Chloe, Kevin and I have a big episode blowing in for you this week as Glen Powell is bringing all of his big-screen charm to Twisters, a legacy sequel that isn’t really a sequel. Ilana Glaser and Michelle Buteau make movie gold out of their long friendship, writer and director Francis Galluppi makes a memorable introduction and we give our farewells to The Acolyte, possibly, and Halo, definitely. All this and we’ll let you know WHO Kevin is within the first minute.
This week I took a chance on the new Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum rom-com over a Kevin Costner epic and I think it worked out pretty well. I dig into my Criterion Collection again for Lynne Ramsay’s debut and we go back into the water after the dryness of Boys On The Boat with a new biopic starring Daisy Ridley on Disney+. All this plus Chloe has TWO spider movies and thoughts on the bone-chilling Longlegs. Dig in, we’ve got lots to tell you!
I can not tell a lie about the latest playlist I’ve compiled over the last two weeks because the heaviness of it speaks for itself. I’ve got Aussie metalcore group Polaris and metal scene legends All That Remains in the first half and a pillar of heavy metal history to help close out the playlist. I’m also playing with some of the more eclectic side with some POORSTACY, Hurricane On Saturn and So Below and I balance it out with the incredibly likeable Wet Leg, BANNERS and the Bring Me The Horizon track that introduced me to YONAKA.
Track #1: Wet Leg – Ur Mom – Wet Leg (2022)
I have to credit my wife for showing me this duo of ladies out of Isle Of Wight, England and I fell in love with their debut album immediately. A great sound, poppy and catchy songwriting and a sort of drollness make Wet Leg one of the best new bands to hit the mainstream in my opinion and this track is a great indicator of all of those traits. The final single released off of the album, the song is decidedly surf rock and has songwriter Rhian Teasdale calling out an ex-lover and telling them to forget her entirely, punctuated by a primal scream that brings us out of the song. Some really great stuff here and I was happy to see that some of my friends picked up on it when I shared it.
“You said that you tried your best
Why’s this such a fucking mess?
You’re always so full of it
Yeah, why don’t you just suck my dick?
And when the lights go down on this fucking town
I know it’s time to go
And when you’re getting blazed, spooning mayonnaise
Yeah, I know it’s time to go”
Track #2: Hurricane On Saturn – I Want – I Want (2023)
Thanks to bands like Eskimo Callboy, I have found myself quite interested in electronic metalcore bands and thighs adjacent to that. It’s not really a stretch as I loved techno, electro, electropop and dig metal, obviously, and bands like Rammstein so discovering this mask-wearing five-piece isn’t really a stretch for me. With a frenetic energy that mixes up the guttural vocals with the melodic here and there, this band is the closest this forty-something will ever get to the club or the art of clubbing but, with the vibe given, I can see the allure. This is definitely not for everyone but I feel like some people will really pick up on this song and I’m looking forward to it appearing on a full album.
“Running away from the sun and the flashlight
The illusion your words can count something to me
I’ll dodge all the shit coming out from your dull mouth
I’m the fucked up hellion you don’t like but you need
I claim
I require
I squeeze
I desire
Everything life can give
To please all my greeds”
Track #3: All That Remains – The Air That I Breathe – The Fall Of Ideals (2006)
I’m excited to break this track out as it reminds me of a time when I used to show up to HMV, my local CD and DVD shop (remember those?!?), and buy a stack of brand-new metal discs on payday. This album was one of my blind buys back in the day, the third record from this Springfield, Massachusetts metalcore band, and I spun it over and over again, but this, the third single off of it, is probably my favorite. The sound of this album, produced by Killswitch Engage guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz, really comes through on it and would be my go-to for showcasing this absolute ripper of a mid-2000s offering. Also, it is not a cover song of the classic Hollies song. Just felt I needed to say that.
“I have suffered defeat, pain, loss
Still I push to the edge, never falter
For this cements my beliefs (This cements my beliefs!)
I’ll remain my own master
I will not relent, no, no
Never suffer defeat, never falter
For this cements my beliefs (this cements my beliefs!)
I will not choke on failure!”
Track #4: Thornley – Beautiful – Come Again (2004)
I’m pretty sure I stated it before when I posted a classic Big Wreck single to an earlier playlist but I’m a massive fan of frontman Ian Thornley, a man I lovingly call the “Chris Cornell of Canada”. His debut as a solo artist is a treasure trove of great songs that I constantly vibe to but this song’s drive in particular always gets me. The final single off of the record, it has an opening worthy of the song title before heading into a a crunchy chorus that I always sing along with. The personnel on this record are a supergroup of sorts in Canada as well as it’s a combo of Art Of Dying, The Watchmen and Bedouin Soundclash, as well as Ian, a piece of one of my favorite homegrown bands of all time.
“Light my past on fire
Spell it right in black and white
A coward’s here for hire”
Track #5: Polaris – The Remedy – The Mortal Coil (2017)
I really have Spotify Recommendations to thank for my immediate interest in this metalcore band but once I started hearing tracks off of their album, The Death Of Me, I was easily hooked. In my journey through their music, I focused on this record, their debut, and pulled so many tracks off it as newly liked songs and this one, the second single released, is one I go back to again and again. This song is a heavy cruncher and it seems that playlist number thirteen has that as its main feature and I’m actually surprised it hasn’t happened sooner. That said, this kick-ass five-piece from Sydney kicks some serious ass.
“Running circles, old habits die hard
Each lesson learned never seemed to get too far
Call me reckless, call me stuck in my ways
I’m torn between the remedies for everything”
Track #6: Yellowcard – Breathing – Ocean Avenue (2003)
Even though I kicked off this playlist with some Wet Leg, this might be the poppiest thing I’ve put on this group of songs so far but there’s something in the tightness of this Jacksonville, Florida rock band that extends them beyond being a mere radio single generator from the mid-2000s. The best thing about bringing this song, my favorite of their entire discography, is that it wasn’t one of the three singles released off of this, their fourth record. The song has such a high-school heartbreak feel that pins the band exactly in that pop-punk arena between blink 182 and A Simple Plan, as they are most often described. Some may say that Yellowcard resides in the realm of guilty pleasures but I’m willing to throw them on this pretty metal-filled playlist as a sort of reprieve from the static.
“And I can feel you breathing
And it’s keeping me awake
Can you feel it beating?
My heart’s sinking like a weight
I can feel you breathing
It’s keeping me awake
Could you stop my heart? It’s always beating
Sinking like a weight”
Track #7: POORSTACY – Hills Have Eyes – Hills Have Eyes (2020)
This is definitely a recommendation from Spotify that got this Palm Beach, Florida artist on my radar but the multi faceted style of POORSTACY is what made me do a deeper dive on his stuff. Classified in multiple genres, emo rap, post-punk, punk rock, punk rap and dance-punk, one of these aspects of his work really clicked with me and I found myself really vibing to the sounds he’s producing. This track is a really solid introduction to this artist who took his name from Lords Of Dogtown skateboarder Stacy Peralta who, according to POORSTACY, was not shown a lot of attention at the start, but he ended up being one of the biggest legends in skateboarding. With this song, he digs into the debauchery of Hollywood and California to the point of excess.
“People act strange in the Hollywood hills
Living in fame, getting high on pills
High price tag on a lotta cheap thrills
Brand new bag, red bottom high heels
High-waist shorts, can you show me how it feels?
Cocaine, caviar, champagne, X pills
Soft kisses on your neck, you like it when I give you chills
Hollywood kills”
Track #8: So Below – Bone – Left Behind (2020)
Let’s get some electro vibes back into this heavier playlist filled here and there with oddities. There isn’t a lot of information I can find on the producer of some really great grooves in this artist, So Below, but I have found that they are from Auckland, New Zealand and were very nice in reaching out to me on Instagram when I posted it. I think they were taken aback by this being the song that I posted as it is about crushing so intensely for someone who is already in a relationship and feeling the hurt of rejection that’s as painful as cutting “straight through the bone.” I think it was the darkness of the main thread in this song that spoke to me most but I’m weird like that.
“You think it’s easy for me
Collapsing under my dreams
Could shake it off but you don’t
And it cuts straight through the bone
Am I supposed to believe
You’d ever give it up for me?
It’s worse each time I let go
And it cuts straight through the bone”
Track #9: Bring Me The Horizon feat. YONAKA – ±ªþ³§ – Music To Listen To (2019)
When I heard this song for the first time, I was already a pretty big fan of the work of Oli Sykes and Bring Me The Horizon, as evident from a track already appearing on one of my playlists but this was my introduction to the incredible sounds of YONAKA. Making their way from Brighton, East Sussex, the vocals of Theresa Jarvis hooked in my ear immediately and I did a deep dive on them very quickly but it was this ambient and quiet track that started the drive to listen to everything they’ve done. The beats and melody of this song make it one of my favorite collaborative pieces from Bring Me The Horizon and is my favorite piece off of this EP in particular. To be honest, this record in particular is one for the superfans as many of the tracks are close to ten minutes or over, except this one.
“Moments we shared
I only ever see them in my nightmares
Don’t wanna wake up
We existed
You gave me reason for our living
You set me on fire
You set me on fire”
Track #10: Nothing But Thieves – Amsterdam – Broken Machine (2017)
It’s another return as a Brit rock band I’ve really been taken by gets their second entry on the playlists, another showcasing of the killer vocals from lead singer and guitarist Conor Mason. The song was the first single off of their second album, a record that started to explore the band’s sound a bit more. The song seems to explore the strvie versus drive mentality when it comes to going with the grain of modern society or rising above it but beyond that the melody is great and I really love that chorus. Nothing But Thieves is a definite new favorite and I have so many songs across their four albums on my liked songs list.
“People piss you off
Some you say you love
Those you call a friend
Walking through a crowd
Then you look around
See there’s no one left”
Track #11: Royal Blood – Out Of The Black – Royal Blood (2014)
What a great way to add one of my current favorite rock bands, with their first record and what I think is the first song of theirs I ever heard, which is fitting as it was the debut single. There’s so much to this song beyond it introducing us to a loud duo that kicks thorough ass on this record and every subsequent one. The alternate cut of the music video is really cool as it comes from the mind of the creator of Superjail, a weird acid trip of a cartoon on Adult Swim. This was the beginning of a real love affair with what I think is one of the best new bands of the 2010s.
“You made a fool out of me and took the skin off my back running
So don’t breathe when I talk, ’cause you haven’t been spoken to
I’ve got a gun for a mouth and a bullet with your name on it
But a trigger for a heart bleeding blood from an empty pocket”
Track #12: Iron Maiden – 2 Minutes To Midnight – Powerslave (1984)
I feel like it’s been a really long time since I brought something that defines the term classic and I decided to reach back to one of the pillars of metal through the ages and evolutions. Fronted by possibly the hardest working frontmen STILL working in touring music, Maiden is a band that certainly has reverence with me even if I really only have a few songs in their discography that I actually revisit. That aside, there is no denying the awesomeness of this energy boost of a song that features a beautiful solo from guitarist Adrian Smith. To be cheesy, the solo soars like Bruce Dickinson as the pilot of their tour plane. I regretted that one as soon as I typed it.
“Kill for gain or shoot to maim
But we don’t need a reason
The Golden Goose is on the loose
And never out of season
Blackened pride still burns inside
This shell of bloody treason
Here’s my gun for a barrel of fun
For the love of living death”
Track #13: BANNERS – Start A Riot – Banners (2016)
I know this one is a really weird fit based on all of the heavy and eclectic things I’ve put on list thirteen but we might as well manage to go out on something a little bit chill for the last two. Hailing from the birthplace of The Beatles, Liverpool, England, Michael Joseph Nelson, the singular man known as BANNERS, relocated to Canada in 2015, just before the release of this EP, so maybe we can claim him as our own. With a beautiful voice and an echoey sound that resonates to the sky, this song speaks of such a loving devotion and the command to go to the ends of the earth to defend that and, when I look at my loved ones, I definitely conquer that idea. In a year of great debuts, like Wolf Alice, Kaleo and weird shit like The Lennon Claypool Delerium, this was one of my favorites for sure.
“I will march down an empty street like a ship into the storm
No surrender, no retreat
I will tear down every wall
Just to keep you warm
Just to bring you home
I will burn this city down for a diamond in the dust
I will keep you safe and sound when there’s no one left to trust
Will you take my hand?
We can make our stand”
Track #14: Pixies – Monkey Gone To Heaven – Doolittle (1989)
Well, it seems like I’m getting a bit selfish on my way out by putting a song that doesn’t really fit the video on the list but is a comfort song from a comfort album that I put on in its entirety pretty often. Pixies are a legendary Boston, Massachusets band that serves as the backbone of inspiration for so many other band that I listen to. This song in particular, off of their second studio album, was one of the two singles released, the other being the arguably more radio-friendly, Here Comes Your Man. I love that Black Francis is digging into an environmental stance in this song, a song device he rarely if ever again employs and the piece after the solo is one of my favorite moments of their entire discography. Doolittle is special to me but if it wasn’t for me finding this song for myself, the lifelong love affair never would’ve started.
“If Man is five, if Man is five
If Man is five, then the Devil is six
Then the Devil is six, then the Devil is six
The Devil is six, and if the Devil is six
Then God is seven! Then God is seven!
Then God is seven!”
It’s a big episode this week as I was able to squeeze in another hotly anticipated new film alongside Jeff Nichols’s return after an eight-year absence with The Bikeriders, as I got to check out the new Oz Perkins flick, Longlegs, featuring, the GOAT, Nic Cage. There is some solid legacy enjoyment to talk about with the new Beverly Hills Cop movie, Fiala and Franz are back with their third film to continue their special brand of bleak and Chloe has some thoughts on the latest polarizing indie horror, In A Violent Nature. All this plus me digging into Chloe’s cinematic trauma of watching Skinamarink on Shudder!
Another big anticipated 2024 horror film hit theaters and both Chloe and I have our thoughts on it as Lupita N’yongo and Joseph Quinn find themselves in a new Quiet Place this week. I also have a couple of Criterion viewings to mention, a classic one in a brand new 4K as well as an Assayas film I had never seen before. I have big praise for the latest season of The Bear, Andrew McCarty’s film therapy really worked for me and we both give some love to an under-talked-about Bong Joon Ho film. All this and more on this new episode!
I have arrived at the dozen mark of playlists on my new journey and, aside from some melodic metal with beautiful vocals out of the Netherlands, I have none of those harsh guttural screams that can sometimes dispel the vibe. I have not one but two instrumental tracks on this, by two artists who specialize in mood setting grooves as well as four of my favorite current songwriters in Charli xcx, Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey and the Söderberg sisters. I also get in real touch with my teens and early twenties with tracks that remind us of the Family Values tour and my goth times. I’m really proud of this list, enjoy!
Track #1: Charli xcx – Move Me – Crash (2022)
Charli may be celebrating the release of her new album brat right now but this was the record that really got me interested in her work. Yes, I knew that she was the backing vocals on Iggy Azalea’s Fancy but the whole record took me by complete surprise and I had to pick it up on vinyl. When the song was being created, it was noted that it would be a great song for Halsey to perform but Charli was adamant that the song was hers and hers alone. I’m glad she made that choice because it is a phenomenal track off of an album full of them.
“Something ’bout the way you
Hold my body tight even on my lowest nights
Locked down by my side
Even when I’m borderline
Yeah, I don’t even know why I push you away
It’s something ’bout the way you”
Track #2: Tycho – Spectre – Awake (2014)
Thanks to my friend Drex, I was put on the path of Tycho, also known as Scott Hansen, a dance and electronic musician from Sacramento, California. Always chill vibes and a fantastic drive, Tycho is an artist I’ll put on for long drives or good smoke sessions on the patio, the perfect summer music in my opinion. Awake was the record that piqued my interest when I heard it and this is a buried little track that I think needs some good exposure, even ten years later.
Instrumental
Track #3: Within Temptation – The Purge – Bleed Out (2023)
This one is a little embarrassing for a guy who loves metal like I do because this Waddinxveen, South Holland, Netherlands band has been around since 1996 and I only started listening when Spotify suggested the lead single off of their 2023 record. Needless to say, I totally devoured the whole thing immediately and now it is one of my most listened-to new albums in 2024 without a doubt. No doubt, it is destined to be part of my Wrapped at the end of the year but the beauty of the melodic vocals and crashing guitars and drums in this track makes it a great choice for their first appearance on the playlist. There will be more.
“Let me feel it ’cause I don’t know, I can’t see
All I feel’s I’m breaking up
Oh, can’t you see it’s taking over, over me?
Can’t you see?
Yeah, you want me to fight it, and you want me to let go
Yeah, you tell me to fight it, and you damn me if I don’t
So let me bleed it out and purge me, I can’t see
No, I can’t see, no, I can’t see”
Track #4: Clutch – Firebirds – Psychic Warfare (2015)
I think it was through either the Jackass show or movie or the CKY videos but I was put on the path of how kick-ass this Germantown, Maryland is but it wasn’t until this single came onto my Spotify recommended list a few years back that I really started paying attention. This is undoubtedly a total drive song that keeps your head bopping throughout and it is born from being a road trippin’ song about a guy picking up a mysterious hitchhiker, something vocals, rhythm guitar and keyboard player Neil Fallon describes on a really solid commentary video that’s worth checking out on YouTube.
““Firebirds! Energy weapons!
Both these things are interesting to me
I don’t care how you get them
I need them both, and I need them urgently””
Track #5: Faith No More – Last Cup Of Sorrow – Album Of The Year (1997)
My music god and favorite singer of all time makes his second appearance as the Mike Patton fronted Faith No More’s second single off of their sixth record is now a part of my playlists. It was the first album to feature the band’s current guitarist Jon Hudson, and was their last studio album before their eleven-year hiatus from 1998 to 2009. For me, this song feels like an early indicator of the style Patton would bring to his new band, Tomahawk, in 1999, although their debut record wouldn’t land until 2001. I really love that all the marketing and artwork around the single are fashioned like the Alfred Hitchcock film, Vertigo. Patton’s love and reverence for film is something I fanboy out for big time.
“Like a snake between two stones
It itches in your bones
Take a deep breath and swallow
Your sorrow
Tomorrow”
Track #6: Arctic Monkeys – Brainstorm – Favourite Worst Nightmare (2007)
If there was a band that was at the top of the British indie rock sound of the mid 2000s, it was defintiely these guys, which is weird for me because I didn’t get into them until way later. For me, it wasn’t until the Guitar Hero and Rock Band era, where this song was a king for sure, but it was also before their signature sound would change for the AM record. This sound has since changed again but it is really awesome to go back to the style that put them on the map, for a fast and drive bop that really makes you want to dance or just shake your limbs around like a Muppet.
“Brian, top marks for not trying
So kind of you to bless us with your effortlessness
We’re grateful and so strangely comforted
And I wonder, are you putting us under?
‘Cause we can’t take our eyes off the t-shirt and ties combination
Well, see you later, innovator”
Track #7: Orgy – Fiction (Dreams In Digital) – Vapor Transmissions (2000)
Here is a track that brings me back to the mammoth tour at the cusp and start of the millennium, which was the Family Values tour and one that even produced a record. I had a soft spot for this Los Angeles band, someone I always saw as the more electronic side of nu-metal that came through with Deftones, Korn and Limp Bizkit, something that vocalist Jay Gordon and guitarists Amir Derakh and Ryan Shuck, the founding members of the group, call “death pop” which is sort of fitting. There is a real beauty to this, the first single off of their sophomore record and one that definitely got a lot of play on my CD player at the time. Remember those? It was also one of the over five hundred CDs that got stolen from my first apartment circa 2001. Yeah, it still hurts.
“And your pixel army can’t save you now
My finger’s on the kill switch
I remember I used to compose your dreams
Control your dreams
And don’t be afraid to expose yourself
Before I shut you down
You’ve made some changes
Since the virus caught you sleeping”
Track #8: First Aid Kit – Fireworks – Ruins (2018)
The harmonies created by Svedmyra, Stockholm, Sweden-born sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg are of a quality that you don’t see very often and were an instant lure to a music lover like myself. I was obsessed when I heard their song Rebel Heart for the first time, a song that will most likely end up on a playlist here, but it was this track and the subsequent performance I saw on The Late Show and the Spotify Studio sessions that really caught my ear and I feel like I listened to Ruins on a loop for a couple weeks afterwards. The song was the second single off the album and is about big dreams that fell unrealized. Such a beautiful four minutes of music.
“Stood out on that beach in Chicago
Woke up next to you on Silver Lake Avenue
Wherever I went I always knew, always knew
Till I didn’t know”
Track #9: Lucy In Disguise – 1987 Pt. 2 – Sunset Radio (2019)
This playlist is already a bit of an anomaly as I have not one but two instrumental tracks on it. Actually, I’m a little surprised that nothing off of a movie score has made it here yet but this track from Eau Claire, Wisconsin artist Lucy In Disguise kind of forms its own chill landscape in your mind, which is fitting as they are categorized as future synth and chillwave. This song feels like a cool and breezy odyssey but it really hits its stride from about a minute thirty to forty five on and becomes a groove that you want to night drive to and feel the wind course over you. Such a damn good track and one I wouldn’t have known unless I got into Le Matos and their score for the Canadian sci-fi action flick, Turbo Kid.
Instrumental
Track #10: H.I.M. – Join Me In Death – Razorblade Romance (2000)
To say that I liked or enjoyed Ville Vallo and his Helsinki, Finland gothic rock ban would be a massive understatement. The reality is that when I first heard their songs on Bam Margera’s CKY video, predating his Jackass work, I was so hooked, got the CDs, got the merch and was a die-hard H.I.M. guy through and through. This track is so beautiful in its pitch-black romance but encompasses exactly the sound that Ville loves to produce. Love, death, lust and need are all wrapped in a dark cloud of guitars and piano keys. It’s simply just awesome.
“This world is a cruel place
And we’re here only to lose
So, before life tears us apart
Let death bless me with you”
Track # 11: Arcade Fire – Wake Up – Funeral (2004)
The legendary group of Canadian minstrels out of Montreal, Quebec make their return to the playlist with a song that is probably one of their most widely known. The final single off of their debut album, a record that released a whopping five singles, this song is typically the one that they close all of their shows with and just the “sing to the sky” atmosphere of it all, I totally get it. The lyrics themselves describe the discontentment that comes with growing older, but also how we can overcome this ennui and live more of a laissez-faire attitude to deflate that crushing feeling. Being from Quebec, I thought using French terms would be appropriate.
“Children, wake up
Hold your mistake up
Before they turn the summer into dust
If the children don’t grow up
Our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up
We’re just a million little gods causing rain storms
Turning every good thing to rust
I guess we’ll just have to adjust”
Track #12: Taylor Swift featuring Lana Del Rey – Snow On The Beach – Midnights (2023)
Two of my absolute favorites on the same track? Yes, please! Sadly, I’m barring them both from appearing on any playlist for the following few months but this son is so worth it, a showing of two of the greatest living songwriters coming together for a swirly and poignant track about the immediate love connection between two individuals. Going through this song and then the album again for the hundredth time afterward, I was easily reminded again that this might be my favorite of Taylor’s work. The difficult choice was whether to put the first version of the song on the playlist or to put the “More Lana” version on instead. It was a hard decision but I opted for the first one but both are insanely good.
“And it’s like snow at the beach
Weird, but fuckin’ beautiful
Flying in a dream
Stars by the pocketful
You wanting me
Tonight feels impossible
But it’s comin’ down
No sound, it’s all around”
Track #13: Hoobastank – Out Of Control – The Reason (2003)
Everytime I think of this band these days, I have no choice but to yell out “Seven dollars of Hoobastank” which is a line that Jason Mantzoukas’s character Raffi, or Brollo El Comyado, on the comedy series, The League. That was a plug to a great series but I was actually on the Hooba train since the beginning and this might be the heaviest song that they produced. Great energy and a good drive, this is a song that will immediately get you grooving in my opinion. The track was the first song released off of the mega popular The Reason record and, unfortunately features back up vocals from the rightfully disgraced band Lost Prophets but it’s still a damn good song that holds up today.
“I may never know the answer
To this endless mystery
Where should I go? What should I do?
I don’t understand what you want from me”
Track #14: Saint Asonia – Above It All – Introvert (2022)
Being a huge fan of Norwood, Ontario band Three Days Grace since the first angle, I would follow establishing lead singer Adam Gontier to any project he does and when Spotify suggested this supergroup, my eyes widened and my jaw dropped. I loved this first track immediately and the darkness of it and pure Gontier flare and style on the track are exactly why. Saint Asonia is comprised of Gontier, his brother Cale on bass, Staind’s guitarist Mike Mishok and drummer Cody Watkins and their EP is one of my favorites in the last five years, all launched by this track. The only issue with it is now I’m waiting for a full album to be released as their page has gone silent with those updates for a long time now.
“It’s time to take a stand and save our lives
Rise before we fall
There’s no more second chance it’s do or die
Rise above it all”
I go one-on-one with you, the audience, this week as I give my thoughts on a new and the first June Squibb-led revenge “thriller”, Russell Crowe doubles down on his Exorcist era and I also got the first piece watched of the new Alexandre Dumas adaptations. Jeff Nichols’s debut film makes the upgrade to Blu-ray, Jake Gyllenhaal goes head to head with his brother-in-law in a new AppleTV+ series and Jared Keeso out Canadians himself in the third season of his Letterkenny spin-off. All this and more in this new episode!
We’re back in visual form this week and with better movies as I checked out the third sequel in the Mike Lowry/Marcus Burnett bromance and Chloe give her thoughts on Pixar’s new film Inside Out. I have glowing thoughts on the long delayed animated beauty, Robot Dreams, Prime Video has two new seasons of great television, one more “controversial” than the other, and, yeah, I talk about Beverly Hill Ninja. It’s still not good.
This week I have everyone faked out with some good classic tunes, some heavy guitars hidden within, but then I go full post hardcore at the end and ruin the entire vibe. This is the hazard of creating a playlist in a day by day master but, now five months into doing this, that’s a pretty obvious statement, right? I break my own rules this week by allowing another Ronnie James Dio track onto the list a little early, but in my defense, it was his personal favorite of all he had created. I bring back two of the greatest bands of all time with songs off two of the greatest albums of 1999 and bring some love to a few newer rock bands before coming through with some serious noise. Trust me, if you have an open mind, it’s all worth it.
Track #1: Crown The Empire – what i am – Sudden Sky (2019)
Getting really angsty to start off this playlist and, don’t worry, the angst will most likely continue, at least for a few tracks. Spotify recommended this Dallas, Texas metalcore band with this exact song in particular and I was pretty hooked. I really love lead singer Andrew Rockhold’s voice a lot and the melodic notes hit so well here. There is a harder edge to his vocals elsewhere on the record but this is definitely the single to sell them on and I think a lot of people would dig them just hearing this leading single. The song itself is about the people which the band used to work within and how they overcame the obstacles associated with these people in order to take more control of their own band. I feel like it’s a direct shot at the labels.
“What am I supposed to do? (What am I supposed to do?)
You’re dragging me away from the promised land
You fucked me up (You fucked me up)
But I refuse to let you kill what I am”
Track #2: Middle Class Rut – New Low – No Name No Color (2010)
There’s a beautiful simplicity to the music of Middle Class Rut that I absolutely adore and maybe it comes down to my complete fascination with rock bands with two members. The first exposure to this Sacramento, California duo was certainly on the radio as this song was huge but I feel like calling them a one-hit wonder is so derogatory as they may not have had huge commercial success but they have so many bangers spread across five albums. Seriously, if you’re looking for some good rock grooves, there are far worse places you could look.
“I’ve got a new low
All 52 cards in a row
I see now that I won’t let go
No, I won’t let go
Well, who am I?
A cold shoulder left to cry
You feel bad, well so do I
Yeah so do I”
Track #3: Incubus – Nowhere Fast – Make Yourself (1999)
The second track on one of the greatest albums ever made, this is a grouping of songs I will be forever revisiting until the day I die. The second appearance of this legendary band, it was only a matter of time and the intro to this song makes it an incredible earworm immediately and a song that gets trapped in my head all day, not that I’m complaining. It also gets me with its content as well, a song about being stuck without an idea of where to go existentially. I’ve definitely had my moments there and had this song as a playlist for closing in on twenty-five years, as the album hits that milestone at the end of October. Incredible song and record and I think many people would agree.
“I take a look around, it’s evident the scene has changed
And there are times when I feel improved, improved upon the past
Then there are times when I can’t seem to understand at all
And yes it seems as though I’m going nowhere really fucking fast
Nowhere fast”
Track #4: Foo Fighters – Stacked Actors – There Is Nothing Left To Lose (1999)
The return of the Foo to my playlist and, although it is the second track of their’s to feature here, it does signify a couple firsts as this record was the first to feature the late and infinitely great and missed Taylor Hawkins on the kit as well as this being the first track off their third album. Dave comes out with some real vitriol to start out this record, tearing into society for being plastic and phony and, while he has stated it isn’t about any one person in particular, Courtney Love claimed on The Howard Stern Show that the song was directly about her. Of course, it is.
“God bless, what a sensitive mess
Yeah, but things aren’t always what they seem
Your teary eyes, your famous disguise
Never knowin’ who to believe
See through, yeah, but what do you do?
When you’re just another agin’ drag queen”
Track #5: Limp Bizkit – Rollin’ (Air Raid Vehicle) – Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water (2000)
Alright, partner, keep on rollin’, baby, you know what time it is. Now I know y’all be lovin’ this shit right here, because Limp is back on the playlist and it wasn’t a track from one of their lesser albums like Results May Vary, especially an album not featuring the incredible work of guitarist and total alien Wes Borland. This was the third single to be released in the Chocolate Starfish era and you best believe I was totally obsessed with it and played this album on a loop and definitely this song on repeat. It was the whole steering wheel dance to it, as indicated in the music video plus it was the entrance theme for The Undertaker during his American Bad Ass gimmick he was doing towards the tail end of the Attitude Era. This is a song of a generation and very fitting for this playlist.
“You wanna mess with Limp Bizkit? (Yeah)
You can’t mess with Limp Bizkit (Why?)
Because we get it on (When?)
Everyday and every night (Oh)
And this platinum thing right here (Uh-huh?)
Yo, we’re doin’ it all the time (What?)
So you better get some better beats and, ah
Get some better rhymes (D’oh!)
We got the gang set, so don’t complain yet
Twenty-four-seven, never beggin’ for a rain check
Old school soldiers blastin’ out the hot shit
That rock shit, puttin’ bounce in the mosh pit”
Track #6: Black Sabbath – Heaven And Hell – Heaven & Hell (1980)
I haven’t done anything super classic in a long while it feels like so here is something tht was a total influence on my life and it is one of the founding groups of metal, Black Sabbath but the second itteration with Ronnie James Dio as the lead singer. This is sort of a cheat in my mind as I just brought Rainbow’s track Temple Of The King at the end of March so it’s a little early for more Dio but, to be honest, I totally spaced when I saw the mighty Sabbath, classic metal blinders. This is definitely the most Dio song of this era in Sabbath’s history and, reportedly, it was the song that Ronnie was most proud of in creating it. He had said that the lyrics are about which path we take in society, hether it be the path to Heaven, or the path to Hell and for the religious people who force you to do things and make you think that everything is evil. This song is supposed to tell you to choose your own path, which makes you a good person. Kind of fitting these days for sure, almost like Dio was a prophet. I’m not the only one to say that.
“Well, if it seems to be real, it’s illusion
For every moment of truth, there’s confusion in life
Love can be seen as the answer
But nobody bleeds for the dancer”
Track #7: GROUPLOVE – Inside Out – Healer (2020)
Sometimes a track can just be fun and mae you want to bop along on a sunny day and that is exactly what GROUPLOVE represents to me. A Los Angeles area collective that features Ryan Rabin on drums, the son of guitarist and founding Yes member Trevor Rabin, I got into these guys with their second radio single Tongue Tied in 2011. This song has a fun beat to it and that wild group singing to it that almost comes off as anthemic. The plucky sounds made this one a total earworm and it was a bright spot of grooves during the darkness of the pandemic.
“Baby
You’re makin’ me crazy
You got the only thing goin’
That I know’s worth waitin’ for
Baby
How you amaze me
Yeah, you got the only thing goin’
That I know’s worth waitin’ for”
Track #8: The Hunna – Sick – The Hunna (2022)
If there is a band that I have been most excited to discover, along with BLOXX, it’s these guys, an indie rock band out of Watford, Hertfordshire, England. Formed in 2015, this song comes off their fourth album, a record filled with absolute jams from top to bottom so expect almost all of these songs to appear at some point. People who have been reading this blog probably already know this, but I love an echoey song and this into has that feel all over it. The build to this song gets me going and I always bump up the volume when this track comes on my random mix. The Hunna absolutely rule and I hope more people get into them, they deserve all the acclaim.
“Aren’t you sick of feeling like that?
‘Cause I’m sick of feeling like that, honey
We’ve constantly got whiplash
We’re always tryna stay afloat”
Track #9: Jack White – If I Die Tomorrow – Entering Heaven Alive (2022)
Love him, hate him or with indifference, it is undeniable that Jack White has immense talent and this song is a beautiful showcasing of that. This song feels like a dusty desperado lament and I love every second of it. The analog Mellotron and Septavox synthesiser that Jack plays on this song add so much atmosphere to the song and then it gets to that solo and my face melts off with the beauty that I’m hearing. Furthermore, in my opening statement, if you hate Jack and his work, really, why? Explain yourself!
“If I die tomorrow
Could you find it in your heart to sing?
If my mother cries in sorrow
Will you help her with the many things
That she needs from time to time and day to day?
So if I die tomorrow
Will you know exactly what to say today?”
Track #10: Nine Inch Nails – No, You Don’t – The Fragile (1999)
Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails are massively important artists to me as it is music that spurred me through the adversity of my high school years. It seems cheesy and cliche to say that but his songs and lyrics were a safe space for me to retreat to after bad days and, with this album released during my final year of senior high, it was an infinitely played record during that year. Now an album that I think should have the greatest double album of all time sort of status, I took a track off of it that I love to yell and sing along with, embodying all of Reznor’s vicious defiance in some really pointed lyrics. When this song comes on, you play it loud. That’s the rule.
“Teeth in the necks of everyone you know
You can keep on sucking ’til the blood won’t flow
When it starts to hurt, it only helps it grow
Taking all you need (But not this time) No, you don’t”
Track #11: The Used – The Bird And The Worm – Lies For The Liars (2007)
Now, for some angst stuff to add to this playlist, it’s something I kicked it off with but relaxed on as far as a theme went. Bert MacCracken and The Used have been on my radar since the release of their second studio album, In Love And Death, in 2004, and I was an instant fan. This song, the first single off of their follow-up to that record, is different than any song they had put out previously has an insidious creepiness to the sound that I absolutely love. It has a plucky gothicness to it, a song that Bert wrote about this brother, who suffers from schizophrenia. A fantastic song through and through and it has been heard in some movie marketing before as an orchestral cover was used in the trailer for the 2010 remake of Clash of the Titans, a Blu-ray I actually just picked up recently.
“He wears his heart safety-pinned to his backpack
His backpack is all that he knows
Shot down by strangers whose glances can cripple
The heart and devour the soul”
Track #12: Alice In Chains – Heaven Beside You – Alice In Chains (1995)
Easily one of my favorite groups of all time, Alice In Chains is a band that will constantly appear on my playlists, both in the original Layne Staley line-up as well as the modern William Adler iteration because the sound and feel still remain the same. What other bands can really say that they recovered completely through the loss of their frontman and leading sound of their band? This song is an alltimer for me, something that also plays beautifully on their Unplugged performance but I wanted to bring the original off of their self-titled record, their third album, one that is occasionally informally referred to as Three Legged Dog and Tripod. Jerry Cantrell wrote and takes the lead vocals on this track, a blend of rock and acoustic about lost love, a relationship ended by his own cheating actions. That outro to this song is so incredible too and gets stuck in my head.
“So, there’s problems in your life
That’s fucked up, and I’m not blind
I’m just see-through, faded
Super jaded, and out of my mind”
Track #13: Death From Above 1979 – Freeze Me – Outrage! Is Now (2017)
I am and forever will be a sucker for rocker duos that produce a loud and distorted sound and these two from Toronto, Ontario embody that sound and, along with Royal Blood, have become one of my favorite artists in the last decade. The first single off of an album that I give a weekly spin, this is a song that you put on in your car for a drive and crank the volume big time. I will fully admit that it took this track for bassist Jesse F. Keeler and drummer and vocalist Sebastien Grainger to be put on my radar, with this being their third studio record but best be sure that I am really making up for lost time and many of their tacks will appear right here on one of my playlists.
“Tell me where you are, am I getting warmer?
You freeze me with that look when I go undercover
Readin’ me my rights when you were gettin’ closer
I resist arrest until you say it’s over”
Track #14: LIMBS – Empty Vessel – Only The Lonely Know (2020)
Alright, apparently it’s time to wake the fuck up because I’m bringing a closer that is going to rattle yor ears and melt your face. A post-hardcore band from Tampa Bay, Florida, Spotify is how I was put onto the path of this thunderous group and I’ve loved everything from them starting with this trio of tracks released during the pandemic year. Post hardcore has definitely furmulated some of my favorite music of my early 40s somehow and maybe it’s me wanting to hold onto my youth or that it has evolved to this level but I’m hooked on it and I’m really hoping on a third album to be incoming anytime now. Sorry to my listeners to not have one playlist without something heavy. Sorry, not sorry, I guess it would seem.
“You can take it or you can leave it
Say goodbye, you can watch me burn it all away
Yeah
You’re just a ghost
A memory lost in the smoke
You’re just a ghost
A memory lost in the smoke”
This week I kick off the show with horror again but can M. Night Shyamalan’s daughter make up for last week’s letdown? Speaking of last week’s film, Chloe has her thoughts on it during this episode and both of us have some praise for Sydney Sweeney and the film she fought for. One of my favorite pandemic-era shows comes to a close, I got reacquainted with possibly the most influential masterpiece of all time during its seventieth anniversary and a really creepy Shudder original. Jump on in, but, just a warning, our video feed crapped the bad again so Chloe had to dazzle with her visual brilliance again.
Steve Stebbing 