I Hate to Say My Heart is a Chainsaw, But I Told You So

 

Here's a group I had all but forgot about. A big name to me in the early 2000s, The Hives still sound great today, and I was excited to hear this track at the end of Robert Kirkman and Ryan Ottley's Invincible. It put the band back on my radar and I'm excited to go through their albums for the first time in probably a decade.

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Read:

The new Stephen Graham Jones novel is out today. I had completely forgotten about this until, just before bed last night, I read an article SGJ contributed to the most recent issue of Fangoria, wherein he offers some pretty interesting theoretical methods to fix three problematic Slasher films from the past (Shocker, F13 V and Nightmare on Elm Street 2). Anyway, I grabbed this on Kindle (despite my growing dislike for the device) because I read both of Jones's novels last year and both blew me away. Here's to hoping that this one - with such an awesome title - will do the same. I have every reason to believe it will.

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Watch:

So, yeah, K and I finally finished the first season of Invincible. Initially, the first episode had a huge effect on me - it was engineered to do so - but then my interest tapered off. It's this thing I have about pretty much all animation sans Cowboy Bebop, 80s Transformers and... well, that's about it. I don't know why, I just don't connect with it, and I find it hard to finish any series. It was that way with Castlevania - made it up to about halfway through the third season and stopped, and even that took multiple attempts and a couple of years to do. Same with Trese, which I made it about halfway through. Anyway, if you haven't watched it, here's a trailer. However, I think it shows way too much, so maybe just go watch the first episode all the way through. In most cases, that should be enough. Unless you're like me.

 

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Playlist:

Mark Lanegan - Bubblegum

The Jesus Lizard - Liar

The Birthday Party - Mutiny/The Bad Seed

Grinderman - Eponymous

Gesaffelstein - Aleph

Old Blood - Acid Doom

Slipknot - We Are Not your Kind

Code Orange - Underneath

Type O Negative - Life is Killing Me

Sturgil Simpson - Sound and Fury

Metallica - ... And Justice For All

The Hives - Veni Vidi Vicious

The Afghan Whigs - 1965

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Card:

I feel like this is referencing something bigger than me, something I'm hopelessly caught in a repetitive dance with. I'm just not sure what that is. 

Gesaffelstein - Aleph

 

Heard this the other day and it sent me down a Gesaffelstein rabbit hole. Love this track, as well as pretty much everything I've heard from this artist since. Here's the Gesaffelstein Bandcamp - check it out!

 

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Watch:

Last night, K and I watched the first two episodes of the new American Horror Story. The Season is dubbed "Double Feature," however, the first two episodes - part of what I'm assuming is the first feature and will comprise half of the new season - are titled American Horror Story: Red Tide.

I've always maintained that AHS is a mixed bag. While I genuinely like the seasons I've watched - Murder House, Asylum, Hotel, Roanoke and 1984 - all of those except Roanoke and 1984 suffer from being too long. One of the things about Roanoke that blew me away was that, after all the previous seasons clocking in with 12 -13 episodes a piece, Roanoke went 10 and finished cleanly, without dangling plotlines hanging around, needing cleaning up after the major arcs closed. I'm hoping the double feature format will mean both of the stories that will populate this new Season will at worst leave me wanting more.

So, Red Tide is Vampires, and I have to say, the explanation they give for the show's reinvention of the fictional species is possibly my favorite EVER. Yeah, if what Even Peters's character told Finn Wittrock's characters is true, this is some serious outside-the-box thinking on an iconic horror creature that has, frankly, been pretty tired for some time now (with a few exceptions peppering the last decade).

Can't wait for more!

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Playlist:

The Rolling Stones - It's Only Rock 'N' Roll

The Rolling Stones, Nicky Hopkins and Ry Cooder - Jamming w/ Edward

The Dead Milkmen - Big Lizard in My Backyard

The Nerves - One Way Ticket

deadmau5 - Random Album Title

The Afghan Whigs - 1965

Zeal and Ardor - Calloway

Djecjotronic - - Randjo (single)

Covenant - Dreams of a Cryotank

Slayer - Love Undead/Haunting the Chapel

Slayer - Decade of Aggression

Gesaffelstein - Aleph

Abby Sage - Smoke Break (single)

The Hillbilly Moon - My Love for Evermore

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Breakthrough? Breakthrough!

R.I.P. Charlie F*ckin' Watts

 

Talk about a goddamn legend! So sorry to hear this man left us, but what a legacy he leaves behind. I'm not much of an Exile fan - I prefer pretty much every record the Stones released on either side of it by five years to this one - however, this track, as well as a few others on the four-sider, is a CLASSIC. Rest in Peace Charlie Watts. You'll be missed.

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NCBD:

I had mistakenly thought the opening story arc of Marvel's first Alien title ended in last month's issue #5. Not so, therefore, I am back this month to see how this wraps up and just what the heck Alpha is.

Wow. One of my favorite covers yet. Not gonna lie - I'm not digging the Sinister War title all that much, as it seems extremely superfluous. That said, I still love this core AMS title, and especially after the excitement generated by THIS, I'm in the mood for some Spidey!

This title disappeared for a few months, but it's back, and I'm hoping the cover means we're actually going to see Baron Zemo take on Peter with a sword. That would be awesome

This title has quickly risen to the top of my 'must read' list every month. Can't wait to see where this current arc goes.

If issue #120 really is Raph vs. Hob, there's not much more that I need to hear. The textbook definition of the classic 'Nuff said.

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Watch:

After what feels like forever, The Last Matinee finally hit VOD yesterday. Maximiliano Contenti's gory A.F. Neo Giallo is slow-moving almost to a fault at times as it stumbles through attempting to recreate the tone of classic Argento/Lenzi/Martino black-gloved kill-fests, but that's okay. Overall, K and I both really enjoyed the film, and once it gets moving, it really gets moving.  If you're so inclined, and you're in for a slow burn, The Last Matinee is currently a $4.99 rental on Prime, and would especially make good viewing for a group.

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Playlist:

Quicksand - Slip

Abby Sage - Wasting Away (single)

Jenny Hval - Blood Bitch

Abby Sage - Smoke Break (single)

College - Teenage Color EP

Chromatics - Faded Now

Massive Attack - 100th Window

Slipknot - We Are Not Your Kind

Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full

Mrs. Piss - Self-Surgery

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Card:

The elevated perspective will shed new light. I could totally use that on this short, which I am hopelessly drowning in at the moment. 

Abby Sage - Smoke Break

 

I love love love this song! A random dalliance with NPR this past Saturday introduced me to Abby Sage's Smoke Break, and since, I have been unable to get it out of my mind. This appears to be a single, as with the other tracks I've found on Apple Music by Ms. Sage, so I'll be following her and can't wait until she releases a full album!

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Watch:

 

I went back into a bix box theatre this past Saturday and saw David Bruckner's The Night House. An all-around good experience (We hit a matinee, so there were about five folks other than us there), and the movie was outstanding. A SUPER slow burn, to use a somewhat tired term, The Night House trusts its audience enough not to over-explain everything. This one's sure to spark some "What the fuck?" conversations in all the right ways. There's also a certain logic to its mechanisms that really drives home the fact that Bruckner and screenwriters Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski are exactly the right folks to be working on the new iteration of Clive Barker's Hellraiser.

Rebecca Hall and Barry's Sarah Goldberg turn in great performances, and the story goes places you're never gonna see coming, always an added plus.
 

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Playlist:

The Plimsouls - Everywhere All At Once

Etta James - Eponymous

Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full 

The Jesus Lizard - Liar

White Lung - Eponymous

White Lung - Paradise

The Joy Formidable - Into the Blue

Deafheaven - Infinite Granite

Yola - Stand For Myself

Zeal and Ardor - Calloway (Single)

Boy Harsher - Careful

CCR - Bayou Country

David Bowie - A Reality Tour (Live)

Nicholas Elert - The Stylist OST

Abby Sage - Smoke Break (Single)

Zeal and Ardor - Stranger Fruit

Deafheaven - New Bermuda

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Card:

Strength in what you know. Words of wisdom Lloyd, words of wisdom. I could use them. Short story is driving me CRAZY.,

Knocking on the Skeleton Tree

 

I fell back into Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' 2016 album Skeleton Tree album unexpectedly yesterday. I had forgotten how good this record is. Definitely for the quieter moments in life, but exquisite in a way nothing else Cave has done. This is part of the reason I've been unable to get into the 2019 follow-up, Ghosteen - the two albums feel so much alike, Ghosteen strikes me as redundant. I'm certain this is my problem, and that I've just not hit on it at the right moment yet, so I'll keep trying.

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Watch:

Hungry for new on new Horror movies coming out, I found this teaser for Frida Kempff's debut feature Knocking on Bloody Disgusting. This one looks fantastic!

 

This is totally one that would play for free at this year's Beyondfest in the Speilberg theatre space at the Egyptian if that theatre wasn't under construction by new owners Netflix until 2022. As is, because of how I scheduled my first trip back to the Midwest since February 2020, I may not be heading to Beyondfest this year, but if by some miracle the switch of venue to what I'm assuming will be the Los Feliz 3 and Aero Theatres moves the annual fest to a different spot on the calendar, I'll definitely be trying to see Knocking on the big screen. If not, it hits VOD on October 19th.

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Playlist:

Pilot Priest and Electric Youth - Come True OST

Soulsavers - The Light the Dead See

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Skeleton Tree

The Twilight Singers - Powder Burns

Black Sabbath - Paranoid

Tropic of Cancer - The Sorrow of Two Blooms 

Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - May Our Chambers be Full

Zeal and Ardor - Stranger Fruit

Zeal and Ardor - Devil is Fine

Code Orange - Underneath

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Card:

Follow my intuition? It's funny, at this exact moment, that would line up perfectly with the post I did earlier in the week where I mentioned blowing up my life. I'm chomping at the bit to leave L.A., to leave my job, for everything in my professional life to change. I just don't know how to effect that change. 

Sabotaging Tommy Jarvis

 

Quite possibly, my favorite Black Sabbath song. Although that is probably as difficult to stick by as a mother picking a favorite child.

Sabotage is without a doubt my favorite of the band's albums. The music is phenomenal - really a step beyond anything they'd done before. They kind of split the difference between their blues roots and the shaping of Heavy Metal they began on Paranoid. However, it's the lyrics that really seal the deal on this one for me. There's such an air of prophecy and revelation. 

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NCBD:

Jesus, my wallet just jumped out of my pocket and took off down the street. Look at this list!

So I was wrong about issue #4 being the finale. Here we go.

This series is so imaginative, so original, and so f*&king gorgeous I just can't believe it. Every issue gets weirder, but never at the cost of the story's inner logic.

I have to have this Skottie Young cover. I'm not generally one of those folks who feel the need to have everything he does - his work is always cool, but it's only when he draws certain classic, larger-than-life Marvel characters that I feel the need to add them to my collection. 

 

Been a minute. Since Lazarus moved to this format, I enjoy the individual issues so much more. That said, with the gap between, I lose A LOT. It's about time for a re-read (which I've been saying for like three years now).

Love this Peach Momoko cover. I dug the first issue of Moon Knight's new ongoing, so I'm interested in where the story is going.

I am really digging this book, and it's great to be back on something with Tony Daniel's art. Waaay back in the day, he was the highlight of Todd McFarlane's Spawn series when I still read it in the mid-90s. I traded in all those Spawns back when I moved to LaLaLand, however, I'd be lying if I didn't say I've actually thought about rebuying a few, just to revisit Tony's art. Now, thankfully, I don't have to. Instead, I can read a well-written book that he illustrates. Win-win.

Coming down to the final days of Nick Spencer's run. I just learned that after he leaves with Amazing Spider-Man #74, the new series will feature Ben Reilly instead of Peter Parker. 

Yeah, I totally did a double-take on that one, too. 

I'm tempted to jump off again, however, the idea of bringing the clone back (or was Peter the clone?) is too interesting to pass up. At least for a while.

Sweet Declan Shalvey cover on this one. This series is fun as hell, and I love seeing the various bounty hunters whose figures I coveted trying to fuck Fett over. Makes for a helluva story.

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Watch:

Last week my copies of Never Hike in the Snow and Never Hike Alone arrived. I missed out on backing Alone, but was able to make it in on Snow. Monday night, I finally had some time to sit down and watch both films.

 

I'll take this over almost any other F13 feature film any day of the week. F13 is one of those franchises that I want to like so bad, but I almost never do. 

 

Vincent DeSanti does such a fantastic job, not only in stripping these down to what makes the concept of the series great but as Jason himself. Yes, that's the director lumbering in for every kill! And bring back Thom Matthews reprising his role as Tommy Jarvis!

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Playlist:

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - The Night Creeper

MadLove - White with Foam

Danzig - Thrall - Demonsweatlive

Danzig - Danzig 4

Deftones - Ohms

The Neverly Brothers - Dark Side of Everything

Razor - Armed and Dangerous

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Card:

Harnessing the raw power of an idea and honing it into something tangible. 

The Joy Formidable - Interval

Another single from the forthcoming album Into the Blue, which is out Friday, August 24, but which you can still pre-order on the band's website HERE.  

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Watch:

I don't know anything about this new Mike Flanagan Netflix show Midnight Mass except that it's Mike Flanagan. 

What else do I need to know?

Also, it looks like this might fit into the Seaside Horror subgenre I've grown rather fond of recently, so that's pretty cool. And really, Netflix has a damn good track record with Horror these days, so I'll definitely be watching this one when it drops.

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Listen:

The new episode of The Horror Vision is up. This time, we do a deep-dive into James Gunn's Horror DNA. From writing the screenplay for the Dawn of the Dead remake to Slither, Belko and even a bit on his Troma roots. Check it out!

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Playlist:

Alice in Chains - Rainier Fog

The Black Queen - Infinite Games

The Joy Formidable - Into the Blue (pre-release singles)

Deftones - Koi No Yokan

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Card:

A larger perspective. Ritual and union. Hmm... not entirely sure how to read this. It may point toward an idea I've had kicking around in my head now for about a week, but I'm unclear if it would be an allusion to it being a valid engagement, or a waste of time.

Brand New Cherry Flavor Tastes Great!!!

A little MadLove to start the week. My Favorite track from an album that's pretty much all favorite tracks.

 

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Watch:

 

 

This show blew me away. I haven't taken to anything like this in a while. 

First: Brand New Cherry Flavor is, I think, pretty much Season 5 of Channel Zero, Nick Antosca's former anthology series on SyFy. If you haven't seen that, all four seasons are currently on Shudder and are 100% worth your time. They are fantastic. Basically, SyFy canceled it, and Netflix gave him to do something similar. Channel Zero's seasons are all stand-alone and all adapted from Creepy Pastas. BNCF is an adaptation of a novel of the same name by Todd Grimson. The book is way out of print, but don't worry - someone is bound to remedy that with a new edition any minute now.

Second: Mr. Antosca is unapologetically a huge David Lynch fan, and there's a ton of that 'flavor' that he brings to his work. It's especially here. It's in exactly the most respectful, awesome way, too. Not imitation, but influence. I expand on this idea a bit in the new episode of The Horror Vision that drops tomorrow. At the time, I'd only seen the first episode of BNCF. K and I watched that Friday night. Yesterday, we did the remaining seven episodes because we just couldn't stop. 

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Playlist:

MadLove - White With Foam

David Bowie - Young Americans

Barry Adamson - Oedipus Schmoedipus

The Veils - Total Depravity

Grinderman - Eponymous

The Replacements - Tim

Bjork - Post

The Hillbilly Moon Explosion - My Love for Evermore

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Card:

Yes, please. 

Powder Burns

 I will always hear the chorus to this song as 

"I'm ready - I'm ready - to hurt somebody." 

These words fit with the image of Greg Duli at the time, and it fits with where I was mentally. Not that I was angry and ready to hurt somebody, but I was ready to blow up my old life and start a new one. And that's exactly what I did.

I used to listen to The Twilight Singers' Powder Burns every day, compulsively. I probably had a low-grade addiction to cocaine by the time I left Chicago in 2006. It wasn't an everyday thing, but it was around me every day I worked at the bar where I tended, so things were moving in that direction. When I moved to the West Coast, I effectively shut that down. (Who moves to LaLaLand to stop doing blow?). A lot of the artists who affected me the most after this all had public personas that included similar pastime pursuits. Duli was one, plus, there was this additional melancholy attached to falling in love with his music, as my friend Brian had always heralded Duli's first band, The Afghan Whigs, as a major influence, and I just hadn't been there at the time to share that with him. I never bothered to take Brian's suggestion seriously because I had not yet encountered anything in my life that prepared me to fall in love with Greg Duli's music yet. Shortly after Brian died, I moved. By the time I did, I was hooked on the Whigs' Gentleman, and soon after 1965, and then, in 2006,  Powder Burns. 

This album is epic. I honestly believe that about every facet of it, from the songwriting, arranging and playing, to what Duli was going through in his life at the time, to the fact that the band recorded the album in a studio in New Orleans in the wake of Katrina. If you read interviews with him from the time, you'll hear him discuss how the feeling of being in the wreckage of a major culture center crept into the feel of the record. It's there, oh yeah. Everything feels like it's lying in a pool of rubble, the ceiling's split open and falling, the wind is howling just outside, and you're trapped with your demons by the light of a single, solitary candle.

When I fell back into Powder Burns recently, I realized it's been a long time since I really listened to it. I still dabble with old pastimes when I return to the city I fled, although it's been a few years. I don't know if this re-engagement with the album is my inner demon fixing to make a phone call for the five days I'll be in town at the end of September, or if I'm just reclaiming the entire dejected persona for something I'm writing. That's the thing with this craft, you never really know who you are when you're working on something that puts you in the driver's seat by utilizing your life experiences. I guess only time will tell...

Danny Elfman and Trent Reznor

Not sure if this collaboration is stand-alone or will be part of an album, but either way, it's cool as all hell to hear these two icons make music together. 

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Watch:

I finally had a chance to watch Andrew Thomas Hunt's Spare Parts last night. Really solid, old-school exploitation flick with a big ol' heart of Girl Power gold.   

Gory,  Guttural and glib, this one made a perfect second feature after my first viewing of George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road, which I'd not seen since its theatrical run.

 

There is no love lost between me and the original Mad Max franchise. I'm actually planning to give it another try, or at least skip forward to The Road Warrior and try to judge that separate from the first film, which I watched for the first time since childhood ten years ago and found to be a complete disappointment and waste of time. Fury Road takes the admiral path of foregoing trotting out that racist cunt who played the titular hero in the original films and instead subs in the always fantastic Tom Hary, then basically makes him take a backseat to Charlize Theron's Furiosa. Overall, I can't say this fourth entry in the series has anything but the most basic plot, but it really doesn't matter. This one is so frenetic from start to finish there are times when I think I'm watching it at 2x the speed.

 

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Playlist:

The Veils - Total Depravity

Orange Goblin - Frequencies from Planet Ten

Grinderman - Eponymous

Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower

The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir

Nothing - The Great Dismal

The Neverly Brothers - The Dark Side of Everything

Realize - Machine Violence

MadLove - White with Foam

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Card:

I'm hoping this is an indication that the work I'm doing on this short story will pay off. Right now, finishing it - no, not just finishing it, but nailing it - seems a continent away. I've worked on it every day but one this past week, so I'm putting the effort in and I can definitely see it shaping up. That said, there are still some wonky elements. It's not smooth yet.

The Veils - In the Blood

 

It's been a while since I've fallen headlong into The Veils. With Twin Perfect putting all this glorious Twin Peaks stuff into my head, this feels like the perfect time.

 

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NCBD:

The slimmest NCBD in quite some time. I'll try not to complain, and instead allow my wallet to catch its breath.

There's nothing amazing about this book prequel to the new MOTU series on Netflix - which I enjoyed quite a bit - but it's fun. Also, with a four-issue runtime, I don't feel like it's a very big commitment. Also, that's a Bill Sienkiewicz variant cover right there. Pure Magick.

So glad The Silver Coin got picked up for more than the initially solicited four issues. This is easily in my top five comics of the year.

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Listen:

 

Super excited to finally post this new episode of The Horror Vision, as we had Seattle University Professor of Film Studies John Trafton on to deep-dive Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck's criminally underseen 1973 Messiah of Evil. I learned a lot on this one, and from this film in general, and John is a veritable wellspring of film knowledge. Can't wait to have him back! Listen to the episode, and check out his website, which is chock full of fantastic information!

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Playlist:

Cough/Windhand - Reflection of the Negative

King Woman - Celestial Blues

Bells Into Machines - Eponymous

Alice in Chains - Rainier Fog

Alice in Chains - Eponymous

The Veils - Total Depravity

Spookies Rap - The Last Drive-In OST

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Card:

Interesting timing...

Garmonbozia

Discovering Black Mare last week has sent me into a spiral with Sera Timms music. Following my own advice and clicking on that Bandcamp link for 2020's Death Magick Mother, I sat completely transfixed by the record yesterday in the wee hours of the morning. This record has an extremely ethereal quality. I can hear Pornography-era Cure, Cocteau Twins, and contemporaries, L.A.-based Chasm, but the space created within the walls of this aural shrine are all Timms's own. Turning this one on feels like stepping into an hour-long fog bank. Through the obfuscation, you see outlines of landmarks you think you recognize, except they're all wrong, and give you an immediate impulse to be at the ready.

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Watch:

A few weeks back, my cousin, Charles told me about the Youtube channel Twin Perfect's video, "Twin Peaks Actually Explained (No, Really)." I'd seen this floating around in my feed and ignored it. Despite the fact that I often create or take part in videos similar to this - well, NO video is similar to this one - I rarely watch them, and I certainly go out of my way to avoid any video that claims to explain any movies or shows I dig, most especially Peaks. However, Charles told me enough to get me interested, and if you'll recall, there was one other Twin Peaks Explanation video I took to heart a year or so ago - Wow Lynch Wow's "Was Mr. C Victorious?" This new video, then, wasn't exactly unprecedented. What was unprecedented was the fact that, after watching about the first twenty minutes of this 4 hour+ video, I truly believed in my heart of hearts that holy F'ing shite - this guy COMPLETELY EXPLAINS TWIN PEAKS. It's not what you think it's going to be, it's far better. I cannot recommend this one enough unless you do not want to have the show explained.

Seriously, without spoiling anything, when you get to the part about what the light shining on Laura Palmer's face at the end of FWWM means, you'll know if you're on board or not.

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Playlist:

Black Mare - Death Magick Mother

Metallica - Seek and Destroy (single)

Black Sabbath - Paranoid

Faith No More - The Real Thing

King Woman - Celestial Blues

Windhand - Eternal Return

Conan - Monnos

Guns N' Roses - ABSURD (wow, this is awful)

Jane's Addiction - Ritual de lo Habitual

The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs - Original Series Soundtrack

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Okay, so what am I battling here? I feel like most everything is in line.

Black Mare and the Suicide Squad

A recent discovery about which I know very little other than the fact that I really dig this album. Black Mare's Bandcamp is HERE, and there still appear to be vinyl copies of her 2020 record Death Magick Mother. 

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Watch:

I saw two huge movies this weekend and the results are not what I expected at all. First up, David Lowery's The Green Knight

 

From my Letterbxd review: "Gorgeous. A must on a big screen. Andrew Droz Palermo deserves so many awards. There are some technical issues I had with the way it’s written and directed, as well as a few scenes that felt like missteps - to quote Peter Griffin, “the movie insists upon itself” - but overall this is a beautiful attempt at Pure Cinema, which can NEVER be a bad thing."

Next, James Gunn's The Suicide Squad, which I would have been perfectly content to - just like the first one - never watch until a confluence of events made me curious enough to try.

The result? Possibly my favorite comic book movie ever. Wow. Just wow. 

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Playlist:

Pilot Priest and Electric Youth - Come True OST

The Plimsouls - Everywhere At Once

King Woman - Celestial Blues

Bloodslide - How Glad I Am (single)

Yob- Clearing the Path to Ascend

Sacred Reich - Independent

College - Teenage Color EP

Polica - Give You the Ghost

David Lee Roth - Apple Music Essentials

Windhand - Soma

Droids Attack - Sci-Fi or Die

Black Mare - Field of the Host

Dead Milkmen - Welcome to the End of the World

The Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed

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Card:

The Alchemical marriage - recognizing disparate and/or complementary elements and bringing them together to marry their strengths in a way that supports the great work. That's kind of a hoighty toighty, old school Aleister Crowley interpretation - High Magick and all that rigamarole, but it applies. I'm seeking to write an extremely short story for submission to an anthology. Brevity is definitely not where my overall strength in writing lies. However, I'm excellent at slicing and dicing in the edit. So... edit in the head, before the fingers hit the keys.

4-Lom Says to Zuckuss: "Sad But True, Mate"

 

I'm not a fan of the Black album. In fact, everything that came after that album makes me not want to be a fan of this band at all. However, I could never turn my back on those first four records by Metallica, especially Master of Puppets. However... The almighty algorithm saw fit to send 'Sad But True' my way Monday when an Alice in Chains record I was listening to on Apple Music ended and I didn't choose another one quick enough. I heard those opening chords and lingered. Then, before I knew it, I was into my second go-round with the song, actually physically restarting it after its conclusion. 

Dare I say it, but this is a good song. Nothing about 'Sad But True' is what I like about the music from this band that I like, but divorcing the song from its creators for a moment, I found there is almost a Doom vibe to this one. Also, there are some haunting elements in the choruses - not sure if those are keyboards or a guitar effect. Either way, I doubt I'll be jamming the whole record any time soon, but I've already added it to a playlist.

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Watch:

I finally got around to watching Ivan Kavanagh's Son on Monday night. Jesus, this one is a rough watch. A very good film, freaky as all hell, but also there's some pretty disturbing stuff just below the surface.

 

This won't be for everyone. There's an undercurrent of abuse - it's not front and center or showcased, but it's discussed as the motive for certain events in the film, and that lingers. That said, I'm pretty squeamish with anything like that, and although this stayed with me, I can't say it did so in an overtly, or in any kind of discomforting way. What the film did do right was be well made and quickly paced, as well as take those unpleasant ideas and weave them into a pretty compelling and effective Horror film.

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NCBD:

I feel like this cover says it all: This series is BIG.

Maybe it was binging the recent MOTU sequel series that primed for this, but I LOVE this cover. Total Skeletor.

This is the 1:15 variant for Ed Piskor's Red Room #3. I'll most likely not be able to get my hands on this particular variant, but it's awesome as all hell.

The end to an amazing series. Can't wait to reread the entire run, start to finish in a nice, tight burst. Talk about great characters!

Casey Jones! These "Best of" TMNT books have been among my favorite comics in years, and I kind of expect this one to go right up alongside the Raphael one from a few months back as the best of the bunch.

I'm not actually certain I will buy this one, but I just love the fact that these two bizarre ass characters have their own book. Five-year-old me would be ecstatic!

The throwaway panel of the High Evolutionary and the promise his presence brings is what has me coming back for issue 2, although I will say, rereading Grant Morrison's New X-Men has me feeling some major love for the corner of the Marvel Universe I wrote off due to 'strip mining' the characters a few years ago. Let's see where this book goes.

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Playlist:

Jerry Cantrell - Atone (pre-release single)

Alice in Chains - Eponymous

Alice in Chains - Rainier Fog

Not a lot of full album rotation today as I leaned into a new playlist for the upcoming second episode of the new Metal Podcast I'm doing with Anthony and Tori from The Horror Vision. We're recording the new episode this coming Saturday morning, so it should be up this coming Tuesday. The topic? Well, if the playlist doesn't make it obvious, it's Thrash Metal. 

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Card:

Reminding me to leave the old paradigms (and projects) behind in the face of reconciliation with previous collaborators. 

Reverend Horton Heat - Slow

 

One of my favorite tracks from what is - in my not-so-humble opinion - one of the finest records of the 1990s. I've had the Rev on my mind lately, and have been digging back through the records I played endlessly during my 20s. Primarily, that would be 1996's It's Martini Time, 93's Full-Custom Gospel Sounds, 94's Liquor in the Front, and 1998's Space Heater. Nothing against any of the records that followed those, but that's just kinda where I check out with the Rev.

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Watch:

 

I love all the super weird body horror this new decade seems to be bringing us. Mosquito State looks like another mind-bending high concept film inspired by the long line of Body Horror that David Cronenberg's work inspired, and his son Brandon redefined for the modern age (Not that DC isn't modern. He's ultra-modern, and all signs point to his next film reminding us about that the same way his novel Consumed did a few years back). Either way, kudos once again for Shudder bringing us all this awesome body horror.

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Playlist:

Cloud Cruiser - I: Capacity 

Peter Gabriel - So 

Jethro Tull - Benefit 

Cindy Lauper - She's So Unusual 

ZZ Top - Rhythmeen 

Reverend Horton Heat - Liquor in the Front 

Reverend Horton Heat - It's Martini Time 

Droids Attack - Sci-Fi or Die

AC/DC - The Razors Edge

Alice in Chains - Rainier Fog

Beautiful Brutality Playlist for the week of August 2nd, 2021

Black Sabbath - 13

Space Burial - Mudtrout

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Card:

Compromise and the uniting of disparate elements. Not sure what this is pointing to, exactly, but it's pretty good, general day-to-day life advice.

Jerry Cantrell - Atone

The youtube algorithm surprised me Saturday night by throwing the new Jerry Cantrell single my way. I had no idea this album was on the horizon, and despite my hot/cold relationship with Mr. Cantrell's other solo albums - all of which I like, but none that have really stuck with me like, say, the previous AIC album did - I really liked this song. What's more, and this is extremely rare, the video really helped drive home how I felt about the song. I feel like Cantrell is aging both as a human and a songwriter in a very elegant manner, and that brings great joy to my heart. Alice in Chains was, after all, birthed in a pretty severe amount of trauma.

The album, Brighten, drops on December 17. You can pre-order it HERE, though all the vinyl appears to be sold out at this point.

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Watch:

Rewatched a couple of movies this past week that I'd been wanting to for quite some time. First, I finally picked up a copy of Dan O'Bannon's 1984 classic Return of the Living Dead on Blu-Ray. Despite my posting the Scream Factory trailer here, the version I purchased was the MGM release, simply because I didn't want to shell out $35 for it.

 

This film is a rarity to me: despite the comedic elements, RoTLD remains one of the most disturbing and frightening flicks I know. There's something to the starkness of the sets that creates an isolated feeling that permeates and really adds to the siege elements. Also, the entire idea that the dead are compelled to feast on the brains of the living because, as the torso-zombie lady says, "The pain of being dead," really disturbs me. Especially after Freddie dies and begins to repeatedly scream, "It hurts! It hurts!" 

Next, a few months back when Severin announced they would be remastering and releasing Gabriel Bartalos's Skinned Deep, I pre-ordered it. This is one my friend Dennis gave me back in the day, part of the original Fangoria's "Gore Zone" three-pack that also included the Irish zombie film Dead Meat, and The Last Horror Movie. I sold most of these back when my life was imploding in 2014 and had pretty much assumed Skinned Deep was something I had to consign to the aethers of the post-physical media world.

Enter Severin.

This is an extremely bizarre take on the backwoods slasher film that transports the crazy family of killers to the plains of the Southwest (I think). Watching it Saturday night, there's a really unique, really heightened 'You're where you don't belong" feeling to the flick, to the point that, combined with the over-the-top characters, I felt an almost dream logic over the entire story. I ended up conking out near the end, so I have to go back this week and watch it again.

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Playlist:

Metal Church - Blessing in Disguise

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

The Replacements - Tim

Zen Guerilla - Positronic Raygun

Peter Gabriel - So

The Maness Brothers - Tammie Jean (single)

Cloud Cruiser - I: Capacity 

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Card:

 

This card always tells me to stay stream-lined, keep my head down in the fray, and refuse to relinquish what I've set my sights on.