The Weekender #17: REFORM!
The Weekender #17: REFORM!
Packed with suggestions on what to stream, watch, and read 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
Fontaines D.C. - Romance
Get Vinyl: Pink | Clear | Black
Today’s new album slate has something for everyone. While Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet is the headliner, don’t sleep on these three must-listen records: Fontaines D.C.’s Romance, illuminati hotties’ POWER, and Magdalena Bay’s Imaginal Disk.
Dublin post punk band Fontaines D.C. has always been a bit hit or miss for me. I appreciated frontman Grian Chatten’s solo effort last year, but their albums typically had just a few songs that really clicked.
Romance, their fourth album, is a gamechanger. From the first listen, it’s clear they’ve leveled up. What’s wild is how each track sounds completely different, yet still undeniably Fontaines D.C.
The shift in producers from Dan Carey (Squid, Black Midi) to James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Gorillaz) has propelled them from experimental punk to a catchier, arena-filling rock sound that feels primed for world domination. This album doesn’t just surpass their previous work—it blows it away. Romance is Fontaines D.C. at their finest, and I predict it’s about to put them on the map in a big way.
Jeff Buckley - Grace
Get Vinyl: Gold | Black | Discogs
Today marks the 30th anniversary of Jeff Buckley’s Grace, a vocal masterpiece that has only grown in stature over the years. Buckley's angelic, multi-octave voice, both vulnerable and powerful, elevates standouts like the cover of "Hallelujah" and the title track to otherworldly realms. The album's beauty is rendered all the more poignant by Buckley's untimely death by drowning, cutting short a promising career that had only just begun to unveil its potential.
The Best Songs of 2024 Playlist (208 songs)
Stream: Spotify | Apple Music
Plenty of fresh vibes were added to the Best Songs of 2024 Playlist in the last few weeks, including new songs from DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ, Hotline TNT, Oso Oso, A$AP Rocky, Jessica Pratt, Wishy, Font, Kit Sebastian, Father John Misty, Mura Masa, MJ Lenderman, and Christopher Owens.
What to Watch This Weekend
Goose - Live at The Fox Theatre
Stream: YouTube
This year, I’ve become a die-hard fan of the jam band Goose, despite never seeing them live or knowing much of their catalog. My conversion happened thanks to their masterful use of YouTube, where they regularly drop high-quality concert videos—often full-length. I throw these on in the background while I work, and it’s pure bliss.
This week, they outdid themselves with an almost three-hour set from The Fox Theatre, part of a three-night event that you can now enjoy in its entirety on vinyl.
Goose also delivered one of my favorite musical moments of the year, teaming up with Vampire Weekend for a 33-minute improvisational version of “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa,” complete with an Allman Brothers “Jessica” easter egg.
George Harrison & Friends - The Concert for Bangladesh
Stream: Vimeo
After more than 50 years, George Harrison’s The Concert for Bangladesh is finally streaming across all platforms. In 1971, as 10 million refugees fled East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) into India, Harrison organized two groundbreaking concerts at Madison Square Garden to raise awareness and funds for UNICEF.
The concert film is available on Vimeo for those who want to watch the magic unfold. The Beatle guitarist assembled an all-star lineup, including Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Leon Russell, Billy Preston, Ravi Shankar, and a surprise performance by Bob Dylan.
Jon Bois - REFORM!
Stream: YouTube
Video doc maestro Jon Bois returns with a three-part deep dive into the history of the Reform Party. Known for his inventive video style, sharp humor, and love of underdog stories—like the eternally cursed Minnesota Vikings and Seattle Mariners—Bois now sets his sights on the eccentric world of Ross Perot, Jesse Ventura, and a colorful crew of political misfits.
If this is your first brush with Bois’ work, you’re in for a treat. Start with his hilarious and oddly poignant dive into athletes named Bob in The Bob Emergency, or his fascinating take on MMA’s origins in Fighting in the Age of Loneliness. Bois has a knack for turning the mundane into the epic, and his latest series is another must-watch. The first part is free on YouTube, with parts two and three on Patreon (or free on YouTube in October).
What to Read This Weekend
I’m gonna do something a little different in this space and discuss a few books that left a mark on me this month.
Here by Richard McGuire (2014)
First up is Here, a stunning graphic novel by Richard McGuire. It tells the story of a single corner of a room, spanning from 500,957,406,073 BC to 2313 AD.
This 300-page exploration of human life is a true work of art, ingeniously crafted and visually striking. You can breeze through it in 30 minutes or savor it like fine wine over a week.
Keep an eye out for the movie adaptation by Robert Zemeckis, reuniting Forrest Gump’s Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, hitting theaters November 1.
High-Rise by J.G. Ballard (1975)
If Here provokes reflection on the beauty of human existence, J.G. Ballard’s High-Rise will drag you kicking and screaming to the dark side. It’s Lord of the Flies in a 40-story apartment building—a brutal tale of class struggle between the haves and have-nots. Tense, hedonistic, and bloody as hell, it’s also shockingly prescient. Ballard predicts something like YouTube or Instagram Stories fifty years ago:
Every one of our actions during the day, across the entire spectrum of domestic life, will be instantly recorded on video-tape. In the evening, we will sit back to scan the rushes, selected by a computer trained to pick out only our best profiles, our wittiest dialogue, our most affecting expressions filmed through the kindest filters, and then stitch these together into a heightened re-enactment of the day.
Imminent: Inside the Pentagon’s Hunt for UFOs by Lue Elizondo (2024)
We may not be the only ones pondering the beauty and brutality of human civilization. A new book out this week claims we are not alone here on Earth.
Lue Elizondo, the former head of the Pentagon’s UFO investigation program, has gone full whistleblower, revealing jaw-dropping details about nonhuman intelligence messing with military and nuclear operations here and abroad. Elizondo was also behind the release of the gravity defying Tic Tac videos (the object that appears on the book’s front cover).
It’s the book that’ll make you feel small and spark an existential crisis—perfect weekend reading, right?
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Grace is such a great album. I managed to grab a reissue a couple of months ago and I didn’t hesitate. Needless to say, I don’t regret it either!
Tons of great stuff here! And yes I used that last word intentionally. I think I’ll read the graphic novel after seeing the film so I don’t compare in the wrong direction.
Thanks so much, as always, for your thoughtful curation. I will say that I’m not much of a jam band fan, but I loved that epic version of Kwassa Kwassa. The drummer and guitarists are off the hook.