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 instrumentals. On the new episode of Indiecast, Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen dig into the lore around Lenker and her band Big Thief, as well as their prolific and acclaimed output over the last few years. The conversation centers around one central question: is Big Thief is a band or just a front for Lenker?
The episode’s second half is focused on Fake It Flowers, the debut album from 20-year-old rocker Beabadoobee. With catchy songs and big choruses, Hyden argues that Beabadoobee’s debut album solidifies her role in the modern indie rock canon as Stone Temple Pilots, where Soccer Mommy is Nirvana and Clairo is Pearl Jam.
In this week’s Recommendation Corner, Cohen is looking to the ’90s and plugging Ida’s 1996 album I Know About You, while Hyden is digging Optimisme, the new album from Songhoy Blues.
New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 13 below and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts here. Stay up to date and follow us on Instagram and Twitter.