The Weekender #32: What to Listen, Watch, and Read This Weekend
A short list of things better than scrolling.
Welcome to The Wax Museum’s monthly exhibit The Weekender. If you’re new here, this is where I point you to the best things to listen to, watch, and read before the weekend disappears. I got a lot to recommend, so let’s get right into it.
What to Listen to This Weekend
Holy Fuck - Event Beat
Stream: Bandcamp
Get Vinyl: Apple Red
Genre: Electronic Rock
Today is the first stacked release day of 2026. The New Pornographers! Snail Mail! Courtney Barnett! Robyn! Slayyyter! The Twilight Sad! Flea doing jazz! And whoa, is that The Academy Is…?? Yes, their first album in 18 years.
But there are two releases I need to yank your eye toward immediately. First up, the unexpected return of Canada’s Holy Fuck, whose last album landed pre-pandemic, before whatever bizarro timeline we’re in now.
The quartet haven’t lost a step. If anything, they sound sharper than ever here. Event Beat moves fast, starting with the chaotic jolt of “Evie,” then settling into the kind of hypnotic groove they’ve always been great at, especially on “Gold Flakes” and “Elevate.” They still know exactly where to hit, whether it’s your legs or your brain.
DJ-Kicks: Sofia Kourtesis
Get Vinyl: Black
Stream: Bandcamp
Genre: Electronica
Readers may be familiar with Peruvian multi-hyphenate Sofia Kourtesis, whose 2023 debut album Madres I highlighted in a recent Bandcamp Friday roundup. I described it as “house music with a heart, mixing euphoric rhythms with intimate storytelling,” as the throughline focused on her mother’s cancer diagnosis.
I had been waiting on what she’d do next, and it’s been a run of remixes, including a killer London Grammar take, so it makes sense her next release lands in the fabled DJ-Kicks series. During the song compiling process, Kourtesis lost her mother, and her perspective is worth a read:
“Losing my mother, my idol, knocked the wind out of me. But as the seasons shifted, I found myself back in Peru. Being there made me feel close to her again, like she was in the air. Slowly, music started to come back to me, not as noise, but as strength. It felt like reconnecting with her spirit, honouring everything she gave me. This chapter of my life has forever changed how I hear music. It’s more fragile now, and in a strange way, it feels like a gift she left me; a reminder that even in loss, there’s still beauty and connection.”
That shift shows up in this mix. It moves through melodic techno and house with a lighter touch, but still delivers real emotion, tension, and release. Excited to have this one on vinyl to turn my living room into a dancefloor.