Mclusky is the closest thing I've seen to the old Butthole Surfers. Thanks to Mr. Brown and Jacob for sending this my way, because this band was not on my radar at all.
New album, "the world is still here and so are we" is out now on Ipecac Recordings; order a copy HERE.
NCBD:
I love that this week's pull is two super indie Horror books and one major. Makes me feel like maybe the indie comics world is making a new push. Let's do everything we can to help it succeed.
Barstow is so goddamn odd and I have loved every freakin' minute of it. A Desert X-Files analogue, except darker, weirder and a helluva lot bloodier than Mulder and Scully ever saw. This appears to be the final issue, but damn would I love to see a 'second season.'
I know nothing about Plague House by Michael W. Conrad and Dave Chisholm, but Oni Press has really been knocking it out of the park lately, so I'm on board to check this out. Here's the solicitation blurb from League of Comic Geeks:
"Thirteen years ago, Orin McCabe was a family man living a privileged life in the suburbs. Today, he’s condemned to death row for murdering his entire family in an unexpected fit of hammer-wielding brutality. In the aftermath of his heinous crime, it’s fallen to a trio of eclectic, but dedicated, ghost hunters—Jacob, the holy man; Holland, the skeptic; and their leader, Del, a true believer in the occult and worlds beyond—to surveil the abandoned McCabe home in search of proof for the existence of the undead . . . and whatever supernatural source may have possibly fueled McCabe’s inhuman massacre. But this ill-matched and uneasy squad of investigators is about to discover something much more terrifying than any ordinary spirit. . . . Something much more pernicious, much more contagious, that if not contained, could take full advantage of America’s unquenchable appetite for violence and deliver a plague of blood unto us all . . ."
Sounds f'king awesome, right?
Finally, thinking of picking this up:
Larry Hama's GIJOE: ARAH is doing this weekly event "Silent Missions," and while I probably won't pick up the all, I have a soft spot for Beach Head, so I'm in on this one.
Watch:
I caught the trailer for the new film by Talk to Me's Danny and Michael Philippou once in the trailer last month and it was enough to convince me that I would henceforth be in rabid expectation.
Great title, too. The Philippou's are fantastic filmmakers who earned their first hit and will likely continue to make them. There's an interview with the brothers up on Indie Wire that I haven't had a chance to read and likely will avoid until after the film's theatrical release on May 30th, which you can bet your arse I'll be sitting in a seat at my Regal for.
Playlist:
Pink Floyd - Umma Gumma
Alice Donut - Dry Humping the Cash Cow
The Kills - Live at Third Man Records
Arcade Fire - Everything Now
Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power
Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears
Melvins - Thunderball
Mclusky - the world is still here and so are we
Various – The Daptone Super Soul Revue Live! At The Apollo
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• XXI: The World
• VIII: Strength
• King of Pentacles
XXI: The World (The Universe in Thoth) can sometimes indicate a happy ending. Combined with Strength and King of Pentalces - financial security - indicates, to me at this time, stay the course and things will work out. Really interesting developments after my recent pontifications on work and corporate life (anti-life), and I can't help but feel this pull is a direct response.
Another fantastic live performance as posted by the fantastic ARTE Concert YouTube page.
I'm super new to Hangman's Chair - I discovered them by way of singer Cédric Toufouti's work on Perturbator's Lustful Sacraments - so I had no idea they were big enough for a crowd like this. Always nice to see a band you're sweet on getting an ocean of love at a live performance.
I've posted recently about the band's new album, Saddiction, which you can pick up from Nuclear Blast HERE.
Watch:
I really think I need to spend a little more time talking about Severance than I did the other day. This is, for me, the most important show I know of at the moment.
This show is an allegory for the ramifications of the Corporate paradigm we live in and its effect on human beings, and it's a damn good one, at that. It's really made me reflect on my life and my job, which is becoming so all-consuming that it's affecting my writing, my sanity, and maybe my overall person. I have dreams that express the fear I'm being slowly brainwashed into one of these fucking corporate pod-people, and it's terrifying.
One of the major plotlines of Severance is how the "Outties" - i.e., the person when not at work- basically sell their "Innies" into slavery. Of course, the Outtie does not go unscathed. I've only seen far enough (season 2, episode 2) into the show to get a feel for one character's home life, but it's clear they are not happy. Because, of course, to draw a really strong comparison from Severance to a film I love:
You cannot treat one aspect of yourself poorly and not expect it to affect the overall organism.
This is an exaggerated pretense of how I feel about my work-life balance, a term that in and of itself makes me crazy. I spend far too much of my time working, thinking about work, solving my Innie's problems, and in this way, I feel like, just as The Substance is a remarkable allegory for beauty and self-worth, Severance is an allegory for the trade-off we make for money, status and all the other trappings of 'success.' To many people who know me, I might appear successful. In my own mind, however, I realize the damage the trade-off is doing.
Word.
Playlist:
Ministry - The Squirrely Years
Tim Hecker - Infinity Pool OST
Flying Lotus - ASH OST
The Veils - Asphodels
Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power
Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears
Motley Crue - Shout at the Devil
Heilung - Lifa
David Bowie - Outside
Metallica - Kill 'Em All
Slow Crush - Aurora
Low - Trust
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Queen of Cups
• XVI: The Tower
• Seven of Wands
Look to your dreams for what comes after the Fall. Of special note may be causes previously thought irrelevant.
I had heard Uncle Al was bringing the band out on the road to play the material from the 12" Singles/With Sympathy era, but I didn't realize that meant we were going to get a fully reworked release of the most iconic tracks. That's right - Ministry: The Squirrely Years Revisited is out and it's pretty damn good.
Watch:
I could tell you about the movie with Jenny Ortega and Paul Rudd that I went to see last night, or I can keep it clean and talk about how, despite my lifelong disdain for Ben "The Black Hole of Comedy" Stiller, my sister recently talked me into watching Severence on Apple TV and I absolutely love it.
Now, Stiller didn't create this, but he directed the first three episodes, and they were stellar! I mean, credit where it's due, folks.
Created by Dan Erickson, IMDB sums the show up thusly:
"Mark leads a team of office workers whose memories have been surgically divided between their work and personal lives. When a mysterious colleague appears outside of work, it begins a journey to discover the truth about their jobs."
This show is DARK. The lives of each character are divided as their "Innie" and "Outie." The Innie's lives exist solely at the office, and while most of them cope by convincing themselves they are doing something great, one character is desperate to get out and cannot. She makes several resignation requests to her Outtie, but each falls on deaf ears, leading to an increasingly malevolent response.
Can't recommend this one enough.
Read:
Late last week, I finished John Dies At the End, and I'm happy to report it was absolutely fantastic. Such a fun read that has a pretty unique tone. Dave, the Narrator, has a particularly snarky approach to the world, and the titular John splits the difference between stupidity and heroism perfectly.
Next up: Adam Cesare's Clown in a Cornfield.
I was on the fence about this one, but my good friend Jesus sent me a copy a year or two ago, and with the movie coming out, I knew we'd cover it on The Horror Vision, so I figured a comparison between the film and source material would be in order. ~80 pages in, and I can say this is a very readable book. Not much has happened yet, but I'm enjoying it for sure.
Playlist:
Shellac - Excellent Italian Greyhound
Pink Floyd - Piper At the Gates of Dawn
Tool - Ænima
Ike Reilly - Poison the Hit Parade
Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears
Skid Row - Eponymous
Skid Row - Slave to the Grind
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• King of Wands
• Two of Swords
• Ace of Swords
Mastering Will to stand or severe unproductive partnerships. Hmmm... I hate when I receive 'work advice' from the cards, but it's on point.
I had kind of tuned Radiohead out by the time In Rainbows landed, but I'm not really sure why. My good friend Chester recently brought up In Rainbows being what he considered the end of the band's Golden Age, so I went back and gave it a couple of pretty deep listens. I definitely agree with Chester; In Rainbows, while nowhere near Kid A, OK Computer, or even Hail to the Thief, definitely feels more in line with those albums. I suppose at some point I need to test my prejudices against Radiohead's later output, which seems like it became interchangeable with York's solo career at some point and started sounding a bit like self-indulgent electronic noodling.
I am super excited about all three books in this week's Pull:
Really digging Dust to Dust from Giant Generator and Image Comics, a kind of Dustbowl Horror Thriller from JG Jones and Phil Bram. This is apparently the penultimate issue; not sure if this will continue beyond issue #5, but it seems like it's a safe bet.
With the first issue of Into the Unbeing Part Two, this book became even weirder than it already was. That's not nothing. I'm definitely recommending this book to anyone who enjoyed Jeff Vandermeer's Southern Reach series as much as I did.
I mentioned this a week or two ago, and my excitement has only grown. All hail Giallo-inspired everything!
Playlist:
The Kills - Live at Third Man Records
Blind Willie McTell - Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order (Vol. 1)
Really digging this new Hangman's Chair album. Here's one of my favorite tracks so far. You can head over to Nuclear Blast to order Saddiction on vinyl or CD.
Watch:
I ran across the trailer for Joshua Erkman's debut feature film, A Desert on Bloody Disgusting, yesterday and instantly fell in love with the tone of the trailer - which I watched once and doesn't give much away.
Of particular note, The Jesus Lizard's David Yow is in the cast, which is casting I'm always happy to see. I'm completely unfamiliar with everyone else involved except the credited composer is none other than Ty Segall! Also, distributor Dark Sky Films tends to deliver greatness.
Looking around online, I found one of co-writer/Director Joshua Erkman's previous films available on YouTube:
I turn 49 today. Happy to still be here, slightly confused at how that's possible. Fuck it - let's listen to some Flying Lotus!
Even at a curt 1:24, "Blood and Pain" stands out as one of my favorite tracks on an album full of favorite tracks, Flying Lotus' 2021 Yasuke. I'd kind of lost track of this man's music for a few years when I discovered this record last year, and it brought me flying right back.
Watch:
Speaking of Flying Lotus, this past Thursday night, K and I sat at our local big box theatre and watched Flying Lotus' new film, Ash.
I wish I could tell you that I loved this as much as I love the man's music, but that's not the case. Do I regret seeing it in the theatre? Absolutely not, and in fact, I'd encourage others to support it as well. Just know what you're getting into.
Ash is slow and somewhat cumbersome in its dissemination of the story. It's meant to be that way because of where the characters are, but it takes making us feel what they do a bit too literally. Slow is never a problem with me, if the film has strong legs to stand on. But things here wobble; there's some convenience in the writing and some ambiguity that doesn't feel purposeful. Also, Ash substitutes - probably out of budgetary necessities - flashes of FX for anything of real depth, which is fine if it's not the only technique you're using. But here, we're indoctrinated with these kind of "nightmare, body-horror" flashes early on, fragments of main character Riya's damaged memory of events that led to the death or disappearance of her ship's entire crew. Later in the movie, we get some action, a fight for survival, and the FX opens up a bit, but it still feels right in line with what we had earlier. Limited.
Now, to play my own devil's advocate, while everything I mention above feels like a weakness, I can say there's also a strength and a healthy dose of hope here, as well. Everything I'm describing feels like a weakness because this is a movie on a big screen in a theatre. But can we not shift our bias and look at this as, "Holy smokes - this is basically a relatively new filmmaker being given not only a chance to make a pretty large-scale film but have it distributed nationwide? I mean, I saw this at a Regal in Clarksville, for fuck's sake. That's kind of staggering.
Granted, Ash is considerably more advanced than films like Skinamarink or The Outwaters - two films I give props to but fucking hated - but its distribution jackpot owes a lot to them*. So I guess all this is to say it's not really a surprise that Ash found a wide release, but even with its shortcomings, the hope is this will further develop Flying Lotus' career so that maybe next time, he'll have the budget and insight to really blow our minds.
* And yes, I'm aware both of those films owe their shot at the big screen to the massive success of Damian Leone's Terrifier 2; however, if you want to take it even further back, I'll bring up my absolute shock at seeing films like Hatching, You Won't Be Alone and Lamb in my local AMC theatre post COVID lockdown.
Read:
The same day that we went to Nashville to see The Straight Story at the Belcourt Theatre, we made our first visit to Jack White's Third Man Records.
I'm not a Jack White fan. The White Stripes were a much-needed breath of fresh air at the time Elephant blew up, but White's meteoric rise to stardom afterward kind of baffles me. I think I can trace my cynicism back to the moment I saw the DVD It's Going to Get Loud on a shelf at Borders. This is a video that hoists White up as a peer with The Edge and, even more incredibly, Jimmy Page. I can't say I ever watched this video, but its very existence rankled me, and from there, whatever tidbits of information that have trickled down to me about the man have just reinforced that opinion. Well, except one.
His records stores.
From all accounts I'd read, Third Man Records is a bastion of old-school record store glory in an age devoid of such places. Add to this innovations like converting an ice cream truck into a mobile record shop and I almost want to cry. I mean, what an unbelievably cool idea! Literally bringing the music to the people.
I knew Third Man was in Nashville, but I hadn't been yet, so when my cousin asked if we could visit while he was in town, I assured my wallet all would be well and set the controls for 623 7th Ave South.
The moment I stepped inside, I fell in love with the place.
Wall-to-wall vinyl, all gorgeously packaged and displayed. So many items unique to this store, and just a general sense of reverence for physical media. Yeah, it didn't exactly alter my opinion of White as an egotist when, for the entire forty-five minutes or so we were inside, all they played on the overhead speakers was White's music. That's fine, though. I mean, flaunt it if ya got it, I guess, right? Especially when you maintain a place like this (named after my favorite black and white movie, no less)
Other than the records I purchased, I also picked up an issue of Maggot Brain, Third Man's quarterly music magazine.
I primarily grabbed the issue because of the TVOTR article, but in slowly working my way through it over the last few days, this is the closest thing to when I used to read The Wire back circa 2008-2011. I LOVE this magazine for the same reason I loved TheWire or Heaven is an Incubator. Simply put, there are more words spent on bands and artists I have never heard of than those I have. That's super important to me because I am always looking for new music.
Playlist:
Blind Willie McTell - Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order (Vol. 1)
Sqürl - Third Man Records Session
Spoon - They Want My Soul
QOTSA - In Times New Roman
INXS - Kick
TVOTR - Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes
Deftones - Ohms
Flying Lotus - Yasuke
Flying Lotus - ASH OST
Windhand - Levitation Sessions (Live)
Heilung - Lifa
Radiohead - Myxomatosis (single)
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Four of Wands
• Ace of Swords
• VI: The Lovers
Being that it's my day of reiteration today, I'm viewing this spread as an indication of how to proceed for the next 365 days. What does it say? Well, I see a steady foundation and a healthy application of Will - moving forward with these two ideas as a basic tenant for the next year will provide an alchemical reaction.
Holy F**K! I knew songs from this record had already dropped, but I kept missing it. Until now (Thanks, Mr. Brown!). I love this opening track and can only imagine it bodes well for the rest of the album. A little weird missing Dale, but after just (finally) watching the Colossus of Destiny: A Melvins Tale, I'm picking up what Buzz and original drummer Mike Dillard are putting down.
Out April 18th, you can pre-order Thunderball directly from Ipecac Recordings HERE.
Watch:
A trailer for Michael Shanks' debut feature Together dropped the other day. I have not watched it; I've heard a few small things about this. Only vagueries, really, but enough to make me curious as all hell. And when I'm curious, I try to remember one simple fact: Trailers spoil movies.
Still, I always post here for posterity's sake. So watch at your own risk.
I'm pretty sure I said it here before, but I love that Body Horror has become viable enough to be getting wide theatrical releases. Let's all go see this and make sure that remains a thing, shall we?
Playlist:
Angus MacLise - New York Electronic, 1965
Sqürl - Third Man Records Session
Pink Floyd - Ummagumma (thanks, Josh!)
Dinosaur Jr. - Sweep It Into Space
Melvins - Hold It In
Sunn O))) - Monoliths & Dimensions
Flying Lotus - Yasuke
Melvins - Thunderball (pre-release singles)
Zonal - Eponymous (single)
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• IV: The Emperor
• Eight of Pentacles
• XI: Justice
Concentrate on the rules we've made, which are faltering, and you can move past them into the underlying, seemingly unconnected processes. It is here you will find the architecture that governs this existence.
Not sure what I'm going to do with that, but it just kind of came to me while thinking about each individual card and how they fit together. I really don't "read" tarot that way, but maybe a little woo-woo is needed to even out my constant overthinking and page-turning.
