At the start of this week’s episode, Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen try to come to terms with the fact that Ed Sheeran doesn’t think music critics are necessary. Ultimately, we concede that the man has a point — after all, if music critics had any power, Ed Sheeran would not be a hugely successful pop star.
In the banter segment, we talk about the upcoming tour by Smashing Pumpkins, Interpol and Stone Temple Pilots, which is like Pavement’s “Range Life” come to life. We also talk about the new album by The Hold Steady, The Price Of Progress, in which Steve wonders whether Ian might finally come around on his band and Ian suggests … that he might?
In our mailbag, a reader asks for our favorite sophomore albums. Can we interest you in a little record called Nevermind? How about The Bends? Actually, our letter writer stumps for Weekend In The City, because it is now Indiecast law that we mention Bloc Party in every episode. Finally, we get to the meat of the episode, in which we review two big spring indie releases by Lana Del Rey and Boygenius.
In Recommendation Corner, Ian talks about the American Football side project Lies, while Steve raves about the Irish folk (with a post-rock twist) band Lankum.
New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 132 here and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [email protected], 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.