Before TikTok, before OnlyFans, before anyone used the phrase "sex positive" — there was Robin Byrd on New York public access cable. Sarah Jessica Parker just produced a documentary about her called Bang My Box on Max, and it's worth your time. Ben and Ione break down why Robin Byrd was genuinely radical and why she was impossible to put down.

Also: why 90s indie artists were culturally forbidden from wanting success (and how that's completely changed), the Miles Davis quote that explains every artist's journey, Ninajirachi’s victorious homecoming and why the horror film Obsession is better than it has any right to be.

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Ione is about to shoot a new film. Ben is thinking about covering Georgia Maq’s “Joe Rogan” song on their upcoming Australian tour. We found a 1990 Elle magazine article where legendary LA writer Eve Babitz profiled Ione and her brother (attached in full below), which includes a birthday party guest list featuring Robert Downey Jr., Sarah Jessica Parker (before anyone knew her), Adam Horovitz, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Also: Lars Von Trier once challenged Baz Luhrmann to make a Dogme 95 film. Baz’s response is perfect. Plus — why the Hal Hartley clip went viral on film Instagram, Sofia Coppola and Zoe Cassavetes competing over a French director, and Ben’s theory about how Baz Luhrmann changed the way every film gets edited.

Dive deeper into our world at https://weirdertogether.substack.com

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Dive deeper into our world + tour ticket presales at https://weirdertogether.substack.com

Ben's back from 60 shows around Australia (and avoided all crocodiles). Ione has been nursing a six-foot baby. And we have a lot to catch up on.This week: Olivia Rodrigo just announced Daisy Chain Fields — an all-female festival with Bikini Kill, Stevie Nicks, Mitski, Chappell Roan, Karen O, and more — and we get into why it matters, what Lilith Fair got right and wrong, and why the 90s community ethos feels more radical than ever in 2026.

Also: it's the 40th anniversary of Wham! breaking up, and Ione has a memory involving a gay music promoter on her childhood street, early vinyl promos, and George Michael not yet being out.

Plus: why Hal Hartley is the most underrated director of the American indie film era, the troll who called Ben a "soy boy," and Ione's lifelong crush on a boy who wrestled a crocodile.

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This week we got completely sucked into DTF St. Louis on Max — and we have thoughts. David Harbour plays the most likable character in a show about suburban kinks, male loneliness and consensual weirdness, and we can't stop thinking about two middle-aged men tenderly dancing in their tighty-whities. Also: a woman yelled "you're my hall pass" at Ben during his Richmond show, and we're noticing a trend.

Plus: the AI music backlash is real — Suno just raised $400 million and yet the public has definitively decided they do not want AI-created music. The Spotify CEO thinks bands should just drop a song every month. Reese Witherspoon is doing "let them eat cake" AI ads. And we explain exactly why tech platforms fundamentally do not understand creativity.

Also: Seth Rogen's New York Times interview is essential listening, Ione had her first art show (get the painting at Vamped Vintage in Newtown), and we make the case for always having at least one normie friend in your life.

Hit us up with your questions at [email protected]

Ben and Ione are fresh off Ben's Tasmanian tour — and they have opinions. They break down their first encounter with actual Tasmanian devils (terrifying, zombie-like, cannot be explained), rave about Woolworths Flu Shot (a six-piece punk band from Hobart who just might be the best new band in Australia), and dissect the Butthole Surfers documentary The Whole Truth and Nothing But — asking the bigger question: is transgressive art always rooted in personal trauma?

Plus: Richard Pryor's bisexuality and what it meant to be that openly queer as a Black performer in the 70s, Phoebe Bridgers' no-phones tour as a stroke of marketing genius, and a full decode of the Charli XCX Music Fashion Film album cover — what does choosing John Cale, Martin Scorsese, and Marc Jacobs actually say about where she's headed?

Also: Ione reveals the four fictional characters she most identifies with (one of them is Woodstock from Peanuts), and Ben has early intel on Folk Bitch Trio, the Australian band about to blow up internationally.

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Joan Baez suggested pop stars should be more politically active. Swifties went on the attack. Ben and Ione have thoughts — including why picking a fight with someone who marched alongside Martin Luther King might not be your best move.

Also this week: Jay-Z showed up at the Roots Picnic and did a 10-minute acapella freestyle attacking Drake, Kanye, Nicki Minaj, and Dame Dash. Ben breaks down why a whole generation just knows Jay-Z as Beyoncé's husband — and why that matters.

Ben makes the case that Kylie Minogue's Impossible Princess is her Pinkerton — the misunderstood record that history will eventually get right. Pitchfork agrees. Nick Cave does not, and Ben has some words about that.

Plus: The Backrooms movie at the Dendy, Rachel Ward's regenerative farm, Sparks at the Opera House (how gay is a Sparks crowd exactly?), and Ione's weekend at a Chanel-funded literary showcase for diverse female writers.

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Weirder Together is hosted by Ione Skye and Ben Lee.

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