I’ve started putting together The Wax Museum’s 100 Best Albums of 2026, an annual exercise in assigning numerical order to a hundred records I love. And while there’s a certain amount of arbitrariness to these things (is my 37th favorite album really better than my 42nd?), I take the top of the list seriously. Those first few spots are the albums I want to look back on five or ten years from now and feel like I got right.

And as things stand, my Album of the Year is westside trapped by heavensouls.

It was looking like a pretty comfortable choice, too. Then, earlier this month, this 20-year-old producer I’d never even heard of before 2026 went and released another album’s worth of music that’s every bit as good. Two masterpieces in seven months. What the hell is going on here?

I first wrote about westside trapped back in July, describing it as a sprawling, sample-heavy collision of Afrobeat, jazz history, and digital-age production. Four months later, I’ve only grown more convinced that Nigerian-born, Houston-based producer Chidi Obialo made something extraordinary here.

The record is a deeply personal love letter to Nigeria, one that draws heavily from the country’s rich musical history and filters it through experimental hip-hop, electronic manipulation, and freewheeling jazz.

Earlier this month, I celebrated 50 years of Fela Kuti’s Zombie in The Weekender, and you can hear that record’s DNA all over westside trapped. Fela’s protest music was politically furious and still made people dance their asses off, and heavensouls carries that spirit forward. The interlocking percussion, the horns, the infectious grooves, the righteous anger. It’s all there, reassembled by a kid who grew up with the history of recorded music and the internet at his fingertips.

The results are frequently jaw-dropping. “creek ala” erupts into a gorgeous West African groove, “playing around wit a flip” is a masterclass in rhythmic invention, and the nine-minute “shed a tear for me” remains one of my favorite pieces of music released this year. It’s a furious, emotionally exhausting composition that sounds perpetually on the verge of flying apart.

I figured westside trapped would be heavensouls’ defining statement of 2026. A record that announces a major new talent, gives the music nerds something to obsess over, and keeps the rest of us occupied for months.

But he wasn’t finished.

On October 7, heavensouls released “cantu” of the sower, an EP in name only, with six tracks stretching across nearly 44 minutes. And holy guacamole, it might actually be better than westside trapped. Mercifully for my year-end rankings, it’s technically an EP.

Where westside trapped draws from Nigeria’s musical history, cantu is more abstract. IDM, glitch, free jazz, orchestral strings, frantic percussion, electronic bleeps and bloops, and all manner of strange noises collide in a dense, cacophonous collage. It’s overwhelming, disorienting, and somehow one of the most beautiful things I’ve heard all year.

It reminds me of Parannoul’s maximalist, blown-out approach to rock. Both bury you under so many layers of noise that you wonder how any of it could possibly be pleasurable, only to arrive somewhere genuinely moving.

My favorite track is “model housing,” which might be the best introduction to what heavensouls is up to. The claustrophobia Obialo experienced walking through an American suburb full of identical houses — that feeling of being trapped in a world of conformity — runs through the record. “model housing” opens with an anti-capitalist call for liberation before launching into a mess of skittering percussion, saxophones, electronics, guitars, video-game noises, and an obscure rap freestyle. Every time you think you’ve figured out where it’s headed, it takes another left turn.

The nearly nine-minute opener “today is my favorite” is another marvel, with strings, sax, guitar, and percussion weaving in and out of an ever-changing arrangement. Across all six tracks, Obialo makes music that seems to operate according to its own laws of physics.

Which brings me to something worth emphasizing: don’t let the experimental tag scare you off. There’s plenty of challenging, head-spinning stuff happening across these records, but they’re also packed with moments of genuine beauty, irresistible rhythms, and melodies you’ll want to hear again. For all his restlessness, heavensouls never forgets that music should be fun to listen to.

We tend to talk about prodigies in terms of potential, imagining what they might accomplish once they’ve had another decade or two to develop. But what happens when the music they’re making right now is already this good? You stop grading on a curve. He’s made two of the best records anyone put out this year, regardless of age.

MVP! MVP! MVP!

I have no idea where heavensouls goes from here. Ten months ago, I didn’t even know his name. Now he’s responsible for my favorite album of 2026, another release that might be even better, and some of the most fascinating, beautiful, bewildering music I’ve heard in years.

Not a bad year for a 20-year-old.

Thanks for visiting The Wax Museum, and I’ll see you Friday for The Weekender,
Jared

More Album Review Longreads

• On The National’s Laugh Track and The Worst Week of My Life

• Revisiting Vampire Weekend’s Father of the Bride in Wake of Israel’s Gaza Offensive

Welcome to The Weekender. I spent the week digging for good stuff so you don’t have to.

The 122nd World Series starts tonight, and it’s worth celebrating that we’ve got a Fall Classic without the Dodgers or Yankees. Instead, it’s the Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays, two franchises that have never won a championship, so one fanbase is about to experience euphoria for the first time. And Game 7, should we be so lucky, falls on Halloween. As Dane Cook said, “there’s only one October!”

But there’s plenty happening beyond the diamond. Here’s what’s on deck this weekend:

• a long-awaited farewell from one of the great psychedelic bands of the ’90s

• 80 minutes of glorious, brain-rattling repetition

• a dreamy little record for your autumn afternoons (RIYL: Air)

• the unofficial live album I’ve been waiting two decades for

• Sinatra at the Sands gets the deluxe treatment with previously unheard shows

• one jazz guitarist attempts a monumental musical marathon

• our third Spooky Season screening goes hunting for an ’80s serial killer

• some very unsettling literature to read with the lights on

Let’s dig in.

The Listening Room

Five must-hear records for your weekend.

The Olivia Tremor Control – The Same Place

Stream: Bandcamp
Get Vinyl: Ocean Blue (sold out) | Black

Well, I’ll be damned: a new Olivia Tremor Control album in 2026. The Same Place is the Athens, Georgia band’s first record in 27 years (!!!) and, sadly, their last.

If you’re new here, OTC were founding members of the Elephant 6 collective alongside Neutral Milk Hotel and The Apples in Stereo. Their two albums, 1996’s Dusk at Cubist Castle and 1999’s Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One, are psychedelic pop landmarks. Picture Magical Mystery Tour left in a basement next to a shortwave radio for a few decades: gorgeous harmonies, tape loops, backward guitars, and musique concrète detours.

The backstory is bittersweet. Principal songwriters Bill Doss and Will Cullen Hart died in 2012 and 2024, respectively, after the band had spent nearly two decades chipping away at a third album. The surviving members and their Elephant 6 friends finished the job from Hart’s notes, assembling a 27-track double album from recordings made across several eras, some dating back to 1988.

There are real pop songs here, but also fragments, sonic interruptions, and a seven-part suite called “Path of the Parallels,” because of course there is. This band always sounded out of time, ancient and futuristic at once, so it’s perfect that their final transmission shows up decades later. Worth the wait, and a legitimate Album of the Year contender.

Water Damage - Repair

Stream: Bandcamp
Get Vinyl: Black

Austin collective Water Damage run on the principle “maximum repetition, minimal deviation.” Find a riff, ride it until the room reaches a higher state of consciousness, then keep going another 15 minutes to be safe.

Repair is four tracks, one per side of a double LP. That’s 80 minutes of droning guitars and motorik drums from a ten-piece lineup, plus guests like Wendy Eisenberg. Opener “Reel 45” arrives with an absolute barrage of percussion, and “Reel 43: Down on the Street” feeds the Stooges classic into the machine. Put this on loud and see where it takes you.

Two records down, three to go!

Also behind the velvet rope: a fan-made live album two decades in the making, one jazz guitarist’s absurd five-hour marathon, a new inductee into The Wax Museum Film Canon, a short story collection to read with the lights on, and much more! All waiting below for paid subscribers.

Become a paid subscriber for $5/month or $50/year and receive this every Friday.

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Welcome to The Weekender, where I gather up the records, movies, shows, books, and assorted internet detours I think are worth carrying into the next couple of days. Consider your weekend sorted.

Included in this issue:

• the most stacked new music release day in months, led by a band making a serious case for the best five-album run in modern rock

• a must-hear new remix album, a wild compilation, and a stacked mixtape

• go inside a barreling wave with Pink Floyd, plus an hour of The War on Drugs

• two new documentaries out today that seem tailor-made to me

• a deeply unsettling ‘60s cult classic with a bonkers Brian Wilson connection

• and our first October Book Club check-in, featuring a 1930s cosmic horror mystery and one hell of an ending

Thank you for supporting human curation. Now let’s dig in.

The Listening Room

Six must-hear records for your weekend.

Fontaines D.C. - Dopamine Chamber

Stream: Spotify | Apple Music
Get Vinyl: Pink | Blue | 45 RPM 2 LP | Black | Alt Cover

I had what I thought was a clever lede for this review: quote Grian Chatten’s first line from Fontaines D.C.’s 2019 debut Dogrel, “My childhood was small / But I’m gonna be big,” then point out that the Irish lads are now booking stadiums and making a serious run at the biggest-band-in-rock crown. Turns out every - single - critic had the same idea. Great minds think alike, or I’ve never had an original thought in my life. Anyway, let’s talk album number five, Dopamine Chamber, where the winning streak continues.

Back in August, after hearing “Marianne,” I wondered whether the band’s promised “most radical shift yet” meant we were getting a full-on synth-pop record. Not quite, but Dopamine Chamber finds Fontaines D.C. continuing to tweak their sound, leaning further into synthesizers and taking a darker, more atmospheric turn than Romance. Producer James Ford gives the record a gorgeous, ethereal quality, with shades of New Order and Cocteau Twins mixing with the band’s familiar post-punk sound.

After a few spins, my favorite non-singles are the Depeche Mode-coded “Mimesis,” the penultimate “Japan,” which sounds like it could have wandered over from Romance, and the show-stopping closer “Intimate.” I’ll need more time to figure out where Dopamine Chamber ranks in their catalog, but one thing is clear: Fontaines D.C. have officially gone five for five. Put their first five albums up against just about any active rock band, and I like their chances.

If you can’t read further, you’ve reached the Walled Garden of The Wax Museum. A subscription costs just $5 a month or $50 a year and unlocks every exhibit, plus $10 off in the Gift Shop. Speaking of which, may I suggest this drool-worthy mousepad? Kid-tested, collector approved! Just $5 for paid subscribers.

One album down, five to go! Still ahead: so much new music, two documentaries worth watching, Spooky Season rolls on, an October Book Club check-in, and plenty more for the ultimate weekend. All waiting below for paid subscribers.

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In my recent review of Greg Freeman’s stellar new album All Set the Bone, I mentioned a strange Baader-Meinhof moment involving Cahokia, the ancient Native American city near St. Louis. After going my entire life without hearing about the place, it popped up in two books I was reading, Luke Kemp’s Goliath’s Curse and ’s The Veiled Prophet, before Freeman started yelling “Cahokia!” at me on the album’s opening track. Three Cahokias in a matter of months. What are the odds?

It got me thinking about how music and literature end up occupying the same real estate in my brain. As an avid liner-note enjoyer, I suppose I’m predisposed to this sort of thing. So I went digging through my favorite albums of 2025 and 2026 and paired five of them with novels I love. Some connections are obvious, others require some creative license, but all ten come highly recommended.

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Welcome to The Weekender, where I gather up the records, movies, shows, books, and assorted internet detours I think are worth carrying into the next couple of days. Consider your weekend sorted.

Included in this issue:

• my favorite new album release of the week

• three fresh vinyl pressings of some old favorites, from cosmic jazz to Afrobeat to indie rock

• The Best Songs of 2026 playlist hits a big milestone

• Geese’s hometown concert, filmed by King Gizzard’s livestream crew, vanished from YouTube, but I’ve got the goods

• one of my favorite moviegoing experiences of the year

• our first Spooky Season screening was a 1950s Southern Gothic nightmare: does it belong in The Wax Museum Film Canon?

• and a fascinating debut novel from a legendary filmmaker that you can knock out in two hours

The Weekender drops every Friday exclusively for paid subscribers. Your $5 a month or $50 a year gets you one of these every week, plus the full archive and $10 off in the Gift Shop. More importantly, it gives me an excuse to spend an unreasonable amount of time digging for things worth recommending to you.

Thank you for supporting human curation. Now let’s get into it.

The Listening Room

Records, songs, and other sounds for your weekend.

Cameron Winter - Live at Carnegie Hall (2026)

Stream: Bandcamp
Get Vinyl: Red | Black

The release I’m most excited for this week, and one that ought to silence whatever Cameron Winter doubters are still out there.

Last December, a year after releasing his solo debut Heavy Metal, the Geese frontman became one of the youngest artists to headline Carnegie Hall at just 23 years old. Seated alone at a piano with his back to the audience, Winter tore through songs from Heavy Metal alongside three unreleased tracks.

Back in my original 2024 review, I called Winter’s voice one of rock’s most unforgettable, and hearing it this exposed only strengthens my case. Heavy Metal was already an intimate, unhinged masterpiece. Hearing these songs stripped down to just Winter and a piano makes them feel even more alive.

Paul Thomas Anderson and Benny Safdie were there to capture the performance on 35mm film. Cameron Winter at Carnegie Hall begins a limited theatrical run November 20, but you can hear the concert now and preorder the vinyl, complete with the instantly iconic gatefold of Winter smooching Andrew Carnegie.

Still ahead: three vinyl finds, the missing Geese concert footage, the best songs of the year, a fever dream of a novel, and plenty more to keep your weekend occupied. All waiting below for paid subscribers.

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Tonight at 8 PM ET, I’m going live for my fifth Whatnot show, and this time I’ve assembled 55 soundtracks on vinyl for you to fight over.

55 Soundtracks 55 Records 55 Burgers 55 Fries!

I’m obsessed with film and vinyl, so getting to mash the two together tonight will be a real Baja Blast. We’ve got movie scores, cult favorites, TV soundtracks, video game music, colored vinyl, Japanese imports, Mondo pressings, and plenty of stuff I would be perfectly happy keeping for myself.

For the uninitiated, Whatnot is basically Twitch meets eBay: I put a record up, the auction runs live for a few seconds, everyone bids in the chat, and whoever has the highest bid when the clock hits zero gets it. Everything starts at $1.

Better yet, new Whatnot users can get $25 to spend with this link. The credit works anywhere on Whatnot, but you could bring it to the show tonight and walk away with a record on me.

Even if you don’t plan on bidding, come hang out. I’ll be spinning music, talking movies, and giving away free vinyl all night.

You can browse the records and start pre-bidding right now here.

Here’s a few highlights before we get to the full lineup:

Star Wars: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi (Japanese Colored Imports)

Probably the crown jewels of the auction: the original Star Wars trilogy on colored vinyl as Japanese imports, complete with OBIs and gorgeous jackets using the original Japanese theatrical poster artwork. A New Hope is blue, Empire is red, and Return of the Jedi is green. I’m running all three separately, so you can chase one favorite or attempt the trilogy sweep.

Home Alone (Mondo Exclusive Red and Green 2 LP)

Speaking of John Williams, we’re jumping from a galaxy far, far away to the McCallister house. Home Alone has one of the great Christmas soundtracks and scores, and this Mondo 2 LP pressing is a beauty: red and green vinyl, great artwork, and an inside gatefold showing the house rigged for the Wet Bandits.

Hey Arnold! (Nick Slime Colored Vinyl)

Hey Arnold! was my favorite cartoon growing up, and I’m having a blast rediscovering it with my daughter. Jim Lang’s soundtrack is a huge reason the show still feels so distinct, sneaking jazz, acid jazz, hip-hop, and lounge music into the ears of an entire generation of Nickelodeon kids. The vinyl sounds absurdly good, with instrumentals on one side and some great character songs on the other. One of my favorite records in the auction.

True Romance (Quasar Colored Vinyl)

True Romance is a Tony Scott flick, but Tarantino wrote it, and the soundtrack is quintessentially Quentin: Hans Zimmer’s Badlands-inspired score alongside Soundgarden, Chris Isaak, Charlie Sexton, Shelby Lynne, Robert Palmer, and more. They only pressed 100 of these wild Quasar-colored records, so I’m already regretting putting this up for $1.

And that barely gets us started. There’s Almost Famous and Boogie Nights, multiple Sofia Coppola soundtracks, Love Actually on candy cane vinyl, Clueless on pink wax, KPop Demon Hunters, Space Jam, The Big Lebowski, Popstar, Uncut Gems, video game soundtracks from Japanese Breakfast and Blood Cultures, and plenty more.

Below is everything currently available to pre-bid. If you can’t attend live, set the maximum you’re willing to pay and Whatnot will bid on your behalf during the show, which means you can still win while you’re living your beautiful offline life.

There will be 55 soundtracks total tonight, plus surprise records and free vinyl giveaways throughout the show. I’ll see you at 8 PM ET :)

The Soundtrack Show Vinyl Lineup

• Air - The Virgin Suicides Redux (SEALED)

• Almost Famous Soundtrack (Purple and Red 2 LP) (SEALED)

• Blood Cultures - Skate Story. Vol 1 (Vertigo Vinyl Exclusive Red and Black Splatter, limited to /250) (NM)

• Bo Burnham - INSIDE (Deluxe) (Ultra Clear 3 LP) (SEALED)

• Boogie Nights Soundtrack (Peach Marble Vinyl) (SEALED)

• Childish Gambino - Bando Stone and the New World Soundtrack 2 LP (NM)

• Clueless Soundtrack (30th Anniversary Pink Vinyl) (SEALED)

• Dark Nights: Death Metal Soundtrack (Superman Variant Cover, Electric Smoke Colored 2 LP) (SEALED)

• Flight of the Conchords - Flight of the Conchords (SEALED)

• Gilmore Girls Soundtrack (Coffee Coffee Coffee Colored Vinyl) (SEALED)

• Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Performance) (4 LP Box Set) (SEALED)

• Hey Arnold! Soundtrack (90s Nick Split with Splatter Vinyl) (NM)

• Hocus Pocus (Walmart Exclusive Blue Jay 2 LP) (NM)

• Home Alone Soundtrack (Mondo Exclusive Red and Green 2 LP) (NM)

• Inside Llewyn Davis: Another Day, Another Time | Live Concert 3 LP (SEALED)

• KPop Demon Hunters Soundtrack (Amazon Exclusive Violet Vinyl) (SEALED)

• Kronos Quartet Performs Philip Glass 2 LP (SEALED)

• La La Land Soundtrack (Barnes & Noble Exclusive Blue Vinyl) (SEALED)

• Lost in Translation Soundtrack (SEALED)

• Love Actually (Candy Cane Colored 2 LP) (SEALED)

• Metro Boomin Presents SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE Soundtrack (Heroes Version 2 LP) (SEALED)

• One Battle After Another Soundtrack 2 LP (SEALED)

• Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping Soundtrack (Mondo Exclusive Style Boyz 2 LP) (SEALED)

• Requiem for a Dream 2 LP (SEALED)

• Scarface Soundtrack (Red, White, and Black Swirl Vinyl) (SEALED)

• Space Jam Soundtrack 2 LP (SEALED)

• Star Wars: A New Hope Soundtrack (Blue Vinyl, Japanese Import) (SEALED)

• Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back Soundtrack (Red 2 LP, Japanese Import) (SEALED)

• Star Wars: Return of the Jedi Soundtrack (Green Vinyl, Japanese Import) (SEALED)

• The Big Lebowski Soundtrack (Gold Vinyl) (SEALED)

• The Goonies Soundtrack (SEALED)

• The Lonely Island - Turtleneck & Chain (SEALED)

• The Virgin Suicides Soundtrack (SEALED)

• There Will Be Blood Soundtrack (SEALED)

• Top Gun Soundtrack (SEALED)

• True Romance Soundtrack (Quasar Colored Vinyl, limited to /100) (NM)

• Uncut Gems Soundtrack 2 LP (NM)

• Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory Soundtrack (Red and White Swirl Vinyl) (SEALED)

Welcome to The Weekender, where I gather up the records, movies, shows, books, and assorted internet detours worth carrying into the next few days. Consider your weekend sorted.

I come bearing good news: Bandcamp Friday is back, which means Bandcamp waives its revenue share for the day and more of what you spend goes directly to the artists and labels. It started as a pandemic-era lifeline back in 2020 and, six years later, remains one of the easiest ways to turn “I love this record” into something more useful than another fraction of a streaming penny.

So I went digging. There are 10 Bandcamp Friday record-mendations in this issue, ranging from one of my favorite rock records of the year to blown-out shoegaze, woozy neo-soul, devastating folk music, and a few bands you should probably get familiar with now.

Also in this issue:

• four horror classics I’ve never seen become our October movie project

• festival jams from the couch all weekend long

• my return to East of Eden after rereading Steinbeck’s brick

• and our October Book Club pick goes deep into old-school cosmic horror

Thank you for supporting human curation. Now let’s spend some money on Bandcamp.

The Listening Room

10 Bandcamp Friday record-mendations for your weekend.

Greg Freeman - All Set The Bone

Stream: Bandcamp
Get Vinyl: Clear Pink

Genre: Indie Rock

The top spot each week is reserved for my favorite new Friday release, and this week that belongs to Greg Freeman’s All Set The Bone, an album that opens with a song title I went my entire life not knowing and have now seen three times in the last few months: Cahokia. That’s some Baader-Meinhof for my dumbass. I first saw it in Luke Kemp’s Goliath’s Curse, then again in Devin Thomas O’Shea’s The Veiled Prophet, which I’m currently reading, and now Freeman is yelling Cahokia at me through my headphones.

For anyone else late to Cahokia, it was a massive Native American city just across the Mississippi from present-day St. Louis. At its peak around 1050 to 1150, it held 10,000 to 20,000 people and was the largest pre-Columbian settlement north of Mexico. Then it declined and was abandoned, leaving behind the Cahokia Mounds that still sit there today. Freeman uses that vanished civilization as a metaphor for ours: debt, consumption, political impotence, and the nagging question of why we assume our civilization will be any different. “If doomsday came and went for everybody else, I wonder,” he sings before ending the song by repeatedly shouting Cahokia! A cheerful way to start a record.

That tension runs through All Set The Bone. Freeman writes songs that sound huge and alive while the guy at the center of them is looking around wondering what the fuck is happening. I already thought last year’s Burnover was excellent, but this another level: the guitars hit harder, the songs are stickier, and some credit has to go to producer John Congleton, who’s helped make a few personal favorites of mine over the last decade, including Alvvays’ Antisocialites and Manchester Orchestra’s A Black Mile to the Surface. But Freeman is the main attraction, writing about the cost of surviving in the present moment.

Maybe reading two books about civilizations, collapse, and American history has me especially susceptible to an album like this right now. Or maybe Greg Freeman just made a fucking great rock record. Either way, All Set The Bone is the first thing you should listen to this weekend.

Trinity Ace - Learning to Be a Cowboy on the Horse That Broke My Arm

Stream: Bandcamp
Get Vinyl: N/A

Genre: Folk Rock

If you’re listening closely to All Set The Bone, you’ll hear some gorgeous low harmonies tucked underneath Greg Freeman’s creaky yelp, courtesy of San Francisco songwriter Trinity Ace. Freeman wanted someone who could “sing with me and make it sound good,” and Ace’s deeper range does exactly that.

I was already hip to Trinity Ace thanks to essayist Jacob Austin of the excellent publication (and if you like Gnostic Pulp, I think you’ll dig this month’s Book Club pick at the bottom of this issue).

Her debut EP, Learning to Be a Cowboy on the Horse That Broke My Arm, came out back in May and is an EP mostly on a technicality. It runs 41 minutes, longer than plenty of albums now, and it flies by. Devastatingly beautiful stuff. Get in on the ground floor, buy stock now, whatever metaphor we’re using for “you should know this person’s name.”

Wishy – Nature’s Pill

Stream: Bandcamp
Get Vinyl: Painter’s Palette | Black Ice with White Cornetto | Devils Blush Pink

Genre: Power Pop

Indianapolis five-piece Wishy arrived on the scene fully formed with their 2024 debut Triple Seven, which earned the highly prestigious Waxy Award for Rookie of the Year.

Kevin Krauter and Nina Pitchkites are absurdly good at writing anthems, and Nature’s Pill is packed with huge guitars, infectious choruses, and melodies engineered to get stuck in your head. “Lovesick,” “Sensational,” “Shift,” take your pick. I’m betting a lot more people are about to find out how good this band is.

And I’m just getting started: seven more Bandcamp Friday record-mendations, a mini-series I’m stoked on, four classic horror films I’m finally watching for the first time, and the October Book Club pick are waiting on the other side.

The Weekender drops every Friday exclusively for paid subscribers. Your $5 a month or $50 a year gets you one of these every week, plus the full archive and $10 off in the Gift Shop. More importantly, it gives me an excuse to spend an unreasonable amount of time digging for things worth recommending to you.

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Welcome to The Weekender, the weekly recommendations exhibit of The Wax Museum. It goes out every Friday for paid subscribers, and about once a season, I unlock one so you free-loaders can see what you’re missing.

This is that one.

If it answers your weekly “what cool shit should I be reading, watching, and listening to?” question, consider a $5 a month or $50 a year upgrade and get one of these every Friday.

And this is a fun one. Jam-packed, emphasis on jams. Thank you for supporting human curation. Let’s get into it.

The Listening Room

Records, songs, and other sounds for your weekend.

Protomartyr - Hotel Usona (2026)

Stream: Bandcamp
Get Vinyl: Gold | Black

The top spot each week is reserved for my favorite new Friday release, and I fully expected M83’s I Wrote You a Letter to take it. Great single, Anthony Gonzalez back in the driver’s seat, easy call. Nope! A bit of a fakeout, as most of the record leans closer to the film-score work Gonzalez has been doing lately. Instead, Protomartyr’s Hotel Usona came along and blew my socks clean off.

This is essential October music: eerie, anxious, dark as hell, and constantly sounding like it knows something bad is coming. Joe Casey imagines America as a decaying hotel, with each of the album’s nine songs opening the door on some different modern nightmare, from AI and deportation to violence, warped patriotism, and the general psychic sludge of being alive right now. Casey remains one of our best wordsmiths, so I recommend listening with Genius open in another tab.

And good lord does this sound huge. Dave Fridmann, the producer behind records by The Flaming Lips, MGMT, Spoon, and plenty more, gives the band a scale and menace that fits the material perfectly. I could easily be convinced this is Protomartyr’s best record front to back.

Orbital - Glastonbury 1994 (2026)

Stream: Bandcamp
Get Vinyl: Yellow and Blue | Black

Orbital’s 1994 Glastonbury set finally gets its first official release today, more than 30 years after helping turn them from a big deal with ravers into a band that rock fans had to pay attention to. Channel 4 broadcast the festival, meaning a lot of people were seeing live electronic music presented on that scale for the first time, and you can hear why it landed: loops and samples being pushed around in real time, songs stretching way past their studio versions, Alison Goldfrapp floating through “Sad But True” and “Are We Here?,” and a closing “Chime” that rips. More than just a great set, it’s a pivotal moment in electronic music history.

The Radio Dept. - Pet Grief (2006)

Stream: Bandcamp
Get Vinyl: Grass Green | “Dinked” Maroon | Black

The Radio Dept. are giving Pet Grief a 20th anniversary vinyl reissue, which is excellent news because this thing has rarely been pressed and buying an old copy required the kind of financial decision you have to discuss with your spouse first.

Their second album is cozy, melancholic, dreamy as hell, all soft synths and shimmering guitars. Around the same time, the band was working on music for Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, and some of that unused material ended up on Pet Grief. It’s perfect fall music, and now you can own it without spending hundreds of dollars.

Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy’s Balearic Breakfast Vol. 1-5

Boy did I go down a lovely rabbit hole this week, and now I bless you with it.

I was poking around upcoming releases when Balearic Breakfast Vol. 5 caught my eye, presented by Colleen “Cosmo” Murphy. The name sounded familiar, and then it clicked: Murphy is responsible for the excellent remix of The Cure’s “And Nothing Is Forever” from Mixes of a Lost World, a record that gets spun a whole lot around my house.

That sent me looking around, where I found a playlist collecting most of the music from the first four Balearic Breakfast compilations plus the upcoming fifth volume. I hit play and six hours later realized I had barely stopped listening.

If “Balearic” is new to you, the short version is that it grew out of Ibiza DJ culture and casts a wide net: dance music, psychedelia, ambient, disco, cosmic weirdness, sunny pop. Sort of like the SPRITZCORE genre I made up this summer.

Part of what makes these compilations crush is Murphy herself. She came up through college radio at NYU, later became part of David Mancuso’s legendary Loft orbit, and has spent decades DJing. Sequencing is central to her style, and you hear it immediately. Each volume works front to back, but there’s also the fun of stumbling onto a song you’ve never heard, stopping everything, and tossing it into one of your own playlists.

Balearic Breakfast Vol. 5 arrives November 13. Looking at previous volumes on Discogs, these things sell out fast and resell for triple the cost, so if genre-hopping musical sunshine sounds appealing, I’d get that preorder in.

PATIO GROOVES 🍂 Fall 2026

Stream: Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube Music

This week was the official start to Fall aka peak patio season! So you would be wise to throw on PATIO GROOVES, 33⅓ songs built for cool mornings, football on TV, drinks outside, and thinking about where the hell the last 20 years went. About half the playlist is from this year, with the rest digging across six decades of hazy memories and seasonal wistfulness.

The Screening Room

Movies, shows, concerts, documentaries, and assorted moving images.

Sub Pop TV

Watch: YouTube

Sub Pop, one of indie rock’s great institutions and now somehow 38 years old, recently turned its YouTube channel into a 24/7 music video stream pulling from the label’s catalog from the ’80s to today. The first two videos I caught were CocoRosie’s “Lemonade” and Band of Horses’ “No One’s Gonna Love You,” two songs I wore out in college, so I was hooked immediately. Stick it on for five minutes and you’re just as likely to get Nirvana, The Shins, Beach House, Fleet Foxes, or some band you forgot you loved.

Big Thief - Live at The Opera House at 7A Ranch, Wimberley, TX, Nov 6, 2025

Watch: YouTube

Big Thief are one of our great live bands, and I especially love when they lean more rock than folk, which is what Adrianne Lenker, Buck Meek, and James Krivchenia do here. Everything about this set hits: the mix, the visuals, the sound, the band absolutely cooking. Highlights abound, but I especially dug the eight-minute, jammed-out “Not” and the new track “Muscle Memory,” expected to land on their upcoming 29-song triple album Horsepower, which they recently played in full at the Ryman. Just an incredible document of a band in its prime.

Watch Johnny Blue Skies All Tour Long

Stream: Nugs

Speaking of live bands in their prime, is anyone doing it like Sturgill Simpson right now? Sheesh. He’s currently out on an arena tour under the Johnny Blue Skies name, and every show is being streamed on Nugs, with each night hovering around 30 songs and three hours of jams and no two setlists the same. The first 15 minutes of the Denver show above should tell you pretty quickly what kind of run he’s on. Next livestream is October 2 in Nashville, so save the date.

The Films of Lance Oppenheim

More than two years ago, back in The Weekender #14, I called Lance Oppenheim “one of our most exciting documentarians” after Ren Faire, Spermworld, and Some Kind of Heaven. Feeling pretty good about that one! Oppenheim is somehow still only 30, and today he releases his first narrative feature, Primetime, with Robert Pattinson playing To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen in what looks like a dark examination of reality TV, exploitation, and the race for ratings. Pattinson is already getting Best Actor chatter, and this is what I’ll be seeing this weekend.

Then on October 16, Oppenheim and Nathan Fielder give us You Can See Everything, the nearly three-hour Elizabeth Holmes documentary they somehow made in secret, beginning with Fielder moving in with Holmes and her partner 34 days before she reported to prison. It premiered as a surprise at Telluride and immediately became one of the buzziest documentaries of the year, so yes, I’ll be there for that too.

In the meantime, go backwards: Ren Faire and SPERMWORLD are both excellent, and Some Kind of Heaven, his beautiful, bizarre portrait of life in The Villages, remains one of my favorite documentaries of the decade. This kid is on a ridiculous run.

The Reading Room

Books, longreads, interviews, lists, and internet rabbit holes.

Brut (2026) and Running The Light (2020) by Sam Tallent

Comedian Sam Tallent’s debut novel, Running the Light, is still the best fictionalized representation of stand-up comedy I’ve read, a pitch-black road novel I devoured five years ago and haven’t forgotten since. Now he’s back with Brut, a thriller about an ex-Marine turned hitman named Beaujolais who gets handed one final job. Tallent writes with this nasty, visceral, cinematic energy that can be funny one page and deeply ugly the next, with plenty of Cormac McCarthy DNA running through it. Tallent is officially two-for-two.

The Second Coming of Steely Dan by Cameron Crowe in Rolling Stone (1977)

Steely Dan’s masterpiece Aja turned 49 this week, which is as good an excuse as any to revisit seven songs of perfection I never get sick of. And thanks to for putting this 3,000-word Rolling Stone piece by Cameron Crowe on my radar, written after he interviewed Walter Becker and Donald Fagen on Aja’s release day in 1977. It’s full of great stories, sharp little details, and a nice snapshot of where Steely Dan were at that moment, all written with Crowe’s usual charm. Expanding Dan has the full piece available to download.

Treat Spotify Like a Public Utility by Ramsay Eyre in The Nation

While everyone is suddenly kicking around the idea of AI regulation, here’s an idea for government intervention I can actually get behind: Spotify. Ramsay Eyre makes the case in The Nation that streaming platforms have become less like record stores and more like utilities, massive pieces of infrastructure connecting nearly every musician to nearly every listener, and maybe we should start regulating them that way. Here’s one of the most interesting ideas from the piece:

With the political will to do so, policymakers could build a publicly owned streaming platform to rival and economically discipline the private platforms through competition, while providing an excellent public service—just like public libraries. Today, public libraries in cities such as Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and Salt Lake City, Utah, have already built streaming platforms that, if scaled up with the resources of a national institution like the Library of Congress, could build a public streaming platform with the capacity to compete with the giants. Without the need to deliver returns to shareholders—only to fairly compensate the musicians who provide the raw material for such a venture to succeed—a public platform could offer service on better terms and fairer prices than the private ones.

The Wax Museum’s Book Club | September 2026

A quick check-in on The Wax Museum’s Book Club pick for September: John Steinbeck’s classic East of Eden, which we’re reading ahead of the Florence Pugh-starring Netflix series dropping next week. Boy is this so much better than I remember from high school. Not exactly shocking, considering I mostly remember high school English as being tired. It’s just a massive, beautifully written saga of family dysfunction and biblical symbolism, and I can’t wait to see how it ends because I genuinely do not remember.

For October, we’re heading back to the 1930s for some cosmic horror. I’ll announce the pick in the next Weekender, so sign up and come read something unsettling with us.

Lastly, the great of On Repeat Records interviewed me about my vinyl auctions on Whatnot. It’s a fun conversation and worth a read if you’re curious about this little Twitch-meets-eBay corner of the internet.

My next show is hopefully next week, and the theme is movie soundtracks, with around 50 records I love going up for auction. Very stoked for that one.

On Repeat Records

For The Record- 12.Sept.2026

For being so close, Milwaukee might as well be half a world away. I usually make it there for two reasons: either a show or baseball. The last time I was there it was to see Spoon. The last time I tried to go there was to see the Brewers…

Read more

a month ago · 32 likes · 24 comments · Jared Smith and Kevin Alexander

Hey, thanks for stopping by.

The Weekender drops every Friday for paid subscribers. Your $5 a month or $50 a year gets you 52 of these a year, plus the full archive and $10 off in the Gift Shop. More importantly, it gives me an excuse to spend an unreasonable amount of time digging for things worth recommending to you.

Until next time,
Jared

Welcome to The Weekender, where I gather up the records, movies, shows, books, and assorted internet detours I think are worth carrying into the next couple of days. Consider your weekend sorted.

Included in this issue:

• my favorite song of 2025 gets a seven-minute remix I can’t stop playing

• a top-five Album of the Year contender gets a fun second life

• a sweaty new punk record with zero seconds wasted

• 80 minutes of spiritual jazz from a guy who can fucking jam

• a legendary live performance finally makes it to vinyl; watch it now

• an electrifying new concert video from a band that rarely tours

• late-’90s video game nostalgia never sounded so good

• the buzzy new documentary I expected to love, but very much did not

• and a longread on what gets missed when everyone obsesses over the AI apocalypse

The Weekender drops every Friday exclusively for paid subscribers. Your $5 a month or $50 a year gets you one of these every week, plus the full archive and $10 off in the Gift Shop. More importantly, it gives me an excuse to spend an unreasonable amount of time digging for things worth recommending to you.

Thank you for supporting human curation. Now let’s get into it.

The Listening Room

Records, songs, and other sounds for your weekend.

Wednesday - Bleeds (Deluxe Edition)

Stream: Bandcamp

One of my favorite 2025 records from the can’t-miss Wednesday crew got beefed up today with six remixes and a few demos. “June 2” is one hell of a B-side, but the highlight of this collection, and maybe my week, maybe my month, is DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ’s seven-minute remix of “Elderberry Wine.” Holy cow.

Sabrina has now remixed my favorite song of 2025 and my favorite song of 2023, Hotline TNT’s “I Thought You’d Change.” Damn she’s good.

And while we’re bouncing around: I also have to shout out Karly Hartzman’s monthly NTS show Prison Divorce Bombshell, which is dedicated to music from North Carolina. The show may be on hiatus for now, but there are six episodes from this year sitting there waiting for you, and they make for a fun binge through the Tar Heel State.

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Welcome inside The Wax Museum. My frequently updated Album of the Year Leaderboard just passed 100 entries, which feels like a good excuse to take stock and pull a few favorites from the growing pile.

Album of the Year Leaderboard

Stream: Spotify | Apple Music

From those 100-plus records, I want to highlight 11 newer arrivals that have their hooks in me and stayed in heavy rotation. A little dreamy, a little gnarly, a little left-field, and more than a few that I expect to still be thinking about at year’s end.

And if that isn’t enough, there are more record-mendations coming tomorrow. Paid subscribers get a new edition of The Weekender every Friday, my grab bag of albums, movies, shows, books, and longreads worth carrying into the weekend.

Basically, I spend all week digging around for good shit so you don’t have to.

Alabama Shakes - I Must Be Dreaming

Stream: Spotify | Apple Music
Get Vinyl: Sky Blue (Signed) | Daydream Yellow

Genre: Psychedelic Soul

I think people forgot just how good Alabama Shakes are, and Brittany Howard and crew are back to remind us. Their first album in 11 years is a sprawling, groovy protest record that sounds like a band with plenty left to say. Instant classic to these ears.

The penultimate track, “American Dream,” which appears in my latest PATIO GROOVES mix, is about as close to a modern-day “What’s Going On?” as it gets.

Peep their release-day set from Surly Brewing Co. below, then grab the record while you can. Signed covers are somehow still in stock.

Nu Genea - People of the Moon

Stream: Bandcamp
Get Vinyl: Black

Genre: Nu-Disco

I recently did a deep dive on this duo’s discography (say that five times fast), and it turned into one of the best listening days I’ve had in a while. Nu Genea make breezy dance music that pulls from Mediterranean pop, Afro-Cuban grooves, disco, and funk, and People of the Moon might be their most immediately lovable record yet. Tom Misch, Fabiana Martone, Celinatique, and a small army of guests drift through songs built for open windows, cold drinks, and moving around a little. Instant mood enhancer.

Georgia Gets By - Heavy Meadow

Stream: Spotify | Apple Music
Get Vinyl: Black

Genre: Chamber Folk

Georgia Gets By is the solo project of New Zealand songwriter Georgia Nott, best known as one half of BROODS. Where that band leans toward sleek dance-pop, Heavy Meadow heads in the opposite direction: warm, stripped-back ’70s folk that brings Linda Perhacs to mind.

Nott recorded the album live in just three days, mostly stripping things down to guitar, voice, and a few carefully placed arrangements. This is beautiful stuff; the middle of the order of “Faded Rose” → “Won’t Stop Loving You” → “Dream For You” is one of the best stretches of music I’ve heard all year.

Angela Autumn - Believer

Stream: Bandcamp
Get Vinyl: Eco-Blue (SIGNED) | Violet

Genre: Acid Folk

Angela Autumn takes old Appalachian bones and runs them through a psychedelic haze on sophomore record Believer, pairing clawhammer banjo and mountain-folk melodies with reverb, distorted guitars, and plenty of odd little grooves. Her voice will remind you of Adrianne Lenker, but the music has a little more sway to it, sultrier and more rhythmic than you’d expect from something rooted in Appalachian folk. Good luck getting “Mountain Stream” out of your head once that melody settles in.

Maxime Denuc - Club Imperiale

Stream: Bandcamp
Get Vinyl: Black

Genre: Experimental Electronic

Here’s what happens when you smash one of music’s oldest technologies into one of its newer forms: an automated church pipe organ playing techno and trance.

French composer Maxime Denuc built Club Imperiale using a MIDI-controlled pipe organ inside Düsseldorf’s St. Antonius Church, programming dense, rapid-fire patterns as he imagines an alternate timeline where the Catholic church and ‘90s dancefloors found common ground. The result sounds like a rave got booked inside a cathedral: huge, physical, hypnotic, and a fascinating piece of art.

Bondo - Bondo

Stream: Bandcamp
Get Vinyl: Black

Genre: Slowcore

Paid subscribers were hip to this one first, but it’s too good to keep behind the velvet rope. L.A. quartet Bondo sits somewhere between slowcore, post-rock, and stoner rock, with knotty guitars, heavy low-end, and songs that can move from hushed and skeletal to blown-out and noisy.

The band describes its process as egoless, with songs built collectively and shaped by whatever feels right in the room, and that looseness comes through all over the record. Throw on “Zuma” and wait for that beautiful wall of sound to hit. Oh baby, that’s the good stuff.

Chanel Beads - Your Day Will Come

Stream: Bandcamp
Get Vinyl: Pink

Genre: Hypnagogic Pop

Yes, Chanel Beads gave their second album the exact same title as their first. Your Day Will Come 2: Full Throttle: Charlie’s Angels 2.

The name stayed put, but everything else is bigger and stranger. Shane Lavers stretches the project’s woozy hypnagogic pop across 14 songs, piling looping melodies, strings, blown-out guitars, and ghostly vocals into music that constantly knocks you off balance. Think The Cure and Alex G beamed through some busted late-night transmission. It’s both ethereal and unsettling, forward-thinking without losing that trance-like pull.

Bonus Jonas Record-Mendation: Chanel Beads co-vocalist Maya McGrory released her own debut under the name Colle in 2024. Montalvo is a dreamy, druggy little trip-hop-meets-shoegaze joint that pairs nicely with this one.

Trooper Salute - 友達がいました [Tomodachi ga imashita]

Stream: Spotify | Apple Music
Get Vinyl: Black

Genre: Japanese Indie Pop

In a year full of great debuts, this one is near the top. Tomodachi ga imashita, which translates to I Had a Friend, is my introduction to Nagoya’s Trooper Salute, a five-piece blending symphonic rock, indie pop, and math-rock intricacy into something genuinely beautiful. I especially love the contrast between Hayato Komiya and Musashi’s vocals. Watch the live performance of “Zetsusen” and “Rachi” below and you’ll get it. Absolutely gorgeous stuff, and Trooper Salute just landed firmly on my bands-I-need-to-see list.

Lily Seabird - Lightspheres on Their Way

Stream: Bandcamp
Get Vinyl: Crimson Moon | Gold

Genre: Folk Rock

Vermont songwriter Lily Seabird’s third album lands somewhere between the ragged emotional blowouts of Wednesday and the steadier demeanor of Ratboys, with plenty of quieter folk moments in between. “Election Day” is one of my favorite rock songs of the year, with its grungy guitars and cracked-open vocals, while the closing title track takes the opposite route, simmering patiently before erupting into a thunderous final stretch.

Lightspheres on Their Way is easily one of my favorites of 2026. It won’t hit streaming for another few weeks, but the vinyl is already shipping if you needed an excuse to yoink this one.

Station Model Violence - Station Model Violence

Stream: Bandcamp
Get Vinyl: Black

Genre: Australian Post-Punk

Station Model Violence’s self-titled debut pulls from the more adventurous end of ’80s post-punk, where New Wave, Krautrock, psychedelia, and art-punk all started bleeding into each other. There are chiming guitars, motorik rhythms, synths, saxophone, and plenty of dark atmosphere, but this thing moves. “Heat” is the centerpiece, an eight-minute epic built on a hypnotic groove that keeps tightening its grip the longer it runs. Think Psychedelic Furs with Joy Division basslines and a Neu! pulse underneath. In the band’s own words, this is “a dense beast,” but a ridiculously propulsive one.

Idle Country - Long Gone Saviors

Stream: Bandcamp
Get Vinyl: N/A

Genre: Alt-Country

North Carolina stays winning in this newsletter.

Idle Country is a new Asheville outfit featuring members of i26connector and Tombstone Poetry, and Long Gone Saviors sounds like it could have been pulled straight from the original alt-country boom in the ‘90s. Of all the bands coming out of North Carolina’s current scene, these guys wear the Drive-By Truckers influence most proudly. The record has that sweaty, live-room energy that makes you want to hear the songs played in a bar at midnight.

The opener, “Wilson Watts Dr.,” kicks the door in nicely, but they save the best for last. The title track starts as an end-of-the-night singalong, wanders toward post-rock, then comes roaring back for one last round. It also closes out the latest PATIO GROOVES mix on a high note too.

Need this one on vinyl STAT.

That’s 11 more for the pile, and somehow the Album of the Year Leaderboard is already north of 100 records. Plenty of year left too.

As always, tell me what I’m missing. Drop your favorite recent discovery in the comments so I can make this problem even worse.

And I’ll be back tomorrow with The Weekender for paid subscribers, including my favorite release of the week and everything else I’ve been enjoying.

See you tomorrow,
Jared

The Wax Museum is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate, Wax Museum may earn money from qualifying purchases made by users that were directed to Amazon.com via one of our affiliate links at no cost to you.

Today marks 25 years since September 11, 2001. I went back and forth on how much to acknowledge that here. The Weekender is where I tell you what I’ve been listening to, watching, and reading, and I didn’t want to turn it into some grand 9/11 retrospective.

But there are a handful of records and one remarkable video I’ve returned to over the years that are connected to that day in very different ways. So we’ll spend some time with those alongside the usual recs. Here’s some of what’s in this issue:

• my favorite new release of the day

• one of my desert island records happened to drop on 9/11

• a 9/11 concept album that’s also one of the decade’s best

• perhaps the greatest piece of art ever tied to September 11

• my favorite NPR Tiny Desk set of the year so far

• an 83-minute video essay that may be the most thorough takedown of someone I’ve ever seen

• a thriller you should read before the movie arrives next month

• and September’s Wax Museum Book Club pick is a 1950s classic

The Weekender drops every Friday exclusively for paid subscribers. Your $5 a month or $50 a year gets you one of these every week, plus the full archive and $10 off in the Gift Shop. If you like finding records, movies, books, and rabbit holes you may not have stumbled across otherwise, that’s what I’m trying to deliver.

Thank you for supporting human curation. Now let’s get into it.

Read more

Welcome to The Weekender, where I gather up the records, movies, shows, books, and assorted internet detours I think are worth carrying into the next couple of days. Consider your weekend sorted.

Included in this issue, a very fun one IMHO:

• the release of the week comes from one of my favorite artists of the decade

• a classic band finally gets the live album treatment

• a long-lost Detroit garage rock record has been rescued

• 33 ⅓ songs to soundtrack peak patio season

• four and a half hours of one of the best producers alive doing his thing

• the very welcome return of a band we may have taken for granted

• an 86-minute head trip enters The Wax Museum Film Canon

• and a fitting book to revisit after losing one of America’s greatest writers

The Weekender drops every Friday exclusively for paid subscribers. Your $5 a month or $50 a year gets you one of these every week, plus the full archive and $10 off in the Gift Shop. More importantly, it gives me an excuse to spend an unreasonable amount of time digging for things worth recommending to you.

Thanks for supporting human curation. Now let’s get into it.

Read more

Guess who’s back, back again. PATIO GROOVES. Tell a friend.

For the uninitiated: every season, yours truly refreshes the PATIO GROOVES playlist with whatever’s been in heavy rotation around here.

And with fall creeping in, we’ve arrived at my favorite time of year. The first cool morning. Football on TV. That weird back-to-school feeling that apparently never goes away. This is peak patio season, when sitting outside with a drink turns into thinking about where the hell the last 20 years went.

I tried to bottle that feeling into this mix. 33⅓ songs spread across six decades, full of hazy memories and the general rude passage of time.

It starts, appropriately enough, with Dolly Parton singing, “Back through the years I go wanderin’ once again, back to the seasons of my youth” on “Coat of Many Colors.” That slides directly into Harlem Shakes singing, “I got a coat of many colors, sold it off online…” And we’re off and running.

As always, about half the playlist comes from this year, with new favorites from Wild Pink, Squirrel Flower, Alabama Shakes and plenty more. There are some names you might not know yet, including Small Pond, Dogwood Tales, and Idle County, that I’m excited for you to hear.

Enough from me, enjoy the tunes, and I’ll see you tomorrow for The Weekender.

PATIO GROOVES 🍂 Fall 2026

Stream: Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube Music

Tracklist:

1. Dolly Parton – Coat of Many Colors

2. Harlem Shakes – Sunlight

3. Being Dead – Nightvision

4. The New Pornographers – Sing Me Spanish Techno

5. Momma – Speeding 72

6. Fontaines D.C. – Favourite

7. Wishy – Lovesick

8. JW Francis – Radio Tower

9. Dogwood Tales – Ralph Sampson

10. Westside Cowboy – Well Done Kid, You Did It

11. Gregg Allman – Midnight Rider

12. The Hollies – The Air That I Breathe

13. Gaz Coombes – Don’t Say It’s Over

14. Polaris – Hey Sandy

15. Alabama Shakes – American Dream

16. Manchester Orchestra – I Can Barely Breathe - Reimagined

17. The War on Drugs – Under the Pressure

18. Squirrel Flower – Cleveland

19. Bon Iver, Danielle Haim – If Only I Could Wait

20. Small Pond – Silver Coin

21. Jam City, Aidan, Bawo, Ox Eye – My World

22. Bonobo, Joy Crookes – Always on Your Side

23. Widowspeak – If You Change

24. Ratboys – The Window

25. Wooden Shjips – These Shadows

26. Snag – Juneberry

27. DIIV – The Fountain

28. Wild Pink – Dead For A Sec

29. Tracey Nelson – Hercules

30. The Strokes – Lonely in the Future

31. Ringo Deathstarr – Kaleidoscope

32. Friko – Get Numb To It! - Demo Version

33. Idle County – Long Gone Saviors

For more PATIO GROOVES, stream the full collection: Spotify | Apple Music

Enjoy more music curation from The Wax Museum

The Wax Museum

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I spend a lot of time chasing whatever just came out, but crate digging never takes a day off here at The Wax Museum. Some of the best records I’ve heard this year were released decades ago, and a few of them have already become all-timers in my personal rotation…

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The Wax Museum

2026 Best So Far: 50 Albums, 50 Sentences

The Wax Museum is billed as the record-mendation newsletter, and today we’re making good on that promise: fifty great albums of 2026, reviewed in one sentence each. For listeners with a growing backlog and limited free time…

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The Wax Museum

Cheers to SPRITZCORE 🍹

Welcome inside The Wax Museum, broadcasting from Orlando, where the heat index will hit 110° today. Mamma mia…

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It’s my birthday this weekend! To celebrate, the music gods have dropped an absurd amount of good stuff today.

The Weekender drops every Friday exclusively for paid subscribers, and since I’m turning 38, I’m running a little 38 Special: this weekend only, an annual subscription is $38 instead of the usual $50.

That gets you a new Weekender every Friday for less than 75 cents an issue, plus full access to the archive and $10 to spend in the Gift Shop. If you’ve been thinking about upgrading, this is the weekend to do it.

And there’s a lot waiting for you in this one:

The Listening Room

• my favorite record from a stupidly stacked release day

• a long-awaited collaboration that somehow lives up to the hype

• the wildest remix project I’ve heard all year

• a forgotten 2000s record finally gets reissued. RIYL: Air, Röyksopp, Zero 7

• an ’80s dance funk record I somehow missed until this week

The Screening Room

• a video essay with some genuinely surreal timing

• my favorite Tim Curry performance enters The Wax Museum Film Canon

• a movie Hollywood tried very hard to make disappear

The Reading Room

• the life story behind one of jazz’s most fascinating characters and catalogs

• the book I’m finally pulling off my shelf for a Fall read-along

Thanks for supporting human curation. Your subscription gives me an excuse to spend an unreasonable amount of time digging through records, movies, books, interviews, essays, and assorted corners of the internet so you don’t have to.

Now let’s jump in.

Read more

Welcome to The Weekender, where I gather up the records, movies, shows, books, and assorted internet detours I think are worth carrying into the next couple of days. Consider your weekend sorted.

Included in this week’s roundup:

• two brand-new albums that will be on repeat for the foreseeable future

• a record no one seems to be talking about, so I will

• one very fuzzy excuse to spend the weekend on the patio

• my deepest crate-digging pull in a while

• a great, mostly unseen live set from an artist about to level up

• the most fucked-up movie I’ve seen all year, yet also one of the funniest

• a long-running comedy still pulling off dumb jokes beautifully

• a very good reason to revisit one of my favorite writers

• and a longread that gets at why discovering music feels increasingly broken

The Weekender drops every Friday exclusively for paid subscribers. Your $5 a month or $50 a year gets you one of these every week, plus the full archive and $10 off in the Gift Shop. More importantly, it gives me an excuse to spend an unreasonable amount of time digging for things worth recommending to you.

Thanks for supporting human curation. Now let’s get into it.

Read more

There is something deeply stupid about buying a record months before you can hear the whole thing, especially when the album will be streaming at midnight the day it comes out. And yet, every few months, I look at my preorder receipts and realize, oops, I did it again.

Some are easy calls from artists I trust. Others are based on one killer single, a promising left turn, or the FOMO belief that I’ll regret not grabbing the good pressing while I had the chance.

So here we go again: 13 records coming this fall that I’ve already committed to owning, based on varying amounts of evidence and common sense.

This newsletter may get clipped in your inbox, so click here to read the full issue in your browser.

August 21

Wild Pink - Still Coming Down

Get Vinyl: Morning Haze (Signed)

Every Friday in The Weekender, I reserve the first spot for my favorite new release of the day, and this week’s will almost certainly belong to Wild Pink’s sixth album, Still Coming Down. Nearly half the record is already out, and the singles are bangers, people, especially “Round of Applause At The End of the World,” with its wonderfully paranoid and weirdly yearning lyrics.

John Ross remains one of the best lyricists in indie music, and after Dulling the Horns pushed Wild Pink to another level, he’s surrounded himself with greatness here: basically the entire MJ Lenderman/Wednesday cinematic universe, with Xandy Chelmis on pedal steel, Landon George on fiddle, and Lenderman on guitar, plus Meg Duffy of Hand Habits. They recorded it all at Asheville’s Drop of Sun Studios with Wax Museum Hall of Famer Alex Farrar.

August 28

Interpol – This Mirror Weighs a Ton

Get Vinyl: Red | White | Spanish

I may have been too quick to put Interpol in the same basket as Bloc Party, two bands that came out swinging and then spent a long time making subpar records. Bloc Party’s singles from their upcoming Anatomy of a Brief Romance are so bad I’m starting to wonder if they should just cancel the album. Interpol, meanwhile, have gone the opposite direction: every single from This Mirror Weighs a Ton kills so hard that I bought the record blind. Here’s hoping they have another great one in them.

Velocity Girl – 1989–1992

Get Vinyl: Creamsicle

I’m a sucker for a good “before they were officially them” compilation, and 1989–1992 collects Velocity Girl’s pre-Sub Pop years, when they were figuring out their huge pop hooks, fuzzy guitars, and lovelorn melancholy. You get early singles, unreleased songs, covers, and forgotten favorite “Forgotten Favorite,” all newly remastered.

September 11

This Is Lorelei – The Singer in My Band

Get Vinyl: Dinked | Sky Marble | Bone White | Lime Green

Nate Amos has been on an absurd run lately, between This Is Lorelei, Water From Your Eyes, and having everyone from Hayley Williams to Jeff Tweedy covering his songs. The Singer in My Band is his Matador debut, and he made almost the entire thing himself, with a few family cameos, including his dad ripping a banjo solo on the title track. Very excited to hear this for the first time when the needle drops.

September 18

Perennial – Modernism

Get Vinyl: Pink

You pretty much know what you’re getting with Connecticut trio Perennial. All their songs kind of sound alike. This is a compliment, because their brand of garage rock, dance punk, organ stabs, feedback, and 90-second adrenaline rushes absolutely kicks ass. Modernism gives you 10 more of them in about 20 minutes. Love this band.

September 25

Wishy – Nature’s Pill

Get Vinyl: Painter’s Palette | Black Ice with White Cornetto | Devils Blush Pink

Indianapolis rockers Wishy arrived on the scene fully formed with their 2024 debut Triple Seven. Kevin Krauter and Nina Pitchkites trade vocals and songwriting over shimmery, ’90s-inspired guitars, making catchy power pop without sanding off the edges. Nature’s Pill feels like the inevitable breakout record, and I think a lot more people are about to find out how good this band is.

October 9

Cameron Winter - Live at Carnegie Hall

Get Vinyl: Red | Black

Hot off the presses, announced yesterday: Geese frontman Cameron Winter’s December 2025 Carnegie Hall show is officially coming to vinyl, complete with an instantly iconic gatefold of Winter smooching with Andrew Carnegie.

At just 23, Winter became one of the youngest artists to ever headline the 135-year-old venue, playing alone at a piano with his back to the audience, performing cuts from his solo debut Heavy Metal, as well as debuting three unreleased songs.

Paul Thomas Anderson and Benny Safdie were there filming the whole thing, and we still have no idea if that footage will ever see daylight. Until then, I will happily settle for the record.

October 16

The Avalanches – No Bad Memories

Get Vinyl: RGB (Signed Print) | Yellow

First things first, the album art is bad. I know you shouldn’t judge by covers, but this gave me pause. But The Avalanches are a perfect three-for-three on albums, spanning three decades, so I can’t doubt them now. There are supposedly 31 tracks on this beast, and we can expect plenty of special guests: so far Jamie xx, Karen O, and Jessy Lanza. Stoked!

Fontaines D.C. - Dopamine Chamber

Get Vinyl: Pink | Blue | 45 RPM 2 LP | Black | Alt Cover

Speaking of bad album art, Fontaines D.C. continue their streak of awful covers, but it’s what’s inside that counts, and Romance was one of the best albums of the decade. The bio for Dopamine Chamber promises their “most radical shift yet,” moving away from the guitar language of their previous records, which sounds like we may be getting a synth-pop Fontaines album. Risky move, but first single “Marianne” rips, so why not?

The Mars Volta – Lucro Sucio; Unfinished Business

Get Vinyl: Red

I’ve been adamant here that the critics got Lucro Sucio wrong, and I’ve likened it to the album I wanted Tame Impala’s Deadbeat to sound like. So I love that The Mars Volta are going back to it, critics be damned.

Unfinished Business reworks the album through much heavier, more expansive live versions, with fans voting on everything from which performances made the cut to the cover art. These songs are built for louder, longer, and weirder in a live setting.

October 23

The Olivia Tremor Control – The Same Place

Get Vinyl: Ocean Blue

Last month marked the 30th anniversary of Dusk at Cubist Castle (Aquarium Drunkard published a great oral history for the occasion), which makes it even stranger that we’re just months away from a brand new Olivia Tremor Control album. The Same Place is their third and final double album, 27 tracks assembled from recordings made before the deaths of Bill Doss and W. Cullen Hart, and reportedly nearly 20 years in the making. After this long, there was never going to be much deliberation here. Instant buy.

Water Damage - Repair

Get Vinyl: Black

The tough-to-Google Water Damage remain one of the bands I most need to see live. Repair is four songs, each around 20 minutes and taking up an entire side of vinyl, built around the band’s “Maximal Repetition Minimal Deviation” approach. They also insist on at least two drummers and two bassists, with each song limited to a single reel of tape, which is why the tracks here are simply named “Reel 38,” “Reel 41,” “Reel 43,” and “Reel 45.” Only one is streaming ahead of the October 23 release, but buying the album unlocks the whole thing digitally right now. I will be ignoring that convenience and stubbornly waiting for the wax.

October 30

Nouvelle Vague - A Date with Depeche Mode

Get Vinyl: Black

Nouvelle Vague have spent more than 20 years turning post-punk and new wave classics into breezy bossa nova, and they now have Depeche Mode in their sights. A Date with Depeche Mode takes on 13 songs with a rotating cast of mostly female vocalists. Give “Enjoy the Silence” a listen. The song has been covered damn near 300 times, but Nouvelle Vague’s smoky lounge treatment still manages to make it feel like their own.

That’s my fall damage so far. If I missed something that belongs on the blind-buy list (right now I’m debating the upcoming M83), drop it in the comments. Otherwise, I’ll be back tomorrow with a new edition of The Weekender for paid subscribers.

See you tomorrow,
Jared

Enjoy More Curation from The Wax Museum

• Where to Start With the 10,000 Concert Archive Everyone’s Talking About

• 13 Great Albums I Somehow Missed Until Now

• Your New Favorite Summer Playlist Is Here 😎

The Wax Museum is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate, Wax Museum may earn money from qualifying purchases made by users that were directed to Amazon.com via one of our affiliate links at no cost to you.

Greetings from The Wax Museum, and welcome to The Weekender, where I gather up the records, movies, shows, books, and assorted internet detours I think are worth carrying into the next couple of days.

For this week’s roundup, I’ve got:

• the long-awaited return of one of our greatest songwriters

• three more favorites from the most stacked new release day of the summer

• one of the best farewell concert films I’ve ever seen

• The Wax Museum Film Canon: every five star movie, concert film, documentary, and miniseries I’ve recommended, in one private Letterboxd list

• a video essay on why movies don’t look good anymore

• an addicting 1944 novel about five days of very bad decisions

• a list of the 100 best sophomore albums, plus five glaring omissions

• and a fascinating look at the ridiculous amount of work required to put 100,000 people in the palm of your hand.

From now on, The Weekender is exclusively for paid subscribers. Your $5 a month or $50 a year gets you one of these delivered every Friday, plus the full back archive, and $10 off in the Gift Shop. More importantly, it gives me an excuse to spend an unreasonable amount of time digging around for things worth recommending for you.

Thanks for supporting human curation. Now let’s get lost.

Read more

I spend a lot of time chasing whatever just came out, but crate digging never takes a day off here at The Wax Museum. Some of the best records I’ve heard this year were released decades ago, and a few of them have already become all-timers in my personal rotation.

This batch spans 1972 to 2023, from forgotten funk and Midwest emo to Japanese jazz, trip-hop, shoegaze, and plenty of stuff in between. Some were embarrassing blind spots, some came through reissues or compilations, and others were random discoveries that sent me straight down a rabbit hole.

So here are my 13 favorite new-to-me albums of 2026, in chronological order. Better late than never.

Aphrodite’s Child - 666 (1972)

Stream: Spotify
Get Vinyl: Red | Black

Genre: Batshit Progressive Rock

We’re not easing into this list, we’re getting weird right off the bat.

I must have been living under a (prog) rock to have missed 666, the sprawling double album from Greek band Aphrodite’s Child, composed by Vangelis as a loose adaptation of the Book of Revelation. The concept alone is insane: a circus stages the Apocalypse of St. John while the actual apocalypse is happening outside the tent, until the performance and reality start bleeding into each other.

Recorded in 1970 but held back until 1972 because Mercury looked at this thing and said absolutely not, 666 is a sonic riot of psychedelic rock, Greek folk influence, extended noise, narration, chants, and full-blown prog excess. By the time Vertigo released it, the band had already broken up.

I don’t know what was in the water at the end of the ’60s (it was acid), but it produced some wonderfully unwieldy records like this behemoth.

Father’s Children - Who’s Gonna Save The World (1973)

Stream: Bandcamp
Get Vinyl: Black

Genre: Funk

Here’s one courtesy of Chicago gem-finding institution Numero Group, who rescued Who’s Gonna Save the World from obscurity in 2011 after the album sat unreleased since 1973. It’s filthy, sunny, spiritual funk loaded with fuzz guitar, bubbling percussion, shimmering keys, and stacked harmonies that make every chorus feel communal. It’s a gold mine for samplers, with Kanye lifting “Dirt and Grime” for The Life of Pablo’s “Facts.”

The Chameleons - Script of the Bridge (1983)

Stream: Spotify
Get Vinyl: Blue and Orange

Genre: Post-Punk

Another entry in the increasingly embarrassing “where has this been all my life?” file. Released 43 years ago this week, Script of the Bridge is an hour long debut with no dead air, all chiming guitars, cavernous reverb, and huge melodies that sound absurdly current. Play that opening riff from “Don’t Fall” for someone with no context and you could convince them it’s a new Turnstile single.

My favorite moment comes a few songs later, when “Monkeyland” suddenly bursts open into that enormous, euphoric chorus, which is why it ended up on this summer’s Patio Grooves playlist.

The Lazarus Plot - Something Good Has Got To Come Out Of All Of These Goodbyes (1998)

Stream: Bandcamp
Get Vinyl: Red | Black

Genre: Female-fronted Midwest Emo

I first got hip to Illinois four-piece The Lazarus Plot through Numero’s Sequoia box set, which landed on my 2025 Gift Guide for Physical Media Lovers, and I finally got around to digging through their complete recordings.

Something Good Has Got To Come Out Of All Of These Goodbyes collects their brief two-year run into one sweet, deeply melancholic blast of Midwest emo, with Laura Laurent’s vocals giving all the twinkling guitars and emotional wreckage a softness that guts you. “Charmed, I’m Sure” is my favorite of the bunch.

Mojave 3 - Out of Tune (1998)

Stream: Spotify
Get Vinyl: Black

Genre: Alt-Country

I liked Mojave 3’s debut Ask Me Tomorrow, the album Neil Halstead, Rachel Goswell, and Ian McCutcheon made in the ashes of Slowdive, but for whatever reason I stopped there. This year I finally went down the rabbit hole, and Out of Tune is the one I keep coming back to. By album two, the band had expanded into a five-piece and gone much deeper into pedal steel and country rock.

For a bunch of English musicians recording in Glasgow, Out of Tune sounds hilariously uninterested in England. As you can tell by the album art, this thing has its head somewhere on the California coast, but more Neil Young than Beach Boys, full of sun-faded folk-rock.

All five Mojave 3 albums were finally reissued on vinyl this summer, so now is a very good time to make the same overdue deep dive I did.

Marc Leclair - Musique pour 3 Femmes Enceintes (2005)

Stream: Bandcamp
Get Vinyl: Black

Genre: Ambient

Marc Leclair, better known as Akufen, made Musique pour 3 Femmes Enceintes (Music for 3 Pregnant Women) while his wife and two close friends were all pregnant, structuring the album around stages of pregnancy with tracks like “64e Jour” (64th day), “150e Jour,” and “236e Jour.” The result is 70 minutes of beautifully textured ambient, glitch, microhouse, and field recordings that slowly shift from hazy ambience into something more physical as the album moves toward birth. It’s the most relaxing record on this list, and after spending two decades trapped on CD, it finally made its vinyl debut this summer.

Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther (2006)

Stream: Bandcamp
Get Vinyl: Opaque Marigold

Genre: Indie Folk Rock

I have no good excuse for missing The Trials of Van Occupanther for nearly 20 years, especially when opener “Roscoe” sounds like a song genetically engineered for my taste. Midlake takes ’70s soft rock and woodsy folk, then piles on flutes, piano, and thick harmonies, anchored by Tim Smith’s warm, wispy vocals. Major Veckatimest vibes, which came a few years later. It’s cozy shit, and one of those records where I knew about three songs in that I’d be living with it for a long time.

Lamp - Yume (ゆめ) (2014)

Stream: Spotify
Get Vinyl: Black

Genre: City Pop

Lamp have some of the prettiest melodies I’ve heard in a damn while, and Yume feels like 50 straight minutes of them showing off how effortlessly they can make one. Yusuke Nagai and Kaori Sakakibara’s dual vocals glide over bossa nova, city pop, lounge jazz, and harmony-heavy pop without ever crowding out the real MVP here: these ridiculously lush arrangements, full of warm guitars, synths, flutes, and harps. Instant mood enhancer.

Uyama Hiroto - Freeform Jazz (2016)

Stream: Bandcamp
Get Vinyl: Clear (going in and out of stock)

Genre: Nu Jazz

Keeping the good vibes going, Uyama Hiroto’s Freeform Jazz absolutely oozes style, with beautiful, expressive jazz built around head-nodding beats and ridiculously good percussion. It’s atmospheric without ever fading into the background, and perfect music for a house party. Even better, the album turns 10 this year and is finally getting a vinyl reissue after the limited original pressing was fetching over $500 resale.

Amber Mark - 3.33am (2017)

Stream: Spotify
Get Vinyl: Black

Genre: Alternative R&B

I came to Amber Mark through Franc Moody’s disco remix of “Lose My Cool,” which has gotten plenty of spins on my SPRITZCORE playlist, and eventually figured I should probably hear the record it came from. Glad I did.

3.33am is elevated R&B with gorgeous summer energy, full of airy production, rich harmonies, and Mark’s ridiculously smooth voice. Somebody desperately needs to repress this on vinyl, because the cheapest copies are currently around $300.

A Beacon School - Cola (2018)

Stream: Bandcamp
Get Vinyl: Black

Genre: Dream Pop

A Beacon School is the project of New York multi-instrumentalist Patrick J. Smith, and his debut Cola has a way of putting you into a flow state. It runs on loops and steady pulses, especially on the six-minute “It’s Late,” which locks into a trance-y beat and rides it out. It’s easy on the ears, but there are enough grooves, electronic textures, and surprises buried throughout to keep it from ever feeling too sleepy. Now I’m curious to jump into 2023 follow-up yoyo and hear if/how much the sound evolved.

What Is Your Name? - The Now Now and Never (2022)

Stream: Bandcamp
Get Vinyl: Red and Blue Splatter

Genre: Post-Rock

Where my Parannoul heads at? Dive into this one with me. The Now Now and Never takes that same maximalist approach to shoegaze, stacking crescendos on top of crescendos until the whole thing feels ready to explode. The production is crunchy, lo-fi, and ridiculously dense, with blown-out guitars, glowing synths, chopped vocal samples, and post-rock builds fighting for space. It’s noisy as hell but still beautiful and nostalgic. Give the opening title track a spin and blast off.

a.s.o. - a.s.o. (2023)

Stream: Bandcamp
Get Vinyl: Black

Genre: Trip-Hop

Inject this into my veins! The self-titled debut from Berlin duo Alia Seror-O’Neill and Lewie Day takes the early-’90s Portishead/Massive Attack template and gives it a beautifully modern polish: skeletal drums, dusky basslines, noir guitar, hazy synths, and Seror-O’Neill’s breathy vocals. A front-to-back run of downtempo bangers, and about as convincing a modern take on classic trip-hop as I’ve heard. When’s the follow-up?

Hey friends, thanks for digging with me. Lemme know the best old record you’ve discovered lately. I’m always hunting for the next rabbit hole.

And if this wasn’t enough, there’s plenty more record-mendations coming tomorrow. Paid subscribers get a new edition of The Weekender every Friday, my grab bag of albums, movies, shows, books, longreads, and assorted internet detours worth carrying into the weekend.

Basically, I spend all week digging around for good shit so you don’t have to.

Upgrade here and I’ll see you in your inbox tomorrow,
Jared

The Wax Museum is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate, Wax Museum may earn money from qualifying purchases made by users that were directed to Amazon.com via one of our affiliate links at no cost to you.

Greetings from The Wax Museum, and welcome to The Weekender, where I gather up the records, movies, shows, books, and assorted internet detours I think are worth carrying into the next couple of days.

For this week’s roundup, I’ve got:

• two debut albums out today that have immediately jumped near the top of my 2026 pile, including my current song of the year

• psychedelic Thai folk music, a bittersweet comeback record, and 25 years of Norwegian jazz weirdness

• a wonderfully curated music biopic collection

• a new TV adaptation with a “killer” soundtrack

• a KEXP set from one of my favorite young bands

• a baseball book that helped get me through the first half of a truly miserable Red Sox season before baseball decided to become fun again

• and one herculean attempt to rank all 73 Beatles solo albums

This is the first Weekender exclusively for paid subscribers, so thank you for being here. Your $5 a month or $50 a year gets you one of these every Friday, plus the full Wax Museum archive, and $10 off in the Gift Shop. More importantly, it gives me an excuse to spend an unreasonable amount of time digging around for things worth recommending to you.

Enough housekeeping. Let’s get into it.

Read more

Hey friends,

Tomorrow night at 8 PM ET, I’m going live for my fourth Whatnot show, and I have assembled 35 signed records for you to fight over.

This is easily the best lineup I’ve brought to a stream. There are signed copies of some of this year’s biggest releases from Charli xcx, Rostam, Olivia Rodrigo, Noah Kahan, James Blake, and Ratboys, to name a few.

That’s alongside Built to Spill, Wilco, Bo Burnham, Cate Le Bon, Oklou, Spoon, The Beths, The Hotelier, Jessica Pratt, DIIV, and plenty more.

For the uninitiated, Whatnot is a live auction app where sellers run items in real time while everyone bids in the chat. Think Twitch meets eBay.

I’ve watched enough vinyl streams to notice the same problem: too many auctions creep back up to normal retail prices, usually for the same inventory you can find elsewhere.

That is not what I’m doing. Tomorrow night, every record starts at $1.

Some of these signed records regularly sell for hundreds of dollars. You’ll have a few seconds to bid, and the highest bidder when the clock runs out gets the record. I’ll pack everything up and ship this weekend.

You can browse the signed records and pre-bid right now here.

You can also enter a max bid ahead of time if you can’t make the show. Whatnot will automatically bid on your behalf, up to the amount you choose, while you go live your beautiful offline life.

Signed Vinyl in the Show

Ariana Grande
The Beths
Bleachers
Bo Burnham
Built to Spill
Cate Le Bon
Charli XCX
Descendents
DIIV
Everything But The Girl
The Format
Future
Gouge Away
The Hotelier
Hotline TNT
Hurray for the Riff Raff
Iron and Wine
James Blake
Jessica Pratt
Kacey Musgraves
Local Natives
The Midnight
Militarie Gun
Momma
Noah Kahan
Not for Radio
Oklou
Olivia Rodrigo
Ratboys
Rostam
Shakey Graves
Spoon
Wilco

And here’s the best part: new Whatnot users can get $25 to spend with this link.

The credit works anywhere on the app, or you can bring it to the show tomorrow night and walk away with a record on me.

Even if you don’t plan on bidding, come hang out. I’ll be spinning good music, giving away free vinyl throughout the night, and attempting to keep up with the chat while dozens of records leave my house.

See you Friday at 8 PM ET,
Jared

P.S. A quick programming note: Tomorrow also brings the first weekly edition of The Weekender for paid subscribers. These Friday issues are something extra for the readers supporting The Wax Museum, while the usual free exhibits will continue two or three times each month. For more on the new schedule, plus 15 record-mendations, catch up on last week’s supersized Weekender here.