New Music from Chat Pile

 

Chat Pile blows me away. I won't pretend to have clocked a lot of hours on their stuff, but the handful of rotations I've given their first full-length, God's Country, affected me deeply. I've heard comparisons to King Missle, and there's an element of that in lead vocalist Raygun Busch's approach, for sure. Except, as much as I like some King Missle, their music is largely about being clever; there's no soul-searing vitriol mixed in like there is here. Also, the music sounds like The Jesus Lizard and Thrall in a blender with a can of dirt-streaked brown paint. That bass sound! 

The new album Cool World is up for pre-order now HERE.
 

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Watch:

Stumbling across the trailer for the Butcher Brothers Consumed this morning, I could have sworn I'd posted about this film at some point in the past. I couldn't find anything, though, so here we go:

This one doesn't exactly look like my cuppa. However, if there's a Wendigo involved, I feel like I have to investigate. I'm not familiar with the Butchers' work, but I believe The Hamiltons is Masters of Horror season one, which I bought on a digital sale a few years back, so I'll have to check that out soon. Meantime, I've added Consumed to the list.

(I have to admit, the title drew my eye because I thought for a second we were finally getting that adaptation of David Cronenberg's BRILLIANT novel of the same name. No dice.)

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Read:

After beginning last Spring (I think), I finally jumped in and finished my re-read of IDW's Cobra series from the 2010s. I'd read the series monthly, but not since, and I wasn't quite prepared for the insane level of head-fuckery this book takes on, especially once it gets to the Las Vegas chapter. 

The idea of a small unit housing Tomax Paoli as a prisoner in his own Casino, exploring intel he's giving them they know is tainted but have to act on anyway, is a great start, but by the time the series restarts the final time as The Cobra Files, the level of deep psychological control Paoli - whose twin brother Xamot was killed very early on in the series - exerts through his malicious mental influence on several team members is downright frightening.

This book really pulls no punches, and once again, I am utterly floored by what a fresh, dark take on the property IDW allowed Mike Costa and Antonio Fuso to take with this book. I never got into the other IDW Joe titles and still don't really have any interest in doing so. This, however, is one for the ages.

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Playlist:

Danzig - Danzig II: Lucifuge

Sam Hain - Unholy Passion

Sam Hain - Final Descent

M83 - Before the Dawn Heals Us

Tomahawk - Oddfellows

Japandroids - Celebration Rock

Idles - Joy As An Act of Rebellion

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Card:

Back to my trusty old Thoth deck for a while. I've been missing it:

• XX: The Aeon

• XI: Lust

• 10 of Wands: Oppression

"Taking the pill will open your eyes." The pull of unconnected processes. Oppression (read at face value). This points to a theory I'm developing for a story that is quite important in my understanding of how to navigate this world of corporate dominance. 

Hilary Woods - Tongues of Wild Boar

I know nothing about Hilary Woods, but this song and its accompanying video are gorgeous in the creepiest possible way. The album drops March 13th on Sacred Bones - and it brings me a little spark of joy knowing that's a Friday to boot. Pre-order HERE.

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NCBD:

Nothing new this week that's on my radar, but I still have to grab Trees: Three Fates #5. from two weeks ago (not sure how I keep missing this one or why I never put it on my Pull):

Trees: Three Fates has been a nice mostly dose of Warren Ellis' comics writing, and its helped me postpone getting involved in Batman's Grave on a monthly basis. As I editorialized on the most recent episode of Drinking with Comics, I'll read an independent monthly, but I'm done reading Big Two books in a format constantly interrupted by shitty ads. Plus, admittedly, Ellis always reads better in trade.

I know Trees won't be coming back for a while, but I'm really looking forward to the return of Injection, which I believe I read will be starting up again this year. Injection stands as my favorite Ellis book since Doktor Sleepless, and I miss it dearly.

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I finished David Cronenberg's Consumed. Outstanding. Five stars - six if it was possible. I really can't wait to see this rendered by the author into a visual, episodic format. There's some serious body horror here, and it runs the game from subtle-but-terrifying to remarkably vulgar. Thus, it should make for a fantastic Cronenberg project.

In the wake of Consumed, I've become a book my friend Jesus gifted me for Christmas, Chuck Wendig's Wanderers:

One-hundred and six pages in and I can't put this book down! I know nothing about the story going in - I hadn't even heard of it before Jesus put it in my hand - and that's definitely making for a great read. Also, its always nice to see a tense or horrific story start with a twist on something so basic - what if your loved one started sleepwalking and would not stop for anything?

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Playlist:

Steve Moore - Bliss OST
Tangerine Dream - Sorcerer OST
Zombi - Shape Shift
Umberto - Helpless Spectator
Tangerine Dream - Exit
Godflesh - Post Self
Godflesh - Hymns

Card:

Yesterday's card was XXI: The Universe, and it compelled me to work for an extended period of time on the "Bigger Ideas" of the final book in the Shadow Play series. I've made a pact with myself to not begin writing the second book - which is painstakingly outlined - until I have the entirety of the third volume outlined as well. This has proved challenging, to say the least. My writing sessions, have been long and consisted of reading research material, outlining, story boarding (of a sort), and all kinds of other fun tasks, but nothing that scratches the itch to write. Still, a solid three hours yesterday and I made what feels like serious progress.

Serious. Professional. Driven. All qualities I could stand to aspire to of late; as much fun as this phase of the Shadow Play project is, it's susceptible to distraction. I downloaded a new focus app, called Tomato Timer, and it's helped me get a handle on this a bit. And on that note, off to work!

New Music From SQÜRl

From the album Some Music For Robby Müller, out January 31st on Sacred Bones Records. Pre-Order HERE.

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I'm nearly finished with David Cronenberg's novel Consumed. It is fantastic. Seriously, so interesting and unnerving. Conceptually, it's another "How did he even think of that?" which is pretty common for Cronenberg. The idea that he's adapting this for a Netflix series makes me super happy, and here's a short I found online that looks like a dry run at the idea for translating this novel to the screen. Starring Evelyne Brochu, from Orphan Black.



Yeah. The story is creepy AF and a return to the body horror genre Cronenberg defined in the 70s/80s.

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Playlist:
David Bowie - Heathen
David Bowie - Outside
Damage Manual - Limited Edition
Zonal - Wrecked
Zonal - Eponymous Single
Godflesh - Love and Hate in Dub
Zombi - Shape Shift
Preoccupations - Eponymous
King Krule - The OOZ
Carpenter Brut - Trilogy
David Bowie - Low
Tomahawk - Mit Gas

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No card today.

Drinking with Comics - Relaunch Special #1

... and we're back! New location. Just two of the guys who started it (for now - although the third original member, who was actually my original partner on this venture, was in town from NY for the show, so that was awesome). Adobe's newest update nearly fucking killed me editing this one; apparently the export to H264 file format now drops audio, which is something you don't find out until after the three hours it takes render a forty-nine minute session with extensive color correction work and numerous other plug-ins. It took me five fucking days, but I found a work around and from here out, it will hopefully be smooth sailing. Because we plan on doing more of these.

A lot more.

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Song:



My cousin has turned me into a card-carrying Kevin Morby fan, and this is one of the songs on his latest album, Oh My God, that I can't seem to live without these last couple weeks.

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Reading:

Currently, I'm held spellbound by David Cronenberg's debut novel, Consumed. When I saw Cronenberg speak at Beyondfest in 2018, he talked about originally wanting to be an author. It makes sense that his storytelling skills would translate from film to prose; the book definitely feels cinematic, to say the least. ~106 pages in and Consumed is excellent, and also bordering on the most disturbing thing I've read since Naked Lunch.

The fact that Cronenberg is writing/directing an adaptation of this for Netflix makes me both extremely excited and horribly afraid.


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Playlist:

David Bowie - Black Star
Lingua Ignota - Caligula
Kevin Morby - Oh My God
The National - High Violet
Angel Olsen - All Mirrors
David Bowie - Hunky Dory
David Bowie - Outside
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - Watchmen Vol. 3
Godflesh - Pure

Card:

A warning to recognize losing oneself in delusion. I actually think this applies to a facet of introspection I've had of late; until last night, it's been almost a good solid two weeks of little to no writing. A lot of that was editing the episode of DwC. Some of it, however, was a combination of fatigue and laziness. I'd come home from work exhausted, lay down and turn on a flick. Fine when that's a one-off, but when that happens several days in a row, I begin to make a habit of it. I come home from work and, tired or not, want to smoke up and watch something. There's filling the well, and there's abandoning the Art for consumption's sake. Escaping my work for the sake of falling into the fantasy of a movie, when reiterated over and over, begins to dissolve the creative inertia I've spent so much time building. This is a good reminder to put the Art first, and the fantasy second.