The Weekender #20: Father John Misty's instant classic, Michael Kiwanuka's minimalism, and a MF DOOM tribute
Packed with suggestions on what to stream, 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 every month. All previous editions of The Weekender can be found here.
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What to Listen to This Weekend
Father John Misty - Mahashmashana
Stream: Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp
Get Vinyl: Sub Pop Loser | Purple | Dark Red & Silver, Signed Artcard | Ink and Haze
Mistyheads, rejoice! Father John Misty has returned in full I Love You, Honeybear form with his sixth album, Mahashmashana. This one’s a no-skip affair—eight tracks that demand your attention, including multiple eight-minute epics and no songs shorter than four.
The former Fleet Foxes drummer remains one of our finest songwriters, and on Mahashmashana, his birds-eye view of mortality is front and center. The lyrics are classic Father John Misty: bitingly funny, occasionally heartbreaking, and laced with self-deprecation and fourth-wall-breaking.
The production is next-level, with lush, stadium-filling arrangements that perfectly complement the sticky melodies and sharp one-liners. He’s truly pulling out all the stops here.
Highlights include the opening title track that channels the grandeur of George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, the garage rock of “She Cleans Up” with its Viagra Boys riff, sounding like a lost Spoon track, and the nine-minute disco-jazz-funk masterpiece, “I Guess Time Just Makes Fools Of Us All”—a surefire Top Song of the Year contender.
Father John Misty’s music has only grown more incisive with age, particularly his sardonic social critique, which feels all the more prescient as we improbably enter a second Trump term. While his catalog is too rich for one clear favorite, Mahashmashana can be argued as one of his best. It’s a triumphant return, a showcase of a songwriter at the peak of his powers.
Michael Kiwanuka - Small Changes
Stream: Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp
Get Vinyl: Blue Marble | Black
We go from one of America’s finest songwriters to one of Britain’s best with Michael Kiwanuka. But where Tillman’s album was grandiose, Kiwanuka’s Small Changes takes a different route, swapping maximalism for a more intimate sound.
This is Kiwanuka’s fourth album and his first since his self-titled 2019 release, marking his third collaboration with production masterminds Danger Mouse and Inflo. The music flows with a laid-back ease, exuding a smooth, mellow vibe that feels effortlessly cool.
In this sparse setting, every note feels heavier, like the emotionally charged guitar solo on the title track. There’s a clear Curtis Mayfield influence throughout, or if you want a more contemporary reference, Sampha fits the bill. Joining Kiwanuka on this journey are some true heavyweights: The Time’s keyboardist-turned-Janet-Jackson-producer Jimmy Jam, D’Angelo’s bassist Pino Palladino, and Bill Withers' drummer James Gadson, all contributing to the album’s soulful groove.
Small Changes is a soothing listen—ideal for sipping your morning coffee, tackling the day’s Connections, or just soaking in a moment of calm with someone you love.
The Best Songs of 2024 Playlist (290 Songs)
Stream: Spotify | Apple Music
Over 75 fresh vibes were added to the Best Songs of 2024 Playlist in the last few weeks, including new songs from Horsegirl, James Blake, Squid, Mk,gee, Wild Pink, Panda Bear, Romy, Lauren Mayberry, and many more. Sort by Date Added for the latest; join the hundreds of new music seekers following this constantly updated playlist!
What to Watch This Weekend
FM MOOD: Tribute To MF DOOM at Camp Flog Gnaw Festival
Stream: Youtube
Last weekend, the crown jewel of Tyler, the Creator’s Camp Flog Gnaw Music Festival was FM Mood: A Tribute to MF DOOM. The showcase featured an all-star lineup, including Erykah Badu (who performed the Sade sample on “Doomsday”), Madlib, and a 30-piece orchestra bringing the late artist’s music to life. Miguel Atwood-Ferguson conducted the orchestra while rocking a DOOM mask, and you could feel the energy in the crowd—they were absolutely vibing. It’s a beautiful, heartfelt tribute to one of hip hop’s most enigmatic figures, and I would love to see this performance immortalized as a live album on wax one day.
Say Nothing
Stream: Hulu
Say Nothing, the new nine-part miniseries based on Patrick Radden Keefe’s gripping book, is a powerful adaptation that brings the chilling narrative to life. (You might recognize Keefe as the author of the recent Empire of Pain, a deep dive into the Sackler family and their central role in the opioid epidemic.)
Keefe’s book dives deep into the bitter conflict in Northern Ireland, centering on the disappearance of Jean McConville, a widowed mother of ten, as a lens through which to examine a society shattered by a nationalistic war—the echoes of which continue to reverberate decades later.
Created by Josh Zetumer, Say Nothing unfolds through the perspectives of the Price sisters, the first female members of the I.R.A. The series is brilliantly acted, looks fantastic, and offers quality all around. It's a binge-worthy gem and one of the best shows of the year.
Mike Tyson Mysteries
Stream: Hulu
In honor of 58-year-old Mike Tyson’s return to the ring last week, let me remind you of Mike Tyson Mysteries—the hilariously underrated gem that ran for four seasons and 70 episodes on Adult Swim from 2014 to 2019.
Picture Scooby-Doo with the lightning-fast humor of Family Guy, and you've got Tyson as the mystery solver. His sidekicks include the ghost of the Marquess of Queensberry (played by Jim Rash, aka the Dean from Community) and an alcoholic pigeon voiced by the late, great Norm Macdonald, who delivers improvised one-liners that only Norm could pull off.
The show’s central formula—solve a mystery, make everything exponentially worse, and then end the episode without resolution—gets me every time. Here's a clip stuffed with jokes and sight gags that perfectly captures the madness of it all.
What to Read This Weekend
It’s The Wars, Stupid by for Drop Site
Bury the #Resistance, Once and For All by for The Nation
If you’re not interested in my political musings (and why would you be?), feel free to tap out now—I’ll catch you next week for our Record Store Day Black Friday primer. For those still with me...
Since the last edition of The Weekender, the U.S. held an election, and it was a MAGA sweep across the White House, Senate, and House. Instead of engaging in some much-needed self-reflection, Democratic leadership is playing the blame game, pointing fingers at the progressive wing and marginalized groups.
After reading a series of post-mortems on what went so wrong for the Democrats, I think these two articles by Ryan Grim and Katherine Krueger best capture their current state and offer a potential path forward.
Grim argues that the Democrats’ pivot toward a more war-happy agenda has created the perception that they have no intention of addressing the everyday needs of the American people.
The jarring price swings at the grocery store and at the pump combined with the out-of-control wars and the surge of migrants at the border produces a visceral sense that our leaders in Washington were sacrificing the needs of regular people here in the United States. […] [Biden’s] rapt attention to Ukraine and Israel left little room for confidence that he cared what was going on back here.
By pretending that the U.S. could do it all, but then only delivering on the foreign wars, Democrats set up ordinary people to view it as a zero sum competition.
Americans see their tax dollars funneled toward wars while their bills continue to climb. Krueger drives this point home:
It leaves a bad taste in voters’ mouths when they’re struggling to pay for groceries or waiting for their government to provide hurricane relief when the same body is expeditiously sending a record $18 billion to military aid for Israel and billions more for Ukraine’s war effort.
Remember when FEMA announced a $9 billion shortfall for Hurricane Helene recovery on the same day the US gave $8.7 billion in weapons to Israel??
What has all this spending accomplished? Oh, just a genocide in Gaza, bombings across Lebanon, and an Ukraine-Russia bloodbath teetering on the precipice of nuclear catastrophe. Our tax dollars at work. And we wonder why Democratic turnout tanked nationwide.
So what’s next? Krueger’s solution:
It’s absolutely imperative that the party start offering a vision of the future and a value proposition to voters instead of continuing to run on what they’re not and disciplining voters who dare ask the party to reflect their policy interests. Democrats need to marry their ideologies with class consciousness or risk wandering the wilderness forever. Medicare for All and a housing guarantee would be excellent places to start, as would providing material support for women whose reproductive rights have been curtailed, rather than stopping at empty promises to codify Roe. Most urgently, they need to meaningfully resolve the existential crisis they’ve created for themselves even without Trump’s help: becoming a party of war and genocide.
Democrats can no longer afford to ignore the growing disconnect between their policies and the needs of the people. It's not enough to condemn the opposition; it’s time for bold action, real solutions, and a commitment to serving the people who put them in power. The clock is ticking.
Thanks for stopping by The Wax Museum—I hope you enjoyed your stay! If you’re new around here, don’t worry, the reading section isn’t usually that heavy.
As always, feel free to reply to this email or drop a comment in the Substack if you want to chat. I’ll catch you next week!
Of course Kendrick drops minutes after I send this out — definitely add that to your weekend plans.