What I Was Digging The Rest Of September

Da Vikes are 4-0. Who woulda thunk it?

Music

The Lukeboard Hot 50 [playlist]

Starting to get more into the really noisy stuff, but not so much that we can't get Halsey's new pop-punk jam in there. Kendrick's "euphoria" never stops going hard. *s denote the number of months the track has been in the top 50.

1. Jamie xx - Dafodil (feat. Kelsey Lu, John Glacier & Panda Bear)*
2. Magdalena Bay - Death & Romance***
3. Jane Remover - Magic I Want U
4. Kacey Musgraves - Cardinal
5. mxmtoon - i hate texas**
6. JPEGMAFIA - either on or off the drugs
7. Kacey Musgraves - Jade Green
8. Wishy - Love on the Outside***
9. Magdalena Bay - Killing Time*
10. bar italia - The only conscious being in the universe
11. TV Girl & George Clanton - Take a Trip**
12. Ariana Grande - ordinary things (feat. Nonna)*
13. Ethel Cain - For Sure*
14. BAYNK - Grin***
15. Lucky Daye - HERicane*
16. Maruja - The Invisible Man*
17. Foxing - Hell 99**
18. A$AP Rocky - HIGHJACK (feat. Jessica Pratt)**
19. Fontaines D.C. - Favourite***
20. Lucky Daye - Soft*
21. ScHoolboy Q - THank god 4 me*
22. Hot Mulligan - Stickers of Brian***
23. Halsey - Ego*
24. Ariana Grande - i wish i hated you*
25. Bleach Lab - Fade Into You (Studio Session)***
26. Kendrick Lamar - euphoria***
27. BAYNK - Blood***
28. Foxing - Greyhound***
29. death's dynamic shroud - Rocking Chair Song**
30. xaviersobased - Linda***
31. Rx Papi - Why You Always Got Dat Mask On**
32. Sports Team - I'm In Love (Subaru)**
33. Ripped to Shreds - 孽鏡臺 (Visions of Sin, Mirror of Darkness)*
34. Blondshell - What's Fair**
35. bar italia - drumstart*
36. Nachtymystium - A Slow Decay*
37. Wishy - Just Like Sunday*
38. Mastadon & Lamb of God - Floods of Triton*
39. Dasha - Austin (Boots Stop Workin')***
40. Pixey - Give A Little Of Your Love*
41. The Smile - Zero Sum*
42. bar italia - sounds like you had to be there*
43. Fousheé - still around**
44. Levi Lucio - CD guis moo (Extended Mix)**
45. FKA twigs - Eusexua*
46. blessthefall & Alpha Wolf - DRAG ME UNDER*
47. JPEGMAFIA - don't rely on other men***
48. Madgalena Bay - Image*
49. Leon Bridges - Laredo*
50. fanclubwallet - Band Like That***

Film

I watched the entire 6-going-on-7-film V/H/S franchise this September. Actually, I marathoned them all over 2 days. For those not in the know, the V/H/S films are found footage horror anthologies, and the first one was a pretty big deal in the horror community when it came out. It has flaws, but it's plucky and passionate and was the pet project of a bunch of up-and-coming indie horror directors at the time (e.g., Ti West, Adam Wingard, Joe Swanberg). Here's my ranking of the series. Genuinely excited for the next one.

1. V/H/S 85 (2023) [Easily the best concepts out of any film in the series. The rare anthology that's genuinely good.]
2. V/H/S 2 (2013) [Timo Tjahjanto set the highwater mark for the series with his "Safe Haven" segment, showing what the series could be.]
3. V/H/S (2012) [There's a sleaziness to it that comes off a little edgelordy but is certainly effective.]
4. V/H/S 94 (2021) [A solid bounceback after how terrible Viral was. The segments definitely have some personality.]
5. V/H/S 99 (2022) [A struggle bus with low-effort VFX and Party City quality costumes. Its saving grace is the goofily entertaining ride of "To Hell and Back."]
   
6. V/H/S: Viral (2014) [An absolute mess with nothing original to say. Like 99, it has one stand-out segment that saves it from being pure shite, and in Viral it's "Parallel Monsters."]

Shows I'm Watching

Castlevania (2017-2021)

Rewatching this series for the first time since it ended and it still slaps. One of my favorite shows ever made.

Currently reading

Electric Wizards: A Tapestry of Heavy Music, 1968 to the Present by JR Moores

I rarely finish a book in under a few months, but I finished this 400+ page tome of music history in less than 2 weeks. Gave me a newfound appreciation of experimental music and I'm going to have to revisit many albums and artists that I wrote off or didn't care for the first time around. Funny, insightful, easy to read, and contagiously passionate.