Saturday, July 23, 2016

Ritual Howls - Going Upstate


Continuing my new found love affair with Felte Records and their exemplary roster of talent, early this past week I pre-ordered the forthcoming new album by Ritual Howls. Three tracks were made available to me immediately upon purchasing Into the Water and I've been beating them into my brain ever since in long writing sessions with the iPod on. Without really sounding like them, these guys remind me a little of what I love about early My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult. This is some dark stuff, like music you might hear while descending into the basement of an enemy just as the acid kicks in.

Love the music, love the album cover and again, LOVE Felte Records.



You can check out Ritual Howls here and Felte Records in general here.

Turkish Leather on wax is my next purchase and I'm chomping at the bit to get it. Until then, make mine Felte!

Adam Wingard's The Woods is really...


Well, this is everywhere by now but I'm at work so this is the first chance I've had to post about the fact that one of my newest favorite horror directors, Adam Wingard's upcoming film The Woods has been revealed to be nothing other than a new installment in...

The Blair Witch Project.



Words cannot summate just how excited I am. I have always considered the original Blair Witch Project to be the second scariest movie I have ever seen (coming in behind The Exorcist of course). I also really dug the sequel for its tone and pragmatic "we already did that now let's do the exact opposite" approach. And now, well, from what we're hearing after the press viewing, 2016's Blair Witch may enter into the upper echelons of that 'scariest flicks of all time" list.

Also worth embedding is the teaser for The Woods, simply for juxtaposition and, well, I really dig the way they used this version of Every Breath You Take.

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Nite Fields - Depersonalisation


Beginning with my introduction to Odonis Odonis a few weeks ago, I have slowly succumbed to a wonderful, all-encompassing musical abyss named Felte Records. It's been years since I considered myself as having a 'favorite record label' but with Felte I feel I can once again make that claim. Their roster of talent is crazy good and seems styled after my own personal tastes (and probably yours too if you read this blog), their products and business approach are fantastic and, well, talk about friendly - when my vinyl version of Post Plague arrived in the mail the other day the fine folks at Felte had thrown in another record for free.

For Free!!!

I had not had the pleasure of hearing Nite Fields previously but once I saw that cover (pictured above) I immediately made the plastic incision and extracted the beautiful piece of black vinyl within, cued it up on my new record player and within moments the opening strains of lead track 'Depersonalised' pulled my consciousness into a beautiful, black spiral from which I have only reluctantly emerged to switch back to the throb and punch of Post Plague. The two make a great juxtaposition and I highly recommend both. Depersonalisation by Nite Fields can be ordered here and Post Plague by Odonis Odonis here.

Go forth and support an awesome independent label!!!




Sunday, July 17, 2016

RIP Alan Vega



Wow 2016. Umm... stop?

Well, the man was 78, so it's not super unexpected. That said, Suicide is very much the mega-influential American band that 98% of people don't know about. I'm not saying that to be pompous, it's just a shame that they achieved a broader spectrum of exposure. Then again, it's a shame, but not a surprise, because there is next to nothing overtly approachable about Suicide's music.

For some of us however, that in and of itself is an attribute. Henry Rollins had a statement earlier, and I'm sure his radio show this evening was dedicated to Mr. Vega. Rollins wrote an amazing column that talked about Suicide sometime last year in his weekly LA weekly column. If I can eventually find it online I'll post a link here. Needless to say, he had the perfect summation of how Suicide's music generally goes from confrontational and alienating to impactful and mesmerizing.




Mr. Vega did a lot of other music as well. This song, a collaboration with A.R.E. Weapons, is one of my favorites.



Safe passage to the other side Mr. Vega. You earned it.

Monday, July 11, 2016

Food For Thought - Election Comic Kickstarter


Back in the early episodes of Drinking with Comics we had an episode that overlapped with one of the many local creator meetings that take place at Manhattan Beach's The Comic Bug and brought one Cassidy James up to speak on behalf of a comic he was kickstarting, Gun Up Paintball. I hadn't seen Cassidy in a while and ran into him a month or so ago during an event at the shop. He told me about a new comic he had waiting in the wings called Food For Thought and it sounded like a lot of fun to me; I'm so disgusted by the entire election but can't seem to stop following it (for the record I don't consider myself a liberal or a conservative - I don't want any of 'em in office, btw) and a book that poked fun at any of the candidates sounded right like it might be just what a lot of us need to blow off some steam at the seemingly endless campaign trail shenanigans that we've been choking on for months now. If this sounds good to you too give the video above a watch and contribute to the Kickstarter HERE if you can. I'd really like to see this book get up off the ground. With Cassidy's words and Livan Ivan Cornejo's art I think this could be a truly entertaining and timely book.


Saturday, July 9, 2016

Odonis Odonis - Needs


Almost every year without fail I stumble across a record that immediately announces itself as my favorite of the year. This certainty usually arises within the first song, which always makes the record feel that much more powerful. Yesterday I sought out Canada's Odonis Odonis and was immediately struck with the certainty that, while I have and will no doubt hear a lot of other amazing new music this year, Post Plague is going to be my #1 come year's end.