The PERFECT 80s Hard Rock "slow" song. Not a ballad, but moody and great lyrics; a case where the kind of broad-stroke 80s hard rock platitudes pay off in dividends.
Watch:
Holy shit! Jason's back!!
I don't understand what the "Short-Form Vignette" description means in terms of where, exactly, this is premiering on Friday, August 13, but I'm cautiously optimistic. Will this be on YouTube? Peacock? Angry Orchard.com?
Playlist:
Ozzy Osbourne - Patient No. 9
Ozzy Osbourne - Bark at the Moon
Faith No More - Angel Dust
Flying Lotus - You're Dead
Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Ozz
Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears
Judas Priest - Stained Class
Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance
Drug Church - Prude
Sinéad O'Connor - The Lion and the Cobra
The Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us is the Killer
Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments
Perturbator - New Model
King Woman - Doubt EP
King Woman - Bury (single)
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Knight of Wands
• O: The Fool
• King of Wands
Started rebuilding my writing routine last night. This is a conscious act of Will that, essentially, is a brand new journey, as all my positive inertia is long gone, and I will have to overcome the entropy of neglect.
The second track on 1991's No More Tears, the album that solidified me as a fan when it came out, and that was so good it actually hindered my acceptance of its follow-up, 1995's Ozmosis.
The guitars on this record are so goddamn gorgeous. I really feel like producers Duane Baron and John Purdell, who had not worked with Ozzy previously, took the sonic direction begun on 1988's No Rest for the Wicked and perfected it, and nowhere is that more evident than when this track starts.
Also, Lemmy's songwriting is all over this record, and I feel like it really helped elevate the lyrics, which might be the best of Ozzy's solo career.
Probably my second favorite Ozzy track, "Shot in the Dark" is the final track on 1986's The Ultimate Sin. I knew this song from its inception as a single, and it wasn't until the early 90s that I heard the entire album from which it hails. At that time, I wasn't a fan of the album, just the song, which seemed like a moody anomaly on an otherwise, at-first-glance collection of so-so 80s hard rock (It didn't help that my high school girlfriend and her two older sisters played Ozzy non-stop for the three years we dated. Forced familiarity can indeed breed contempt, a lesson we could have applied to our relationship, as well).
Maybe ten years ago or so, I gave The Ultimate Spin another chance, and found that, not only did I remember a lot of the tracks, but I remembered them kindly. Excitedly, even. Since then, this has become a go-to Ozzy record for me. As much as I love and respect the man, I don't gel with a lot of his solo work. Riding high off No More Tears, I was ready to embrace Ozzmosis when it landed in 1995, but the lead single, "Perry Mason," just seemed like such a ridiculous song. Like Ozzy had somehow gone all the way around the bend into self-parody. The album didn't sit much better with me, and that was the last of his solo work I paid attention to until Mr. Brown got me into 2020's Ordinary Man circa 2021. Producer Andrew Watt ended up being the best thing to happen to the Ozzman in decades, as I'd rank Ordinary Man and Patient No. 9 as instant classics. Both records are of a caliber that, while the early stuff is still untouchable, hold their own.
I've made it my mission to comb through his catalogue and see if I missed anything.
NCBD:
Great pull list this week. Let's go!
Void Rivals has been picking up steam as we move toward the Quintesson War's start in upcoming issue 25. We have an army of Skuxxoids, Hot Rod and Springer, the Quintessons, Zerta, and Cobra La. That's A LOT of tension points for a story, and somehow, Kirkman balances them all perfectly, letting out little bits of steam here and there so we know that in a couple of issues, things are going to go OFF!
Zander Cannon's Sleep is the, ah, sleeper hit of 2025. Seriously, this book is fantastic! When I first picked up issue one, I thought the art would be a tonal aberration I wouldn't be able to get over. Turns out, it's the exact opposite. Cannon's style belies a dark underbelly that froths with blood and bad things.
Minor Arcana quickly proved itself as another burgeoning Jeff Lemire masterpiece, a la Fishflies. This time, however, there's a long run and a more involved plot. The sleepy seaside small town setting and exploration of a failed fortune teller are masks for something bigger and much more malevolent, and the reveals come slow and steady, once again showcasing the deep-seated influence of David Lynch in this man's storytelling.
Almost as if the Universe sent this cover to pay homage to Ozzy's passing. I have no idea what this book is about, but when I saw the title/cover combo, I knew I'd have to track it down.
James Tynion & Michael Walsh's Exquisite Corpses continues barreling along its destructive path and you're damn straight I'll once again have a front row seat! I have a feeling this book is going to really surprise us along the way. Not everything is as straightforward as it seems.
Watch:
For reasons I simply cannot fathom, about two years ago I walked away from HBOs Doom Patrol series and never came back. This wasn't intentional; I'm not really sure how I got like this, but I tend to leave shows - even shows I adore - hanging. Something kicked in again last week, and I rewatched the entire second season and am now perched atop the first episode of Season Three, which is unfamiliar ground for me.
I can't stress how much I love this show. It's absurd, moving, and outright bat shit. The look of it is among my favorite looks to any show or film - the lighting is soft, dark, but still colorful. The set design is symmetrical, cohesive and downright creepy A.F., when it needs to be. And the original, Dada-esque undertones Grant Morrison so lovingly wove through his run on the book in the 80s are always ever-present. These elements would be disparate and jarring in the hands of most, but this show blends them all perfectly.
Playlist:
Deee-Lite - Dewdrops in the Garden
Deee-Lite - World Clique
Primus - Antipop
Hot Stove Jimmy - It's a System...
Lard - The Last Temptation of Reid
Meat Puppets - Dusty Notes
Deadfly Buchowski - Russian Doll E.P.
Zombi - 2020
Zombi - Direct Inject
Pixies - The Night the Zombies Came
Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears
Ozzy Osbourne - Perry Mason (single)
Ozzy Osbourne - Down to Earth
Ozzy Osbourne - No Rest for the Wicked
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Page of Wands
• Two of Cups
• Four of Wands
Creative emotional support is needed to reclaim a regular sense of balance, i.e. in this case, duty. I remain in a non-writing paradigm. I did begin re-reading Shadow Play Book One: Kim & Jessie, a much-needed and until now shirked necessity for, you know, working on the sequel. That's a major step for me, but I need to get back to a regular routine and it just seems to be drifting further and further away. A day stolen here or there just doesn't amount to much, and I think the cards are telling me that I need to ask K for help.
Man, 2025 can suck a big bag O' clown peen. I mean, what the fuck? As per my tradition, thus begins Ozzy Week, where I'll post and celebrate the Demon Prince of Rock!!!
"No More Tears" is easily my favorite track and album from Ozzy's solo career, which is a pretty uneven solo career. Of course, the same can be said of all post-original line-up members of Black Sabbath once they tried to make it on their own.
The 80s were a tumultuous time for Rock Gods - too much blow and a frenzy of one-upmanship, and I'm sure they hardly knew which way was up. But this track - man, I remember the night I first heard this on 103.5 The BLAZE, Chicago's pre-Grunge rock radio station. I remember the DJ saying, "Here's the new track from Ozzy Osbourne," and I remember the bass grabbed me instantly.
Of course, bassist Mike Inez would go on to Alice in Chains greatness, and guitarist Zakk Wylde would go on to... wear a kilt. But on September 17, 1991, Ozzy released what I consider his crowning achievement, and the entire album ROCKS.
And for day 7 of our 7 Days of Ozzy, I had to go with something a little bit different. Love the first Infectious Grooves album, and especially this track, which benefits enormously from Ozzy's vocals. I'd say this is similar to Sting's contribution to Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing" - you just can't imagine the chorus being sung by anyone else.
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Saturday night Beyondfest & the American Cinematheque held a free advance screening of Chloe Okuno's new film Watcher at the Aero Theatre. Holy smokes - a fantastic psychological thriller with a gut-punch ending. LOVED it!
The cinematography and direction in this one are fantastic, as are all the performances. The film really gives you a feel for the slow-motion paranoia that upturns Maika Monroe's Julia's life after she moves with her husband to Bucharest - a city she's never been to where most people speak Romanian - a language she doesn't speak. This isolation feeds directly into her paranoia, so you really don't have a sense of what's real and what's imagined in Julia's escalating panic, stoked by the fact that a serial killer stalks the city in the background of their lives.
Afterward, Maika Monroe and Karl Glusman did a Q&A moderated by Heidi Honeycutt. The two stars discussed filming in Romania during the Pandemic, the endless beauty of Bucharest, and how they prepared for the isolation and paranoia of the film.
I can't recommend this one enough.
Distributed by IFC Midnight, Watcher opens wide June 3rd on 500 screens - the company's largest theatrical opening to date.
Then, in keeping with the themes Watcher introduced, K and I took in a matinee of Alex Garland's new film Men.
Bold Horror Statement*: If The Witch and Midsommar kicked off the current zeitgeist resurgance of Folk Horror, Men is it's apex. Not to say it's better than them, but it seems to coelsce so many of the themes and images into an entirely new thing.
Because I had to pull something off the Live Randy Rhoads Tribute Album. Classic.
I remember the first time I heard this - or one of the first times it made an impression beyond, "oh, Ozzy. Cool" - some friends and I were outside at my neighbor's house. This kid was two years younger, rich AF and a total latchkey whose parents' bought him all kinds of shit to make up for the fact that they were never home. They were the first people I knew who had an inground pool, and this thing was huge, with large gazebos on either side of it and a massive wooden deck that ran all the way around the pool and then snaked around the back of the house. This would have been circa Freshman or early Sophomore year. We were smoking cigarettes and drinking Keystone in those gross-ass tall cans it came in. I was buzzed and sitting in a gazebo, staring at the flames on the tiki torches that were staged around the pool at regular intervals. My Tribute dub was playing from a boom box further down the porch but we had it loud, and I remember thinking that I felt like I was there, at the show.
Good memory.
Watch:
This show is nuts, and I'm happy to see it coming back for a third season.
All things considered, I'd rather David Fincher return to Mindhunter, but we all know that might not happen. In the words of William DeVaughn, be thankful for what you got.
Playlist:
The Mysterines - Reeling
La Hell Gang - Thru Me Again
Anthrax - Attach of the Killer B's
Anthrax - Spreading The Disease
The Jesus Lizard - Goat
Kate Bush - Hounds of Love
Ozzy Osbourne - Tribute (Live)
David Byrne and Brian Eno - Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
Windhand - Eternal Return
Dean Hurley - Analog Resource Vol. 1
Joseph Bishara - Malignant OST
Card:
Lots of feminine energy, which is good. Ruthless determination can be a bad thing; sometimes passion needs to be tempered and Will focused. And sometimes you need to ask for help.
While posting yesterday's track, I ended up inadvertently listening to the entire Diary of a Madman album for the first time in, well, in a very long time. And I really enjoyed it, the entire record.
This is one that kinda got beat to death in my late teens. I dated a girl for three years in/after High School who had two older sisters and they were all HUGE Ozzy fans. So much so that the oldest sister had a boyfriend who kind of modeled his life after Ozzy. His Mustang even had vanity plates that read "Im Ozzy 1" if you can believe that. Anyway, Diary was a staple of our lives, and so I guess it just became associated with that version of me and that time in my life. Nearly thirty years later, I've apparently reclaimed it, free from any nostalgia associated with that particular version of me. Which is pretty cool, to kind of hear something again, for the first time when you knew it so well to begin with. And Little Dolls was a track I don't think ever really clicked with me as being all that great, but last night, hearing it again, listening to the words and that glorious chorus, well, it felt a bit like a small, unimportant (in the grand scheme) epiphany. Which was nice.
Watch:
Another new flick hitting Shudder at the end of July. Really looking forward to this one:
As is my growing custom, I watched the first minute or so, got a feel for how good the cinematography and tone are and then clicked off. Trailers are increasingly frustrating pleasures that are better after you see the movie.
NCBD Addendum:
A couple things I picked up that I forgot to list or didn't expect to buy:
I still love the entire physical presence of these TMNT "Best of" Books.
A new Shaolin Cowboy book! I read the second series (I think it was the second one), back circa 2015 (I think) and loved it, so when I saw this new number one, I couldn't resist. Will also fill the void left by Orphan and the Five Beasts returns at some undisclosed time in the future, as I just re-read the first arc again, and really loved that, as well.
Playlist:
Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman
The Mysterines - Reeling
Small Black - Moon Killer (pre-release single)
Card:
Again? Okay, so seeing this, I went to my Thoth deck to pull a clarifier. Here's what I turned:
It's a little on the nose as an interpretation, however, I take this to mean whatever it is I'm supposed to be learning or picking up on is right in front of my face.
Years ago, my good friend Sonny observed that, on the cover of 1982's Bark at the Moon, Ozzy looked like someone shaved a poodle and then glued the shavings to him. That's a pretty funny - and still pretty freakin' accurate - description. But hey, metal album covers ran an interesting gamut back in the day. All things considered, you take the good with the bad. Which is kind of the case with Bark at the Moon, too. It's definitely not Ozzy's best solo record, and this is definitely not even the best song on the long player, but I dig the way the song moves and I dig the production. Ozzy does what he normally did back in the early 80s - Rock n Roll/you can't stop me/don't judge me. But the pre-chorus builds in a nice way and I swear I can hear how some of Jake E. Lee's guitar solos rubbed off on Kim Thayil ten years later.
k
>kl
NCBD:
Despite the wait, I actually dig that Marvel held Immortal X-Men #2 back so it landed the same week as X-Men Red's second issue.
Both these books are off to a great start, and I am still thinking about the closing page shocker of Immortal's first issue.
Madelyne Pryor, aka the Goblin Queen, up against Illyana Rasputin, aka Magik for the reigns of Limbo? No way I'd miss this one.
Speaking of Hulk, if the rest of Banner of War lives up to even half the promise of the Alpha issue, I will be super happy. Donny Cates continues to take huge swings and knock every issue out of the park.
A Misfits-esque Taskmaster? This limited series has already paid for itself in just one issue. Can't wait to dig into #2.
The final chapter in a pretty great adaptation of Joe Hill's novella Rain.
The first issue of Steve Niles and Szymon Kudranski's A Town Called Terror was mostly set-up, but that set-up brought the creep factor up to about an eight, so I'm in. I think the last Niles book I read monthly was Winnebago Graveyard, and that turned out to be a pretty wicked ride. Hoping for something in the same ballpark here, and pretty sure I won't be disappointed.
Watch:
Thanks to Mr. Brown, without who, I probably wouldn't have seen this new trailer for She-Hulk for another day or so:
Despite giving Moon Knight two episodes before jumping off amidst a seething hatred nothing since the DCU live-action Swamp Thing from a few years ago provoked, I remain optimistic about everything Marvel is doing with their shows (Mr. Brown has even talked me into giving Moonie another chance. Eventually).
The tone of this one is obviously going to be considerably less severe and more fun, but I am absolutely cool with that. Especially with appearances by "Professor Hulk."
Now, if we can just get Gray Hulk Joe Fixit.
Playlist:
Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante
Wesley Willis - Rock 'N' Roll Will Never Die
Calexico - El Mirador
The Bronx - The Bronx (II)
La Hell Gang - Thru Me Again
Various Artists - Nativity in Black: A Tribute to Black Sabbath
Joseph Bishara - Malignant OST
Ozzy Osbourne - The Ultimate Sin
Card:
Taking stock, keeping a clear head and above all things, planning. That's how I read this one. There are variables coalescing soon, but for the moment, they are still en route, traveling at an undetermined speed. Get Ready.
