Hangman's Chair Live at Hellfest!!!

 

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.
 

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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.

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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

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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.

Ministry - The Squirrely Years

 

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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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

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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. 

Definitely check out From the Basement's YouTube page. A lot of really great performances like this one.

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NCBD:

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!

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Playlist:

The Kills - Live at Third Man Records

Blind Willie McTell - Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order (Vol. 1)

Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower

Witchfinder - Forgotten Mansion

X - Los Angeles

Alice Donut - Dry Humping the Cash Cow

Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Double Life - Indifferent Stars

Entropy - Liminal

Deftones - Koi No Yokan

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Hangman's Chair - Kowloon Lights

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.

 

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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:

Looking forward to this one.

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Playlist:

Television - Marquee Moon

QOTSA - Era Vulgaris

Windhand - Eternal Return

Melvins - Hold It In

Hangman's Chair - Saddiction

Kowloon Walled City - Piecework

Conrad Schrenk & Thomas Lang - Yumaflex

Fvnerals - Let the Earth Be Silent

Moderat - II

Witchfinder - Forgotten Mansion

Barry Adamson - Oedipus Schmoedipus

Double Life - Indifferent Stars

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Chapter 49: Ash, Pain and Blood

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. 

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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. 

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* 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. 

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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 The Wire 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.

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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

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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. 

Melvins 1983 - King of Rome

 

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.

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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?

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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)

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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.

Powermad - Slaughterhouse

 

Over the last two weeks, I had the distinct pleasure of watching several of David Lynch's films I had previously missed on the big screen at Nashville's Belcourt Theatre. The Belcourt's retrospective on Lynch's work was comprehensive; a true celebration of the man's life and art.

I spoke about seeing Eraserhead/The Grandmother in a previous post, but this past weekend my cousin Charles and his wife Lauren came down to visit us, and Sunday afternoon, the four of us caught The Straight Story on 35mm. I'll talk about that below, but suffice it to say, for Monday night's screening of Wild At Heart, Powermad's "Slaughterhouse" rang EPIC on the Belacourt's sound system. I never got into this band back in the day, but I was definitely aware of them, mostly through ads in Thrasher magazine. 

Released in 1989, this would have come at the height of my "Skate or Die" phase; man do I miss that. The last time I rode a board was circa 2011 in San Pedro; the hills almost killed me, and I kind of backed off again after that, only to have a friend accidentally break it a year or two later.

How the hell did I get here from where this began? Oh yeah, Powermad!

The bit with Powermad doing backups for Sailor's Elvis serenade really clues you into Lynch's mindset on this film. There are times when I'd almost liken Wild At Heart to Lynch's version of a Farce. Sailor's singing and mannerisms, Marietta's, well, everything, and Crispin Glover's joyfully insane Del are all so far outside the realm of seriousness for a film that can still take itself very seriously, that they help make this one unique, even among the greater body of Lynch's work. 

The two images that stand out on the big screen are the sequences of roiling fire and Bobby Peru's teeth. Nightmare fuel, that.

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Watch:

David Lynch's The Straight Story is an underseen masterpiece. I say that as a lifelong Lynch fan who, although I own the film on DVD, had only seen it twice before, and never at the Cinema. That changed this past weekend, and I can tell you that this film is a deeply moving character piece that wet my ocular sockets consistently from start to finish.  

Seeing this film on 35 mm was an entirely new experience; Lynch films on the big screen are heightened, almost altered states; few people who have experienced Lost Highway or Mulholland Drive in the cinema would contest that. Those are films that incorporate Neo Noir and Psychological Fugue/Horror elements that lend themselves to inducing altered states. The Straight Story is something else entirely. It is a story about family, love, and redemption. It is firmly rooted in the "real" world, so its altered state is a sharply emotional one. It's a beautiful and slightly disconcerting thing to let David Lynch lead you on a journey like this, but by the end, it makes you feel wonderfully alive.

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NCBD:

Finally, after being pushed back several months, we have the finale of James Tynion and Joshua Hixon's The Deviant!

To say I've been waiting for this is an understatement. Thinking about sitting down this weekend and re-reading the entire series in one sitting. One of my favorite books in forever. 

I keep thinking this cover is an homage to an issue of Larry Hama's original GI JOE comic at Marvel, but that may not be the case. Either way, pretty cool. Maybe I'm starting to warm up to this book a bit more? We'll see.

Now that I know Epitaphs From the Abyss is ending at issue 12, I'm cherishing each one of these even more. And as I say so often with this book, LOVE this cover!

Güs! 'Nuff said!

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Playlist:

Sqürl - Third Man Records Session

Melvins - Hold It In

Hangman's Chair - Saddiction

Vinyl Williams - Lansing (single)

Flogging Molly - Swagger

The Pogues - Hell's Ditch

The Pogues - Red Roses for Me

QOTSA - In Times New Roman

Sinéad O'Connor - The Lion and the Cobra

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Card:

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

Grimm currently has a Kickstarter running for his ... And the Night Stares Back Vol. 2 coloring book, which features some of the art from the Hand of Doom Tarot. I backed this instantly, but there's no way I would ever apply color to Grimm's beautiful B&W art.

• V: The Hierophant

• Knight of Swords

• Five of Wands

Knowledge (or information) wrested from a perceived opponent can require Will to make work. 

This is straight-up on point with my work at the moment, where I actually feel like I have a bit of a "Moriarity" at the moment, and the knowledge they disseminate to me often feels occluded or guarded. Maybe even false.