Another anticipated film of 2024 and the last big movie of 2024, I have my thoughts on the new installment in the Alien universe, Alien: Romulus and, to balance it out, I head into a review of the sweetheart animal film, My Penguin Friend. Jason Swartzman and Carol Kane bring all of the chemistry for a great comedy in Between The Temples, Mark Wahlberg has something new and mediocre on Netflix and John Cena and Awkwafina team up to stay alive. All this and more on an all new episode.
Are we being punished by the movies? It looks that way as I took in Eli Roth’s attempt to bring Borderlands to the big screen. I even it out with a fantastic and quiet little indie film and also got to check out the new collaboration between Matt Damon and the other Affleck, Casey. Lots of new television to talk about with Ted Lasso’s main man Bill Lawrence teaming up with Vince Vaughn in Bad Monkey and the return of an HBO dark horse, Industry, for its third season. All this and more on this new episode!
I had a really great thing going on here, great vibes and nothing to displace the mood. Sure, we got a little rocky occasionally, but it was all heading in the right direction. That is until I had a hell of a day and the mood got dark. Really dark. So dark that Lamb Of God had to come out and dispel that aura with its pure driven metal from Virginia. Yes, I put a big cleaver in the who nice times feeling but I still have some great off-the-path acts like The KVB and Editors, legends in their own respects, like Pink Floyd and Robyn and proven hit makers in Rise Against and Cage The Elephant. So, come on, kick off your shoes and enjoy that chillness until the guillotine.
Track #1: The KVB – Always Then – Always Then (2012)
Do you know those goth kids on South Park who have those dance breaks where they just kind of sway back and forth with their bangs hanging in their faces? Well, that’s kind of what I’m starting the playlist off with this time but in the best possible way. An audio-visual driven post-punk duo originally formed in London, England, their lean into the electro sound with this song really nabbed me and it really has to stem from my love for She Wants Revenge, an American goth rock band that I think really sounds British, kind of like how The Bravery does too. I’m still new to their discography but I now really want to see them live if their music is more based around a visual story as well. Sadly, I can’t see that they’ve ever toured North America before.
“Well you ran against the grain
And there’s only you to blame
And this life takes its toll
When you’re a face that no one knows”
Track #2: Rise Against – Satellite – Endgame (2011)
Rise Against has been a favorite of mine for a really long time and will always have a place in my heart for being the first concert I brought my oldest daughter Chloe to. Hailing from Chicago, Illinois, this punk rock band has always given themes of fighting back against oppression and championing what’s right and that comes down to the conviction of lead singer and guitarist Tim McIlrath’s always poignant and powerful lyrics. This song raises the album’s message high, released as the third single, and is all about inspiring the next generation to stand up and take action against an oppressive and unjust government. Given their political views, I would say this song works as an anthem against the MAGA movement as well.
“You can’t feel the heat until you hold your hand over the flame
You have to cross the line just to remember where it lays
You won’t know your worth now, son, until you take a hit
And you won’t find the beat until you lose yourself in it”
Track #3: Robyn – Show Me Love – Robyn Is Here (1995)
Sadly, Robyn is an artist that I arrived to fandom woefully late on but my catch-up with her entire incredible discography was a quick read. Given the time of the release of this single, one of the four released off of her debut record, I definitely wasn’t listening to international pop music but thanks to my wife giving me more of an appreciation of the genre in retrospect, I have found her to be a favorite. By way of Stockholm, Sweden, Robyn is an artist who will continually show up on his list and the fact that this record was produced by mega music god Max Martin makes this connection even more fascinating.
“Show me love (Yeah, yeah), show me life (Alright)
Baby, show me what it’s all about (Me what it’s all about)
You’re the one that I ever needed (Show me love)
Show me love and what it’s all about, alright (Hey, hey, oh)
Show me love, show me life (Alright)
Baby, show me what it’s all about
You’re the one that I ever needed
Show me love and what it’s all about, alright”
Track #4: Billie Eilish – my strange addiction – WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? (2019)
You have to have a love for a song that starts out with a classic quote from The Office and this is how we knew that Billie was a mega fan of the long-running series. It’s been so endearing to see her use her stardom to have moments with each of the cast members and even guest on the Office Ladies podcast with Angela Kinsey and Jenna Fischer. I’ve allowed that to derail this entire section about this being a great song on the playlist but the track is pretty self-explanatory in how fantastic it is. Billie’s voice is incredible and the beats that Finneas lay underneath it is impeccable as always. There’s a real palpable reason why they left with an armload of Grammys for this record.
“Deadly fever, please don’t ever break
Be my reliever ’cause I don’t self medicate
And it burns like a gin and I like it
Put your lips on my skin and you might ignite it
Hurts, but I know how to hide it, kinda like it (Teh)”
Track #5: Editors – Papillon – In This Light And On This Evening (2009)
I feel like this song would’ve fit better on the last playlist with the inclusion of the classic Bigmouth by The Smiths but with The KVB kicking off this one, this Moseley, Birmingham, England indie rock band still very much fits the mould. The leading single off of their third record, the track feels like the definition of the term “darkwave music” as it has that “bangs swinging in your face” feel that I was talking about with Always Then but with a bigger more well-rounded sound of the four-piece band. Editors were a late development with me but they are definitely here to stay now. Expect more of their tracks to appear here.
“Darling
Just don’t put down your guns yet
If there really was a God here
He’d have raised a hand by now
Now darling
You’re born, get old and die here
Well that’s quite enough for me
We’ll find our own way home somehow”
Track #6: Tate McRae – grave – THINK LATER (2023)
Calgary’s own brand new pop star, I got hooked on this album really quickly due to Spotify suggesting it and have it playing pretty regularly now. Since the release of the record, there is definitely some Tate hate on the net that I can’t get behind, people hating on her live show. I haven’t seen it personally but she had some great performances on Jimmy Kimmel as well as an appearance at this year’s NHL All-Star game. Anyways, to go on about this banger off the record, the song is about trying to change a person to salvage a relationship and then coming to terms with the ending of it. Tate’s vocals are beautiful in it as always.
“I could never make you want me like I wanted to be wanted
I could never really change you like I thought that I could
I was tryna make us somethin’ out of nothin’, we were nothin’ at all
You can only dig the grave so deep
You can only try to save somethin’ that’s not already gone”
Track #7: Weezer – Everybody Wants To Rule The World – Weezer (Teal Album) (2019)
I don’t bring the cover songs all that often but some squeak through that are undeniable and Rivers and the gang covering a track from one of the greatest new wave acts to come out of the eighties is kind of perfect. The Teal Album is a fantastic collection of all cover songs that really show the legendary alt-rockers’ sources of inspiration and the coolest thing is they all sound really close to the original songs which shows how chameleon-like Weezer could be without us even really thinking about it. Tears For Fears is a favorite of mine so expect them to show up on the list eventually but this is a really neat conduit to present them I think.
“Welcome to your life
There’s no turning back
Even while we sleep
We will find you”
Track #8: Pink Floyd – Have A Cigar – Wish You Were Here (1975)
Time to get classic and by classic I mean a real classic with this track off of one of the greatest records of all time, made by one of the greatest bands of all time. Floyd is a band that has meant something to me since a really young age, with this record, Dark Side Of The Moon and The Wall being on the record player often as I was growing up, so I had a deep love for each track for a long time. This one, in particular, is one I absolutely love because it is essentially about selling out to the record companies, ones who only see you as dollar signs and don’t even really know your name. It is a self-proclaimed assault on the greasy side of music production and I love its swanky guitar sound. Roger Waters was really cooking with this one.
“Come in here, dear boy, have a cigar
You’re gonna go far
You’re gonna fly high
You’re never gonna die
You’re gonna make it if you try
They’re gonna love you
Well, I’ve always had a deep respect and I mean that most sincerely
The band is just fantastic
That is really what I think
Oh, by the way, which one’s Pink?”
Track #9: The Offspring – Gone Away – Ixnay On The Hombre (1997)
I find it really interesting that the first two Offspring songs on the playlist are songs that mean the most to me out of their large discography. Gotta Get Away is special for the energy and time when it came out and this track was the defining piece of this landmark release of theirs, the fourth album from the legendary Garden Grove, California punk rock band. Dexter Holland wrote the song after a near-death experience in which he was in a diner and got shot up during a gang fight. I never would have guessed that by listening to the track.
“And it feels, and it feels like
Heaven is so far away
And it feels, yeah, it feels like
The world has grown cold
Now that you’ve gone away”
Track #10: Lamb Of God – Again We Rise – Sacrament (2006)
I know, I know, I’m killing the vibe of this playlist just after midway through with some screaming thrash metal but you have to understand that I was having a bad day and really needed a pick me up. There is no better way to do that than to have Randy Blythe growl “RISE” after that singular guitar riff intro. Believe me, it is so deliciously soothing to a group of raw nerves and it brings me back to the many times I have seen them live. What a metal assault this song is, another awesome track in an arsenal of many, plus, this is another of their pointed political songs, from the era of the second Bush administration, a time that feels so long ago now.
“Blood and fire used to fill the night
Burned and drowned by our very lives
You missed a sinking boat by years
Dollar signs, crocodile tears
It’s over now and long has been
Those days are gone, won’t come again
Another name crossed off the list
The real thing would kill you quick”
Track #11: Temple Of The Dog – Say Hello 2 Heaven – Temple Of The Dog (1990)
The emotions hit very hard just moments into this song with those first chords in this tribute song to Mother Love Bone’s Andrew Wood. Now, we live in a world without the singer of this track, Chris Cornell, a hole left in rock music that is felt every day. The second single off the supergroup’s self-titled record after the massive success of Hunger Strike, this is my favorite song off the album and if the moment hits me right, I can feel the tears building which I think shows how special this song is. Music is timeless and sometimes, just for a special space in imaginative time, it can resurrect legends.
“New like a baby, and lost like a prayer
The sky was your playground, but the cold ground was your bed
Ooh, I said, poor Stargazer, she’s got no tears in her eyes
But fool like a whisper, she knows that love heals all wounds with time
Now it seem like too much love is never enough
Yeah, you better seek out another road, ’cause this one has ended abrupt, oh!”
Track #12: Marshmello and Khalid – Numb – Numb (2022)
Sometimes you just need a boppy single to get back on track mentally and Numb is one that I generally wouldn’t gravitate to but it really is so damn catchy. The second collaboration between the producer and R&B singer, it marks nearly a five-year stretch since their first hit together, “Silence”, a track that leads into Khalid’s sensibilities more, I think Numb’s style made it more destined to be a chart-topper. I also contend that any song with a whistle in its main chorus will always catch on with a mainstream audience. It’s almost scientific at this point to increase your serotonin when hearing it.
“I, I wanna get numb
And forget where I’m from
‘Cause lookin’ in your eyes
Like lookin’ at the sun
I feel like you’re the moon
I feel like I’m the one
I wanna get numb, numb, numb, numb
I, I wanna get numb
And forget where I’m from
‘Cause lookin’ in your eyes
Like lookin’ at the sun
I feel like you’re the moon
I feel like I’m the one
I wanna get numb, numb, numb, numb”
Track #13: The Black Keys – Shine A Little Light – “Let’s Rock” (2019)
When you’re looking for an old-school sounding rock band in the modern age, you really can’t go wrong with the duo of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, together known as Akron, Ohio’s own The Black Keys. Taking the first track off of their ninth studio album, this song sets a tone for the rest of the record and with that crunchy opening, it is the perfect sound for getting shit done, rolling on a road trip or just playing some serious air guitar. The song is about reaching out to the spirits of those who have left us to ease our times for the living. All this is done in the style that the Keys have really made their own.
“No one really knows
Where it goes from here
But we all decompose
And slowly disappear”
Track #14: Cage The Elephant – Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked – Cage The Elephant (2008)
There’s something about an outlaw-sounding storytelling song that really ropes me in and this Bowling Green, Kentucky alt-rock band has a sound that they’ve cultivated beautifully for themselves. I was shocked to discover that this was the third single released off of the record, which surprises me as this and Back Against The Wall, the fourth single released, are my favorite tracks off the album. This song was also used in the opening cutscene to the video game Borderlands which is relevant with the terrible film adaptation now playing in theaters.
“Not even fifteen minutes later I’m still walking down the street
When I saw the shadow of a man creep out out of sight
And then he swept up from behind, he put a gun up to my head
He made it clear he wasn’t looking for a fight
He said, “Give me all you’ve got, I want your money, not your life
But if you try to make a move, I won’t think twice”
I told him, “You can have my cash, but first you know I gotta ask
What made you want to live this kind of life?””
We’re getting horror thriller heavy this week but is it all good? I took in M. Night Shyamalan’s new vision with Josh Hartnett, Trap, both Chloe and I give our thoughts on the strange new thriller Cuckoo with Hunter Schaffer and the always welcome Dan Stevens and I finally got my eyes on Ti West’s MaXXXine. The Umbrella Academy draws to a close on Netflix, Faye Dunaway gets a career spanning documentary and Natalie Portman is bringing the artfully driven mystery in a new series. All this and more on this new episode!
We are Kevin-less this week (he’s actually in the background, TRY AND SPOT HIM!!) but I’ve got my Deadpool & Wolverine thoughts and, don’t worry! I’ve kept them spoiler-free for those who haven’t seen it yet! Kneecap, a fantastic Irish hip-hop biopic hits theatres in limited release, I’m a big fan of the Lowe’s show Unstable, which gets its second season this week and I watched Purple Rain for the first time, one 4K, on the fortieth anniversary. Morris and Jerome forever.
Being a beginner to the real cohesion of playlists, doing them as a “day-by-day add to” list has sometimes worked out perfectly but other times, it has seemed like a mish-mash of crazy styles, tone shifts and jarring transitions. Well, this is probably a grouping of songs that belongs with the latter as I have shifts like Ladytron to Eyes Set To Kill, The Smiths to Stabbing Westward and The National to Taproot. I did try and sneak in my own music therapy to start getting myself over a total tragedy that has happened to one of my all time favorite duos.
Track #1: Shinedown – Cut The Cord – Threat To Survival (2015)
Starting this playlist off with a proven hit generator in this Jacksonville, Florida rock band who have been putting out solid records since 2003 and I really only just got into them fully in the last decade. I definitely should have been into them earlier, as they did the theme song for WWE Monday Night RAW years ago, using their song Enemies, but their album Attention Attention really got my, well, attention. From there, I started backtracking and came across this track, the first single released from the 2015 album. That record was largely panned by critics but this song was celebrated and it still makes me bop whenever it comes on.
“Let me tell you: I’m vicious
Not passive-aggressive
I’ve got my finger on the pulse
Starin’ straight into a hole, and I get it
And I’m a savage; it’s automatic
I got a way of makin’ noise
The power to destroy with no static”
Track #2: Toadies – Tyler – Rubberneck (1994)
When it comes to this Fort Worth, Texas rock band that formed at the inception of the grunge era, Possum Kingdom is the song I feel like we know and love. It wasn’t until I dug into the album that track came off of that I realized it is such a treasure trove of great rock songs and this one is definitely my favorite. The song is named after a small town an hour and a half outside of Dallas, a place without much going on and the focus is on a sexual assault that happened in town. The point of view of the song is from the attacker and gets really dark but, damn, why did the Toadies have to make it all with a catchy sound around it? It makes me feel weird and now I pass that feeling on to you.
“We can drive
To any place
Day and night
To cross this state”
Track #3: Thirty Seconds To Mars – The Story – A Beautiful Lie (2005)
No matter how weird Jared Leto comes across in real life and whether he really runs a cult or whatever rumors swirl around him, I still feel very drawn to his music and have since the release of their first album. With A Beautiful Lie, I feel they made a real landmark record and it was this song of it that I feel myself constantly drawn to. It has an echoey drive to it that resonates to my very musical core every time and it has a bridge in it that I belt out along with Jared and can’t get it out of my head for hours afterwards. This is a warning here, you haven’t seen the last of Jared, Shannon and company on these lists as I make them.
“I’m in the middle of nothing
And it’s where I want to be
I’m at the bottom of everything
And I finally start to leave”
Track #4: Ladytron – Destroy Everything You Touch – Witching Hour (2005)
It’s really starting to feel like 2005 is the story of this playlist this time around as now we have two records in a row from the mid-aughts time. This electro-pop trio out of Liverpool, England made their first impression on me with this song off of their third album, and like most of my discoveries in that genre, I was hooked big time. The rising intensity of this song gets me grooving almost immediately and I saw it referred to as a “scorched earth banger” and I can’t think of a better way to describe it. The second single released off of Witching Hour, I really have to recommend the music video as well, an artful piece directed by Adam Bartley in his only time behind the camera.
“Everything you touch, you don’t feel
Do not know what you steal
Shakes your hand
Takes your gun
Walks you out of the sun
What you touch, you don’t feel
Do not know what you steal
Destroy everything you touch today
Please destroy me this way”
Track #5: Eyes Set To Kill – Drift Away – Eyes Set To Kill (2018)
The Rodriguez sisters out of Tempe, Arizona make their second appearance on one of my playlists and this is kind of a big one as they kicked off this whole project as song one on playlist one and it was a song of this album too. I dig this track a lot, one that serves as the first of the last four songs on the record, and the emo drive of it really gets going as an earworm every time I hear it. The song feels like it speaks to themes of promises broken and extreme abandonment so, as far as an emo song goes, it kind of checks all the boxes. The difference is it has some good metal crunch to it. Seriously, if this band’s name is new to you, fix it with this album ASAP.
“All of the blood and all the shame
Was it all for nothing?
I swallowed my pride to be a slave
Yeah, I took the beating
There is no hope to hold onto
No point in believing
These letters to home
Aren’t getting through”
Track #6: My Chemical Romance – I’m Not Okay (I Promise) – Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge (2004)
Speaking of emo songs, it’s time to bring one of the all-time heavyweights in that genre to the playlists and, with how much I enjoy this group, I’m surprised it’s taken this long. Founded by brothers Gerard and Mikey Way in 2001 out of Newark, New Jersey, the lyrics automatically gripped my the first time I heard them and it was this song that started the ball rolling, which also happened to be the first single off their second record. The song is basically a plea for help from a girl being mentally abused by a partner using her own personal pictures against her. The song plays both angles through the central narrator, Gerard, to claim some sort of understanding. Emo songs can sometimes have ridiculous depth to them and these guys are the kings of that.
“Forget about the dirty looks
The photographs your boyfriend took
You said you read me like a book
But the pages all are torn and frayed now”
Track #7: Dead Poet Society – .CoDA. – -!- (2021)
I love bringing a band that isn’t widely known to this list and this rock band out of Boston, Massachusetts really deserves to have ears on them. Formed in 2013, it’s crazy to think that the band didn’t get their first full record released until after the beginning of the pandemic after the release of four EPs but here we are. A bunch of Berklee College of Music graduates, they wouldn’t have had musical exposure if it wasn’t for the love they experienced with Mexican fans through a music blog called Pepe Problemas. This is the first track I heard by them and it put me on the path of this full debut album as well as the follow-up Fission which was released at the very beginning of the year. These guys deserve to blow up big time and I hope the rock charts begin to realize that.
“Talk shit, bitch
Say it like you wanna leave
You love me like cocaine, yeah
Don’t lie, get it right
Need me every night
You love me like, you love me like
You love me like cocaine, yeah
You love me like, I love you like”
Track #8: The Smiths – Bigmouth Strikes Again – The Queen Is Dead (1986)
Let’s get this opinion out of the way. Morrissey has made a career out of being a complete asshole, saying inflammatory things and giving his shitty thoughts on everything and cancelling shows over his own bloated ego. That said, Johnny Marr is a rock god without question and The Smiths hold an undeniable place in music history and were the inspiration for so many. This is a song I really felt like I needed on a bad Monday and it’s kind of cool that this was the first Smiths song to land on the playlist as I really thought it would be the more common How Soon Is Now that was first selected. This was the leading single off of this record and it is iconic, to say the least.
“And now I know how Joan of Arc felt
Now I know how Joan of Arc felt
As the flames rose to her Roman nose
And her Walkman started to melt (Ah)”
Track #9: Stabbing Westward – Save Yourself – Darkest Days (1998)
It looks like this is the part of the playlist where we get even more classic and this band fits right in with bands like Nine Inch Nails and, what came from that band, Filter. An industrial rock quintet out of Macomb, Illinois, this was the record where I really started paying attention to them, even though the hit song “What Do I Have To Do?” lives in an industrial emo hall of fame in my opinion. I remember buying this album just based on that one track alone and was treated to a concept album of sorts too. This song is part of the second act which is about lust, hope, and longing in the aftermath of a breakup. If you were heartbroken in the late 90s, this should’ve been your go-to. It still could be.
“I know that you’ve been damaged
Your soul has suffered such abuse
But I am not your savior
I am just as fucked as you
(I am just as fucked as you)”
Track #10: R.E.M. – What’s The Frequency, Kenneth? – Monster (1994)
Yes, we’re getting back to that Smiths-ish style of a classic with a rock band that lives in a legend status, and that is Michael Stipe, Peter Buck and the rest of R.E.M. I’m definitely not over the moon about their entire discography but some songs poke through and this one is reminiscent of the music video era when it was really at it’s height in the mid-nineties. Furthermore, this track popping up made me re-examine this album as an adult and it improved immensely with my music maturity now. I can see why this record was so loved and I wish I wasn’t so jaded at the time and had the broader understanding of music that I do today. This song was also the tipping point into a rockier sound from R.E.M., a landmark track if you will.
“I’d studied your cartoons, radio, music, TV, movies, magazines
Richard said, “Withdrawal in disgust is not the same as apathy”
A smile like the cartoon, tooth for a tooth
You said that irony was the shackles of youth”
Track # 11: The Weeknd – Gasoline – Dawn FM (2022)
The second appearance of the closest voice we have to Michael Jackson at present date, The Weeknd also doubles as Canadian content on this playlist, the only one so far. This song is one that got caught in my head as it was used as the official theme song for Wrestlemania this year and as a regular viewer of their programming, I heard it over and over again. The basis of the song is Abel speaking about himself as a selfish lover whose only self-worth is derived from his partner. It fits in as the first real track on the, largely, concept record Dawn FM, as of now, the last one he’s put out. I think he said he was done too, so this weirdo record and The Idol will be the last “Weeknd” releases.
“It’s 5 AM my time again
I’ve soaken up the moon, can’t sleep
It’s 5 AM my time again
I’m calling and you know it’s me
I’m pushin’ myself further
I’m just tryin’ to feel my heartbeat beat (Beat)
I wrap my hands around your neck
You love it when I always squeeze
It’s 5 AM, I’m high again
And you can see that I’m in pain (Ooh, ooh)
I’ve fallen into emptiness
I want you ’cause we’re both insane
I’m staring into the abyss
I’m lookin’ at myself again
I’m dozing off to R.E.M.
I’m trying not to lose my faith”
Track #12: Tenacious D – Tribute – Tenacious D (2001)
Given all the recent events surrounding The D and their apparent break up over a Donald Trump assassination attempt joke, when this song popped on I felt an initial sadness wash over me. The current filter of the year 2024 has a tainted taste on it but the original love I have for this album, all twenty-three years of it, won’t let me completely tarnish my comfort album, a record I know lyrically from front to back. I can’t let JB’s heinous decision-making skills rob me of the glory of this record and the memories I have attached to it! So, I offer a Tribute, if you will, to honor my deep feelings of love to a collection of songs that I’ve carried with me ever since they first hit my ears as well as a rock legend duo that called it quits for th stupidest of reasons.
“Ah-rah, dee
Soo-guh-goo-gee-goo-gee
Goo-guh fli-goo gee-goo
Guh fli-goo, ga-goo-buh-dee
Ooh, guh-goo-bee
Ooh-guh-guh-bee-guh-guh-bee
Fli-goo gee-goo
A-fliguh woo-wa mama Lucifer!”
Track #13: The National – All The Wine – Alligator (2005)
I guess I’ll come right out of the gate and address that I’m using the verion of this song from the second releasing of it rather than the one off of their third studio album and not the previously released EP from 2004. This band is one I found through the radio, on a great station called The Peak which showcased a different side of rock music but it was from their current album at the time, High Violent from 2010. Through that and the influence of my wife, I started to look through their earlier work, via the Blaylock playlists, and really fixated on this record a lot. I also really have love for a song that would contain the lyric “I’m a perfect piece of ass”. That’s so damn poetic, thank you Matt Berninger and Aaron Dessner.
“I’m put together beautifully
Big wet bottle in my fist
Big wet rose in my teeth
I’m a perfect piece of ass
Like every Californian
So tall I take over the street
With high-beams shining up my back
A wingspan unbelievable
I’m a festival
I’m a parade”
Track #14: Taproot – Myself – Welcome (2002)
Wrapping this playlist up with a returning band and one of my favorites of all time, Ann Arbor, Michigan’s own Taproot, for have three immaculate records in a row, starting with their landmark debut, Gift. The second record clearly had a big effect on me as I have now brought a second track off of that album but this song in particular has a direct connection to the debut as it features a sample directly from the band’s first single, “Again & Again”. The bridge to the song also has such a good deep groove to it that /i have to crank the volume on it everytime. In a selfish move, I’m choosing to close this pretty all over the place playlist with a forever favorite of mine.
“Caressing gateways of the mind
Over, enter through spaces time
Heals wounds inspiring gifts of light
Inside myself just need some time
(Just need some time to myself)
To figure it out cause I’ve got no doubt
That when my dreams come true
It’s because of you
And the fact that I let you”
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!
Steve Stebbing 