New Music from Gnarls Barkley

Calling it now - there's almost no way anyone will release an album I love more than the new and totally unexpected Gnarls Barkley record that landed out of nowhere (from my perspective, at least) on March 6th. I caught wind of this last week, and have been unable to stop listening to it multiple times a day. Talk about coming from out of nowhere for a win!

You can order a copy from the group's webstore HERE.

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NCBD:

New Comic Book Day pulls for Wednesday, March 18, 2026:

I enjoyed the adaptation of Lovecraft's seminal short story in issue one of this mini-series, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the rest of the story progresses toward its inevitable ending. Or rather, how exactly we reach that ending. 

I LOVE that this cover was created sensitive to the HUGE change that occurred in Transformers 30, a book that literally floored me. Is this the beginning of an Autobot/Joe team-up? If Duke can get over himself, we might just get that.

We've winnowed away most of the killers and have a few spunky civilian survivors. Deals and agendas abound with the power elite behind the massacre and things are heating up for a final confrontation most will not walk away from. Need context? Check this book out! One of my favorites of 2025, we're poised to hit ground zero in two issues, so heads should really start to roll now...

And last but not least, Greg Rucka is writing a new Batwoman series and I am here for it. I don't really know anything about this character other than I've always dug this design. I did read some of the JH Williams III series from back in... I don't know, 2012, maybe? That was 100% about the art - I couldn't tell you anything about the story. With this new series, I'm here for Rucka. After recently reading his Lois Lane miniseries in TPB form and loving it, I'll follow this man to hell and back. 

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Since we did our annual St. Paddy's celebration/State of Grace viewing this past Saturday, this evening we rewatched John Wright's Grabbers. 

"Residents of an island off the coast of Ireland learn that the only way to survive an invasion of blood-sucking aliens is to stay drunk." 

I originally saw this back circa 2019 for an episode of The Horror Vision. I really dug it that time, and did so again. The FX are mostly CG, but that's forgivable when you consider the size of this production and how much goddamn heart it has. Here's a trailer.

I can't stress enough what a good time I had with this one again. Wright's later film, Unwelcome, made my best-of list for 2023, and that's a very different kind of film, thus showing that Jon Wright is a filmmaker to keep an eye on. He doesn't currently have anything listed as "upcoming" on IMDb, but tonight was a good reminder to check in more often. 

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Playlist:

Gnarls Barkley - Atlanta

James Pants - Welcome

Pixies - The Night the Zombies Came

Atticus Derrickson - Black Phone 2 OST

High on Fire - Luminiferous

High on Fire - Electric Messiah

Steve Moore - Jimmy & Stiggs OST

Tangerine Dream - Sorcerer OST

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST

Godflesh - Purge

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Card:

Setting aside Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot (which you can buy HERE.) for another Thoth pull:

• XV: The Devil

•  Two of Wands: Dominion

• Queen of Wands

Two Queen of Wands in a row? What's she trying to tell me? I read this simply as don't believe what they tell you, avoid the patriarchy and focus on love. Feels like this is a spread for america, not me. Either way, two Wands and ol' Scratch tell me to trust myself, not what others say. Definite work-related spread. 

RIP Phil Campbell

Looking back, I don't think I even posted when Lemmy died. Not sure how that happened. I dig Motorhead, but I'm definitely not their biggest fan, simply from lack of exposure in the early days. I did see them for Operation Rock n Roll back in 1991. At the time, they were touring for the album 1916, and that and the first album are probably the extent of my experience. Still, both records are fantastic. 

Anyway, RIP to Campbell. Love this song, and the guitars in it specifically,

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Since St. Paddy's is on Tuesday this year, we did our annual dinner/State of Grace viewing on this past Saturday. Instead of corned beef this year, we made a cottage pie with 1 lb. ground Kobe beef, 1 lb. ground chuck, a shit ton of vegetables, and some Guinness.

We had a fairly early start, so after State of Grace ended, I decided to watch Martin Scorsese's The Departed. I bought this 2-Disc DVD back when the film was first released on home video, circa 2007, but I haven't watched this one in a very long time.

Much to my chagrin, about 60% of the way through the film, the DVD froze. I tried restarting, using the scene selection, etc. Nothing worked. Then I realized who put this out.

Curse you, Warner Brothers!

I wrote about DVD disc rot back during Noirvember, when I pulled the special-edition Blade Runner out for a first viewing in years and found that none of the DVDs in the set worked. This sparked off an internet rabbit hole where I learned that this is quite common for DVDs produced 2006-2009. Apparently, this is an issue the world at large has known about for quite some time. A large part of my archival disc library is DVDs, and in cases where they are of good transfer quality - like most late 00s-era DVDs tend to be - I've always refused to rebuy them on Blu-ray. If there's a need to, sure. That's the rub - what I was able to watch of that Departed disc was still pristine for my standards. Alas, I have to replace it now anyway.

Only, maybe not.

In digging around again, I found that Warner Brothers has apparently acknowledged the issue and is even replacing the discs if you email them at whv@wbd.com. I emailed last night, so I'll update when/if I hear back. whv@wbd.com

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Read:

I did my taxes Friday night, and seeing the return, I figured I could spare $350 to finally do what I've been hemming and hawing about for the last month - back the Hellraiser: Leviathan's Vault Kickstarter.

Really, the only level that interests me is the $350 tier, wherein you receive all the old 80s Marvel/Epic Comics Hellraiser stuff. I do own some of that in single, prestige format issues, but not even close to all of it. Plus, I did read the first trade of the Boom! series but have no idea where that trade is currently, and all of it is OOP and fetches a pretty penny on the second-hand market. The design of this piece is amazing - from the Lament Configuration outer box to the gorgeous slipcases. Can't wait to get my hands on this thing, just not sure where I'm going to display it at this point. 

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Playlist:

Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere

Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple

Gnarls Barkley - Atlanta

Pixies - The Night the Zombies Came

Gylt - I Will Commit a Holy Crime: Tandem

Slow Crush - Thirst

Melvins & Napalm Death - Savage Imperial Death March (pre-release singles)

James Brown - Hell

The Pogues - Rum Sodomy and the Lash

Motorhead - Orgasmatron

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Four of Pentalces

• Queen of Wands

• Ten of Swords

The mastering of one's reality takes a creative force that can also become destructive if left unguided. This is perfect, as right now, I'm absolutely rudderless, creatively speaking. I haven't had an actual writing session since March 8th - I did go this past Friday, but I had several open loops spinning mentally that served to distract me completely.

Get Well Jello!!!

Wishing Mr. Biafra a speedy and complete recovery. Also, thanks to Punk Rock TV channel - check 'em out and think about subscribing if you dig their content. Lots of great stuff here.

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Watch:

K and I hit the theatre today for the premiere of Ian Tuason's feature debut, Undertone, AKA The Undertone. This one is an A24 film that's getting a lot of hype. Here's the trailer, which I managed to avoid seeing until just last week, and which really doesn't give too much away.

This film is all about the sound design. As someone who studied and has done a bit in Sound Design, I was pretty excited for this, and aurally, it did not disappoint. The layers of sound are very complex at times and very well defined. Not easy to throw a lot of disparate sounds at an audience in a Horror film and not have the end result taxing or muddy. Not the case here. My one issue - and it ended up being a kind of big one - was that with all the focus on the sound, I really do not feel like this movie pays off what it sets up at all. That was pretty disappointing. Still, definitely worth seeing.

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Celebrate:

Hey! It's Friday the 13th! Here's the original teaser trailer for one of my favorites of the series!

So tonight, in celebration, let's all go out and jam a large metal rod into the grave of whatever local legend masked killer took out a bunch of our friends and family and kick this party off with a bang!

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Playlist:

Tangerine Dream - Sorcerer OST

Steve Moore - Jimmy & Stiggs OST

Carter Burwell - Blood Simple OST

Jospeh Loduca - Evil Dead II OST

Calderum - Mystical Fortress of Iberian Lands 

Lou Reed - Street Hassle

Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin III

Led Zeppelin - BBC

Mr. Bungle - California

Melvins & Napalm Death - Savage Imperial Death March (pre-release singles)

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• VI: The Lovers

• Five of Wands

• Queen of Swords

Collaboration can bring the light, the inspiration that results in clarity. 

I'm not entirely sure what this is pointing at--- wait. Yes. Yes I do! There's actually A LOT of collaboration coming up in my life as I've been invited to be a regular panel member on The Dread Broadcast! Next episode is on March 31st, 7:00 PM CST. Then I'll be on pretty much every episode (one a month, always on the last night of the month except when that's a holiday) until the holiday season. You can check out The Dreadbroadcast's YouTube page HERE.

New Music From Corrosion of Conformity

Another new track from COC's upcoming album Good God/Baad Man, out April 3rd. Pre-order from Nuclear Blast Records HERE.

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NCBD:

Pretty big week this week. Let's go!

An "inside source" tells me this 30th issue of Skybound's Transformers is a doozy, so it will be on top of my reading pile this evening!

Big story swings in the most recent issues of TMNT, and I'm cautious following the events, thinking about how many changes the brothers have been through since IDW launched this continuity. Is the current arc a way to revive a previous status quo, or something much darker? We. Will. See. 

Will Ordained #2 actually come out this week? I've put this up here so many times in the last few months, I'd say all bets are off. Great first issue, I just hope the false solicitations don't wear us out before it can continue. 

This is one of those, "'nuff said" covers, right? I'll say, while I'm happy that Skybound has kept old Snake Eyes out of the Energon Joe continuity, it's still nice to see him in Hama's hands. 

A new Alias book not written by Bendis? Definitely giving this a try, but it's a "Red Band" book, so that instantly makes me think it will be overdone. 

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Playlist:

Swans - Cop/Younggod

Talk Talk - The Color of Spring

Godflesh - Purge

James Brown - Essentials

James Brown - Hell

Portishead - Third

Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere

Gnarls Barkley - Atlanta 

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Card:

One Card from Thoth:

The End of Godflesh

 

A lot of Godflesh this past weekend after seeing the following post on Justin K. Broadrick's IG. I find it sadly indicative of the age we live in that a man with a serious health condition needs to hesitate to inform his fans of a situation such as this with the expectation of retaliatory comments. I, for one, will be crushed to see Godflesh go; however, Broadrick has many other projects and I would rather he err on the side of his continued health than risk disaster continuing. Also, if you listen to the opening vocals of this lead-in track from 2017's Post Self, you can hear the strain this man still puts on his body while recording vocals. It's awesome to behold, but also no real surprise that as he ages, this kind of exertion would become a health concern.  

 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Justin K Broadrick (@justinkbroadrick)

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Watch:

This past Thursday night, I did another double feature at the local cinema. First up was Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Bride. This was a treat; I can't tell you how many times I sat through the trailers for this film in the theatre, but the film turns out to be a lot more than either version of the preview intimates. Maggie is destined for the marketing tag, "... visionary Director..." and it fits. I knew within the first five minutes that A) there was A LOT about this film I had not anticipated and B) as a filmmaker, MG's style is singular and strong. 

Afterward, I drove K home, recorded a spoiler-free review with Missi for The Horror Vision, and then drove back to the theatre for a 10:55 PM showing of Rod Blackhurst's Dolly. Turns out, 11:00 PM was the perfect time to view this one in a mostly empty theatre. Creepy A.F. doesn't even begin to describe this film!

Ostensibly a new take on the classic Slasher formula, the thing I really loved about this one was how much the sequences inside the killer's home felt like a Puppet Combo game, specifically, Don't Go in the House and Nun Massacre. Two of my favorites. 

Blackhurst has to be a Puppet Combo fan - there are first-person shots from hiding beneath a bed and a sequence where the final girl - Fabianne Therese - searches through dresser drawers and the like. It was just spot on! Fantastic performances all around, and also, one of the gnarliest jaw-related practical FX I've seen. 

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Playlist:

Deftones - B-Sides and Rarities

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - B-Sides & Rarities Volume 1

Godflesh - Purge

sunn O))) - Eponymous (pre-release singles)

Deliverance - Neon Chaos in a Junk-Sick Dawn

Godflesh - A World Lit Only By Dub

Godflesh - Post Self

Godflesh - Songs of Love and Hate

Psychedelic P*rn Crumpets - Pogo Rodeo

Melvins - Houdini

Christopher Young & Lustmord - The Empty Man OST

Converge & Chelsea Wolfe - Bloodmoon: I

Deftones - private music

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Six of Cups

• Five of Pentacles

• Three of Wands

Tap into your inner fears and transmute them into something strong. 

Interesting. The idea here is taking something from the real world that frightens me - let's face it, only the real world frightens me - and use my Will to turn it into something strong. Something known. 

Also, not sure I've drawn the Three of Wands on this deck before. Gorgeous fucking card (like every other card in this deck!)

New Blackbraid!!!

New Blackbraid EP is out today! You can order a copy right here on their Bandcamp for Bandcamp Friday! 

Blackbraid III has become one of my all-time favorite records, and hearing this EP, I can tell that my fervor is only going to continue to mount with each subsequent release.

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After falling in love with James Gunn's Peacemaker series recently, I've actually started a "Shawn Was Wrong" segment on Drinking with Comics. DC finally has its head out of its arse. Need more proof? 

 

I cannot believe they've made Green Lantern something I am interested in! Now that's f**king magick, baby!

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Watch:

Beyondfest Chicago announced the lineup and hopefully, about ten hours after this posts, I'll have tickets for a handful of screenings. 

None of the films I have my eye on are ones I know nothing about. Always the best way to see any movie. 

That said, the film Normal has one familiar variable: Bob Odenkirk. Here's a trailer:

I've been a fan of Odenkirk's since Mr. Brown made me a lifelong disciple of Mr. Show back in the 90s. It's been a joy to see his film career evolve the way it has. 

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Playlist:

Tool - Undertow

Foxy Shazam - Dark Blue Night

sunn O))) - Eponymous (pre-release singles)

Matte Black - I'm Waving, Not Drowning

Blackbraid - III

Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons

Blackbraid - Nocturnal Womb (pre-release single)

Jucifer - Lambs EP

Pixies - The Night the Zombies Came

Melvins - Houdini Live '05

Barry Adamson - Scala! OST

Fever Ray - The Lake/Wrong Flower EP

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Card:

Back on the Thoth (But you can still order Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot HERE.)

• Ace of Wands

• Ace of Disks

• I: The Magus

Notice how the numbers read 911? Weird, right? 

The two Aces are breakthroughs, so watch for gains and new creative ground (my Will tends to center on creation). The Magus is the flex that makes it happen. Magick.

So we're at this crossroads again, eh? 

Hit Play, For Today

 

This past Monday morning, it was raining when I woke up. It wasn't just raining - it was raining in that not-quite-winter, not-quite-spring way, where the sky was grey but still bright, the air was nippy but not cold, and the world outside seemed both decayed and renewed. In other words, a perfect morning to throw on some music by The Cure. My go-tos in this situation are 1982's Pornography or 1986's Disintegration. There's always an offhand chance Seventeen Seconds might beat one of those two out, and Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me is a rarity, but one that lives in my heart. I hardly ever go to the singles compilation Standing on a Beach, primarily for two reasons:

• 1) I don't generally love compilation albums - I'd rather get to know the entire albums the songs originally appeared on.
• 2) Early Cure - as in the first few years - is not my go-to with the band. I prefer the dark A.F. Pornography and the evolutionary climb that occurs between that and Disintegration, the former being what I would describe as Proto-Industrial, the latter being perfect downbeat Pop. 

Monday, however, it was indeed Beach that I pulled from my CD shelves and listened to from start to finish. I don't think I could accurately express how this listening affected me. Not nostalgia - an outlier or not, I have history with this record - but a new appreciation for the first singles by the band. This lead me down a brief rabbit hole with 1979's Three Imaginary Boys, the band's debut record and one that, while I've listened to it, I have never owned it. 

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NCBD:

Every issue of Matt Fraction and Jorge Jimenez's Batman title turns out to be pure joy, and that's something we could all use a little more of in our life. 

The end of issue #1 proved to be a total WTF? so I can't wait to get into this one. Jason Aaron was definitely the dude to go to for this relaunch of such a classic 80s property.

Finally - the finale to Zander Cannon's Sleep! If you're reading this, you know the last few months were not easy to wait for this conclusion, but we're finally here, and, as much as I want to see how this wraps up, I am sorry to see this one go. This was my #1 comic of 2025!

I still haven't done that re-read on The Nice House on the Lake since it came back for the second half. I'll have to get on that soon. 

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Playlist:

The Cure - Standing on a Beach

Faith No More - Angel Dust

Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables

Jello Biafra and Melvins - Sieg Howdy!

Melvins - Houdini

John Zorn - The Big Gundown: John Zorn Plays the Music of Ennio Morricone

Melvins - The Crybaby

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F♯ A♯ ∞ 

Rob Zombie - The Great Satan

Melvins & Napalm Death - Tossing Coins Into The Fountain Of Fuck (single)

Foxy Shazam - Eponymous

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Card:

One card from the Thoth deck because it's late and I'm tired.

Fight to impose your Will on the world around you.

This is interesting. I've been thinking about Magick a lot again. It's been some time since I actively practiced, but I'm feeling a pull. Is this an acknowledgement?