Sunday, July 30, 2023

Beaucoup Fish

 

I cracked out the Underworld the other day for a writing session and got to wondering where the seemingly found-sound sample at the beginning of Beaucoup Fish's track "Jumbo" came from. Leave it Reddit to supply an answer. From a Drowned in Sound interview with Karl Hyde from 2010, you can read all about it HERE (the specific reference to the sample is in the final paragraph of the interview).




Watch:

I have this list of things friends recommend to me. I always feel a bit bad, because it sometimes takes me years to get around to a lot of it. But I do try to get around to as much of it as I can. Case in point: it's gotta be three years since Mr. Brown recommended HBO's Painting with John, a short-episode show where Lounge Lizards co-founder and Jim Jarmusch regular John Lurie pontificates on everything from New York to sunsets to Barry White, all while working on his iconic watercolor paintings. Here's a trailer:

   

I put this one last night when it was too late to start a movie, and K and I both kind of fell in love with the show. Lurie has fascinated me, ever since Mr. Brown gifted me No Pain For Cakes, the Lounge Lizards 1987 album that just hit me at the exact right time. Painting with John has kind of done exactly the same thing.



Playlist:

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST
Haunt Me - Dying in Your Arms
Jed Kurzel - The Babadook OST
Jammes Luckett - May OST
Sandrider - Godhead
Metallica - 72 Seasons
Spotlights - Seance EP
A001 - Necro (single)
Brand New - Science Fiction
Underworld - Beaucoup Fish
Underworld - Riverrun Project
Godflesh - Purge
Secret Chiefs 3 - Le mani destre recise degli ultimi uomini
Naked Raygun - Over the Overlords
Etta James - Third Album
Low Cut Connie - Tough Cookies: Best of the Quarantine Broadcasts




Friday, July 28, 2023

Talk to Me

 
Another new Ghost of Vroom track dropped two days ago, and it's probably my second favorite from the pre-release singles for the upcoming album Ghost of Vroom 3, out September 1st on Mod y Vi Records. You can pre-order the vinyl from Doughty's website HERE.




Watch:

Last night K and I saw Talk to Me at the local theatre. I am still thinking about it. This was one of those films that afterward, I didn't come home, open a beer and throw something else on. I dug right into those articles in the new issue of Fangoria that I'd been saving. 


Luckily, after seeing the trailer back when it first hit the internet, I have not watched it since, so I barely even remembered anything about this one. There's hype building around it that's turning some folks off, but I'm here to tell you, that hype is deserved. I've seen Beyondfest post on their socials numerous times declaring the first feature by twin brother directors Danny & Michael Philippou as the best Horror film of the summer, and Fangoria put it on the cover of that aforementioned new issue. Also, I've heard there is a lot of viral marketing that somehow I was fortunate enough to have missed. So I went in pretty virgin.

Even if you're inundated with the marketing, I'm recommending you see Talk to Me and you see it in a theatre. The sound design is a large part of how effective the film's unease is - it's LOUD and SHARP and often pummels you in short, declarative bursts. No explosions - just visceral, meaty stabs of sound. The performances are all fantastic, and the overall manner in which the plot unfolds felt fresh to me. 

The Philippous have created a Horror Prop that, in my opinion, has similar potential to Hellraiser's Lament Configuration, so we'll see if we get a sequel. 
            


Read:

This morning I discovered that there's a new novel on the horizon from Jonathan Lethem, author of a couple books I adore, namely Motherless Brooklyn; Gun, Occasional Music, and Amnesia Moon. Not to mention his batshit crazy Omega the Unknown for Marvel back in the early 00s. 


From the official Publisher's solicitation for the novel: 

"On the streets of 1970s Brooklyn, a daily ritual goes down: the dance. Money is exchanged, belongings surrendered, power asserted. The promise of violence lies everywhere, a currency itself. For these children, Black, brown, and white, the street is a stage in shadow. And in the wings hide the other players: parents; cops; renovators; landlords; those who write the headlines, the histories, and the laws; those who award this neighborhood its name. The rules appear obvious at first. But in memory's prism, criminals and victims may seem to trade places. The voices of the past may seem to rise and gather as if in harmony, then make war with one another. A street may seem to crack open and reveal what lies behind its glimmering facade. None who lived through it are ever permitted to forget. Written with kaleidoscopic verve and delirious wit, Brooklyn Crime Novel is a breathtaking tour de force by a writer at the top of his powers."

Brooklyn Crime Novel drops on October 3, and can be pre-ordered on Indiebound HERE or wherever books are sold. 




Playlist:

Sigur Rós - Ágœtis Byrjun
Sandrider - Godhead
Sinéad O'Connor - I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got
H6LLB6ND6R - Side A
Ghost of Vroom - Ghost of Vroom 3 (pre-release singles)
Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit
Zeal & Ardor - Eponymous



Card:


• Knight of Wands
• Six of Swords - Science
• XV The Devil

Will applied to Will, a strengthening of resolve and a healthy dose of knowledge - possibly from a less-than-ideal source or possibly even a dodgy source.

Because I didn't ask a specific question, I have to read this as applying to my current writing project. If you read these pages, you know that's how I usually do Tarot. The specific question thing always seems a bit... dodgy to me (look! The cards are already sussing things out). It works, for sure, but I've never seen Tarot as a mystifying oracle, i.e. Omnipotent third party. I mean, I don't know that anyone who seriously studies the cards looks at them that way, but that's something that's definitely in the air. that said, I've done a specific question or two lately and the resultant Pulls have been spot-on, so it does work. The thing is, that just means I already know the answer to the question, anyway...

How this relates to the current project? Not so sure yet. I'm thinking it has to do with the ending, which exists in a theoretical way, but doesn't quite have the steam behind it for the prose to manifest yet. Perhaps I need to carouse some other works of fiction to look for some kind of jumpstart phrase or idea?



Thursday, July 27, 2023

RIP Sinéad O'Connor


The most Punk Rock musician of the 80s and probably the 90s has passed away, and while I'm not a very active fan - I love her first two records, but they tend to emotionally destroy me, so they don't make it into regular rotation very often - I have long considered O'Connor one of the most important figures in modern music. Her passing feels like a death knell for music as a form of expression. Not the actual act of making and releasing it, but the philosophical aesthetics that go with it. Or, SHOULD go with it. Is there anyone today that would take the opportunity of a lifetime as a guest on the most watched pop culture tv show and use it to express their beliefs about the horrors being committed by major social institutions, all at the risk of destroying their career? I think not. 

I'm glad I got to see that infamous SNL performance live, when it aired, as well as her performance earlier in the evening of This is the Last Day of Our Acquaintance, the song/performance that, to a 14-year-old metal head, affected me in a way I wasn't able to understand until I was considerably older. 

RIP. As Kevin Smith would say, big bucket of win, Miss O'Connor. You traded your own stardom for the chance to make the world a better place. You are from a world that no longer exists.



Watch:

About a year ago, I fell down a rabbit hole reading about Sinéad O'Connor. One of the things I found that really increased my already weighty respect for O'Connor was that, in 1995 when Late Night TV Discussion Forum After Dark did an episode titled "Ireland: Sex and Celibacy, Church and State", O'Connor called into the show to join the discussion, then took a taxi to the studio and joined in person ten minutes before the end of the program.


This just blows me away. This woman was the epitome of Punk Rock at a time when Punk rock was becoming a fashion statement. 



Playlist:

 Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Black Mirror: Black Museum OST
Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Sinéad O'Connor - I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got
Sinéad O'Connor - Lion and the Cobra
White Lung - Paradise
White Lung - Eponymous
Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit
Metallica - Lux Aeturna (single)
Blackbraid - Blackbraid II
Death Grips - No Love Deep Web 



Tuesday, July 25, 2023

New Music from The Kills!!!

 

From the 7" New York/LA Hex. Took me a bit to warm up to this track ("New York" has a more classic Kills sound). You can go HERE and get this one from Domino Recordings. I'm hoping this means there's a new full-length from the band on the way.

I love the video for this one; it's funny how, as happy as I am to have left L.A., and experiencing what a mixed bag it is going back for work two weeks at a time periodically, all the imagery here feels so familiar that it kind of acts as a balm for the piece of me I left behind there. Don't mistake that for homesickness; as I've taken to telling anyone who asks, L.A. is officially a post-apocalyptic city, and living there amounts to little more than sheer madness to me now. That said, it's something, to be able to walk the streets of a SciFi Dystopian version of one of the world's most iconic cities and see it with your own eyes. All of those textures are present in this video, so much so, it almost feels like the band are characters in a movie the song is from. 



NCBD:

My picks for this week's NCBD!!!


I keep saying I'm going to drop this book, but I'm still here. The previous issue scratched enough of an itch that I can't quite bring myself to jump from ol' Flamehead's ship just yet.


Another year, another Hellfire Gala! Can't wait to see what big changes spring from this one.


Chip Zdarsky and Jacob Phillips's Newburn returns after what feels like a year-long hiatus (might have actually been just that). This is a fantastic crime book, and I'm curious to see where the big picture will go.


After an initial setback getting my hands on the first issue of the latest installment in Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino's Bone Orchard Mythos, I acquired and read Tenement issue one last week. LOVED it, and now I'm fortunate enough to be able to dig into issue two so soon after what proved to be a very provocative set-up.  
The final issue of The Seasons Have Teeth! This series was a surprise hit with me, and I can't wait to see how it ends. The monsterizing of each individual season has been super cool, and from the glimpses shown across the various covers for issue 4, Winter may be the most insane design of all. 




Watch:

While I ended up coming down on the "Yes, I like this," side of the fence for David Gordon Green's Halloween Requel trilogy, I will say hearing that his next project was basically doing the same thing for The Exorcist excited me. I've never seen Exorcist Two: The Heretic, and despite trying four or so times, I abhor the monstrosity that is William Peter Blatty's Exorcist III. I know at some point in the early 00s, two cuts of a prequel came out, but I've never bothered with those either. So, being that I have always considered William Friedkin's original cut of The Exorcist the scariest film ever made, I would like to see someone who has proven he can learn from others' mistakes and give us new installments in otherwise lifeless, iconic franchises.


Pretty sure this will be fantastic. I wasn't so sure of that at the beginning of the trailer (yes, I watched it, but I won't ever watch it again, and when it comes on the next time I'm at the theatre, I'll be getting up to leave the room).




Playlist:

Forhist - Eponymous
Witchfinder - Forgotten Mansion
David Lynch & Marek Zebrowski - Polish Night Music
Ruby the Hatchet - Planetary Space Child
Rick Derringer - All American Boy
SQÜRL & Jozef Van Wissem - Only Lovers Left Alive OST
Snoop Dogg - Doggystyle
Sigur Rós - Ágœtis Byrjun
Sigur Rós  - ( )
Deafheaven - 10 Years Gone
The Kills - New York/LA Hex 7"
NIN - With Teeth
Portishead - Third
Metallica - 72 Seasons
Crystal Castles - II
Chelsea Wolfe - Spun
  


Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.


• VII: The Chariot
• Knight of Pentacles
• XV: The Devil

Emerging victorious from a trying time; sheer force of Will pulls me up and out of the darker side of my brain. A perfect encapsulation of this past Sunday/Monday, when I underwent what I can only describe as a complete Bi-Polar, manic episode. Keep in mind, I've never experienced or been diagnosed with Bi-Polar. I've always considered myself lucky that my brain chemistry, for the most part, has been even. Not sure what happened over the course of those two days, but I think it had to do with too much caffeine and too much social media/phone in general. I'm backing off communicating for a while; this won't affect this blog, but if you know me and I don't answer messages online, don't take it personally. I'm trying to put my head back on straight.



Sunday, July 23, 2023

New Music from Colter Wall!

 

Really digging this new album from Colter Wall that dropped yesterday. Major props to Jonathan Grimm for turning me onto this guy. You can order Little Songs directly from Colter's website HERE.




Watch:

 I have had a rough time trying to get into Junji Ito's work. I tried the 2000 adaptation of Uzumkai titled Spiral and didn't get very far. I recently attempted the new Netflix series adapting several of Ito's stories, and hated what I saw of it. So many people I know and respect love Ito's work though, so I keep periodically trying. What I need to do is pick up one of the collections of his Manga, however, I have such a pre-existing and totally unfair prejudice against Manga from my five years at Borders Books that I can never get myself to actually buy any of them. Now, there's a new Adult Swim adaptation of Uzumaki coming out, here's the trailer:  

Just based on this 'trailer' - which is really just a scene from the series - I think this may be my entry point into Ito's work. There's something so stark about this; a friend has talked to me at length about the mystery of Uzumaki, and it always sounds fascinating and urgent, which is kind of the vibe I get here. No release date information yet, but Uzumaki will air on Adult Swim, which is of course one of the "Hubs" on Max. 



Playlist:

Colter Wall - Little Songs
Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Black Mirror: Black Museum OST
Flying Lotus - Yasuke
Rina Mushonga - In A Galaxy
Future Islands - Singles
Godflesh - Purge
Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Smile OST
Assembly Line People Program - Eponymous EP
Deadguy - Work Ethic EP
Godflesh - A World Lit Only By Fire
Blackbraid - Blackbraid II
Drug Church - Hygiene
Aerosmith - Pump
Black Sabbath - Eponymous



Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.


• Knight of Wands - The 
• Two of Swords
• Four of Pentacles

I don't have the perspicacity to interpret this today, so I'm just leaving it here for future reference.



Thursday, July 20, 2023

Pale Dian's Feral Birth

 
Somehow, I totally missed that Austin's Pale Dian released a new record last year. I've had Feral Birth on rotation since discovering it a few days ago, and I really dig it. If you missed out on 2016's Narrow Birth, it is well worth your time, as is all of Pale Dian's music. You can order a digital copy of Feral Birth directly from the band on their Bandcamp HERE, or you can hope their label, Green Witch Recordings, does a re-press of the vinyl. If they do, it should be available at the Green Witch Shop HERE.



Watch:

Yesterday, HBO dropped a new trailer for the upcoming second season of Álex de la Iglesia's 30 Coins, and it looks fantastic!


I love this show so much, I'm not only excited for the second season to drop in October, but to rewatch Season One beforehand. I can't wait to relive this one. Igelsia's take Horror is unlike anything else I've ever seen, with its often-comedic underpinnings offset brilliantly by the creepiest take on Catholicism I've maybe ever seen. 
 



Playlist:

Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Smile OST
Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Black Mirror: Black Museum OST
Agnes Obel - Aventine
Pale Dian - Feral Birth
Flying Lotus - Yasuke
Mannequin Pussy - Patience
Sandrider - Godhead
Flying Lotus - Los Angeles
Sepultura - Schizoprenia 
Christopher Young & Lustmord - The Empty Man OST
Beth Gibbons, Polish National Radio Symphony Orch & Krzysztof Penderecki - Henryk- Górecki's Symphony #3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs)
Explode Into Colors - Quilts EP
Pale Dian - Feral Birth
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
Exhalants - 
Slayer - Decade of Aggression
            


Card:


• Queen of Swords - Watery aspect of Air, or the Emotional application of the Intellect
• Prince of Cups - Airy aspect of Water, or the reverse of above, Emotions honed by Intellect
• Princess of Wands - Earthen aspect of Fire, or the physical world as manipulated through the Will

I'm looking at this as a direct commentary on my creative week, which, despite some fairly major breakthroughs plot-wise, has been weak. My Emotions undermine my understanding of what I need to do to achieve my goal, I then turn around and overrule my emotions with logic, but only for a short time before the material world around me sidetracks my work and drains my Will.

I'm trying to sell this week to myself as a "recharge." Let's see if that's true.
 


Duration:

See what I mean? This is... embarrassing. I knew I didn't clock that many hours this week, but this is insane. Granted, my folks were here for five days and I worked, but still. Inexcusable. 


This is 7/14/23 through 7/20/23. Starting today I need to re-engage.




Wednesday, July 19, 2023

I'd Rather Be...


Just watched the final episode of The Bear Season Two. We've been dragging this out because I love it so much, but after doing episodes 8 and 9 Monday night, there was no way we could not do 10 last night. Emotional wrecking ball - good, bad, ugly... ALL the feels. I don't think I've ever seen a show quite like this, and these 'real-time' episodes just blow me away.

I've always loved Pearl Jam's Animal; Out of the 12 (?) tracks on the original release of Pearl Jam's second album Vs., the opening two tracks, Go and Animal, are among the best the band ever did. The album slides into wishy-washy territory from there for me; I dig about three more songs on it, and while I don't necessarily dislike the rest, none of them are in the "I have to have that available to me for when I need to hear it" territory that Ten and those five or so songs from Vs. are. I wish I could say I connected with anything else Pearl Jam ever did after this, but aside from giving a thumbs up to a few songs from the first album with Matt Cameron on drums (2002's Riot Act, I think), I respect the hell out of them and 100% think they tow their own line, but just never really cared. Still, this was PERFECTLY placed in this episode, and I applaud everyone involved in making this tour de force of a show that is as bite-sized as shows tend to come these days (short episodes, short seasons, nothing missing. Trim the fat, Jeff).




NCBD:

Small Pull this week, but I'm looking forward to both of these titles quite a bit.


I know I'm still relatively new to Something is Killing the Children, picking up with the series around issue #16, but having this recent hiatus in the middle of the current storyline was difficult, to say the least. I've been waiting for this book to come back with a fervor I don't possess very often these days, so I can't wait to read this one. NOTE: That's a variant cover I posted above; almost no way I'm going to end up with that, but still wanted to post it, because hot damn, that's rad!!!


I LOVE that, so far, the X-Men books are sticking to Magneto's death. It's so funny; I've always disliked the Magneto character, and just when he becomes one of my favorites, he's gone. Thus is life, and thus is good freakin' writing. I'm not foolish enough to think ol' Mags will stay dead, but for now, in the era where none of the mutants ever die for good because resurrection is a plot point, having a meaningful, lasting death of a major character is thrilling. 

Also, I really love the 'team' in X-Men: Red. It's not really a team at all, and feels a bit like a super Sci-Fi version of my favorite era of the book, Claremont's Dissolution and Rebirth, when the team took the Reavers' old base in the abandoned town in the Australian Outback. 




Back:

My good friend Jonathan Grimm sent me a link to a Kickstarter some friends of his are doing. I backed the instant I read the first paragraph of the recap: 

When Black Sabbath (not the Beatles) became the world’s most famous band, the universe was changed, musically and otherwise. Lost arts, like Alchemy, were made common, schools taught about transfiguration and alternate science, Demons were summoned and some stuck around.


Drumsticks of Doom sounds awesome and these guys are in their last 37 hours and they are oh so close, so if you're even remotely interested, go HERE and throw down!



Playlist:

Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Smile OST
Jim Willaims - Possessor OST
Metallica - 72 Seasons
Bohren & Der Club of Gore - Sunset Mission
Agnes Obel - Aventine



Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
 

• Seven of Swords
• VI: The Lovers
• Seven of Wands

Two sevens and a six, eh? Numbers alone, this shows steps, consecutive or otherwise. Seven of Swords (Intellect) and Seven of Wands (Will) can work together or against one another. Combined with The Lovers, I'd say it's a harmonious union. 



Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Blut Aus Nord - Queen of the Dead Dimension

 

Another new track from the upcoming album Disharmonium - Nahab, out August 25th on Debemur Morti; pre-order HERE.

This track reminds me A LOT of the material released on Blut Aus Nord's iconic The Work Which Transforms God. It's not the easiest to listen to at first, because it follows very little of our pre-conceived notions of what a song or music can be. That's exactly why I love this band. Bring on the full album - I want to melt my mind with its non-Euclidean sonic geometry!!! 



Read:

Issue twenty of the new Fangoria arrived in the mail yesterday; always a good day when a Fango shows up!


Most of the main articles are about films that haven't come out yet; the cover story is on Michael and Danny Philippou's Talk to Me; I bought tickets to see this next Thursday, 7/27/23 and I'm fairly stoked. The fine folks at Beyondfest recently did some screenings with the Directors and they can't stop raving about it, so I'm fairly certain this one will be wonderful. Also featured is Cobweb, which I'm driving into Nashville to see on Saturday. Written by Chris Thomas Devlin and Directed by Samuel Bodin, I have high hopes for this one as well. So those are among the articles I'm saving. My favorite parts of Fangoria, however, are the columns, and in just the three I've read so far, I'm instantly reminded why I love this iteration of the Horror Mainstay Magazine so much.

Long-time contributor Michael Gingold discusses writing a new novelization for the 1980 Video Nasty Nightmare for Severin Films, who also just released a restoration of the film. The resurgence of movie tie-in novelizations is fascinating to me, and although I don't read a lot of them - I burned through Brad Carter's Night of the Demon last year, also from Severin - Nightmare is one I'm curious about. The film is hit or miss with me, despite its aurora of grindhouse sleaze that drips from every nook and cranny, but as with Night of the Demon, I have a feeling I will really enjoy reading the story more than watching the film. Whatever your preferred medium for Nightmares, you can order the restored film HERE or Mr. Gingold's novelization HERE

Next up was Barbara Crampton's editorial on theatrical screenings vs. streaming. She makes some points I'd not considered until now, mainly that we are seeing the streamers' film production slowing as people return to the theatre. I don't think we'll ever tip the scales back in the direction they were twenty years ago, however, while bombastic (and to my mind at this point, mildly annoying) Marvel/Super Hero flicks carry the main audience on the big screen, Horror is the quiet RBI batter, in my opinion. 

Finally, Stephen Graham Jones has a fantastic new entry in his Slasher Nation column that traces the origins of the Final Girl all the way up from the Damsel in Distress of the silent era. Easily my favorite piece in the magazine I've read this morning.
 


Playlist:

Forhist - Eponymous
Mammon XV - Woe's and Winter's Breath EP
Ruby the Hatchet - Fear Is a Cruel Master
Brainiac - Predator Nominate
Greg Puciato - Mirrorcell
Gism - Detestation
Blut Aus Nord - Queen of the Dead Dimension (pre-release single)
Genghis Tron - Dead Mountain Mouth
Sepultura - Schizophrenia
Metallica - 72 Seasons
Bohren & Der Club of Gore - Pachouli Blue
Pale Dian - Feral Birth




Card:


• V: The Hierophant 
• XI: The Hermit
• Five of Cups - Disappointment

Exciting news will turn out to be erroneous, or at the very least not what it seems at first glance.
 


Sunday, July 16, 2023

Baroness - Beneath the Rose

More new Baroness. New album Stone is out September 15th, pre-order from the band's website HERE. Really cool video for this track, too. Not something I'm prone to complimenting bands on. 




Watch:

Tubi's Cabin Girl - written by Leslie Beaumont and Rory James Wood and directed by Jon D. Wagner - is FANTASTIC. I posted the trailer a few days ago, so I won't post it here again now, but needless to say, this is a definite contender for my top ten Horror of the year so far. 


Also, despite being on Tubi, there are zero ads. I have a short, spoiler-free review over on Letterbxd HERE



Playlist:

Jogger - This Great Pressure
Baroness - Stone (pre-release singles)
Baroness - Gold and Grey
Tremors - Dark Glasses (single)
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
The Soft Moon - Deeper
Zombi - Shape Shift
Brainiac - Predator Nominate
The Doors - L.A. Woman



Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.


• XL The Wheel
• III: The Empress
• Nine of Swords

Struggling against the tides dictated by Gaia will only lead to self-deception and bad dreams. Whoah, Pretty much a direct answer to a direct question about major upheavals in my life at the moment. Moving my parents from the suburbs of Chicago to Clarksville is the way to go despite reservations I've begun to have, because moving them at this point is just working with, not against, the tides of life. The older we get, the more we need the support of loved ones. My folks are in amazing shape for being in their 80s - I know people in their 60s who look and behave older than them, but despite their continued independence, we all know the best course of action is to get them down here, so we have to stop over thinking things.



Friday, July 14, 2023

Ruby the Hatchet/Medusa Deluxe

 
Currently unable to extract this song from my head. Not that I'd want to. From Ruby The Hatchet's 2022 album Fear Is a Cruel Master, which you can order directly from the band HERE.



Watch:

A24 has a pretty interesting new flick coming out in August. From the trailer that dropped two days ago, Thomas Hardiman's feature debut Medusa Deluxe reminds me a lot of Peter Strickland's In Fabric.
 

If you know Strickland's film(s), you no doubt see what I mean. I don't bring this up as a critique; Hardiman's film looks stunning and weird in its own right, and I can't wait to see this when it hits VOD on August 11th. 



Playlist:

Public Memory - Elegiac Beat (pre-release singles)
Public Memory - Veil of Counsel EP
Sandrider - Godhead
††† - PERMANENT.RADIANT EP
Flying Lotus - Yasuke
Flying Lotus - Los Angeles
QOTSA - Villains
QOTSA - ... Like Clockwork
QOTSA - In Times New Roman
Jogger - Nephicide (single)
Colter Wall - Imaginary Appalachia
The Doors - L.A. Woman
            



Card:


• X: Fortune - Ka
• Queen of Cups - The Watery aspect of Water
• Two of Wands: Dominion

Moving from the well-spring, the idea source into reality can be a challenging process, especially when potentially bogged down by self-doubt; sacrifice that doubt, as it is a comfort. A familiar that only gets in the way of actualization.

It's difficult to pin this to anything specific, however, reading over it again and applying a strengthening force of contemplation - I'm scattered and fighting for clarity this morning - it seems a pretty good idea to juts blanket apply this to everything today.

 


Duration:

I forgot to post my report this past Tuesday, which judging by the previous week, is the day I chose to check in with this. In an effort to keep myself honest, this report is for the seven days from July 6 to July 12. I actually lost three hours this week.


I feel like I worked more than this, but when next week hits this will look like a marathon; my folks came in yesterday, so between spending time with them and work, I'm losing days here. Luckily I'm off today, and will hopefully be able to carve out some time over the next three days. I'm typing this early because I woke up well before anyone should on a day off, and figured as long as I'm up, I should do some work on the book.




Thursday, July 13, 2023

Gunship - Monster in Paradise

 
I'm not really big on Gunship, but A) this video is cool A.F. and B) It features a ripping guitar solo that ushers in none other than Tim Cappello on saxophone! Wow, it's almost like Gunship's ScyFy aesthetic is a reality and they were able to go back in time and bring the big, bad sax player straight from The Lost Boys! Hopefully, while they were there, they didn't snag any of Grandpa's Double-Thick Oreos or Root Beers.

Gunship's upcoming album Unicorn drops on September 29th. You can pre-order a copy HERE.



Watch:

So, I'd heard about Tubi making original material now, but pretty much turned my nose up. Until now:


K watches a lot of youtube folk who buy old houses and convert them into their dream homes, so I've absorbed a lot of that over the last few years. That means this trailer immediately caught our collective attention. This really looks like it could be something great, so I'm checking it out sooner rather than later.



Playlist:

Drab Majesty - Modern Mirror
Godflesh - Streetcleaner
Pale Dian - Feral Birth
Zombie - 2020
Willie Nelson and the Family Live



Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.


• XV: The Devil
• Knight of Pentacles
• Three of Cups

Taking ideas/information from unlikely or uncomfortable places is best accomplished with a thorough application of Will to subjects mired and misaligned by conventional opinion. 

Tuesday, July 11, 2023

New Drab Majesty!!!


Wow. Took me a minute, but this new Drab Majesty track from August 25th's An Object in Motion E.P. rocks. Still bummed it's only an E.P., but I'll take what I can get. Pre-order from the always wonderful Dais Records HERE.




NCBD:

Here's what I'm bringing home for NCBD today:


LOVE this cover. I'm very curious to see where things are headed with this book now that my fears that Kieron Gillen is confirmed for what looks like more than a year's worth of issues (article linked through THIS X-Post)


I thought I'd given up on this Night of the Living Dead series from relatively new (I think) publisher American Mythology, but when I saw it was only going four issues, I figured what the hell. First two issues were by no means bad, just kind of always looking for someone to take a crack at continuing Romero's original Night/Dawn/Day timeline instead of just adapting it, but there's been enough little flourishes here to make it a fun read.


Love this cover! Also, I really enjoy the fact that every time Kang/Leatherhead show up, this book evokes Slasher film techniques!

Holy cow! Michael "Silver Coin" Walsh writing and doing cover duties for this year's TMNT annual? Count me in!




Watch:

Screambox has really been on fire putting out new content. Unfortunately, despite subscribing for the year back in December, I haven't really watched much on the channel because it is still incompatible with Firestick, my primary interface (for better or worse). I can watch on my computer, however, that doesn't really do any film justice, so I'm biding my time, making a list of all the original content hitting the service that I want to watch. Here's the newest entry on that list:


We Might Hurt Each Other, originally titled Rupintojelis (Pensive), looks like a pretty solid Foreign Slasher that writer Jonas Trukanas and writer/director Titas Laucius apparently based on local Lithuanian legends. I've been in a Slasher kinda mood of late, so this one's calling to me.

We Might Hurt Each Other dropped yesterday on Screambox. Stream (scream) HERE.



Playlist:

Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta III: Saturnian Poetry
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - PetroDragonic Apocalypse
Witchskull - The Serpent Tide
Blackbraid - Blackbraid II
Cocksure - K.K.E.P. EP
Cold Cave - Cherish the Light Years
Misfits - Static Age
Misfits - Collection II
Drab Majesty - Modern Mirror
        



Card:


• Three of Disks: Works
• Six of Swords: Science
• Five of Disks: Worry

I could tell the moment I saw the doubled Disks that this is 100% a warning/reminder that the upcoming process of moving my parents to Clarksville is going to be trying. Not that my parents themselves will be, but the process of moving is never easy. Especially not when you're moving people from a house they have been in since 1985.
 


Monday, July 10, 2023

New Music from FEN!


In 2011, my good friend and Horror-Vision co-host Tori gifted me Fen's album Epoch. This, maybe more than any other album, propelled me headlong into Black Metal. I'll never forget the first time I hit play on Epoch; it was pouring rain - uncharacteristic for Southern California - as I drove home to San Pedro from Borders Books in Torrance where both Tori and I worked at the time. 

The rain was perfect; I've maintained ever since that this record sounds like it was recorded in the rain (whatever that means, exactly, I can't really explain). At the time I was also falling in love with John Crowley's Little Big, and that book, the weather and Epoch combined to invoke a nearly hallucinatory couple of days off. I kept up with Fen through the follow-up, 2012's Dustwalker, then kind of dropped off for no reason that had anything to do with the band. Seeing the release of Monuments of Absence last week, I was blown away by the opening track, which is considerably more severe than anything I've heard Fen do, though as I say, I'm behind a few albums. Looking forward to catching up, though.

Monuments to Absence dropped this past Friday, 7/07/23, so you can head over to the Prophecy Productions website and order a copy HERE.




Watch:

Bloody Disgusting did an exclusive premiere of the trailer for the new company Neon Noir's first film, That's A Wrap:


Beautiful colors abound, so they definitely nailed that element of the classic Giallo aesthetic. I watched enough of this trailer to know I will be checking it out when it releases August 25. You can read Bloody Disgusting's full article about That's A Wrap HERE.




Playlist:

Ghost - Stay (single)
Blackbraid - Blackbraid II
QOTSA - In Times New Roman
Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh
Godflesh - Pure
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - PetroDragonic Apocalypse
Fen - Monuments to Absence
Fen - Epoch
Drab Majesty - Careless
Drab Majesty - The Demonstration
Final Light - Eponymous
The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre
Forhist - Eponymous
Type O Negative - October Rust
Type O Negative - World Coming Down
Cocksure - Be Rich
INXS - Kick
Tennis System - Technicolor Blind



Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.


It's been a minute since I handled the Bound deck, so I tapped into it for this morning's Pull:

• Knight of Pentacles - The Will as applied to Matter; Fire/Earth
• Knight of Wands - The Will as applied to Will; Fire/Fire 
• Page or Princess of Wands - Matter applied to Will; Earth/Fire

That's a lot of wink-wink about my Will, eh? I read this as a reminder to be present and apply patience, lest my Will, pulled taut, snap and leave me rudderless for a while. Long story short, I need a reset in order to carry on.
 


Friday, July 7, 2023

Blackbraid II is Out!

 
From Blackbraid II, out today. You can order your copy from Blackbraid's Bandcamp HERE. I woke up this morning and I'm already on my second run-through on the album. Absolutely fantastic. 



Watch:

I'm not really a huge Blumhouse Horror guy. I mean, some of their stuff lands pretty well, but even those that do often feel at least partially flat. So, I've never watched The Nun, despite some interest generated when I heard the Colors of the Dark podcast say, "There's kind of a little Fulci movie buried in The Nun." Whether the overall film fails, hearing something like that makes it seem like watching the film would have to be worthwhile. Yet, it's been almost five years since its release, and I continue to abstain. Now there's a sequel, and I wonder if maybe that will finally prompt me to check that first one out.

 

I'm not trying to sound too cool for school here; there's nothing 'wrong' with Bllumhouse Horror. In fact, hell, they're pretty much singlehandedly responsible for keeping the genre afloat in big-box theatres in the early 10s. The first Insidious was a HUGE buoy for the post-torture porn theatrical Horror release, and through subsequent flicks like The Conjuring, Sinister, et al, Blumhouse has proven Horror to be a viable genre for theatres to continue to invest in, which is a good thing no matter how you cut it. Sometimes I feel like we're thIS close to Marvel being the only game in town - now that scares me. Anyway, as usual, I'm really overthinking whether or not I should watch The Nun, which is currently streaming on Max.




Sky:

It's been difficult for me to keep up with a lot of stuff I want to watch, and I've barely logged more than a couple hours on Puppet Combo's Stay Out of the House, because all I really want to do right now is sit in my backyard at night, drink beer and stare at the sky. So, I thought I'd try and share some of that here. 


This shot comes courtesy of K, who is even more enraptured by the phenomenon of having personalized access to such grandeur. As a native and life-long Angeleno until last August, it's easy to see how this would blow her away; in LaLaLand, there is no 'big sky;' your view is polluted by nothing but buildings, lights, billboards, etc. I don't want to take that away from L.A. - it is a city, and you go there for city things. Given the choice of staring at the Egyptian Theatre or the sky it occupies, I'll take the theatre. L.A.'s problem, like all problems, is that the ratio is out of whack.

But staring at the sky here at night, it's amazing to see the wonder that shines in K's eyes while we lay on our recently acquired gravity chairs (best investment!), sip our nightly poisons and just drink it all in with our eyes. This has given me a completely new perspective on a lot of things, and it's definitely helped mellow me a bit more of late. Hard to be high-strung when you're staring at the night sky.




Playlist:

Forhist - Eponymous
Testament - The New Order
Chamber of Screams, Clement Panchout & Mxxn - Murder House (Original Puppet Combo Soundtrack)
Drug Church - Hygiene
Mammon XV - Bleeding in Excess (single)
Pharmakon - Bestial Burden
Code Orange - Underneath
The Raveonettes - Raven in the Grave
Cash Money - Who Killed the Blues (single)



Card:


• Ten of Swords: Ruin
• XIII: Death
• XX: The Aeon

Lots of big ideas today, and they're breaking down the rational in the face of actually implementing them. 

Regarding Ten of Swords, I wanted to throw in something from Crowley's Book of Thoth: "The number Ten, Malkuth, as always, represents the culmination of the unmitigated energy of the idea. It shows reason run mad, ramshackle riot of soulless mechanism; it represents the logic of lunatics and (for the most part) of philosophers. It is reason divorced from reality."

I see bad information and dreams of grandeur that tempt away from the one path forward. This is all writing stuff, and I'm really picking up what the Cards are putting down today, as I draw in closer to writing the finale to the new novel. 



Thursday, July 6, 2023

Floating into the Night Reissued!

 

I'm sure I've posted this here at some point in the past, but it felt like the right thing to do this morning. From The Ravenonettes PERFECT 2011 album Raven in the Grave, this has long been one of my favorite songs by the band. That guitar just breaks my heart in the best way possible!!!




Watch:

Sacred Bones just announced a new edition of Julee Cruise's 1989 album Floating Into the Night, her collaboration album with Angelo Badalamenti and David Lynch. If you know the record, you know it's HUGE for Twin Peaks fans, as several of the tracks here went on to populate the soundtrack to the original two seasons of Twin Peaks. To promote the re-release, Sacred Bones produced this charming little video:

 

You can order a copy HERE; I was able to snag the Pink and Black Galaxy Vinyl, although I am uncertain if I qualified for the poster. Either way, I'm happy as hell to finally have this on wax without having to pay for an original pressing on eBay.
 


NCBD Addendum:

On a lark, I picked up the first issue of Bliss on Tap Publishing's new series Killing Hope. I was not disappointed.


Written by Josh Barbee and Maloney, with art by Alex Cormack, who I was familiar with from 2020's Aquatic Horror mini-series Sea of Sorrow, Killing Hope starts out as a thriller then veers into what I'm guessing is going to be full-on Horror territory. It's a woman on the run from seemingly unstoppable forces, and I can't wait to read more!

Bliss on Tap is new to me, but a quick gander at their website shows they've got quite a few titles under their belt, with seemingly something for everybody.
 


Playlist:

Blut Aus Nord - 777: Cosmosophy
Principles of Geometry - Lazare
Roxy Music - Eponymous
Colors of the Dark Podcast - Episode 61: The Boogeyman
Chamber of Screams, Clement Panchout & Mxxn - Murder House (Original Puppet Combo Soundtrack)
The Sword - Warp Riders
Faetooth - Remnants of the Vessel
M83 - Saturdays = Youth




Card:


• Ace of Disks 
• Two of Swords: Peace
• Prince of Swords - The airy aspect of Air, or conflict with intellect

Resolving issues with spending money leads to further resolution of internal conflict. I think this is a tit-for-tat response to my current state of continual distraction. The internet is both a powerful tool and a siren that calls me away from my work on a regular basis. Fighting this over the last couple days has led to a huge breakthrough in my work. I was stuck on a final act, but I believe I now have it well underway and it's better than I first imagined!
 



Wednesday, July 5, 2023

The Cramps Live Performance!!!


MAJOR thanks to Simon G for posting this on his youtube channel, which you can check out and subscribe to HERE. If you dig the Cramps, it's a win-win. And with a set list and attire that, while pretty spot-on for The Cramps, seems especially strategic to alarm a television broadcast company, this is one for the ages. 




NCBD:

Really looking forward to today's NCBD. Here's why:


I'm loving Jeff Lemire and  Gabriel Hernandez Walta's Phantom Road so far. Stories that include a slip into any kind of 'between place' always hit a certain harmonic with me, and this one's taking that idea and really doing something different with it. 


Pat O'Malley's Popscars is in Comic Stores and you're missing out if you're not reading it. Why? Check out my interview with Pat HERE to find out. 


Another "Before the Fall" one shot, however, like last week's Heralds of Apocalypse, this one is written by one of the main X-architects, so I'm in. 
 

This book just continues to delight me. 




Watch:

I rewatched Moorhead and Benson's 2014 film Spring this past Monday evening. Wow. I hadn't seen this one since before I knew who Moorhead and Benson were, and looking back on it after watching and rewatching their other movies, I couldn't remember very much about Spring other than the basic set-up, the location, and that both K and I really liked it when we watched it back in, probably 2016.

 

All the performances are fantastic, and just seeing Vinny Curran and Jeremy Gardner in the opening ten minutes or so was a treat, as was hearing talk about "Shitty Carl." I need to track this one down on Blu-Ray, as I'm hoping there will be a making of or commentary track, as I find myself really wanting to know how they made this. I'm kind of assuming they did a lot of the filming guerilla style, but who knows? Moorhead and Benson continue to prove they are two of the best filmmakers working today, regardless of whether they have a budget or not.
 


Playlist:

Flying Lotus - Yasuke
Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium - Undreamble Abysses
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - PetroDragonic Apocalypse
Blackbraid - Blackbraid I
Spotlights - Seance EP
Greg Puicato - Child Soldier: Creator of God
Secret Chiefs 3 - Le mani destre recise degli ultimi uomini
Secret Chiefs 3 - Book of Horizons
Sepultura - Chaos A.D.
Sepultura - Schizophrenia
Sepultura - Arise
Godflesh - Purge
QOTSA - In Times New Roman
Ike & Tina Turner - Live! The World of Ike & Tina
Pastor T.L. Barrett & the Youth for Christ Choir - Like a Ship (Without a Sail)
Christopher Cross - Ride Like the Wind (single)
Bria - Cuntry Covers Vol. 2
Orville Peck - Pony



Card:


• IV The Emperor 
• Ace of Wands
• Two of Disks: Change

Draw on strong, established resources (practices?) to enact a breakthrough with Will, but don't expect it to last just because it happens once. Will, as with everything else in the Universe, is fluid, coming and going depending on millions of variables. Those variables are actually what rule us, The Emperors of all life, but especially those humans who try and find a window into their own internal operating systems.