Music – Fancy Boys Club

All That Glitters May Not Have Gold: A review of Taylor Swift’s The Life Of A Showgirl

October 8, 2025October 8, 2025by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

Taylor Swift has made it known that she does not like being called “calculated”, and I get it. To refer to a woman by that word implies a certain tone that one would not give to a man, who normally would be called something like “ambitious”. It’s a shame to me that she doesn’t like this term, because I consider the word a grand compliment and I believe it applies to the pop star. As we enter the tenth month of 2025, Swift has her twelfth album, The Life Of A Showgirl, out. And there is a lot that is needed to calculate.

Continue reading →

Music/Movies, The Swiftening

The Swiftening, Part 12: The Life Of A Showgirl – The Life of Jesse from Saved By The Bell in Showgirls

October 4, 2025by The Fancy BoysLeave a Comment

Before December of 2020, Jordan Holmes (comedian, author, podcaster) had never, intentionally, listened to a Taylor Swift song. Then began The Swiftening, where Jordan decided to review every Swift album in order. Want to see the rest of his reviews? Just click on “The Swiftening” tab above the title of this and it will take you to Jordan’s reviews of Ms. Swift’s last eleven works.

Continue reading →

Music/Movies, Uncategorized

The Fifty Best Songs Of 2024

December 31, 2024by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

Well, if we can say anything about the state of music in 2024, we can certainly say that it was decidedly less horny than last year.

Look, there were definitely still some efforts to keep the mojo running in music. Sabrina Carpenter, Tinashe and Addison Rae all did their best to get us going like so many did in 2023. But there was not enough to overcome some of the bigger feelings we got this year: Rage. Contempt. Loneliness. Hopelessness.

Because of this, joyous songs (and there were a good number of them) felt like overwelcome lifeboats getting us to the next day. And even with this year’s crop of the best songs taking us to darker, more introspective places, there was still so much amazing music to share. Let’s take a look at the 50 best songs from a very good year of music.

Yes, there’s a playlist at the bottom of the article. Let’s boogie!

Continue reading →

Comedy, Music/Movies, Pop Culture

Riki’s Righteous Xmas Playlist

December 16, 2024January 6, 2025by rikimjadamsLeave a Comment

Look, if you’re trapped in the capitalist hellscape that is the US, you’re a conscript in the war against Christmas, whichever side you fall on. I mean, Christmas won, it’s fucking everywhere. It’s inescapable. Our borders are contained within Santa’s vast panopticon whether we like it or not. Because this is THE capitalist holiday. This is the grand devotional, our wallets made sacrifice to prove our love to each other.

Even if you just celebrate “the holidays”, the holiday party you’re at is gonna play Christmas music. Because, well, there’s just a fucking lot of it. And more every year. And worst- a lot of it fucking sucks.

But not all of it. So if you find yourself in control of the tunes and you want to make the most of the theme, I offer you this fine tuned playlist to keep things interesting

Continue reading →

Music/Movies, Pop Culture, Uncategorized

“Have You Heard of Martini Ranch?” by Riki MJ Adams

December 9, 2024December 8, 2024by rikimjadamsLeave a Comment

“Have you heard of Martini Ranch?”
It’s a question that I ask of anyone who gets to know me on a long enough timeline. More often than not, I’m not even met with a faint glimmer of recognition. Which always blows my mind until I remember that I also had to be introduced to Martini Ranch long after it had ceased to exist.

I remember exactly how it happened, I was working as a truck driver in 2017, and I had a lot of time to listen to podcasts on the road. A personal favorite was the Witch Finger Horror Podcast. I’d started listening to it as a fan of the band Kittie (who still rips by the way and just dropped a phenomenal album back in June), because the vocalist Morgan Lander was one of three hosts along with Megan Rae, and Yasmina Ketita of Rue Morgue Magazine. As I was listening to episode 19, titled “Near Dark and our tribute to Bill Paxton” (he had died earlier that year) I heard the name Martini Ranch for the first time.

Continue reading →

Music/Movies, Pop Culture

So You Don’t Have To: A Limp Bizkit Concert

July 21, 2024by Brandon AndreasenLeave a Comment

Everything feels vaguely off. It’s not the mind altering drugs. It’s not the fact that I’d competed in two hot sauce eating conversations during the afternoon. It was because everyone around me looked like they had been arrested at some point for stealing Catalytic Converters.

No, I wasn’t at a penal colony. Or a job fair for Port-A-John workers, or a Kid Rock cruise. I was at a Limp Bizkit concert. Desperately trying to figure out how I got there, and spastically trying to figure out how to leave if all the cans of Zyn go empty in this joint.

Continue reading →

Music/Movies, Uncategorized

The Drake/Kendrick Lamar Feud- UPDATE- Drake may be the dumbest person alive…

May 6, 2024by Matt Drufke1 Comment

Last night, after a full day of watching people respond to Kendrick Lamar’s allegations that he was a pedophile running a child trafficking ring out of his mansion, Aubrey Graham (better known to the world as Drake) finally responded. Look, I’ve never been in a feud with Kendrick Lamar. And I’ve never been accused of, by all accounts, the worst crime a person can be accused of. So I’m not going to pretend I have any idea what was running through Graham’s head as I sure he was doom-scrolling social media reading about himself.

His response came in the track “The Heart Part 6”, a reference to a series of songs Lamar has released. And as far as responses go…

It’s really stupid.

Continue reading →

Music/Movies, Uncategorized

Kendrick Lamar vs. Drake: A (not-so) brief breakdown of music’s biggest story

May 5, 2024May 5, 2024by Matt Drufke1 Comment

Unless you don’t care about popular music at all, you have certainly heard about the feud going on between rap stars Drake and Kendrick Lamar. When the new Taylor Swift album dropped last week, I didn’t think anything would be strong enough to knock the spotlight off of The Tortured Poets Department, but I was wrong and wrong in a big way. For the time being, there is no Tortured Poets, there are two poets out there trying to aggressively torture each other.

But, exactly what is going on?

Continue reading →

Music/Movies, The Swiftening

The Swiftening, Part 11: The Tortured Poets Department- The Uncomfortable Writers Depot

April 23, 2024by The Fancy Boys2 Comments

Before December of 2020, Jordan Holmes (comedian, author, podcaster) had never, intentionally, listened to a Taylor Swift song. Then began The Swiftening, where Jordan decided to review every Swift album in order. So far, he has covered Swift’s 2006 debut, 2008’s Fearless, 2010’s Speak Now, and 2012 ‘s Red, 2014’s 1989, 2017’s reputation, 2019’s Lover, and 2020’s folklore and evermore, which we encourage you to check out if you haven’t already.

Back again, as we all knew I would be, the allure of hating cannot be denied. I rarely finish what I begin, and I doubt I will follow her career, alleging talentless desperation after every release, but today, today is… today and I hate.

Continue reading →

Music/Movies, Pop Culture

A Woman In-Between Eras: Examining The Tortured Poets Department

April 22, 2024by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

To open The Tortured Poets Department, her twelfth album (and fourth in five years), Taylor Swift gives us “Fortnight”. Swift and longtime producer Jack Antonoff give us a song that sonically feels in place with the catalog of Lana Del Rey (unsurprising, considering Antonoff also produces some of her music) as the thirty-four year old singer gives us the story of a woman dealing with a relationship gone way too wrong and delving into alcohol and thoughts of violence to her man’s new wife. “I loved you, it’s ruining my life,” Swift sings in a track that feels like something her and Antonoff could do in their sleep. It’s a good track, and Swiftboats (my term for Swift fans, many of whom have long since forgotten about John Kerry) will love it because it’s the kind of song they’ve heard and loved and sung along to before. It’s a very solid Taylor Swift song.

And that’s why it’s a little underwhelming.

Continue reading →