The Weekender #15: Friday I'm In Love
The Weekender #15: Friday I'm In Love
Here's what to read, watch, and listen to this weekend.
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
Been Stellar - Scream From New York, NY
Get Vinyl: Black
Been Stellar's debut album, Screams from New York, NY, is an exhilarating new release out today by UK label Dirty Hit.
Produced by the legendary Dan Carey, the album delivers a dense, gritty soundscape that perfectly captures the album’s theme of modern alienation. Channeling the angst of post-pandemic city life, Been Stellar blends massive garage rock riffs with ethereal shoegaze melodies and laid-back vocals, like some unholy mix of Smashing Pumpkins, Ride, and The Strokes.
Instantly addictive and memorable, the A-side from opener "Start Again" to the mesmerizing "Sweet" is a knockout stretch of tunes that showcases the band's gritty, cathartic energy.
Zsela - Big For You
Get Vinyl: Watersprite Blue (Signed) | Black
We stay in the City That Never Sleeps with another debut, this time from Brooklyn artist Zsela, who released Big For You via the Mexican Summer label last week.
Spanning 33 minutes, the album features both skeletal and massive arrangements, crafted by producers Daniel Aged (Frank Ocean, Kelela) and Gabe Wax (The War on Drugs, Soccer Mommy).
Zsela’s otherworldly, husky falsetto, evocative of Tracy Chapman, captivates throughout. Standout track "Fire Excape" begins as a slow jam, evolves with a funky bassline, and then hits you unexpectedly with an explosion of synth horns. Big For You is full of such surprises, making it a spellbinding listen that beckons for repeat plays.
DRUNK IN THE AUGUST SUN - SUMMER INDIE/ALT-ROCK CLASSICS Playlist by Matthew Perpetua of Fluxblog
Stream: Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube
What to Watch This Weekend
Kendrick Lamar’s The Pop Out — Ken and Friends Concert
Stream: YouTube
Witnessing history in the making is always thrilling, and Wednesday night’s The Pop Out - Ken and Friends concert at The Forum was a spectacle to remember. Streamed on Amazon Prime to celebrate Juneteenth (though it’s mysteriously gone from the site at the moment), this event was one to remember.
The concert served as Kendrick Lamar’s well-deserved victory lap after trouncing Drake in their rap beef. He kicked off the night with “Euphoria,” one of several scathing diss tracks aimed at Drake, and closed the show with the summer anthem “Not Like Us,” performing it five times (!!!).
The concert was a star-studded affair, featuring guest appearances from Jay Rock, Ab-Soul, ScHoolboy Q, Black Hippy, and the legend Dr. Dre, who joined Kendrick for “Still D.R.E.” and “California Love.” Dre then introduced “Not Like Us,” sending The Forum, with LeBron in the crowd, into a frenzy as they rapped along to every biting word about Drake’s unseemly behavior. Check it out at the 57-minute mark below.
The night wasn’t just a funeral for the Toronto rapper’s career; it was a coronation of Kendrick as the undisputed current king of hip-hop.
DEEP DISCOG DIVE: Sufjan Stevens
Stream: YouTube
If you love virtually crate-digging on Discogs, you’re going to adore Mic the Snare’s YouTube channel, which offers music analysis, new album reviews, and, my personal favorite, deep dives into artists’ entire discographies.
These Deep Discog Dives are pure gold, with over 45 videos covering everyone from Steely Dan to Chumbawamba and everything in between. They’re especially handy for navigating bands with tough entry points like King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, who seem to release a new album every week.
His most recent Deep Dive tackles Sufjan Stevens and it's a banger — impressive, thorough, and hilarious as always.
I'm with him on this: The Age of Adz is Sufjan's best album (I gave it a delightful re-listen this week), and closer "Impossible Soul" is his magnum opus, a 25-minute, five-part freakout jam.
Aftersun
Stream: Netflix
Aftersun lands on Netflix today, giving more people the chance to experience this beautiful piece of filmmaking.
The plot is simple: 11-year-old Sophie (delivering one of the best kid performances I’ve ever seen) goes on holiday with her father (Paul Mescal); twenty years later, Sophie looks back at home videos from that trip.
The semi-autobiographical film from first-time writer/director Charlotte Wells explores aging and the fleeting nature of memories, leaving us to reflect on the people in our lives and the enduring fragments they leave behind. It’s a gut punch that will linger for days. It was my third favorite watch of 2023.
What to Read This Weekend
Willie Mays Comes Home by Jason Gay in GQ
The world lost perhaps the greatest baseball player of all time this week in Willie Mays, who passed away at the age of 93. The 24 time All Star (!!!) had 660 homers, 3,200 hits, more than 300 steals, and 12 Gold Glove awards — the very definition of a five-tool player.
He also had plenty of great anecdotes; he sat down with GQ back in 2010 to share some of these; here’s my favorite on the first time he faced pitching legend Satchel Paige.
We were in Memphis, Tennessee. It was like a playoff game. It might have been ’48. Satchel had a very, very good fastball. But he threw me a little breaking ball, just to see what I could do, and I hit it off the top of the fence. And I got a double. When I got to second, Satchel told the third baseman, "Let me know when that little boy comes back up." Three innings later, I go to kneel down in the on-deck circle, and I hear the third baseman say, "There he is." Satch looked at the third baseman, and then he looked at me. I walk halfway to home plate and he says, "Little boy." I say, "Yes, sir?" because Satch was much older than I am, so I was trying to show respect. He walked halfway to home plate and said, "Little boy, I’m not going to trick you. I’m going to throw you three fastballs and you’re going to go sit down." And I’m saying in my mind, "I don’t think so." If he threw me three of the same pitch, I’m going to hit it somewhere. He threw me two fastballs and I just swung...I swung right through it. And the third ball he threw, and I tell people this all the time, he threw the ball and then he started walking. And he says, "Go sit down." This is while the ball was in the air. He was just a magnificent pitcher.
With Mays gone, the greatest living baseball player now may be his godson Barry Bonds, who was asked last night how he would fare hitting against Satchel: “Simple. Gone.” 😂
Hey friend, thanks for visiting! We have tons of good stuff coming up next week, including the Best Albums of 2024 So Far megapost.
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Brilliant as always. Never heard of Mic the Snare or, indeed, any of the artists you recommended at the top of the article. They all sounds great though so they're now on my To Be Listened To playlist!