Celebration Rock

Last month I wrote a profile for Uproxx.com that detailed the making of The National's latest album, Sleep Well Beast, which came out on Friday. The band worked at guitarist Aaron Dessner's studio in upstate New York. What else is there to say about yet another great National album? Plenty, in fact. I reached out to Jayson Greene, formerly of Pitchfork and Wondering Sound, to talk about how The National manages to evolve within the relatively narrow confines of a fixed identity. We both agree that Sleep Well Beast extends the band's run of first-rate albums, but what exactly makes this record different from the others, while also reiterating the National's established themes and sound? Sponosored by: SeatGeek

On Friday, LCD Soundsystem released its "comeback" album, "American Dream." My feelings on it are mixed — I love the music, but James Murphy can be a prickly, even annoying presence. To get to the bottom of LCD Soundsystem, I called up someone who knows a lot more about James Murphy than I do, author and critic Lizzy Goodman, whose recent book "Meet Me In The Bathroom" is an oral history of the NYC rock scene in the '00s. We talked about Murphy's background as a failed indie musician who found fame in his 30s by co-founding DFA Records, refashioning himself as a skilled architect of dance-rock records. We also cover Murphy's decision to revive LCD Soundsystem, and how "American Dream" fits with the rest of the band's catalogue.

On Friday, The War On Drugs' released their fourth LP, A Deeper Understanding, and it's one of my favorite albums of the year. How did The War On Drugs get to this point, with a brilliant new LP that has many critics calling them America's next great band? I called up Dan DeLuca, long-time music critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer, to talk about the band's career, its roots in Philly, and the formative influences on frontman Adam Granduciel. We also discuss whether A Deeper Understanding is even better than the band's 2014 breakthrough, Lost In The Dream. Sponsored by ZipRecruiter, Blue Apron and SeatGeek

Originally formed in 1996, QOTSA has been an anomaly in the past few decades: A smart, critically acclaimed hard-rock band that's not really indie, not really metal, and nowhere close to mainstream rock groups such as Nickelback and Five Finger Death Punch. I invited super-fan Zoe Camp — a writer for Pitchfork, Spin, and the Village Voice, among other places — to help me assess QOTSA's various incarnations, all of which are anchored by the band's eternally cool frontman, Josh Homme. We debate whether Rated R or Songs For The Deaf is QOTSA's best LP, whether "middle period" records like Lullabies To Paralyze and Era Vulgaris are underrated, whether Eagles Of Death Metal can hold a candle to Them Crooked Vultures, and if this band belongs with the very best rock acts of the modern era.

You might have recently noticed a surge in anniversary stories about albums that came out in 1987: U2's The Joshua Tree, Guns N' Roses Appetite For Destruction, Prince's Sign Of The Times, Michael Jackson's Bad, George Michael's Faith, and Def Leppard's Hysteria are some of the blockbusters that came out that year. What was it about 1987 that allowed for this thriving eco-system, in which superstars and up-and-comers seemed to be peaking at the same time? I called up Brian Hiatt of Rolling Stone to talk about our favorite records of 1987, and determined which albums have proved most influential. What we found was surprising - for a long time, Fleetwood Mac's Tango In The Night and Bruce Springsteen's Tunnel Of Love were derided for their dated "very 80's" production, but now they sound practically like contemporary indie-pop records. Plus, Steve shares his crackpot theory about how years that end with "7" are historically great.

Given how commonplace live recordings have become online, the traditional live album has become somewhat of a dying format. But I've always had affection for live albums like The Who's Live At Leeds and Nirvana's MTV Unplugged In New York and dozens of other classics and semi-classics. I decided to call up my friend (and friend of the pod) Rob Mitchum, as he's one of the only people I know with strong opinions about live records. Together, we came up with a list of our 10 favorite live albums that exhibit all of the things we love — the energy, the rawness, the rhythmic clapping by thousands of drunk people.

Last week, Arcade Fire released its fifth album, Everything Now. In my review for UPROXX.com, I called the LP "cranky" and "condescending." Was I too harsh? I solicited a second opinion from Jeremy Gordon from Spin and found ... that he basically agreed with me. We both see Everything Now as one of Arcade Fire's weaker albums, a surprisingly sour commentary on contemporary online culture from a band that is known for wide-eyed earnestness. In this episode, Jeremy and I do a post-mortem on one of the year's most anticipated -- and disappointing -- rock albums and try to figure out where Arcade Fire went wrong.

One of the best artists working in indie rock today is Mitski Miyawaki, a 26-year-old singer-songwriter who released her breakthrough LP, Puberty 2, in 2016. Mitski recently played at the Pitchfork Music Festival as part of her summer tour. The day after Pitchfork, I caught her show in Minneapolis, and then met up with her for an interview. We discussed her childhood, her approach to songwriting, and the orchestral album she wants to make a little later in her career.

By the time Andy Hull was 19, he was known among teenaged music fans as one of the scene's most admired singer-songwriters. But being the frontman of the venerated emo band Manchester Orchestra hasn't been all smooth sailing. On this week's pod, Hull talks about the growing pains he suffered as a rock and roll prodigy who had played Radio City Music Hall before he could legally drink. Hull also discusses how Manchester Orchestra reinvented itself on its latest album, "A Black Mile To The Surface."

Lately there's been a lot of nostalgia for 90s alt-rock and early '00s indie rock from New York. However, there was another music movement that took place between the early '90s and the early '00s that people aren't talking about, even though it was just as popular as alt-rock and way more popular than those early '00s bands. Of course, I'm talking about nü-metal. When nü-metal dominated mainstream rock 20 years ago, I couldn't stand it. And maybe that was the point: Rarely has a genre of music been so popular and yet also so obnoxious to those who didn't get it. Looking back, however, my feelings about nü-metal have changed somewhat. Do I feel ... affectionate? No, that's not quite right. But I do feel grudging respect. To talk about nü-metal, I called up friend of the pod Ian Cohen in order to define what exactly nü-metal is, as well as discuss the impact that it had and whether being innovative (which nü-metal was) is the same as being good

Last week I wrote a column about how I believe that Radiohead's OK Computer is the best album of the last 20 years. One person who did not agree with me is my friend and Celebration Rock podcast producer Derek Madden, a longtime Radiohead fan who's been on board with the band since Pablo Honey. For Madden, OK Computer isn't even the best Radiohead LP — he prefers 2007's In Rainbows. He's not alone in this opinion — numerous people reached out to me on Twitter after my story ran to express similar sentiments. So I invited Derek back on the pod to debate OK Computer vs. In Rainbows. We also talk about whether Kid A has aged well, Derek's experience seeing Radiohead open for Alanis Morissette in 1996, and how we would try to convert a Radiohead skeptic.

Last week, Fleet Foxes became the latest band associated with '00s indie-rock to make a long-awaited comeback in 2017. Earlier this year there were new albums from Dirty Projectors, Spoon, and Phoenix, and later this summer there were will be new LPs from Arcade Fire, The National, LCD Soundsystem, Grizzly Bear, and The War On Drugs. What should we expect from these records? And why are all of these bands coming back at around the same time. I called up my friend, colleague and big-time Fleet Foxes stan Caitlin White from UPROXX to figure it out. We chat about Fleet Foxes, discuss the so-called "Bon Iver Conundrum," and pick which bands we're most excited to see have a resurgence.

No book about rock music in 2017 has generated more conversation than Lizzy Goodman's Meet Me In The Bathroom, a wildly entertaining and unrepentantly gossipy oral history of the New York City music scene from 2001 to 2011. Among the dozens of interview subjects in Goodman's book is Sean Tillmann, a.k.a. Har Mar Superstar, the tongue-in-cheek R&B singer who became a tour mate and confidante for many of the scene's kingpins, including Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Paul Banks of Interpol, and Jack White. Tillmann's unique perspective — he was an insider with just enough perspective to take note of the party-addled insanity that many of those bands were living in — comes in handy in Meet Me In The Bathroom, particularly when it comes to funny/sad backstage anecdotes that helps to humanize the book's subjects. Because I loved his stories, and knew him a bit as a fellow resident of the Minneapolis area, I invited Tillmann on the podcast to talk about Meet Me In The Bathroom and his memories of the era. He did not disappoint.

I talked about the year in music so far with critic and author Dan Ozzi of Noisey. In this podcast, we debate the merits of 2017's offerings from Japandroids and Cloud Nothings (I love the former and he loves the latter), we touch on the weird Diet Cig controversy from the spring, and sing the praises of Girlpool, the Menzingers, Big Thief, and Craig Finn, among others. I also try to talk Dan into giving Father John Misty a second chance.

Perhaps the greatest cult band in rock history is the Grateful Dead, a band that somehow keeps on trucking along more than 20 years after the death of Jerry Garcia. Coming up on Friday, June 2, an incredible four-hour documentary on the Dead, "Long Strange Trip," will premiere on Amazon Prime. To discuss this film and the Dead's enduring legacy, I invited critic, author, and Dead scholar Jesse Jarnow on the podcast. We proceeded to geek out on all aspects of the band, from Robert Hunter's indelible lyrics to Brent Mydland's soft-rock pre-Dead hit single. We had so much fun that we spoke for about as long as the "Dark Star" from 12/6/73.