This issue of VICE comes wrapped in a Jerry Hsu cover shot and dives straight into the kind of strange, chaotic stories you’d expect. Pete Doherty takes the spotlight in a raw, messy tour diary that captures the beauty and disaster of life on the road. There’s also Mazel Tov, an undercover look inside a Hasidic wedding, where tradition and infiltration collide in true VICE fashion. Another standout piece drops us into Tokyo, exploring the weird and sometimes alienating experience of being pregnant in one of the world’s busiest cities.

Music threads through the issue in multiple ways: the noisy free-jazz duo Flaherty and Corsano tearing things apart in Friendly Fire, a profile of cult folk icon Vashti Bunyan finding herself again after years away, and a blunt essay declaring flatly that Music Is Boring. Alongside it all, Ben Weasel shares his unexpected thoughts on baseball, while “Fuck Asses: The Bull Gets the Horns” brings a heavy dose of provocation. Themes of dislocation and identity resurface in Don’t Have to Live Like a Refugee and in the quietly uncomfortable exploration of intimacy in “They Don’t Like to Talk About Sex.”

The regular sections keep the familiar rhythm: “Was Geht, Alter?,” DOs & DON’Ts, fashion spreads, and cultural grab bags like Want My DVDs and Video Games Killed the Radio Star. Reviews and runoff wrap things up, tying together an issue that balances provocation, music obsession, and odd glimpses into worlds that don’t often make it to the surface.