards inspired by Alice Coltrane. Later, on the 11-minute epic “Lark,” the beauty melts away from a barrage of free-form noise before the song regains an anthemic, stately splendor.

“There are, of course, moments that are very emotional, and very indie sounding, but we’re not trying to write a song in any genre,” Rossiter says. We’re just being where the four of us go, because we each come from such different musical backgrounds. We just go wherever it’s going to go, and we really thrive in that space.”

Two years ago, I called Young Jesus “one of the most adventurous young indie rock bands.” Today, I wouldn’t qualify that statement — no other indie band right now mixes the visceral and the intellectual as well as this group. I don’t expect to feel as flat-out exhilarated by the possibilities of an indie-rock album this year as I am by Welcome To Conceptual Beach. It is truly a special album.

In a recent phone interview, Rossiter explained how Young Jesus got here.

You’ve described the “conceptual beach” idea as a kind of mental refuge for yourself that goes beyond just this album. What exactly does it mean to you?

Gosh, it’s such a big thing for me, so it’s hard to put it into words. I started it probably about six years ago now, just making a few zines, and giving those out on tour. Every day, I would wake up before work, and write as if I was this post on Conceptual Beach. So it became a kind of diary, where I could become a character — as it turns out, is really helpful for sorting out your own health and psychology and soul, to be able to separate yourself out a little bit into different figures. It would really help me sort through my feelings, anger, guilt, sadness, shame, unworthiness, creativity, joy. At that point in time, I was living really deeply in my own mind, and that’s a really isolating place to be. So it helped me dive into the heart of that. This record, I hope, is my life opening up a little bit, and leaving my mind, joining a community, and being more in my body.

That goal to be more in your body seems tied with the band’s focus on improvisation, which is really about trying to live in the moment musically.

Kern, our drummer, sent us on that path as a group. He really loves musicians like Sun Ra, Anthony Braxton, The Fall, Bill Orcutt, and on and on. But he especially loves Sun Ra. He’s almost a scholar. He has a weekly radio show, where he just talks about Sun Ra. He taught a couple of college classes on him. Him bringing that element really was special, and it changed my life, because it allows you to participate in music, and if you view it from a certain angle, there are no rules. You can do anything. The only thing that you can really assess improvisation with is, are the musicians present with each other? Are they listening to each other? Are they taking risks, and embracing each other’s risks and mistakes and successes, and actively framing it together? It’s this shape that you’re constantly making as a group. And you can’t control it. When it’s at its most beautiful, you’re sort of transmitting that moment, rather than exerting control over it.

I remember the last time I talked to you, you were talking about Derek Bailey and his book, Improvisation, and about how, even when you feel like you failed, that you’re not really failing, because you’re going to a place that you wouldn’t have gone otherwise.

One thing I’ve really struggled with my whole life is the act of really learning. I think of learning as reading a book and then you know something. But learning is a really complicated, difficult process, that is mostly based on experience. And a lot of those experiences are uncomfortable, because you’ve never had them before, and you don’t have the mental capacity yet to be comfortable with it. You’re in a whole new land. If we can develop the skills to greet a moment that is new, and can shake your foundation, you can’t … or at least I can’t figure out an exact response to that will always make life okay. Which is what I’ve wanted for a long time. Like, oh, if only I can figure out a certain way to respond, I’ll be good. That never works. What has helped has been like, oh, can I monitor my feelings? Can I be present as this is happening? And can I ask other people how they’re feeling as it’s happening? Improvisation is about that. It’s all questions. All you’re doing is asking questions with your instrument.

It’s interesting we’re talking so much about community given that these times we’re in right now are very isolating. How are you dealing with that?

I’ve been making music. Eric’s been making music, Kern’s doing his radio show. Marcel’s been recording. It’s been — this is not unique to me — a super up and down experience. Each day, each moment feels really different. All my emotions feel heightened, and to be isolated can be really hard. I think I’m just getting out of the reactive phase of that, which is like, “Oh, this is all overwhelming, and so much is happening.” And moving towards like, “Oh, there are creative ways to engage with this, and there are opportunities here.”

I have to stretch and meditate every single day, or else I’ll lose my mind. And I have started dancing to far out jazz records, and Grateful Dead records, so that I can just move some of this through my body. And that really helped.

When I first heard Welcome To Conceptual Beach, I was struck by the vocals. You’ve changed up your style quite a bit — it’s more of a crooner style that reminded me of Jeff Buckley and Anohni. How did you hit upon that?

I’m so glad you picked that up. Anohni and Jeff Buckley are two major touchstones for this record. Because I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, and raised Episcopalian, and very modest and humble, I learned to cut myself down a lot. On this record, I started to realize that attitude really doesn’t serve our music very well. The way Kern and Marcel and Eric are playing is very confident, and they really believe in themselves as musicians, because they’re very talented. They work on it a lot. So for me, I realized, I really could just believe in myself more, and love my voice a little bit more, and really go into it. So there’s a lot less screaming on the record, and a lot more singing. And it’s brought me a lot of joy, because just using my voice as an instrument, I think that is in parallel with me learning to love my body more. Because your voice is such an embodied thing.

Anohni and Jeff Buckley, they lean into who they are a lot, and it’s beautiful. And that’s what I think people respond to, how vulnerable they are, and how powerful that vulnerability is. I started to feel like I had that same something within me, when I really believe in myself.

Was it difficult to get to that place where you felt comfortable taking more chances, vocally?

Yes. I share this because I hope there are kids that experienced something similar: When I started playing in this band, 12 years ago, I would sing about two feet away from the mic, and no one could hear it. We were playing to about five people at bars in Chicago that would let underage kids play shows. And we would literally have to sit outside of the venue until our set, and then they’d be like, “Okay, you guys are allowed to come in to play, then you have to leave.” But I was terrified. I’ve always been a really shy performer. And for some reason, I just felt I had to keep doing it, because it would unlock something in me. I’m sure it’s the same thing with writing about music, that you start, being like, “Oh my gosh, this is so … how could I ever publish this?” And then all of a sudden, you’re not filtering it so much through your mind. You’re more just letting yourself go and do it in the great moments. But it takes a lot of time.

You’ve also really branched out sonically beyond being a guitar-bass-drums rock band. I really love the song “Pattern Doubt,” which has a beautiful saxophone part and this fantastic fluttery keyboard sound.

That song in particular is such a good reference, because it gets at some of the key ways in which we’ve matured as a band and become more comfortable. The sax player and flute player on the record, Brian Tuley, Marcel played with in a ska band in high school with, called the RidicuLites. They’re both still ska people, but Brian is also this great jazz musician. He has such an ear for melody that he just kind of stepped in the first take and laid down that opening melody for “Pattern Doubt.”

That song is the meeting point of past and future and present for the band. If I’m going to be totally honest, I’ve been afraid to reference certain things that might be are too poppy, or what I would deem embarrassing. I didn’t want to share that I would listen to certain music when I was younger. Or even now, that I still listen to it, unless it’s in an ironic or sarcastic way, so I can still appear cool. Now I feel really comfortable with the fact that the sax line in “Pattern Doubt” is directly connected to the crazy amount of Dave Matthews Band I listened to as a 10 to 14 year old. And that the keyboard line is very much influenced by Alice Coltrane I’ve been listening to in the past three years of my life, and that Eric’s been getting into. They’re both really important. One’s not inherently better than the other in my life. And they weave this really rich musical tapestry that, in some ways, I have been ignoring.

It brings me a lot of joy, because it’s not a judgmental record. It’s not asking anyone to come to it with a really developed, pretentious palate. It’s like, “Join us anywhere you’re at.” I think there are access points. That’s why it’s called Welcome To Conceptual Beach. I believe they’re a lot more inviting.

Welcome To Conceptual Beach is out Friday via Saddle Creek. Get it here.