You didn’t miss anything; check out 652 lose myself, 653 be ready, 654 sometimes i wonder, 655 tell you everything, 656 admit it, and 657 from afar.
Olivia Kaplan put out one of my favorite records of last year, Tonight Turns to Nothing (2021). I loved it for many reasons, among them the soft production by Adam Gunther and the Buck Meek electric guitar feature on “Wrong,” but by far the most arresting aspect of this record is the lyrical content. I saw her perform one of the singles “Still Strangers” last night, and I’m still thinking about the last verse:
And I drive you when I shouldn't
Back to your door
We just sat there laughing
With a classic hesitation
As to what's supposed to happen
And I know that you won't kiss me
And I don't want to come inside
If in the morning, we say it was nothing
But something we thought we should try
And we'd still be strangers
She also played her recent release “Sirens,” which is quickly becoming one of my favorite songs of 2022. The washed out opening and the way the guitar comes seeping in through the ambient sound in the first section makes the driving second verse so satisfying, I want to listen to it over and over again. My favorite thing about this song is a perfect line that she sings just as the sound is coming up, before it bursts:
You’re a thought
Not a leap of the heart
I used to keep a list of songs I wish I had written, but it got so long that it felt both depressing and also terrifying, the extent of my desire to be brilliant. There are a few songs in her discography that made the list, when it still existed, and “Sirens” would have as well. The writing gives it excellent bones, and features from Meg Duffy of Hand Habits, Sharon Van Etten’s drummer Jorge Balbi, and the producer of one of my favorite albums ever, I Was Born Swimming (2020) by Squirrel Flower, Gabe Wax, turn those bones into a body, full of life and longing.
Olivia has a show at the Silverlake Lounge next Friday, August 5. I will be there! You should be there too.
Broken Social Scene is a Canadian indie rock collective, which is different from a band in that there are sometimes six members and other times somewhere around twenty. I don’t care how many of them there are; the music is fantastic. Its members play in various other Canadian rock outfits such as Metric, Feist, and Stars, among others, and they’ve successfully navigated multiple decades as alternative legends without an ounce of negative press, perhaps something for American counterparts to note. They are one of the most influential groups on the development of indie rock in the nearly two decades since their masterpiece You Forgot It In People (2003) was released.
I was having a conversation recently with a friend in which we were attempting to catalog the most cutting-edge and therefore formative albums to the genre of “indie” or “alternative” that dominates music today. We landed on Funeral (2004) by Arcade Fire, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2001) by Wilco, and You Forgot It In People. While they don’t sound too dissimilar to later, more refined work, in the context of their respective release dates, they’re pioneering, visionary albums. Nothing before and everything after sounds like them.
Broken Social Scene received massive critical acclaim for You Forgot It In People when it was released. Pitchfork recently did a retrospective of the most influential artists of the past twenty five years, and Broken Social Scene made the cut. Their effusive 9.2 Best New Music review still rings true after all these years; it’s an album you just have to hear for yourself to understand the gravity of the production, the writing, the performance.
The song on this playlist, “Stars and Sons,” isn’t included in this KEXP set, but it’s worth watching if only to see how many people can fit on that tiny stage:
I realized I’ve yet to write anything about the new 1975 material: the single, the album release announcement, the feature on beabadoobee’s Beatopia (2022), the surprise Matty Healy appearance at Phoebe Bridgers’ O2 set. These guys are coming back in a big way. I quite like the breadth of “Part of the Band,” every genre and subject it covers in just around four minutes. While the lyrics border on too topical, full of what someone once called “cultural ephemera,” I’m holding out hope that the inclusion of such phrases as “vaccinistas” and “soy milk” are self-aware jabs at the band’s positionality of mainstream success in a world that is basically one big dumpster fire.
But fret not! Music is still good. Please comment your votes for most influential indie rock albums, and if you’re in LA, buy tickets to Olivia’s show. See you next week.
Not entirely sure if you count Mumford & Sons as indie rock, but Sigh No More in 2009 along with For Emma, Forever Ago by Bob Iver are massively influential on indie folk rock today
You know, the first album that came to mind — in addition to the great ones you mentioned — was 'Aha Shake Heartbreak' from Kings of Leon. That album had a Strokes-like energy and vibe that I think was wildly influential. Can't say I've enjoyed their later work, but that album is pretty great.