You can run and you can hide, but I’m going to find you and shoot you full of cool stuff. This is Cool Stuff For Cool Lifeforms: February 2023!
Music
Shame – Food for Worms
If you ever wondered what it would be like if Matt Berninger was completely unhinged and liked cool shit instead of dad rock, here’s the band for you. Lead singer Charlie Steen’s vocals make the most immediate first impression, but it’s the rest of the band that really makes it work. The bass warps and shifts from song to song, always pulsing in an omnipresent low groove. The drums propel each song forward and provide consistent structure while the guitar goes from calm to chaos at the drop of a dime. The freakouts here are positively Black MIDI-esque, but none of these songs unravel completely. Shame always brings back together, if only barely.
Pile – All Fiction
Nobody sounds quite like Pile. Sure, the elements are all familiar, from atmospheric midwestern indie to calculated, almost grinding post-punk. The elements combine dramatically, formulating a sound like an ancient being coming to life. The drums are so big, they sound like a deafening beating heart from within the center of the earth. That’s cool as shit.
TV Shows
Extraordinary – Hulu
This show takes place in a world where almost everyone gets a superpower at some point around their 18th birthday. It’s kind of like getting puberty and having a bar mitzvah all at once. But, uh-oh, the main character is 25 and hasn’t gotten her power yet. She obviously feels excluded from society, being one of the few adults without powers, but the most extraordinary thing about this show is its ability to make superpowers seem entirely unappealing. Where the show The Boys does this by showing the brutality of superhuman people in an ordinary world, and Extraordinary does this by showing just how useless superpowers would be if everyone had them. They don’t actually do much to help everyday life, and many of the superpowers are downright useless for any purpose at all. It’s hilarious.
My Brilliant Friend – HBOMax
Like a coming-of-age story, but so much more. This story follows two Italian girls who grow up together in the slums of Naples and where their lives branch and separate. No show is more crushing, inspiring, and definite. The upcoming fourth season is the conclusion of the show, so no better time to jump the fuck in.
If you liked the February 2023 installment and want to get shot up with even more cool stuff, check out previous installments of Cool Stuff For Cool Lifeforms.