Welcome to The Weekender. I spent the week digging for good stuff so you don’t have to.
The 122nd World Series starts tonight, and it’s worth celebrating that we’ve got a Fall Classic without the Dodgers or Yankees. Instead, it’s the Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays, two franchises that have never won a championship, so one fanbase is about to experience euphoria for the first time. And Game 7, should we be so lucky, falls on Halloween. As Dane Cook said, “there’s only one October!”
But there’s plenty happening beyond the diamond. Here’s what’s on deck this weekend:
a long-awaited farewell from one of the great psychedelic bands of the ’90s
80 minutes of glorious, brain-rattling repetition
a dreamy little record for your autumn afternoons (RIYL: Air)
the unofficial live album I’ve been waiting two decades for
Sinatra at the Sands gets the deluxe treatment with previously unheard shows
one jazz guitarist attempts a monumental musical marathon
our third Spooky Season screening goes hunting for an ’80s serial killer
some very unsettling literature to read with the lights on
Let’s dig in.
The Listening Room
Five must-hear records for your weekend.
The Olivia Tremor Control – The Same Place
Stream: Bandcamp
Get Vinyl: Ocean Blue (sold out) | Black
Well, I’ll be damned: a new Olivia Tremor Control album in 2026. The Same Place is the Athens, Georgia band’s first record in 27 years (!!!) and, sadly, their last.
If you’re new here, OTC were founding members of the Elephant 6 collective alongside Neutral Milk Hotel and The Apples in Stereo. Their two albums, 1996’s Dusk at Cubist Castle and 1999’s Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One, are psychedelic pop landmarks. Picture Magical Mystery Tour left in a basement next to a shortwave radio for a few decades: gorgeous harmonies, tape loops, backward guitars, and musique concrète detours.
The backstory is bittersweet. Principal songwriters Bill Doss and Will Cullen Hart died in 2012 and 2024, respectively, after the band had spent nearly two decades chipping away at a third album. The surviving members and their Elephant 6 friends finished the job from Hart’s notes, assembling a 27-track double album from recordings made across several eras, some dating back to 1988.
There are real pop songs here, but also fragments, sonic interruptions, and a seven-part suite called “Path of the Parallels,” because of course there is. This band always sounded out of time, ancient and futuristic at once, so it’s perfect that their final transmission shows up decades later. Worth the wait, and a legitimate Album of the Year contender.
Water Damage - Repair
Stream: Bandcamp
Get Vinyl: Black
Austin collective Water Damage run on the principle “maximum repetition, minimal deviation.” Find a riff, ride it until the room reaches a higher state of consciousness, then keep going another 15 minutes to be safe.
Repair is four tracks, one per side of a double LP. That’s 80 minutes of droning guitars and motorik drums from a ten-piece lineup, plus guests like Wendy Eisenberg. Opener “Reel 45” arrives with an absolute barrage of percussion, and “Reel 43: Down on the Street” feeds the Stooges classic into the machine. Put this on loud and see where it takes you.
Two records down, three to go!
Also behind the velvet rope: a fan-made live album two decades in the making, one jazz guitarist’s absurd five-hour marathon, a new inductee into The Wax Museum Film Canon, a short story collection to read with the lights on, and much more! All waiting below for paid subscribers.
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