Frankie Freako

 

I'm not certain I actually dig this song—not that I think it's 'bad' per se, just not sure it's my cuppa—but this video is insane. This is my first exposure to Mörmaid, and after seeing it, I put their new album Pearlescent Dark on my Apple Music to give the entire thing a go. You can download the album from Mörmaid's Bandcamp HERE.

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Watch:

I love Steven Kostanski.  After helping bring us one of the greatest Horror films of the past twenty years (The Void, Co-Written and Directed with Jeremy Gillespie) and Writing/Directing one of my favorite films of all time (Psycho Goreman), photos of him hard at work on a remake of Roger Corman's Deathdealer surfaced earlier this year. Then, he goes and drops a teaser for an entirley different film, one much more in line with PG than Deathdealer:

Did I mention Kostanski also headed the FX team that brought us the yoga kill in this year's In A Violent Nature?  I mean, his team did all the FX, but really, that's the one everyone's still talking about, whether you liked or disliked the film. All this, and he's still had time to finish what looks like a veritable practical FX bonanza called Frankie Freako? Steve baby, you are amazing, and I'm here for anything you have to drop on us.

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Plastic:

I'm having a tough time not ordering these new NECA recreations of the Universal Monsters as originally released by Burger King. I remember these from the 80s!

Honestly, I really could just settle for The Creature, but it's a set. Read all about it over on the mighty Bloody Disgusting HERE.

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Playlist:

Dead Milkmen - Quaker City Quiet Pills

Horrendous - Ontological Mysterium

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST

Frank Black - Teenager of the Year

JD McPherson - Undivided Heart & Soul

Deadguy - Fixation on a Coworker

Mr. Bungle - Eponymous

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

Nothing - The Great Dismal

The Pixies - Surfer Rosa

Frankie and the Witch Fingers - Data Doom

Deadguy - Work Ethic

Big Black - Lungs EP

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Card:

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

• Knight of Swords

• Seven of Wands

• Knight of Pentacles

That's a lot of Will. We have a concentrated effort of intellect that brings about creative completion (that's an announcement I'll be making next week), and a concentrated effort - what I'm reading as - to not spend the money on those Universal Figures I posted above. Okay, thank you Hand of Doom Tarot Deck, for putting a face to the inner voice I was set to ignore (really, that's all the cards do).

T. Rex - Jewel

 

If you've seen Longlegs, you'll probably be on the same page. I've been a T. Rex fan for years, but my exposure to the band never moved beyond Electric Warrior and my personal favorite of their records (that I'm familiar with), The Slider, which really helped get me through a tough month in LA last January.

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Watch:

Bloody Disgusting ran an article recently that introduced me to the Popcorn Fright Film Fest. Both a live event taking place in Fort Lauderdale, FL, and a virtual event, the fest runs from August 8th through the 18th and is stacked with awesome films. I'm seriously considering purchasing a virtual pass, and I'm looking through the trailers to try and assemble a priority list. Here's one that caught me right away:

Both Kyle Gallner and Willa Fitzgerald look awesome in what little of this trailer I watched. While I have not seen Writer/Director JT Mollner's debut feature, 2016's Outlaws and Angels, I'm very interested in it now. Also, Giovani Ribisi is credited as the Cinematographer on Strange Darling. How cool is that?

The Popcorn Frights Fest's website is HERE. Grab some tickets and maybe we can, I don't know, hang out in a virtual movie theatre.

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NCBD:

So, you'll notice I broke down and picked up one of the books I previously announced I was done with. Which one? NOT an X-book, I'll tell you that. Let's get into today's pull from Rick's Comic City in Clarksville:

A consistently delightful sequel to both the Army of Darkness Theatrical and Director's cuts, which in and of itself is a great reason to read. 

Finally! I'm going to hunker down and re-read The Nice House on the Lake before I jump into this new, sequel series. 

The Neo Novena saga comes to an end. I'm really hoping there will be more stories set in this world. 

Road Stories continues. Last issue was fantastic; interested to see where we go with Erika this time.

Yep, this is the one. I've decided to hang on and give this new Turtles book a chance. I'm just so invested in the continuity they built over the last 150 issues, it is difficult to abandon it now.

More Springer! You know, I think my Drinking with Comics cohost Mike Shinabargar was on to something when he said that, working in a comic shop, he sees that sales on Void Rivals could use a regular dose of a character from one of the Energon Universe's more well-known properties. I think that's fine - whatever Kirkman and his team need to do to keep this book coming because I LOVE Void Rivals. I think this 100% stands on its own, however, if we need a regular dose of Springer or any other Transformer, no problem. Especially Springer - for some reason, I've always felt he was a bit left-of-center and a great fit for a deep space, non-Earth storyline.

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Playlist:

USSA - The Spoils

Alice in Chains - Dirt

Shellac - To All Trains

Tim Hecker - Infinity Pool OST

High on Fire - Cometh the Storm

Man Man - Carrot on Strings

Black Sabbath - Eponymous

Horrendous - Ontological Mysterium

Deafheaven - Sunbather

Zeal & Ardor - GREIF (pre-release singles)

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Option Paralysis

Genghis Tron - Board Up the House

Mr. Bungle - Eponymous

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Card:

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

• Two of Pentacles

• XXI: The World

• 0: The Fool

Collaboration, as opposed to opposition, leads to what comes next, which is a new journey in and of itself. 

Sometimes the cards are so eerily straight forward, it's effortless to read them.

Frank Black Teenager of the Year 30th Anniversary Tour

 

Got my tickets to join some of my best friends in the world for Frank Black's Teenager of the Year 30th anniversary tour. Mr. Black even has Lyle Workman back! 

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Watch:

Damian McCarthy first impressed the absolute hell out of me in 2022 with Caveat, a direct-to-Shudder film about a man talked into wearing a harness in an old house on a small island in Ireland. The man is supposedly been hired by a friend to watch his niece, but there are all kinds of WTF surrounding that idea, and the film, for all its slow-burn tendencies, rapidly escalates into a terrifying dirge of haunted guilt and bad decisions that culminate in...

Well, read the book. Or, ah, watch the movie. 

McCarthy's new film Oddity was on my radar but just barely, and I was SHOCKED and delighted to find that it opened at our Clarksville Regal this past Thursday. 

So far, it is neck-and-neck with Robert Morgan's Stopmotion for my favorite film of the year. I would post a trailer, but no. PLEASE, go see this in the theatre (it will most likely be gone after this week due to Deadpool) and DO NOT read, watch, or listen to anything about it. Go in blind, and I think this will smack you in the gob the way it did me—so much so that I have tickets to see it again tonight. 

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Play:

I've had Playdead's Inside for a couple years now, and while I have played and enjoyed it, it wasn't until this past weekend that I really fell in love with this game. Described as 'dream-like' in all the solicitation copy I've come across, I have to say, that's the perfect description. 

 

A week or so ago, my good friend Maddie messaged me about this game, saying that she remembered I had mentioned it and that she had recently become enthralled. This had me pull the game back out and pick at it off and on for a few days. Then, this past Saturday, I sat down in a darkened room with a beer and Adam Egypt Mortimer's The Obelisk on my turntable and the way the game and the music melded... it was just incredible. I left the sound up so I could hear all the atmospheric sound effects - hurried footsteps through standing water, giant industrial cranes and elevators moving and clanking, explosions, and, yes, dream-like wind and breathing - and my consciousness just folded into this world. It was beautiful. 

I don't want this one to end.

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Playlist:

Fear - Live For the Record

Frank Black - Teenager of the Year

Black Francis - Svn Fngrs

Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs

Frank Black - Eponymous

Tomahawk - Mit Gas

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Irony Is A Dead Scene E.P.

Ministry - Rio Grande Blood

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity

Justin Hamline - The House With Dead Leaves

The Replacements - Pleased to Meet Me

The Besnard Lakes... Are the Roaring Night

Adam Egypt Mortimer - The Obelisk

M83 - Before the Dawn Heals Us

Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit

Concrete Blonde - Eponymous

Phil Collins - Face Value

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Card:

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

• Knight of Wands 

• Four of Pentacles

• Six of Pentacles

The firey aspect of fire, pure white hot Intellect, stripped of all other human trappings. Here, it's being applied to Earthly matters, as we can see via the two Pentacles or Disks cards that follow. Four of Disks indicates stability, and the Six support or balance. What this tells me this morning is the balancing act I now maintain Monday - Friday may require an extra dose of reasoning to maintain. Not sure if this means this will be a heavy spreadsheet week (I'm only half joking and all cringe when I reference a spreadsheet in relation to the Tarot), or if I'll just have to side step emotional reactions to things that will require logical consideration instead of capricious emotion.

Man Man - Alibi

 

LOVING this new Man Man album, Carrot on Strings, which you can order HERE.

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Watch:

Holy smokes - Arrow Video is releasing The Last Starfighter on Blue Ray!

You can order the Blue Ray HERE. There's also a 4K HERE. I LOVED this flick as a kid. We didn't have cable but one of my Dad's friends did, and he used to record me movies onto blank VHS tapes that I would then watch over and over and over. The Last Starfighter was one of those, along with Predator, The Ghostbusters and Romancing the Stone. Somehow, though, it never made it into my adult collection. Going to remedy that real soon. 

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Playlist:

T. Rex - Electric Warrior

Various - Mulholland Drive OST

Liars - WIXIW

Man or Astro Man? - Live Transmissions from Uranus

Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante

T. Rex - The Slider

Angelo Badalamenti - Dark Water OST

The Besnard Lakes - ... Are the Dark Horse

Simple Minds - New Gold Dream

Hot Stove Jimmy - Theme For a Major Hit

T. Rex - Eponymous

Frank Black - Teenager of the Year

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Card:

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

• Ten of Cups

• V: The Hierophant

• X: Wheel of Fortune

Earthly fruition from a fleeting opportunity. I'll be keeping my eyes out for this one. I still try to take negative events - or, at least events I perceive to have negative connotations - and spin them positive. NOT always easy, but seeing this is a reminder to be on watch for something today.

RIP Bob Newhart

Sad news today, hearing about the passing of one of the funniest comedians of all time. I grew up watching the 80s Newhart show Newhart, and a couple years ago K and I began rewatching it from the beginning. We made it somewhere near the end of the fifth season before the preparations for our move across country knocked it off our radar. Here's a reminder it's about time to get back into it, as my goal is to get all the way through, so I can re-experience the greatest television ending of all time. 

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New Music and a DIY Synthesizer from A Place to Bury Strangers!!!

From A Place to Bury Strangers' upcoming album Synthesizer, out October 4th on Death by Audio. Pre-order HERE.

The INSANE thing about this pre-order is there's a version of the album that comes with the electrical component to turn the album sleeve into a DIY synthesizer! How awesome is that?

 

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NCBD:

My biggest NCBD Pull in a while. Let's dig right the f**k in!

What a salacious cover! Haha, this book has taken a really "off the rails" turn as of the last issue, and I'm here for it. Loving this cross-country journey with JC and his 'friends,' especially with all the weirdoes they meet along the way. Issue 6 really backed up my Shade The Changing Man: The American Scream comparison, and I'm happy to see where it goes from there.

Okay, going by the cover, we have A) Destro, B) the "Crimson Twins," and B) a metric sh*t ton of B.A.T.S. I can't think of a better formula for a Destro comic. After reading the second issue of Scarlett, I'm still not loving that book - but will definitely stick with it - but I am 100% ALL IN on Destro!

The final issue of Jeff Lemire's weird fiction opus to childhood, giant bug-men and, ah, crime. 

Again, this cover just sells the F*CK out of this one. Am I the only one getting a visual homage to old-school issue #73 here? That issue was the kick-off to the original "Cobra Civil War," and this issue's solicitation on League of Comic Geeks begins, "WAR WITH SERPENTOR!" Good things await. 

The final issue of what has turned out to be a very excellent mini-series that has me kind of rethinking my ideas about jumping off TMNT. I think I will be picking up Jason Aaron's new number one next week. 

Another final issue to what also turned out to be a total sleeper for me. Loved the tone of this whole series: the stakes are high, but there's a touch of comedy in the lining. Well-played Mr. Riser!

The end of another arc for What's the Furthest Place From Here? Thinking of re-reading this again from the beginning, but I guess that would be better suited before it comes back in a few months. I haven't seen any solicitations for its return, but there's no way this is the end. 

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Watch:

This looks like it might be this year's equivalent to Titane. Seeing this trailer twice now, 

I'm really excited about both the movie and the fact that, suddenly, Autuer Horror directors and the companies that distribute their films appear to be taking a much less revealing approach to cutting trailers.

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Playlist:

Tones on Tail - Everything!

The Damned - Night of 1000 Vampires: Live in London

Zeal & Ardor - Wake of a Nation E.P.

T. Rex - Electric Warrior

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

Saigon Blue Rain - Oko

Various - Mulholland Drive OST

A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head

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Card:

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

• Two of Wands

• X: Wheel of Fortune

• Page of Swords

Partnership or duplicity? You can't struggle against the grain and hope to find out; you have to physically use your intellect—i.e., put it into action outside of your head—to root out potential deception.

Great. Another work pull. I hate that I've been absorbed into an uncomfortably corporate environment again, where everyone's actions are suspect. 

Nox Novacula

 

From the upcoming album Feed the Fire, out August 2nd on Artoffact Records. 

I'd never heard Nox Novacula before, but I'm digging both this song and the video. You can pre-order from the band's Bandcamp HERE.

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Watch:

Friday night, I finally saw Kathryn Bigelow's first film, 1981's The Loveless. 

Willem Dafoe's debut performance and you can pretty much see that he's going to be a force to be reckoned with. I LOVED this film and have to wonder if it wasn't also an influence on David Lynch, which kind of blows me away, as I'd always thought of Kathryn Bigelow's most important work coming after Lynch's, but this would definitely rearrange that. 

Also, hot damn is this a great soundtrack. Robert Gordon - who plays Davis in the film - lays down a Rockabilly extravaganza the likes of which I'd not heard before. There's stuff here that bridges the greaser/beatnik aesthetic, which kind of runs together socially a bit during the 50s before counterculture became driven by capitalism. 

Can't recommend this one enough, and it's currently included with prime. Would make a fabulous double feature with either Paris, Texas or, as I chose to do Friday night, Lynch's Wild At Heart. 

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Read:

I finally got around to reading Dan Watters and Lamar Mathurin's four-issue Cowboy Bebop series, which Titan Books published a few years ago. 

Really fun stuff. I'm sure I've talked about this here before, but even though I don't go in for very much animation, the original Cowboy Bebop cartoon is one of my favorite things of all time. Also - and this was a total surprise at the time - I really liked the live-action Netflix show this series is based on. Watters really captures the spirit of both shows, and Mathurin just nails the perfect blend of how the characters look in the cartoon and how they look played by actors. The story revolves around - what else - a heist and a bounty, but snakes into some serious Grant Morrison territory just enough to have made this feel unique but still very much in the spirit of the show that does indeed transcend the genre.

You can order a trade of this direct from Titan Books HERE.

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Playlist:

Tim Hecker - Infinity Pool OST

Mars Red Sky - Eponymous

Brainiac - Predator Nominate

Genghis Tron - Dream Weapon

Blut Aus Nord - The Mystical Beast of Rebellion

The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir

Eagulls - Eponymous

Megadeth - So Far, So Good... So What?

Jawbox - For Your Own Special Sweetheart

Justin Hamline - The House With Dead Leaves

Zeal & Ardor - Wake of a Nation E.P.

Death Valley Girls - Under the Spell of Joy

Forhist - Eponymous

Fen - Dustwalker

Donny McCaslin - Beyond Now

Suicidal Tendencies - Controlled By Hatred/Feel Like Shit... Déjá-vu

Deafheaven - Sunbather

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Card:

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

• XVII: The Star

• Eight of Pentacles

• IX: The Hermit

XVII is a much needed reminder - "Create unto and within yourself a Universe, shaped of your strengths and built on your accomplishments as foundation."

Eight of Pentacles - Earthly transformation, and IX is the concentration needed to achieve it. In other words, finish the book!!!