The Weekly Whatevers
New music, new books, new movies!
Hello ZERO CRED readers.
Welcome to the weekly whatever column where we catch up on new music, movies, books, etc. Today we’ve got a bit of all three.
I took last Sunday off because it was the 4th of July and it is absolutely illegal to make me type words on the national fireworks holiday. I need these fingers for possibly exploding off my body. So to make up for it, I am removing today’s paywall and also running a $2.50 sale. (To be clear, the number is not a celebration of America’s 250 years but an approximation of how many days it has left.)
If you like what you see, consider upgrading today to receive it every week. It reeeeeally helps out.
And while I’m feeling generous I’m gonna lift the paywall on this story from June about taking a photo of a child for my People Standing in Front of Danzig’s House project because it was cute and people seemed to like it. Why not!
BOOKS
I kept busy over the holiday weekend by penning an essay about Danny McBride’s debut book of short stories Thrilling Tales of Modern Men over at Luke O’Neil’s Hell World. The essay is about the book but it’s also about the cinematic universe of awful men that McBride, Tim Robinson, and Conner O’Malley have gotten so good at satirizing in this current golden age of dumb guys. Here’s a little snippet:
None of these men ever face their trauma directly. None of them ever take accountability or admit wrongdoing. And they certainly never apologize for anything. They feel misunderstood, but were never given, nor worked toward, the communication tools to properly express themselves. Thrilling Tales of Modern Men is the “men would rather _____ than go to therapy” meme playing out over 354 pages.
Read the entire thing at Hell World.
McBride’s book was a good time and, as I mentioned in the essay, it’s impossible to read it without hearing McBride’s voice. (Try imagining any other voice when reading the line “I have to do diarrhea.”) I’m not much of an audiobook guy but I just looked it up and these stories are read by McBride, Billy Crudup, Adam Devine, Walton Goggins, John Goodman, Edi Patterson, Sam Rockwell, Sturgill Simpson, and more. Might have to give that a listen. I did go back and rewatch some Eastbound and Down and Righteous Gemstones for very necessary “research” and my god McBride has created some of TV’s most tragically funny characters.
Speaking of new books, I got to interview author Scott McClanahan about his new book, Fights! Probably my most anticipated book of the year which lived up to my expectations and then some. Here’s Scott on the state of book publishing:
On one level, it’s bleak. I hear awful stories from folks. But on the flip side, it feels like if you ain’t got nothing, you got nothing to lose. So maybe there’s something that’s a little bit more healthy. The dream of 2011 was: I’m going to get a book deal and all you losers can go fuck yourself. And so we stopped believing in one another. We need to believe in one another again. We need more presses to put out one or two books a year. We need more people doing it for just the sheer romanticism of it, because there’s some kind of glory in there.
We actually talked for so long that I made an entire second post just about the music books he loves. Lots of good recs in there. (And if you’re wondering, I’ve got my own incomplete list of good music books right here.)
MUSIC
A few new music recs, but first, I need to ask a very pressing question: Why do hardcore shows just look like pro wrestling now?
I keep seeing videos in my feed from hardcore festivals like Outbreak in the UK and Hellfest in New Jersey and I’ve been sort of fascinated by this new trend of arena-style, multi-tier stages they have at these things nowadays. The merging of hardcore/professional wrestling/acrobatics/streetwear is reaching its logical endpoint. When I look at the above photo all I can imagine is a ladder with a championship belt hanging from the ceiling.
David and I got into this a little bit on this week’s episode of NO DISRESPECT:
Piebald - Tales for the Rages
NO ONE TOLD ME THERE IS A NEW PIEBALD ALBUM OUT IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 2026? I am an entire month late to this?? Their first album in 15 years and I missed it??? Shameful.
Bad Nerves - “NETWORK”
Is there a better feeling than when a band you love is on a hot streak and stays steadily prolific? Just pumping out banger after banger. Like, yes, feed my addiction to bratty garage punk hooks thank you Bad Nerves.
Twisted Teens - Florida Water Blues
Not sure why this year has seen a trend of bands releasing two albums in the same year. First Converge, then Twisted Teens, and… uhhh I’m sure there is a third one I can’t think of. Anyway, the country-punk band just dropped Florida Water Blues. You have one week to check it out before they release another album.
Whitmer Thomas - “Candy Corn”
Whitmer Thomas has a new song called “Candy Corn” and it’s Joe Pera approved. “Pretty fun.” Here’s an interview I did with Whitmer last year where we talked about riding the line between comedy and music and also stabbing yourself in the face with a fork.
Sad13 - “Six Ways”
If you only have 90 seconds to spare but want to see a video that’s sort of funny, sort of terrifying, then feast your eyes on Sad13’s “Six Ways.”
MOVIES
Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass
It seems like David Wain is in a tough position. On one hand, he is a cult comedy legend. He created what is arguably the biggest cult comedy ever made with Wet Hot American Summer (and its subsequent Netflix series, the first season being a perfect addition to a beloved movie and the season being painful to watch). He has essentially created an entire universe of inside jokes for cult comedy nerds. But of course, movie studios don’t care about appeasing cult comedy audiences, especially these days. So Wain occasionally has to slightly clean up his sense of oddball humor to make something more commercial for general audiences to keep the studio happy. Plus he’s got college tuition to pay if this post from his ex wife is to be believed.
That brings us to Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass, a Wizard of Oz homage written by Wain and Ken Marino about a woman on a mission to fuck Jon Hamm. It’s a slow starter of a movie that picks up speed and eventually settles into a proper Wainian pace (cramming in as many gags per minute as possible).
Wain leans on his usual celebrity friends (every member of The State… well, almost [no Ben Garant wtf??], as well as John Slattery, Jennifer Aniston, Weird Al, Jon Hamm of course, and one cameo I won’t spoil). Wain is also smart enough to recognize that audiences don’t want to watch his middle aged buddies forever and threw in some younger talent with Ben Wang and Miles Gutierrez-Riley, though I’m not sure if they add all that much to the ensemble.
Ultimately, Gail Daughtry is not esoteric enough to cement itself as the next Wet Hot and it’s probably not generalized enough to make it a box office hit. Wain leans a lot on his trusted comedic devices (spelling out the obvious joke, dragging a bit out for way too long, having characters deliver their lines slightly off-kilter), but I’m not sure how palatable it will be for the masses who want to see something like Scary Movie.
That all said, I don’t know if it’s the lowered expectations from a decade of shrinking theatrical comedy releases (we are lucky to get one legitimately good comedy per year these days and it’s a small miracle this film even got made) or if it’s the joy of seeing my favorite comedy guys hamming it up together on the big screen again, but I had a good time! A perfect way to spend a Saturday at the movies. Not every joke worked but by the time you’ve made that assessment they’re throwing three more gags at you. A few bits had me laughing until I cried and I’ll take those where I can get them in modern comedies.
I doubt Gail Daughtry will make much of an impact, either among die-hard Wain fans or at the box office, but I hope the generous handful of genuinely good laughs it provides will at least get his kid through freshman year.
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Thanks for the Twisted Teens rec.
"The weekly whatevers" i should start using this