Through My Ears — Gloria's Summer 2026

Welcome to Gloria's new blog column, posted around once a month, in which she offers some recommendations and insights into the music she's been listening to. This is Through My Ears.

What the summer has looked like for me musically. The album reviews are very short, but they are all worth checking out!

Just Dropped

(my favorite new releases)

Inferno by Boards of Canada

It's been thirteen years since Boards of Canada released a new album, and this was well worth the wait. It's a little weird and absolutely spellbinding.

Where the Echoes Bloom by Alia

I mean this as a compliment, but it sounds like the kind of music aliens would make if they were inspired by tiki bars and film scores from Earth from the 1950s-60s.

FATHERS by FATHERS (Nate Smith, Keifer, CARRTOONS, and Kenny Beats)

Such a groovy little jazz record, put out by an absolute supergroup of musicians.

Still Spinning

(old(er) albums on constant rotation)

Untitled (Black Is) by Sault

A really stunning album that blends spoken word, hip hop, Afrobeats, gospel, and funk, among other genres. This album came out in 2020, when a lot of the world was in protest against systemic racism; the lyrics reflect emotions that were present at that time, from resilience to rage.

Tuff Times Never Last by Kokoroko

This album is so intimate, immersive, and warm. It weaves together group harmonies and a rich blend of Afrobeat, soul, and funk into a deeply personal ode to their roots.

Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys

A quintessential summer album. If you haven't listened to the Beach Boys in a while, no matter how good you remember them being, they are better. Those harmonies are pure comfort.

Live and In-Person

(quick concert reviews)

Yebba

Date: June 1, 2026 

Venue: Union Transfer

Opener: Astyn Turr

Really an incredible performance. Yebba's voice is so soulful and captivating, and the band and her backup singers were so tight. Some artists remind you that your voice truly is an instrument, and she is one of them.

Yebba

Wild Nothing

Date: June 15, 2026 

Venue: Underground Arts

Opener: Deakin

This was a cool show! They performed their debut album Gemini in full as part of a "sixteenth anniversary" tour—an odd number until you learn the backstory. A planned tenth anniversary tour got derailed by COVID, then a fifteenth anniversary attempt got pushed back when Jack Tatum had a baby, so sixteenth anniversary it was, lol. Deakin of Animal Collective opened, rounding out a genuinely fun night of dream pop.

Wild Nothing

Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek

Date: June 19, 2026

Venue: PhilaMOCA

I discovered Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek last year, and was blown away by their blend of traditional Anatolian folk with modern psychedelic rock. This show lived up to my every expectation. The music was captivating, but hearing Yıldırım speak about her inspiration made it even more powerful, much of it rooted in the displacement of growing up in the Turkish diaspora in Germany. You could feel that pull to preserve tradition while living far from its source throughout the performance.

Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek

Book release for Cosmic Music: The Life, Art and Transcendence of Alice Coltrane by Andy Beta

Date: July 23, 2026

Venue: Solar Myth

There are a lot of events celebrating John Coltrane this year in Philly for "Coltrane 100," as it would have been his 100th birthday in September. However, this event was solidly focused on Alice, his wife. This was mostly a book release, so the first part was a talk with the author, Andy Beta. His book focuses on how Alice Coltrane was a brilliant musician in her own right, a huge driving factor in how John Coltrane got his work done, and the archivist of his work. She apparently was also a guru who opened an ashram in California after moving out of their Strawberry Mansion home. I'm fuzzy on the details since I didn't read the book yet, but really what a varied life! The book talk ended with a performance from Surya Botofasina, a spiritual student at her ashram, who frequently collaborates with Carlos Niño. You could feel his connection with the divine throughout the performance. Seriously, it was breathtaking; even if you don't believe in god, you would have felt it.

Allah-Las

Date: July 24, 2026

Venue: Underground Arts

Opener: Rahill

Allah-Las brought exactly the vibe you'd hope for from a surf-pop, psych-rock band: laid-back but with a polished sound that never lost its cool. Watching the members trade instruments throughout the set made their chemistry the real highlight of the show. It all seemed so effortless and was the perfect soundtrack for a summer night.

Allah-Las

Jill Scott

Date: July 29, 2026

Venue: The Met

Opener: Arnetta Johnson

This was, hands down, my favorite concert of 2026. Every detail felt intentional, from the opener down to the smaller details like the sets and projections used in the performance. Scott moved effortlessly between new songs off To Whom This May Concern, older fan favorites, and storytelling that pulled the whole room in. Her love for Philly radiated through the performance. Fittingly, the performance ended with her being honored with a key to the city.

Newport Jazz Festival 

Date: July 31-August 2, 2026

Artists seen: 

Friday: Angine De Poitrine, Mohini Dey, Yebba, Chief Adjuah, Robert Glasper with Bilal and Ari Lennox, Vulfpeck

Saturday: Butcher Brown, Maya Delilah, John Scofield and Dave Holland, Nate Smith, Snarky Puppy, Gotts Street Park, Gary Clark Jr., Jonathan Batiste Trios, Sonny Miles on a Trane feat. Kamasi Washington and Chief Adjuah

Sunday: Nduduzo Makhathini, Marquis Hill, SML, Flea and the Honora Band, Thundercat, Herbie Hancock

My partner and I left for Newport Jazz Fest on Thursday evening with one single-day pass between us—my pass for Friday—but somehow we managed to get there every day. On the way up, he got off the waitlist for Friday, then I found two reasonably priced resale tickets for Saturday. By the end of Saturday, we still didn't have Sunday tickets. A local radio station was running day trips there and had a booth at the festival. I asked if they had any extra tickets and if it would be possible for us to get two. And they had extras and gave them to us! That alone was such a cool part of the experience. It's a really amazing weekend full of music; it's great for both seeing acts that you love and discovering new artists. Nate Smith was the musical director this year, so a lot of amazing drummers were featured. I legitimately can't pick a highlight of the weekend.

Flea at Newport Jazz Fest

SML at Newport Jazz Fest

In My Place 256

September 13, 2026. 40.08118, -75.08598. See the updated map here. See all the blog posts here.

It's hilarious, because you can even tell from the google earth map that I used to accurately place the pin for today's picture, that there are supposed to be flat stepping stone pavers here. Indeed, there are, but whichever landscaping mope my parents hired this late in the season for an average of $25/week fee apparently didn't bother to use a weedwhacker. They could just ask me, and it would make sense to do so, since I owe them a lot, and I would drop a whole number of things in order to go over there and whack weeds for an average of $0/week fee. But asking people for favors is less convenient, emotionally speaking, then just paying someone to do something, even if the person you're paying is doing a shitty job. I know how they are thinking, because I think the same way, and if it came to the point that I was physically unable to do lawn work, I'd pay some neighborhood jabroni $25 to cut my lawn rather than ask a friend or family member to weedwhack for free. Emotions too complex to parse through right now, on this tossed-off blog post.

Album of the Week: New Miserable Experience

Welcome back to Record Club. This is the second week of a four(?)-week series in which we work with the RC Algorithm. Check it out if you're bored (and read last week's intro if you need more details). This is leading up to Record Club Week 400. Beyond the RC Algorithm, we're not doing anything special for it.

The special week will be dropping 20 weeks later, during Week 420, a.k.a. Donny Most Week, a.k.a. Ralph Malph the Virgin Week. Preliminary plans for that week are that it will be a charity week. If you write a review for Donny Most by Donny Most (and you will, it's mandatory), I'm going to ask you to donate $3 as well. If your review is more than 420 words, then I'll match your donation. I'll also ask you to pick out an RC album that you haven't reviewed yet, and it'll be the same deal, $3 plus a match if it's more than 420 words. I'll collect all the money, and donate to Mighty Writers, a really cool Philly charity that is educating the next generation of album reviewers and music critics.

If I see you in person at any time over the next 22 weeks, you will receive a slip of paper with all these details. But until then, we can enjoy a bunch of other albums. Like this one today. Let us know what you think.

Record Club:

archives | supplemental

spotify playlist | youtube playlist

choose | writing

WEEK 398 — September 13-19, 2026

New Miserable Experience

by Gin Blossoms

LISTEN:

Spotify | YouTube | Bandcamp | Apple

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PICKED BY SUNNY AND THE RC ALGORITHM

"SUNNY'S" PITCH: "Have you not enjoyed the experience of driving around this town? Would you not like to take a spin down Allison Road? I don't know about the second one because I don't think it's on this album. You found about me, as it were. Anyway, listen to it."

ALGORITHM EXPLANATION: According to the RC Algorithm, Gin Blossoms were mentioned in Nate's review for Goo Goo Dolls' A Boy Named Goo. If you scroll over to the second group of columns on the algorithm, you can see all the other bands that Nate name-dropped in that review: Afghan Whigs, Buckcherry, Cheap Trick, Crusades, Downtown Struts, the Replacements, Skrillex, Sponge. He also mentioned KISS, but I didn't put them on the algorithm because Gene Simmons is a sex abuser.

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ALBUM DETAILS

GENRE: Jangle pop, power pop, alternative rock, heartland rock

RELEASED: August 4, 1992

LENGTH: 46:02

TRACKLIST:

1. Lost Horizons
2. Hey Jealousy
3. Mrs. Rita
4. Until I Fall Away
5. Hold Me Down
6. Cajun Song
7. Hands Are Tied
8. Found Out About You
9. Allison Road
10. 29
11. Pieces of the Night
12. Cheatin'

LYRICS: Genius.com

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ARTIST DETAILS

NAME: no "the," just "Gin Blossoms"

PRONOUNS: the members of Gin Blossoms who have individual Wikipedia pages each prefer he/him/his

ABOUT: Gin Blossoms formed in Tempe, Arizona in 1987. For a few years, they were the best bar band in Tempe, but being voted "Best Band in Tempe" led them to SXSW, which led to a record deal, which led to hype, which led to success with the album that we are covering today. The core lineup leading up to that critical and commercial peak was Robin Wilson (vocals), Jesse Valenzuela (rhythm guitar), Bill Leen (bass), Phil Leavitt (drums), and Doug Hopkins (lead guitar). Hopkins was an alcoholic depressive, and the stress that put on the band led Gin Blossoms to replace him with Scotty Johnson, after Hopkins recorded most of his parts on the album but before the album was released. Hopkins also wrote the band's two biggest hits ("Hey Jealousy" and "Found Out About You"), which means he watched from the sidelines as his old band got famous on his songs (plus "Allison Road," true, which was written by Wilson). Tragically, Doug Hopkins took his own life in December 1993. Gin Blossoms released one more album, then broke up in 1997, then got back together in 2001, and have stayed together ever since, releasing a few more albums and hitting the '90s alt-rock legacy circuit. They are, as we speak, touring the country with Blues Traveler and Spin Doctors.

DISCOGRAPHY: Gin Blossoms have six albums, and this is the second one, but I'm told their first one (1989's Dusted) is not available on streaming. 1996's Congratulations I'm Sorry was commercially successful as well, I'd probably recognize the hit from that if I heard it. Their most recent is 2018's Mixed Reality.

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ADDITIONAL INFO

READING SOME SHIT: the story of Doug Hopkins, according to a 2018 blog post

WATCHING SOME SHIT: "Hey Jealousy" on Jon Stewart's show in 1993

RECORD CLUB CONNECTIONS: We already mentioned Goo Goo Dolls, and they are probably the closest peers that Gin Blossoms have in Record Club. You can add Fastball and Sugar Ray in there, if we're talking about '90s alt-rock-pop bands.

Kelly Clarkson covered "Found Out About You" on her talk show (R.I.P.). Gin Blossoms covered Radiohead's "Fake Plastic Trees" for SiriusXM. Gin Blossoms were part of a group singalong for "Handle with Care," originally by Traveling Wilburys, a band that featured Bob Dylan (not sure if Robin Wilson handled the Dylan part, but for the sake of this paragraph, let's assume that he did). There is documented proof that MJ Lenderman and Waxahatchee have covered "Allison Road" together in concert, but I can't find a video.

The Phoenix Suns employed Gin Blossoms (much to Nuggets fans' dismay) to play halftime twelve years after they employed Shaquille O'Neal. Tempe, Arizona hosted a baseball-theme music festival in early 2024, and besides hometown heroes Gin Blossoms, it featured Hozier, Bully, the Beaches, Dave Matthews Band, and Noah Kahan.

Here's a comment from the Stereogum comment section in 2010, underneath a post about Band of Horses' Infinite Arms (featuring a cameo from Foals):

MENTIONS ON THE BLOG: Beyond the aforementioned Goo Goo Dolls review by Nate, we have a Yearlong Song Challenge pick from Sara, when she chose "Hey Jealousy" for Day 166. And then there's my own list of the Top 100 Songs of All Time, with "Hey Jealousy" sitting pretty at #99. (This becomes the sixth song on that list that is also a Record Club song, after "Boys in the Better Land" by Fontaines D.C. at #51, "Drunk II" by Mannequin Pussy at #38, "A Certain Romance" by Arctic Monkeys at #19, "The Boys Are Back in Town" by Thin Lizzy at #9, and "Welcome to the Black Parade" by My Chemical Romance at #4.)

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RECORD CLUB ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

This week's discography dive album: The Satellite Years by Hopesfall

This week's follow-up album: Kammerkonzert by Squarepusher, The World Is to Dig by They Might Be Giants, and Superbloom by Jessie Ware at the very least

This week's keeping up album (probably): Nothing this week, things are slowing down in 2026 with RC alumni, hopefully giving me a chance to catch up

Listen with us! Keep your favorite Record Club artists in the rotation!

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COUNTDOWN:

69 Weeks Until Week 420

providing a new miserable experience for happy days fans

We are tracking and counting down every week from here on out till Record Club Week 420. We started this countdown 69 weeks out. During Record Club Week 420, we will be covering Donny Most by the esteemed Happy Days virgin Donny Most. The goal for Week 420 of Record Club is that it will feature 69 reviews from 69 different people. 

THIS WEEK: We are 22 weeks away from Week 420.

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Happy listening, RC family!
Have a great week!

In My Place 255

September 12, 2026. 39.97764, -75.1315. See the updated map here. See all the blog posts here.

The nights are memorable now because they happen so rarely at all. Going out with friends? I'll remember that. How many times am I hanging out with a group of friends this year, ya know?

But I'd kill to have a night that's memorable in the classic sense, a night that's memorable because something crazy happens. I don't care if "crazy" often meant "drama-filled." I'll take it. Give me the drama. Give me hysterics. Give me something to hold on to and laugh about years from now.

I wanna remember it all.

Record Club Alumni Association — Minutes from Meeting #14: Rusted Root, BTS, Harry Styles, Gorillaz

The Record Club Alumni Association meets every week to discuss the larger body of work that our RC alumni have put together, outside of the specific albums that were covered in the main section of our club. You can follow along with everything that the RCAA has covered so far HERE.

(Deeper Dive)

Rusted Root

When I Woke — RC Week 267 — 3 pukes out of 5

Remember

October 22, 1996

Oh wow, "Send Me on My Way" did a LOT of heavy lifting when it came to the lack of accusations of Rusted Root being a bro-y jam band. Without that immaculate pop song protecting it, this sounds like the obvious answer to where something like O.A.R. came from. These are the songs that make you know that the crowd in those Rusted Root audiences in the '90s were white and dreadlocked and smelled like they didn't bathe in a week. But they were well-intentioned too, just like I believe Rusted Root is well-intentioned when they dip into world music that sounds like Ali Farka Touré if he got lost in Vermont. As much as I like the Matilda song, I really appreciated the room that Rusted Root had room to breathe on Remember. There are no hits (obviously, as they are a one-hit wonder), and the songs hang around only a minute or two past their expiration, which is cool! Everyone is just happy to be here! I like how Rusted Root frontman Michael Glabicki tries to sound like Eddie Vedder on some of these songs. I like how Rusted Root isn't serious all the time, like when they are boogying down to "Virtual Reality." Finally, I like how there are very few DMB vibes this time around. They are just out here, doing their thing, way past their brief time in the spotlight. I dig it. I too haven't bathed in a week.

GRADE: 3.5 pukes out of 5

(Follow-up)

BTS

BE — RC Week 103 — 2.5 pukes out of 5

ARIRANG

March 20, 2026

I didn't know that this album was purposefully bifurcated into a hip hop side and a pop side until it was done. Listening to all the hip hop songs, I was ready to declare BTS as a pop group worth following, which, ya know, is pretty close to faint praise, but far and above anything I'd be comfortable declaring when we covered their last album, approximately one thousand years ago. The pop songs are fine, though, and exactly what I expected. I won't complain about being forced to listen to a BTS album that upended my expectations exactly half the time. It's a shame too, because the thematic hook is so much easier with the hip hop stuff (should I be putting "hip hop" in quotes? I think maybe). These jabronis took a six-year break in between albums because they had to join the military! And now here they are, rapping over stark military beats! Logistically, it makes sense! It even makes sense that they'd be aping Kendrick Lamar in the "Hooligan" video, because now they are grown up! Adults who have been hardened by the South Korean military industrial complex! But alas, all that pretty much goes away once they start doing their heartthrob act on the second half of ARIRANG. What can ya do. I'm satisfied, overall.

GRADE: 3 pukes out of 5

Harry Styles

Fine Line — RC Week 154 — 3.5 pukes out of 5

Harry's House — RC f/u #8 — 3 pukes out of 5

Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally

March 6, 2026

I feel like we see this all the time in RCAA with pop stars—there's a difference between being different in the context of making music, and being different in the context of making pop music. Basically every song on Harry Styles' new and garishly titled album sounds like another band that I'm already familiar with, but at the same time, every song sounds nothing like anything anyone of his genre and stature within that genre is doing right now. There are songs that remind me of Radiohead, LCD Soundsystem, Discovery, Foals, tUnE-yArDs, and on and on and on. If I was writing a proper review and this was some random British indie rock band from the mid-'10s, I'd scream the word "derivative" from the highest mountaintop I could find. But this isn't some random band, this is one of the biggest pop stars of our age. The fact that this fucking guy is putting out a pop song like "Season 2 Weight Loss" is fucking fascinating. Now, I'm not saying that I like all of it, or even most of it. I don't need someone like Harry Styles occasionally making music that sounds like Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost — Part 3, but I do think it's pretty cool that we have it. It tickles me to think of all the moms who cracked this thing open expecting another "Watermelon Sugar" and instead finding a legitimate road of discovery toward Kid A and This Is Happening. The only time I get bored is when Harry Styles sounds like... Harry Styles. He is a certified pop star, after all, so this happens a disappointing number of times (e.g. "Coming Up Roses"). I'd still say that, overall, this is at least worth a sniff, especially if you're bored with the state of pop like I am, and are desperate for something that at least tries to shake it up a little bit, occasionally.

GRADE: 3.5 pukes out of 5

Gorillaz

Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez — RC Week 97 — 3.5 pukes out of 5

Cracker Island — RC f/u #15 — 2 pukes out of 5

Demon Days — RCAA #1 — 3 pukes out of 5

The Mountain

February 27, 2026

Damn, now this is a hook that I can get behind. I've never been a huge fanatic of Gorillaz, but I've always had a lot of respect for them, and how versatile they are. You never know what genre any particular song is gonna end up being. There are a lot of Indian Hindustani sounds on The Mountain, as a great example in the present day. ("The Manifesto" is a Spanish rapper spitting bars over an Indian beat, and yeah, it still sounds like Gorillaz.) They can do anything. With that comes the risk of any one album becoming "a great collection of varied songs." (I think the issue I ultimately had with Demon Days, when I finally listened to it a few months ago, was that there wasn't enough variation.) What Gorillaz needed for this new one was a strong hook, and they found it. This is Gorillaz's death album. Not only are many of the songs about death, reincarnation, the afterlife, that sort of thing, but also, many of Gorillaz's past collaborators are brought back into the fold... even though they themselves have passed away. At least six artists who previously featured on a Gorillaz track and have since died are featured on this album (yes, including our boy Dennis Hopper, whose inclusion in Demon Days was fascinating already). They found old recordings from sessions with these artists, and added them into The Mountain. After only a couple listens, I'm ready to declare this a late-career triumph for this band ("band"? I still don't really know), and also ready to commit to a more listens, to see how deep it goes.

GRADE: 4 pukes out of 5

(Random RC News)

• Animal Collective is gonna play some live shows together soon, the first time in a while.
• You hear of this Stella Lefty person? She is not an RC alumna, but she has been credibly accused of ripping off at least four songs at this point, including an RC song from Noah Kahan and a non-RC song from the Chicks.
• Mackelmore is not an RC alumnus either, but he's open for RC artist Ed Sheeran on a big tour these days. Now certain groups are asking that Ed Sheeran kick Mackelmore off the tour for using the stage to offer this opinion: "To all of my Jewish brothers and sisters: Criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid, being against genocide in no way is a criticism of you. My message is for peace. Love. For all human beings to be treated with dignity, respect, and equality. So I say free Palestine." Seems pretty reasonable to me! Not sure why people would think that's not reasonable, but ya never know!
• The electronic music artist who is depicted as a witch on the cover of Black Sabbath is revealed to be an AI freak. Yikes!

In My Place 254

September 11, 2026. 39.90086, -75.1718. See the updated map here. See all the blog posts here.

Concert review outtake:

At one point during the concert, maybe about the midway point, a bright spotlight shone directly upward from the middle of the crowd onto the ceiling. Then the monologue that John Cale gives on the first track of the Wuthering Heights soundtrack started playing. As he spoke about dying, the spotlight slowly started to shift downward toward the stage, very very slowly, until it finally reached Charli at the moment she was singing about how she was gonna die in this house. But the movement and placement of the spotlight meant that, before it hit Charli, it was hitting the retired jersey of Sixers legend Maurice Cheeks. It was a pretty crazy concert and for the briefest moment I really did think that Maurice Cheeks was gonna show up and sing "Boom Clap" for us. 

Discussion — Week 397: A Grand Don't Come for Free by the Streets

Oh yeah, here's something that I've been contemplating. You know how in Film Club, for the small group activities, it's mandatory to give a grade? How would we feel about doing that for Record Club? I think it would be cool to have the "group average grade" each week for the albums. Then again, I wouldn't want to step on anyone's toes in terms of what they want to write or not write in their album reviews. 

I feel like it's nice to be able to lean on the grade a little bit sometimes. Like if I don't feel like making too many critiques and instead want to go a little weird with the creative writing stuff, then there's less pressure to make my opinion clear, as the grade at the bottom does a lot of the work anyway. But that's just me.

So hop in the comments (if they're working?!) and let me know what you think about this. Also, let's hear some final takes about the Streets. How were the reviews? Anything manage to change your mind on this album?

Pam and I are seeing Charli XCX tonight! I should hopefully have a review at some point if there's much to say. If not, I'll just give a thumbs up or thumbs down in the comments.

Happy Friday, let's fucking go, weekend!!!!!!

A Grand Don't Come for Free, Sunny

Nate's pitch ringing in my head all week. What an odd album. So many times I found myself thinking this is dumb, what is this, what the fuck am I listening to? But after a week, something tipped, and the strange mix of beats, the odd flow, the british accent, the references to DVDs and other '00s artifacts all felt alright. I read on Wikipedia that Streets wrote these songs after reading McKee and other scriptwriting books, which is just, huh. Anyway, guess it wormed its way into my brain and heart, it was so easy.

A Grand Don't Come for Free, Nate

20+ years later, A Grand Don't Come for Free should be mentioned in the same breath as High Fidelity (novel), Killing Yourself to Live, High Fidelity (movie), Scott Pilgrim, and, of course, High Fidelity (show). It gets its finger and presses hard on the experience of being a young adult, when hormones are still firing their last dying lights and one is mature enough to recognize that they're fucking up without having the clarity or tools to stop oneself from fucking up. The production has largely aged well, though the clanky synth keys on tracks like "Not Addicted" and "Get Out of My House" are better left in the first Bush II administration. "Fit but You Know It" remains black licorice; delicious if you can push past how arresting the whole thing is. Reliving the thing, it makes sense that Mike Skinner was getting mentioned in the same breath as his era's great indie-rock writers; he gives an incredibly simple and mundane story as much life and specificity as anything that might happen in your own real, incredibly simple and mundane life. He makes it feel like it's happening to you, because some version of it has. Here's hoping you found your own version of "Empty Cans."

Worth mentioning: the Britishness of the whole thing might be insurmountable for certain American ears. It's barmy, but I get it.

A Grand Don't Come for Free, Joe

There is a way to view the world, and that is through the outer eye, like your literal eyeballs, assuming they work. There is a way to view the world and what it means, and that requires the inner eye, like your brain, and the type of brain that has the capacity to understand meaning, interpret the world, link it to emotions, understand the larger picture and how it's all connected. Another way to talk about this juxtaposition is to say that there is a way to see the story and there is a way to ignore the story. Life is better when you understand how to see the story. At the very least, you'd have the ability to fully appreciate a goofy-ass grimy-ass lo-fi UK hip hop album.

Because there is meaning behind the banal and monotonous and normal, but only the storytellers can see it. This morning, before the sun rose, I dropped off the old man at the local blood-cleaning center, and it all went very smoothly and normally. He opened the car door, picked up his duffle bag, entered the front doors, and I watched him as he entered a large, brightly lit room full of fancy medical equipment and disappear around the corner. Boring shit. Millions of people perform this very normal task every day, to no fanfare. They enter medical buildings, they receive treatment, they leave. But I saw the meaning behind it. It's all very new to me, and so as the story behind it hit me, I sorta choked up a little. The act of walking into this building was brave. It involves pain, but it is necessary. It involves new pain, and so the protagonist in this story is adjusting to this new way of life, with the extra pain. And he's putting up with it so that he can live, which is itself a brave act when you think about it. It's easy to give up, it's harder to fight. And because I've known the protagonist my whole life, I know what it means for him to fight to live. He's dedicated his life to those around him, and so he's not really doing it for himself, he's doing it for others. He's surviving because these people need him. The act of walking into that building with his head held high thus elicits something akin to pride in those close to him that are witnessing the act. The literal vision that is seen through the eye is just some fucking guy strolling into some nondescript room. The story that is seen through the inner eye is one of courage, pride, hope. It is one of the human condition at its most vulnerable and raw, but also at its finest.

The story of A Grand Don't Come for Free is just that—a story. But if you can't see it, then all you're gonna hear is some chintzy hip hop beats and a strong Mockney accent and the constant repetition of banal facts about the humdrum life of a fictional loser. And I'm not saying I feel the same way about the fictional Mike Skinner's story as I do about that nonfictional father's story, but I'm saying that there's a way to view this album as genuinely effecting, despite the fact that it's weird and dopey and lacks melodic hooks. What you hear is a guy complaining about losing money and cheating on his girlfriend. If you see the story, then you know that it's actually a story about optimism and strength and self-preservation.

It takes time, of course, to train yourself to see that kind of shit. So I don't really blame you if you're listening to the Streets a few times and dismissing the thing as "not for me." Maybe you're just listening to an album of music because you want the hooks. You're probably hearing "Fit but You Know It" and thinking that this is the one song that actually has something to hold onto, the one fucking tune that manages to do what popular band Arctic Monkeys manages to do consistently back in the day. Yes, it's all true. When approached as a collection of songs, A Grand Don't Come for Free is occasionally lacking. Perhaps with a higher production value and some qualities musicians surrounding them (or linking up with literally any post-punk band of the 2020s, e.g. Fontaines D.C. or Viagra Boys or whoever) would've resulted in something that anyone could pick up and appreciate. Instead, we get this.

Even then, there's an argument that some of these little weirdo musical touches might reveal themselves as catchy or satisfying, especially if you listen to the album long enough on infinite repeat. The horns that begin the album on "It Was Supposed to Be So Easy," the woozy female-sung hook on "Blinded by the Lights," the awkwardly charmingly violent waltz of "Get Out of My House," those little stabs of strings threaded through "Could Well Be In," the tiny little changes that flip the script entirely halfway through "Empty Cans." The style of rapping might be the thing that actually turns people off, and I could see that too. Perhaps affix the ironic quotation marks around it too, if you must: "rapping." The way that Skinner is more talking than rapping, I mean, I guess this is what happens when a rapper has command of rhyme but not rhythm. If this is a personal preference thing, then consider the Streets style as preferable to me (you ever listen to Bruiser Wolf?). I can see why it wouldn't be, though. That's what I'm saying here.

I like being able to see beyond all that, though. It's a gift, and I'm thankful for it every day. Being able to see the story ultimately gives life meaning. If I'm just dropping someone off at the medical center and immediately turning my attention to whether I'm gonna make the next train in time, then that means I'm just drifting through life in black and white and drab grays. If I'm just listening to a hip hop concept album and taking issue with how amateurish the rapping sounds or how there's no focus on hooks, then that means I'm missing the point. The point here, in all of it, in everything in life and yes that include this stupid fucking album, is that there's a fucking story, and it adds to your life and your emotional well-being if you're able to recognize it, to see and hear the story, to give it meaning, to give your own life depth. You hear a song that meticulously catalogues every tiny shift in feeling while you're standing there annoyed at a loud club, and you gotta be able to understand why this is happening, why this artist is presenting it in this way, and what the story is behind the surface-level details.

It means that there's a sadness within the protagonist, and he's thrashing around while drowning as he tries to find the solution, tries to find meaning in the drab, monotonous life that he lives. And it means that the sudden realization of connection to other people in small doses, and the empathy that comes with the knowing that everyone else is going through the same shit that you are, is the thing that gives life purpose, the thing from which happiness and optimism sprouts. This is the story of A Grand Don't Come for Free, and it meant something to me. But then again, so could anything.

GRADE: 4 pukes out of 5

In My Place 253

September 10, 2026. 40.00649, -75.16092. See the updated map here. See all the blog posts here.

One idea I had—or have, I guess, though I think by the end of this paragraph, I'll have convinced you that it's a bad idea that should be put to bed—was that my kids and I should make a list of every public playground in the city, and play on all of them. I think that would be fun, a good excuse to explore, a good way to get to know our city better, a cool way to get the kids to appreciate public works, etc. etc. But I'm also acknowledging that not many people's brains work this way. Ya know, the finding comfort in the idea of making a list and completing the list and documenting the experiences along the way. And to be clear, I'm talking about completing the full task. I know there are people who love the idea of the "big task," and love making plans about them, but then are also just as comfortable letting such projects wither and die before completion. I don't know if any of my kids are like me. I remember last summer they were bored so I tried to get them to draw one picture a day for a whole month, with plans to provide a different prompt for drawing each day and to put all the pictures together into a book or something. But they bailed on that after like two days. I think that they would probably love the third playground we hit up and would probably hate the thirty-third playground we hit up. So throw it in the bin of bad ideas, and chalk it up to me still learning about myself and all the ways I feel like a fucking freak.

Never Seen It #334: After Hours

My husband was a blog freak. Actually, he was particularly obsessed with 500 movies that he'd never seen before. He talked about them constantly. I thought it was cute at first. On our wedding night, I was a virgin. 

After Hours

1985

Martin Scorsese

Thanks to everyone who watched our latest film and wrote about it! Write-ups for After Hours below.

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Allison

Ah, New York in the '80s. How awful. After Hours is a bleak, dark comedy, likely disavowed by the SoHo Tourism Board. Paul Hackett is all of us. A listless young professional stuck in the dregs of corporate America. Looking for a little action, a little adventure, he leaves the comfort, safety, and boredom of his uptown apartment to meet up with Marcy, the original manic pixie dream girl. Or is she just manic?

While I had some laughs, I didn't really enjoy this. What is Marty trying to do here? What is Marty trying to say about the New York art scene? What is Marty trying to say about women? Nothing positive.

My biggest takeaway and the most distracting issue with After Hours: that's not how fucking paper mache works. Anyone who has ever dabbled in DIY or made a model volcano for the science fair knows it takes at least 24 hours to dry, and that's if you have the proper airflow. In an artist loft, maybe. In a dank punk club basement? Absolutely not, no way. He would start to mold before he ever dried. It completely took me out of the movie.

Also, did you know that Cheech and Chong were in the Scorseseverse? I found them distracting.

That said, I liked the ending. Breaking out of his (inconceivable) plaster disguise/prison, Paul ends up right where he started—back at the office. The message is finally clear: there's no escape. Back to work, yuppie. Time to make the plaster-of-Paris donuts...

2.5 stars

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Catherine

I’ve been waiting all summer for tickets to see The Odyssey in 70mm IMAX, even though I'm not a fan of the story and I have no idea what 70mm means (I'm just insufferable like that), but it's been sold out in NYC for months.

After Hours is my Odyssey.

Paul is Odysseus, and I'd watch him for countless hours traversing the bowels of SoHo, his siren song the tinny wail of Catherine O'Hara's ice cream truck. Stuck between a rock and a plaster place, Paul slips into hijinks spanning from light-hearted to deeply traumatizing (Marcy aside, remember that throwaway MURDER??), all because he took a chance on companionship for the evening.

"I just want to live."

Lots of us have had some nights out that sound barely believable the next day, but something that tickled me a little bit extra is Paul is sober the whole time. He's got nothing to blame but his own rotten luck and the consequences of his perfectly functioning executive reasoning for the worst night of his life.

I love how Griffin Dunne played Paul. I've been mulling it over for about 24 hours now, but I still can't decide if Paul is "good" or "bad," and I like that a lot. He makes some mistakes here and there, he slips up, he can be selfish, but even when he snaps at someone, he usually apologizes and tries to be as polite as he can muster while clinging to the end of his rope. There was something so laugh-out-loud funny about that to me. All he wants to do is go home and go to bed before he dies of exhaustion, but he's somehow reluctantly petting Terri Garr's beehive at 3AM at her request so he doesn't seem rude.

"I just want to live."

I also like that this movie is a stuffy '80s New Yorker's fever dream of what goes on below 14th Street at all hours of the night. And, as a modern day New Yorker (at least that's what my electric bill says), seeing gritty, no-good SoHo, the place where I see billionaires' jobless children line up outside of the Supreme store and I feel out of place if I'm not wearing a designer dress less than $1,000, it was fun to see how it's evolved.

I have too much to say about this movie, but I really enjoyed it. I keep seeing Kafka-esque thrown around, but sadly I'm not well-read enough so I'll call it Safdie-esque with a lighter, more slapstick feel, and I had a hell of a time.

I happened to see a friend's Letterboxd review of this movie that I appreciated:

"The mom AND the dad from Home Alone???!!!?"

Amen.

4/5 Plaster of Paris bagel and cream cheese paper weights

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Joe

I don't know about this one. I liked it but I have my doubts that it's important. It was funny but there didn't seem to be all that much behind the irreverent humor. It kept my attention but I don't think I'll be remembering it for too much longer. Here's where I knew I was "out" instead of "in": when Paul Hackett (played wonderfully by Griffin Dunne) witnesses a random murder through a bedroom window and mumbles to himself "I'll probably get blamed for that." It made too plain what the movie was trying to do, and betrayed the fact that it was all just a little too loose and shaggy for me to be satisfied.

I just don't think that After Hours had anything interesting to say. The story itself was interesting, and fun. I saw it described as a "labyrinth," and that feels accurate. Paul keeps trying to escape the night, but then keeps returning to the same locations and meeting the same people and rightfully becomes disoriented at how all the little details start adding up. That was fun as fuck, and I sincerely appreciated the various loops that the film was building (e.g. I was dying laughing when Cheech and Chong showed up yet again to steal the same statue for like the third time, but this time with Paul encased inside of it). But what does it all mean? Anything besides "this is a fun way to spend 90-ish minutes"?

Maybe that's the wrong way of looking at it. I acknowledge that I tend to switch back and forth between different outlooks on movies in general—sometimes it's enough for me that the story is fun and that's where the importance lies, and sometimes it's not enough and I need more, something profound. I'm at the latter for After Hours. Do I have higher expectations because Scorsese is the director on this one? When I was a young shit-stirrer, I feel like Scorsese earned a lot of my adolescent ire, but I've matured enough and I've come around. The man is one of our greatest American filmmakers, yes. So is this why I'm feeling the desire for more? Because I know that he's capable of more than this?

I empathize with the desire for After Hours to mean more. I read that there are themes of "emasculating" and "castration" throughout, and I guess I did notice that (the doodle of a shark biting off a dick was pretty memorable). This is where I struggle with interpreting movies, I think. I have no issue with accepting the fact that such a theme was purposeful and clear. Where I take issue is that this is supposed to mean something. What is the point of sprinkling in various references to emasculation? What does it lead to? Am I missing something? Am I being obtuse? Am I supposed to empathize with the character because I know what feeling emasculated feels like, or am I supposed to feel distant from the character because the film makes it known that he should feel emasculated? I get the sense that the emasculation theme was just something sprinkled in to create another throughline with the various scenarios and characters and locations.

And that's all well and good. I even like it, the fact that there are depths here to explore, but I remain slightly unsatisfied. I could attempt to talk about the theme that seems sort of there and sort of not, but the one that would mean something to me if it had landed properly—Paul is an office drone, and he is being punished for it. There was one part where he yells out, almost like a non-sequitur, "it was just a word processor!" That, plus the film being bookended by drab office life, makes me think that After Hours is trying to say that... oh jeez, what? I should know this, as an office loser myself. It's either "this is boring and you should be punished for it" or "it's boring but you should appreciate it because look what happens when you try to mix it up."

Either way, there wasn't enough in After Hours to make any of that clear, and I think it would be disingenuous of me to try to shoehorn it in too much. I'd feel like the poor Wikipedia editor who had to come up with a whole damn paragraph about how a theme is emasculation. It's all just a lot of hot air.

But damn, sometimes that hot air felt like it was lifting a whole damn hot air balloon. The escalation of these conflicts in this film, though many of them contrived, were pretty fun to witness. I thought that the Catherine O'Hara character was a step too far (though it was fun to realize that Home Alone was an After Hours mini-reunion of her and John Heard), but I did like how her ice cream truck added to the tension of angry mob chasing Paul.

All the little callbacks were amazing too. My favorite was Paul lying about ordering a hamburger as he runs away from the diner, and then he coincidentally ends up back at the same diner and is served his burger. It would've been cool if they managed to fit everything into it. Like that Wizard of Oz monologue about the husband yelling "Surrender Dorothy!" every time he came. Did that ever come back? I laughed, but I don't recall a callback, unless I missed it. And the aforementioned murder-through-the-window thing didn't come back at all, which means it existed solely for the fourth-wall-breaking quip, which saps it of its power.

I'm open to the idea that I'm missing something here, but until then, the impression I got was: fun, and literally nothing else.

GRADE: 3 pukes out of 5

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GROUP AVERAGE GRADE: 3.167 pukes out of 5

Scream like a papier-mâché sculpture in the comments with us!

(NEXT TIME: Allison and Brittany both chose Amélie for their Already Seen It film, so let's see what that's about.)

In My Place 252

September 9, 2026. 40.08368, -75.14166. See the updated map here. See all the blog posts here.

I am inviting you to look into someone's home. No! It's not creepy! Well, it is, but not creepier than what you can already do on Google Maps. You can look into anyone's home already, you don't need a blog project for that. Here is a stranger's home. Look inside. I was driving past the house and so I looked inside too. And I saw something, but I couldn't tell what it was. A box in the corner of the room. Glowing orange, I think. I'm not sure. I thought it might be a pinball machine at first. What do you think it is? I'm giving you the picture. I'm telling you to zoom in. Look inside this home, and tell me what you see. It's not creepy, I swear.

A Year of Blind Spots: Combat Rock

Joe is working through a list of albums that he considers "blind spots," i.e. albums that he's never heard but feels like he should.

This is a true sequel Year of Blind Spots entry, as Combat Rock was released just about a year and a  half after the epic, insane Sandinista!, and it works as a logical follow-up to that triple album as well. There's really only one way you can go after releasing an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink opus like that: you get smaller. Combat Rock would seem compact in anyone's discography, let alone next to an album that is 98 minutes longer.

I haven't found the motivation to go beyond the big three (Sandinista! itself was a stretch after the two stone-cold classics I've been deeply familiar with since my youth, London Calling and the UK version of The Clash) until now for a couple reasons. First was that I made the disastrous decision to buy a CD compilation of "the singles" in the same time frame I owned those two classic albums, and it really distorted the story of the Clash for me. More on this comp in a minute, after the second reason. The second was that, quite simply, it was made clear to me by the gatekeepers that I admired that the other albums just simply weren't as good.

After spending some time with this supposedly not-as-good Clash album (their fifth—I'm still not familiar with sophomore album Give 'Em Enough Rope, maybe next year?), I can say that it's better than I expected, but it has a few flaws. The first is obvious, because I've harped on this point in pretty much every other Blind Spots entry over the past seven years of doing this shit. There are songs on here that are very popular, even ubiquitous, and their presence is distracting.

In the case of Combat Rock, we're talking about "Should I Stay or Should I Go" and "Rock the Casbah," situated back-to-back on the tracklist, a one-two punch of songs that are, for better or worse, so familiar to anyone who gives even a single shit about rock music that they might as well be "Johnny B. Goode." They are fundamental, and this is to their detriment. How I feel about both of these songs is the closest I ever get to dismissing the Clash as a stodgy classic rock band in the same genre as, like, fucking Boston or Steve Miller Band or something. They are overplayed and overrated, and I did not realize they existed on the same album in the same space on that album. I can't get past it.

The second thing I'll say about it that isn't favorable is that Combat Rock stays in some of the weird lanes that were permanently paved in Sandinista!, but it doesn't land as well because of the lack of heft or daring-do. Two and a half hours of the craziest shit you can imagine does wonders for some of the bizarre deep cuts. But if you have twelve songs and two of them are pasted on the back cover of "Punk Rock for Beginners," and the other ten shoot for the same range as Sandinista! but in 20% of the time, then it just feels watered down. Something like "Red Angel Dragnet" is weird on purpose; something like "Death Is a Star" is barely there. I like "Overpowered by Funk" for finding hidden back alleys in this band's sound. "Know Your Rights" would sound like parody if that aforementioned singles compilation hadn't already burned it into my brain.

It's weird that the criticism lobbied toward this album seems to be that it was, like, a commercial sellout. Beyond those two tracks, there's nothing really accessible here. I guess the gap between all the dub shit on Sandinista! and the straightforwardness of "Rock the Casbah" was enough to convince people that the Clash went in a different direction. I actually wish they had gone in the opposite direction as they do here. I would've respected a dozen dank-ass dub songs on an album. I might not have liked it, but it would have been a stronger artistic choice. Combat Rock just seems half-assed. 

I still like it, though. I fall victim to the same comparison game as anyone else. Tough to recover from casually knocking out a few masterpieces. There's nowhere to go from there, except make something that's a bit lacking. It's a good album, but I've seen this band do better.

In My Place 251

September 8, 2026. 40.07663, -75.08104. See the updated map here. See all the blog posts here.

i dream of buildings like this

so intimately did i know the walls

and hallways, and stair corners

even into adulthood

i know they are still there

i still see it, even smell it

and i wonder

if it's the same for all kids

will this be the building

of my own kids' dreams

or is my brain keeping something

for some important thing later

Never Seen It #333: Bicentennial Man

"Why do you want this? To watch 500 movies you've never seen before?" "To be acknowledged for who and what I am, no more, no less. Not for acclaim, not for approval, but, the simple truth of that recognition. This has been the elemental drive of my blog, and it must be achieved, if I am to live or die with dignity."

Bicentennial Man

1999

Chris Columbus

Thanks to Sean E. for picking his Already Seen It film for this quarter, and sending a prompt on how I should respond to it. Now powering up Sean-Bot 2000:

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I just rewatched the movie. I first saw it during an E**** Family Friday movie night. We rented the movie from Toms River Video, not that corporate giant Blockbuster!

A few thoughts for you to respond to (in no particular order):

• In futuristic movies, it is always hysterical to see what new technology exists and what old technology persists. Credit cards are now credit discs, but there are still paper checks! They have walking, talking androids, but people still drive their own cars! 
• Many companies, especially in China, are now producing humanoid robots. The big AI companies keep saying we are close to generalized artificial intelligence (what I assume Andrew has). Do you think we are close to the world in the film, or do you think all these "new" technologies are more hype than science fiction come to life? 
• What does it mean to think and how is this different from what generative AI does (i.e. predict)? 
• Why don't you think this movie did better when it came out?
• Did you know that this movie is based on a novelette by Issac Asimov (book club alum)? He also wrote I, Robot. Interestingly, Bicentennial Man and I, Robot exist in the same universe... Thoughts on a remake of both movies?

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I think what I worry about—this is Joe, doing the human thinking and human typing—is that someone could watch this movie in 2026 and wish that something like ChatGPT or Claude could be like Andrew in Bicentennial Man. Or that someone might misinterpret what generative AI does, thinking that the predictive text in the "chat" is actual intelligence. "It's possible! Look at Andrew Martin!" I don't think I'm making things up here, I'm being serious. There are people like this. They walk among us.

But that's creating a villain out of nothing. Actually, hold up, was there a villain in this movie? I like that there wasn't. There were roadblocks that our protagonist had to overcome, but there wasn't any one person who was facing off with Andrew. Bureaucracy is the closest we get to a villain, I guess? But even then, it was right for the government to question whether Andrew was human. They didn't have the benefit of seeing his growth throughout the centuries. The world leaders were basically asking another version of the question Sean asks above: what does it mean to think? That's a different question then "what makes us human?" I believe that something like a pigeon has the ability to think, but not make decisions based on higher levels of functioning, i.e. morality... I guess? I'm just thinking out loud here. That pigeon argument could be applied to someone like, uh, our current president. I believe that he has the ability to think, but I don't believe trump to be human.

There's a version of this story, of course, that has the android Andrew Martin learn to think and feel and it amounts to him being an evil fascist or something. That's a vastly different movie, and I'm glad we got this one. A robot who knows how to think and gradually becomes more human is a more unique story. It's so easy for me to hate on AI, and I believe in the depths of my soul that it is evil and that it is a pox on society. It's harder for me to imagine the fictional scenario in which artificial intelligence discovers his own soul and becomes one of us. But this is a nice family-friendly Chris Columbus movie, which makes it easy, and pleasant, and fun.

Is the opposite version of this story what I, Robot is about? I saw that Will Smith movie years ago, can't really remember much. I know that I recognized the three laws of robotics when Andrew spouting them off here, and that's probably from I, Robot. I remember that Smith's character hated robots because they followed those rules and it resulted in his kid drowning or something. I remember Shia LaBeouf beating the shit out of a horde of robots with a baseball bat, and it's this final memory that makes me think that I, Robot probably had robots turning evil. They learned to think and feel and that's why they were subjugating humanity, right? That feels like an easier story. A more satisfying one, sure—this is probably the only time in my life I wish I was Shia LeBeouf, so much would I love to bash a robot with a baseball bat—but a less challenging one. I like movies that challenge my beliefs. Feels like a more worthy endeavor.

I don't think you'd be able to remake either movie without addressing the AI thing. I'd like to think that my own view on the subject is pretty representative of the "common man's view." I will unfortunately also report that I believe that I am a fucking moron, willfully undereducated on AI and what the fuck it even is, an extreme reactionary on the subject (for good reasons and bad). Would I trust a Chris Columbus type to make a Bicentennial Man that appropriately and intelligently addresses this very real concern, without being smirking or winking about it? No, I do not. 

We can just be happy with what we have here. A nice, pleasant, optimistic look at the future from the perspective of the late-20th century. It's an engaging film. It moves with finesse through the different eras of Andrew's life. I never thought anything felt forced, not even Andrew falling in love with his old master's granddaughter. I also thought that it was cool to see Robin Williams in non-manic mode. He's not as annoying as, like, Jim Carrey when he's going off-the-wall chattering. I'd choose Genie over Ace any day of the week. But I liked another view of his range. If the whole point is that this robot has depth, then you need an actor who can portray that, and I thought Williams did a great job. 

As to why it didn't do well, commercially or critically, at the time of its release... this isn't really a new theory for me, but I think that the '90s were too hip and cynical, Gen X too invested in irony, that they weren't really interested in a heart-on-sleeve story about a corny-ass robot. It's "lame" to ask big questions, to follow a protagonist who is kind, to allow a story to reach its natural Hallmark greeting card conclusion. I would like to think that there is less time for putting up walls like that, here in in 2026, and that we as a society (or at least me as a person) are more willing to engage in stories that just make us feel good. I can never love this movie, because it is lame, but I like it a lot, again, because it is lame. I'm comfortable feeling good about myself and about my world. It's not high art, but I don't need high art every single outing. Feeling good can feel good too.

Then again, it's harder to feel good as "artificial intelligence" becomes a ubiquitous part of our culture. It will never reach the level that Andrew reached here, but the fact that there are people even trying, and the fact that society seems to be obsessed with that particular fool's errand, to all of our detriment, means that Bicentennial Man managed to catch us at the very last moment that we could ever feel good about any of this shit. I appreciate the film for its timing more than anything.

GRADE: 3.5 pukes out of 5

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NEXT TIME: Group outing with After Hours, make sure you get in those surveys if you want to join us in October!