The Now Spinning crew dive into a myriad of musical offerings from the past year, highlighting albums that resonated deeply with them. The conversation traverses genres just like Django Reinhardt traverses the fretboard, touching upon indie rock, ambient Americana, and the evolution of sound in contemporary music. Explore insights into artists like Hayden Pedego, Japanese Breakfast, FKA Twigs, Racing Mount Pleasant, and so many more!

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Website: LCC Vinyl Record Club

Hello everyone and welcome to Now Spinning, the official podcast of the Lansing Community College Vinyl Record Club. We meet twice a month to listen to vinyl and talk about music. Stay tuned to learn about how you can get in touch with us and attend our meetings.

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Now Spinning. So good to have you with us. With me today I have Leo Ackerman, Jacob Zocvic, Simon Medina.

Today we're going to continue where we left off on our last episode and we're going to talk about our honorable mentions this year. Obviously it was a pretty good year for music, I think.

Too many.

Too many good albums.

Too many to count. But we're going to try and talk about our very favorite ones. Hopefully we can get a couple in before we run out of time.

So I want to kick things right off with an album that I was a huge fan of this year and that is the album Bleeds by the band Wednesday. They're a North Carolina like country rock, indie rock band and I hadn't heard of them until this album came out.

Oh, really?

No. Yeah, their earlier stuff.

Go back and listen to the earlier stuff.

Ratsaw.

I will look into it. I will look into it. But this album was really something. Not to talk about Geese to start this record off, but yeah, you're bingo card out right now.

But what I noticed lyrically, I think at least in this album, is that it was a polar opposite to what I was talking about with Getting Killed. Like how it's a very surreal album. This one's very straightforward. It just says stuff that happened. It's like telling real stories.

Feels like it's telling real stories from this person's life.

I think that's a big part of why people like Wednesday or take them seriously is lyrically it really hits some real stuff, some real experiences. Maybe I don't have as many obvious ways that I relate to somebody who grew up in rural North Carolina, but like enough.

Yes.

I really get that. Like, yeah, man, it's. It's deep in parts. There's definitely some songs that are kind of some deeper stuff going on.

It's. It's a. It's fun at times but like it's not afraid. Like it goes like it just. She says what's on her mind. She says things that happened.

Especially like I think like the first two songs. Like the first three songs. Like there's like the one two punch of the song Townies and then into Wound Up Here by Holding On.

Those are my two, my two top songs non Geese of this year. Just Incredible. Very. You know, heartbreaking. Evocative imagery on both of those things. Not even imagery. It's just like heartbreaking stories.

Yeah, you talk about stories that the last song in the album, it's like, God, I hope that's not like a real conversation she had with a real person because, like, that guy's life sucks, man.

Okay, so it.

So she's okay. Uh.

Oh.

So the Pitchfork writer Walden Green did a great review of this record, a glowing review of Bleeds, and he made a very, I feel, apt comparison to Rumors by Fleetwood Mac.

Oh, boy.

Because M.J. lenderman, who is a fantastic solo artist in his own right as well as the guitarist for this band, recently went through a breakup with lead singer and also guitarist Carly Hartsman. Okay. From what we can gather here, it was pretty tense.

A lot of stuff going on. Okay. I'm barely online. But what I saw implied that it was pretty amicable. And they were like, yeah, we're gonna.

Keep making music together.

Well, as amicable as it can be. And like, still work together and still, you know, have a career together. Because they're not touring together anymore.

No.

Yeah, he isn't touring with the band, but he still plays on the records because he just. They're not. It's not gonna work out if these exes are playing on tour together. I really think that Rumors is a really apt comparison.

Cause not only are the songs about this emotional tension, but they're playing on it together.

And you can almost feel the tension in the recording because they're in the same room recording it and she's singing these songs about the guy playing guitar on the song. It's like, it's a little bit nerve wracking, but it's also equally fun.

Well, and it's probably a big part of what makes it so relatable is real. It's very real.

Yeah, I thought it was fantastic. Go listen to it.

Please, please, please, please, please.

We love you, Carly Hartsman. Please be a friend of the show.

Some of the show. We'll talk.

I specifically want to point out.

So Wednesday had some previous tracks on previous albums, I guess I should say had some tracks and previous albums that were a lot more high energy than I get. Like this album, the first half of.

It, I was like, this is a bit slow. You know, I've listened to it a.

Couple times since then and I got, okay, this is great.

You know what I mean?

But yeah, I remember the first time listening going like, this is a bit slow. And then the songs pick up that knife which then bleeds into the song.

Wasp is like so high energy and so awesome. I was like, okay.

They were just.

They were just making me wait for it. They. They still had a couple songs that really kicked it out. Really said, yeah, yeah. We're not.

We're not just indie. We're not just, you know, this country influence, whatever.

We're gonna basically do like a hardcore punk song. Awesome. Like, just awesome.

And that's like, their blending of styles is just so amazing. And that's. People make the comparison a lot to Shoegaze. And I'm like, dude, I barely hear it.

But then like, there are definitely bits where you're like, oh, no, this is. It's a very experimental way to do especially that, like country rock, indie, you know, sort of sound like it's. It's. It's pretty unique. It is great.

Definitely go listen to it for sure.

Speaking of country ish stuff, I do want to bring up real quick, there's this fantastic ambient Americana, I think you.

Would call it country ish.

Anyway, an acoustic record by this guy called Hayden Pedego. I just wanted to give this one a quick shout out because it's beautiful. It's wonderful acoustic guitar stuff.

Hayden Pedego has released three albums and a wonderful trilogy that are all pretty equal in quality, all pretty stellar, as well as a collaboration with the band Chat Pile, who are a noise rock and doom metal band.

Yeah, that's not a very expected crossover. I was a little surprised to see that. But I'll have to check that out. I have to check that out.

Brilliant. While we're talking about vaguely country related stuff, so Japanese Breakfast had a new album this year. I quite liked it. It was all right.

The song Orlando in Love had like countryish influences on it, I feel like. And I like Japanese Breakfast has done some pretty different things in the past, but this is.

I was like.

There was a bunch of albums this year that I felt like that like country folk style influence made its way in on. And I was like, oh, this, this sounds really coming into the mainstream. Probably because everybody's sick of like pop country.

And they're like, give me country sound.

Without like, you know, that nonsense, you know. Not that that isn't a valid genre, but it is widely derided, I think.

In the, like, modern culture, you know. But yeah, so I just thought that was interesting that it made its way in. Also this album, it's called for Melancholy.

Brunettes and Sad Women. I think this is Japanese Breakfast calling out all the like sad girl music that's really become popular recently.

I think this is like, okay, I can write sad girl music too. And it's like. Yeah, you can. It's pretty good. It's pretty good sad girl music.

I enjoyed it a lot.

I enjoyed the record. But I do think there is this fire to Jubilee.

Yeah, this one has way less energy in that way. And that's like this one. I don't know, maybe more emotionally driven than Jubilee.

But.

Yeah, not as like, tumultuously emotionally driven, maybe. So I don't know. Ghibli's awesome, so it's kind of hard, you know, they're a little different, but. Yeah, I get where you would come from to say that.

What do you have? What do you have for us?

Oh, well, I don't know if it relates to Japanese Breakfast at all, but I've been. Like we said, this has been a pretty good year for indie, like, indie rock, post rock stuff, almost.

One band I wanted to shout out from Michigan that I saw live with Geese is Racing Mount Pleasant.

This had a lot of country influence in it too, a little bit.

They get a lot of flack from people for sounding pretty identical to Black Country New Road. I don't quite hear that. They definitely have their own thing going.

There's times I feel like any post rock band that has, like, prominent saxophone is going to get called, like, Black Country New Road at this point. But, like, I think that they. They take that in a different direction. They definitely blend in a lot of that, like, Midwest emo kind of stuff.

Like you said, a little bit of the country stuff.

I definitely heard a lot of Midwest emo in this without it really being in that genre. You hear the influence, but, like, it's there. It's just not the same, you know.

It's definitely not. Yeah, it's not a Midwest emo album, but it's in the sphere. Obviously. These people grew up, you know, like, they're from Ann Arbor, this band.

They're called Racing Mount Pleasant. They're not from Mount Pleasant. Don't ask me. I didn't come up with the name.

It's not even spelled right.

So, I mean, in reference to the town.

Right. But yeah, they're. They're pretty good. I quite like them. Matty got their album at the show. Shout out to Matty, friend of the show.

When we went to go see Geese, they opened for them. I had heard their album before that. I thought it was pretty good. Their live show was real. I thought their live show was great.

The sound guy there kind of did them a little dirty, but they were having. There was so much energy on that stage. It was really great.

My favorite memory from that show was one of the members, like mother or something was standing behind me in the crowd. And between the songs, she just kept yelling, racing Mount Pleasant at them. It was so good.

That's what, that's what I like, though, about, like, you know, local bands and stuff like that. You know, you get. People know them. That's. That's always interesting.

Oh, man.

I went to a show way back when I was in high school, and it was to see my friend's band, Lamano, that obviously is not a band anymore.

I shouldn't say obviously, but not a band anymore that you. Not a band you can go listen to.

But anyway, they were Lamano. It was their first show, so I had to go. But they played with another band and this other band, it was. It was just their family that was there.

It was a bunch of high school students there to see Lamano, and then it was like a bunch of 40 and 50 year olds to see this other band play. And honestly, the other band did great.

I thought they did some really cool stuff and it was awesome. But yeah, the, like, moms at shows is so, like, it's kind of cringe, but it's also like, oh, I'm so glad she's here and enjoying it. Like, it's.

It's so beautiful to see that happen.

And that's.

I mean, that's such a cool thing that, like, oh, I sat right in front of this. This band's mother, like, and heard how.

Excited she was to see her children play.

Like, that's. Oh, my God, my son's playing the Majestic Theater.

Exactly.

Yeah. That would blow your mind, especially if you're from around here. Like, it would really. Like, you would.

She's probably been to that theater before and seen other. Other artists or shows, you know.

Yeah, they were gonna be at a smaller venue, but, like, because Geese blew up, they had to move to a bigger.

Wow.

They were gonna be at the El club, which is like. I don't know if you've been there, but it's very cramped, very small. But this place, it was like a whole.

I've never been to the Majestic Theater before, but it's beautiful. They have like a. On the ceiling, they have like this mural, these lights. It's such a. Incredible place. I could.

You know, I'd be proud if my children were playing in that place as well. That's incredible.

Cool.

But yeah, great band racing Mount Pleasant. Check out their self titled album. If you enjoy like, like I said, Midwest, Emo, Windmill scene, any of that kind of stuff, it's a great listen.

I'm still. I'm gonna steal this one right here just because I was talking about high school, a band I listen to in high school a lot. OK go.

So OK go hasn't released an album.

They released an album this year. It's great. It's.

It's nothing like exceptionally new.

It sounds like OK Go, but it's, it's just nice. It's, yeah, indie sleaze kind of style, very high energy. All of OK Go was. And OK Go, very famous for their music videos.

So if I can't convince you to go listen to this album, which, you should go watch some of their music videos. Yeah, just. Just very cool stuff. Kicking out the stuff that they were doing 10 years ago, like, like they never missed a beat.

They just look a bit older now. And that's okay, you know, so do I.

Nothing wrong with that.

Okay. That was actually a very effective segue because I was gonna do a hard pivot into louder, noisier stuff. All right, that works.

A lot of high octane stuff in my list. Here we have something I talked about earlier in this year. 45 pounds by Yahweh Nail Gun.

Oh boy.

Disgusting, evil, downright frightening stuff. It's 20 minutes of terror. I love it to death. Very excited to see where they go from here. Los Tuthanaka. This is a duo of the Cramptons.

They are siblings. They are both very eclectic musicians in their own right.

Joshua Crampton is a really out there guitarist who only, I don't know, I. I only heard his record like last year or something like that. Estrella por Estrella. It is so loud. It's deafening. I mean, it's unmixed, unmastered, pummeling stuff.

And Alicia Crampton is one of the most talented DJs I've ever heard. We were talking about Justin Bieber on the last episode. Go listen to it. We were talking. Yeah, we were.

She remixed like younger Justin Bieber songs into these beautiful, like ethereal, almost ambient pieces. And these sounds like the Latin electronic mashup stuff with the noisy guitar and the almost.

I think a good comparison for Joshua Crampton would be Arthur Russell. Strangely enough, if either of you are familiar, he takes Arthur Russell's very echo laden stuff, very, I would call it scenic style.

And it just, it's so nasty. It's so cool. I love it to death. Also, Swans released their last Big Loud album this year. I don't have much to say about it.

It's just Swans doing their modern stuff. Cranked up to 10. And also stuff that's way. I don't want to say nastier than they've ever done before.

But they keep getting grosser in different ways, which I appreciate, you know, keeps things fresh.

I've got two albums that I just made. What you said made me think of first Siblings. The band Between Friends released an album this year. Wow.

I think is what it's called Brother and Sister. Kind of like electro pop, but also kind of into. It defies easy categorization, but yeah, it just, you know, modern dancey stuff.

The song Jam is a freaking hot jam, dude. It is so cool. The pre chorus is just so weird. So unlike what you're hearing in like dancy pop songs right now, but just awesome.

So highly recommend that one I love Between Friends.

I don't need to say a bunch more about him, but another one that, you know, like, I don't know, Yahweh Nail Gun and them, like, made me think of like the experimentality of it. I'm using that word again. Experimentality.

It can be a word if you repeat it.

Yeah, yeah.

But Simon recommended to me Hagen by Titanic and that one was, yeah, experimental in really interesting ways. It wasn't, you know, quite as noisy. You know, that wasn't really their vibe.

But yeah, there's a lot of really dissonant stuff in there where you're like, what are they doing? But it really works and it really kind of forces some feelings out of these songs. You're like, wow.

Mabe Fratti is the vocalist and cellist in that band. Her and I think it's. Ila Katorica is the name of the artist. Mabe Frati is this crazy, like, I don't even know what you call her. Art.

Art pop, kind of weird jazz stuff.

Avant garde chamber or not.

I don't know if it's avant garde. Okay. This, the record that they just released this year, strangely enough, is like by far their most accessible by far.

And it still retains the weird, like almost like uncomfortable edge that it has the entire time, but it has like hooks this time around.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's, you know, going back to the Between Friends Hooky. That's.

I would describe the those as very hooky.

Definitely. Yeah. I mean, like, we talk a lot on the show about like very like loud Abrasive experimental bands.

But, like, you know, it's a nice little refreshing change of pace to hear, like, a band that experiments, but they're not, like, trying to make you deaf at the same time. Not to say that's bad.

Like, I enjoy, you know, loud music from time to time, but it's always interesting to hear a band that's less focused on just, like, pure noise. One band that I found this year that is incredibly. I don't even remember how I found it. It's like a random experimental prog band from Arizona.

Their group called Skin Theory, and their album is called Briar. I don't really have a lot to say about it other than it's a very good.

If you enjoy, like, king crimson, like, 70s 80s king crimson, if you like that kind of stuff, you'll probably get something out of their album. It's a little bit black midi, a little bit like windmill in there as well.

I don't want to say, like, every single prog band that has a saxophone player in it is windmill related. But, like, that's my. That's my frame of reference to it. That's my bad. But I thought that. They're very incredible. Their album Briar. Look it up.

If you're listening to this and you're in that band, come on the show, I want to ask you questions about it, but, yeah.

Is this whole episode just gonna be us saying, please get in contact?

Cameron Winter.

Cameron Winter, we love. It's just. This is a fan cast now.

A little bit.

This is just networking. We'll treat it as networking. Send it to as many labels as we can.

Paul McCartney, networking. What they're gonna call, like, parasocial.

Sure. Is that not what it is right now? Anyway?

That's a little. We're just talking about music.

Different shades of this.

Paul McCartney. If you're listening to this, get on the show. I just want to ask you some questions. It'll be a good time.

Or your son James. Send James McCartney on the podcast. We'll do anything. Just give him a cartoon here. Dude, please.

Where were we?

Yeah, I've got some quick fire ones.

That I can shoot real fast here. Vale synth by the artist Flora Fischbach. I discovered them completely by accident from a YouTube thumbnail. I went, this video looks wild.

I clicked on it and it was a wild video. But the music is amazing. It's just like electronica, avant garde, ish at times. Just fun. Sounds cool. Sounds nice. Really liked that one.

I kind of want to mention real quick Anamanaguchi had a new album this year. I thought it was interesting. I've listened to Anamanaguchi for a while, even back when they were like, making chiptune stuff.

So now that they're making, like, I don't want to say real music, but like, more broad appeal music, it's like, cool. This is just a cool sound. I've heard some people talking about it and I'm like, you talk.

You talking about Hanamanaguchi? Like, really?

Another one? My album of the year last year.

Was worthy kids who's just like a.

YouTube animator who happens to make music.

His album this year was an experimental album called 13 Jokers. And it's like 13 songs about jokers and clowns. And it's really, really weird.

And I couldn't honestly recommend it to anyone unless you're into just like, clown music. Really, really weird clown music.

Is that like the genre? Is it like circus music or is it like.

No, no, no, no. It's, it's. It transcends genres. Okay.

He, like, you're intriguing.

There's like hard rock songs on there. There's punkier songs in there, but there's also like, he's like, rapping for part of it. And you're like, what?

There's a song that is like clown music and it's like being played on like, children's instruments and there's like a nose honking sound. Go listen to it. If you're like, go list the kids album from last year, please. That's a good album I did, right? This one was just so weird.

And that's like, I couldn't honestly recommend it as an album of the year, but, like, it was like, one of the most experimental albums I listened to all year because it's about freaking jokers and clowns.

And I was like, tap in. So weird. If there's one thing you take away from this episode, tap into the Joker's album, please. I want to.

Okay, so you mentioned, you mentioned rapping. So I want to take a little on a. Use that as a segue to talk about, like, hip hop related stuff that I really liked this year.

He, for a very long time was known as this, like, very depressed, very, like, somber rapper. Like, very, like, upsetting, I guess. Just like, very depressing, incredible stuff, but just upsetting.

Not normal for like, mainstream rap.

No, no, no, no. But now he's found himself in a much better head space. He's with a girl that he really loves. He. He's doing great.

And so he just named it Live Laugh Love. Not as a tongue in cheek thing, but just like, I'm loving how it's alive right now, actually.

That's awesome.

Flipping it on its head. Really loved this record.

I think this is probably his strongest record since the record some rap songs, which has proven to be a very influential record in its own right. And jumping off of that, I want to talk about this guy Mike. Now, Mike is somebody who's. That's just. It's just Mike.

Mike is closely associated with Earl Sweatshirt. I think early on people thought he was kind of this, like, not going to say a clone, but they thought he was very derivative.

And he's grown into his own artist. And I think he's honestly a bit more eclectic than Earl is. And his stuff is a lot more fun. His record from this year is called Showbiz. It's a treat.

Just go. Just enjoy yourself, dude. Like, Earl Sweatshirt and Mike at this point are just making songs you can throw on and be like, you know what?

Yeah, I am enjoying being alive right now. This is so cool. This is so great. On the flip side of that, there's this. So I know modern underground rap is very, very divisive.

A lot of people don't rock with like, Playboi Carti and stuff like that. I'm not gonna say I do either. Cause I didn't like the Playboi Carti record from this year.

But, you know, I feel like it's important to mention his name when we're talking about, like, the rage sub genre of hip hop right now. Osama San right now is. I mean, he has two records released this year. One called Jump out and the other's called Psychotic.

There are some synthesizers on here and some noises on here that you would genuinely find on, like a Murspout record. It is some of the most. And I know we talk about abrasive music. It's next level. Like, it. It freaks me out.

I feel like my car is gonna break when I listen to it. Just really sick stuff.

And can I sneak one more in here?

Yes, of course.

You were talking about an artist with multiple albums out in the year. We were talking earlier, before the. Before we started recording Foolishly. We were talking about this, you Sexual album.

Save it for the Poem, FKA Twigs. So I knew that there were multiple albums this year, but you were going into some detail.

This is like, there's almost like three distinct albums in a way. Like three distinct experiences that you can go just one right after the other.

Or is that going to be too much?

No, I mean, it's a treat. Front to back, all of them. I mean, there's the first use. There's the first Yousexual, released in January.

Of this year, which is the one I listened to. I really liked. You know, a lot of it was samey. You know what I mean? A lot of the tracks sounded similar, but that was okay.

I was like, these are really cool tracks.

Then recently there was you, Sexual Afterglow, which is not a remix record. It's a completely new record with completely new songs and a different sound and a different vibe.

It's just like, okay, if this was, like, the feeling of partying and, like, the bliss that you have. Here's the actual party, here's where you throw down and, like, stuff gets crazy.

And then there's the you Sexual Redux, which is just like an adjusted track list with new songs that I kind of like better than the original. There's just three very different experiences and.

I don't know.

Shout Out. FKA Twigs. She's been at it for a very long time. Very consistent.

All right, Rapid Fire, anybody? I got the. Beth's album was really good. Just Mustard was really, really good. Natalie Bergman had a new one out this year. Night Tapes. I'm just.

All these artists had dope albums. If we get some chance to talk to you about them, we will. But Rapid Fires, that I had to get in there real quick.

Yeah, I'll Rapid fire like a couple in here. Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band. They had a really good album this year. Black Country. New Road also dropped this year.

I didn't mention it, but I liked it quite a bit. There's a doom metal album called Void Meridian by Messa that I. Actually not usually my genre, but I liked it a lot. It was like the.

Sorry, the album's called the Spin by Messa. It's quite good. Like Italian doom metal. I. Not normally my genre, but I got into it, I liked it quite a bit. And then gonna mention an ep.

Technically not an album. Sue me. Westside Cowboy, their new English windmill scene band. They're really great. Check them out. That's all I got.

That's about all I got. That's all we got. Time for Fantastic.

Some really great albums this year. Go listen.

Go listen to them.

Watch this podcast. Listen to this podcast. Write it all down. Listen to all of it. It's all great.

James McCartney, please come on the show.

All right, that's everything today. Thank you all for tuning in. We hope. See you next time. Love you.

Bye.

Bye.