The Weekender #29: Ball Knower
Geese, Purity Ring, Nirvana, Thomas Pynchon, and the greatest sports weekend ever?
Welcome to The Wax Museum’s monthly exhibit The Weekender, your curated dose of must-hear records, must-watch gems, and must-read pieces to give your weekend a sensory upgrade. I got a lot to recommend, so let’s get right into it.
What to Listen to This Weekend
Geese - Getting Killed
Get Vinyl: Ultra Clear | Blue
Happy Geese Release Day to you and yours! I haven’t been this excited for a new album since, well, last week (Wednesday’s Bleeds), but before that it had been a minute. My enthusiasm comes from their 2023 rock epic 3D Country, a wild record that knocked me on my ass — and earned the oh-so-coveted Waxy Award for Best Sophomore Album.
Getting Killed somehow pushes things even further. It kicks off with “Trinidad,” featuring a screaming refrain of “THERE’S A BOMB IN MY CAR!” — easily the funniest song to blast with the windows down. Lead single “Taxes” delivered one of the best transitions (and music videos) of the year, and the rest unspools with that same mix of chaos and precision, whittled down from 30-minute jams recorded in LA this past January while wildfires burned outside.
And here’s the kicker: they’re not slowing down. This week’s GQ profile revealed the band was already days away from finishing the follow-up to Getting Killed. With frontman Cameron Winter’s Dropbox folders reportedly stuffed with a thousand more songs, it’s wild to think Geese might just be getting started.
Purity Ring - Purity Ring
Get Vinyl: Pick Acid Wash Splash
Purity Ring’s new self-titled album is the triumphant return to form we've been waiting for, and their strongest work since their 2012 debut, Shrines. While their last few releases fell short, this album reclaims their magic with purpose, earning its self-titled designation by masterfully blending their established affinity for ethereal electro-pop and Megan James’s haunting, childlike vocals with a bold new ambition.
Inspired by Japanese RPGs like Final Fantasy X, the record plays as a concept album soundtrack, charting the journey of two characters as they seek to build a kinder world from the ruins of a broken one. It’s an achingly beautiful listen that is both a welcome reinvention and an invigorating reminder of why they mattered in the first place.
nyxy nyx - Cult Classics Vol. 1
Stream: Bandcamp
Philly label Julia’s War — a recent favorite in these pages — has linked with hometown heroes nyxy nyx for Cult Classics Vol. 1, the band’s first studio album and their most definitive statement yet. What started a decade ago as a DIY project has grown into a cornerstone of Philly’s shoegaze underground, now boasting a lineup that ropes in members of Sun Organ, Knifeplay, Luna Honey, Midwife, and A Sunny Day in Glasgow. Recorded live in the room, the album captures their sludgy, doomy energy — my favorite section includes the near nine-minute haze of “hold me (im shaking)” bleeding straight into the gorgeous “I don’t know much about luv.” By that point, you’ll know exactly why nyxy nyx is about to become your new favorite band.
araabMUZIK - Electronic Dream (15th Anniversary)
Get Vinyl: Clear Vinyl with Red, White & Black Swirl
If you need a soundtrack to shave seconds off your run or push a new PR in the gym this weekend, cue up araabMUZIK’s Electronic Dream and thank me later.
I'd forgotten about this instrumental hip-hop tape — I used to blast this through the shitty speakers of my 1995 BMW 525i — until Get On Down announced its first-ever vinyl release for the album's 15th anniversary. The “MVP of the MPC” blends hip-hop beats with the heavy trance and progressive house sounds of the era. It's just as potent now as it was then.
Monthly Mixtape: Patio Grooves 🍂 Fall 2025
Stream: Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube Music
For those that missed it, earlier this week I refreshed the Patio Grooves Playlist for the fall season, stocked with 13 new tracks from this year blended with favorites stretching across the last five decades.
Just a quick intermission as I shake the donation jar at you. A $5 contribution unlocks full archive access and gets you a $10 coupon to our Gift Shop — just the sign you needed to grab one of our sweet Weekender bags. Thanks for the support!
What to Watch This Weekend
Geese - Live at The George Tavern
Oh you thought I was done gushing about Geese… not so fast my friend!
Do yourself a favor and throw on their recent live set at The George Tavern, where filmmaker Lou Smith (a must-follow in his own right) gets right up in the band’s grill at the legendary London venue. It’s Geese’s final pre-Getting Killed performance, packed with ten brand new tracks already playing like instant classics, plus three barnburners from 3D Country. It’s just more proof Geese are operating at full power right now.
Nirvana - Live at the Paramount
If Geese are today’s 20-somethings storming the gates, Nirvana were the blueprint of that energy fully realized. For the next two months, ARTE Concert has made Nirvana – Live at the Paramount available free on YouTube, and it’s essential viewing. Filmed on Halloween 1991 in Seattle, barely a month after Nevermind dropped, it remains the only Nirvana show captured entirely on 16 mm film. Hard to fathom tickets were just $10 to witness these three young legends carving an indelible mark into music history in real time.
Best Sports Weekend Ever?!
If you’ve got a fall wedding this weekend, my condolences — you’re about to miss the greatest sports weekend we’ve had in recent memory. Honey, the pumpkin patch will still be there next Saturday, but this lineup? Ryder Cup, NFL, college football, WNBA playoffs, and the MLB playoff race all stacked on top of each other for three glorious days.
The crown jewel is the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, golf’s rowdiest stage, with the U.S. and Europe squaring off in front of a raucous New York crowd. Meanwhile, MLB’s postseason picture is in chaos, with four playoff spots undecided with just three days left to settle it. The WNBA semifinals are locked 1-1 on both sides, and college football offers a triple bill of heavyweight clashes: Penn State’s whiteout against Oregon, LSU at Ole Miss, and Bama-Georgia. And then there’s the NFL, where Micah Parsons returns to Dallas in Packers green, and either the Ravens or Chiefs will fall to a shocking 1-3.
Whew.. what are you rooting for this weekend?
What to Read This Weekend
Why Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland—a Disappointment When It Was Published—is the Novel We Need Right Now by Devin Thomas O’Shea for Literary Hub
It’s the season of the Pynch! Today sees the release of One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson’s highly anticipated film adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
This, coupled with the stunning news that the reclusive 88-year-old will publish Shadow Ticket on October 7th, sent me scrambling to finally read Vineland. And I’m glad I did. The novel is packed with incredible, often hilarious prose, evocative of a bygone California, and prescient in its depiction of government overreach. Perhaps no living novelist has captured our reality quite like Pynchon, whose kaleidoscopic worlds feel less like fiction than prophecy.
Devin Thomas O’Shea makes this case beautifully in his recent Literary Hub piece, Why Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland—a Disappointment When It Was Published—is the Novel We Need Right Now. Here’s a snippet:
If you had to point to one continuous theme in all of Pynchon’s work, it is a silver Christian fish bumper sticker turned right-side up to look like a rocket. Our science worship has usurped the God worship of previous centuries, but ultimately points to Old Testament outcomes: Apocalypse, holocaust, and the fascistic desire to dominate. The phallic sex-death drive of the 00000 V2 rocket—produced using concentration camp labor—ends the world of Gravity’s Rainbow, but also begins the nightmare with a horror; you will never hear that screaming which comes across the sky, because the impact of a supersonic rocket outpaces the noise of the explosion. A rocket fired into a crowded city— technology used for indiscriminate extermination of civilians. Characters in Gravity’s Rainbow traverse The Zone with instant death hovering overhead; a paranoia known to the civilians of Gaza. The October 7th release date for Shadow Ticket may not be a coincidence.
Reading Vineland today, it’s impossible not to see how Pynchon’s paranoid style has become the air we breathe: surveillance everywhere, culture hollowed out into commerce, politics reduced to absurd theater. So whether you’re heading to the theater for PTA’s vision or cracking open a Pynchon, don’t expect escapism, rather a decoder ring for the chaos outside your window.
Hey, thanks for visiting The Wax Museum! If you enjoyed your stay, forward this to a friend who needs their weekend upgraded.
Leave a comment card on your way out and I’ll catch you next week!
Yay for Geese! My wife walked in last night and was, like, “What IS this? I love it!” Thanks for the tip on the concert video, I haven’t seen them since 2023.
I've not listened to Geese before, but I guess I need to.