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.
Thursday, June 11, 2026
Wednesday, June 10, 2026
Seven Days of The Reverend Horton Heat - Day 2: It's Martini Time
Well, thought I forgot about the whole "Seven Days of The Reverend Horton Heat," eh? That's because I 100% DID forget.
The one that started it all for me. True, Mr. Brown and I had seen the Rev years before opening for White Zombie on the Astrocreep tour (along with Melvins!), but it wasn't until 88.3 WXAV St. Xavier University played "It's Martini Time" that I fell in love with the Rev's guitar sound and overall aesthetic and bought an album.
I still think this track's guitar is among my favorites ever.
Continuing on as my favorite of the Energon Universe books, this cover to Transformers 33 sends shivers of great joy through my body. I still can't get over all the massive changes Kirkman has added to the book - Optimus giving over Prime leadership to Elita One, Thundercracker ditching the 'cons and becoming a 'bot, and hey, let's not forget, what the hell is going on with Megatron? Hopefully, we'll see this issue.
NCBD:
Great list today.
Will this actually come out today? This final chapter of Rafael Grampá's Gargoyle of Gotham has been pushed back so many times, I lost count. Still, these are unbelievably gorgeous books that must take a lot of Grampá's heart and soul to produce, so I'm not complaining.
Read:
I'm still working through Stephen King's third novel in The Dark Tower series, The Wastelands. This is my favorite book, so it's a bit amazing to me how long it's taking me to read. I sailed through up to the Doorkeeper in the house on Dutch Hill, where he crosses over into Roland's world. Amazing scene that sort of serves as an act break. After, it's been a bit slower going. Part of that is various other things grasping at my attention - lots of comics to read for DwC, etc. Part of it is also something I only just realized this morning, as I blew through the chapter where Gasher absconds with Jake, leading him into the detritus tunnels of east Lud. This entire post-Jake's section is where the evidence of Roland's world having moved on grows to include people.
Sure, in book one, The Gunslinger, we had the town of Tull, but this is early on in the saga, and Tull feels like a town in a Western, which is what that first book purports to be for it's early chapters, only slowly peeling back the curtain and revealing Roland's world is actually very similar to our own, only a thousand or so years down a timeline where we destroy ourselves with, what I've always assumed, was warfare.
"The ancient, rusty hulks of what had once surely been automobiles stood at intervals along both curbs... There were no tires on any of these eerie hulks; they either had been stolen or had rotted away to dust long since. And all the glass had been broken, as if the remaining denizens of this city abhorred anything which might show them their own reflections... beneath and between the abandoned cars, the gutters were filled with drifts of unidentifiable metal junk and bright glints of glass. Trees had been planted at intervals along the sidewalks in some long-gone, happier time, but they were now so emphatically dead that they looked like stark metal sculptures against the cloudy sky. Some of the warehouses had either been bombed or had collapsed on their own, and beyond the jumbled heaps of bricks..."
The passage above switched on a fairly bright lightbulb when I read it yesterday morning. This is our world. We're not quite there yet, but the fact that, over the intervening roughly two decades since I last read The Wastelands, our world has become an eerily identifiable 're-echo' of Roland's. The key 'tell' here is the fact that the deeper Gasher, Jake, Roland and Oy descend into East Lud and the Tick Tock Man's domain, the more we get a sense that the people who inhabit this land enjoy living amongst the ruins of the old world. That's the thing I always get hung up on when contemplating, "could we actually take things too far?" in our own world, the operative idea being that, at a certain point, all of our in-fighting and disassembling of the mores, conventions and general social reform is going to leave our world covered in detritus and despair and that no one wants that. Only, maybe some people do want that. Maybe some people, to quote Michael Caine's Alfred in Christopher Nolan's film The Dark Knight, "want to see the world burn." We know those people have always existed; however, maybe they're not fringe, ineffectual nothings who can only damage small portions of our society. Maybe they are the people in charge. The same way late-stage Capitalism has seen the advent of destruction economics, maybe there's a big-picture advantage for those in power in destroying everything we've built.
"He thought he was at last beginning to fully understand what that innocuous phrase - the world has moved on - really meant. What a breadth of ignorance and evil it covered."
Jesus Christ. No wonder King hates trump so much - literally the Ticktock man of our world, and he predicted him over thirty years ago.
Playlist:
Boards of Canada - Inferno
Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons
Ennio Morricone - The Thing OST
sunn O))) - Loser
Pilot Priest & Electric Youth - Come True OST
Gnarls Barkley - Atlanta
Boy Harsher - Careful
Blackbraid - Celestial Womb EP
Revocation - New Gods, New Masters
Sinoa Caves - Beyond the Black Rainbow OST
Melvins & Lustmord - Pigs of the Roman Empire
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Six of Cups
• Queen of Pentacles
• Four of Pentacles
Emotional Balance takes a steady hand on Earthly concerns, something I'm struggling with at the moment, which makes feel isolated.
Monday, June 8, 2026
RIP Anthony Stewart Head
Friday's news that Anthony Stewart Head passed away really got me. Exactly one week after seeing Repo! The Genetic Opera on the big screen for the first time, this happens? That's some weird, Universe-shit.
I wasn't the biggest Buffy fan, though the show eventually won me over for a time (seasons 2-5), largely thanks to this man. Then, Repo! and his recurring role as the Prime Minister on Little Britain really cemented my fandom, so much so that I hunted down a CD copy of his solo album (in collaboration with Buffy's composer George Sarah). Not entirely my thing, but the man has a wonderful voice, and I do enjoy its downbeat tempos and flourishes of Trip Hop here and there.
Interestingly enough, my friend Justin just interviewed George Sarah on his Trailer Punk Podcast the other day. Check that episode out HERE.
Watch:
My friend Alex came in for a visit over the weekend, and he, K and I hit Regal for the one and only showing of Adam Carter Rehmeier's new film, Carolina Caroline, starring Samara Weaving and Kyle Gallner.
I knew nothing going in other than having seen the trailer once a few weeks ago. Also, Rehmeier's Dinner in America is one of my favorite watches from recent years. Carolina Caroline is a gut-wrenching example of the classic Doomed Love story. Essentially a modern take on Bonnie & Clyde, both Gallner's and Weaving's performances took my breath away. You know where this is going early on, but that doesn't keep it any less heartbreaking. Can't recommend this one enough.
Playlist:
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - Nell' ora blu
Darren Smith & Terrance Zhunich - Repo! The Genetic Opera OST
Anthony Stewart Head & George Sarah - Music For Elevators
Revocation - New Gods, New Masters
Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons
Dreamkid - Daggers
Boards of Canada - Inferno
The Reverend Horton Heat - Liquor in the Front
Nun Gun - Mondo Decay
Ennio Morricone - The Thing OST
Type O Negative - Dead Again
Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments
Hangman's Chair - Saddiction
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• 09: The Hermit
• 06: The Lovers
• King of Cups
I remain overly isolated in my thoughts and designs; I need to let others in more. It will deflect misunderstanding down the road.
Friday, June 5, 2026
New Music From Mastodon!!!
I don't know how I feel about post-Hinds Mastodon, but I'm willing to give it a chance. If this single is any indication, though Hinds will be missed, the band is a survivor.
No word on a new album, but they have a big tour with Deafheaven, so something is coming.
Watch:
Check this out! Someone has been creating new episodes of the original Transformers cartoon series I grew up with, in an attempt to show Hasbro there is interest in bringing it back. The best part? I looks exactly like the old series and picks up where that final "Head Masters" mini-series left off!
I can't really wrap my head around how this is possible. Are they actually drawing and animating this stuff? Is this AI? The only discrepancies I notice are some of the voices, but even most of those are pretty damn close.
You can dig in on the Fanatic Film Channel HERE.
Plastic:
While randomly scrolling through IG last Friday, I discovered that my prayers had been answered. No, he's still alive and in office - I mean the other prayers. Yep - Mattel has finally released an updated MOTU Slime Pit!
Now it's called the Fright Pit - not exactly sure why - but I don't care. I've seen a side-by-side comparison to the original and this is bigger AND has green LED lights! I can't wait to put this thing next to my OG Slime Pit. This is truly my favorite toy ever and something so deeply ingrained in my pscyhe that, well, it's a little weird.
Playlist:
Revocation - Netherheaven
Boards of Canada - Inferno
Mastodon - Your Ghost Again (single)
Mastodon - Hushed and Grim
Metallica - Kill 'Em All
Boards of Canada - Campfire Headphase
Slayer - Seasons in the Abyss
Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons
The Sword - Age of Winters
Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments
Blood Mother - Eponymous (pre-release singles)
Mastodon - Your Ghost Again (single)
Type O Negative - Life is Killing Me
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Ace of Cups
• 13: Death
• Five of Pentacles
Emotional breakthroughs bring change, but to fully give over to a change, you have to become unto a chrysalis. Everything must feed that change.
Holy shit. This is literally an affirmation of something I've been struggling with in Shadow Play Book Two. Something I solved earlier tonight.
Wednesday, June 3, 2026
When All Reason Departs, We're Left with an Onslaught
I was stopped cold when I realized the robotic vocal samples in this are direct quotations from Aleister Crowley's Magick: Liber ABA.
There's a wonderfully dark throughline of spirituality gone awry on this record, and while I feel like I've only just started to scratch the surface, it's proving to have quite a hold on me. I listened to Inferno multiple times in a row yesterday, and each go 'round felt different.
NCBD:
A light week and a welcome respite after last week's financial apocalypse at the store. I never got around to posting a "NCBD Addendum," but let's just say my wallet got hit upside the head.
Love the cover, love the book. Fraction and Jimenez are tearing shit up in their Batman book, and I'm here for it.
Watch:
I caught the trailer for Adam Wingard's new film, Onslaught, this past Saturday ahead of Backrooms. Looking forward to this one:
Serious (and obvious) Terminator vibes, and I'm okay with that. Wingard is a curious Director; I'm a huge fan of some of his work, other stuff... not so much. This looks like it will be a blast, and I'm not expecting anything other than unmitigated violence.
Playlist:
Adam Egypt Mortimer - The Obelisk
Émilie Leviensaise-Farrouch - Censor OST
Ian Lynch - All You Need is Death OST
High on Fire - Death is this Communion
High on Fire - Cometh the Storm
Boards of Canada - Inferno
Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons
Revocation - New Gods, New Masters
Revocation - Netherheaven
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Six of Wands
• 06: The Lovers
• Nine of Pentacles
Victory comes from a connection, collaboration, but not at the cost of independence.
Monday, June 1, 2026
The World Becomes Flesh Here in the Backrooms
Friday, Inferno, the first Boards of Canada album in 13 years, came out. I drove to the theatre to see Repo! The Genetic Opera listening to it.
Saturday, I woke up and had a 1:30 PM screening of Kane Parson's Backrooms. I drove to the theatre listening to something else, planning to make my next engagement with Inferno more than just a thirteen-minute dalliance within which I could not fully grasp the entire eighteen-track sequence. Since first being introduced to The Backrooms by good friends circa January 2024, I'd struggled to pinpoint what, exactly, the show reminded me of. While rewatching it last weekend, I realized The Backrooms reminds me of a visual translation of Boards of Canada's music. There's the glitchy, fuzzy, analog technology represented in both, as well as that haunting liminal space, of transition, of between.
When my screening of Backrooms ended, I was shocked to hear "The World Becomes Flesh" from Inferno as the score for the film's end-credit crawl. Not only did that cement my anecdotal theory that Parson (née Pixels) was influenced by BoC's music, but the group held the release date of their first album in thirteen years to coincide with the release of the film.
Wow. Analog ghost worlds, baby. Analog ghost worlds...
Watch:
Most everything I have to say about this is above. Well, except of course that I really dug the adaptation to the big screen.
Previous YouTuber-to-Director endeavors like Iron Lung and Skinamarink made me a bit nervous, but holy cow, Parsons delivered something that the others, in my opinion, did not.
He turned what is essentially a tone-piece into a cinematic motion picture. One of the best examples of what I'm talking about is character development. I think this was what I was most worried about, but he nailed it. Clarke and Mary are both fantastic characters, and it made Backrooms a much better film than I think anyone expected. This is an unparalleled success, and I can't wait to see where Parsons goes from here.
Playlist:
Boy Harsher - Careful
Napalm Death - Resentment Is Always Seismic (A Final Throw of Throes)
Boards of Canada - Inferno
Silent -Modern Hate
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Mother's Milk
Boards of Canada - In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country EP
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• King of Pentacles
• Ace of Swords
• Three of Wands
Earthly matters may dictate much of my life and keep my brain running in the circles of coping with the world, but it only takes a moment of perfect mental clarity (read: vacuity) to kickstart a new adventure free from the confines of the daily 'grind.'
Friday, May 29, 2026
Lost Music from The Cramps!!!
From the upcoming historical anomaly Gravest Gravy, out on Midhaven Records. Pre-order HERE.
This is fascinating for multiple reasons. First, apparently, Henry Rollins and Ian MacKaye worked on this, "tape restoration, editing, mixing, mastering and lacquer cutting duties (in partnership with Inner Ear Studios and Infrasonic Sound).
Here's part of the solicitation blurb from Midhaven's website:
“In October 1977, the Cramps ventured into Ardent Studios in Memphis, Tennessee with producer and Cramps translator extraordinaire, Alex Chilton. The band had planned on recording their song ‘TV Set,’ as an A side, along with another track or tracks. Mr. Chilton told them the way he liked to work was to have a band record a lot of songs and from that they would pick the best of the bunch.[...] “What happened to the rest of the tracks from those auspicious days in October 1977? In 2026, Larry Hardy, owner and operator of In The Red Records, rappelled down, deep into the vast, sunless vault of the Cramps tape collection, and resurfaced hours later, disoriented and out of breath, but overjoyed with what he’d returned to topside with: six ¼” reels of tracks, mixed by Lux [Interior] and [Poison] Ivy..."
Wow. Just wow. I can't wait to get my hands on this one. Talk about a chunk of history.
Watch:
Heading to see this in theatres tonight and I could not be more excited!
I don't remember when I first saw Darren Lynn Bousman's 2008 Repo! The Genetic Opera. Sometime around when it first hit video. I bought it pretty much instantly, and have watched it countless times since, although not for more than a couple years now. Last viewing was probably in a cemetery in Long Beach with a shadow cast a la Rocky Horror. It was awesome, but now it's time to see it in a theatre on the big screen for the first time!
Playlist:
Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power
Boy Harsher - Careful
Émilie Leviensaise-Farrouch - Censor OST
Atticus Derrickson - The Black Phone OST
Burzum - Filosofem
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Page of Pentacles
• Six of Cups
• The Hanged Man
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