The Weekender #10: Your Must Hear, Watch, & Read Guide
The Weekender #10: Your Must Hear, Watch, & Read Guide
Your weekend to-do list is here!
The Weekender is a curated listening, watching, and reading experience to give your weekend a sensory upgrade. Subscribe to get The Weekender in your inbox free every Friday.
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What to Listen to This Weekend
Mount Kimbie - The Sunset Violent
Get Vinyl: Orange | Magenta and Black Marble | Black | Discogs
Debuts #13 on the Album of the Year Leaderboard
Channeling my inner Shaq for an apology to Mount Kimbie — I wasn’t familiar with your game. Their latest album, The Sunset Violent, is a knockout. The UK electro wizards have expanded their duo to a fantastic four, welcoming Andrea Balency-Béarn and Marc Pell into the fold with open arms and some wicked guitar riffs.
Gone are the echoes of post-dubstep; this time, they’re diving headfirst into indie art rock, and boy, do they stick the landing. With fuzzy guitars that wrap around you like a warm blanket and chord changes as delightful as finding a crisp twenty in your pocket, I’ve been blasting this album all week and urging friends to give it a spin. Now, it's your turn to get hooked.
Cloud Nothings - Final Summer
Get Vinyl: Yellow/Blue Pinwheel | UO Exclusive Tri-Stripe | Black
Debuts #18 on the Album of the Year Leaderboard
The ever-reliable Cloud Nothings from Cleveland are celebrating their eighth album in fifteen years, titled Final Summer, and folks, I’m happy to report it’s their best collection of tunes since 2012’s Attack on Memory.
This album has become my go-to soundtrack for pounding the pavement—its infectious hooks and earth-shattering drum beats smash into your eardrums with the kind of reckless abandon that keeps your feet moving. Give it a listen or two, and these catchy choruses will live rent-free in your head.
Similar to this year’s Glitterer’s album, I wish Final Summer lasted twice as long. Clocking in at a brisk 29 minutes, you'll find yourself checking if there's more because it’s over before you know it.
Hovvdy - Hovvdy
Get Vinyl: UO Exclusive Yellow | Navy | Black
Debuts #20 on the Album of the Year Leaderboard
Longtime friends Charlie Martin and Will Taylor are Hovvdy, and today they dropped their self-titled, fifth album, and first for Arts & Crafts.
This 19-song double album is the definition of a chill vibe. Gentle melodies float effortlessly over warm instrumentation, crafting a nostalgic soundscape that’s perfect for laid-back afternoons. It’s the ultimate soundtrack for grilling burgers and sipping beers with your crew under the sun.
Childish Gambino’s Gilga Radio
Stream: Gilga.com
Actor writer rapper Donald Glover has promised that the highly anticipated Childish Gambino album and world tour is coming later this summer. For the promotional roll-out, he’s launched a fictional radio station, Gilga Radio, which is essentially a supercharged DJ set—a nod to his mcDJ days for the old heads.
Sprinkled in the mix is fake commercials, celebrity shout-outs, and best of all, new songs from Gambino, including features by Kid Cudi and Kayne West, which has caused controversy as you can imagine.
There’s been two Gilga radio sets; the newest can be heard at gilga.com, while the first was uploaded by a fan to Soundcloud. Additionally there’s a Spotify playlist featuring all the tracks aired, with Episode 2 starting at song #28. No word on if there will be further episodes.
I’m glad to see Gambino diving back into music (especially rapping) and fingers crossed that recent Grammy winner Ludwig Göransson is back in the fold for the new album as well.
What to Watch This Weekend
Phish - Live at Sphere
Stream: YouTube
From all accounts, Phish’s four sold out shows at the Las Vegas’ Sphere last weekend was mind-blowing. Drew Carey’s review was especially unhinged:
“I swear I just talked to God. I would give you all my money, stick my dick in a blender and swear off pussy for the rest of my life in exchange for this. Bro I met God tonight for real. I feel like I just got saved by Jesus no lie.”
He gets even more graphic but we’ll stop there. Each fully immersive show boasted a completely unique setlist, and for those who couldn’t be there, Phish has uploaded eight videos to their YouTube channel—adding up to 100 minutes of Sphere-induced shock and awe, including some of the coolest drone shots I’ve ever seen. Dive into this experience, but please fellas, keep your kitchen appliances safely out of it!
Manchester Orchestra - COPE (Live at the Earl)
Get Vinyl: Silver | Black Ice | Black
Stream: YouTube
To celebrate the tenth anniversary of their seminal album COPE, Manchester Orchestra returned to where it all began — East Atlanta's intimate rock venue, The Earl. For one night only, they delivered a blistering set, playing the record from start to finish. This special performance was released yesterday on YouTube, with a vinyl pre-order dropping today.
Few bands capture the raw intensity of live music quite like Manchester Orchestra. I’ve seen them countless times, and they play every show like their last. This night at The Earl was no exception.
What to Read This Weekend
”’The working class can’t afford it’: the shocking truth about the money bands make on tour” by Daniel Dylan Wray for The Guardian
For this article, the Guardian has seen 12 tour budget sheets for various bands and artists varying from up-and-comers to firmly established and successful acts, all of whom regularly undertake headline tours across the UK in venues ranging from 150 to 2,500 capacity. Almost all of these result in losses. Understandably, most shared their balance sheets on the condition of anonymity. One four-piece indie band, whose last two albums went Top 10 in the UK charts, reported a loss of £2,885 from a six-day UK tour. The only tour that shows anything resembling healthy profit was a 29-date tour for a solo artist who came away with £6,550. Not bad going for a month’s work but, as [Featured Artists Coalition CEO David] Martin points out, “that’s then his touring done for the next six months. So it’s not enough money.”
Tale as old as time here: musicians deserve better pay. The industry consistently fails both artists and fans, profiting at their expense while ticket prices climb higher every year.
“No one buys books” by Elle Griffin at The Elysian
Here’s a sobering behind-the-scenes glimpse at the publishing industry by
. Much like the current touring model, publishing houses may be facing its own impending paradigm shift.The Big Five publishing houses spend most of their money on book advances for big celebrities like Britney Spears and franchise authors like James Patterson and this is the bulk of their business. They also sell a lot of Bibles, repeat best sellers like Lord of the Rings, and children’s books like The Very Hungry Caterpillar. These two market categories (celebrity books and repeat bestsellers from the backlist) make up the entirety of the publishing industry and even fund their vanity project: publishing all the rest of the books we think about when we think about book publishing (which make no money at all and typically sell less than 1,000 copies).
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Mount Kimbie is a cracking find! Sticking that straight onto a playlist or two. I read that Guardian article yesterday before going to a gig and man, that makes for alarming reading. Such a sacrifice being an artist. Spreading love and awareness of new music via The Wax Music goes some way to helping so keep up the great work!
That Cloud Nothings variant is super tempting. I'm also sad I didn't get to go to that MO concert at The Earl