134. These days, I only listen to Geese
I.
Cameron Winter, remember that name. I first came across him with his solo album Heavy Metal, but heās also the frontman of the New York band Geese. And their new album Getting Killed has been on repeat here for ages. What unique, strange and refreshing music.
Winter is 23 years old, but sounds like a combination of Rufus Wainwright and Mick Jagger. Itās a voice that might take a bit of getting used to, but once you do, you wonāt be able to get enough of it. On Heavy Metal he sounds melancholic and isnāt afraid of an emotional piano ballad. Have a listen to $0, one of my favourites (and what a video). āFuck these people, Iām not here,ā he sings. āYouāre making me feel like Iām a zero dollar man.ā So is it all rubbish? Later he sings: āGod is real, Iām not kidding, God is actually realā. He doesnāt sound very convincing.
Thereās a lot more energy in Geeseās Getting Killed. The opening track Trinidad sounds like experimental jazz, with an almost inimitable rhythm, on which Winter welcomes you in a somewhat meandering way, before dishing out a few thumps. He invites you: āGet in, letās driveā, and then shouts: āThereās a bomb in my car!ā
Most of the tracks keep you on the edge of your seat. Geese doesnāt necessarily go for catchy choruses and logical structures. The band jams, Winter repeats his lines. āThey may say that our love was only half real, but thatās only half trueā, he sings in Half Real. Youāve just got into a song and then it suddenly ends. Youāve got to keep your wits about you, donāt get too comfortable.
I have a soft spot for the track Au Pays du Cocaine. Perhaps because of the nostalgic sound. Because of the build-up. And because of the way Winter, in an almost Nick Cave-esque manner, sings about a relationship that isnāt working, but whose end he cannot accept.
Geeseās music is elusive; Winters is an enigma. Remember that name!
- - -II.
It might be unfair to go and see a new film by Paul Thomas Anderson and expect to see a masterpiece. But of course, heās brought it on himself, with films like There Will Be Blood, The Master and Phantom Thread.
One Battle After Another lives up to the high expectations. Thatās really all you need to know to rush to the cinema right now, if you havenāt already. Donāt go to some rubbish back-room cinema, but choose the biggest screen you can find.
Do that, for example, for the chase scenes in this film. Thereās one on a straight road thatās still thrilling, making you feel as though youāre on a rollercoaster. In any case, thereās a constant momentum to the film, thanks to fluid camerawork and phenomenal (and very present and nerve-wracking) music by Radioheadās Jonny Greenwood.
Iāve forgotten to mention what the film is about. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Bob, a couch-potato stoner. Bob lives with his daughter in a hideout in the woods, because he used to be part of a group of radical revolutionaries. When an old enemy (Sean Penn in a legendary role as pure evil) turns up after years and his daughter goes missing, Bob must try to rescue her.
He then stumbles from one situation into another. He finds himself entangled in the lives of all sorts of memorable characters, including that of āSenseiā Sergio St. Carlos (Benicio Del Toro). This karate teacher takes the paranoid Bob under his wing, whilst calmly steering his own revolution with a large underground network. A lot happens in this film and Bob tries to make sense of it all, but funnily enough, he himself contributes absolutely nothing to the outcome of anything in this film.
One Battle After Another is, at its core, a father-daughter story, but it is just as much about (the overthrow of) power. It is popcorn entertainment, politics and a poignant sketch of the current zeitgeist. Everyone in this film has something to fight for. For ideals, for fun, for migrants and for family.
- - -PS.
Radioheadās Kid A is 25 years old. To celebrate, Iāve given it another listen. Every time I do that, and itās been a while, Iām blown away by just how good the album is. It starts right from the opening notes of Everything In Its Right Place. Perfection.
In April this year, Dutch musician Eddie van der Meer walked 650 kilometres across Japan. Whole days of walking, from Tokyo to Osaka. He turned it into a particularly soothing video: an hour of Japan-FOMO.
- - -In 2009, Nick Cave wrote the book The Death of Bunny Munro, about a door-to-door salesman addicted to alcohol and women. When his wife dies, Bunny Munro takes his son on a road trip around Brighton. In search of redemption. The novel is bizarre and obscene, but Sky has dared to turn it into a TV series. Iām curious to see how far they dare to go. Starring Matt Smith.
- - -Thereās to be a second The Simpsons film, twenty years after The Simpsons Movie. Iāve got a soft spot for the TV series and still watch it regularly, even though its heyday is long behind us (back when Conan OāBrien was still writing scripts). The film is due for release in 2027.
See how interior design trends have changed: this website features all the IKEA catalogues from the past decades.
Iām very sensitive to this.
- - -Youāve just read blog post ā134, written during the week of 29 September to 5 October 2025. Subscribe to my free newsletter to receive this blog in your inbox every Sunday.