Steven and Ian open with a quick conversation about fireworks and fireworks-adjacent emo music. Then they dive into the outcry from Lorde fans about the faulty "transparent" CD edition of her latest album, Virgin (3:36). Steven is excited to see CD discourse go mainstream, though he worries that this bad publicity might turn people off to the format.

After that, they discuss the AI band The Velvet Sundown, which has already racked up 500,000 monthly listeners on Spotify in just a few weeks (11:02). They also talk about the recent Glastonbury Festival and speculate on why European music festivals look so much more fun than American ones (22:11). Finally, they do the Q3 Fantasy Albums Draft, and talk about some of the most anticipated releases of the next three months (33:50).

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 246 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 X (formerly Twitter) for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.

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