The bop of the moment in our household is the new single “Rodeohead” by our pal Holiday Sidewinder.

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It kinda feels like early Liz Phair mixed with early Madonna but all in a uniquely 2026 kinda way. Check out these lyrics….

Hot mess, diana revenge dress
Doing my best not to cry in this hotel bed
I'm blessed with a beautiful chest, long legs
Half dead, i'm a Tyrannosaurus-wreck
Then a boy comes along
I'll write a pretty good song
And I'll keep playing along
Until it all goes wrong

I mean, come on, THIS IS YOUR NEW FAVORITE SONG!

And follow Holiday for all her always-entertaining adventures

https://www.instagram.com/holidaysidewinder/

Also out today, a Weirder Together mini-episode where we answer a question about what our dream cover versions would be

Have a listen and feel free to hit us up with questions for future mini-episodes at weirdertogetherpod@gmail.com

There are records you listen to, and then there are records envelop you — albums with a worldview so unique that you have no choice but to surrender and step inside in wonder. The self-titled new album from drone metal architects Sunn O))) is the second kind, and it is genuinely one of the most immersive listening experiences you’ll have all year. Eighty minutes, six tracks, recorded at Bear Creek Studios in Washington State and co-produced with Brad Wood (yes, pal who produced “Grandpaw Would” and “Awake is the New Sleep”!). Everything about this album is brutal, sublime, delicate and meditative - capturing that feeling we get when we stand in front of something so vast it reorganises our nervous system. It is very loud, very slow, and surprisingly — almost mysteriously — beautiful. Lie down and close your eyes and discover something unexpected and incredible.

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Today, Ione shares her POTW - a site-specific sculpture park more than a decade in the making, situated at 76th Street and Western Avenue, South Central Los Angeles and will run from March 14 2026 until September 2027.

Also enjoy the cameo from our dog Gus who wouldn’t stay out of frame lol…

Read the DAZED article about “Sister Dreamer” HERE

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Also out today, our Listener Question mini-episode where we field a very silly question about the Aussie pronunciation of the word “Manhattan”. Hit us up with your questions at weirdertogetherpod@gmail.com

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We are going to delve into this film on the pod next week, but for now we had to throw our money behind “Napa Boys” as the most inspiring and profoundly stupid movie you are going to see this year (or maybe ever).

Directed by Nick Corirossi and co-written by Corirossi and Armen Weitzman,
”Napa Boys” follows a trio of wine-obsessed characters who go on an adventure through California's wine country.

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The movie sits somewhere between the Alexander Payne film “Sideways”, “American Pie”, “Wet Hot American Summer” and the entire Monty Python catalogue, with incredible performances, lots of ridiculous gross-out moments, but above all a love of making stupid things with your friends, which is exactly what the world needs right now. We’re talking dumb, on purpose, in the most enjoyable and refreshing way.

Check out the trailer below, and seek “Napa Boys” out IMMEDIATELY!

Also out today, our “Listener Question” episode, where a listener named Mad Mystic Mike gets all existential with us!

Once you get past the silly dramatic reenactments, you are in for a real treat and deep education on the inspiration, influence and extraordinary life of Whiteley “in his own words” using personal letters, notebooks and photographs, interwoven with reconstructions, animations, archival interviews and rare footage.

Whiteley was an anomaly amongst Australian artists then and now, both embracing his post as part of an international avant-guard while still deeply and, often chaotically, exploring his unique Australian-ness.

Most Aussies will be familiar with his work, if not his legacy, but to much of our US audience, he may indeed be a new discovery.

Take some time and dive in. Whiteley is challenging, wildly intelligent and profoundly talented with work that is animated by a visceral electricity that cannot be denied.

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Also, out today, we tackle a listener question on the pod about how we try to stay connected to our innocence and openness when life’s beats us up

Hit us up with your questions weirdertogetherpod@gmail.com

xx Ione & Ben

We chatted about Spike F*ck on the pod this week, and thought we’d share their absolutely legendary single “Junkie Logic” with you as our Pick of the Week!

The myth of Spike F*ck began in 2016, starting with the release of a five-song record called The Smackwave EP (2016). Tackling themes of anguished love, gender dysphoria, heroin, and recovery, Spike’s songs immediately won the hearts of underground music lovers all over the world, particularly thanks to the song “Junkie Logic”.

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If you’re a fan of Lou Reed, Scott Walker or Jonathan Richman, you will feel this immediately. It’s also an incredibly honest look at one artists relationship to drugs and the struggles of addiction.

Spike also has some LA and NY tour dates coming up - check out details HERE!

Lastly, check out our Listener Question mini-ep this week, where we addressed the question of why artists like to revisit their old work and themes…

Julianna’s heavenly vocal arrangements and Mary’s dreamy harp playing seem to have been karmically destined for collaborations. The two have done live improvisations together over the years, as well as other recorded experiments, but have never blessed us with a full album to lose ourselves in.

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This is music to dream to. Music to expand to. Music to remember ourselves to.

Also worth checking out is the album of mine (Ben) that Julianna and Mary both contributed to, Quarter Century Classix…

Following the dreamy mood, this week’s Listener Question of the week got a little mystical, as we were asked “Who is your spirit musician?”

Hear our answers

and feel free to hit us up with your questions at weirdertogetherpod@gmail.com!

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I think the availability of the doc varies territory by territory. Have a look on Prime, TUBI or Netflix. If you can’t find it we were able to watch it HERE

Also out today, our new listener question episode, where we address how to deal with rejection.

Shot in 1996 and edited in 2000, this is a short documentary directed by Michael Lucid, about a group of 13-year-old riot grrrls in Los Angeles who were socially ostracized at their school by their peers and upperclassmen. Everyone in the schoolyard held strong opinions about these so-called "dirty girls," and meanwhile the "dirty girls" themselves aimed to get their message across by distributing their zine across campus.

It is an incredible historic document, where we get to witness counter-cultural kids clearly in hindsight on the correct side of history, and unable to fit into the conformist atmosphere that teenagers are subjected to.

A beautiful watch. Here’s to the “dirty girls” throughout history who always told it like it is…

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A podcast interview with the director Michael Lucid…

A 2013 cast reunion conversation…

And today’s Listener Question mini-episode is about how to deal with the “cringe” factor when reflecting to your old work…

You can send us your questions at weirdertogetherpod@gmail.com and we will try to answer them on future Listener Question eps!

Have a great new year, Beautiful Babies!

xx

Ione & Ben

Melbourne’s self-described “ambient crunk” cult-hop group Dealers of God exist to defy and dismantle all false conceptions of what music can be, combining the accessible with the avant-garde, the sardonic with the painfully sincere, and juvenile humour with harrowing truths. Described as “The sonic experience of a DMT trip” by The FADER, Dealers of God are an unwaveringly subversive enterprise of sonic criminals who plunder inspiration from not just all genres, but popular culture as a whole.

When this mysterious and seemingly deliberately-obscure band reached out to me (Ben) via instagram to ask if I wanted to explore collaborating with them on a song, I could not imagine what form that might possibly take. I knew they had collaborated with cult-internet phenomenon DJ Rozwell, rappers Celestaphone, Blu, Quelle Chris, and MC Paul Barman, Grammy-nominated and Pulitzer Prize winning Jazz guitarist Liberty Ellman…but where I might fit into that was anybody’s guess…

.The track they ended up sending me “Drivin’ Down” completely shocked me in its earnest beauty and lo-fi tenderness. I wrote a verse, sent it back and the rest is history. CHECK IT OUT HERE:

I hear that they are preparing to release their most ambitious and conceptually charged work to date: their album BUSHRANGER, a sprawling, genre-demolishing opus that maps the journey of a time-lost outlaw across the spiritual and physical wastelands of the continent.

The album’s central influence is the works of William R. Clay, a largely forgotten early 20th century Australian playwright, and his final opus; “The Death of The Larrikin”, which was outright banned from being performed due to obscenity laws and public outcry for it’s violence and highly political themes.

Pretty wild, huh?

This is the kind of thing we love. Totally unique. Playing their own creative game. Pushing music forward with creativity, subversion and cheekiness. Love ya Dealers!

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On this week’s Weirder Together mini-ep, we have a complex question about ethics within the music industry from our friend Tom (Hot Tub Time Machine)

This week, our friend Flea, released his first solo single “A Plea” - a wild musical journey that begins with 4 mins of instrumental jazz before Flea hops on the mic and opens his heart to the world - with a video you’ve gotta see, directed by his daughter Clara Balzary.

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He described the song as “yearning for a place beyond, a place of love, for me to speak my mind and be myself. I’m always just trying to be myself.” Flea continued, via press release, “I don’t care about the act of politics. I think there is a much more transcendent place above it where there’s discourse to be had that can actually help humanity, and actually help us all to live harmoniously and productively in a way that’s healthy for the world. There’s a place where we meet, and it’s love.”

Also out today, a special “Listener Question” of our pod, where our 16 year old daughter gets to harass us with a great question about cults!

On Wednesday night, after an excellent meal upstairs at Chez Crix (a French-style bistro style with delicious food and top wine- sorry “Piss List’”), we wandered downstairs and stumbled into the middle of the apparently iconic Wednesday Jazz night in Surry Hills.

Led by guitarist Arthur Washington, his brother, Jerry, and mate, Jack Ray — along with bassist Matt Lamb, plus saxophonists Ross Harrington and Chris O’Dea, this night has been running for close to…15 years we think? (The Piss List may have taken its toll in terms of detailed memory recollection on the evening).

It was so amazing to see a packed room in Sydney, out to see live jazz, singing along to Gershwin tunes and their very own “Cricketer’s Arms Theme Song”, totally vibing out together.

If you’re in Sydney on a Wednesday. Check it out!

Thanks Dom for hosting us - incredible night! We will return!

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Also - out today our weekly “Listener Question” mini episode about Hollywood projects that “shoulda/woulda/coulda” happened but didnt. Ione tells some great stories about Gus Van Sant and a lost Allison Anders film called “Paul is Dead”.

Feels funny to dedicate this space to a chat about You Am I, a band that has shaped and defined Aussie music culture for the past 35 years. But at this weekends ARIA awards, where You Am I were inducted into the Aussie music hall of fame, it became obvious that this is still a wildly under appreciated band. Its mysterious and strange how culture works, and its never been entirely clear why You Am I never quite made the leap to worldwide superstardom, or at the very least a much more robust presence in digital/streaming culture today among Gen Z (who love rediscovering a musical gem and claiming it as their own a la The Smiths, The Cure or Nirvana).

I (Ben) have been a fan since first reading about You Am I in Sydney street press in 1992. Tim Rogers’ ambition and cheekiness stood out amongst his humble peers in a conservative indie rock landscape. His songs are absolute classics, equal parts The Who and The Hoodoo Gurus, the violence of classic 60s British Invasion mixed with the indie-sweetness of Teenage Fanclub. Chaotic live shows, backstage brawls and all of the tropes of being a great touring rock band sometimes pulled focus over the years, earning You Am I the reputation of Replacements-like volatility. But at the heart of it all has always been excellent songwriting delivered loud and lovingly.

It’s worth having a read of Tim’s Hall of Fame ARIA acceptance speech below, before jumping into the playlist:

“Showbiz!

Oh, the music industry, you do keep company with some nefarious people. We don’t understand the industry, but it is lovely, and we’re very grateful to be asked to sit at the parents’ table. Your canopies are delicious, and your wine looks delicious.

It’s wonderful to see lots of old friends here today. 94% of them are working behind the scenes on the crew, and once again, we reiterate that they are not called Roadies. They are called prospective consensual, romantic partners.

Thirty-six years ago, I was extremely sick and had no prospect to do anything, and my brother and my best friend asked me to join their band, and it gave me a life. At the start of this year, I was sick again in hospital. My mate Andy Kent called me and said, ‘Let’s get the band back together.’ Well, we’ve never broken up, but let’s go out on tour, and not for the 100th time, it gave me the opportunity to have a life.

Fuck, I love rock and roll.

The part about it I love the most is that writing gives me a purpose to live, to express to people how I feel about them through writing rather than other more courageous ways. My three best friends, for taking these abstract, miserable songs that I write and turning them into something that’s enjoyable for the public.

There have been a lot of very, very big festivals, big shows, some overseas bands touring and getting your photo taken amongst 80,000 people is very exciting. I understand that the spectacle of that, but there are so many great venues, Link & Pin in Woy Woy, Trash Cult in Eaglehawk, Bendigo, that put on shows whenever they can, whenever they can afford it.

And by buying a ticket, going to those shows and taking a punt on something, something you’ve never heard of, you may have been a crowd of 12 people, but by doing that, you’re part of this great art experiment. You’re not necessarily a fan, but you are a fan, which I think is the most noble thing of all, to be passionate about, something I know because we’re just fans who dress considerably better.

Plus, I would really love to thank our first manager, the first person who believed in us, Kate Stewart, Todd Wagstaff, to my dear darling Big Brother, Jaimme, thank you for asking me to join your band. To Mark Tunaley, who played on our first recordings, to my beautiful Alice, who I absolutely adore, and to my wonderful, wonderful, extraordinary daughter, Ruby. Thank you so much for travelling so far, and hopefully, we’ll see you all out there on the road of endless possibilities.”

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Also out today is our weekly mini-episode Listener Question asking us for tips on throwing great parties…

When excellent up-and-coming Aussie band FVNERAL reached out about the possibility of me guesting on their new single ‘Friendly Fire’, I was excited. FVNERAL had opened for me several times, they wrote great melancholy pop tunes, and the singer Tay and I had formed a great creative friendship.

But listening to the work-in-progress song, I wondered how I fit into it? It was a gorgeous yearning song about growing up queer in the church, “giving homophobes head”, and the awful cycle of self-punishment that young queer people often subject themselves to.

I sat on it for a while…then one day it hit me. I wanted to write a verse that offered Tay, and others like them, courage. Some words of support from an older artist, and older outsider, who may not have grown up queer in the church, but in my own way, understood what it meant to always feel different, and how painful that could be.

Here it is:

…and if you are interested in learning a little bit more about FVNERAL and the process of how this tune came to life, check out this great piece by Twisty Chaney for themusic.com.au

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https://themusic.com.au/features/allyship-in-action-how-fvneral-s-latest-team-up-with-ben-lee-was-born-from-community/SlbwXF9eQUA/12-11-25

Also out today, our mini-pod Listener Question episode about Gus Van Sant and late 80’s Hollywood.

If you have questions for us, hit us at weirdertogetherpod@gmail.com and we will answer them on an upcoming episode.

Big love,

Ben (and Ione)

You can order the book HERE

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Here is Rachel’s recent interview with Amy Poehler:

And here is a podcast I love “Glamorous Trash” discussing the memoir:

Today’s “LISTENER QUESTION” mini episode of our pod addresses the question “Who First Turned You Onto Cool Music?” Listen here:

But none of that could prepare the world for the release of her new single “Berghain” this week, an orchestral epic – taking its name from the iconic techno club in Berlin – with lyrics in German, Spanish and English and heavy classical influences.

About halfway through, Björk – who Rosalía also worked with on the 2023 charity single ‘Oral’ – comes in singing, “The only way to save us is through divine intervention,” and Yves Tumor takes over for the outro, repeating, “I’ll fuck you till you love me.”

The German lyrics sung by the choir, “Seine Angst ist meine Angst, Seine Wut ist meine Wut, Seine Liebe ist meine Liebe, Sein Blut ist mein Blut,” translate to “His fear is my fear, his rage is my rage, his love is my love, his blood is my blood.”

What is most mind-blowing about this single, is that it is decidedly non-pop, yet has an immediate impact that dwarves her pop competitors. It is THAT GOOD. Kinda feels like pop music might be defined as pre-Berghain and post-Berghain…or at least it will in our household…

Let this one take you over! Pure art!!

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And for this weeks mini-pod Listener Question episode we tackle the question of how to navigate working with unprofessional people

Check out the “Fairyland” trailer below…

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Also, here is today’s Listener Question episode where I talk about the short film Andrew, Sofia Coppola and I made in the early 90’s “Bed Bath & Beyond”

If you want to learn even more about “Bed Bath & Beyond” check out a post we did last year about it!

I’ve just started actually making some of these recipes that I keep saving from Instagram stories. The gateway recipe for me was short and sweet - making hot chocolate like they do in France. And like the tagline to the 1988 romance comedy Chocolat says, “One taste is all it takes.”

Heres the recipe…

Ingredients (2 servings):

• 2 cups (500 ml) whole milk (or half milk, half cream for extra richness)

• 100 g (about 3.5 oz) good-quality dark chocolate (at least 60–70% cocoa), chopped

• 2 tsp sugar (optional, depending on sweetness of your chocolate)

• Pinch of salt

• Whipped cream (optional, for serving)

Gently melt high-quality dark chocolate into warm milk or cream, adding a touch of sugar to taste, with a pinch of salt.

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And here is today’s mini episode listener question for Ione… “Did your mom really date Jim Morrison???”

Some of my favorite Henry Jaglom films…

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Also, check out our most recent Listener Question mini episode this week where I speak about my childhood neighbor, Eve Babitz