A Line of Shots... Much Needed

 

Moving is hard. I mean, like, REALLY hard. But it's one of those things in life you just have to do, so I put my head down, charge through night after night packing (endless, endless) and drink. But maybe beer isn't enough...

New Afghan Whigs! How Do You Burn is out September 9th (My Mom's birthday!). Pre-order your copy HERE.

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Watch:

Over the last few years, I've actually become quite a fan of the John Wick flicks. Sure, Part III wasn't quite up to snuff with the first two, but you can tell every shot of this series is executed in a way that lovingly expresses a weird, violent beauty. Now, part IV:

 

On my birthday, no less. Will it live up to the others? Well, with Keanu, Ian McShane, and Lance Reddick returning, it will at the very least scratch the itch the other entries in the series instigated.

 

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Read:

When I did my NCBD post this week, I forgot about the new Daniel Warren Johnson book I didn't even realize was out.

I have no idea what this book is about, and I don't give a toss about wrestling, but it's DWJ and in picking up the first issue on Butcher's recommendation, of course, it's f*&king GORGEOUS. I don't know what it is exactly about Johnson's art that connects with me so much, but I feel like he definitely grew up with similar influences, and those influences come through in everything he does, whether it's Beta Ray Bill or this.

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Playlist:

Ozzy Osbourne - Degradation Rules (pre-release single)

Black Sabbath Featuring Toni Iommi - Seventh Star

Carpenter Brut - Leather Terror

Journey - Greatest Hits

Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh

Brenton Wood - Brenton Wood's 18 Best

Black Sabbath - Technical Ecstasy

Soundgarden - Superunknown

On Vinyl:

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Orville Peck - Bronco

Eldovar - A Story of Darkness & Light

Jerry Cantrell - Brighten

Anthrax - Among the Living

Ghost - Impera

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Card:

Acceleration. No shit. Tearing the house apart, going through every single thing we own. Convincing a family member to get rid of things that sat in a storage space for 40 years. And I'm driving out of LaLaLand NEXT SUNDAY!!! So yeah, things are moving really fast.

New Boy Harsher

@BoyHarsher I don’t know if you planned it this way, but driving to work at 5 this morning in thick-ass L.A. fog was the PERFECT scenario to hear #givemeareason from #therunnerost. Well played!

— Shawn C. Baker (@OpiniontdBastrd) December 1, 2021

 It was a perfect morning here in LaLaLand, thanks to Boy Harsher. Can't wait for the full OST, and really can't wait for the film The Runner!

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NCBD (Addendum)

Jesus. I can't seem to walk into The Comic Bug these days without dropping double or triple what I was planning on spending. Yesterday, Gerald, Jeff and Eddie clued me in on a couple things I had forgotten about, had not heard of, and needed to have the moment I saw. Here's what's what:

If you had told me I would be buying a Wonder Woman-related book this week - or ever - I would have told you that you'd had too much to drink. But here we are. Why? I love Kelley Sue DeConnick, but not even Grant Morrison in his heyday could get me to read WW. Why now? Well, look at this fucking art, and that's your answer.

Next, and because I compared Phil Jimenez and Hi-Fi's art in WW Historia: The Amazons to JH Williams III's art in Alan Moore's Promethea, I had totally forgotten about JHWIII's new book Echolands. Again, look at what this man puts on the page:

Finally, readers of these pages may remember how I fell head over heels in love with Daniel Warren Johnson's writing and art on the five-issue Beta Ray Bill mini from Marvel that came out earlier this year. Because of this, DWJ's Murder Falcon was recommended to me, and today, the Bug happened to have it back in stock..

Other than just being awesome because this is DWJ, Murder Falcon is the most METAL book EVER! They even based the big bad off the cover art of Sepultura's Arise - a painting by Michael Whelan. 

I may be stretching this here, but really - you can't tell me this isn't related! And I have always loved the Arise cover. It's... the image that flashes in my head when I first read HP Lovecraft talk about "Madness" and "Non-Euclidean Geometry."

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Playlist:

CCR - Eponymous

Boy Harsher - The Runner (pre-release singles)

Boy Harsher - Careful

Boy Harsher - Country Girl

The Soft Moon - Burn (single)

Caveman - Smash

David Bowie - Scary Monsters (and Super Freaks)

FFS - Eponymous

Sparks - Kimono My House

Nirvana - Bleach

Windhand - Eternal Return

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Things won't go exactly as I planned? Well, at least that's some consistency.

My Last NCBD in SoHo proved Violetly Cold

Violet Cold's album Empire of Love is a bit uneven to me, but that's because it swings BIG, and that's not a bad thing. This track was the first I'd ever heard of them - really a one-man project - when it came up in Apple Music's algorithm. I wasn't sure how I felt about it at first, but it quickly gained favor. Then, yesterday morning, I realized I had this song irrevocably in my head, and as soon as I fired it up on my headphones, it felt like an ice-cold mouthful of water on a hot day.

Check out Violet Cold's Bandcamp HERE. 

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Watch:

Oh Edgar Wright, how I love thee:

 

Looks fantastically Argento-inspired. 

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NCBD:

This is a day late, but my Wednesday proved to be a beast. 

This week's NCBD was considerably quieter than I've had in a while, for sure. Which is nice on the wallet, and the stack of books I still haven't read from last week.

This cover art is SICK. I'm thinking this is the issue where all hell breaks loose and I can't wait to see that!

Possibly my favorite comic at the moment, I'm really loving Daniel Warren Johnson's take on this character. This book reminds me of old TSR gaming, 80s style, where it felt like ideas, monsters and weapons from every corner of pop culture were being drawn together into one great, big beautifully pulpy soup. It's Daniel Warren Johnson's aesthetic, and it's enhanced by his art, which is just scratchy enough in the right places to feel like a throwback to the way comics used to look.

Feels like I've been waiting for this one for longer than however long it's been since The Last Ronin #2 came out.

A very solid historical Horror story.

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Playlist:

Goatsnake - Breakfast with the King

Silent - Modern Hate

Vreid - Wild North West

Harakiri for the Sky - III: Trauma

Violet Cold - Empire of Love 

Corpse Eater: Satanic Misery Live for the Dead

The Jesus Lizard - Liar

CCR - Eponymous

The Replacements - Tim

The Veils - Time Stays, We Go

The Birthday Party - Mutiny/The Bad Seed

Various - Twin Peaks (Music from the Limited Event Series)