Waxahatchee Part 1

Katie Crutchfield whose first two melancholy lo-fi albums make Rene limit himself to 4 listens, despite loving them. Learn about the connection to her twin sister, her progression from intimate 2014 performer to commanding 2025 presence (Rene's top 25 concerts of all time) and why Ivy Tripp is his first no-skip album. Part 2, Sean explores her continual musical shift and MJ Lenderman collaboration.

Spotify Song Playlist

Apple Music Song Playlist

Transcript

Sean: Welcome to Earshifter. He's Rene Rouleau. 

Rene: And he's Sean Capstick. And Sean, what are we doing here? 

Sean: We have a special episode because today's episode is brought to you by the letter. W do you, how much do you like w Rene? Why is W important to us? 

Rene: I don't know, but I seem to like a lot of bands that start with W and a lot of female bands that start with W.

So I don't know what's going on. 

Sean: Are you part of the National Association of W Lovers? 

Rene: Maybe, but it just occurred to me, woman starts with w. Did I just blow your mind? Whoa.

Sean: So for the younger listeners, so the first episode of Sesame Street ever was brought to us by the letter W and to quote Bert on a later episode, he welcomed everyone to the weekly meeting of the National Association of W Lovers.

We are gathered here today to pay tribute to the great letter. W and the wondrous sound it makes, whoa. Do you wanna hear the song you sang? 

Rene: I think, I don't actually. 

Sean: I think the listeners do. 

Rene: Oh, alright. 

Sean: Oh, what is the letter we love? What a sound are we extra fond of? It's not any trouble, you know, it's a W When you hear W whoa, and it goes on and they list words that begin with W it's great.

Rene: I was waving for them to rhyme W and I was like, woo, that's gonna be a toughie. 

Sean: Trouble in w is. Pretty close though. 

Rene: I don't know. I think our artist that we're gonna be talking about can do better. 

Sean: Yeah. Well, and who are we gonna be talking about? Renee. 

Rene: We are gonna be talking about Waxahatchee, a 

Sean: good W name 

Rene: and we both love her, which it really is just her for simplicity's sake.

It's, it's Katie Crutchfield and Katie Crutchfield started Waxie in 2010 after the breakup of her previous band, PS Elliot. Which is a pretty cute name. I gotta say 

Sean: it is a cute name. Yes. 

Rene: And PS Elliot. Do you know who was NPS Elliot? 

Sean: Her identical twin sister, correct. Not identical, sorry. Her twin sister.

Yes. Yes, 

Rene: yes, exactly. So, uh, did you listen to PS Elliot? 

Sean: I listened to them a little bit. When the snow caps first came out. Mm, interesting. 'cause I wanted to see a little bit about the history, but no, I, I kind of liked it. I, I can't remember if it's, mistaken memory or a real memory that I remember hearing some of those songs.

'cause they're, you know, and the name is pretty cool. Right? 

Rene: Name is pretty cool. 

Sean: Yeah. 

Rene: So they started in, uh, [00:03:00] 2007. And, uh, they were kind of like. Like a pop punky sort of band. Mm-hmm. Uh, 16,000 monthly listeners still to this day. And I think they, I think they did two full albums.

Couple eps maybe. But they disbanded in 2011. After they kind of felt like they'd done everything they needed to do and wanted to do was, it was pretty amicable as as it reads. And also some of them were living in different cities at the time too. The whole thing was just not really working anymore.

Some of the members wanted to do other things. Mm-hmm. So they just decided to that they were done and and everything was cool. And then Katie started her own sort of thing with Waxahatchee. And do you know why she called her band Waxahatchee 

Sean: named after a river, which is a funny name for a river in Alabama.

Right. In Alabama. She's from Alabama. 

Rene: That's right. 

Sean: Yeah. 

Rene: Yeah, it's, it is pretty weird. And it, it did feel a little [00:04:00] bit random, but, you know, her first album was actually recorded in her family home, in her parents' home. Mm-hmm. So I guess it was just, it was just there and it inspired her. 'cause that first album talked a lot about kind of family and, and, struggles and that kind of thing.

And the fact is she recorded that album in her bedroom. In her family home. Who does that remind you of? Sean CapStack 

Sean: in the bedroom of her family home. 

Rene: Who recorded an album in his bedroom. 

Sean: Is that car seat headrest? That was in a car. 

Rene: That was in a car. 

Sean: Okay. 

Rene: Uh, there was a movie just done on it. 

Sean: Okay. I'm blanking here.

Rene: Whoa, Nebraska. 

Sean: Oh, that was his, yes. Okay. That some guy, uh, what's his name? Bruce? Yeah. Yeah. My 

Rene: favorite album of Bruce Springsteen. Yeah. 

Sean: Yes. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I got, okay. Yeah. The, but the, that was a rented bedroom. He was a troubled adult. It [00:05:00] wasn't like a 

Rene: very different, yeah, very different. For sure.

But I just thought that was interesting in and of itself. That's recorded. Go ahead. And 

Sean: I did read that, you know, those lo-fi albums that we'll get into have been compared to. The Nebraska, the, the haunting broken songs and broken people type response. So we've got that. Looking forward to this, this is gonna be an uplifting episode.

Rene: Well, yeah, those first two albums, they are a little delicate and a little sad which is why I love them so much. 

Sean: I know. 

Rene: And, and, and you know, actually like Nebraska being my favorite Springsteen album. You know, there are some upbeat songs on that album, whereas her first album, American Weekend, there is not, like, there is not a single uplifting song on that album.

And I mean that in a good way. Because 

Sean: I, I know, and before we get into that, yeah, I got a question. How did you hear about Waxie? Like how 'cause you this. Is, I've [00:06:00] been talking around Waxahatchee over this last few episodes but you introduced her to me by for sure, right? Yeah. Like she, those first albums were not on my radar.

Rene: Yeah. 

Sean: You, I don't know when, but you know, you were like, you need to listen to this band. It's great. And so how did you find her? 

Rene: I honestly don't fully recall, but I suspect that, do you remember I had that subscription emusic.com 

Sean: back in the day? Mm-hmm. 

Rene: Back 

Sean: in the, and that forced me the most.

The second most popular streaming service. 

Rene: Well, it's weird because it 

Sean: wasn't, not anymore, but at the time, yeah, it was actually, it wasn't a streaming service, it was a record store. It was a An e music store. 

Rene: Yes. Yeah. Technically you download, you bought and, or sorry, I had a monthly subscription, so I was forced to explore to 

Sean: get the credits or you lost them.

Yeah, or I lost them. It was, yeah. Was, it was good. 

Rene: It was awesome. So I, I suspect I found them then, because that was when I was doing that, 

Sean: and you got me to. To subscribe to E Music? No, I was an eMusic [00:07:00] subscriber for a little while. I had that weird little player and, you know, downloaded the MP threes. I didn't know that onto my new is old.

I read an article that kids are tuning into iPods now because they don't want, they wanna be separated from the screen. They can't. Be away from Yeah. Music, but, uh, 

Rene: Yeah. 

Sean: So yes, on our Newfangled iPod devices, 

Rene: crazy, crazy and records. Not to mention records, but, uh, so anyway, that's the way I suspect I, I kind of bumped into her, so to speak.

And I instantly took a, a liking to her as I would naturally American Weekend. You know, it is one of those albums that I actually can't listen to too much. 'cause I, even if I'm in a good mood and everything's going great, if I listen to that five times in a row, I actually start to get affected.

And so it's like, Tom York's racer. Mm-hmm. For me, I, it's kinda lethal for me that I can't, I can't listen to it very much. I have to literally set a limit to how long I listen to it, as much as I love it. 

Sean: So when I asked you to please do Waxie because I want to talk about her, you knew that you were gonna have to [00:08:00] listen to that record.

Oh. Which is a pleasure, but a pain a little bit. 

Rene: Yeah. I mean, it's a pleasure, but I just have to stop. It's too much of a pleasure. So I have to like literally say, okay, four listens. That's it, you're done. Because it is a vibe. That whole album is just a, just a lonely, sad, beautiful vibe. And you know, in terms of the songs, like, I actually think I picked the saddest song on the entire album to share with our listeners 

Sean: When you told me to listen to the lyrics or to read the lyrics.

Yeah. Yes, it's yeah, I think it's, it's okay. Well maybe you should play it and then we could talk about, people could see just how sad we're talking. 

Rene: Yeah. Let's let's give it a listen. 

Clip: Heard.[00:09:00] 

Like daytime TV shows. I, and I tell you,

but I, I.

Sean: Okay, so that is a very melancholy, introspective song that when it ends, she's moving past. That she's really playing with another person's emotions. And she says, well, I'll get busy and I'll move on, and I'll only think of it when I'm in the bathtub. [00:10:00] That's a pretty like, yeah, that's, it's real. It's raw.

Yeah. It's, 

Rene: it's delicate. Yeah. Vulnerable, all of those great things. And that is why I love it. And like even Nebraska's, like slower ones. You know, as rah as they are I don't think they come close to this. Like, they're so intimate. These songs are so intimate and sad. 

Sean: She's, whether it's autobiography or whether she's writing from a very first person perspective, I think it might be the former the.

Springsteen was always riding from a character, right? Yes. Like he did not kill people. 

Rene: He also, by the way, didn't drive a mo ride a motorcycle or, or know how to drive. When he rode born to Run, 

He did not know how to Dr. Well, he, sorry he drove, but illegally. 

Sean: Okay. Well, you know, there's, he's, he's a good writer of other people's emotions.

Yeah. I think whereas are we gonna call [00:11:00] her Waxahatchee or Katie? Yeah, let's go Katie, from 

Rene: now on, 

Sean: it seems that Katie's writing for the first person singular in her parents' bedroom with self-produced in 

Rene: her bedroom. 

Sean: Yeah. Just, yeah. In her, in her parents' house, in her bedroom. Very first person.

Rene: Very much. And, and when you listen to that album, except for one song Sean called Luminary Blake, it's really just her, an acoustic guitar, sometimes a piano, but there's no drums, there's no electric guitar. Yeah, that's it. 

Sean: Yeah. 

Rene: And you feel it. Yeah. You really feel it. And I love that. So this album, believe it or not, and I, I literally had to triple check this 'cause I'm like, what?

But I love it. New York Times gave this one of the top albums of 2012. Pretty wild. And, uh, NPR actually the most upbeat sounding song on the album, which is not terribly upbeat, by the way, it's called Be Good. And I like, I like that [00:12:00] song, but it is the most upbeat song and NPR called it Song of the Day at one point.

So, but my favorites are like catfish. Michel the singing on Michel or Miche, she never says it, so I don't know how you pronounce it, but Michel the singing is so powerful on that one. It's just give that one a listen again. If you, if you if you haven't already, please, listeners, give that one a listen.

And if you like sad songs, it will be your jam. But Bathtub is is the saddest song on the album, 

Sean: We're jumping all over the place. You've seen her in concert. 

Rene: I did. 

Sean: She's not playing any of those old songs anymore, right? 

Rene: She is not. 

Sean: So when I saw her as Snow Caps with her sister she did that song.

She, they did. Some PS Elliot covers. They did some swear in covers, which Her sister's band. 

Rene: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're 

Sean: gonna talk about that. And and she played that song and it was very just, she just played it on the [00:13:00] guitar. The rest of the band kind of just sat around and, you know, maybe. You know, shake shaked a little noise maker or something, and it was very melancholic.

Yes. 

Rene: Yeah. But powerful. Right? But yeah, it can suck the wind out of the room, but I think in a good way, just. One of those magical moments. So yes, I did see her. We're, we're kind of jumping the gun a bit, but I think we're both so excited about this one that we are all over the place and I think that's okay.

So I did see her, I saw her after the second album that we're gonna get into in just a moment. Ilian Salt. So the thing about SEL in Salt is if American Weekend is really just her acoustic guitar and piano, she starts to explore electric guitar but doesn't go much further. Maybe a couple of melodies.

Couple of songs have some drums in them, but she's easing into it. I just find that so interesting because when we get to Ivy Trip, you'll see that she actually does a major transformation from there. 

Sean: But she was in a band, PS Elliot was a full band. They, they, they played, I mean, you know, so it wasn't like she's [00:14:00] newbie or, or just, you know, was totally only in her bedroom and playing with an acoustic guitar, which is a nice, kind of interesting, you know, origin story.

But like she's, she came. She went to that from being in a band. That was maybe one of the reasons that, you know, that PSE didn't keep going, right? Yeah. That she wanted a very, very different sound. 

Rene: Yeah. 

Sean: But before we go to the next album, which is a little bit more, yeah, it's got more instrumentation, it's still very lo fi.

How would you compare American Weaken to a singer songwriter? Acoustic. I don't think there's much instrumentation, but I'm thinking a distance shore by 

Rene: Tracy Thorn. 

Sean: Tracy Thorn. 

Rene: Whoa. Yeah, you know, I'm trying to recall it, to be honest with you, I, I am a fan. Of course. But when I think about everything about the girl, 

Sean: which is totally different, right?

That's a band. It was only an ep. I remember it well. 

Listening to those first two albums made me long to [00:15:00] hear Hmm. A distant shore. 

Rene: Yeah. 

Sean: So, and, and I wonder in retrospect, 'cause I know you like Tracy Thorn a lot more than I do. And again, the, the, you know, we're playing to our strengths here, but I really like that album that yeah, that, and that was very much to me.

In my recollection, I think they're similar. Yeah. So who knows when we listen to it, maybe it'll be completely different. 

Rene: Yeah. Well, it, now we really are going all over the place, buddy. But, um, you're gonna be talking about Tigers bled at some point. 

Sean: Yes. 

Rene: There's a song called 365. 

Sean: I love that song.

Rene: At the end of that song, who is the homage to? Do you, do you know? Did you recognize it instantly? 

Sean: No. 

Rene: It is an homage to the carpenter. She literally pulls the carpenters rainy days and Mondays and does like just the last five seconds. And it's a, it's a clear homage. It's not an accident. Okay. She's doing it on purpose and I thought, wow.

Carpenters as an influence is a really interesting. Choice because they are super sad, right? Mm-hmm. Like, my God. And I [00:16:00] used to listen to them quite a bit too in my early days, in my teenage years, let's say, right? Like, because they were sad has always been my vibe. And I thought that was really cool and really interesting and so obvious.

Like to, to a Carpenter's fan, it was like, wow, that was very cool. 

Sean: Okay, so two A Carpenter's fan, so you can forgive me for not a hundred 

Rene: percent dude. Dude. A hundred percent. Yeah. I was on a Deep Carpenter's thing for about six months and then I pulled out of it and listened to the Clash.

Sean: Good. Good. Okay, so the second album, 

Rene: so the second album, Ilian Salt I've mentioned already, it's, it's a little bit richer, but still, like you said, the lo-fi sad, lonely stuff. It's comes out in. 2013 and we even got some bass. I think there's a couple of songs with even some harmonies in it.

But it still feels very intimate, right? Like it's, it's still a very intimate lo-fi album. This one is co-produced by the members of squaring, which is, uh, the band you mentioned, which is [00:17:00] the band that started in New York City with Herin sister, right? So that band. Is the band that her twin sister started in New York 

Sean: after p.

S Elliot broke up 

Rene: after PS Elliot. Thank you. After PS Elliot broke up and this album is actually not recorded in her bedroom, in her family home. It's recorded in Katie's basement, so she's really just kind of doing the same thing, but just in a different space with Ilian salt. Katie is not solo anymore.

She actually has. Musicians that are with her and it's a little bit more collaborative and she actually likes that be, and I suspect it's because she's like. Waxahatchee is my band, but I'd like to collaborate with others. Mm-hmm. Versus a PS Elliot where it's like, we're all in this band. I wonder if that was a different dynamic perhaps, right?

Mm-hmm. So I, that probably made her, 'cause she really did, she keeps commenting on, I love the collaboration. It really helped me. 

Sean: Yes. 

Rene: So I [00:18:00] thought that was interesting. The album's themes. Her Ilian salt are all about growing up. So she said a lot of it is about realizing that your childhood is over, that your innocence is gone.

When you're a kid, you're always happy and everything's good, and then you realize that's never gonna be how I am again. And that's kind of the theme, which actually reminded me a neutral milk hotel. Jeff, man and wanting to clinging to that innocence in that childhood. Okay. So on this album, there's kind of this one song called Coast to Coast, and it does stand out from the rest, and that it's kind of a banger.

She's starting to, not lighten up. 'cause I don't wanna say that 'cause I, I love her first album and her second album is, and the sadness, but Coast to Coast has some energy to it. It. And of course we're gonna see in the next album that she actually applies more of that energy. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

And actually lyrically I felt like it was not super sad either. It, it's just got a super fun feel to it. Maybe [00:19:00] lyrically it's a little bit sadder, but not crazy sad. But for this album there, there are a few songs that kind of do remind me of American Weekend. There's Tangled Envisioning You're Damaged, and Swan Dive, which is the most played song on the album at 2.9 mil.

That kind of harken back to that debut album. They're beautiful. They're, they're quiet. They're just hering a guitar, just beautiful. But I would have to say that Dixie cups and jars is probably my fav on this album. And it's funny because okay, Sean, so we've talked about normies, right? The normal people 

Sean: term your term.

Yeah. 

Rene: Yes. 

Sean: I just love everybody 

Rene: I know, but I'm telling you that most of my friends, family, et cetera, are Normies. And Normies are the ones that just. Listen to the radio. And so I create these playlists for the Normies that come over every Friday night. And in that playlist I will pepper some songs I really love.

But the playlist, I mean, I do like obviously, or I wouldn't [00:20:00] make it, but it's to please everyone. In the Normies, but also pepper in some songs I really love. And every time, the reason I'm telling you is 'cause every time I play this one playlist and that song comes on Dixie cups and jars, I swear to God every week or every other week my friend Lee goes, who's this?

I'm like, it's Waxie. He's like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So you know it Dixie cups and jars works for some, some others too. And hopefully I'm slowly getting 'em introduced to. To wax and hachi. So I think we should listen to Dixie cups and jars. Yes. What do you think? 

Sean: Let's listen, 

Rene: let's listen. 

Speaker 4: I watched,

I watched him.

[00:21:00] Champagne.

I,

I'll find a way to gracefully. 

Sean: Okay, so you gave me a heads up on that one. So I looked at the, uh, the lyrics, so [00:22:00] I have no idea what she's talking about. Oh, on this song it's, which is often really good because there's many different interpretations of a song, but Wfr in the Wind is the way it opens up.

Or solace laying at the bottom of a bottle. And so that's a really powerful line, right? Because, you can find solace in the bottle of a friend. That's a junior gone wild quote. 

Rene: Oh, okay. 

Sean: Yes. Oh, 

Rene: senior got wild. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. 

Sean: Okay. Gotcha. Another great alt country, you know, type band, Toronto?

Uh, no, they're from Edmonton. 

Rene: Oh my bad. Canadian. 

Sean: Canadian. Yep. But, you know, solace and drinking are things that typically don't, people don't say out loud in lyrics. And then, she's watching a friend, I think, get married and her the. Father of the bride, uh, [00:23:00] my interpretation is drinking the bitter taste of his exertion, of giving her away.

And, talks about Champlain flutes being poor. So she uses employs Dixie cups and jars. It 

Rene: kind of paints a picture, right? 

Sean: That paints a picture and then she fills up her jar to the brim and then, you know, has another lovely alliterative closing. I am an arid abyss. So it's like her, it's pretty dense, right?

It's, it's, and she sings it in a lovely, lilting voice. Yeah, that is, 

Rene: but haunting too. 

Sean: And, and the song is melancholy, but the lyrics are pretty dark. 

Rene: Dark, yeah. Yeah. And Rich, I would say too they paint a picture a bit like Wednesday, right? Mm-hmm. A bit in that regard. So Sean, I love this album.

I mean, I really do and, uh, I'm not alone on that. Critically acclaimed Pitchfork gave it 8.4, outta 10 [00:24:00] Spin gave it an eight outta 10 and met a critic, uh, gave it 79 out of a hundred. And Met a critic is an aggregator of whole bunch of critics. And so this is where I saw her. Live for the very first time.

Okay. 2014, she played the great hall folks, uh, great Hall holds, I think a capacity of like 400, maybe 500. 

Sean: Yeah. But good venue. Yeah. Big open room. 

Rene: Big open room. But I mean, I gotta say there was maybe 300 there tops. And she was great. Of course, her voice live, as you know, is incredible. But I will say that she was kind of quiet.

And she kind of felt somewhat shy. Mm-hmm. Um, which is weird because she was in a previous band. Right. But maybe, you know, she's out on her own and she's still kind of finding her feet. And I feel, this is so weird. I was telling your wife this, I feel like she was wearing a baseball hat the entire time.

Like kinda low. Like you couldn't, like, she was almost not making eye contact. But I don't know if that's in my mind or if that's real. 'cause I tried to [00:25:00] find some images from that concert and I couldn't find any. But I, I feel like she was definitely wearing a, a baseball cap 

Sean: time. I have seen her wearing a baseball cap.

Rene: Okay. 

Sean: In concert. 

Rene: Oh, okay. 

Sean: Yes. Okay. Yeah. A Kansas City cap, which the initial, that sense is the same as hers. And she's living in Kansas City now, correct? 

Rene: Yep. 

Sean: So yeah, I've seen her with a baseball cap. 

Rene: Okay. 

Sean: And she was very different when she was playing in snow caps because she wasn't the leader.

She was part of a band. 

Rene: Yeah. 

Sean: But I think. Maybe when she talks about collaboration and maybe the reason why she had to do these solo albums is because she, it's difficult for her because at some points when the band is jamming she got up and this last time I saw her, she got up and she sat at the side.

It was kind of like, okay, band you play, and then I'll come back up and sing. So, yeah, I don't know. It's, uh, she does have a, uh, I mean she does have a. A presence, but it's [00:26:00] not like a huge presence. And she's a very small person. Yeah. 

Rene: Yeah. But, but actually I, I was gonna save this till, till we got to, um, uh, Tiger's blood.

But I think I'm gonna talk about it now because when I went and saw Waxahatchee with your wonderful wife, thank you Deanne so much for last minute inviting me. That was one of my top 25 concerts of all time, which I told you right after it. Mm-hmm. Um, oh my god. Like for me, dude. From 2014 to 2025, when I saw her, it was a different performer.

Mm-hmm. Like she was. Calculating. She owned the crowd. She knew exactly what she was doing. She was super confident. She was opposite of that 2014 woman on that stage, and I was so impressed with her transformation. It really truly blew my mind. I didn't even feel like I was watching the same person she was on fire.

She, you know, walked into the audience at one point. She sat on the edge of the stage for the intimate moments. So [00:27:00] engaging, so great. Okay, Sean, so that takes us to our third album. That album is called Ivy Trip and that came out in 2015. Now this album is a serious departure. It's popular. Mm-hmm. Uh, there are synthesizers on it.

There's tons of keyboards on it. There's 12 string guitars on it. I love this album the most. Out of those first three albums, I'll tell even 

Sean: more than the melancholy. 

Rene: Yeah. And I'll tell you why, because. This album is more diverse just naturally because has Poppy songs, but she still does some throwbacks to the American New Weekend.

Like she does some sad songs. It's got a beautiful mix. There's one song that just felt almost anthemic. So real variety in here that just keeps me going and, and I'm able to listen to it more than four times without getting depressed. 

Sean: Okay. 

Rene: That's a good thing. Yes, that's a good thing for sure. So this is my favorite album of the first three.

The most played song on this album is a song called Lalo and for good reason, 'cause Lalo [00:28:00] is an upbeat, fun, like just a total 180 song for, for waxahachie. And it works lyrically. Hopefully you can comment on that once we give a listen, but should we give a listen? Sure. All right. Let's do it.[00:29:00] 

Okay, Sean. So yeah, I love that song. I feel like it is, uh, look, it's not super positive 'cause it is about a lopsided love, but, but there's some positive lyrics in there, a little bit here and there scattered, if you will. What do you think? 

Sean: I didn't get in the lyrics as much on this one as the other two.

Rene: Fair. 

Sean: There's a lot of do do, do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which I think is great. I like the feels of this song. Yeah. I think it is a departure when this song comes up when I'm listening to like, I'm [00:30:00] like, oh, this, I could bounce around to it. Right. Like it's a nice poppy song. 

Rene: Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Alright, so let's talk about the actual album and what Katie said about.

The Ivy trip and why it's called that, et cetera. So, it's really just a term she made up, but it just describes Directionlessness specifically for 20 somethings, 30 somethings and 40 somethings. And it's not necessarily following the complacent lifestyle of our parents or our grandparents.

So it's, that's the theme of the actual album. So why is there a second P on trip? Well, I'll tell you why. It's a homage to a friend of hers that passed. 

Sean: Ah, 

Rene: so that, that person's name started with P. 

Sean: Yeah. 

Rene: Okay. So what made this album so different?

Sean: Because she's got a bob on the front cover.

Rene: Cool. I love that. But she did switch, so I literally, I was like, what? What changed so much for her, right? So I was trying to, like a detective, trying to figure it out. [00:31:00] So first two albums were with Don Giovanni Records. She now switches third album to Merge records parts amicably, by the way, with Don Giovanni, but switches to merge records.

So I'm like, well, maybe that was a variable. I don't know. 

Sean: I like, you know, we like merge records. There's been lot fans of bands that have been on merge records that we've been talking about. Yeah. 

Rene: So, yeah, exactly. But the other thing is she and her then boyfriend, Keith Spencer, a member of swearing isolated themselves for almost a year in a house in Holbrook, long Island.

And they did it just to hide out and make their record at their own pace. And she said that was really important to me. A 

Sean: hideout meaning like they didn't see other people, they didn't think, didn't 

Rene: get into it, but I think, yeah, probably some isolation, maybe not as extreme as, as the. The stories I imply.

And this 

Sean: is, and this is pre COVID, so they did it to themselves? 

Rene: Yeah, pretty much. Pretty much. For this album, it was literally just the three of them, Keith, her, and, [00:32:00] uh, the other member of Swearing. And maybe that helped too. Maybe it was just the fact that it was, she said they were very collaborative, the three of them, and she loved that again.

And honestly, Sean man, for this album, I really struggled to pick just one more song. I think. I'd pick them all to be honest. This is a no Skip album for me. This is a no Skip album. Like I love this album. Like the opener, breathless is powerful. And it's got an almost church organ to it that is just a amazing under a rock anthem.

Confident, energetic, not delicate at all. Opposite of the last two albums poison. Also powerful. Nothing like the first few albums. But I think I'm gonna go with summer of Love. Okay. Um, just because again, it's kind of got an uplifting feel to it. It's really kind of a bittersweet kind of memory of a love.

That has since faded but it does have an upbeat feel. So let's give listen to Summer of Love. [00:33:00] 

Sean: Okay, 

Speaker 4: E and I'm here

conversations.

The, but I can't make a, in the picture

of.

Sean: Okay, so the feels of this song again, is so nice and I love the [00:34:00] closing lyrics of the Summer of Love is a Photo of Us. Yeah. So she's, she's no longer thinking bad thoughts only in the bathtub. She is thinking that, yeah, there's a. Personification of love. 

Rene: Yeah. Although it is still a sadness to, its still a little sads old photo.

Right. And she's like, so, you know, she can't fully get away from that. It's powerful to do that, but, uh, but God damnit Sean, there is one more song that is my favorite song on this album I would like 

Sean: to play. Hold on. You said you were gonna play two. I don't know if you could just go with a flow like this.

Renee, you were not happy go lucky. Just. Whatever goes on the Ear Shifter podcast. 

Rene: Well, you're right about that. 'cause this song is the opposite of happy go lucky. It is the most depressing song on this album, but I love it. Can we just hear it? 

Sean: Well, okay. 

Rene: Okay. So this song is called Half Moon. It's very much like our first two albums.

It's just her [00:35:00] and a piano. So let's hear it. 

Speaker 4: We,

this idea is curse. I

you.

Like, but it,

Rene: okay, so. Again, I think, you know, we're gonna talk about this more maybe on part two, Sean of Waxahachie. I don't know. I think 

Sean: you've taken all the time. 

Rene: Yes. Sorry man. But, so let's have a part two of this one. [00:36:00] And I think, you know, lyrically I feel a little bit of Wednesday, a little bit of Carly. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Um, just in terms of like the lyrical power of of Katie. And this one lyric in that song blew me away. And it goes like this. Our love tastes like sugar. Yeah. But it pulls all the life out of me and then she echoes out of me and it's just, whoa. I got, and I, when we were listening to her, I, I said, I got goosebumps on my arms from this song.

This song blows my mind. It affects 

Sean: you. 

Rene: That's great. It affects me. Yeah. It affects me. So, uh, okay. So that's the first three albums, Sean. 

Sean: Okay. And we don't have any time left to talk about the next albums, so I guess we're going to have to wait and make our. Listeners wait to hear her transformation. And I think it is quite transformative.

And, uh, Ru Renee, I was thinking, you know, you are a little bit melancholy. I'm a little alt [00:37:00] country. 

Rene: Yes, yes. 

Sean: Yes. And we're both rock and roll. But this is where she really does embrace from these albums on, she really embraces. The alt country. She sings, she's got a fuller band. It really, there's, there's a real departure from this, you know, this is the last of the lo-fi era of her.

Right. 

Rene: Yeah. Although I would argue Ivy Trip is a hint to where she's gonna go. 

Sean: It's an evolution for sure. Right? Yeah. Like you can, you know, the song that the, the albums really do evolve and her, her. Confidence, her ability to have a bigger space, a bigger sound, I think grows as well. Right. Yeah. And that's what we can talk about in the next episode.

Rene: Yeah. 

Sean: But Renee, I got a question. 

Rene: Okay. 

Sean: So we started with Sesame Street. 

Rene: Yeah. 

Sean: When we lived together. Who was Ernie and who was Bert. 

Rene: Oh, wow. [00:38:00] Huh. I feel like I'm Ernie. No, 

Sean: in some ways. Like you're the extrovert. You were always dragging me into your zany adventures. Yeah, 

Rene: and I'm the, I'm the goofy, one of the two of us, I think, 

Sean: but I don't like pigeons.

Bert was a big pigeon. Oh, okay. Like, he had very small hobbies. Okay. And pigeons. Paperclips. I can't remember the other things. Okay. That, uh, Bert start with 

Pete, 

Sean: like, yeah. So I think that's the obvious, but then I was thinking like. You were much cleaner. 

Rene: Oh, interesting. 

Sean: You wanted to clean, like, well, you like to have, like, you didn't like to actually use the kitchen.

Rene: That's 'cause I had no interest in cooking. 

Sean: Yeah. And so I, I remember messing the place up a few times. It'd be like, oh, come and join me on my adventure cooking. And you'd be like, no. 

Rene: Wow. I was a meanie. 

Sean: So that was more birdish of you? 

Rene: Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's fair. That's fair. And I, I can see some elements of bur and me for sure.

My family would attest to it. [00:39:00] Yeah, 

Sean: it's good. I'm glad Burt does, like w So if I give like Bert and my love for the w so let's till next time we'll come back. We don't have to give 

Rene: hints. 

Sean: Come and talk about more the evolution of Ws. 

Rene: Yeah, let's do it. Okay. Until next time. 

Speaker 5: See you up. 

Rene: We hope you enjoyed this episode of Air Shifter.

Tune in next time where we'll cover another band that deserves more. You can find Air Shifter on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok Friend us or listen to our playlist on Spotify and visit air shifter.com for more information. Special thanks. Go to our logo designer Stuart Thorsby and our intro Outro Music by Joe Novak.

You can find him as, bye. Bye. Badman. One word on SoundCloud and a big shout out to Joe for being our awesome sound engineer slash editor. Until next time.