New Music From Pulp!

 

I am waaaay behind on posting new music here. Mr. Brown alerted me to Pulp's new single last week, along with news of their forthcoming first album in... a really long time! More drops on June 6th. Pre-order from Rough Trade HERE.

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NCBD:

Very excited to hit the shop later today. Here's what I'll be bringing home:

Really digging A.J. Lieberman and Mike Henderson's The Hive. The first issue was something I grabbed on a lark, but it was enough to get me to come back for two, and now here I am waiting on issue #3! A street-level crime comic with a very subtle, maybe "Black Mirror-like" Sci-Fi twist.  

I'm going to have a boatload of these Z-News waiting for me in Chicago next time I'm on the South Side long enough to shop at Amazing Fantasy. The cover story here is on Joe Kelly helming the recent re-launch (yes, again) of Amazing Spider-Man with a new number one. I saw that on the shelf last week and almost went for it (there were certainly enough covers and copies), but they didn't get me this time, so it will be cool to read Kelly's plans or whatever this "interview" will be. 

I feel like this book is tri-monthly at this point, and that's okay with me. Take it slow.

Justin Jordan and Maan House's Mine Is A Long Lonesome Grave is now one of my most anticipated books every month! A creepy A.F. supernatural revenge story, I'm really hoping this runs longer than next issue, which is the last I see solicited. I suppose if it doesn't, we'll have a tight little tale easy to push onto others. Always better to leave 'em wanting more than give 'em too much. Still, this could unfold in some pretty crazy ways. I trust Mr. Jordan implicitly, so I'm here for it either way.

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Watch:

I'm not entirely sure how I made it to 2025 without seeing 1994's Brainscan, but I watched the flick for the first time last night and instantly fell in love with it.

With a screenplay written by Andrew Kevin Walker taken from a Brian Owens story, Director John Flynn leaves his 80s Action roots behind and crafts what I can honestly say is the only film I know of that delivers to me the same vibe that Robert Englund's 976-Evil does, and if you read these pages, you know how much I adore that film.

This a 90s film that feels like a natural progression from 80s Sci-Fi Horror; the suburban neighborhood, children who lead a seemingly adult-less existence and do just fine, and an otherworldly entity that singles them out for Horror that feels, at times, theoretically very frightening. I mean, the opening "kill" sees the film's Protagonist Mike (Edward Furlong) commit a savage murder first-person by way of a 'radical new video game.'

If you've read my story "Literal Death", I'm sure you'd think this film burrowed its way into me way back. That, however, is not the case. 

So, of course, after watching Brainscan, I had to follow it with 976-Evil. 

How could I not? Perfect timing, because I missed this one last year during 31 Days of Halloween, so I was overdue.

I don't know what it is about Englund's sole Directorial excursion that I love so much. It captures not an era, but an era as portrayed by Hollywood so perfectly, balanced on the precipice between when Horror and Exploitation were kind of studio-ish (Post-Terminator) because there were still successful, but still malleable, small studios with widespread distribution. The kids in 976-Evil are exacerbated stereotypes of 80s nerds and hoodlums like we see in so many other films (Return of the Living Dead springs immediately to mind), but combined here with Howard Berger's FX and the faux-small town but still recognizably urban environments the Art Director and Set Designers create, there's an etheral tone I've not seen many other places. Except in Brainscan, where Flynn updates the look to early 90s-but-still-oh-so-close-to-the-80s Suburbia, but still retains that 80s Kids in Danger vibe.

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Playlist:

Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (Suspended in Dusk version)

Type O Negative - Life Is Killing Me

MadLove - White With Foam

Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She 

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Five of Swords

• Two of Pentacles

• XXI: The World

Routine can be damaging, but it can also help establish a new foundation from which new vantages reveal comprehensive comprehension. 

Or something like that. In other words, stay the course.