Cool people like cool things, which is why we asked The Ion Pack to come on Perfectly Imperfect & spread the hot rec wealth.

The Ion Pack is NYC’s hottest anonymous podcast from the downtown film scene. Its pitched-down hosts (ion1 and ion2) shoot the shit about film, music, culture, and more, with guests such as Red Scare’s Dasha Nekrasova, Tom Krell (aka How to Dress Well), The Drunken Canal girls, and Rachel Sennott. Subscribe to their Patreon and get access to one of my favorite Discord communities (besides Perfectly Imperfect’s cord of course…) and exclusive eps. The Ion Pack boys have interesting taste and lucky for us, they’re here to tell us what they’ve been into~

Without further ado

ion1 (instagram, patreon)

🎥 William Friedkin - To Live and Die in LA (1985)

Willem Dafoe is GOAT as ever, and everyone’s fits are so sick. Moral ambiguity and fast-paced chases. This movie has it all. 

🎵 Foo Fighters- Everlong

People like to think of Foo Fighters are corny post-grunge, but forget that this song is a complete masterpiece. I drove around listening to this on repeat recently maybe 15 times in a row. Drums crack, amazing guitar part, perfect vocal performance. They don’t make ‘em like this anymore. 

📕 Carl Jung - Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies

Even if you haven’t accepted that they’re out there yet, people are seeing something. And Jung knew that was significant. Huge shouts to Jai for sending me this. 

👖 Tracksuits

Wearing a tracksuit is easy and comfortable, but you still feel like you got dressed to go do something and you feel good. It’s really the best of both worlds, especially right now when you probably don’t have many places to go. I’ve stocked up on many over quar. Remember, you’re only as good as you feel. 

❓ The Disappearance of Tom Messick

I’ll try to sum it up quick: 82 year old guy in poor health goes completely missing without a trace while on a hunting trip with his son while sitting in a chair in the middle of the woods. He had a rifle and walkie talkie with him. No sign of him, the rifle, or the walkie talkie. No footprints, tire tracks, etc. One of the guys on the trip said he heard a strange noise he couldn’t describe. That’s all they got. This plays into a larger phenomenon known as Missing 411- I would encourage anyone reading to go down this rabbit hole that I can’t even begin to sum up here. 

🎵 Mint Royale with Lauren Laverne - Don’t Falter

This is gonna be a good summer, and this will put you in the mood for it. 

🎥 Arthur Penn - Night Moves (1975)

Even though I felt as lost as Gene Hackman’s character at times, I liked it that way. A movie you really feel as much as follow.

🎵 Drab Majesty - The Demonstration

This is one of my favorite albums of the past few years, and it never gets old. Constantly on rotation. Guitars are certainly not dead. 

🎸 Lace Sensor Red-Silver-Blue Pack

Best and most versatile set in the biz. Really all you need.

🎵 The Fall - Blindness (Peel Session version)

Makes me want to crash my car. 

🍌 Banana Chips

The most underrated snack of all time.

ion2 (instagram, patreon)

🎞️ The Long Day Closes (Terrence Davies, 1992)

As perfect a movie as I’ve ever seen.  Changed my life the moment I saw it from the barrel chairs of Metrograph with angel Terrence Davies there to speak.  A love song to his mother, the movies, and the home in which he grew up. Loaded with a phantasmagorical sound design and mix matched only in emotional impact by the music of Burial.

🎼 “New Grass” by Talk Talk (1991)

“Wealth” from Spirit of Eden was the first song that had me fall in love with Mark Hollis’ holy late period records with Talk Talk, but this highpoint from Laughing Stock may eclipse it. The world imploding as God reveals himself. Now I know where “Reckoner” was born.

📺 The Knick (Soderbergh, 2014)

Even though Vincent Gallo might not agree, Soderbergh has hit some unbelievable highs in his career (Ocean’s Eleven, The Girlfriend Experience, Traffic), and apart from Twin Peaks: The Return, a film director has never goated television as hard as The Knick.  Performances of the life from Clive Owen and Eve Hewson and my favorite TV score of all time -- big shouts to Cliff Martinez.

🚬 Air Bar Lux (Grape Ice)

Ever since I got sober 12 years ago and quit smoking shortly after, I’ve craved nicotine.  Six years removed from my final cigarette I hit my friend’s Mango Juul Pod at a wedding and I’ve been back and hooked ever since.  In a way I enjoy vaping more than I ever did smoking tobacco because it doesn’t make me smell like a degenerate and I can hit it anywhere I go. After some taste tests, I adopted Cool Cucumber like it was my newborn son.  Over the past two or three years the fun Juul flavors have all been banned (Cool Cuke included) and I, like many others, have had to venture into the wild west of smoke lottos to find flavored disposable alternatives.  Most are disgusting but you don’t know what you’re going to get until you drop $8-$15 and take the first puff.  Air Bar Lux’s are built better, hit better and taste better than any disposable vape you’ll find at the shop - the Dyson, the iPhone 4S of nicotine delivery systems.

💪 Hypervolt Massage Device

The saving grace of my workouts, and a massage chair all in one hand.  Over time this thing has actually become an incentive in of itself for me to workout because I so eagerly look forward to using it after going ham and abusing myself.  It’s a good bonding device for me and my girlfriend too, a 2021 alt to the “backscratchers” of the boomer generation.  For me it’s the best kind of gun.

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