One more week in the gamer seat - now you're playing with power. Even in the library we're only about games. But you know who doesn't play? Swedish technical submission grapplers SMACKDOWN. JO-HAN... GET THE TABLES!

Doctors and unemployment counsellors hate us for this one weird trick where we leverage the very lowest form of nepotism to simply sidestep the entire rat race. It's so simple, why don't you do it? We already lost interest in your problems because because we're steady gaming. Exit 8, Platform 8, Crazy 8s... mere stepping stones on our mission to catch all of San Diego's most collectible boys, CRIME DESIRE.

We are ready to answer for our decisions. We are ready to admit that not all our choices are the good ones and that not all fitness influencers are created equal. We are ready to face the fact that non-linearity and the hollow shell of past convenience can yield mixed results. Maybe it's time for you to do the same. Maybe we could all take some cues from the youth driven passions and grievances of DRAGNET. Or no wait, hold on...

Today we speak of old men insisting on the pursuits of young men - gaming like young men, marching in the streets like young men, lip syncing like young men. But I'll tell you what's really old is pennies. First of all they are brown which is the oldest color of money and nobody knows why we have them. Did you know West Virginia named their finest band after the guy on the penny? LINCOLN, I guess?

It's time once again to start thinking of ways to be more spooky - whether it's communing with suburban witches, collecting low grade serial killers, or waiting to be summoned from your lair in the sewers. And now I see by my shibboleth timepiece that we're just about ready to wrap up our absolutely thorough audit of these 50 states with Louisiana's WE NEED TO TALK.

This week we are wearing only black. Not in mourning, but because we must walk in the footsteps of the goatfathers who came before us in respecting small businesses, cultural foodstuffs, and the chain of provenance of the swords of America. As luck would have it, you can also wear black when slamming to the music of Arkansas such as BURNED UP BLED DRY.

This week we don broad hats and cravats to pass as riverboat gamblers en route to america's most culturally productive delta, hoping the lawless highwayman strategy of putting an entire paycheck on red yields a good result. If not, at least we have the paint-peeling shriek of Mississippi's own ATOMIC JEFFERSON to keep us occupied in our cells.

This week we think about fish made of stone, snakes borne of a toddler's screen time, and the warlike tendencies of nostalgia streamers before finally solving some lifelong mysteries by checking out the hot North Dakota (maybe) sounds of Fargo(maybe)'s own GODHEADSILO.

Gang, it's just storytime this week. You've never heard so many goddamn stories. Plus we're RAPIDLY concluding our survey if American Hardcore by chalking up another challenging state. Perhaps you know these fellas from Mt Rushmore. No the other Mt Rushmore. Wait have you ever even been to South Dakota? STATE OF THE UNION has.

If you thought we were old before, check out today's episode where we discuss the finality and hopelessness of hospice and the sweet sounds of Sting as misinterpreted by booger punks. Eventually we find lots and lots to think about from Philadelphia metallic hardcore pioneers DARE 2 DEFY.