Stop your blog buzz – even if deserved – about Adrianne Lenker. The WaxahatcheeTigers Blood album is hitting on every level as a Top 10 album of 2024. Both Lenker and Katie Crutchfield play Salt Lake City in the next 75 days, so we can compare their live shows side-by-side. But I’ve compared their studio releases and Tigers Blood is top shelf.
Waxahatchee Tigers Blood album echoes Kevin Morby, Kathleen Edwards
Tigers Blood ranges between southern rock and more traditional alt country, with traditional country instrumentation. It has a consistent driven sound and attitude that Crutchfield said was intentional. The WaxahatcheeTigers Blood album is a change up from what she felt was Saint Cloud’smore feminine approach.
I kept saying I wanted the look of this record to be a high-femme version of a dude in a bar band. I’m still figuring out what that means to me, but that’s where the record cover look comes from.
(Should I apologize for quote graphing a Vogue profile?) (Or is it graph quoting?)
Kevin Morby doesn’t sound like a dude in a bar band but his girlfriend has sure been listening to his records.
Crutchfield and the indie icon have been dating basically forever. You can’t NOT hear Morby’s influence listening to Crutchfield’s vocals turn to a stage whisper on “Bored.” The lyrics and vocals nearly sound like a single from This is a Photograph.
More remarkable than Crutchfield’s resonance with her boo are the vocal runs and sad sack lyrics that reach back 30 years to Kathleen Edwards and her albums Failer and Back to Me. Edwards, in turn, clearly grew up on Freedy Johnston records. You can hear them both on the WaxahatcheeTigers Blood relationship dirge “Crowbar.”
Notably, Crutchfield has played a number of times with Lucinda Williams and Sheryl Crow (I think you can hear Crow’s Americana here, too) but not with the semi-retired Edwards.
Crutchfield croons on “Right Back To It”
You could drop almost any song from Tigers Blood here to show off the body of work Waxahatchee has poured into this record. The run of songs from “Right Back To It” to “Crowbar” are superb, every song is a single. Then you get Crutchfield’s vibrato and the gang vocals to close on the title track “Tigers Blood” (a kind of snow cone Crutchfield grew up on. Strawberry and coconut mixed together, for the record.)
I’m not a music video fan but it is fun to see Crutchfield and Lenderman boating on swampy Lake Caddo on the Texas-Louisiana border on “Right Back To It.” I’m not sure Lenderman was having fun or maybe he’s just a poor actor. Dude couldn’t be bothered to actually pretend he was driving the boat.
This is Crutchfield’s favorite song on the record, a love song for Morby, and the original single.
Hear Waxahatchee and Adrianne Lenker in Salt Lake City before July!
I just bought my tickets to hear the Waxahatchee Tigers Blood release in full at The Depot in Salt Lake City. The night is going to be rocking and the stage, full.
If you’re hoping to catch a glimpse of guitarist, backing vocalist and duet partner MJ Lendermanyou’ll probably be disappointed. But the star of alt country darlings Wednesday, who played last year’s Kilby Block Party will make a few cameos on the tour.
No sooner will the WaxahatcheeTigers Blood tour leave Salt Lake than the previously mentioned Adrianne Lenker will appear in June, also at The Depot. Verified resale tickets for Lenker, who is sold out, are going for $100, about three times Crutchfield’s program. And appropriately so, Lenker’s Bright Future (released on the SAME DAY as Tigers Blood) is an instant classic.
Would I have preferred to post my best indie albums 2023 list four or five weeks ago. Yes. Yes, I would. Am I losing sleep over it? No. It simply has low cultural relevance now.
I had most of these 20 records scratched onto a cute, pink “Mom’s To Do List” note pad at the end of the year. But one distraction lead to another and I didn’t sit down to start writing until February 1st. But get off my back already — this is the best 2023 album list you’ll read the entire month of February!
Best indie albums 2023: A few ground rules
Per tradition, here are some ground rules for my best indie albums 2023 year end list. I over-index on releases that are cohesive statements. Also, not much appeals to me about Important records with a capital “I.” Unless I’m going to come back and listen to an album over and over again, it’s just a curiosity. Finally, for some reason this year I was really listening for bands trying to do something new under the sun.
So read a little about these albums and listen to a song from each record. If you dig it, listen to a few more songs. Link to the release and buy it. All on one indispensable website, because I love you.
I have five weeks of music in 2024 to catch up on, so let’s do this.
20. Lael Neale – Star Eaters Delight
The Shenandoah Valley’s favorite daughter, Lael Neale writes spacious chamber pop. Star Eaters Delight is Neale’s second record for Sub Pop Records. She also moved back to her family farm during the Corona, uses a flip phone and may churn her own butter.
Gaz Coombes’Turn the Car Around was the first album I bought last year. The compositions are rich and impeccable. Many songs on Turn the Car Around are a perfect stylistic mashup of Elbow and Radiohead. “Long Live the Strange” could absolutely be a takeout from Leaders of the Free World.
Gaz Coombes – “Long Live the Strange” (Turn the Car Around)
…in which I forfeit any alternative street cred? I don’t know but he earned a collaboration with Beck so back off. It can be so easy to forget that music like JAWNY’s debut can still be fun. Rock should be intense sometimes, loud almost always…but when did we lose our joy? Loosen up people!
Buy It’s Never Fair, Always True at Bandcamp. Or snag a JAWNY French Toast Tee at his website.
16. Shame – Food for Worms
To hear Food for Worm is to be reminded of the seminal London Calling. Shame swings for the fences again, turning post-punk into something fresh and vital. Instead of The Clash’s experiments with ska and world beats, Shame employs spikey rhythms on Food for Worms.
Not surprising, their third album is best played at ear-crushing decibels. Bump the VU on the arena-worthy chorus of album highlight “Adderall.”
If the Get Up Sequences had come out in 2003 or 2004 instead of Thunder, Lightning, Strike we would be heralding it as revelation. That Ian Parton and Ninja can create these surfy playground grooves 20 years later is a testament to their continuing genius.
14. Buddhist Bubblegum – What We Know and What We Believe
Allow me to introduce you to Slovenia’s premier dream pop band, Buddhist Bubblegum. Last year, Wiktor Szotowski released the divine single “Merry-Go-Round,” a label split with mysterious KC musician Wiggly and announced his 2023 album. It is a dreamy, psychedelic pop triumph.
Grian Chatten’s solo debut reminds me a lot of Billy Bragg’s raw populist energy. Chatten stepped away from Fontaines D.C. to produce an intimate record that ranges between chamber folk and more classic barroom pop. “Salt Throwers” nearly sounds like an Irish standard.
What’s not to like about the Young Fathers’ fourth mashup, Heavy Heavy? Maybe the fact you’re SUPPOSED to like it? Fair enough. But you’ll find plenty here to like here, in “Rice,” “Ululation,” “Sink or Swim” and “Holy Moly.” Young Fathers are always at their best with the throttle wide open.
On Javelin, Sufjan Stevens seeks to answer the question, “Can you overuse child choir backing vocals effect on a single album. The answer, for Stevens, is a resounding, “No.” Never precious, Javelin is the kind of life affirming record you have to be dead inside not to enjoy.
10. Slaughter Beach, Dog – Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling
Slaughter Beach, Dog and Modern Baseball have not been part of my musical journey. So when I listened to Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling I didn’t hear “emo,” a descriptor I read in several places. I found it an endearing, dusty alt country gem I couldn’t resist.
This year’s tastiest jangle pop, Glasgow’s U.S. Highball, also comes from Lame-O Records. I was frankly taken aback by No Thievery, Just Cool, which was such a dramatic leap from 2022’s more twee A Crosshead Park of the Mind. Every song is a single; every musical idea, perfectly composed indie pop.
It’s a lot to expect Jason Isbell to live up to the legacy of the Drive-By Truckers as well as his seminal solo album Southeastern. While I feel Isbell still tends to sing-shout in abrasive ways on Weathervanes, the songcraft and stories are remarkable. Sprawling arrangements like “This Ain’t It” rival his best work.
Shana Cleveland’sManzanita is a bewitching concoction of dream pop, slithering psych folk and pedal steel. “Quick Winter Sun,” “Bonanza Freeze” and “Gold Winter” feel like Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd. It’s a shame the La Luz singer hasn’t received more recognition for the shimmering Manzanita.
A big regret from 2023 was not getting to see Wednesday at the Kilby Block Party. I did walk past the stage after a competing concert and heard Karly Hartzman screaming like she was being stabbed to death. Rat Saw God could have been a #1 record for me, but limps home a bit on the last two cuts.
Madrid’s Aiko El Grupo start my Top 5 with a delirious album of power pop. Just noisy enough to be crunchy but never too much to derail the choruses you sing at the top of your lungs. Me Están Apuntando Con Un Arma is one of many reasons to follow the redoubtable Spanish record label Elefant.
Florry has been the Little Band That Could for me this year. While I enjoyed January’s Sweet Guitar Solos EP, I had no idea Francie Medosch et al would produce such a provoking, ramshackle alt country gem. Every cut on The Holey Bible is a rocking, drunken hootenanny. At the Urban Lounge March 5 woot!
3. Yves Tumor – Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds)
I have a lot of questions about Yves Tumor. What exactly do I call their ecstatic brand of psych rock? Will Sean Bowie DJ their set at Kilby Court this May or will instruments happen? Despite the arch pretentiousness of the title, Praise a Lord Who Chews is full of melody and a sure bet for Decade End lists.
What an unexpected delight Angel Numbers has been! Barely a hint of irony…just THAT VOICE and a stirring collection of pop songs about love and sex. Each time I returned to this Hamish Hawk record, I thought, “Oh I’ll find it a bit dull now.” Not once! Timeless!
After the Magic is an absolute fever dream of shoegaze and electronica scenescapes bursting with angst. Justin Broadrick’s experimental shoegazers Jesu are in the same zip code. You won’t even notice the Korean lyrics. Parannoul released one of the few records in 2023 that really set me back on my heels.
Any of the following here could have made my best indie albums 2023 list on a different day. A few are holdovers from my “Best of 2023 so far” list from June. All of them are worth your time!
Purling Hiss – Drag on Girard (Best Indie Albums 2023: Bordering on metal)
Philadelphia’s fuzzy, throbbing Purling Hiss is back after a seven year hiatus. Every track here sizzles with the angst of a garage band whose members know they could be investment bankers but choose instead to RAWK.
Fixtures – Hollywood Dog (Best Indie Albums 2023: Sugar tribute)
Hollywood Dog was a spring favorite of mine. Fixtures layers a terrific horn section over power pop. They make you wonder what Bob Mould would have sounded like with an expansive brass arrangement.
I’ve decided I will travel up to 400 miles to see Brooklyn’s Fixtures live. Here is the 2:26 blast of title track “Hollywood Dog,” which would rip in person!
The WAEVE – The WAEVE (Best Indie Albums 2023: More Graham Coxon please)
I didn’t expect to enjoy Graham Coxon and Rose Elinor Dougall’s album as much as I did. Obviously the Blur founder can turn almost anything to gold. But this was the year 2023 and my expectations were…modest. What a terrific surprise!
THE SONGS ARE LONG — and really deserve the time to gradually reveal themselves. At two minutes in, “Drowning” is just getting started. Give it the time it deserves.
Teini-Pää – Sata syytä aloittaa (Best Indie Albums 2023: Finnish indie pop)
Teini-Pää (“Teenage Head”) record super-duper two-minute power pop gems in their native Finnish.
Songs on their second album Sata syytä aloittaa range from power punk to jangle pop, and include a couple of gazier numbers. Most cuts are just two minutes and change. Before you declare, “I don’t even speak Helsinki!”…listen to the universal language of garage rock on songs like “Kuka vaan käy.”
You can read more about Teini-Pää and Sata syytä aloittaa (“100 Hundred Reasons to Start”) at their Finnish label Soit Se Silti. As far as I can tell from a poor Google web translation, you need to buy Sata syytä aloittaa from their Bandcamp page.
The Murlocs – Calm Ya Farm (Best Indie Albums 2023: Proggy alt country)
I believe I sampled more alt country than any other genre in 2023 besides your broadly defined post punk. I mean…I HEARD A LOT of alt country, and not much hit hard. But The Murlocs – wow!
Here is the swampy, roiling “Russian Roulette,” a cut from one of the best indie albums 2023 has seen so far — across any genre!
Lisasinson – Un Año De Cambios (Best Indie Albums 2023: More Spanish joy)
Another Spanish language obsession in 2023, Valencia’s Lisasinson are playing Spain and Mexico this year. Let’s hope they make it further north! Their September single from Un Año De Cambios, “Se Me Ha Muerto Una Flor” (“A Flower Has Died”) would be amazing to sing along live. Superior indie pop.
The War and Treaty – Lover’s Game (Best Indie Albums 2023: Gospel)
Soul and R&B aren’t really part of my brand. So it probably helped that I was introduced to The War & Treaty as an alt country/gospel thing. I lean toward the call-and-response and gospel harmonies of Lover’s Game. The whole album, though, is worth venturing outside your established brand!
The War and Treaty – “That’s How Love Is Made” (Lover’s Game)
Dignan Porch – Electric Threads (Best Indie Albums 2023: Beautifully weird)
Dignan Porch melodies are slightly off kilter and psychedelic at times. The lofi songs are wonderfully poppy at their core but warped just enough to sound like lost cassette tracks from Marquee Moon. You can hear the late, revered Tom Verlaine in the mournful harmonized guitar of songs like “Ancestral Trail.”
The Kilby Block Party 2024 fired next year’s lineup announcement like a cannon shot. The May 10-12 festival will celebrate Kilby’s 25th anniversary and they’re already stacked.
We don’t have the day by day lineup, which means no sense yet which bands play opposite each other and the hard choices you may have to make. But here is what we can expect.
The Postal Service and Vampire Weekend headline Friday and Sunday night, though not necessarily in that order. LCD is Soundsystem is the big name likely to close the show Saturday night.
I’ve waited nearly 25 years to see LCD and will be fangirling hard. (LCD Soundsystem and Hot Chip were tentatively billed in SLC about twelve years ago but the show fell through). I could see myself missing several shows to worm my way to the front.
We all have decisions to make in life.
Kilby Block Party 2024 major bands
Barely a step down from the headliners are multiple other legendary acts.
Interpol, starting with 2002’s moody Turn on the Bright Lights, enjoyed a ton of influence resetting 80’s post punk in the 2000’s. They’re joined at the Kilby Block Party 2024 by Death Cab for Cutie, who headlined Kilby’s first block party in 2019.
If you pulled the headliners out of the weekend you would still have a remarkable lineup.
Active bands playing Kilby’s 25th anniversary
Older bands that play the hits sell a lot of tickets. So festivals aren’t always known for new music. Not so next spring at the Utah State Fairgrounds!
Besides the alvvays-amazing Alvvays, the Kilby Block Party 2024 has a number of artists you’ll want to see playing new material. I can’t wait to experience Yves Tumor, whose easy-to-remember 2023 album, Praise a God who Chews But Which Does Not Consume (Or, Simply, Hot Between Worlds), is also a contender for album of the year. We’ve also got Blondshell playing, Beach Fossils and the characters of Andy Shauf’s twee universe.
Add to that list, Unknown Mortal Orchestra visits from Portland and 100 Gecs is playing (although the Gecs’ SLC show this year was very not good). Glitchy Brooklyn art rockers Water From Your Eyes will be there and Courtney Barnett includes Utah in her tour from Melbourne. I enjoyed Panchiko’sFailed at Math(s) and will look forward to hearing them live.
New Utah favorite son (?) Little Moon get a chance at the stage after winning NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest. Adam Klopp and Choir Boy also make the cut.
Who isn’t playing Kilby
Last year, S&S left multiple slots TBD, which were ultimately filled by blockbusters like Weyes Blood and Alex G.
At least visually, the Kilby poster shows two open slots. They don’t APPEAR to be the stature of the above. One pending act is sandwiched between Peach Pit and Nevada’s Current Joys. The second unknown band is displayed adjacent to Water From Your Eyes and Tagabow.
We can expect good things but maybe not an epiphany.
What else do I not see? No alt country at Kilby. With such an expansive list of genres at the festival, alternative country seems like a natural; it would kill in Utah. This year, Kilby could have gone after Big Thief, Wilco or Jason Isbell. Drayton Farley or Turnpike. I’m not a Lucero fan but they would make sense in this lineup.
Your rock and roll dollar still goes pretty far but prices are about 15% higher in 2024. Here’s a quick glance: The 3-day general admission passes were $209 in 2023…they will be $239 next year. 3-day VIP are going up from $299 to $349.
Most major metros across the country don’t have access to this kind of local music festival. Be there!
I don’t blame anyone for missing some of the best 2023 indie music.
Like all years, 2023 had too many songs, too much buzz, way too much music for any mortal to keep track of. But now here is some help. These 3 records (probably) won’t make my Top 25 in 2023 but they are excellent releases. Listen to them, buy their music, get ready for 2023 indie music Year End Lists!
U.S. Highball (No Thievery, Just Cool)
U.S. Highball introduces record #4, No Thievery, Just Cool, with the lovely bubblegum indie pop of “Welcome to Hell.” While U.S. Highball promoters describe No Thievery in terms of the hooky choruses, “Welcome to Hell” has a terrific walkaway you’ll sing all day.
“Round and round the record spins. It’s heading for the cutout bins. You’re laying on the floor. He’s heading out the door.”
Just 30 minutes in length, No Thievery, Just Cool, shoots out of the gates with a series of indie pop songs that are perfect length and clean pop structure. The arrangements by Glasgow’s Calvin Halliday and James Hindle put the innocent 80’s hooks right up front with no added fuss.
Here is the sparkling “Adjacent Donovan.”
No Thievery is a nice step forward for U.S. Highball. While I WANTED to love last year’s A Parkhead Cross of the Mind, the melodies weren’t as memorable and the record washed out a bit for me. No Thievery has a couple of twee numbers, cynical life observations on “Irresponsible Holiday,” chiming guitars on “Nicola” and 80’s sax on “Paris 2019.” Guests include label mate Jacob Ewald from Slaughter Dog, Beach.
Not one beat is missed on the solo release from Fontaines D.C. vocalist Grian Chatten. Chaos for the Fly is poetry, deliberately paced and confident. Chatten’s voice is unmistakable but he is immensely more personal here and the discordant moments, as on “Fairlies,” are even more affecting.
Chatten also abruptly changes course and offers very-not Fontaines cuts like the chamber pop song “Bob’s Casino.” It works perfectly and segues immediately into the torchlit piano ballad, “All of the People.”
Even as I write this, I realize Chaos for the Fly is so evoking, not many enthusiasts are sleeping on it. And it’s probably going to make my indie music 2023 Year End List. But I’ve spent 25 minutes spilling my feelings about Chatten, so I’m leaving it here.
I want to step back for a second to recognize the band I am still looking forward to seeing live this year. The Bombshell Flowers have played a couple of notable venues this year and released the delightfully low-key and family friendly album Death of Me. Self-described as “your grandma’s favorite band,” The Bombshell Flowers give themselves too little credit.
A bit more muscular production would go miles and their live performances are also fun and crunchier. The Bombshell Flowers have all the hooks. Their notable benefactors notwithstanding, I recommend Death of Me without reservation. Here is “Japan.”
The only thing better than finding crushing indie rock albums is bumping them at 10 or 11 in your car instead of on earbuds. The louder and more dense the music, the less justice those workout bluetooth headphones give your guitar RAWK.
Here are 3 albums currently being played at unhealthy volumes in my car.
Medicine (Silences)
An American response to the UK shoegaze movement, Medicine was always wilder, weirder, dancier and a noisy avant-garde marvel. Making pop music louder and more disorienting since 1992’s Shot Forth Self Living, Medicine leads out on Silences with Jim Goodall’s hammering percussion.
Check out the bonkers cacophony of “Hey Hey Go Away!”
Medicine never lets a good hook go to waste though.
This isn’t kitchen sink noise with a side of melody. Brad Laner and Julia Monreal intertwine their Age of Aquarius harmonies like shoegaze on acid. But they never let go of song structure — however discordant things get, a pop song is happening here.
This post is not a shoegaze stalking horse. In fact the aforementioned Medicine really belong in a category of their own.
But shoegaze is loud and Slowdive are part of the genre’s Mount Rushmore. Just tonight, the Slowdive Salt Lake City show played at the Union Event Center – I regret to report I could not attend. Were you there?! Leave a comment or e-mail me about how your ears are doing tonight.
Slowdive’s canon is legendary but not deep. They basically changed the world with 1993’s Souvlaki but there are just a handful of Slowdive albums, and just two since reforming in 2017. They are shoegaze with ambience; a wall of sound with aspirational intentions.
Here is album opener for Everything is Alive, “Shanty.” Give “Shanty” about 45 seconds for the ambience to melt your face.
Rachel Goswell sounds so damn good exchanging vocals with Neil Halstead. Goswell floating in the ether, Halstead plowing ground below. Here they are on the exquisite “alife.”
As much as I suggest you buy Everything is Alive and Slowdive’s back catalogue, I also recommend you dig into Halstead and Roswell’s heralded work with Mojave 3. Ask Me Tomorrow (1995) and Out of Tune (1998) are both available at 4AD’s website. I also loved Halstead’s solo Oh, Mighty Engine! (2008) but haven’t bought Palindrome Hunches (2012).
Special Friend (Wait Until the Flames Rush In)
The ENTIRE Special Friend release isn’t angsty and loud. But OH MY HEAVENS you have to turn “Applause!” to the highest possible decibel. I was listening to it this afternoon in my car and you just can’t play it loud enough.
The spacious garage pop, synth and intense harmonies of Guillaume Siracusa and the Erica Ashleson goes over the top with the overdriven fuzz guitar solo that walks the song off stage. Wait Until the Flames Rush In will probably make my Top 20 this year, and a Top 10 for loud and proud among indie rock albums.
