The Weekender #6: Your Must Hear, Watch, & Read Guide
Kim Gordon's trap album, Gulfer's evolved math rock, an Oscars preview, my 25 favorite First Watches of 2023, and a woman lives in a cave for 500 days.
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 free every Friday.
What to Listen to This Weekend
Kim Gordon - The Collective
Get Vinyl: Coke Bottle Clear | Black
Stream: Spotify | Bandcamp | Apple Music | YouTube
Who would have guessed a 70-year-old white woman would release the hardest shit of the year so far?
Kim Gordon continues her legendary status with The Collective, a departure that finds the Sonic Youth co-founder exploring new terrain under the production of Justin Raisen, who produced last year’s equally surprising Let’s Start Here by Lil Yachty.
This album, released by Matador, builds upon the experimental foundations laid by her 2019 solo debut, No Home Record, pushing further into a realm that's both unrelenting and refreshingly unhinged.
Blending the abrasive textures of industrial hip hop with a stream-of-consciousness delivery, Gordon achieves an aggressive, dark, and surprisingly groovy sound that diverges sharply from traditional melodies, resonating more with the aesthetics of a SoundCloud rapper than a veteran rocker.
The Collective stands as a testament to Gordon's undiminished ability to innovate, making music that's not only relevant but riveting, proving that age is but a number when it comes to artistic boundary-pushing. I hope to God I’m half this cool when I’m a septuagenarian.
Gulfer - Third Wind
Get Vinyl: Vacant Yellow | Black
Stream: Spotify | Bandcamp | Apple Music | YouTube
Celebrating over a decade of evolution, Canadian quartet Gulfer returns with Third Wind, an album that captures their transformation from a scrappy, math rock band inspired by the emo revival to a group embracing the nuances of 90s alternative and shoegaze.
Under the influence of guitarist/vocalist Joseph Therriault, who joined in 2016, the band retains its essence while venturing into new territories with simpler, more atmospheric songwriting. This softer approach creates beautiful melodies, deeper textures, and straightforward compositions that pay homage to their roots yet venture into uncharted musical landscapes.
My two favorite non-singles that have been added to the Best Songs of 2024 playlist are the punchy and poppy “Drainer” and “Vacant Spirit,” which is a lovely mix of Minus the Bear guitar-taps with a Futures-era Jimmy Eat World sequence in the back half. Dig into it!
What to Watch This Weekend
The 96th Academy Awards
Stream: ABC, ABC.com, ABC app
The Oscars have had a strange and memorable stretch run recently. The unforgettable mix-up between Moonlight and La La Land for Best Picture has etched its place in awards show lore. In 2020, the industry faced the #OscarsSoWhite boycott, highlighting a demand for greater diversity. The following year, in a deviation from tradition, the Best Actor award was presented last, anticipating a posthumous win for Chadwick Boseman; however, longshot Anthony Hopkins secured the award and didn’t even bother to show up. Then in 2022, we saw the slap heard round the world all over a G.I. Jane joke.
Amidst these controversies, viewership plummeted to historic lows, but all that changes this year thanks to Best Picture nominees Barbenheimer, which represented a staggering 88% of this year’s cumulative box office haul. Past Oscars have shown audiences are more motivated to tune in to a ceremony celebrating films they’ve heard of. Jimmy Kimmel will host, and the show will start one-hour earlier than normal (7 PM EST).
Oppenheimer is supposed to be the big winner of the evening, predicted to win Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Cinematography (shoutout Hoyte!), Film Editing, Score (shoutout Ludwig!), and Sound.
I took a 100/1 shot ($10 to win $1K) on Killers of the Flower Moon to win Best Picture, purely because it struck me as the finest film I've encountered in some time. Though I wouldn't advise following in my betting footsteps, I highly recommend exploring any films from this list of my 25 favorite first-time watches of 2023 you might have missed, 11 of which are gems from this very year. Shoutout anything you loved or loathed in the comments!
What to Read This Weekend
The Woman Who Spent Five Hundred Days in a Cave by D.T. Max for The New Yorker
Although this article was published a few months ago, it only caught my attention this week, and it’s certainly a doozy.
Beatriz Flamini, an adventurous loner and extreme athlete, challenged herself to the limits, setting a new record by spending an unprecedented 500 days in complete isolation within a cave, severing all contact with the outside world.
Upon rejoining the world, Flamini described her extraordinary ordeal as “excellent” and that “she didn’t want to leave.” However, as cracks begin to show, she acknowledged the harsh realities of her underground existence, including grueling conditions and hallucinatory experiences that bordered on the surreal.
“I didn’t exactly lose consciousness, but the darkness saps you of life. The solitude, the social uprooting, it consumes you. Or, to put it a better way, you eat—you down nutrients—but you consume yourself.”
The article is full of WTF moments, documenting the boundaries of human endurance but also offering insights into the profound effects of solitude and environmental extremes on the human spirit and body.
Hey thanks for visiting The Wax Museum! If you like what you read, forward this newsletter to a few friends who need their weekend upgraded! 🙌
I couldn’t get into Oppenheimer. I like my bombast more subtle. And no longer than 2.25 hours. But tons of people find it the best thing ever so clearly I’m the dodo. I think I have an aversion to all things Christopher Nolan.
Bad Lietenant Port of Call New Orleans and After Hours are two of my all-time favorites. Nic Cage at (maybe) his most effectively unhinged and combining Scorcese with Griffin Dunne, Rosanne Arquette and Cheech and Chong? All over one crazy night? Yes please.