New Music From Nabihah Iqbal!!!

Somewhere back in 2017, my good friend and Horror Vision cohost Ray turned me on to Nabihah Iqbal's album Weighing of the Heart. This one blew me away, and I've been following her ever since, waiting for a new album. A few years ago Nabihah spoke on social media about how the studio space she had been using to record that follow-up was broken into and, if memory serves, all her music and equipment was either stolen or trashed. 

My heart broke, but nearly as much as it must have for her.

Now, in spite of the adversity, Dreamer is poised to drop on April 28th courtesy of Ninja Tune, and you can pre-order it HERE. Also, it appears she is touring the U.S., and I am going to try like hell to make it to the Empty Bottle show in Chicago on June 7th, so check those dates by you!

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NCBD:

A super light NCBD this week, which is great, as it makes up for all the damn action figures I ordered last week! Hahaha. Here's my single, solitary pick:

I find it interesting to note that, according to the five-issue paradigm SIKTC has demonstrated on all previous trade collections, this new issue would be the fifth and final issue in Volume 5. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean the end of the current storyline; in fact, I'm all but positive that won't be the case. Remember - the Archer's Peak storyline lasted for three trades, and now that the action has shifted to Tribulation, New Mexico, things feel way too involved for everything to pan out this early. That said, it's also interesting to note that, over on League of Geeks, where there should be a button to see the next issue in the series, there is not one. I am by no means suggesting this is the end of the series, but Tynion and crew are definitely playing close to their chest, which, considering how visceral this series is, and how absolutely none of the characters feel safe, may be interpreted in a number of alarming ways.
            

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Playlist:

Spotlights - Seance EP

The Darts - Snake Oil

Le Butcherettes - A Raw Youth

Savages - Silence Yourself

The Cure - Wish

dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip - Angles

Nabihah Iqbal - Dreamer (pre-release singles)

Queens of the Stone Age - Rated R

Blank Mass - Animated Violence Mild

Ministry - Animositisomina

 

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Card:

Thoth is calling me back again:

This card 100% describes the feelings I've been having the last few days. I managed to force myself out to sit at my writing spot yesterday. Very little actual writing was accomplished, but as a wise man once told me, even if you don't write anything, you sit there for the duration and stare at the screen - it's more than a lot of people manage. Hopefully, today will be better. 

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You Ain't the Problem

 

I really can't say enough about Michael Kiwanuka's KIWANUKA album, except that it's made me a fan of his for life. The entire album is immaculate. This person song, though? This is the gateway drug that will lead to the rest. I'm so happy real Soul music appears to be back on the rise and striving.

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NCBD:

I had my dates wrong last time. Today, it's here, the end of one of the staples of my comics reading for the past few years, Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino's Gideon Falls:

My re-read on the entire series as a run-up to this stalled out before I even hit the first issue, so it'll be a bit before I actually read this one. That said, just to have it in my possession will feel like a pay-off. And that cover - good god. So ominous!

Also out this week:

I skipped the first issue of Sea of Sorrows but doubled back when Indie Comics Jones gave it high marks, and as usual, Mr. Jones was not wrong. The first issue set up some creepy AF Underwater Horror, and if this awesome cover art is any indication, we're about to get into it. Can't wait. Underwater Horror is a great subgenre that seems poised for a resurgence. This would make me insanely happy.

And this... well, a sequel/continuation of The Picture of Dorian Gray? I don't really know much about this book, but Vault has become my go-to company for new books, so I'm excited. And this cover art? Boy Howdy, that's just freakin' gorgeous in a very creepy way.

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Playlist:

Deftones - Ohms

My Morning Jacket - Z

Spoon - Gimmie Fiction

Blut Aus Nord - The Work Which Transforms God

Dante Tomaselli - Out of Body Experience

 

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Card:

 

Act fast - action is Futility's nemesis! Pretty relevant as I sit down and try to shift gears for the third time this year. I have today off and will be attempting to get back into a full re-read/final pass edit on Murder Virus. I have all my Beta Reader's notes, so between that and a fresh take after not looking at the manuscript since August, I'm hoping this last go-through further sharpens what I'm already feeling is my best novel to date (granted, it will only be my second published novel, but I have a few in various states of undress that are complete and will eventually see the light of day, just like this one, which I originally finished in 2008.)

Isolation: Day 43 - Perturbator Hard Wired

There's a bunch of new music I could post, but I've been re-infatuated with Dangerous Days as we - hopefully - edge closer to a new Perturbator record. One that, according to the man himself, will not sound like this. I'm cool with that. Can't wait.

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I inadvertently began a Phantasm series rewatch yesterday. I've been working shortened hours, 6-12, so I get home and put a flick on the tube, something I've seen before so if I nod out during it won't be a big deal. I went with the 2018 Joe Bob Briggs Christmas presentation of Phantasm yesterday. This was a marathon of all the movies but Part Two, which JBB boycotts due to the destruction of a Hemi Cuda during the making of. I'm not a car guy, but fine. Anyway, I slept through some of Phantasm, which was actually pretty cool, as the film's creepy dream logic bored into my REM and made for an almost interactive napping experience. I woke for the end, immediately threw on my disc of Part Two, then made it most of the way through Three - which if I've ever seen I forgot most of - and intend on finishing the rest today. Before the return of Joe Bob tonight on Shudder! I'm not super psyched about the first movie or the co-host, but hopefully the second film he picks will be a winner, and hell, it's Joe Bob!

BTW - I absolutely ADORE Phantastm II and III.



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Playlist:

Brand New - Daisy
Brand New - God and the Devil are Raging Inside Me
The Temptations - Cloud Nine
Various - Motown Deep Cuts (Apple Music Playlist)
Zombi - Shape Shift
Code Orange - Underneath
White Lung - Paradise
Steve Moore - VFW OST
Spotlights - We Are All Atomic EP
Doves - Lost Sides
Doves - Lost Souls
Lustmord - Things That Were 1980-1983
Pigface - Fook
My Morning Jacket - Z
Diana Ross and the Supremes - Love Child
Allegaeon - Apoptosis
Perturbator - Night Driving Avenger EP
Friendly Fires - Pala
Jawbox - For Your Own Special Sweetheart
Deftones - White Pony
Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh
Brand New - Science Fiction
John Zorn - Taboo and Exile
Perturbator - Dangerous Days

Card:

Last three days (because I pull every day, even if I don't post):

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Today:

I've had a lot of major influence over the last few weeks. A lot of Arcana and Court cards. Makes perfect sense, especially combined with the 7 of Swords Futility here, as being moved around by forces beyond our control can either make us feel manipulated and frustrated or empowered and ecstatic. And of late, we are all caught up in some pretty heavy, Macro shit that forces us to do or not do things based on variables we cannot control.

Mindful Habitation: Don't know what to believe anymore? The increasingly Orwellian nature of our Reality - where the State defines Reality - is the most frustrating and downright terrifying thing I have ever experienced. Don't know who or what to believe? Unplug the major News outlets and follow the impartial Science.

2018: November 22nd

One of the best songs of the 90s, hands down. I unexpectedly realized I still had one more 33 1/3 that Brown lent me to finish before my trek home to Chicago in two weeks, so last night I started Gina Arnold's entry into the 33 1/3 series, a kind of contextualization of Liz Phair's seminal indie rock album, Exile in Guyville. More the story of the fictitious Guyville (not so fictitious) and the gender politics of the early 90s indie rock scene than the story of the album, and that's good. So far this is a fascinating read. Also, digging back into the era that surrounds this record made me reconnect with Never Said and Guyville in general, a song I've loved and an album I dig for a long time now, but one that hasn't received any recent rotation space in my audio life.

Joe Bob Briggs returns to Shudder tonight with Dinners of Death! I have to work early tomorrow, so I don't know how much I'll see tonight, but hopefully this will remain on Shudder in perpetuity, much like The Last Drive In has since back in the spring.



Last night I watched three-quarters of the Shudder original Dead Wax. LOVE this. Written and directed by Graham Reznick, whose name anyone familiar with Larry Fessenden's Glass Eye Pix will recognize as most often helming audio departments on films. Great debut that's essentially a movie chopped into 10-18 minute episodes, Dead Wax is about a legendary record that does strange things to reality when played and the people who have sought it through the years. Think John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns, but the world of rare record collecting instead of film collecting and you'll be in the ballpark.




Playlist from 11/21:

David Bowie - Low
Frankie Valli - Can't Take My Eyes Off of You (single)
Deaf Heaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Bell Witch - Longing
Testament - Demonic
Boy Harsher - Face the Fire (pre-release single)
Boy Harsher - Lesser Man
Chasms - On the Legs of Love Purified

Card of the day:

This is a direct response something outside of writing, so I'll take the advisement in silence.

2018: November 16th

Goddamn this woman is amazing. I've really enjoyed the evolution of Chelsea Wolfe's sound, and can  only hope we get another album or at least an EP soon.

Plus, not to be overly male, but can this woman become any hotter? Doubtful.

I'm knee-deep in dead Arctic terrorists and mutant penguins and I LOVE IT! Robert Payne Cabeen's Cold Cuts might just go down as my favorite read in 2018.

I expected to dig it because Arctic horror was sewn into my blood long ago by a little movie called The Thing. However, the way in which Mr. Cabeen moves from horror to humor to heartbreaking empathy and genuine touching moments of real human emotion is at times jaw-dropping and has made this a marvelous read. And the best part? This book takes heavy influence from George A. Romero's original formula, in that the killer mutant penguins only show up to remind us - and the protagonists, two scientific researchers stuck in the remains of an arctic research station destroyed by terrorists - that they're there. The meat of the book is about two guys stuck in comfortable-enough living quarters, counting the days, watching their food deplete and their minds unravel. SO GOOD. Strongly recommended. Here's a nifty little video I found of the author reading a passage:




Playlist from 11/15:

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - B-Sides & Rarities Vol. III
Ghost Cop - One Weird Trick
Thought Gang - Eponymous
David Lynch & Dean Hurley - The Air is On Fire

Card of the day:

Sevens are always a mixed bag. You get the strength of Netzach (Victory), but the uneven energy of coming off the perfection of Six, Tiphareth. Futility fits the moment. Trapped in my home, still under the weather, I've been unable to make much progress writing because I always have trouble writing among all the distractions I've accumulated in my life. There's too many novels and comics and a wonderful cat who seems to know just when to vie for my attention. It's all my own personal bullshit - I'm distracted because some part of me recoils at the amount of work left even as close as I am to finishing this, but the usual way around that is the coffeeshop (so fuck all them squares that say those of us who write in coffeeshops do so for attention - believe me, the last thing I want in my coffeeshop is interaction with anyone else there, no offense to the staff, who totally get it, btw). But yeah, unable to do that, futility is exactly what I feel. Will today be better? Hopefully, now that I've aired all that "out loud."