The Slowest Pod at the Saddest Bar

Tallah “Vanilla Paste (feat. Fire From The Gods, Chelsea Grin, Guerrilla Warfare)”

Sam: A combination of new Flash Back and new Limp Bizkit (“Dad Vibes” undisputed song of the year) has me falling in a nu hole in a major way. It rocks down here. Founded by ​​son-of-Mike Max Portnoy, Tallah is half pure throwback, half deliberately progressive (look a that feature list and runtime), a mix that works extremely well here in a sorta mini-”Decline” that folds together a handful of disparate song ideas into one very 90s epic. When Garett Hood comes in with the “so so so so listen up” Beastie Boys cadence… I ascend. 

Josiah: Three minutes into paying attention to the new nü, I’m remembering why I didn’t really like it when I was a teen. It’s not the rapping or turntables or goofiness. It’s the parts where they sing with clean vocals and it sounds so overly theatrical. But this is so cool that I just really want to get over that hump and learn to love it.

Dropout Kings “GlitchGang”

Sam: Someone finally did it: the perfect song. If I were to get married again (like still to Ashley, I mean in a scenario where we are renewing our vows obviously) this would play an integral role in the ceremony. It looks like this band has another video where the thumbnail is just someone doing squats in a power cage which is exactly what this makes me want to do: squats. Nothing but squats until I die in a fight I started because I was listening to this song.

Josiah: What if it was Squat Game instead of Squid Game. That could be a shirt that you see at Venice Beach 5 years from now. This is sick as all hell. I hate when Sam is right about stuff. Thankfully it’s only happening in the newsletter and not on the episodes.

Josiah: Built to Spill have signed to Sub Pop, which is the most logical and healing news I’ve read in a while, but there won’t be any sweet bald man indie rock until next year. Similarly, there’s a new Neil Young and Crazy Horse LP on the way but I still haven’t signed up for the Archives site so I can’t hear the new single. So I’m just going to use my newsletter space to talk about some cool flicks I’ve seen lately. Paul Schrader is definitely an anti-”woke mob”, but the man also knows his way around an allegorical indie flick. A companion piece to his all-timer First Reformed, The Card Counter is seemingly a gambling movie but it’s also about the impossible weight of unforgiveness. Strong performances, disorienting cinematography and an absolutely corny yet somehow perfect score, this is some heady Christian filmmaking for the ages folks.

Sam: I love how guys like Paul Schrader and the dearly departed Norm Macdonald are able to get away with opinions that might otherwise draw the ire of some of their most ardent fans by… being good at their jobs and continuing the crate work that is ultimately more worthy of discussion and dissection than fussing over exactly why Paul Schrader can’t stop getting kicked out of poker games for saying nasty shit. I have not seen this movie.

No Time to Die

Josiah: Going to have to respectfully disagree with my sweet babyboy mutual Lights Camera Jackson, because No Time to Die is sick as hell. Daniel Craig continues to deliver the hammiest lines (which, to be fair, go a little too Fleabag thanks to Phoebs’ screenwriting) while looking like how expensive cologne smells. And he should have had Cary Fukunaga directing all along, because the explosions and action sequences are explosively violent — with an extremely creepy masked figure to boot. There’s a small cameo from Wallace & Gromet if you look close enough. All in all, a great time at da movies. 

Sam: Loved the handful of Bond movies I watched as a kid but was never enough of a completist to fill in the gaps, which I started slowly doing over the last few months when I was looking to really indulge on the weekends and program a little Saturday matinee for myself. Turns out I love the Bond movies? Pretty sure I had never seen a Roger Moore one until 2021, but damn, those movies are perfectly stupid, just the dumbest shit imaginable. But one of my lone rewatches was Casino Royale, which really is so great that it’s a shame all the other Craig ones became so boring and dour (at as far as I remember, why would you ever want to watch Spectre a second time). The fact that he seems to be going out on a high note here has me hype. I have not seen this movie.