Wishing Mr. Biafra a speedy and complete recovery. Also, thanks to Punk Rock TV channel - check 'em out and think about subscribing if you dig their content. Lots of great stuff here.
Watch:
K and I hit the theatre today for the premiere of Ian Tuason's feature debut, Undertone, AKA The Undertone. This one is an A24 film that's getting a lot of hype. Here's the trailer, which I managed to avoid seeing until just last week, and which really doesn't give too much away.
This film is all about the sound design. As someone who studied and has done a bit in Sound Design, I was pretty excited for this, and aurally, it did not disappoint. The layers of sound are very complex at times and very well defined. Not easy to throw a lot of disparate sounds at an audience in a Horror film and not have the end result taxing or muddy. Not the case here. My one issue - and it ended up being a kind of big one - was that with all the focus on the sound, I really do not feel like this movie pays off what it sets up at all. That was pretty disappointing. Still, definitely worth seeing.
Celebrate:
Hey! It's Friday the 13th! Here's the original teaser trailer for one of my favorites of the series!
So tonight, in celebration, let's all go out and jam a large metal rod into the grave of whatever local legend masked killer took out a bunch of our friends and family and kick this party off with a bang!
Playlist:
Tangerine Dream - Sorcerer OST
Steve Moore - Jimmy & Stiggs OST
Carter Burwell - Blood Simple OST
Jospeh Loduca - Evil Dead II OST
Calderum - Mystical Fortress of Iberian Lands
Lou Reed - Street Hassle
Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti
Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin III
Led Zeppelin - BBC
Mr. Bungle - California
Melvins & Napalm Death - Savage Imperial Death March (pre-release singles)
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• VI: The Lovers
• Five of Wands
• Queen of Swords
Collaboration can bring the light, the inspiration that results in clarity.
I'm not entirely sure what this is pointing at--- wait. Yes. Yes I do! There's actually A LOT of collaboration coming up in my life as I've been invited to be a regular panel member on The Dread Broadcast! Next episode is on March 31st, 7:00 PM CST. Then I'll be on pretty much every episode (one a month, always on the last night of the month except when that's a holiday) until the holiday season. You can check out The Dreadbroadcast's YouTube page HERE.
Another new track from COC's upcoming album Good God/Baad Man, out April 3rd. Pre-order from Nuclear Blast Records HERE.
NCBD:
Pretty big week this week. Let's go!
An "inside source" tells me this 30th issue of Skybound's Transformers is a doozy, so it will be on top of my reading pile this evening!
Big story swings in the most recent issues of TMNT, and I'm cautious following the events, thinking about how many changes the brothers have been through since IDW launched this continuity. Is the current arc a way to revive a previous status quo, or something much darker? We. Will. See.
Will Ordained #2 actually come out this week? I've put this up here so many times in the last few months, I'd say all bets are off. Great first issue, I just hope the false solicitations don't wear us out before it can continue.
This is one of those, "'nuff said" covers, right? I'll say, while I'm happy that Skybound has kept old Snake Eyes out of the Energon Joe continuity, it's still nice to see him in Hama's hands.
A new Alias book not written by Bendis? Definitely giving this a try, but it's a "Red Band" book, so that instantly makes me think it will be overdone.
A lot of Godflesh this past weekend after seeing the following post on Justin K. Broadrick's IG. I find it sadly indicative of the age we live in that a man with a serious health condition needs to hesitate to inform his fans of a situation such as this with the expectation of retaliatory comments. I, for one, will be crushed to see Godflesh go; however, Broadrick has many other projects and I would rather he err on the side of his continued health than risk disaster continuing. Also, if you listen to the opening vocals of this lead-in track from 2017's Post Self, you can hear the strain this man still puts on his body while recording vocals. It's awesome to behold, but also no real surprise that as he ages, this kind of exertion would become a health concern.
This past Thursday night, I did another double feature at the local cinema. First up was Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Bride. This was a treat; I can't tell you how many times I sat through the trailers for this film in the theatre, but the film turns out to be a lot more than either version of the preview intimates. Maggie is destined for the marketing tag, "... visionary Director..." and it fits. I knew within the first five minutes that A) there was A LOT about this film I had not anticipated and B) as a filmmaker, MG's style is singular and strong.
Afterward, I drove K home, recorded a spoiler-free review with Missi for The Horror Vision, and then drove back to the theatre for a 10:55 PM showing of Rod Blackhurst's Dolly. Turns out, 11:00 PM was the perfect time to view this one in a mostly empty theatre. Creepy A.F. doesn't even begin to describe this film!
Ostensibly a new take on the classic Slasher formula, the thing I really loved about this one was how much the sequences inside the killer's home felt like a Puppet Combo game, specifically, Don't Go in the House and Nun Massacre. Two of my favorites.
Blackhurst has to be a Puppet Combo fan - there are first-person shots from hiding beneath a bed and a sequence where the final girl - Fabianne Therese - searches through dresser drawers and the like. It was just spot on! Fantastic performances all around, and also, one of the gnarliest jaw-related practical FX I've seen.
Playlist:
Deftones - B-Sides and Rarities
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - B-Sides & Rarities Volume 1
Godflesh - Purge
sunn O))) - Eponymous (pre-release singles)
Deliverance - Neon Chaos in a Junk-Sick Dawn
Godflesh - A World Lit Only By Dub
Godflesh - Post Self
Godflesh - Songs of Love and Hate
Psychedelic P*rn Crumpets - Pogo Rodeo
Melvins - Houdini
Christopher Young & Lustmord - The Empty Man OST
Converge & Chelsea Wolfe - Bloodmoon: I
Deftones - private music
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Six of Cups
• Five of Pentacles
• Three of Wands
Tap into your inner fears and transmute them into something strong.
Interesting. The idea here is taking something from the real world that frightens me - let's face it, only the real world frightens me - and use my Will to turn it into something strong. Something known.
Also, not sure I've drawn the Three of Wands on this deck before. Gorgeous fucking card (like every other card in this deck!)
New Blackbraid EP is out today! You can order a copy right here on their Bandcamp for Bandcamp Friday!
Blackbraid III has become one of my all-time favorite records, and hearing this EP, I can tell that my fervor is only going to continue to mount with each subsequent release.
Watch:
After falling in love with James Gunn's Peacemaker series recently, I've actually started a "Shawn Was Wrong" segment on Drinking with Comics. DC finally has its head out of its arse. Need more proof?
I cannot believe they've made Green Lantern something I am interested in! Now that's f**king magick, baby!
Watch:
Beyondfest Chicago announced the lineup and hopefully, about ten hours after this posts, I'll have tickets for a handful of screenings.
None of the films I have my eye on are ones I know nothing about. Always the best way to see any movie.
That said, the film Normal has one familiar variable: Bob Odenkirk. Here's a trailer:
I've been a fan of Odenkirk's since Mr. Brown made me a lifelong disciple of Mr. Show back in the 90s. It's been a joy to see his film career evolve the way it has.
Playlist:
Tool - Undertow
Foxy Shazam - Dark Blue Night
sunn O))) - Eponymous (pre-release singles)
Matte Black - I'm Waving, Not Drowning
Blackbraid - III
Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons
Blackbraid - Nocturnal Womb (pre-release single)
Jucifer - Lambs EP
Pixies - The Night the Zombies Came
Melvins - Houdini Live '05
Barry Adamson - Scala! OST
Fever Ray - The Lake/Wrong Flower EP
Card:
Back on the Thoth (But you can still order Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot HERE.)
• Ace of Wands
• Ace of Disks
• I: The Magus
Notice how the numbers read 911? Weird, right?
The two Aces are breakthroughs, so watch for gains and new creative ground (my Will tends to center on creation). The Magus is the flex that makes it happen. Magick.
This past Monday morning, it was raining when I woke up. It wasn't just raining - it was raining in that not-quite-winter, not-quite-spring way, where the sky was grey but still bright, the air was nippy but not cold, and the world outside seemed both decayed and renewed.
In other words, a perfect morning to throw on some music by The Cure.
My go-tos in this situation are 1982's Pornography or 1986's Disintegration. There's always an offhand chance Seventeen Seconds might beat one of those two out, and Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me is a rarity, but one that lives in my heart. I hardly ever go to the singles compilation Standing on a Beach, primarily for two reasons:
1) I don't generally love compilation albums - I'd rather get to know the entire albums the songs originally appeared on.
2) Early Cure - as in the first few years - is not my go-to with the band. I prefer the dark A.F. Pornography and the evolutionary climb that occurs between that and Disintegration, the former being what I would describe as Proto-Industrial, the latter being perfect downbeat Pop.
Monday, however, it was indeed Beach that I pulled from my CD shelves and listened to from start to finish. I don't think I could accurately express how this listening affected me. Not nostalgia - an outlier or not, I have history with this record - but a new appreciation for the first singles by the band. This lead me down a brief rabbit hole with 1979's Three Imaginary Boys, the band's debut record and one that, while I've listened to it, I have never owned it.
NCBD:
Every issue of Matt Fraction and Jorge Jimenez's Batman title turns out to be pure joy, and that's something we could all use a little more of in our life.
The end of issue #1 proved to be a total WTF? so I can't wait to get into this one. Jason Aaron was definitely the dude to go to for this relaunch of such a classic 80s property.
Finally - the finale to Zander Cannon's Sleep! If you're reading this, you know the last few months were not easy to wait for this conclusion, but we're finally here, and, as much as I want to see how this wraps up, I am sorry to see this one go. This was my #1 comic of 2025!
I still haven't done that re-read on The Nice House on the Lake since it came back for the second half. I'll have to get on that soon.
Playlist:
The Cure - Standing on a Beach
Faith No More - Angel Dust
Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
Jello Biafra and Melvins - Sieg Howdy!
Melvins - Houdini
John Zorn - The Big Gundown: John Zorn Plays the Music of Ennio Morricone
Melvins - The Crybaby
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F♯ A♯ ∞
Rob Zombie - The Great Satan
Melvins & Napalm Death - Tossing Coins Into The Fountain Of Fuck (single)
Foxy Shazam - Eponymous
Card:
One card from the Thoth deck because it's late and I'm tired.
Fight to impose your Will on the world around you.
This is interesting. I've been thinking about Magick a lot again. It's been some time since I actively practiced, but I'm feeling a pull. Is this an acknowledgement?
From their now ten-year-old album Gore. Been a while since I've listened to this one, and one listen put it right back into regular rotation.
Watch:
With all the big-budget stuff James Gunn is doing for DC that I'm only just now getting in on, I had an urge to go back and rewatch his 2010 film Super.
Man, does this hold up! So F*cked up, but Super also has a lot of heart. It's a push-pull with where this one takes you, and I'm happy I finally added a Blu-ray copy to my shelves. Everyone involved gives fantastic performance, and even though it makes you uncomfortable and uneasy, a strange affirmation of humanity seeps in at the end. If Gunn has a superhero ability, that's it right there.
Read:
Also, I'm about 150 pages into Project Hail Mary. My cousin's husband put this on my radar last summer, and I finally grabbed a copy from Clarksville Bookshoppe a couple of months ago.
Just getting around to it now - possibly the last non-Stephen King or research-related read I'll have for the foreseeable future if I really double down and go with this Dark Tower/The Talisman re-read in anticipation of Other Worlds Than These. As promised, Andy Weir is a fantastic author and this is a fantastic read. Very light for something so infused with actual scientific data. The day I purchased this was my clue that a film was on the immediate horizon, so I'm squeezing this in before the March 20th release date.
Playlist:
Tangerine Dream - Sorcerer OST
Various - An Anthology of Noise & Electronic Music/Second A-Chronology Vol 2 (Disc1)
Low Cut Connie - Art Dealers
Lou Reed - Eponymous
Fever Ray - The Bride EP
Melvins & Napalm Death - Tossing Coins Into The Fountain Of Fuck (single)
Helmet - Aftertaste
Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons
Adam Kesher - Local Girl (Hatchmatik Remix)
Faith No More - Angel Dust
Deftones - Gore
Rob Zombie - The Great Satan
Rammstein - Reise, Reise
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Let Love In
Foxy Shazam - Eponymous
Ghostland Observatory - Paparazzi Lightning
Team Human w/ Douglas Rushkoff - Chapel Perilous w/ Gabriel Kennedy & Grant Morrison
Card:
I've been doing daily spreads with the Thoth deck, as well as before-bed single-card draws. The Two of Disks went face-up on my bedside table on Friday and I only just relinquished it.
A change to the way I'm doing some 'Earthly' things will do me some good; that's enough of a kick in the pants to run with an idea I had recently. I'm getting pretty regular practice with spreadsheet creation and manipulation at work these days and I thought it might be advantageous to try adapting some of that stuff for personal functions. Primarily, money.
When Faster Pussycat's House of Pain came out in 1989, I was thirteen. My friend Zak bought (or stole) the cassette single. I remember it vividly, even though I couldn't tell you what the B-side was. We weren't really FP fans - despite listening to some other pretty hokey bands, something about the name turned us off. I don't remember if I had an opinion on this song either way back then. Let's just say I tolerated it.
K and I have been watching HOBOMAX's Peacemaker series - it's fantastic - and in season one, episode four, this song is used to fabulous effect. Hearing it, I had an immediate, almost unbelievably strong emotional reaction. I chewed on it multiple times over the next week, listened to the Wake Me When It's Over album, and, although that was pretty lackluster, the song stands.
There's a definite Stephen Tyler element to Singer Taime Downe's approach, but where it comes off unabashed in other songs on the album, for House of Pain it really works. The guitar glitters in forlorn opulence, and the harmonica just seals the deal. It sounds like crying. Which is essentially what the song is about. A little boy waiting for a father that will never show.
Damn.
Watch:
I'm rounding the final stretch on a two-week "no drinking" interval. The context is that K had a minor injury to her foot (she's fine), and the doctor prescribed a two-week course of an antibiotic that they warned "is tough on the liver." Because of this, I suggested she should abstain from wine, and I would support her by leaving my beers in the fridge for the duration of her treatment. We started Monday, 2/16 and both feel great, so we're thinking of instituting a loose, "only on the weekends" policy. I'll have one beer Monday night for the taping of DwC, but aside from that, we'll abstain until the weekends.
I set all this up to set the mood for last Friday, 2/20, when I fired up Jane Schoenbrun's "I Saw The TV Glow." I talked about the profound effect this film had on me in Monday's post. I'm still thinking about it, over and over. A lovely feeling that was made even more acute when I saw Fango's post about Schoenbrun's new film this morning. I've vetted the trailer: it gives nothing away, other than this is now my most anticipated film of the year. Before you hit play, I strongly suggest watching this for the first time with earphones.
I LOVE falling in love with a Director and then almost immediately discovering they have a new film coming out. Teenage Sex and Death At Camp Miasma lands in theatres on August 7th, and you can bet the farm I'll be seeing this on the big screen, whether I have to drive to Nashville, Chicago, or Berwin. (Berrr-winn!).
I am so excited for this!!!
Playlist:
Sumerlands - Dreamkiller
Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
Slayer - Decade of Aggression
Soviet Soviet - Endless
Tomahawk - Mit Gas
Deftones - Around the Fur
High on Fire - Snakes of the Divine
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F♯ A♯ ∞
Deftones - Gore
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Page of Pentacles
• X: Wheel of Fortune
• IV: The Emerpor
"Getting a revolving policy going on Earthly matters that feel important but ultimately might not be so is the name of the game. Instead of trying to control everything and everyone, focus on what matters that you can control."
Interesting fact: If you look this song up on YouTube, before delivering the results, you get a full page suicide prevention page. Kinda goofy, and kinda nice. Anyway, it's late, I'm tired, and even though there are half a dozen other songs I wanted to post, they all will require some 'writing.' So I went with this, some good old Suicidal. Title track from their 1988 album, a banger from start to finish.
NCBD:
Some great stuff this week. Let's get into New Comic Book Day for Wednesday, February 25, 2026!!!
New Vertigo series from That Texas Blood creators Chris Condon and Jacob Philips! I know NOTHING about this beyond Ezra Cain is a private eye, so I am excited!
The Quintesson War continues, and this month we have a cover with an army of those green Baliff characters that work the Pit of Judgement for the Quintessons. One thing I love about the Quintessons and their, erm, assets is the weird blend that makes a lot of these guys look similar - like they were all cobbled together from the same parts but under slightly different creative whims. Which fits when the architect has five faces.
Only Liam Sharp could get me buying a Spawn title, and so far, The Dark Ages volume 2 lives up! The art in this thing is awesome! Listen to Mike and me discuss the first two issues on Drinking with Comics HERE.
The third and final issue of this second 1930's Batman series. I held off reading issue two, waiting for this one to show up, so now I can read the entire series in one sitting!
Plastic:
Fuck. Just fuck. I stumbled across a YouTube video that clued me in to Big Bad Toy Store's Big Bad Workshop and the fact that they have a figure under their Soldier of Fortune banner that is as close as we're likely to get to a Hooded Cobra Commander figure. Check this out:
It doesn't stop there, though. Scrolling through the workshop page, I found this under the Cult of the Crimson Moon collection:
Even better! The red matches the historically related Baron Ironblood from the British Action Force/Red Shadows. Check out THIS video from Destro is My Spirit Animal that explores the history of this.
Finally, I stumbled on BBWS's Monster Force collection and found this:
Werewolf troopers and they don't have to actually be associated with nazis! I'm sick to fucking death of fucking nazis!
Playlist:
King Woman - Celestial Blues
Mike Patton - The Solitude of Prime Numbers
Mountain Realm - Stoneharrow
Jim Williams - Possessor OST
Suicidal Tendencies - How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can't Even Smile Today
Plague Bringer - Life Songs In A Land Of Death
Plague Bringer - As the Ghosts Collect, the Corpses Rest
Metallica - Ride the Lightning
Card:
Stepping away from Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot (which you can buy HERE.) again to play with my beloved Thoth.
• IX: The Hermit
• 3 of Disks: Work
• 2 of Cups: Love
"Stepping away from the world to rebuild, listen to inner guidance as a stability you have quakes. This is what happens when we build atop previous confidences. New stability will come, and with it, love and partnership."
I think there's something here for me about podcasting. I won't go into it now, but it perfectly maps something that's been developing and how I've handled it.
I'm not sure how I never posted this track before, because I can see I liked it and I recognize it. Regardless, I could not find it in a search on this site. Regardless of whether it appeared in these pages previously, I've really felt an affinity toward this band, this album, and this song lately, so here it is again and HERE is Me and That Man's Bandcamp.
If you're unfamiliar, this is Nergal from Behemoth's 'other' band, and it kind of sounds like if Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds hailed from Norway and sold their souls to the Dark One. Which is to say, they are AWESOME!
Watch:
Friday night, I finally got around to watching Jane Schoenbrun's I Saw The TV Glow.
To say this film had a deeply profound effect on me would be an understatement. I know relatively little about Schoenbrun's; last year, I watched their We Are All Going to the World's Fair and was pretty blown away by that, as well. But TV... this one is so much more accomplished. Part of that is, I'd guess, that Schoenbrun had a bigger budget the second time around, but also, they have obviously honed their craft.
There's so much 00s Hauntology in this film that it's almost unbelievable to me. I mean, that entire movement was so liminal and audio-based that I find the effectiveness of this filmmaker's ability to 'put it on screen' fascinating and deeply endearing. The blurred pre and post-millennium transition from a still mostly analog cultural paradigm to a fully digital one created a wave of interesting cultural artifacts; people repurposing analog alongside the digital and really projecting the past out into the future to create what was, at the time, a movement so rooted in uncertainty and change that it didn't last long and kind of ate its own tail on the way out, so it almost feels like it didn't exist at all. But Schoenbrun proves it did, with a movie whose plot is pretty much what I just described, verbatim.
Also, have to say. I was a little more than halfway through and already spellbound when King Woman showed up and performed a stunning version of Psychic Wound.
I mean, how could I not LOVE this film?
Playlist:
The Police - Outlandos D'Amour
Nick Lowe - Jesus of Cool
Converge - Love Is Not Enough
Jerry Reed - East Bound and Down
Megadeth - Rust in Peace
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F♯ A♯ ∞
Faster Pussycat - Wake Me When It's Over
King Woman - Celestial Blues
Drug Church - Prude
Brand New - The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me
Nihill - Krach
Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Napalm Death - Resentment Is Always Seismic (A Final Throw of Throes)
Napalm Death - Suffer the Children (single)
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• King of Pentacles
• Ace of Cups
• Two of Pentacles
"A connection of mind and spirit creates opportunity for lucrative partnership."
Some of my recent readings have really had a 'fortune teller' feel. I hate that. It makes it hard to take things seriously.
I'm late on the game with this one, but I got the tip-off last week when Heaven is an Incubator posted about the new edition of last year's Melvins/Napalm Death collaboration, Savage Imperial Death March, originally released on Amphetamine Reptile. First track off this full-length aural beating has an amazing title and a bludgeoning sound, so I am in! Pre-order from Ipecac Records for an April 10th release HERE.
Watch:
Last night, I went to a double feature of two movies I knew absolutely nothing about. First up, This is Not a Test:
I was stoked to see Adam MacDonald's name come up as Writer/Director/Producer on this one! Takes place in 1998, doesn't reinvent the wheel, but has solid performances and is deeply unsettling.
This is Not a Test is built around Olivia Holt's performance as Sloan, and she anchors the film. Cinematographer Christian Bielz - who previously worked with MacDonald on the film Backcountry - employs a handheld, shaky-cam technique that gives the film a gorilla feel, which definitely makes it feel more real. This realistic approach augments the chaos we get hit with from the opening scenes, which establish Sloane's relationship with abusive father. Because of this, we never get an established 'normal' for Sloane or the film's world through her.
Also, composer Lee Malia (Pyewacket and Out Come the Wolves) hits a sweet spot with drone, itch-you-can't-scratch background, and a little bit of what I'd call a Steve Moore flourish. This also adds to the film's overall unnerving feeling.
Next, Psycho Killer:
Having seen Cold Storge last week, then watched Barbarian again over the weekend, I LOVE that Georgina Campbell is having a moment this year with two back-to-back films. And this... wow. Talk about go big or go home - a saying I don't particularly care for, but it's appropriate. I just couldn't believe how big this one swings and lands. There's a harty comparison here to films like Random Acts of Violence and Son, but Psycho Killer has a grand design that you just won't believe until you see it.
Read:
In researching the middle section of Shadow Play Book 2, I realized I knew very little about the canonical five victims of Jack the Ripper.
One thing I wanted to be certain about was the Polly Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elisabeth Stride, Kate Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly's lives, as they've become something of minor characters in the second act of the book. All five women are generally dismissed as prostitutes; however, that is not a proven fact, but rather an assumption very much in keeping with the misogynistic paradigm of Victorian society. Hallie Rubenhold's book is a mesmerizing and in-depth look at all five women, from birth through to their murders.
Playlist:
Mountain Realm - Stoneharrow
Wintersun - Beyond the Dark Sun (single)
The Mountain Goats - Bleed Out
Metallica - Master of Puppets
Me and That Man - New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol. 1
Faster Pussycat - Wake Me When It's Over
Gogol Bordello - We Mean It, Man!
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F♯ A♯ ∞
Chris Connelly - Largo 22
Psychetect - Extremism
Silversun Pickups - Tenterhooks
sunn O))) - Metta, Benelvolence BBC6 LIVE: At the Invitation of Mary Anne Hobbs
3TEETH - EndEx
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Queen of Pentacles
• Two of Swords
• XX: Judgement
Fostering a partnership or collaboration can lead to solidified power.
Very interesting. This is extremely timely and has prompted me to do some research. I'll try and explain a bit more later on.
When I posted a new track from Myrkur back on January 28th, we did not yet know if more music would follow. Here then is the answer.
Sort of.
Another fantastic new song, still no word of an album.
Amalie Bruun's voice continues to amaze me; this is still probably the closest thing I know of to how the old school Miranda Sex Garden made me feel, once upon a time.
NCBD:
I'm so eager to know more about Edgewater and this strange place
David and Maria Lapham's Good As Dead comes to an end, and although I'm bummed it's done, I can't wait to see how things end. I'm guessing horribly for some - or most - of the cast. This has been such a great ride; I miss having a regular Lapham book in my life. Might be time to re-read Stray Bullets!
The cover says it all!
Two issues left after this one, although I'm not sure if that's series end or 'season' end. Either way, things are really heating up (pun intended).
Read:
My good friend Chris Saunders alerted me to a new Weird Tales Kickstarter campaign that launched earlier in the week. I backed this puppy the second I saw it.
I revisited both episodes of Kier-La Janisse's The Haunted Season on Shudder. A good friend was in for the long weekend, and after a lengthy discussion about Folk Horror, this seemed a perfect way to end the night.
Rewatching episode two, Janisse's adaptation of Algernon Blackwood's "The Occupant of the Room," I was reminded how much I liked the score by The Nausea. Spending some time with their 2024 album Requiem, I pretty much fell in love. I'll be adding this one to my writing playlist this year.
Watch:
I caught wind of this new Scottish Horror film, The House Was Not Hungry Then, over on Bloody Disgusting. Just the sonic profile of this trailer - which gives nothing away - put this on my list. As did, let's be honest, the fact that it's Scottish.
This is the feature debut for Writer/Director Harry Aspinwall, has a one-hour-and-thirty-two-minute runtime, and is currently available to rent on Prime Video for $5.99. I'm going to try to add this to my viewing this week, but I want to curate the experience. It's clear Aspinwall took great care with the sound design, so I'm thinking a little bit of smoke and some headphones in a dark room might work best.
Plastic:
I caught wind that Trick or Treat Studios was doing a comic-book-based figure for The Crow last year, and I've kind of been waiting on the edge of my seat since. I checked around Halloween and nothing. I kept checking periodically, but this had recently slipped my mind, so I was especially grateful when Grimm sent me a link for the pre-order. Check this thing out:
If you read these pages or know me, you know how I feel about The Crow. The original comic book is the ONLY one for me, and to finally have a figure - and one that looks this bloody good - is something I've been waiting for most of my life.*
I believe this is the first figure I've ordered from Trick or Treat Studios, and I was impressed to see this one comes fully loaded.
Here's a list of accessories:
Standing crow
Flying crow with clear display stand
Two interchangeable heads: stoic and smiling
Six interchangeable hands:
Left & right gripping hands
Left & right trigger hands
Right pointing hand
Right reaching hand
Sword
Shotgun
Revolver
Cat
Removable coat
Two interchangeable arm sets: with coat and without coat
This is a timed release, so you have just over 25 days left to pre-order it HERE.
*No exaggeration when you figure I first read James O'Barr's The Crow circa late 1993/early 1994, shortly before the movie came out.
Playlist:
Grimes - Visions
Soundgarden - Super Unknown
Quicksand - Slip
Corrosion of Conformity - Gimme Some Moore
Corrosion of Conformity - No Cross No Crown
Mike Patton - The Solitude of Prime Numbers
Tomahawk - Eponymous
Mr. Bungle - California
Mr. Bungle - Merry Go Bye Bye (single)
The Plimsouls - Everywhere at Once
Orville Peck - Pony
The Neverly Boys - The Dark Side of Everything
The Nausea - Requiem
Slow Crush - Thirst
Darkswoon - Bloom Decay
Card:
The Thoth deck continues to hold my favor. Here's today's cards:
• V: The Hierophant
• Ace of Wands
• Princess of Disks
"Forgotten or obscured ideas/information may lead to inspiration and, ultimately, provide a solid foundation for moving the project forward."
New album Good God/Baad Man, out April 3rd. You can pre-order from Nuclear Blast Records HERE. Sounds good up real loud. Would you expect anything else from COC? Nope.
Watch:
If you want to hit the theatre this weekend and have a ton of fun, my recommendation is right here:
I knew nothing about this film going in - I don't even think I'd heard of it before a week or two ago. Written by David Koepp - whose name I knew I recognized but did not realize from how many movies (Jurassic Park, Stir of Echoes, Presence, Premium Rush) and directed by Jonny Campbell, Cold Storage is a BLAST! Joe Keery, Georgina Campbell, Liam Neeson, Sosie Bacon - we've got a stacked cast, a great setup and an execution that evokes a bit of a comparison to such films as Slither, Street Trash, and Return of the Living Dead. This is kind of the pop version of a splattery outbreak flick, and it just works.
Read:
I finally got around to reading Savage Sword of Conan issue 11, the now-fabled issue helmed entirely by Liam Sharp. All I can say - asbsolute masterpiece!
That's a piece of full-page art from the issue, which Mr. Sharp posted on his Substack newsletter The Brave and the Bold - which you can subscribe to HERE.
This book is just extraordinary, and I do not mean just the art. The storyline is pure Hyperborean Weird Fiction - Conan is injured and enters a liminal realm within which nothing is as it seems. Wolfmen, a beautifully dangerous sorceress, and scheming rulers all vie for his assistance. As usual, the Cimmerian is his own man, even in the face of insanely unfavorable odds.
Playlist:
Daydream Twins - Solstice For Embodiment
John Cale - Fear
Corrosion of Conformity - Deliverance
Mr. Bungle - California
Tomahawk - Eponymous
Brand New - The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me
Lamp of Murmur - The Dreaming Prince in Ectasy
Burzum - Filosofem
Mountain Realm - Stoneharrow
Ulver - Neverland
Blut Aus Nord - Thematic Emanation of Archetypal Multiplicity
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
David Lee Roth - Crazy from the Heat EP
David Lee Roth - A Little Ain't Enough
Corrosion of Conformity - Gimme Some Moore (pre-release single)
Card:
Continuing my newly reinvigorated workings with the Thoth deck:
Note to self: the green light works much better with Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Prince of Wands
• XX: The Aeon
• Ten of Wands: Oppression
The "Airy" aspect of Fire, or MOTIVATION. The Will to change the work, the paradigm, the Aeon and not succumb to the Oppression of the familiar.
While there's some genuine intuition in this reading, I feel like I've fallen back on rote interpretations and interpretative guides. The added inroads I've made with this deck and Tarot in general just do not seem to want to stick. Part of this is because I am always distracted and I am always anxious. I hate that - I did not use to be this way. Modern Life is Rubbish, though, and it's pretty difficult not to be distracted in this day and age. Oh! What's that - yeah, that's right. I talked a bit about restarting meditation a few months ago and NEVER DID. You think that might help? Yep....
I've really been 'feeling' CDs lately. I think January/February always inspires me to return to a state of mind that reaches through time and connects to the mid-to-late 00s, when the internet was amazing, and the world hadn't yet shifted into a post-apocalyptic paradigm.
At the time, shortly before I moved from Chicago to Los Angeles, I was finishing up years of playing in bands and gigging pretty regularly. I met a lot of bands this way, and one of the fiercest was Amherst, Massachusetts' Read Yellow.
I either saw or opened for these guys at Chicago's Fireside Bowl. Read Yellow had a big, noisy sound slightly reminiscent of Sonic Youth, but that comparison sells Read Yellow short. This band has such energy! When you exist for an extended length of time inside a live indie circuit, one thing you often find - and it definitely plagued a band or two of my own - some bands who have fireball energy live don't always find a way to translate that to a recording.
NOT the case here.
Although Read Yellow broke up years ago (I just double-checked), their website is still up, which definitely suggests someone in the group understands the need to keep their flame burning, even dimly, for future generations to find.
NCBD:
BIG week this week at the comic shop.
This cover says it all! Looking ahead on this book's solicitations, Kirkman is building something epic with Megatron. The increased focus on his volatile madness we've seen over the last few issues is about to burst, and it should make for some awesome reading along the way. Also, I'm still just blown away by Thundercracker defecting to the Autobots. So cool!
A Lovecraft adaptation in mini-series form, it's been a couple of years since I read the original short story, The Thing on the Doorstep, but I'm really interested in how it will translate here, maybe because we never did get that Richard Stanley cinematic version he talked about doing after The Color Out of Space.
Having just caught back up on this book and found Splinter resurrected, I'm very curious how this is going to play out. On the surface, I don't love the idea of long-dead characters coming back from the dead, but I'm willing to give Turtles the benefit of the doubt.
Ever wanted to see a priest kick the Mafia's ass? This is the book for you! Loved the first issue, can't wait to dig into number two!
Larry Hama's GIJOE: A Real American Hero hits another milestone, and to celebrate, he's apparently introducing two new Joes! Being that we're free and clear of toy tie-ins, unless Classified wants to take a nod from Hama, I'm pretty intrigued. What would two new Joes in 2026 look like? We'll find out today!
Watch:
As I alluded to in Monday's post, my ventures into the DC Absolute universe have dovetailed with something... else. Let me explain.
This past Sunday, I woke up feeling burnt out. Reading a Substack newsletter from John Pavlovitz about the absolutely blatant racism of the *ahem* superbowl halftime alternative cooked up by magacunts and kid rock,* I found myself overwhelmed again by the "We can't fix this" mantra that has pretty much played on a steady loop in my subconscious since 2018. I don't doom scroll; I don't really 'scroll' all that much at all anymore, but what I have been doing is looking through the various newsletters I receive in my email. I happened on a new one from Grant Morrison's Xanaduum, and falling into the prosiac embrace of a man whose writing I was once obsessed with, I felt the urge to walk over to the bookshelf and pick up his 2011 treatise on Super Heroes as hopeful, psychological antibodies for the modern disaster.
Not looking to add yet another book to the "currently" or even "soon to be" reading piles, instead, I re-read the introduction and was reminded why Morrison once spoke so strongly to me. The bomb had begun as an idea and humanity had worked to give it material form. So too, could another idea - one infinitely more powerful than a mere bomb - be conjured into our lives to stave off the destructive potential assailing us?
Being that Morrison wrote about this way back in 2011 - when things were infinitely less F*cked than they are now - I had to ask myself, might I not need something like this now? Might I not benefit from exposure to something all-powerful and brimming with, of all things, hope?
It was with that in mind that I hit play on James Gunn's Superman laster that day.
All I can say is, always happy to be proven wrong.
In my defense, I have long answered the friends who assured me this film was great and that I was missing out with a patented, "I know it's great, I just don't care." So I simply reached a point in my lfie when I do care, and the film definitely worked its magic on me.
My good friend Chris Saunders asked me to elaborate what I liked about the film and I rattled off the following list:
- That Nick Hoult's Lex Luthor was clearly designed to look like Grant Morrison was the film's evil doer
- That Coresweat somehow managed to avoid all the stupid foibles all other good-natured attempts at Supes have fallen prey to (from what I saw in Snyder's Batman V. Superman, his wasn't good-natured or cloddish, he (and Snyder) just had too much to prove by taking the chacter dark.
- That Rachel Brosnahan was born to play the role of Lois Lane
- That Gunn cast Wendell Pierce as Perry White
- That Edi Gathegi's Mr. Terrific stole every scene he was in
- That Nathan Fillion's Guy Gardner cut and attitude were spot on
- That Pruitt Taylor Vince played Pa Kent
- The Monkeys!
- "Thanks, bitch!"
Honestly, I'm shocked how much I liked this, but I'm not sure why. Apparently, my love of James Gunn far outweighs my detestation of Superman as a character.
For more, Mike and I discuss the film at length in the latest episode of Drinking with Comics, which I'll embed here in a few hours when it posts to youtube.
* So proud that my long-time friend Cap'm Jack once cut KR's tires in a Michigan venue parking lot! I loved that story at the time - back when this cunt was first getting national exposure - but I love it even more now.
Playlist:
Mountain Realm - Stoneharrow
Drab Majesty - Careless
Mr. Bungle - California
Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante
Mr. Bungle - Eponymous
The Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity
Pixies - Surfer Rosa
Me and That Man - New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol.1
Mountain Realm - Rustborn
Mountain Realm - Frostfall
Atrium Carceri - Kapnobatai
David Lee Roth - Crazy from the Heat EP
David Lee Roth - A Little Ain't Enough
Helmet - Aftertaste
Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons
Corrosion of Conformity - Deliverance
sunn O))) - Glory Black (pre-release single)
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• XVII: The Star
• XX: The Aeon
• XXI: The Universe
The reason I waited to discuss this was so I could have already talked about James Gunn's Superman, Grant Morrison's Super Gods, and this idea that I might be able to use these larger-than-life characters to help assuage the fears and neuroses.
The Star - thinking bigger can act as cleansing. The figure on the card is literally washing themself in the rivers of cosmic confidence.
The Aeon - Pass from one ruling paradigm to another, or it's never too late to change, no matter how difficult it is. No matter how big a change it requires.
The Universe - Think macrocosmic, not microcosmic.
I'm going to pursue an interest in superheroes again - especially Superman - as a way to try and tip the scales and shake off some of the unhealthy mental 'doom plaque' that's built up since, oh, 2016. I'm going to read and enjoy in an active, not a passive manner, where I imagine the foes the super gods are fighting are the foes to the healthy world I want to inhabit, both in my head and outside the walls of my house. It might be a fool's errand, but it's what Superman would do. (since when do I say things like that? Well, maybe it's time I incorporated that kind of thinking into my life.)
