Discovered this randomly yesterday. Badass - to hear Layne do Ozzy's introductory, "All right now!" just puts a Horror-movie-sized SMILE on my face! It's not the full track, but it's enough. This video was posted by Nerojotun on their Youtube channel, which is filled with Alice in Chains stuff. Check them out HERE.
Watch:
K and I rewatched Jordan Peele's NOPE Saturday night. Hot damn - this movie is absolutely my favorite of Peele's films, and that's saying something because I really dig all of them.
All the characters are so endearing and relatable, human and distinct. It doesn't 'give' the viewer anything - totally drops everything in front of you the entire time and just lets you either pick it up and piece it together or not. Peele's not concerned with convincing or converting anyone; he just wants to make killer cinema. And he does.
Play:
Cosmic Horror Metroidvania for Switch? Holy shit, sign me up:
Voidwrought hits Switch on 10/24. Thanks to Bloody Disgusting for posting about this one, as it was not on my radar at all.
Playlist:
Trust Obey - Fear and Bullets (1998 Edition)
Cold Cave - Cherish the Light Years
Crystal Castles - (II)
Fvnerals - Let the Earth be Silent
Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium Undreamable Abysses
Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium Nahab
Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh
Intronaut - Habitual Levitations (Instilling Words with Tones)
Alice in Chains - Dirt
The Replacements - Tim
Silent - Modern Hate
Card:
Card for today:
"Structure, time and space. Laws of growth and decay. Completion." - That's from a book I have named Keywords for the Crowley Tarot. I like this because, to me, Fortune - The Wheel in traditional Tarot - is an example of the laws of space and time. Simply put, what goes around comes around. I don't believe in Karma, per se, but as a concept, I think it's close (I just don't like the word, probably because hippies adopted and ruined it).
As the comments on this video repeatedly declare, The Music may be the most underrated band of all time. These guys were a powerhouse, and I believe this is a great example of when the industry started to dissolve. If their eponymous debut had been released five, hell maybe even three years prior, this would have been a HUGE record. That, sadly, was not the case. Digging back into their albums yesterday, I was reminded just how much I love them, and this song - man, the guitar on this song reminds me so much of the music for the Nintendo Game Ninja Gaiden it crosses all kinds of wires in my head.
Watch:
Two days ago, Bloody Disgusting ran an article about an upcoming sequel to J. Lee Thompson's 1983 sleazy action flick 10 to Midnight. The sequel, 12 to Midnight, comes 41 years after that original and 21 years after 10 to Midnight's star Charles Bronson passed away at age 81. Here's the news that I have been unable to stop thinking about since first seeing this article - the new film stars a Charles Bronson lookalike named Robert Bronzi as the main character. This is an "unofficial" sequel, so they've swapped out Bronson's Leo Kessler for Toth, but goddamnit! Look at this guy! He is the spitting image of Bronson:
I loved Charles Bronson's action flicks as a kid in the 80s, but I'm pretty sure my folks never let me watch 10 to Midnight. It's grimy as all hell—the killer is a naked man who kills couples out in public in the dead of night. Think The Town That Dreaded Sundown but directed by Andrea Bianchi.
Oh, wait. Did I forget to mention that 12 to Midnight takes a totally different route with their killer and goes all-in for a werewolf? Cuz, yeah, this flick has all kinds of reasons for me to be so all-in on it.
But I really can't get over how much Bronzi looks like Bronson. It's uncanny. I mean, if you spot a Channing Tatum lookalike, no big deal, right? But Charles Bronson was one of the most unique-looking dudes to ever grace the silver screen, so this is just blowing my mind.
12 to Midnight hits VOD today and you can bet your sweet arse I'm watching it ASAP. Also, 10 to Midnight is currently included with Prime. I had a viewing a few weeks back, the night of my first MaXXXine viewing, to be exact. My friend Chris was in and in talking about the influences we saw in Ti West's latest film, I brought up Midnight.
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My good friend and cohost on The Horror Vision, Professor John Trafton, posted a new article on his website about mapping The Dude's Los Angeles in Joel and Ethan Cohen's The Big Lebowski.
It's a fascinating read. I can't recommend it enough. Read the article on John's website HERE. I met John after I found his article on Messiah of Evil. I'd just watched the film for the first time and went looking for something to read about it. Turns out I could find no critical writing except John's, which was fine because he nailed it. I'm always happy to see a new article, especially for a movie I love.
Playlist:
The Music - Eponymous
The Music - Welcome to the North
The Ocean - Precambrian: Proterozoic
The Ocean - Precambrian: Hadean/Archaean
Melvins - (A) Senile Animal
The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs - OST
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven
Metropolis - The Darkest Side of the Night (single)
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE. Also, starting today for the next 30, Grimm's Kickstarter for the Hand of Doom Tarot Art Book is up. Check it out HERE.
• Page of Swords
• II: High Priestess
• Five of Wands
Page of Swords, or the Earthly aspect of the Intellect, flanked by the High Priestess, literally the Will that takes the spark of creativity and gives it form and the five of Wands, quite literally the Conflict of my own self-defeatism.
If you've seen Longlegs, you'll probably be on the same page. I've been a T. Rex fan for years, but my exposure to the band never moved beyond Electric Warrior and my personal favorite of their records (that I'm familiar with), The Slider, which really helped get me through a tough month in LA last January.
Watch:
Bloody Disgusting ran an article recently that introduced me to the Popcorn Fright Film Fest. Both a live event taking place in Fort Lauderdale, FL, and a virtual event, the fest runs from August 8th through the 18th and is stacked with awesome films. I'm seriously considering purchasing a virtual pass, and I'm looking through the trailers to try and assemble a priority list. Here's one that caught me right away:
Both Kyle Gallner and Willa Fitzgerald look awesome in what little of this trailer I watched. While I have not seen Writer/Director JT Mollner's debut feature, 2016's Outlaws and Angels, I'm very interested in it now. Also, Giovani Ribisi is credited as the Cinematographer on Strange Darling. How cool is that?
The Popcorn Frights Fest's website is HERE. Grab some tickets and maybe we can, I don't know, hang out in a virtual movie theatre.
NCBD:
So, you'll notice I broke down and picked up one of the books I previously announced I was done with. Which one? NOT an X-book, I'll tell you that. Let's get into today's pull from Rick's Comic City in Clarksville:
A consistently delightful sequel to both the Army of Darkness Theatrical and Director's cuts, which in and of itself is a great reason to read.
Finally! I'm going to hunker down and re-read The Nice House on the Lake before I jump into this new, sequel series.
The Neo Novena saga comes to an end. I'm really hoping there will be more stories set in this world.
Road Stories continues. Last issue was fantastic; interested to see where we go with Erika this time.
Yep, this is the one. I've decided to hang on and give this new Turtles book a chance. I'm just so invested in the continuity they built over the last 150 issues, it is difficult to abandon it now.
More Springer! You know, I think my Drinking with Comics cohost Mike Shinabargar was on to something when he said that, working in a comic shop, he sees that sales on Void Rivals could use a regular dose of a character from one of the Energon Universe's more well-known properties. I think that's fine - whatever Kirkman and his team need to do to keep this book coming because I LOVE Void Rivals. I think this 100% stands on its own, however, if we need a regular dose of Springer or any other Transformer, no problem. Especially Springer - for some reason, I've always felt he was a bit left-of-center and a great fit for a deep space, non-Earth storyline.
Playlist:
USSA - The Spoils
Alice in Chains - Dirt
Shellac - To All Trains
Tim Hecker - Infinity Pool OST
High on Fire - Cometh the Storm
Man Man - Carrot on Strings
Black Sabbath - Eponymous
Horrendous - Ontological Mysterium
Deafheaven - Sunbather
Zeal & Ardor - GREIF (pre-release singles)
The Dillinger Escape Plan - Option Paralysis
Genghis Tron - Board Up the House
Mr. Bungle - Eponymous
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Two of Pentacles
• XXI: The World
• 0: The Fool
Collaboration, as opposed to opposition, leads to what comes next, which is a new journey in and of itself.
Sometimes the cards are so eerily straight forward, it's effortless to read them.
Before Ghost, Tobias Forge was in a band named Repugnant? I had NO IDEA, so thanks to THIS article on Metal Sucks. Death Metal isn't really my jam, but this... not too bad. And from the opening guitar, you can 100% hear that it's Forge's writing. So here's them playing live and that guy that looks kind of like he could be in the Misfits? That's Papa! Always cool to see where our beloved musical icons come from.
Watch:
I've struggled with Demián Rugna's 2017 film Terrified multiple times. I liked it, but I didn't feel for it as others who seemed to feel it was the scariest film in years did. My theory is this is due to the fact that I fell asleep during my first viewing (not the film's fault at all), and that tends to rob some film's impact for me. It happened to Duncan Jones's Moon, it happened to Denis Villeneuve's Arrival, and I'm pretty sure it happened to Terrified. Regardless of how I felt about it as far as being "scary," Rugna definitely crafted a confident, competent Horror film that I wouldn't hesitate to others. So it is with no small amount of fervor that I came upon Bloody Disgusting's posting of the trailer for his new film, Where Evil Lurks. Here's the trailer:
I was torn on actually watching this; as you know if you've been reading these pages lately, I've become very anti-trailer. In spite of that prejudice, and cautious that I might once again rob Rugna's film of power, I watched it and can happily confirm this is truly a 'teaser.' Well done, IFC. I can also say I am 100% in just for the sound design alone. Where Evil Lurks is supposed to have a theatrical run starting on October 6th, and will hit Shudder on the 27th of the same month.
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Almost two years ago, I posted about giving up on Clive Barker's Scarlett Gospels. Well, I decided recently to give it another shot.
I'm not really far enough to pass judgment again, but this definitely still feels less elegant than any other Barker I've read. The opening scene sees the five remaining Black Magicians in the world (?) resurrect a sixth, more powerful one to try and survive a culling carried out by The Priest (don't use that other nickname!), who is now working separately from The Order of the Gash, attempting to amass all the world's Magickal knowledge for some as yet unknown purpose. The scene begins rather poorly and doesn't really feel like Barker until "The Demon" shows up. Here, I still get a sense that Barker is overdoing the gross-out factor in a misguided attempt to recapture something of his past works - which were all elegantly revolting and not nearly as gauche - but I'm hanging in and hopefully coming to terms with this in a way that will allow me to A) finish the novel this time and, B) enjoy it. Reminder to self: This man is a genius, an icon, and any Barker is better than no Barker.
Playlist:
The Lucid Night - The Mystic Journey EP
The Lucid Night - The Celestial Voyage (single)
Lord Huron - Long Lost
Low Cut Connie - Tough Cookies: The Best of the Quarantine Broadcasts
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE. Just a reminder that Grimm's new Tarot Deck, The Hand of Doom Tarot, is both gorgeous and live on Kickstarter right now. Here's the LINK.
• Page of Cups
• X: Wheel of Fortune
• Queen of Swords
The Page or Princess of Cups is a card I associate with inner vision, and taken with the Wheel in this case, I see ideas growing to fruition. Therefore, good day to write. Balance all that out with the Watery aspect of Fire and I'm reminded I have a major distraction going on in Chicago at the moment. Reading all these together then, tells me to get the writing in where/when I can today - even a little will be productive.
Baroness dropped another new track from their upcoming Stone, out September 15th. I'm really digging everything I've heard so far, and I adore this album art for this one; every album features Frontman John Dyer Baizley's paintings and all of them are fantastic. This one does something specific for me, apparently. Pre-order StoneHERE.
Watch:
Based on the description Bloody Disgusting gives in a recent article, I'm a little afraid of Karim Ouelhaj's new film Megalomaniac. That said, I made it about 7 seconds into the trailer and knew I wanted to see it:
That imagery, whatever it is, took my breath. I won't be watching any more of the trailer, but you can. You can also read the BD article HERE, or Meagan Navarro's review of the film HERE. I'm literally doing none of that. Megalomaniac is receiving US theatrical distribution on September 8th via Dark Star Pictures, although I'm fairly certain it will be limited and I won't get it here in Clarksville, so I'll be keeping an eye open on VOD streaming platforms.
Playlist:
Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Smile OST
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
Windhand - Eponymous
Count Gorgann - Corpse Eater: Satanic Misery Live for the Dead
Various - Lords of Salem OST
Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments
Melvins & Lustmord - Pigs of the Roman Empire
Card:
About to head out for the six-plus hour drive up to Chicago for the weekend, so just a quick (but important) Pull. I still try and use Missi's Raven Deck for occasions such as these, where Arcana is all I really need:
Don't struggle against change. Prescient for sure, for reasons I won't go into here.
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 WrapHERE.
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.
From the forthcoming album Times New Roman, out June 16th. You can pre-order HERE.
SUPER cool song - I hear T. Rex a lot in here, always a good thing. I'm also noticing the guitar sound on the verses has that super distorted "junkyard" feeling that I loved so much from Era Vulgaris, pushed back to the front. I've never been sure if that's a soft application of a ring modulator or a pitch shifter or both. Either way, loving it here.
Watch:
From an article on Bloody Disgusting this morning (HERE), I give you the trailer for God is a Bullet:
Satanic Cult? I'm in! Also, Maika Monroe has been in some killer genre flicks over the last few years, and she's been great in all of them.
Is it a bit weird that this film is directed by Nick Cassavetes, director of The Notebook? Not to judge the man - lots of people break in with what they can and then follow their passion (consider the case of Ryan Gosling, star of The Notebook), but there's also a track record of non-Horror folk 'hanging out in Horror' for a paycheck. Hopefully, that's not the case.
This one's getting a wide theatrical release - not sure if it will play by me; at first glance, I thought having the title God is a Bullet would stigmatize it right out of the local theatres here, then I realized having "bullet" in the title might actually push it in any way. After all, if there's one thing people seem to like more than god here, it's bullets.
A little Wino and his friends in The Obsessed to start our day. This tracks slams; love it!
NCBD:
My picks for this NCBD; another slow week, but that's fine with me. Quality of quantity, right?
Loving this series. The throwback to the excesses of 70s and 80s rock gods is always welcome these days. Especially when the story gives us rock gods that worship Satan!!! Also, although the story is slightly obvious in some regards, insofar as to where it's going, the overall big picture of what that will mean is delightfully vague.
I didn't read the first two issues of the Sins of Sinister series Nightcrawlers, however, being that this is the final issue before the closing Sins of Sinister: Dominion one-shot brings the sub-series to a close, and being that I've grown to actually really dig this series, I thought I'd pick this up. Who knows? Maybe I'll grab those first two issues eventually, too. Either way, seeing Galactus's burning face behind Mother Righteous totally sold me on this "A" cover.
That's one of the really cool things about these Marvel "possible future" stories - the degree to which the creators can totally fuck with everyone and everything. I feel as though it used to be, at the very least, every possible future would have Logan in it. Not this time. And although I doubt very much we'll actually see a Galactus flambé in this issue, just the fact that they could suggest this on the cover makes me feel like a kid again.
Watch:
After reading about Scott Walker's upcoming film The Tank on Bloody Disgusting a few days ago, I'm intrigued. Reviewer Meagan Navarro very specifically states, "So much about Walker’s narrative structure and stylistic choices evoke ’80s creature features," (Read Meagan's full review HERE). That very much makes me take the possibility of shortcomings aside and want to see this flick. I think back to James Wan's Malignant a few years back - it took a good thirty or so minutes of laughing at that film's shortcomings before I got what Wan was doing - he made a 70s Giallo, and went so far as to build in the associated shortcomings from that particular style/era of film. This 'authenticity or bust' aesthetic we've seen in recent years - I could argue Psycho Goreman has this to a degree as well - is fascinating to me; a real breath of fresh air. I love the idea of filmmakers saying, "It's not enough to just add synthetic VHS tracking lines to your film" - the equivalent of the "vinyl" audio effect that adds pops and crackles to an audio track - "you have to be true to the essence of what we think of when we think of those films!"
Anyway, I'm none of the theatres in my area are playing The Tank - Clarksville's Regal is pretty great, but it's not that great - so I can't wait to watch this on April 25th (thereabouts) when it lands!
Playlist:
Ruby the Hatchet - Planetary Space Child
CCR - Cosmo's Factory
The Obsessed - Lunar Womb
Alice in Chains - Eponymous
Mastodon - Hushed and Grim
Kyss - ... And the Circus Leaves Town
The Sword - Warp Riders
Bill Dogget and His Combo - All His Hits
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
In order to bring a project to completion, first emotional matters must be transformed into something useful through an act of Will.
Direct commentary on the process of writing. Well, the adage fits with any artistic endeavor, I suppose, but I'm applying it directly to my own process, which has begun to mutate for the better thanks to two separate but concurrent events. The first was Jonathan Grimm's three-day jaunt out to our new home. The guy is a self-made success with his art, and it's inspiring beyond almost anything I've encountered in some time. Maybe ever. The second came in the form of some thoughts on writing in one of the more recent This Is Horror Newsletters (which you can sign up for HERE and which is totally worth your time for the interviews alone, if not the contemplations of craft that sometimes come burrowed inside the missives).
What's that have to do with today's Pull? Well now sheriff, I don't rightly know. Pulls are not always straightforward. In fact, they're never as on the nose as my quick interpretations might make them appear. There's a lot of gooey ambiguity in the way they interact with the subconscious, and sometimes, you just contemplate the cards and see what associations they lead you to. Piecing it together - if you do - might take considerably more time. Hopefully, in the meantime, you've arrived at something useful. Like I just did.
Very curious about Addison Heimann's Hypochondriac, which Bloody Disgusting's John Squires says, "gives us Donnie Darko vibes." No quicker way to get me interested. Here's the trailer:
Read:
I had previously noticed the solicitation for Pentagram of Horror, a new anthology Horror comic created by Marco Fontanili, but the shop didn't order any (or was sold out), and I kinda forgot about it from there. Fast forward to Tennessee a few weeks ago and I was able to snag issue 2 from Rick's Comic City. I just read it this morning, and I have to say, I loved it.
Pentagram of Horror reminds me A LOT of The Silver Coin, though not in an imitation way. Having only read this second issue, I can say that the story here was very well told, with Fontanili's writing and art working together in such a way that it really strengthened the tone. Very horrific, stand-alone, but with a wide enough scope that it feels cinematic.
Can't wait to track down #1.
Playlist:
Baroness - Gold and Grey
Orville Peck - Bronco
Sal Salmena - Bria
Bria - Cuntry Covers Vol. 1
Greg Puciato - Mirror Cell
The Sword - Age of Winters
Seatbelts - Cowboy Bebop OST
Various - Lost Highway OST
Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman
Alice in Chains - Dirt
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Flew home from Chicago yesterday after a post-house buying week where I tried like hell to relax. I mostly succeeded, thanks to all my dear friends who were more than happy to drive to my folks' place in the woods of Palos Park and sit on the patio for hours on end.
I'm using Boards of Canada's Dayvan Cowboy today because Boards are on of my two most commonly used airplane soundtracks - the other is Burial - and in spite of the fact that I usually use either the In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country EP or Geogaddi as flight-long loops in my earbuds, yesterday I went with 2005's Campfire Headphase because I know it the least.
And I realized at once that I know it better than I realize. Dayvan is Probably my favorite track. The guitar on this album is incredible, and I always mistakenly think is performed by Bibio, whose style is extremely similar. Either way, this record is fantastic, as are all the BOC outputs, and it helped make my flight smooth and a partial extension of my relaxation (as much as one can relax on a plane).
Read:
Well, I blew through most of Donnie Goodman's The Razorblades In My Head on the trip, read a shit ton of comics I bought at Rick's Comic City in Clarksville (soon to be my new shop, I'm happy to say. Great store, SUPER awesome, friendly people), and took a trepidatious cue from Warren Ellis' most recent newsletter and picked up Will Carver's Hinton Hollow Death Tripon Kindle for $0.99.
I read it in three days.
I suspect this will be the best book I read in 2022. It is dark and disturbing, but not in the ways I initially feared. But it's also one of the most human books I've read in some time, and it ended up making me want to be a better person. Not that I don't always want to be a better person, because this is literally a goal I think about on daily basis. However, it's something I think about after I've made stupid comments like, "Fuck that guy for not using a turn signal, if I were going to be a serial killer, those are the people I'd kill," and the like. And really, while there's nothing wrong with venting, c'mon. Also, and this has been hovering on my consciousness for decades, ever since I first tried it in 2001, but I think I'm going to stop eating meat for a while. I'm not going to go completely 'full-hilt' on Vegetarianism, however, meat bothers me. It always has, or at least since my early twenties. Morrissey's right - meat most certainly is murder, and it's one of the most fucked up elements of our modern culture I can think of. But I am programmed, from the youngest of ages. This is not my parents' fault, it's just what happens with systemic issues that people are born into generations after being installed. Sure, earlier versions of humans might not have had a choice - or really, maybe they did. It's not like plants didn't grow while early humans were spearing bores on the planes - but once we had agricultural systems in place for producing substitutes, well, why didn't we switch?
It doesn't matter. There's no way I'm going to say, "I'm never going to have a hamburger again," because I fucking love hamburgers, and in fact, am thinking about eating one right now. But I won't. While we were in Tennessee, something entirely different prompted me to declare I'm giving up "plated meat" dishes, which I only occasionally eat anyway. But we're heading to the store today for a post-trip restock, and we're thinking about picking up some of the Impossible stuff, to try and use it in some recipes K makes where the dish isn't dependent on the meat's flavor or texture. I'm hoping it works, as it's not only the principle issues of eating meat that is prompting me but goddamn if I didn't eat more red meat in the last three weeks than I have in probably a year, and I'm feeling it.
Also, yes, Carver's book had a little something to do with it. The man identifies himself on his Twitter profile as "Drinker. Non-preachy Vegan" and I'd agree with that. But his ideals come through in Hinton Hollow Death Trip, and they affected me for sure. In a good way.
I'll keep you posted.
Watch:
Bloody Disgusting had a pretty big Upcoming Horror Movies for July trailer dump last week. Here's one that caught my eye:
I'm not 100% on this one, as there are a few things in the trailer that give me concern, chief among them being that, although as a lifelong Lovecraft fan, I'm a sucker for anything with his name attached. This also means I am literally a sucker because adding HPL is an easy way to market a bad movie. Still, the goat-head silhouette effect seen near the end of the trailer makes me hopeful (despite also being a sucker for goats in Horror).
Playlist:
No way to list it all. Here are some of the staples, along with some new stuff:
Black Sabbath - Eponymous
Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
RHCP - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Sleep - Sleep's Holy Mountain
Sleep - Volume One
Karma to Burn - V
Billy Idol - The Roadside E.P.
CCR - Bayou Country
Sleep - The Sciences
Orville Peck - Bronco
Witchcraft - Legend
The Sword - Age of Winters
Mars Red Sky - Eponymous
Baroness - Gold & Grey
The Company Band - Eponymous
Ween - a couple recent live shows, all curated by Mr. Brown. It appears the boys are digging deep into their back catalogue that included "Cornbread Red" and a couple from Craters of the Sac.
Card:
The first thing I did upon returning home was pull out Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot for a reading:
A call to relax and enjoy, but also a warning about intoxication and the indulgences it can bring. This feels prescient, simply because my plans for today are "Pack and Drink."
I took K and my folks to see Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill's adaptation of Joe Hill's short story The Black Phone yesterday. This film 100% holds up to the magnificent impression it made on me at last year's Beyondfest; one of my favorite scenes (in a film with a lot of "Favorite Scenes") is the one that utilizes Pink Floyd's classic "On The Run," from their perfect 1973 MASTERPIECE Dark Side of the Moon.
Watch:
Here's a new Horror flick that drops on VOD this week from Dark Star Pictures and Bloody Disgusting films:
Wow! There are some pretty gross bits in here; loving that Body Horror has seeped into the overall Horror genre DNA.
Read:
Since switching from a Kindle to an iPad, I'm having trouble reading digital prose. I would love Kindles if they weren't total garbage machines made to be discarded when the new ones come out - you can accuse a lot of tech of that, however, I've had several Kindles over the last few years, and most of them don't last more than a year or two tops. The iPad was an investment I made primarily for artistic reasons, and I still have my one functioning Kindle, however, I'm already traveling with my Macbook, Nintendo Switch (for the plane, mainly; made the hours disappear), iPhone, and now iPad, so I didn't want to add yet another device to my already burdensome backpack. Anyway, I'm sorely missing reading, so while I was tooling around on Twitter last night and landed on author Donnie Goodman's book The Razorblades In My Head, I Eat Its Seeds, I ordered it.
What a great cover! And while you can't necessarily judge a book by its cover, I've been following Goodman's account for a little while and he's made an impression as a kindred soul, so of course, I'm going to read the man's book! I report back when I receive it and begin!
Playlist:
Powerman 5000 - The Noble Rot
Black Sabbath - Eponymous
Card:
Had to get in an actual Spread, as opposed to the daily, one-card pulls I normally do.
"Never mind what you would normally do."
Things are going to change quickly, and navigating those changes will require an abundance of love and support to get through. Not sure if that's a good reading or a "things are going to get tough" one. Obviously, I'm reading this as reference to the fact that we bought a house 2000+ miles away from where we live now. I will be going 'Remote' with my job, and there's a chance that, after a last-minute management change in the upper echelons of our company, that might put me on a chopping block. My ace is NO ONE can do what I do as fast as I can. I'll be stepping down from Management - which should improve my stress levels, as well as my opinion of the human race - and focusing on the International Logistics end of my job, already more than a full-time position on any given day. So I think I'm safe. But it's going to be a mountain to climb just to pack and move. So an abundance of love and support is exactly what we'll need.
One of my most anticipated albums dropping this year is Greg Puciato's sophomore Mirrorcell. I pre-ordered this as soon as it was announced a few months back, despite the fact that I wasn't sure where I would be living at the time of its release on the first of July (I used my parents' address, but there was speculation that they might move to TN as well). Regardless, our trip is more than halfway done now, we made an offer on a house that the seller accepted, so once the inspections and everything go through, I'll be able to lift that pre-order ban. Regardless, the album hasn't shipped yet, but Bloody Disgusting broke the news that Mirrorcell dropped early on Puciato's Bandcamp.
Watch:
On Saturday, K and I took my parents to the local AMC to see Baz Luhrmann's Elvis. I am NOT a Baz Luhrmann fan. Perhaps I shouldn't say that, because I've never actually been able to sit through one of his movies. I find his childish little "Look how anachronistic I am" proclivities to be infuriating, and the fact that he may be made the first good visual adaptation of my all-time favorite novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, only to eschew the Jazz music that is central to the book's themes for Hip Hop makes me want to scream at the top of my lungs directly into his face. I never bothered seeing that Gatsby (friends who did warned me to save myself, that the beauty of its visuals would only drive me crazy played under the soundtrack), but I'll say, this Elvis movie looked great. Plus, my Pops really wanted to see it. So we went.
On the way in, I almost made the statement, "If I hear one lick of Hip Hop or other modern music, I will get up and leave." Good thing I didn't, because of course, there are at least two instances in the first half of the movie with Hip Hop in the soundtrack.
It's so embarrassing. I mean, it's not that it's Hip Hop; if Luhrmann was adding Portishead, or Mastodon, or whatever other 'future music' to the film, I would have been equally pissed. He reminds me so much of Tim Burton - Lurhmann's idea of who he is as an icon or "brand" gets in the way of the decisions as to what's best for the movies he makes. The film also spruces up some of Elvis' music with a sometimes irritating modern twist, and some of the editing is a bit ridiculous in the amount of effect and flair. It works sometimes - more at the end of the film - and other times, not so much. Just looks like they were cutting it together in weird ways for the sake of making it a "Baz Luhrmann joint."
Still, the movie - despite all this - is fabulous. Austin Butler is FANtastic as The King, and Tom Hanks - Jesus. Really well done, and the script is great.
Playlist:
Powerman 5000 - The Notable Rot
The Ronettes - Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes
Jackie Wilson - Higher and Higher
Card:
Solid foundation - perhaps a literal nod to the fact that we made an offer, they accepted the offer, and now we have to go through the inspection process. One of those inspections? You guessed it: Foundation. A lot of work still to come.
Continuing Peter Steele week, here's "(We Were) Electrocute," from 2003's Life Is Killing Me.
I've always wondered if this song was in some way about Milli Vanilli. I'm not really sure why.
Read:
A Stephen Graham Jones Horror comic from IDW? Sign me up.
With cover art here is by Rafael Albuquerque, and series artwork by Davide Gianfelice (Northlanders, Greek Street, Ghosted), Bloody Disgusting reports this one as follows:
“Earthdivers unites four Indigenous survivors in an apocalyptic near future as they embark on a bloody, one-way mission to save the world by traveling back in time to kill Christopher Columbus and prevent the creation of America.”
Recent events very much on my mind, I can tell you that I LOVE this concept. Here's a rather lengthy video announcement IDW released earlier this week; it mentions several other new titles I'm ear-marking here, particularly Scott Snyder and Hayden Sherman's Dark Spaces: Wildfire.
Jones' last three books all blew me away, but My Heart is a Chainsaw proved a level up even for someone already so prolific and accomplished. I can't wait to see how his writing plays out in the graphic format.
Playlist:
The Jim Carroll Band - Catholic Boy
Nurse with Wound - Soliloquy for Lilith
Tones on Tail - Everything!
Skinny Puppy - Last Rights
Nachtmystium - Addicts: Black Meddle, Part 2
Judas Priest - Painkiller
Type O Negative - Life is Killing Me
Slayer - Live Undead
Carpenter Brut - Leather Terror
The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir
Revocation - The Outer Ones
Card:
I'll be keeping my eyes and my mind open for inspiration or knowledge from an unexpected or previously dismissed source.
I received a surprise early birthday package from my good friend Mr. Brown yesterday. Not only was Huey Lewis' newest record inside, but also Dave Svitek of TVOTR's new band, The Neverly Boys, which I had completely forgotten about. The album Dark Side of Everything is FANTASTIC, and I can't stop listening to it!
Thanks, J.B.!
Watch:
Bloody Disgusting ran an article about Director Patrick Rea's new film I Am Lisa HERE.
You had me at "Werewolf Revenge Movie."
Playlist:
Electric Youth - Come True OST
Blut Aus Nord - 777 Cosmosophy
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta III: Saturnian Poetry
Zonal - Wrecked
Blanck Mass - Animated Violence Mild
Maldita Vecindad y Los Hijos del Quinto Patio - Lo Essential
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part
Radiohead - OK Computer
The Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed
The Neverly Boys - Dark Side of Everything
Card:
Victory, which tells me that, yes, I've finally finished a short story I've been struggling with since 2018! That feels good - a nice palate cleanser before switching back to Shadow Play.
Whoah. The month between now and the release of Paul Hyett's new film is going to seem interminable. Read more about it on Bloody Disgusting, HERE. Kind of reminds me of Lynch and Cronenberg in a blender.
You had me at "Cosmic Body Horror." The Beach House one drops on Shudder July 9th. That means I'll have two days of anticipated premieres, as on the 10th, Relic hits VOD. These last few years have been such an amazing time to be a Horror fan, and despite a segue into real-life Horror, 2020 appears to continue the trend.
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Via Brooklyn Vegan (article HERE), the Sacramento Music Archive has made a Slayer concert from 1986 available on youtube. This is HUGE in my opinion; I saw Slayer a handful of time, but not before 1994's Divine Intervention, an album I pretty much despise based on what I feel are some pretty lackluster vocals. That said, my love of Slayer is primarily based on their two live albums - Live Undead and Decade of Aggression - both of which I consider among the finest live albums ever released. It's nice to hear something that kind of splits the span of those two records in half, as Live Undead was released in 1984 and DoA 1991. Admittedly not a huge temporal stretch, but in the evolution of arguably the greatest Thrash band of all time, an entire epoch of change spans the divide.
Thank you to the Sacramento Music Archive, whose website you can visit HERE.
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Playlist:
Andy Fosberry - Death Ship 2047
Van Halen - Eponymous
Phil Collins - Hello, I Must Be Going
Soundgarden - Down on the Upside
Soundgarden - Super Unknown
Queens of the Stone Age - Rated R
Cocksure - Operation C.O.C.K.S.U.R.E.
**
Card:
A solid foundation is what I'm working with on this current short story. That's not the issue. Pulling all the elements together into a cohesive whole is.
Full article on Bloody Disgusting, Legion looks like it will be one hell of a ride. I love the visual allusions to Evil Dead, I love the links to Shamanism and Sorcery, and, well, I guess I love everything about this trailer.
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Playlist:
C-Building Kids - Shitting in the Urinal
Run the Jewels - RTJ4
Bell Witch and Aerial Ruin - Stygian Bough, Vol. 1
Belong - October Language
Psychetect - Extremism
Andy Fosberry - Death Ship 2047
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Channeling the Will to forge new goals. As usual, on the nose with my creative endeavors. The novel is finished, I'm palate cleansing with a short story, and then it's back to Shadow Play.
Speaking of writing, here's a situation I find myself in need of help with.
I'm running a poll on the Horror Amino at the moment, but I'll post my quandary here as well. Any readers who are able to post a reply with their opinion on this matter, it would be much appreciated. That said, I generally do not comment on other sites due to an aversion to elongating my online fingerprint, so I will absolutely understand if no one does.
Here's the deal:
The current title for the new novel is The Secret Life of Murder. I'm having doubts about that name, primarily based on friends' who read this back when it was finished in 2008 and didn't take to the title.
Some background:
This is not the second book in the Shadow Play trilogy, which is completely outlined. And when I say outlined, we're talking detailed to the point that the word count of the outline may very well rival or best the eventual word count on the actual novel. That said, I am refraining from actually writing Book Two until Book Three's outline is complete. Three was about 50% outlined as of February, however, two things made me push both of these back so that Book Two will now release in 2021 and Book Three 2022. Those two things were A) Realizing I would not be able to finish outlining Book Three and write Book Two this year, and B) the onset of COVID-19, Shelter-in-Place, and borderline mass hysteria seemed too in-line with The Secret Life of Murder, which follows a small group of characters trapped in Seattle, Washington as a "Murder Virus" the press has nicknamed MV-3 works its way through the population. MV-3 turns everyone infected into rampaging murder drones, and the resulting wave of chaos appears unstoppable. The virus is introduced into the population by way of a book written by a shadowy ex-hippy guru names Abremlin Harvest.
Being that this one was already finished but has sat for over a decade, the work I set out to do was fairly straight forward: I knew there would be a lot of grammatical/syntax issues I needed to edit, because, simply put, I am a much better writer now than I was thirteen years ago. I also knew the timeline of events that make up the plot would need to be sharpened, and I wanted to work the emotions, situations, and socio-political elements occurring in our own world into the story, making it more parallel to what we've experienced so far in 2020. This was not difficult to do, although I did end up changing an entire layer of the final act to better reflect the character arc of the Earth, which figures in as a sort of character when you take into account that, much like I believe with COVID-19, the planet is employing the virus as a medicinal reaction to the overpopulation currently choking the life from it. Taking all this into account, I still feel as though The Secret Life of Murder is the best title, however, after living with this one for so long, I'm unsure if I feel that way because it is a good title, or if it just feels that way to me because it has stood as the uncontested 'placeholder' for it in my head for thirteen years.
The question then is, without having read this novel, is The Secret Life of Murder a title that you would scroll past on amazon or - if you're lucky enough to have one - the shelf of an actual book store. Is its not-so-subtle play on all those non-fiction books from the 00s (The Secret Life of Bees, The Secret Life of Lobsters, etc) cause for an eye roll? Or is it intriguing enough to make you want to at the very least read the synopsis?
Recently, my fellow Horror Vision host Butcher turned me onto the band Mol. It was immediate enrapture; 2018's album Jord reminds me so much of when another fellow Horror Visionary, Tori, introduced me to Fenn. There's melody, emotional resonance, and ear-shattering howls. The entire album is amazing, but right now, this track is my favorite.
**
Back in September I was fortunate enough to attend Beyondfest 2019's screening of Richard Stanley's new film, The Color Out of Space. An adaptation of a classic H.P. Lovecraft story, Stanley's movie moved me - I did a solo, quick-take review for The Horror Vision - and during the post-screening Q and A with the director, Stanley mentioned he had a long-standing affinity for HPL's fiction and would love to do more. Specifically he mentioned at the time, The Dunwich Horror.
Well, thanks to Spectrevision, it's happening. In fact, Spectrevision and Stanley are launching an all-out Lovecraft Universe, and more films are to follow!
Dreams really do come true, don't they?
You can read all the specifics on Bloody Disgusting, HERE.
In the meantime, The Color Out of Space is hitting theaters this weekend; not sure how wide a release this will be, but keep your eyes open for this one, because it's definitely worth seeing on the big screen. Especially the ending.
**
Playlist:
Godflesh - Hymns
Algiers - There Is No Year
Steve Moore - Bliss OST
93MillionMilesFromTheSun - Towards the Light
Short post today. I Really felt like opening this morning's post with some Frank Black, or Black Francis, in this case. From 2010's NonStopErotik, an EP that, despite rabidly collecting this man's material since the 90s - thank you to Mr. Brown for passing the obsession - I don't know all that well. This record kind of fell into the cracks for me, coming out shortly after Grand Douchy's 2009 Petit Fours, Black's collaboration with his wife, Violet Clarke, an album I was obsessed with and listened to near constantly for years after its release. I pulled NonStopErotik out recently, and have been reacquainting myself with it. Oh My Tidy Sum is probably the stand-out for me.
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Via the might Bloodydisgusting. That scene with the buck is gnarly! I had not heard of this one before, but it looks great, so I'll keep my eyes out for release.
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Playlist for 7/05:
Black Francis - NonStopErotik
Orville Peck - Pony
The Pixies - Bossonova
Preoccupations - Eponymous
Battle Tapes - Sweatshop Boys
**
Strong card, strong start to the day. Lots of work for me today, so I need to get one it.
Let's go back a few years. Circa 2014. Via Blood Disgusting, I found and fell in love with a podcast called Double Murder. A kind of 'celebrity death match' of horror movies, our hosts Danny and Tim take two horror movies and weigh them for ranking against one another. The criteria is learned and often sophisticated understanding and discussion of content and craft, so it makes for a fantastic listen if you're into Horror as an aesthetic as well as a good time.
Double Murder is a deceivingly intellectual discussion of horror (see their episode Videodrome vs. eXistenz); one of those deep dive shows where you really get to know your hosts in regard to how they approach something you probably also love if you're listening, i.e. horror movies. As with life, over the last few years episodes have dwindled as the hosts' lives have presumably done what all our lives do - run all the fuck over us, stealing our moments and bludgeoning our wills. That's a beating you have to actively work against, and brother, it ain't easy. I mean, some days it can be difficult enough to motivate yourself to do something you love, let alone line up two or more schedules to work on a project. Anyway, due to the dwindle, I'd fallen out of habit checking for new episodes. Then, last week I noticed there was one from last October, a fantastic juxtaposing of Halloween H20 and Halloween 2018. Yay!
Now, here's the thing. Danny! and Tim are from my home town, and that further endears these guys to me. I don't know them, but I'm double rooting for them, in whatever they do. So when Danny! asks Tim for news on his band, Canadian Rifle, I remember that yes! I can look these guys up on Apple Music, a service I didn't have whenever the last time they might have mentioned the band on the podcast and I was listening. I did just that, and was pretty much immediately blown away by Canadian Rifle's 2018 album Peaceful Death. I played this fucker for about a dozen rotations that first day, and it has remained in heavy rotation since. Canadian Rifle's bandcamp is HERE - I'm so ordering some vinyl to support these fellas - and there's a ton of tracks on youtube, Apple Music, wherever fine paperbacks are sold.
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According to Comic List, it's another light week for NCDB. It can be depressing waiting for new issues of A Walk Through Hell and Gideon Falls. However, of note this week is Rick Remender and Matteo Scalera's Black Science begins its final arc with this week's issue #39. Consulting Image Comics, looks like this last arc will culminate in June with Issue #42. What a great book; looking forward to a deep-dive re-read as soon as Black Science is over.
I'm behind on Punks Not Dead. Issue One of the second arc, London Calling, is still sitting on my desk, waiting for me to re-read the final issue of the first arc before diving into this new one.
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Playlist from 3/25:
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Good Son
Nabihah Iqbal - Weighing of the Heart
Throwing Shade - House of Silk EP
Windhand - Eternal Return
Card of the day:
Another nod toward a new beginning, and a fulfilling one to boot. As I begin to make a list of ideas and scenes for Shadow Play Book Two: The Absence of Light (Tentative title), I'm about to begin actually writing my second collaboration with Jonathan Grimm, a Depression-era, dustbowl circus zombie story called Ciazarn. Not a comic, this is more a prose novella with pictures by Grimm, and judging by what I've already seen, it will be gorgeous.
