Emovember

Limp Bizkit “Out of Style”

Sam: “Dad Vibes,” a genuinely great song that rocks, has been on constant rotation since its release at the end of September. Could the surprise release of a new full-length album - on Halloween! - herald the return of the L.B. I have known and loved? Who cares! I’m travelling for the first time in two years and I listened to this for the first time on a plane Monday morning and as Fred Durst cried “DJ Lethal!” I was convinced we were taking off straight to heaven. I’m dead now. Which is good because the rest of the album isn’t actually that great. But how many great new Limp Bizkit songs do you actually need in 2021? Don’t be a dick.

Josiah: Are you saying this song isn’t good? Hearing it for the first time, it’s pretty fuckin’ sick. There’s a huge P.O.D. guitar cruncher, a sing-songy melodic part that could almost be a Rhapsody of Fire bridge and, most importantly, Fred Durst’s deliciously smooth voice. He has such a nice sweet voice, part Rivers Cuomo and part Ben Cook. Honestly, it’s so unaggressive that it sounds twee. And that’s why he always sounds freshhhh.

Former Member “Dull Bog”

Sam: Gotta say I feel like Josiah is missing out on the Jason Shevchuk discography. This latest edition, which has a very winkingly clever name I like a lot, feels more like “mature None More Black” than “even-more-mature LaGrecia,” which is for the best imho. The guitar interplay of the former is back, but the hesher energy is dialed back into more well-shorn hair territory (hairitory?). Also what a title! 

Josiah: Mate idk what the fuck yr talking about but this sounds like Fest Mastodon? And this is coming from the same Sam who doesn’t like All because there’s too much going on? This is so nasty sounding lmao. I can’t even make it through.

Josiah: I was thinking of posting something unpretentious first but Sam’s pirate shanty prog punk was way too nasty and we need to get some turtleneck vibes in here immediately. I picked up this paperback boxset of Agustín Fernández Mallo’s Nocilla Dream at my friend Tim (of Kingfisher Bluez)’s bookstore Reasons to Live in Gibsons, BC. I’ve heard it compared to the experience of having multiple internet tabs open at once. Having finished the first one, the description is apt. Incredibly frustrating, quaintly po-mo and somehow still fascinating, the book shifts tones, genres, subjects and narratives on almost every page. It’s just short bursts of philosophical prose mostly centred around a tree covered in drifters’ shoes in the Nevada desert. If you like Wim Wenders, the Killers, Gen X pretension and the feeling of being irritated yet enlightened, you should check it out!

Sam: Going to listen to the Limp Bizkit album again. 

Stath Lets Flats

Josiah: Only liking British comedy is also pretty pretentious, but it’s also such a good vibe when you have shows like Stath Lets Flats. This is a triumphantly stupid series that has maintained and even improved its perfect absurdity well into series 3 (which you can find in the places you’d normally find TV shows....). There’s something so jubilantly dumb about this show. It really does stand up with classics of stupidity like Step Brothers. I will forever recommend stuff like this and no one will check it out, but maybe one day someone lamer will tell you to watch it and you’ll say “I think someone told me about it once.” That someone was me.

Sam: This sounds amazing and I’m sure I’d love it so it’s going right into the pile of amazing-sounding things I’d surely enjoy that Josiah has recommended to me over the course of our friendship. The worst part? He’s literally never wrong. My man is batting 1.000. And yet? I know I will never watch any of it.