My Favorite Comics of 2015...

... are the topic of this week's edition of Thee Comic Column, over on Joup!

The Pogues w/ Kirsty MacColl- Fairytale of New York

Merry Christmas world!

 

John Coltrane - Blue Train

My favorite Coltrane album. My favorite Jazz album for that matter. Fits this time of year like a glove. Put it on, sip some tea or coffee and maybe read a short story. However you do it, enjoy.

 

My Top Ten Albums of 2015

Just went up HERE over on Joup! Lots of good music, check it out!

Drinking w/ Comics #28

Special thanks to Movie Pilot's Editor At Large Alisha Grauso for returning to talk all things comics (and beer) with us! Topics include but are not limited to Netflix/Marvel's Jessica Jones and the comic it's based on, the upcoming Dr. Strange movie, Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, Marjorie Liu's gorgeous comic Monstress, Star Wars: Vader Down, Tango Unlimited Comics' Descent of the Dead and Goose Island Brewing's new Farmhouse Ale Halia.

Twin Peaks - Coming Soon

LOVE these fan-made posters almost as much as I love black coffee and cherry pie.

Mr. Brown just sent me this Showtime video. Not a trailer, or even really a teaser, but my heart swelled when they lift the blanket off that sign.

TIAW TONNAC BOB TIAT TONNAC

Ghost Bath - Moonlover

Parsing for my best of 2015 list is becoming f^&kin' impossible. Here's another candidate. Beautiful; kind of reminds me of the first time I heard Opeth's older stuff. The album cover is disturbing as hell and kind of evokes the first season of True Detective if its villains had been members of a Black Metal-related cult. The tape holding the paper together in the background is the perfect little detail for me, makes it feel real.

Drinking w/ Comics - Vader Down

Here's a quick glimpse at upcoming Drinking w/ Comics #29 where Mike explain why you HAVE to read Marvel's Vader Down.

Myrkur - M

I LOVE this. It reminds me so much of Katherine Blake and Miranda Sex Garden, a band I miss dearly. M is definitely making it into my year end list. Sonically haunting, dark and beautiful; a storm that tears the heavens asunder and drenches the world below it in darkness.

We Can Never Go Home...

... is quite easily Shawn's favorite comic of 2015. Wanna know why? Read this week's edition of Thee Comic Column, over yonder on Joup.

New Besnard Lakes!

Courtesy of Mr. Brown, without whom this year I probably wouldn't have heard half the new music I have. Cheers mate!

Pre-order the new album, A Coliseum Complex Museum here.

Man Vs. Rock...

...is the indie comic that has had Shawn and Joe laughing their f&*king asses off all week. Wanna know more? It's all in this week's Thee Comic Column over on Joup.

David Bowie - Black Star

Mr. Brown sent me this at least a week ago and I've only just gotten around to watch it. New Bowie is always a good thing, and with what I keep hearing about the upcoming album of the same name (Out Jan 8th, 2016) being the 'weirdest' Bowie record in a long time, I for one am more than eager to have this in my hands.



Some observations:

I LOVE the return to the sax. Saxophone was once synonymous with Bowie - for me at least - and I feel like he hadn't really found a way to incorporate it into the new sound he's been toying with since 2005's Reality. No longer the case. Hopefully there'll be more on the record.

I also LOVE the return to utilizing synths and some of the overall aesthetic he experimented with in the 90s during his "industrial" phase.

This is weird as fuck and I LOVE it.

Indie Comic Descent of the Dead...

... is the topic on tap in this week's Thee Comic Column, over yonder on Joup.

X's For Eyes Pre-Order

Yet another reason to celebrate.

Laird Barron has a new novella coming out in a few weeks and you can pre-order it here. Over the course of the previous four years Mr. Barron has become my favorite writer, a man whose words move me in ways that feel ancient and endless. Over the course of four anthologies*, one novella and one novel he has become the first author in years that I re-read constantly. His loose-knit mythology has burrowed its way into my brain and I think that would make him happy. Surely it makes me happy, when it doesn't make me all-out paranoid that the eye of Shiva is staring back at me from the other side of some dark cosmic mirror that is probably focusing on me even as I write this...

If you don't believe me go here and, after subscribing to an amazing podcast, take forty minutes or so to listen to Mr. Barron's short story Frontier Death Song. I've listened to it countless amounts of time and it never becomes less affecting. Read by the inimitable David Robison, this is the perfect introduction to the cosmic pulp horror of Laird Barron's work.

WEEN's BACK!!!

The best news EVER came down the pipes yesterday and I've been too busy swooning to post anything about it.

WEEN IS BACK TOGETHER!!!



Now, it remains to be seen if Boognish can go home again after all the static, but let's fucking hope so. I seriously had tears in my eyes every time I've listened to them since they broke up.

Interestingly enough, this past Saturday, two days before the announcement I spent the whole day breaking in a new Ween shirt Mr. Brown gave me a while back and that of course meant I also spent the day listening to them. All day. All night. I now kind'a feel as though I may have done something of a 'rain dance', cuz within a day or two Mr. Brown shot me a text with the announcement and my happy circuits exploded all over the got'damned place!

Re-Reading the Age of Apocalypse...

... is the topic of what will no doubt be a much longer conversation over the coming months in Thee Comic Column, over yonder on Joup. Part one is this week's column.

Lake Trout - Her

This band blows me away. It's been a while since I've listened to them, apparently making up for it by listening to Another One Lost for hours on end today.

Placebo - Meds

I missed the boat on this one. Meds was in my collection for sometime but not by my intentions directly. I'd given it a half-attempted spin or two and not found the band to my liking - at the time - and that was that. And of course, the reason why I generally do not get rid of CDs is that A LOT of music is very time-and-place insofar as how you take to it. Murphy's Law dictates that if you do get rid of an album you have a pretty good chance of getting into it shortly thereafter. And that's just what happened here. My friend Katie's pick for the Joup Friday Album this past week was Meds and in reading her write-up and throwing the album on my headphones while at work on Friday I literally fell in love with it. First two songs gave me chills. Still do, two days and about six listens later. And yeah, Meds is no longer in my collection so I will have to be re-buying it. #don'tsellyourmusicbuildalifelibrary



I absolutely understand why previously I did not like this band. It's somewhat ineffable, however after really thinking about Placebo's sound in the context of the time this record hit I think I've come to some fairly weighty conclusions. There's no denying my initial prejudice has to do with the fact that Meds specifically and the band's sound in general has a lot of the trappings that bigger-market rock bands trafficked in during the early oughts. The voice and the way it sits in the mix, the guitar tone, the slightly narcissistic point of view and the underlying programming that gives the songs a sort of slick, Marilyn Manson Mechanical Animals three times removed feel is, to me, indicative of this era of rock music, where many of the bands that blew up to varying degrees just generally leave me cold and suspicious of contrivance. That said, I think a lot of what I just described is actually the product of one particular metric that I can't really prove as anything other than a hunch - the fact that beginning with the late 90s and traveling on into the early 00s a lot of the bands who rose to prominence were helmed by the first generation of artists to do so having been raised on meds for most of their lives. The sound I describe above has a slightly overly-polished veneer - hence the suspected contrivance - because that's what the filter of meds does, it polishing reality. That's what a lot of that era's music is about, coping with that, and it makes sense that would leave its sonic fingerprint on the music. Again, I can't prove it, but Meds specifically would definitely appear to add credence to my thinking.

What say you (the Universal You, that is?)

Drinking with Comics #27

Issue #27 of Drinking with Comics is up! Special guests Pinguino Kolb, Robert Walker (Cuddli) and Damphyr (The Drunken Fandom) discuss dating in the geek world, fan-inspired cocktails and a whole bevy of books including but not limited to The Weirding Willows, Dave Crosland's Ego Rehab, Rat Queens, Always Raining Here and Skottie Young's I Hate Fairyland. Check it out and if you dig it please subscribe to our Youtube channel!

The Unkindness of Ravens

This looks amazing. I'm going to support the kickstarter after I get paid and I'm suggesting anyone else who digs this do the same. 

Chicago Rot

My friend Lee is in this movie. I haven't seen it yet, just heard about it tonight. Watched the trailer. It freaked me out.

That's a gooood thing.

From the youtube description, which reads like goddamn poetry:

"After years of rotting in Joliet, Les, a wrongfully imprisoned street legend known as "The Ghoul", is released into a mad search through Chicago's back alleys for the man who slaughtered his mother and robbed him of his soul. Aided by enigmatic benefactors, he must delve beneath the city into a modern labyrinth of gutters whose tendrils have grown deep while he was gone.

What unfolds is a desperate tale of brute force tragedy set in the supernatural underworld of Chicago, where heroes are reduced to horror-shows, villains dream of their own demise, and good and evil prove to be antiquated concepts."

Preacher Teaser

No idea how to react to this. Looks to be remarkably different than the book, which is possibly my favorite comic series of all time. Will I watch this?

... um... I don't know.

I still have NO faith in AMC after the walkin' dead, probably my second favorite comic series of all time and one that they completely fucking ruined. So... I just don't know. But here it is, complete with a Cassidy that appears to be more Irish redneck than punk. Oi vey...

Greg Rucka & Nicola Scott's Black Magick...

...is the topic of discussion in last Saturday's edition of Thee Comic Column.

I LOVED this book, especially in its big, beautiful over-sized magazine format.

Ghost Performs Circe on Colbert

I've never seen any of the shows Mr. Colbert has hosted before but I LOVE his ice cream. Perhaps Ben and Jerry can give Ghost a flavor as well? Something like Chocolate-covered peanut butter crosses?

Just a thought.

New Coen Brothers!

Hail Caesar!, the new Coen Brothers flick with an amazing cast. Can't wait for this; I've always felt that, although I pretty much love every movie they've done, the Coen's really excel when working on period pieces from the early days of our modern society. Barton Fink, Miller's Crossing and O Brother, Where Art Thou? are, in my opinion, amazing pieces of cinema and Hail Caesar! looks to be right in this wheel house, with a great foundation of the talent they work so well with (Clooney, Frances McDormand) alongside powerhouse talent (Tatum and Scarlett).

Faith No More - Sunny Side Up

\

Just made it around to watching this. Made me smile.

I'm very behind on media, but now that I've had something of a sabbatical (and a pretty gnarly Halloween weekend) I have the headspace to catch up on some of the stuff I've missed.

Drinking w/ Comics #26 - the Halloween Issue!

Mike and I really get into swapping scary comics recommendations: Mike Mignola's Jenny Finn and Batman/Lovecraft mash-up The Doom that Came to Gotham; Tomb of Dracula; Jason Martin and Bill McKay's Night of the 80s Undead; Alan Moore's Swamp Thing; Joe R. Lansdale's Jonah Hex and The Drive In, and the Vertigo Comics' adaptation of William Hope Hodgson's insanely creepy House on the Borderland it's kind of like Fall of the House of Usher with Malevolent Pig monsters!). Also, we drink Ninkasi Brewing's Dawn of the Red India Red Ale and their Sleigh'r Imperial Pumpkin Ale and talk a bit about the new Marvel re-launch.

James O'Barr's tragically beautiful comic The Crow...

... is the topic of this week's edition of Thee Comic Column over on Joup.

Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang's Paper Girls has arrived...

... and it's the topic of my weekly comic book rant over on Joup in this week's edition of Thee Comic Column.

New Besnard Lakes!

I always love typing the three words that comprise the title of this post. Because a new record from The Besnard Lakes is a joyous thing to me and they never disappoint. Listening to this makes me reflect on what an awesome arc this band is riding, and I am as sure that I'm going to find it hard to wait until 1/22 when A Coliseum Complex Museum is released on Jagjaguwar as I'm sure it will make my top ten of next year. That's how good the Lakes are - the time for drawing up that list is still fifteen or so months away and I'm already reserving one of those year-end slots for this record.

Alice Glass - Stillbirth

I was late finding out Alice Glass left Crystal Castles. I had mixed feelings about it. Crystal Castles II is, in my opinion, one of the best records of the first decade of this century. The follow-up still has not opened to me and I am unsure if it is me or if it's just not really that good (even though I always assume it's me in situations like this where an artist has previously proven themselves, after three years I'm leaning toward the latter). Ethan Kath, the other half of CC released a new track as well and it was that track that I heard first. It kinda just sounds like he found a new girl - Edith - to sing like Alice. I might be wrong here, but that was my first impression and I've not been back since for reappraisal. Alice Glass's Stillbirth however is new ground for her, and I'm digging it and the message she released with it (read it on PiFk here) so although I'm waiting for more from both sides, at this point I'm more interested in Ms. Glasses direction.



And just for old times sake, one of my favorite CC songs from II. Well, on that record they're all my favorite, so this is just the one that fits my mood more at the moment. This song sounds like being drugged out and wandering the hazy, recessed lighting corridors of a hotel at 2 A.M. That's not what I'm doing, but it's my mood.

RIP Catherine Coulson

My log is sad. We will miss you Catherine Coulson, you and your Log...

What You Can Find When You're Not Looking...

As good as I can be burrowing in and finding obscure music in the worlds of Rock, electro, Metal and Avant Garde, the two areas of music I dig that I have trouble finding a foot in the door with is the more obscure, rootsy Soul and Gospel music of mid-twentieth century America. I always get a twinge of jealousy when I hear something in a movie or find it mentioned in a book, find it and then realize that other than that particular piece or artist, I'm stumped. A lot of this is just a facet of inkling and time, as I'm sure if I really burrowed into a group like the Del Fonics - who I was formerly introduced to in Quentin Tarantino's film Jackie Brown - falling into the associated chains of wikipedia pages associated with them and their producers, etcetera, I'd probably come up with some more artists to sate my thirst for dusty old Soul. That hasn't happened though; I'm overly self conscious in these areas and I tend to require gatekeepers. Irvine Welsh's novel Skag Boys turned me onto the tradition of Northern Soul - which previously had simply been the name of my favorite album by The Verve - and newer artists like Jamie Lidell, Charles Bradley and Alabama Shakes make access to the genre's evolution easier than digging, but it's just not the same thing, finding a new artist or finding an obscure, older artist. And really, I'm not even addressing Gospel here, as so much of that isn't easily accessible. In the 60s and 70s almost anyone can and did press records - you see evidence of this in thrift stores all the time - but today? Well, today we have youtube, which I am seriously beginning to believe is the collective consciousness of the human race made accessible. 'Cuz everything is on it. Case in point, Pastor T. L. Barrett and the Youth for Christ Choir. Listen to this, it's awesome! But how did I find the music of a neighborhood Chicago Pastor and his Choir? How did I pull that from the din?

I found this via a gatekeeper: the cool, hazy sample that ends the Algiers record? It's from this. I love the way that sample ends the record; it has a cosmic, time-machine flavored influence that reminds me a lot of the looped sample that ends Zen Guerilla's cosmic masterpiece Positronic Raygun.

And then once I started researching off the Algiers sample I found that, of course, this is another case of the absolutely amazing Light in the Attic Records has put out some of this man's music.

Yes, that's Isaac freakin' Hayes w/ Barrett. ISAAC HAYES!!!

I need to remember that: Light in the Attic. Always check back in with them. Get on their mailing list (why didn't I do that right after the first Black Angels E.P.? Or after the Louvin Bros. Or the Donnie and Joe Emerson record?

(Pause while I actually go do that...)

Then it gets even weirder. Go to the short bio for Pastor Barrett on LITA's site, right here. Being from the South Side of Chicago I remember when these pyramid schemes were big news. Crazy how something like my favorite album of the year so far - that immaculate Algiers eponymous - can bring something from so long ago back around again.

The Children's Vampire Hunting Brigade...

... is the topic of discussion in this week's edition of Thee Comic Column, over on Joup!

Ghost - From the Pinnacle to the Pit

This dropped sometime within the last week and since then I've habitually forgotten to post it here. Exceptional as usual. The "new" Papa certainly takes his gig more seriously than the previous one did. No hedonistic Vegas outings for this guy - all dark work. And we're all the better for it.

Antemasque - Providence

New band with Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler Zavala, perhaps best known for The Mars Volta and At the Drive-In. I've been into this record hardcore of late - easily one of the top releases of the year for me so far. Very different vibe from the guys' other bands (they're in more than the two mentioned above even). My first listen I knew nothing about Antemasque as it was a burn from Mr. Brown and I drove home from work mesmerized by something that I now can't understand how I didn't put two and two together. That said, I wouldn't trade that first listen for anything; it was freeing to hear the work of two artists I have grown to love without realizing it was them.

Entire record is fantastic and Flea plays bass on it. Weird, right? Again, you'd never know.

Boards of Canada - Nothing is Real

Ain't that the truth. I'm not entirely sure where I go when this song comes on, but its both far, far away and more intimately close than most other songs inspire. The womb-like recreation of tactile sound has long been Boards of Canada's specialty, however 2014's Tomorrow's Harvest and this track in particular bring their strange musical nirvana ever closer to fruition. I listen to this a lot on airplanes.

Drinking w/ Comics Issue #24

About time, eh? Yes, Drinking with Comics has been on hiatus but we are back! Issue #24 is up and we are filming/streaming issue #25 tomorrow night 7:00 PM Pacific Time!

Topics of discussion in #24 include but definitely are not limited to: James Robinson and Greg Hinkle's brilliant Airboy, Marvel's 70s pulp fantasy throwback Weirdworld (in which some of the characters from Crystar the Crystal Warrior make an appearance), Harley Quinn and Power Girl fending off Vartox's advances, the sinking feeling the Juggaloker gives Shawn, how awesome Oscar Isaac is when NOT in Fox's terribly laughable Apocalypse make-up and a whole host of other stuff. All while we wet our whistle with Magic Hat Brewing's tasty Night of the Living Dead variety pack!

James Robinson and Greg Hinkle's AIRBOY

... is the topic of discussion on in this week's edition of Thee Comic Column, over on Joup.

Morphinist: The Pessimist Sessions

Just discovered this band. Really cool, atmospheric stuff with no regard for genre constraints or image. It's all about tone and they have it in spades, especially here. Check out at about a minute and a half when the 80s horror synth kicks in. Beautiful.

If you dig them like I do, support them. Morphinist have a bandcamp where you can name your price for the full Pessimist Sessions album download.

Sexwitch

A couple of months ago I re-loaded Bat for Lashes debut album "Fur and Gold" on my iPod and have been listening to it quite steadily since. It is a fantastic album, full of dark nuance, emotion and really artistic, eclectic arrangements. This afternoon while writing I took a break from my normal soundtrack (Sinoa Caves's Beyond the Black Rainbow ST) and threw Fur and Gold on. This got me thinking and when I reached a stopping point I fired up the Google and decided to see what Natasha Khan has been up to. I'm well aware there are two Bat for Lashes record after F&G, I just haven't gotten around to them yet. Now I find Ms. Khan is the vocalist in a new collaboration with producer Dan Carey and group Toy. The new band is Sexwitch, Helelyos is the first track off the E.P. that comes out on 9/25 and is available for preorder through their site here.

I dig this and am pretty interested in hearing the rest of the record.

Cocksure - Razor Invader

AH! The new Cocksure came out a week ago today and I haven't been able to get it yet. I would have just pre-ordered it but I was traveling and thought I'd be able to finagle a grab on the go, however it just didn't work like that. The Ghost record was easy to come by last week - I walked into a bestbuy and walked out five minutes later with Meliora in hand. Cocksure's Corporate_Sting isn't the kind of record a bb would carry because, well frankly, I was kinda shocked they carry any music at all anymore. And there are NO record stores on the Southside of Chi town anymore (sheds a tear for Threshold Music).

Well, I'm back in LA and have a writing session in Hollywood tonight so you can bet your sweet behind I will be stopping at Amoeba. I simply can NOT wait any longer for the new one by Chris Connelly and Jason Novak!

Stream the new Ghost Record Meloria

If you haven't heard it yet this should help convince you of its majesty. If you dig it, buy it and help them 'take over the world'.

Rote Hexe

I haven't been able to shop for much music lately, let alone wander the isles of Amoeba and let something new and unexpected find me. I did that this evening and this fantastic experimental metal two-piece is what I came away with. Very, very good. Give a listen and please, if you dig, support them and Cricket Cemetery Records.

Goodnight Mommy

Sold. Completely F&*king sold.

Remember that Supergroup w/ Mike Patton, Tunde Adebimpe and Doseone?

The one we've been waiting for since about the time Peeping Tom came out?

It's here. Or at least the first single is. Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for The Nevermen (sounds like a villain from Grant Morrison's run on Doom Patrol, doesn't it?)

Thanks to my Drinking with Comics co-host Mike Wellman for being the bearer or great news:

The band's soundcloud is here. There's no tracks available there yet though, so apparently it's exclusive right here on Consequence of Sound. Really great track with a very unique structure. Can't wait for the record!

Chelsea Wolfe - Carrion Flowers

I had totally missed the fact that Chelsea Wolfe has a new record on the horizon (shipping on or around August 1st!). There's a gaggle of tracks floating around from Abyss (great title) but this creepy ass video is the only sneak peak I want of Ms. Wolfe's new material until I can experience it as a whole when I sit down with some intoxicants and hit play by candle light when the actual Long Player lands.

Can't wait! Next stop, the Abyss!

Before Bane There was... The Bonecrusher!

What? All will be revealed in this week's edition of Thee Comic Column, over on Joup.

Protomartry Streaming Live on Youtube RIGHT NOW

Just started!

Bizarre Ghost Late Night TV Ad From Back in May

Holy cow! Following the link to the Loud Wire that I referenced in my previous "From the Pinnacle to the Pit" post but had not read completely until just now, I realize how much I've missed on the developments in this completely awesome and bizarre band. This aired on VH1 in late May, during a late-night broadcast of Caddy Shack.

What?

This is the kind of marketing that I absolutely love and will endear me to Ghost even more. If that's possible.

Read the Loud Wire article linked above for more deets.

Brand New Ghost Track: From The Pinnacle To The Pit

AWESOME! And, more so than on Circe, the other track to surface so far from forthcoming record Meliora (pre-order here), on From The Pinnacle to the Pit you can very much tell that we once again have a new Papa Emeritus (number III for those counting along).

The fact that Ghost have switched singers for each of their three records is just stunning to me. I'll admit it's going to be hard to beat Papa II, however if this track shows a bit of bite to the vocals and Circe shows his 'sweet', melodic side, I'm really going to love this record as much as the other two. After seeing the video for Circe it has really grown to be one of my favorite Ghost tracks.

Ghost - Circe Video

This video is awesome - it's amazing to me that Ghost can continue to display the sense of humor that they do and still maintain the insidious 70s satanic horror vibe they pull off so well. And if the song itself, which available for free download on their site, is any indication, the new record Meliora will be an even more epic step in this brilliant band's evolution.

New Protomartyr Track Why Does It Shake?

Pitchfork reports that The Agent Intellect, Protomartyr's follow-up to last year's brilliant Under Color Of Official Right will be released on October 9th via Hardly Art. Easily my most-anticipated album of the year before hearing this new track, which is so good I really just want to keep playing it over and over again but, you know, must preserve the purity of the album experience.

Maybe.

Star Wars - The Force Awakens

Wow. This has stunned me with the effect it has had on me. It's inspired a rather lengthy article which I'll link to on Joup in a day or two.

UPDATE: Here's the link to the article.

Windhand - Two Urns

Bad ass!

Mastodon Video - Asleep in the Deep

Via Bloody Disgusting. Mastodon's Once More 'Round the Sun made my top 10 records last year and continues to be an almost daily listen for me (often multiple iterations in a sitting). I was obviously very happy to see this pop up earlier today. Hit the bloody disgusting link above for some information about what you see.

Lower Dens - Escape From Evil

I've spent most of the day listening to this band for the first time. Their newest record, Escape From Evil, is a fantastic dark-pop trip into a neon urban underworld that at times really reminds me of the early Cocteau Twins stuff.  Check it out.

Brian Buccellato's Sons of the Devil...

..., cults and The Great Satanic Panic are the topic of discussion in this week's edition of Thee Comic Column, over yonder on Joup!

Drinking w/ Comics #23

In which Mike Wellman and I talk about Chip Zdarky's new book Kaptara, the fact that Archie Comics has pretty much said, "Fuck it" and done another insane crossover book called... wait for it... Archie vs. Predator (AvP for the ironic class), Becky Cloonan, Andy Belanger and Leigh Loughridge's BRILLIANTLY creepy Southern Cross, Optic Nerve #14 and the Dark Horse, 1989 Predator mini series that definitley should have been used as the template for the 1990 Predator 2 which, let's face it, was terrible except for the Alien skull Danny "I can't act" Glover finds in the Predator's ship at the end.

All that and we drink Uinta Brewery's gorgeous Sum'r Ale, Ol' Burro's Favorable Stout and a few Fat Tires for good measure!

New High on Fire Streaming on NPR

Via Brooklyn Vegan. Good. I have some anger to release and this is just the band to help me do it.

Nekrogoblikon

How has this existed for three years and I have never heard of it? Well, thanks to Bloody Disgusting, who have the new Nekrogoblikon video up here I found this wonderful video. I didn't love it at first... and then I did.

Ash vs. Evil Dead teaser #2

I can NOT wait for this. After, what? Thirty freakin' years we're getting another chapter in Ash's life. That said, I'm a fan of BOTH Evil Dead timelines and I still really want another Fede Alvarez-directed movie with Mia.

Chicago by Night

From my friend Chuck. Man, this makes me homesick times twenty.

Screaming Females

Wow Bob Wow.

How I Fell in Love w/ Screaming Females

I am not a fan of the original artist who does this song, however I have a feeling with Screaming Females performing it, they could make me like just about anything.

I always forget about AV undercover until something like this pops back onto my radar, this time via Brooklyn Vegan.

Algiers - Black Enuch

Mr. Brown just sent me this video from Algiers's self-titled record that just came out today! They're on the mighty Matador and you can order the record on their website here. Or you can always go out and support the nearest brick-n-mortar record store in your area, if you have one. If you're anywhere near Long Beach like I am might I suggest the wonderful Fingerprints.

Quiet.

Last night at the taping/streaming of the new issue of Drinking w/ Comics I met Joey, the drummer for a band named Quiet. who hail from the Southbay. Great guy. In the midst of a languid morning of headache and music I managed to remember Quiet. has a bandcamp. I'm glad I did - these guys are great. Support some independent music and give yourself a powerful slap in the speakers at the same time. Given one word to describe Quiet.'s music I would say sonic, which should be enough to get some of you to pull the trigger and give them a spin.

New GHOST in August

And you can download the first track for free on their website right now! Head over to Heaven is an Incubator to listen to that track - named Cirice - now!

Wolf Moon

Type O Negative. One of my favorite bands of all time. Lead singer/bassist Peter Steele's death is one of only two rock n roll deaths from my era that actually affected me - the other being Layne Stayley's. I don't listen to Type O all the time - favorite or not their music affects me so strongly that I have to be in a very particular state of mind to fully revel in it. And that state of mind really only comes around two or three times a year - Spring and Autumn definitely and maybe once at some other point. And when it hits me, I go into that headspace and their music super hard.

I've been in that headspace recently, and ironically my friend Tommy has too because he posted about it in his awesome Joup column Endless Loop.

I've posted this track before - I have TONS of baggage associated with it. I'm posting it again but wanted to do a different version, namely something live that does it justice, like this version from the band's Symphony for the Devil video does.

Kitty LaRoar

LOVE this! One of those amazing serendipitous finds via networking on twitter. THIS is what social media is for. And there's a lot more great music on Ms. LaRoar's Soundcloud page.

Sadist Art Designs

Another rabbit hole Perturbator has sent me spiraling down. You know that awesome "Satan is a Computer"poster design that I posted along with the new album teaser? It was done by Sadist Art Designs. Intrigued I set out googling said Sadist and found that their website is filled with awesome stuff: poster designs for some very retro, 80s looking independent horror flicks, a Halloween nod and holy full circle - Sadist Art did a poster for Don't Move, the amazing horror short from Bloody Cuts Films that I posted last year.

Slick Moranis - Another Sleepless Night Perturbator Remix

I just can't seem to get enough Perturbator lately. This has sent me down several rabbit holes. Slick Moranis is one of those. Here's the original.

UPDATE:

Yeah, just linking to the original won't do. It's too damn awesome:

Twin Peaks Intro... Done with Paper!

Saw this on Bloodydisgusting earlier in the week. Very cool. The opening notes of this theme song always have a calming influence on me, and if I make it all the way through I usually get a little choked up from nostalgia.

New Perturbator Record Teaser

Man how I wish I'd gotten this sold-out poster from his bandcamp!

I caught sight of this a few weeks ago and promptly forgot about it - with constant access anywhere, anytime the internet has become something of a roiling sea to me, and I've essentially become the nautical disaster survivor, swimming from one piece of detritus to another, never looking back, always treading water. So much content I find slips through the cracks and disappears. While I write this I stumble to try and remember various tidbits or big announcements that I've encountered in the last few days and nothing comes up.

That's alright - news of a new Perturbator record on the way is more than enough to carry me through the day. Here's a taste.

Other Lives

I just discovered the group Other Lives via Mxdwn's Raymond Float and his twitter. I clicked a link, saw the word "phantasmagorical" and immediately fell in love with what I heard. This track reminds me of Calexico if they had a little more Bela Lugosi and a little less Robert Rodriguez (not a dis - I love Calexico). That's an analogy that only goes so far though; as I move through other material by the band I'm finding they are actually quite unlike anything else that I have heard before. Rituals, the band's new album, just came out on May 4th via Play It Again Sam, so I'm going to have to acquire a copy of that ASAP.

Cocteau Twins - Grail Overfloweth

From one of the darkest albums this side of The Cure's Pornography. Totally sounds like 80s Vertigo comics to me, probably because all those British Invasion creators were steeped in their Cocteau Twins.

Always Watching

I am fairly uninitiated in the Slender Man mythos, however I will admit to harboring a very remote interest in it for the last few years. Something about the idea that we have our first urban legend born on the internet really intrigues me, as does some of the imagery that tends to surround it. Any time I've attempted to research it however most of what I find online is very 'in-on-the-joke', biased and not informative at all, often being suffering from extremely poor, Junior High School level grammar/spelling/etc. The most un-biased and informative, no bullshit article I've found about the Slender Man to date. There's also a wiki devoted entirely to the legend, however it quickly becomes a rabbit hole, as there are leagues of internet jargon used therein that I have no frame of reference for and thus, end up spending an exorbitant amount of time on tangents.

As morbid as it is I will say my interest in the Slender Man jumped a bit more when about a year ago two twelve-year-old girls stabbed a third in order to appease Slender Man, who they believed had threatened them into doing the deed. The crime is atrocious, but what interests me here is the way fiction has bled over into reality and affected it. That is always worth taking note of because incidents like that wear down the walls between the worlds of fact and fiction and leave our world a little bit more susceptible to becoming... something else.



Last night my interest peaked a little. A bunch of us had gone to see David Lynch's Mulholland Drive at Cinespia (amazing!) and when we came out a flyer with the above image was under my friend Ray's windshield wiper. Intrigued I spent about an hour at the end of the night watching the first thirteen or so entries in the Marble Hornets series. I can't attest to quality of story yet because I'm not nearly far enough along, however I'm definitely still intrigued, more so that the creators apparently parlayed it into a feature length. Always Watching is playing for a week - starting this past Friday May 15th - and although I'll probably not have the chance to drive up to the one cinema that has it in LA, I'll definitely be watching for it to hit Netflix, the place where indie horror flix like this really seem to live the strongest these days.

New High on Fire!

Jesus Christ - what is this, Christmas? First a new Brand New, now new High on Fire? And while we can only chomp our nails and wait with bated breath for the announcement of the new album to follow Brand New's first track in six years you can pre-order the new High On Fire - titled Luminiferous - now! Or, you can wait and go to a local record shop and grab it June 23rd.

Also, I've seen HOF several times and I can't stress this enough: if you get the chance see them live. These are three men that, on stage, create a sound so enormous it's like an army of Orcs storming a castle.

Here's Matt Pike's explanation of the lyrics to this track:

"It's about aliens abducting people and manipulating our past, present and future. It's about the top of the pyramid, so to speak," Pike says. "And it's also about alien hybrids, and how we've been immersed amongst this culture of E.T.s for thousands of years, and how no one has woken up to it until recently."

FINALLY - New Song From Brand New

YESYESYES! Six years since Daisy and hopefully this will be followed by a new album very soon! Brand New - I miss you!

Scott Snyder and Jock's Wytches...

... is the topic in this week's edition of Thee Comic Column, over on Joup!

David Lynch Back on Twin Peaks!

Dear Twitter Friends, the rumors are not what they seem ..... It is !!! Happening again. #TwinPeaks returns on @SHO_Network

— David Lynch (@DAVID_LYNCH) May 16, 2015

... and all is right with the world.

True Detective Season 2- First Full Trailer?

Well, I thought the first full trailer was what dropped last month. At any rate, I'm breaking my 'don't watch more than one trailer rule' with this one. Just because.

#wegettheworldwedeserve

Rick and Morty Kill The Simpsons

LOVE this. Thanks be to Mr. Brown for making me a Rick and Morty fan, that first season is nuts. Second season begins in July.

Faith No More on the Tonight Show

Okay, I was trying very hard not to listen to any songs off of next Tuesdays' FNM record Sol Invictus but I'll admit I've slipped. Now, as of a few days ago the album is streaming in its entirety on NPR - I've managed to resist that because I've really been looking forward to making this a "Day it's released" record store trip to Fingerprints in Long Beach. Day of acquisitions aren't the easiest events to plan and pull off these days, what with the internet being our dread overlord and master, however I've always been one to cherish the experience of first hearing a new album by a band I love as a whole entity and not fragmented songs, so I sometimes have to fight pretty hard against the net and myself in this age of media frenzy. Spoilers, early releases and bootlegs wait around every corner of our increasingly virtual world. And because of this that fight for a perfect first listen has increasingly required me to do things that are sometimes baffling to others, i.e. driving around with QOTSA's ... Like Clockwork for almost a day without ever listening to it in the spring of 2013, or running from a room at work when the lead single off of NIN's Hesitation Marks dropped that same year. That said, when the first song off Faith's first album in 18 years dropped last November I couldn't help myself - I jumped on it right away. I mean, 18 years.

18 YEARS. Shessh.

Since Motherfucker though, I've tried to avoid all the subsequent tracks as they've surfaced, officially (Superhero) or unofficially (any of the live performances captured by concertgoers that have been appearing in varying degrees of quality for about the last year). Then a few weeks ago my co-host on Drinking with Comics Mike Wellman and I saw Faith at LA's Wiltern Theatre and afterward, pumped from the show and hammered from an endless quaff of ale, Mike played me a leak of the entire album. I protested and he ignored - as I said we'd been drinking so I was crashing at his pad and thus, I really didn't have a choice. I mean, I guess I could have left the room but we still had a few bottles of Sierra Nevada we'd picked up as a night cap and the fridge was in listening distance of his stereo so you know, what could I do?

In the end I remember next to nothing of this first, premature experience with Sol Invictus except that I liked what I heard and likened it to the next logical step after 1997's Album of the Year; like Bauhaus in 2006 or The Pixies in 2014 FNM seems to have perfectly picked back up where they left off. And although I've had moments of weakness, due to a pretty memorable night - or not memorable I guess - I've kind of been granted a second chance for that uninterrupted, environment-controlled first listen I'll get to have next Tuesday when the first album in 18 years from one of my all-time favorite bands - a band I really didn't think we'd ever get another album from - drops.

Life is good. And to prove it, here's Faith on the Tonight Show a couple days ago. The Tonight Show? Did they ever score that gig back in the day?

Age of Ultron and Joss Whedon's Influences

... are the topics of discussion in this week's edition of Thee Comic Column over yonder on Joup!

Secret Chiefs 3 - Agenda 21

From their imaginary Giallo film soundtrack. Love this record.

I was very hot on SC3 back when I first heard them, circa 1998 when they and then fellow Web Of Mimicry band Estradasphere turned Chicago's Double Door into a fire-swinging, book-reading, chair-surfing sideshow of insanity. Since then I've only followed either band periodically, primarily in the case of SC3 because before this record - which is a masterpiece of a different sort - the more SC3 records I bought the more I missed the Patton part of an equation in what seemed like the natural continuation of Mr. Bungle. I don't think that's entirely fair, but it was my interpretation of events at the time.

Daredevil Nightcourt Intro

Being that I am both a huge fan of the new Marvel/Netflix series Daredevil AND the classic 80s sitcom Night Court (it holds up unlike any other sitcom from the era, except maybe Cheers) this made my day.

So Tonight that I Might See

Tommy from Heaven is an Incubator does a marvelous column over on Joup called Endless Loop. It's great - the idea being one that I can most certainly relate to: songs that you can listen to over and over and over again without getting tired of. This week's entry is Fade Into You by Mazzy Star. I love this song and the entire album it's on. Back in the day... well, I won't even bothering trying to describe what it means to me because if you follow this link right here and read Tommy's words I think you'll find that once again he nails it. I'm off work sick today and the first thing I saw when I woke up was this post. It inspired me to put on the song and then the album. I am now in the middle of my fourth go-through with the entire thing. It's perfect for how I feel today, so I have to thank Tommy for blindly hitting the right chord for me. Like I said, I love the entire record, however the title track is my own perfect Endless Loop from this one. There's something about its quasi-Doors desert psychedelia of it that just grabs me and never lets go, like it's always been playing in the static just below my conscious mind since the first time I ever heard it, waaaay back in that magical land called the 90s.

The Lovecraft Alphabet

There's a plethora of Lovecraft-inspired Facebook pages I follow and somewhere on one of them last night in the throes of fever I found this. Woke up and saw it in a saved blogger draft, laughed my snot-ridden arse off.

HELP identify this song - It's not Pallbearer

This is driving me crazy. So I have been meaning to check out the band Pallbearer for some time but they consistently fall off my radar. Earlier today a good friend told me I needed to check them out, that he had fallen in love with them when he saw them live recently. I go to youtube, find this link and fall in love with it immediately, then realize that A) there's only about 2:18 of the hour long track that has sound on it and B) that it's not Pallbearer. I've tried figuring this out with Sound Hound and Shazam - no luck. The style sounds so familiar but I can't place the band or song definitely enough to dig that last stretch to an answer so any one out there that can give me any info on this it would be very greatly appreciated!

Zombi - The Zombi Anthology

This was released via Relapse Records today. If you remember, this is the band that had an amazing recreation of John Carpenter's The Thing done stop motion with old school 3 3/4 GIJOE figures as a music video last year. That was my intro to their music and I've been waiting on this new record for what seems quite a long time. Well, it's here!

Drinking with Comics #22 - now with DJ KIRKBRIDE!!!

Join us as we drink Modern Times Brewery's spectacular beer and talk to comic writer DJ Kirkbride about Amelia Cole, Never Ending, The Bigger Bang, co-writing, the evolution of writing comics and that pesky Batgirl/Joker cover controversy that was such a big deal a couple of weeks ago!

The Walk Slow

I've been meaning to post this for a couple weeks now. MAN! When you're a musician there's nothing like the love and joy that can come from being in a band. You sling it out with three or four other guys, saddle all your hopes and dreams together and try to shoot an arrow into the side of the world that actually sticks. It's hard; it takes a level of commitment and determination that is not easy and can drive some folks apart. But other folks, well, it makes you bond as strong or stronger than family. That's always been the case with the guys I slung it out with my former bands in Chicago. I've known Sonny Vee since forever. He was in Wink Lombardi and the Constellations with me ("which one'a youse guys is Wink?") on through the short-lived Second Attention, he slung it out for a while in Infinite Vision and that's where we met and added Joe Grez to the cabal of maniacs - which included Mr. Brown and Monsieur Viderstrom - who ended up forming Schlitz Family Robinson. Anyway, that was a long time ago. More recently, and I use that word loosely here for sure, Joe and Sonny and I were in The Yellow House. We came pretty close to... something. But the industry was kicking and screaming as the internet, MP3s and Napster all took over and in just a little over a year and a half (fact check Joe - I'm bad at quantifying the passage of time) that slipped away too. But not before we recorded and self-released one full length and two e.p., all of which I am still enormously proud of. Anyway, Joe and Sonny are back in a new band, The Walk Slow and hearing them, seeing this video, it makes me so incredibly happy that I just can barely even think straight. These guys are the real deal - back in '01 Grez used to say, "next to no one in music knows how to be cool anymore" and sometimes I feel like that too. But when I hear something like this, well, I know that's just the scarred side of the otherwise brilliant coin.