- Ruiner “I Heard These Dudes Were Assholes” - As if melodic hardcore was never put to rest and the suburban east coast, frantic desparation never subsided, because it didn’t. Immediate like a slap in the face. It will make you point. It will make you wish it wasn’t all passed. The feelings, the way things were.
- Metallica “Ride the Lightning” - The seminal 1984 thrash masterpiece never relents in the gallop of the riffs trodding over you
- “Martyr!” (Kaveh Akbar) - Somehow I’ve now read two books in as many months with the Iranian Islamic Revolution as the backdrop, and this one doesn’t disappoint with a time jumping and almost Hollywood style plot twists
- Kneecap - I can’t get enough of these guys. The music I’m not so sure about, do not understand a lick of Gaelic, but the fact that they exist and are doing it make me smile so much. If anything else, having grown up in a multilingually confused household and community sort of thing I love the fact that they are keeping a language alive not in terms of nationalist myths and heroes but in street life. Add to that being very political on Public Enemy levels or more, going beyond just the “North of Ireland” (which is what they would call it) and their indigenous (?) rights but calling out for others in Palestine and elsewhere. Oh and drugs and partying.
- Blackfoot “Millie” - More Zamrock from where else, Zambia in the 70’s which was a positive musical hotbed for the refugees of psych-rock
- “The Theory of Everything Else” (Dan Schreiber)
- Chad Daniels “Empty Nester” (Netflix)
- Unclogging drains
- ArmoredMMA - We all love medieval combat, that’s for sure. But the juxtaposition of that with cage matches is something else. Personally I wished it was more historically accurate and melee-based, but you know, I’m never in charge of this stuff.
- Listening to Earth Crisis “Destroy the Machines” as calculated thematic and ultimately pitiful response to AI destroying my job in the next two years
