New Music From Sleep!

 

Big Sleep news. Matt Pike is out, replaced by Bubba Dupree of Void. Also, Dale Crover from Melvins on drums? This new track is interesting, but there's a lethargy here that feels a bit ominous. I'll have to wait for the full album. In the meantime, this is being released as a flexi disc along with a Sleep comic book, put out by Third Man Records. You can pre-order the comic HERE. The link to the bundle that includes the music comes up 404, so it's probably sold out.

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Watch:

From Writer Robert Bolesto and Director Agnieszka Smoczyńska, the team that gave us the delightfully messed up film The Lure (which The Horror Vision and Projexploitation crossed over to cover in great depth HERE):

I can only hope this hits theatres by me, even if it means driving to The Nuart in Nashville. I love that this feels a bit like The Lure, but also strikes me as having similar DNA to Ryan Kruger's Street Trash! There's so much energy on screen, and again, we have someone at work making a trailer who knows how to show us enough to whip us into a frenzy of expectation, but give nothing away.

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Read:

I finished the third book in Stephen King's Dark Tower series, The Wastelands. Still one of my favorites of the series, but it took me longer to read than I anticipated. Next up: Wizard and Glass, the last of the books in the series that I've previously read more than once. 

Once we get past this one, it's all first-time re-reads and not since Wolves of Calla, Song of Susannah and The Dark Tower each released. This endeavor has been a long time coming, and I've still got a pretty good head of steam. 

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Playlist:

Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest

Brian Eno - Ambient 1: Music for Airports

John Carpenter - Lost Themes IV: Noir

Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley

Tomahawk - Oddfellows

Melvins/Helms Alee

The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir

Boards of Canada - Inferno 

Perturbator - Age of Aquarius

Final Light - Eponymous

Greg Puciato - Mirrorcell

Lard - The Last Temptation of Reid

All Them Witches - House of Mirrors

Converge - Hum of Hurt

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Card:

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

* Seven of Wands

• Page of Cups

* Eight of Wands

Positive results are the result of good communication. That said, it can be difficult to say what needs to be said to achieve those positive results.

As is often the case, I'm not picking up what the cards are putting down at the moment, so this one will sit on my desk until morning, just as a reminder.

Phantom - Out of the Masoleum

Never heard of these guys until the other day when I saw this. Instantly intrigued, so I ran through their 2025 album Tyrants of Wrath and dug it. Their Bandcamp is HERE.

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NCBD:

It's funny how the wheel turns. Not too long ago, I was lamenting that almost everything I read each month is based on a pre-existing IP from my childhood. While I am still seeing that some weeks, there is a whole crop of new creator-owned books I love, and three of the biggest ones have number two issues this week!

Chris Condon and Charlie Adlard. 'Nuff said. The Earth's started with some serious Blood Simple vibes - I talked a bit about that when we reviewed issue one on Drinking with Comics last month (HERE), so I was immediately infatuated. 

Interestingly enough, on the same episode of Drinking with Comics I linked above, I also talked about how James Tynion IV and Marguerite Bennett's Odin has two things I love: 1) Elements that pay homage to Donna Tartt's The Secret History, and 2) dead nazis. Can't go wrong, especially when I have a hunch there are more dead nazis on the horizon. Watch Mike and I talk about that first issue HERE.

Rounding out the new stuff, Andy MacDonald, Matthew and Mark Elijah Rosenberg's If Destruction Be Our Lot might have actually been my favorite of the three. I guess I'm a sucker for Rosenberg's style, and this definitely feels adjacent to What's the Furthest Place From Here storytelling-wise. 

I'm starting to wonder if it was that big of a thing for Aaron to die so early on in this series, if we were bound to spend this much time in the past where he's still alive. Either way, the road to issue 50 winnows, and I'm hoping for some big stuff to coalesce out of what's building in The Fall of the House of Slaughter. 

And we close the week with one of the aforementioned childhood IPs, although expertly adapted to the present day (and a middle-aged reading base) in the pages of the Energon Universe. 

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Watch:

At some point in the last year or so, I caught wind of Russell Bates and Matt McDowell's 16mm Sheila and the Brainstem, then quickly forgot about it again. That's okay, because I randomly came across Severin's announcement for the upcoming release. Here's the trailer:

Part Repo Man, part... I'm not quite sure, but I'm curious as all hell to see this one. No date yet, but it's a'coming. 

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Playlist:

Boards of Canada - Inferno

Dean Hurley - Anthology Resource Vol. II: Philosophy of Beyond

The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre

The Devil's Blood - Come, Reap EP

Boards of Canada - Campfire Headphase

Deafheaven - Lonely People with Power

Revocation - New Gods, New Masters

Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons

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Card:

One card from Thoth tonight, because I'm tired.

Yeah. Need to make some changes. 

Seven Days of The Reverend Horton Heat - Day 7: Nurture My Pig

 

This one here... this had to wait until the weekend (technically, I'm posting this on Monday, but I penned the post itself between Saturday and Sunday). This is a hard-drinking song right here. I LOVE this track - easily in my top 3 from these guys.

 

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Watch:

I rewatched Jennifer Reeder's Knives and Skin this past Saturday night. Man, one of the most insanely original films I've seen in years. 

 

I may have mentioned this here before, but I feel like Reeder and Jane Schoenbrun are kind of helping fill in the gaping maw that David Lynch's death left in my life. These two Directors are so original, their work so breathtaking and of the twenty-first century, they help me contextualize the last twenty years in ways Lynch helped me contextualize the first thirty of my time here. Also, Knives and Skin was filmed not far from where I grew up, so that's pretty awesome to see here as well. 

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Read:

Although I picked up and started reading Absolute Wonder Woman Volume 2 back when it hit stands in... November? I shelved it until I knew we were going to cover it 

Possibly even better than the first volume, this pretty much cements Hayden Sherman as my favorite working comic book artist. 

Possibly even better than the first volume, this pretty much cements Hayden Sherman as my favorite working comic book artist. The story evolves in a very natural way from the events in the first volume, with a recording of the Teratryde's death sound falling into the wrong hands, and Diana seeking out information that another Amazon is being held in a government Black Site called Area 41. Said site is built atop an ancient maze, and we get all manner of wonderfully odd and horrific maze denizens from Thompson and Sherman. 

Also, an interesting take on Zatana, a character the Absolute Universe introduces in a decidedly more horrific manner than the regular DCU does. 

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Playlist:

Dean Hurley - Anthology Resource Vol. II: Philosophy of Beyond

John Carpenter w/ Alan Howarth - Prince of Darkness OST

Perturbator - Dangerous Days

Melvins/Helms Alee - Controlling Data for a Better Feeling Future

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Ruin of Romantics - Velvet Dawn

Marilyn Manson - Exit Wounds (pre-release single)

Mastodon - Your Ghost Again (single)

Metallica - Garage Days Re-Revisited

Mascara - Hla-11Tf (single)

Double Life - Indifferent Stars (single)

King Woman - Doubt EP

Flying Lotus - 1983

Massive Attack - 100th Window

Phantom G.D.L. - Tyrants of Wrath

Deftones - private music

Beak> - Eponymous

Belbury Poly - From an Ancient Star

The Smiths - Eponymous

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Card:

Back to my tried-and-true Thoth Deck for today's spread:

• Knight of Swords

• XIII: Death

• Prince of Wands

Use intelligence to guide changes ahead into fuel creativity.

Seven Days of The Reverend Horton Heat - Day 6: Psychobilly Freakout

Chalk this up to the Mandela Effect (it's real!), but if I remember correctly (possibly a no right there), my good friend Sonny V. had Smoke 'Em if  You Got 'Em on either cassette or CD, and I remember it having a completely different cover. Could be wrong, because I can't tell you what I remember about the cover, just that it was way more raw than the one used on the reissue. Either way, awesome track!

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Seven Days of The Reverend Horton Heat - Day 5: I Can't Surf (Live, 2009)

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Seven Days of The Reverend Horton Heat - Day 4: Bales of Cocaine

From 1993's masterpiece, and the start of the three-album trifecta that would endear the Rev to me for life. The Full Customs Gospel Sounds of the Reverend Horton Heat was produced by Gibby Haynes, and I'm not sure you need to know anything more to understand this record. As with Liquor in the Front and It's Martini Time, I love every song on this record. This might be my favorite, though. 

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Watch:

Aaron, one of my fellow panelists from The Dread Broadcast, recently posted an interview with Hokum Director Damian McCarthy on his A&B Horror Movies show.

This is a fantastic peek behind the veil with one of my favorite modern Directors. Aaron always does great interviews, but this is one of the best. 

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Play:

I picked up Tormented Souls for Switch a few nights ago when I saw it on sale for $4.99. I don't remember how this one ended up on my wishlist, but looking at it now, holy cow. Check out the trailer:

Between the haunting piano and the mishapen, masked antagonist, I'm picking up major Fulci vibes! I'm planning to start playing tonight. 

I've recently become obsessed with recapturing the magic of Friday nights from just the last few years. It's funny how quickly feelings for a time and place slip away and recede into an "era." Specifically, I'm still reeling a bit with the echoes of Shudder canceling The Last Drive-In. Some of my favorite Friday nights since moving to TN have consisted of getting off work, writing, picking up burritos and heading home to drink beer and watch Joe Bob and Darcy. Once that final movie ends, if I'm able, I retreat upstairs and fire up a game. That's the intention this evening, when I'll pick something from AMC +'s TLDI catalog, watch and then fire up Tormented Souls for the first time.

Sounds like a killer Friday night to me. Hmm... maybe I'll even do House By The Cemetery (if it's still on there).

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Playlist:

Émilie Leviensaise-Farrouch - Censor OST

Ian Lynch - All You Need Is Death OST

Mastodon - Hushed and Grim

John Harrison - Day of the Dead OST

Jozef Van Wissem and Sqürl - Only Lovers Left Alive OST

Boards of Canada - Inferno

Gnarls Barkley - Atlanta

Algiers - The Underside of Power

Darren Smith & Terrance Zhunich - Repo! The Genetic Opera OST

Flying Lotus - Yasuke

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Ace of Swords

• 16: The Tower

• Ten of Wands

A breakthrough of intellect leads to an overturned habit. This, in turn, leads to an abundance of new focus.

Holy shit could I use this right now. 

Seven Days of The Reverend Horton Heat - Day 3: Starlight Lounge

Posting this later than usual, but I had back-to-back podcasts last night, and I'm not used to the day-by-day scheduling anymore. Starlight Lounge, from the 1998 album Space Heater.

 

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