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? 

Super Gore

From their now ten-year-old album Gore. Been a while since I've listened to this one, and one listen put it right back into regular rotation.

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Watch:

With all the big-budget stuff James Gunn is doing for DC that I'm only just now getting in on, I had an urge to go back and rewatch his 2010 film Super. 

Man, does this hold up! So F*cked up, but Super also has a lot of heart. It's a push-pull with where this one takes you, and I'm happy I finally added a Blu-ray copy to my shelves. Everyone involved gives fantastic performance, and even though it makes you uncomfortable and uneasy, a strange affirmation of humanity seeps in at the end. If Gunn has a superhero ability, that's it right there. 

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Read:

Also, I'm about 150 pages into Project Hail Mary. My cousin's husband put this on my radar last summer, and I finally grabbed a copy from Clarksville Bookshoppe a couple of months ago. 

Just getting around to it now - possibly the last non-Stephen King or research-related read I'll have for the foreseeable future if I really double down and go with this Dark Tower/The Talisman re-read in anticipation of Other Worlds Than These. As promised, Andy Weir is a fantastic author and this is a fantastic read. Very light for something so infused with actual scientific data. The day I purchased this was my clue that a film was on the immediate horizon, so I'm squeezing this in before the March 20th release date. 

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Playlist:

Tangerine Dream - Sorcerer OST

Various - An Anthology of Noise & Electronic Music/Second A-Chronology Vol 2 (Disc1)

Low Cut Connie - Art Dealers

Lou Reed - Eponymous

Fever Ray - The Bride EP

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

Helmet - Aftertaste

Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons

Adam Kesher - Local Girl (Hatchmatik Remix)

Faith No More - Angel Dust

Deftones - Gore

Rob Zombie - The Great Satan

Rammstein - Reise, Reise

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Let Love In

Foxy Shazam - Eponymous

Ghostland Observatory - Paparazzi Lightning

Team Human w/ Douglas Rushkoff - Chapel Perilous w/ Gabriel Kennedy & Grant Morrison

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Card:

I've been doing daily spreads with the Thoth deck, as well as before-bed single-card draws. The Two of Disks went face-up on my bedside table on Friday and I only just relinquished it. 

A change to the way I'm doing some 'Earthly' things will do me some good; that's enough of a kick in the pants to run with an idea I had recently. I'm getting pretty regular practice with spreadsheet creation and manipulation at work these days and I thought it might be advantageous to try adapting some of that stuff for personal functions. Primarily, money.

Teenage Sex and Death At Camp Miasma

When Faster Pussycat's House of Pain came out in 1989, I was thirteen. My friend Zak bought (or stole) the cassette single. I remember it vividly, even though I couldn't tell you what the B-side was. We weren't really FP fans - despite listening to some other pretty hokey bands, something about the name turned us off. I don't remember if I had an opinion on this song either way back then. Let's just say I tolerated it.

K and I have been watching HOBOMAX's Peacemaker series - it's fantastic - and in season one, episode four, this song is used to fabulous effect. Hearing it, I had an immediate, almost unbelievably strong emotional reaction. I chewed on it multiple times over the next week, listened to the Wake Me When It's Over album, and, although that was pretty lackluster, the song stands. 

There's a definite Stephen Tyler element to Singer Taime Downe's approach, but where it comes off unabashed in other songs on the album, for House of Pain it really works. The guitar glitters in forlorn opulence, and the harmonica just seals the deal. It sounds like crying. Which is essentially what the song is about. A little boy waiting for a father that will never show. 

Damn. 

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Watch:

I'm rounding the final stretch on a two-week "no drinking" interval. The context is that K had a minor injury to her foot (she's fine), and the doctor prescribed a two-week course of an antibiotic that they warned "is tough on the liver." Because of this, I suggested she should abstain from wine, and I would support her by leaving my beers in the fridge for the duration of her treatment. We started Monday, 2/16 and both feel great, so we're thinking of instituting a loose, "only on the weekends" policy. I'll have one beer Monday night for the taping of DwC, but aside from that, we'll abstain until the weekends. 

I set all this up to set the mood for last Friday, 2/20, when I fired up Jane Schoenbrun's "I Saw The TV Glow." I talked about the profound effect this film had on me in Monday's post. I'm still thinking about it, over and over. A lovely feeling that was made even more acute when I saw Fango's post about Schoenbrun's new film this morning. I've vetted the trailer: it gives nothing away, other than this is now my most anticipated film of the year. Before you hit play, I strongly suggest watching this for the first time with earphones. 

I LOVE falling in love with a Director and then almost immediately discovering they have a new film coming out. Teenage Sex and Death At Camp Miasma lands in theatres on August 7th, and you can bet the farm I'll be seeing this on the big screen, whether I have to drive to Nashville, Chicago, or Berwin. (Berrr-winn!).

I am so excited for this!!!

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Playlist:

Sumerlands - Dreamkiller

Mastodon - Emperor of Sand

Slayer - Decade of Aggression

Soviet Soviet - Endless

Tomahawk - Mit Gas

Deftones - Around the Fur

High on Fire - Snakes of the Divine

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F♯ A♯ ∞ 

Deftones - Gore

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Card:

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

• Page of Pentacles

• X: Wheel of Fortune

• IV: The Emerpor

"Getting a revolving policy going on Earthly matters that feel important but ultimately might not be so is the name of the game. Instead of trying to control everything and everyone, focus on what matters that you can control."

How Will I Laugh at the Cult of the Crimson Moon?

 

Interesting fact: If you look this song up on YouTube, before delivering the results, you get a full page suicide prevention page. Kinda goofy, and kinda nice. Anyway, it's late, I'm tired, and even though there are half a dozen other songs I wanted to post, they all will require some 'writing.' So I went with this, some good old Suicidal. Title track from their 1988 album, a banger from start to finish.

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NCBD:

Some great stuff this week. Let's get into New Comic Book Day for Wednesday, February 25, 2026!!!

New Vertigo series from That Texas Blood creators Chris Condon and Jacob Philips! I know NOTHING about this beyond Ezra Cain is a private eye, so I am excited!

The Quintesson War continues, and this month we have a cover with an army of those green Baliff characters that work the Pit of Judgement for the Quintessons. One thing I love about the Quintessons and their, erm, assets is the weird blend that makes a lot of these guys look similar - like they were all cobbled together from the same parts but under slightly different creative whims. Which fits when the architect has five faces. 

Only Liam Sharp could get me buying a Spawn title, and so far, The Dark Ages volume 2 lives up! The art in this thing is awesome! Listen to Mike and me discuss the first two issues on Drinking with Comics HERE. 

The third and final issue of this second 1930's Batman series. I held off reading issue two, waiting for this one to show up, so now I can read the entire series in one sitting!

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Plastic:

Fuck. Just fuck. I stumbled across a YouTube video that clued me in to Big Bad Toy Store's Big Bad Workshop and the fact that they have a figure under their Soldier of Fortune banner that is as close as we're likely to get to a Hooded Cobra Commander figure. Check this out:

It doesn't stop there, though. Scrolling through the workshop page, I found this under the Cult of the Crimson Moon collection:

Even better! The red matches the historically related Baron Ironblood from the British Action Force/Red Shadows. Check out THIS video from Destro is My Spirit Animal that explores the history of this.

Finally, I stumbled on BBWS's Monster Force collection and found this:

Werewolf troopers and they don't have to actually be associated with nazis! I'm sick to fucking death of fucking nazis!

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Playlist:

King Woman - Celestial Blues

Mike Patton - The Solitude of Prime Numbers

Mountain Realm - Stoneharrow

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

Suicidal Tendencies - How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can't Even Smile Today

Plague Bringer - Life Songs In A Land Of Death

Plague Bringer - As the Ghosts Collect, the Corpses Rest

Metallica - Ride the Lightning

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Card:

Stepping away from Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot (which you can buy HERE.) again to play with my beloved Thoth.  

• IX: The Hermit

• 3 of Disks: Work

• 2 of Cups: Love

"Stepping away from the world to rebuild, listen to inner guidance as a stability you have quakes. This is what happens when we build atop previous confidences. New stability will come, and with it, love and partnership."

I think there's something here for me about podcasting. I won't go into it now, but it perfectly maps something that's been developing and how I've handled it.

Me and That Monday

I'm not sure how I never posted this track before, because I can see I liked it and I recognize it. Regardless, I could not find it in a search on this site. Regardless of whether it appeared in these pages previously, I've really felt an affinity toward this band, this album, and this song lately, so here it is again and HERE is Me and That Man's Bandcamp.

If you're unfamiliar, this is Nergal from Behemoth's 'other' band, and it kind of sounds like if Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds hailed from Norway and sold their souls to the Dark One. Which is to say, they are AWESOME!

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Watch:

Friday night, I finally got around to watching Jane Schoenbrun's I Saw The TV Glow.

To say this film had a deeply profound effect on me would be an understatement. I know relatively little about Schoenbrun's; last year, I watched their We Are All Going to the World's Fair and was pretty blown away by that, as well. But TV... this one is so much more accomplished. Part of that is, I'd guess, that Schoenbrun had a bigger budget the second time around, but also, they have obviously honed their craft. 

There's so much 00s Hauntology in this film that it's almost unbelievable to me. I mean, that entire movement was so liminal and audio-based that I find the effectiveness of this filmmaker's ability to 'put it on screen' fascinating and deeply endearing. The blurred pre and post-millennium transition from a still mostly analog cultural paradigm to a fully digital one created a wave of interesting cultural artifacts; people repurposing analog alongside the digital and really projecting the past out into the future to create what was, at the time, a movement so rooted in uncertainty and change that it didn't last long and kind of ate its own tail on the way out, so it almost feels like it didn't exist at all. But Schoenbrun proves it did, with a movie whose plot is pretty much what I just described, verbatim. 

Also, have to say. I was a little more than halfway through and already spellbound when King Woman showed up and performed a stunning version of Psychic Wound. 

I mean, how could I not LOVE this film? 

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Playlist:

The Police - Outlandos D'Amour

Nick Lowe - Jesus of Cool

Converge - Love Is Not Enough

Jerry Reed - East Bound and Down

Megadeth - Rust in Peace

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F♯ A♯ ∞ 

Faster Pussycat - Wake Me When It's Over

King Woman - Celestial Blues

Drug Church - Prude

Brand New - The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me

Nihill - Krach

Massive Attack - Mezzanine

Napalm Death - Resentment Is Always Seismic (A Final Throw of Throes)

Napalm Death - Suffer the Children (single)

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Card:

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

• King of Pentacles

• Ace of Cups

• Two of Pentacles

"A connection of mind and spirit creates opportunity for lucrative partnership."

Some of my recent readings have really had a 'fortune teller' feel. I hate that. It makes it hard to take things seriously. 

Tossing Coins Into The Fountain Of F*ck!

I'm late on the game with this one, but I got the tip-off last week when Heaven is an Incubator posted about the new edition of last year's Melvins/Napalm Death collaboration, Savage Imperial Death March, originally released on Amphetamine Reptile. First track off this full-length aural beating has an amazing title and a bludgeoning sound, so I am in! Pre-order from Ipecac Records for an April 10th release HERE.

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Watch:

Last night, I went to a double feature of two movies I knew absolutely nothing about. First up, This is Not a Test:

I was stoked to see Adam MacDonald's name come up as Writer/Director/Producer on this one! Takes place in 1998, doesn't reinvent the wheel, but has solid performances and is deeply unsettling. 

This is Not a Test is built around Olivia Holt's performance as Sloan, and she anchors the film. Cinematographer Christian Bielz - who previously worked with MacDonald on the film Backcountry - employs a handheld, shaky-cam technique that gives the film a gorilla feel, which definitely makes it feel more real. This realistic approach augments the chaos we get hit with from the opening scenes, which establish Sloane's relationship with abusive father. Because of this, we never get an established 'normal' for Sloane or the film's world through her. 

Also, composer Lee Malia (Pyewacket and Out Come the Wolves) hits a sweet spot with drone, itch-you-can't-scratch background, and a little bit of what I'd call a Steve Moore flourish. This also adds to the film's overall unnerving feeling.

Next, Psycho Killer:

Having seen Cold Storge last week, then watched Barbarian again over the weekend, I LOVE that Georgina Campbell is having a moment this year with two back-to-back films. And this... wow. Talk about go big or go home - a saying I don't particularly care for, but it's appropriate. I just couldn't believe how big this one swings and lands. There's a harty comparison here to films like Random Acts of Violence and Son, but Psycho Killer has a grand design that you just won't believe until you see it. 

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Read:

In researching the middle section of Shadow Play Book 2, I realized I knew very little about the canonical five victims of Jack the Ripper.

One thing I wanted to be certain about was the Polly Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elisabeth Stride, Kate Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly's lives, as they've become something of minor characters in the second act of the book. All five women are generally dismissed as prostitutes; however, that is not a proven fact, but rather an assumption very much in keeping with the misogynistic paradigm of Victorian society. Hallie Rubenhold's book is a mesmerizing and in-depth look at all five women, from birth through to their murders. 

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Playlist:

Mountain Realm - Stoneharrow

Wintersun - Beyond the Dark Sun (single)

The Mountain Goats - Bleed Out

Metallica - Master of Puppets

Me and That Man - New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol. 1 

Faster Pussycat - Wake Me When It's Over

Gogol Bordello - We Mean It, Man!

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F♯ A♯ ∞ 

Chris Connelly - Largo 22

Psychetect - Extremism

Silversun Pickups - Tenterhooks

sunn O))) - Metta, Benelvolence BBC6 LIVE: At the Invitation of Mary Anne Hobbs

3TEETH - EndEx

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Card:

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

• Queen of Pentacles

• Two of Swords

• XX: Judgement

Fostering a partnership or collaboration can lead to solidified power.

Very interesting. This is extremely timely and has prompted me to do some research. I'll try and explain a bit more later on. 

New Music From Myrkur

When I posted a new track from Myrkur back on January 28th, we did not yet know if more music would follow. Here then is the answer. 

Sort of.

Another fantastic new song, still no word of an album. 

Amalie Bruun's voice continues to amaze me; this is still probably the closest thing I know of to how the old school Miranda Sex Garden made me feel, once upon a time. 

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NCBD:

I'm so eager to know more about Edgewater and this strange place 

David and Maria Lapham's Good As Dead comes to an end, and although I'm bummed it's done, I can't wait to see how things end. I'm guessing horribly for some - or most - of the cast. This has been such a great ride; I miss having a regular Lapham book in my life. Might be time to re-read Stray Bullets!

The cover says it all!

Two issues left after this one, although I'm not sure if that's series end or 'season' end. Either way, things are really heating up (pun intended).

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Read:

My good friend Chris Saunders alerted me to a new Weird Tales Kickstarter campaign that launched earlier in the week. I backed this puppy the second I saw it. 

You can back the project HERE.

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Playlist:

Barry Adamson - Scala! OST

Ennio Morricone - Il Grande Silenzio (1968) OST

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada

Myrkur - Touch My Love and Die (single)

Melvins & Napalm Death - Tossing Coins Into the Fountain of Fuck (pre-release single)

Plague Bringer - As the Ghosts Collect, the Corpses Rest

Plague Bringer - Life Songs in a Land of Death

Deliverance - Neon Chaos ina junk-sick dawn

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven

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Card:

Just one card from the Thoth for today:

The culmination of a project brings a great payoff.