The Weekender #19: The Fall Classic
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 every month. All previous editions of The Weekender can be found here.
One last bit of business: be sure to peruse our Gift Shop for essentials like the above Weekender bag, a vinyl carrying tote, and a coffee mug! Paid subscribers to this newsletter receive $10 off their purchase and automatically get entered into our monthly signed vinyl giveaway, where they will choose one of the following mint records.
One lucky supporter will be picked next week! Thanks for the support, and let’s get into it!
What to Listen to This Weekend
R.L. Grime’s Halloween VIII Mix
Stream: Soundcloud
I stopped keeping tabs on EDM after college, but every year I make a hard exception for RL Grime’s Halloween mix—an hour-long spooky delight where classic and trending hip-hop vocals meet trap beats, with Goosebumps legend R.L. Stine himself popping in halfway through for a little extra chill. It’s the perfect soundtrack for a run or a gym session that needs an extra punch.
Being Dead - EELS
Stream: Spotify | Apple
Get Vinyl: Speckled Dragon Egg
I was originally going to use this space to dive into one of today’s big releases—maybe gush about new albums from Soccer Mommy, Peach Pit, Laura Marling, or the underrated Norwegian gem Onsloow. But shoutout to reader
, who suggested I check out Being Dead's sophomore album EELS. Let me tell you, this record hijacked my day in the best possible way.After receiving some acclaim with their 2023 debut When Horses Would Run, the Austin duo decided to crank up the weirdness and get rowdier for their follow-up on Bayonet Records. They teamed up with none other than John Congleton—the genius behind some of my all-time favorite albums (Manchester Orchestra’s A Black Mile to the Surface and Alvvays’ Antisocialities, just to name a few).
With EELS, they’ve cooked up a 16-track journey that’s a genre-hopping, trippy joyride—think The Beach Boys one minute, Animal Collective the next.
A few songs in, you think you’re getting the hang of their vibe, and then they throw in a fuzzed-out garage rock anthem in “Firefighters” that knocks you to the mat. When you’re back on solid ground, they hit you with “Dragons II,” a raw, lo-fi track that sounds like it was taped on a hand recorder. It’s unpredictable, messy, bursting with ideas, and somehow it all works.
This is one of those albums that gets more rewarding with each listen as you untangle its web of chaos. If you're into records that make you feel like you're surfing through an unpredictable, sun-soaked fever dream, EELS is a must-spin.
20 Essential Horror Soundtracks
Kudos to the Discogs editorial squad for curating a killer lineup of iconic scores and soundtracks to perfectly set the mood for spooky season.
What makes the best horror movie soundtrack? Tension, esoteric instruments, microtonal pitch changes, and, of course, heaps of dissonance. Perhaps most important of all, though, is the concept of ambiguous ethereality: that feeling that something just isn’t right. The best horror soundtracks do this in subtle ways, slowly chipping away at that smug sense of safety and security you have. Working these elements into a complimentary, intricate web is a particularly unique challenge in the world of scoring. Channeling into ungrounded atonal compositions is not easy — which is perhaps why there are so many cheesy-sounding horror soundtracks. You won’t find any of those listed here.
What to Watch This Weekend
Baseball!
Tonight kicks off Game 1 of what might be the most hyped World Series of my lifetime. Baseball’s two biggest superstars, Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge, are finally gracing the World Series stage, each looking to put an exclamation point on legacy-making MVP seasons.
This is like if the baseball gods decided to assemble the Avengers. Juan Soto and Mookie Betts are here, Giancarlo Stanton is back from the brink and suddenly raking, a battle-scarred Freddie Freeman is pushing through injury, Gerrit Cole is throwing heat, and the $325 million Japanese phenom Yoshinobu Yamamoto is making his rookie World Series debut.
New York and Los Angeles are meeting for the 12th time in World Series history—the most frequent matchup ever—but their first showdown since 1981. The Yankees return to the World Series for the first time in 15 years. The Dodgers are aiming to secure a "no asterisk" championship to complement the one they won during the COVID-shortened season. This series could be one for the ages.
If that’s not enough baseball for ya, it’s also the 20th anniversary of the Boston Red Sox breaking their 86-year World Series drought, aka the Curse of the Bambino. As a die-hard Red Sox fan, October 2004 was one of the best months of my life. I remember every nail-biting moment of that 3-0 comeback against the Yankees—I blame my grey hairs on that series.
To celebrate, Netflix just dropped a 3-part, 3-hour documentary that's the definitive deep dive into the greatest comeback in sports history. I watched it this week, and I’ll likely watch it every October from here on out.
Scary Movies!
If you were with us last October, you might recall our Spooky Movie Club, where I dove into eight horror films I'd never seen. Highlights included the William Peter Blatty double feature of The Ninth Configuration (1980) and The Exorcist III (1990), along with Nicolas Roeg’s haunting Don’t Look Now (1973). It was a scream.
This October, I decided to explore the eerie realm of prolific Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa. I started with Cure (1997), ventured into Pulse (2001), and capped it off with the 50-minute featurette Chime (2024). If you're into psychological horror with sudden jolts of shocking violence, Kurosawa is your man. The ending of Cure is especially spine-chilling—it left me with goosebumps and features one of the most unforgettable final shots I've seen in ages.
If you're craving something a bit more traditional, DON’T MOVE dropped today on Netflix, and it's at the top of my weekend watchlist. The premise hooked me: a woman in a forest encounters a stranger who injects her with a paralytic agent. As the toxin takes over her body, she must run, hide, and fight for her life before her nervous system shuts down. Talk about a race against time, am I right folks?
Got a favorite horror flick you’d recommend? Reply to this email or drop it in the comments! I’d love to add some new haunts to my watchlist.
The Bob Weir Incident at Hulaween
Stream: Nugs
Hulaween, the annual music and camping festival at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, Florida, is as remote as it gets—smack dab between Valdosta and Gainesville. Hosted by jam legends The String Cheese Incident, who perform three sets every evening, this year’s festival packs an extra punch with a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration: The Bobby Weir Incident, featuring Grateful Dead co-founder Bob Weir himself.
Can’t make it to the middle of nowhere? You can catch this historic set live on Nugs.net, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite streaming spots. For $15 a month, you get access to hundreds of live shows. And if you want to make a day of it, Sunday’s lineup is peak viewing: tune in to The Bob Weir Incident at 5 PM EST, then hop over to Brooklyn for a live stream of Wax Museum favorite MJ Lenderman & The Wind at the Music Hall of Williamsburg at 9 PM.
What to Read This Weekend
Every Tom Petty Album, Ranked by Steven Hyden for Uproxx
Earlier this month, as I sat in The Swamp in Gainesville, head in hands and cursing the beer-soaked floor, my beloved UCF Knights were getting absolutely trounced by the Gators. But then, in one of college football’s great traditions, the crowd belted out local boy Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down,” and for a brief, goosebump-inducing moment, my spirits lifted.
I don’t need to tell you that Tom Petty rocks. One of the best bandleaders and songwriters to ever do it, with a prolific career that blessed us with 20 albums—13 with the Heartbreakers, two with Traveling Wilburys, two with Mudcrutch, and three solo albums. That's a hell of a legacy.
The always-brilliant
just ranked all 20 for Uproxx, and it’s a must-read. I thought I knew Petty, but I learned a ton—and you will too.I think about Tom Petty a lot. But in October, I think about him a little bit more.
This month marks two important Tom Petty milestones— it’s the seventh anniversary of his death (Oct. 2), and the 74th anniversary of his birth (Oct. 20). Like the great Kurt Vile once sang, “Tom Petty’s gone, and I’m long gone, and how am I gonna make amends with myself for never gettin’ to talk to him?” Kurt made amends by writing a song. But I’m not a songwriter, I’m a music critic. So, I listened for the thousandth time to all his studio albums — the solo ones, the ones with The Heartbreakers, with Mudcrutch, the Wilburys, all of it — and wrote this column.
‘Pulp Fiction’ Turns 30: How Quentin Tarantino’s Masterpiece Saved Careers, Conquered Film Festivals, and Changed Cinema Forever by Todd Gilchrist for Variety
Last week, Pulp Fiction turned 30, and to mark the occasion, 20 members of the cast and crew sat down with Variety for an oral history that’s a blast to read. The hilarious, violent, non-linear masterpiece raked in $213 million on an $8 million budget, cementing it as one of the most successful indie films ever. Not to mention, it single-handedly revived John Travolta’s career and turned Samuel L. Jackson into an icon.
One of the key reasons Pulp Fiction hit so hard? The music. Tarantino didn’t bother with a traditional score, opting instead for a killer mix of pop, rock, surf, country, and soul that became iconic in its own right.
Now, Interscope is celebrating that soundtrack with a special glow-in-the-dark vinyl reissue, shipping in December. Movie fans, clear some space on your shelves!
Hey thanks for visiting The Wax Museum! If you like what you read, forward this newsletter to a friend who needs their weekend upgraded! 🙌
That EELS write-up had me hooked and I stuck it on straight away. Loving it so far! I had Van Goes as a contender for a Recent and Decent playlist but it somehow got missed out. But the album is greater than the sum of its part. Lots of variety and, as you say, it so works!
That Hulaween Festival has streaming sets all weekend, capped off by the Bob Weir Incident on Sunday. Dogs In A Pile (Deadheads get it :) is one of my new faves on the scene.