Ben Sailer
@bensailer.bsky.social
Writer @unwinnable.com | Lifelong cheesehead | Bylines in New Noise Magazine, Killscreen, Noisey, Alternative Press, VMP, and other outlets | Ask about my pedalboard and I will never shut up. Elsewhere: https://bio.site/sailerbe
Where does Stu even find these cover images? This month's Exploits covers media like the World Cup, Life Is Strange and OBEX. Buy: buff.ly/qEsgZtN Subscribe: buff.ly/XdxYOYQ Read @bensailer.bsky.social on console merch in a world without physical games: buff.ly/AoYqkoU
"Each of this month’s selections wrestles with an aspect of these tensions between artist and audience in ways that are inseparable from the stories we tell about the work." @bensailer.bsky.social shares four albums that touch on the duality between intention and reception: buff.ly/ECmOjJJ
Vision and Expectation - Unwinnable
Each one of this month's selections has, in some respect, an interesting relationship with the duality between artistic vision and critical expectation.
unwinnable.com
This month for @unwinnable.com, I wrote about *that* new Sleep EP and other fine records. Share, subscribe, etc.
Stu Horvath@stuhorvath.com · last wk.@bensailer.bsky.social has some heavy tunes for you. Check your expectations. Or don't. He's not your dad. "Each of this month’s selections wrestles with the tensions between artist and audience in ways that are inseparable from the stories we tell about the work."
@bensailer.bsky.social has some heavy tunes for you. Check your expectations. Or don't. He's not your dad. "Each of this month’s selections wrestles with the tensions between artist and audience in ways that are inseparable from the stories we tell about the work."
Thought this new Zao sounded a lot like old Zao, and then learned that makes sense because its a collection of covers from old mid-90s Christian HXC bands. Some solid JNCO-era metalcore: officialzao.bandcamp.com/album/pillars
Pillars, by Zao
4 track album
officialzao.bandcamp.com
"The more creative work and its distribution are ceded to computers, [t]he more I feel the need to return to less tech-mediated means of finding new music." @bensailer.bsky.social brings back the capsule review format to his Noise Complaint column:
Heavy Recommendations - Unwinnable
There’s something to be said for finding something new from sources that aren’t controlled by a machine crunching ones and zeroes.
unwinnable.com
In the columns, @bensailer.bsky.social returns to his original concept: recommending heavy riffs. On tap: Darkthrone, Flatliners, Converge, Blackbraid and Eluvium. Throw horns: unwinnable.com/2026/06/29/h...
Heavy Recommendations - Unwinnable
There’s something to be said for finding something new from sources that aren’t controlled by a machine crunching ones and zeroes.
unwinnable.com
Do I know anyone (or know someone who knows someone) who'd want to buy two Menzingers/Hot Water Music tickets for their Minneapolis show in October? HWM just announced a local (Fargo) date on the same tour and so I'm looking to sell the MPLS tickets for what we paid (or minus taxes and fees).
Every time I think I can speedrun an article I'm writing, I re-learn the lesson that no, I can't. There's no shortcut to bypass the necessary processes of thinking and revising, and it's essential for the craft to allow time and space for that work.
Wrote about the new BBC adaptation of Lord of the Flies in this issue, because I love "entertainment" that makes me feel awful and haunts me for days. A+ material, would recommend.
Unwinnable@unwinnable.com · 2mo agoNo need to sacrifice a child for this issue of Exploits -- just pay a few bucks. This month features topics like videogame novels and the spirit of Resident Evil. Buy: buff.ly/09RZWep Subscribe: buff.ly/2yR4bZQ Read Isabella Irtifa's essay on Octavia's Brood: buff.ly/TWNinvG
"The world that Neurosis professes to love didn’t know it needed another record from them. Despite all odds, it got one anyway." @bensailer.bsky.social explores Neurosis's surprise album An Undying Love for a Burning World:
Staring Into the Void With Neurosis - Unwinnable
Neurosis has some things to say about [gestures broadly at everything].
unwinnable.com
Not enough people wrote words about the new Neurosis record, so I put some together for this month's issue of @unwinnable.com.
Unwinnable@unwinnable.com · 3mo ago30 years can put a lot into perspective. In the latest issue of Unwinnable Monthly, read @zweiteturm.bsky.social on Final Fantasy VII post-Fukushima and our regular crew on things not related to Final Fantasy. Buy: unwinnable.bigcartel.com/product/unwi... Subscribe: unwinnable.com/subscribe/
Nobody liked my joke about doing a fast-food At The Drive In parody band called At The Drive Thru.
TIL that the first American Football album was recorded with a Marshall Valvestate and that is just incredible. So many Fender Deluxe Reverbs have been sold to get that tone.
shut up and listen to this if you like music that rules: pigeon-uk.bandcamp.com/album/outtan...
OUTTANATIONAL, by Pigeon
10 track album
pigeon-uk.bandcamp.com
I would read a 10,000-word deeply reported investigative piece into why the American Midwest is a hotbed for small guitar pedal builders. I will write it myself if I have to.
feels like "French powerpop crust" could either be a band or a kind of bread, but either way you have my attention.
The Quietus@thequietus.com · 3mo agoFrom bone-boiling Aussie racket to French powerpop crust via Cleveland, Bristol, Ross-on-Wye and more, Noel Gardner's guide to the best in brand new punk returns Straight Hedge! #Punk & HC For May buff.ly/KyuXKoH
I think it says something that Have a Nice Life, a band whose reputation was built by the internet, decided to build a new website and not rely on social platforms to maintain an online presence. Websites, they're the wave of the future: haveanicelifeband.com
Have A Nice Life — Official Website
The official Have A Nice Life website. Nothing Will Ever Go Wrong Tour 2026: official dates and tickets.
haveanicelifeband.com
ICYMI: "If there’s a parallel between Final Fantasy and Rage Against the Machine, it may be that the political content of their messaging is often misunderstood." @bensailer.bsky.social breaks down how Tom Morello's collab with FFXIV reveals the political nature of the series:
Tom Morello Knows Final Fantasy Is Political - Unwinnable
"'Everything Burns' is both a reflection of the world that we're seeing and a warning, irrespective of anyone touching a controller."
buff.ly
why read a navel-gazey hamfisted jacobin essay that misreads the recent cultural legacy of rock when you can read a more intensely reported essay about a rock subgenre with “gaze” in its name
Leor Galil@imleor.bsky.social · 3mo agoShoegaze is everywhere, especially in the midwest. I reached out to more than a dozen musicians and experts to talk all things midwest shoegaze for my newest Reader feature.
The Packers social media sphere is going nuclear over some Bad Analysis of Our Team and I think we all need to remember that egging on one of the world's largest sports fanbases is a great way to get the attention everyone is giving the Bad Article.
Do you love incredible niche content that's fantastic? Prove it with your money by subscribing to @unwinnable.com!
Chris Lempesis @chrislempesis.bsky.social · 3mo agoThis is incredible niche content but also fantastic content.
For @unwinnable.com's Final Fantasy x Politics special theme issue, I wrote about how Tom Morello writing a song for a Final Fantasy game is less weird than what's implied by the sentence "Tom Morello wrote a song for a Final Fantasy game."
Stu Horvath@stuhorvath.com · 3mo ago"If there’s a parallel between Final Fantasy and Rage Against the Machine, it may be that the political content of their messaging is often misunderstood." @bensailer.bsky.social sets the record straight.
it is a grave injustice that no one will give me $1,000 to buy this and make the most annoying sounds you have ever heard
Gear Gods@geargods.bsky.social · 3mo agoThe Chase Bliss Big Time is a glitchy, unpredictable pedal that offers a whole load of strange echoes. It's weird, it's wild, and it turns every knob tweak into a living, breathing sonic experiment. It also looks cool. @chasebliss.bsky.social geargods.net/news/chase-b...
