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• Tagged: August 2026, listening diary, music, Nomeansno, ZZ Top, Hüsker Dü, Prince, Cocteau Twins, Zorn, Googoosh Dolls, Ida, Gang of Four, Sunny Day Real Estate, Tyondai Braxton, Mastodon, Ghost, Celebrators, Debt Rag, Morgan Buckley, Ben Donohue
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• Splayed Werks
  Tyondai Braxton, 2026
• 2 Big to Rig (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack / Live)
  Ghost, 2026
• Marrow Deep
  Mastodon, 2026

🎬 Added to the film diary:

• The Rainmaker
  Francis Ford Coppola, 1997, ★★½

• Tagged: August 2026
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In these early days of a post-BrooklynVegan world, who knows how long it would have taken for me to catch wind of Temptation to Exist, today’s surprise release from your best friend and mine, Andrew W.K., but thankfully my buddy Smo informed me via text early this afternoon, and I was spinning said release forthwith. Ever since Andrew cancelled all tour dates and deleted his website and social media almost immediately after releasing his last album five years ago, I’ve frequently wondered why he vanished and what was next for him, and while I wouldn’t have guessed it would be a collection of cinematic jazz instrumentals, my fascination with the guy and his many idiosyncrasies runs too deep for me to have been shocked. It’s not the kind of thing I necessarily wanted from him, and I probably wouldn’t listen to it if someone else had made it, but of all the dumb things one might do after marrying into Hollywood, it somehow seems perfectly natural that Andrew W.K. should pivot from his trademark high-octane party rock to a series of compositions evoking a shelved David Lynch noir scored by Bernard Herrmann and Henry Mancini. These referents oversell the album, to be sure, but I could see it catching the ear of a certain kind of filmmaker, and it must be said that it’s a far more listenable outing than Andrew’s unmemorable prior diversion, 2009’s 55 Cadillac. And in a true up-is-down moment, the maximalist-in-chief even squeezes in an homage to minimalist icon Steve Reich! It’s not the euphoric thing a more traditional A.W.K. record might have been, but all told, it’s a weird and pleasant surprise.

• Tagged: August 2026, music library, music, review, Andrew W.K., Bernard Herrmann, Henry Mancini, Steve Reich
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The interviews get pretty repetitive in this rock doc about the post-“Smells Like Teen Spirit” feeding frenzy in Seattle, but they’re well worth sitting through for the film’s treasure trove of live footage of a ton of great bands from the scene who never hit the big time. Oddly enough, for as much as Hype! is about the Pacific Northwest, its most memorable moment for me is a bunch of Japanese rockabilly dudes with comically oversized pompadours twisting in the streets to the groovy sounds of The Young Fresh Fellows.

• Tagged: August 2026, film diary, film and television, music, review, Doug Pray
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• The Pelican Brief
  Alan J. Pakula, 1993, ★★★

• Tagged: August 2026
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I find that a terrible movie that broadcasts its amateur maker’s steep learning curve is usually more interesting than a terrible movie made by a professional for whom it was just another day at the office. And the more ambitious the amateur’s vision, the more compelling their failure. In the case of Almost Invisible, apparently the first and last writing/producing/directing effort of a 50-something MD (currently serving a 13-year federal prison sentence for running a pill mill!), the lion’s share of the effort was expended in the editing room, where 95 minutes of inept cinematography and unintelligible dialogue were sliced and diced in a dizzying frenzy. If not for the ho-hum premise (horny college kids partying in a haunted house), the nonstop soundtrack of generic post-grunge tunes, and the comical number of low-angle shots foregrounding fit bikini butts, its surrealist seizure might have seemed almost artful. The muddled horror trash we got instead isn’t exactly preferable, but I do enjoy the mystery of why its maker went to as much trouble as he did. People are so weird! May it ever be so.

• Tagged: August 2026, film diary, film and television, review, David Allingham, PhilaMOCA, Philadelphia, PA
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• A1000
  Googoosh Dolls, 2026
• Hardcore Zorn
  Zorn, 2019
• Zorn
  Zorn, 2023
• Endless Funeral
  Zorn, 2024
• Return to Castle Death
  Zorn, 2026
• Wazoo
  Nonzoo, 2017
• An Undying Love for a Burning World
  Neurosis, 2026

🎬 Added to the film diary:

• Who Is Killing the Cheerleaders?
  Jeff Hare, 2020
• Killer Cheer Mom
  Randy Carter, 2021
• The 400 Blows
  François Truffaut, 1959, ★★★½

• Tagged: August 2026
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Look, I’m not a conspiracy-minded guy, but a carefully coordinated effort by the international punk intelligentsia to keep me in the dark is the only explanation I see for why it took 37 years for this incredible album to find its way to me. Nomeansno has been on my radar since the early ’90s, when they appeared on Alternative Tentacles’ Virus 100 compilation, and their committed a cappella cover of Dead Kennedys’ “Forward to Death” gave me more than enough incentive to investigate further. But for some reason, I just never did. Fast-forward to July of 2026, when Converge’s Jacob Bannon gushing over Nomeansno’s 1989 magnum opus, Wrong, was compelling enough for me to add the album to my Bandcamp wishlist. This morning, I finally gave it a spin. And then I spent the rest of the morning spinning it again and again.

This record’s punk-forward rawness and immediacy is offset by a sophistication, inventiveness, and musicianship more commonly associated with prog or jazz, all without ever feeling showy or self-indulgent. It’s also fun, articulate, impeccably produced, and just bursting with life. It effortlessly synthesizes so many musical things I love, and it does it better than almost any other record I can think of. I’m completely floored; I can’t believe this treasure has been hiding in plain sight all this time. For something that calls itself Wrong, it couldn’t be more right.

By all accounts, this is the fan-favorite Nomeansno album, but if anything else in their sizable oeuvre is half this good, I’ll be a happy camper. I won’t wait another 37 years to find out.

• Tagged: August 2026, music library, music, review, Nomeansno, Dead Kennedys, Converge
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This thing is so overloaded with ridiculous ’80s signifiers, and its picture is so pristine, I initially thought it was a nostalgic throwback made sometime in the last 10 years (à la the dreadful Kung Fury). But the hair, the clothes, the cars, and the music are simply too perfect, and that pristine picture comes courtesy of Vinegar Syndrome, patron saints of pulling out all the stops on film restorations no one else would have deemed remotely worthy. And as usual, I’m glad they did! Alien Private Eye is only just barely aware of how stupid it is, which makes it a pretty fun ride.

• Tagged: August 2026, film diary, film and television, review, Vik Rubenfeld, PhilaMOCA, Philadelphia, PA
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I’m not really into Christopher Nolan or epic movies, but my knowledge of Greek mythology is shamefully cursory, so I hoped seeing Nolan’s Odyssey would give me the nudge I needed to finally do some proper reading. I enjoyed the film more than I expected to; it’s very effective in many ways (Polyphemus! Circe!) and clunky in others (loud plot forecasting and a clumsy big finish), but I don’t think I looked at my watch once in the entire three hours, which is more than I can say for Oppenheimer. Time to finally read this Homer guy I keep hearing about.

• Tagged: August 2026, film diary, film and television, review, Christopher Nolan, PFS Film Center, Philadelphia, PA
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