Deftones - Bloody Cape

 

Deftones's self-titled turn 20 this year. Not my favorite of theirs by any means. In fact, with its predecessor White Pony being my introduction to the band, the self-titled caused me to ascribe them a one-and-done status until friends sat me down and played me Saturday Night Wrist. From there, every album has only gotten better - well, nothing beat Koi No Yokan, but Gore and Ohms are fantastic in their own right - and I always thought I'd eventually go back and discover I'd misjudged the Eponymous, but that's never really happened. Anyway, even my least favorite Deftones records are standing on the shoulders of giants, so it's not as though I don't like them. I will be skipping the anniversary colored vinyl, however, if you go HERE you can order it!

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Watch:

Saturday night I showed K Brian De Palma's 1993 masterpiece Carlito's Way for the first time. I've loved this movie since I first saw it circa 1995, however, it's been at least a decade since the last time I revisited it. Surprise - it's even better than I remembered!   

Normally, I'd post a trailer, but the trailers I find give too much away. Here's a scene that I'm reticent to take out of context because, at first glance, it might invite the viewer to dismiss this film as another Gangster film. While it is that, on one level, my take has always been this is a love story first, and a tragic one at that. 

  

 When this flick comes up, I always mention how it leaves me teary-eyed. Saturday, though, it fucking leveled me emotionally. I'm talking full-on sobs. There are elements at play I'd never noticed before, most specifically that De Palma shot a lot of this film to look like classic Hollywood. There's Bogie and Bacall and a whole host of other visual references I'm not versed enough in 30s and 40s Hollywood to be able to accurately put a name to. But they're there: the scene with Charlie and Gail in the coffee shop, when she stands to leave and he hugs her in the middle of the room - the camera briefly encircles them and you get a taste of a love that surrounds every aspect of these two people's lives. All the alleyway scenes, the sets and the way they're created and shot - especially when in the rain. We've seen these before in other, legendary films even if we haven't seen those films. This stuff informs the business - or at least it did before technology changed the overall look of the industry (probably starting with The Matrix). 

Anyway, if you've never seen Carlito's Way, I can't recommend a film more. I have pretty low mileage for the Gangster genre, and like I said, this transcends it. If hard-pressed though, it's this and Goodfellas - I can leave everything else on the shelf.

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Read:

I finished Alan Campbell's God of Clocks and thus his Deepgate Codex series. I would be lying if I didn't say I felt the ending was a bit rushed, but I don't care - I loved it anyway. I've already revisited Book One Scar Night at least four times since it came out in 2007, and Book Two Iron Angel Twice now. I'll definitely come back to this series again at some point further down the tracks.

Next up - Chuck Palahniuk's newest novel, The Invention of Sound, which I have a nice signed hardcover copy of thanks to my friend and A Most Horrible Library cohost Chris Saunders!

I know nothing about this novel, and I'm only about thirty-five pages in so far, so there's not much I have to report about the plot except that it already feels very Palahniuk (not all his novels do), and I'm excited to take that 'ride' again - it's been quite some time since I read anything new by the man, with 2009's Pygmy probably being the last novel by him I read upon the time of release. Everything between that and this I've missed. 

One thing I noticed right off the bat about The Invention of Sound, though, is Palahniuk seems to be writing in a purposely strange, almost 'wrong' way when it comes to the actual syntax of some of his sentences. Here's an example:

"As if she a prizefighter was, and she'd pasted him a roundhouse punch to his glass jaw."

What the hell? I mean, that sentence is all kinds of awkward. That, of course, is no doubt the point - there have already been quite a few moments like this in the prose, and I'm curious if his earlier books have elements of this, too, and I just wasn't a practiced enough writer to notice them before. Or, I imagine it is extremely possible, he's trying to use a similar and considerably less overt method as he did in Pygmy, which is written in such a strange, Pidgeon English that it was near impossible to acclimate to for the first couple tries, then, once my brain rewired itself, became increasingly disorienting in the best possible way.

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Playlist:

Witchfinder - Forgotten Mansion

Boris & Merzbow - 2R0I2P0

The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre

Etta James - Second Time Around

Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings - Give the People What They Want

Deafheaven - 10 Years Gone

Ghost - Phantomime

Windhand - Eponymous

Steely Dan - Aja

Paul J. Zaza - My Blood Valentine OST

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

 

• Eight Pentacles - Transformation of Earthly Resources

• Ace of Pentacles - Breakthrough

• Seven of Cups - Completion 

To transform my situation, I need to finish what I'm working on. A bit of a no-brainer, but then Tarot readings usually are. The cards can't really tell you anything you don't already know, they just clarify and bring to the forefront what you otherwise might be ignoring/unable to see. I'm foggy on the specifics of this Pull, but I'll figure it out. 
 

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Immortal Funhouse

 

Goddamn if I don't still love every track on Deftones' 2012 (ten years!!!) Koi No Yokan.

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Watch:

 

Tobe Hooper's 1981 carnival-themed slasher flick Funhouse just came back to Shudder, and I had forgotten how insane this flick is. The third act climax alone is enough to leave me going, "Jesus, this is totally f*%king coo-coo. If you haven't seen this one - or if like me it'd been a while - it's definitely a good time to revisit.

 

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Read:

I spent the latter half of this week completely enraptured by and re-reading the first issue of Kieron Gillen's Immortal X-Men. 

One of the things I liked least about this new, Krakoan era of the X-books is the change in the portrayal of Mr. Sinister. I have always been a HUGE fan of the old-school Sinister introduced in the Claremont-era of Uncanny, with his limited appearances enhancing his, well, sinister aspect. He reeked of dark schemes and unparalleled violence. Now, however, Sinister almost feels like comedic relief at times, and I experienced a considerable degree of cognitive dissonance at this new persona during HoX/PoX. However, Gillen has changed that with this issue, which is entirely from Sinister's perspective and drops the Godfather of all reveals in the book's final page. I literally exclaimed out loud when I reached the end, and have been picking at the ramifications ever since.

 

I've been so into this, I did something I never do - I took to youtube to try and find people talking about this. (I'll be honest, I'm so tempted to try and restart Drinking with Comics, call it the Immortal Drinking with Comics, and only talk about this, however, there's a host of reasons I can think of not to do that, so I'm staying on the sidelines and listening to others talk. So far, this is the best video I've found.

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Playlist:

The Mysterines - Reeling

The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers

King Woman - Doubt EP

Cypress Hill - Back in Black

Perturbator - I Am the Night

U2 - The Joshua Tree

U2 - War

Mark Lanegan Band - Blues Funeral

Entropy - Liminal

Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

Deafheaven - Infinite Granite

Jim Williams - Titane OST

Ministry - Moral Hygiene

David Bowie - Scary Monsters

Ghost - Impera

The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre

Ghost - Infestissumam

The Besnard Lakes - ... Are the Roaring Night

Boy Harsher - Careful

Jackie Wilson - Higher and Higher

Tears for Fears - The Tipping Point

Quicksand - Slip

Deftones - Koi No Yokan

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Card:

Past: Making ideas actionable

Present: Continue to work at what I've put in motion

Future: The work isn't enough. This will require an inner guidance, known to most as intuition. 

Pretty spot-on with what I'm working on, which I believe is soon to reach its conclusion.

Ceremony

 

New video for Deftones' "Ceremony", the second track on last year's Ohms record. Great track.

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NCBD:

Yesterday was NCBD, so here's what I picked up. Mike Wellman and I will be talking about these books and more tonight on the Drinking w/ Comics NCBD Round-up, streaming live on our FB page at 7:00 PM PST:

I'm still not sure I'm in for the long-haul on Marvel's Alien series, but I dug the first issue and am curious where it goes. For now.

I keep saying I'm logging off the newer Spidey titles, but I'm just feeling the character so much right now that I find I cannot. 

I love that this character finally has a new series, and when I recently realized Dane's goat-headed butler is named Phillip, and really just wanted to buy Si Spurrier a beer. 

I'm not a fan of the extended Symbiote family, however, I had such a damn good time with the first issue of this series that I have to come back for the next. Plus, visually, all these Black White & Blood books Marvel has been doing are outstanding.

And of course, last but certainly not least:

TMNT ongoing has been my flagship book for some time now, and I don't see that going away any time soon. Look at that cover!!!

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Playlist:

Kensonlovers - Keep Rolling 

Gram Rabbit - Music to Start a Cult To

SURVIVE - Mnq026

The Joy Formidable - AAARTH 

Sampa the Great - The Return

Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower

Tiamat - Clouds

The Righteous Brothers - Just Once in My Life

The Righteous Brothers - You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'

Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun

Jackie Wilson - Higher and Higher

Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons - Definitive Pop Collection

Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - May Our Chambers Always Be Full

The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes are the Last of the Great Storm Warnings

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Card:

 Another "invest in structure" pull that slots in timely after Tuesday's pull. 

Beware the Silver Coin!

A little old-school Deftones for you. Love this album, but I've fallen into the habit of forgetting about it due to the fact that Apple Music ranks it as "Various Artists" and, thus, puts it in with the "V" artists instead of my other Deftones stuff. Of course, I still have the CD, but with the car stereo out of commission, those aren't nearly as handy as they used to be. Great track. I love the crickets. I'll forever be grateful to Jacob and Jeremy from Blue Karma for convincing me to give this record another chance, back in '06.

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NCBD:

Since Mike Wellman and I brought back Drinking with Comics, I've been buying way more stuff than I normally do. Big Two stuff, even. Later tonight we'll be live-streaming another DwC NCBD run-down on our FB channel, with the edited video to follow tomorrow. In the interim, here are the two surprise big hits this week, both of which I absolutely LOVED.

I don't think I've ever liked a Geoff Johns comic before, but then again, everything I'd be even remotely familiar with would be DC, and I wanted to give the man a chance. Glad I did, because Geiger's first ish knocked my socks off! Great art, and a really cool story, with a super-intriguing final image that guarantees I'll be back for more.

An anthology comic that centers around a cursed (?) silver coin and the various lives it affects, each issue by a different creative team? Well, if this first installment was any indication, I'm in for the duration. I love that this is the second historic (1978) rock band comic horror comic I'm reading at the moment, Home Sick Pilots being the other (90s).

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Playlist:

Judas Priest - Hell Bent for Leather

Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance

Blanck Mass - Animated Violence Mild

Anthrax - Persistence of Time

Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell

Judas Priest - Firepower

Valkyrie - Fear

Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower

Deftones - Saturday Night Wrist 

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Card:

Insatiable. That feels about right because I'm really unable to concentrate, I'm eating too much, drinking too much, and not writing enough. I think I've run out of patience for this stunted COVID existence. I've been attempting to sign up for Vaccination, but it's mostly just making me frustrated as all hell. Looking toward the horizon and hoping to see better days and a return to productivity.

My Top Ten Albums of 2020

 While the world around us went to Hell, I used a constant influx of awesome music to stay sane. There were A LOT of great records this year, here are my favorite ten.

Manuel Gagneux has proven he's not going anywhere, and on Wake of a Nation - an EP with a more robust run-time than some albums - he's begun to shift his work from clever Alt-History to a poignant contemplation on current global events to chilling, heart-pound results.

I've never cared too much about RTJ's other albums - none of it's bad, but none of it is irreplaceable to me - but THIS! Partially because of when it dropped, partially because of how it dropped, partially because they refuse to participate in all the Hip Hop tropes that make me skeptical of the genre, and especially because it's just that good. Killer Mike and El-P can both rhyme like madmen - a lost art if you do a quick who's who of the 'name brands' of rap at the moment - and on top of it, they can actually do so eloquently on pretty much every urgent topic of the day.

Two years ago, when I fell in love with Ms. Rundle's music, it never would have dawned on me how well it would mesh with Thou's. Imagine my pleasant surprise then when the first track from this album dropped. To Thou is one of those "Beautifully brutal" bands that transcend any genre or classification for me, and something about their stoic sonic textures meshes perfectly with Emma Ruth Rundle's dark, contemplative musings.

The most 'balls out' record I heard this year. Infinitely repeatable and perfectly balanced between hooking you and punching you in the goddamn face.

I can't even believe the range on display here. One might have thought Greg Puciato's first solo record would have come out sounding a bit like Black Queen and DEP in a blender.

One would be perfectly incorrect. This is... an evolution not many metal frontmen could ever pull off. I remember the days when I could see Mike Patton's influence on Greg Puciato. Now I only see his own personal creative resilience. 

Recontextualizing so many different sounds from Heavy Music's last twenty-five years: I hear Alice in Chains, I hear Fear Factory, I hear Bungle, I hear Slipknot. Only, that's not all I hear. I also hear a template for a band that sounds like none of those things exactly and nothing like anything I've heard before. And I want more.

The first Bungle album in twenty years is a redux of their demo - which I never gave a shit about listening to even at my most rabid Bungle fan stage - and it's being re-worked and performed with Thrash Icons Dave Lombardo and Scott Ian? There was simply no way this one didn't make it onto the list. Also the best concert of the year, although of course, there haven't been any concerts since about three weeks after I saw them, so that may be slightly skewed.

This band reminds me so much of the kind of bands I couldn't get enough of in the late 90s. I loved the first Exhalants record, then they went and deepened their sound into this and I had to do a double-take. These guys are for fucking real and I will follow them to the ends of the Earth. Which, incidentally, might not be that long to follow them for, but still. 

Another band that just can't do anything wrong. The Deftones continue to push the edges of their sound in unexpected directions, and while there's no mistaking this for anything but a Deftones record, ain't nothing wrong with that at all.

And actually, as my friend Jacob pointed out, there is at least one passage that could easily lead one to believe the tracks had unexpectedly rotated over to a Vangelis song.

I guess I needed some beauty in my life this year, and Fleet Foxes Shore definitely qualifies as the most beautiful new album I heard in 2020. 

It was a weird year, and some of these records I didn't even listen to as much as you would think for them to make such an impression on me. But I've begun spending a good deal of time on narrative podcasts and audiobooks, as well as a fixation on a lot of music that predates 2020. Maybe then, the less-listened to entries on this list won their spot by making such a large impression in so few listens? 

1 More Day 'til Halloween

Chock this up to unexpected. I finished my movie last night and sat down at my computer, only to stumble into a premiere for the first single from the upcoming first Remix album from Deftones - Black Pony. This is for the 20th Anniversary of their seminal album White Pony, which will always be special to me because it's where I began following the band. I'm not really one for remix albums, but this version of Knife Party - done by Purity Ring no less, a group I was briefly obsessed with during the later half of the 00s - is pretty fantastic on headphones. I'll definitely be giving the entire Black Pony a spin when it drops.

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31 Days of Halloween:

I had my second viewing of Rob Zombie's 2012 film Lords of Salem. The first time I watched this, back when it originally hit VOD, I have to say, I was not impressed. Now, however, I'm not sure how that was possible. This is easily my second favorite Zombie flick after House of 1000 Corpses. It's a slow burn - maybe a crawl really - but it's essentially Zombie doing Argento, and it really works well. Very few of the tropes RZ usually painfully adheres to are present (clowns, midget nazis, white trash, etc.), and everything about the film is breathtaking, especially Brandon Trost's cinematography and his ability to translate the genius of RZ's shots and composition. 

1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)

2) From Beyond/Monsterland: "Port Fourchon, Louisiana"/Tales of Halloween: "The Night Billy Raised Hell" & "Trick"

3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): "The Crate"

4) Waxwork

5) Synchronic/Bad Hair

6) Dolls

7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: "The Weak and the Wicked" & "The Grim Grinning Ghost"

8) 976-Evil

9) Repo! The Genetic Opera

10) Firestarter/George A. Romero's Bruiser

11) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 1 & 2/Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

12) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 3, 4, and 5/House of 1000 Corpses

13) Masque of the Red Death/Creepshow (2019) Episode 7/Creepshow (1982)

14) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 6 and 7

15) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 8 and 9/Roseanne (88) season 2 and 3 Halloween Episodes

16) The Mortuary Collection/Roseanne (88) season 4 Halloween Episode

17) Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning

18) Lovecraft Country episode 9/The Haunting/Roseanne (88) season 5 Halloween Episode

19) Lovecraft Country episode 10/Tales From the Crypt season 1 ep. 5 "Lover Come Hack to Me"

20) George A. Romero's Season of the Witch

21) The Omen

22) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: A Family Portrait/Masters of Horror: "Sick Girl" (Lucky McKee)

23) Joe Bob's Halloween Hideaway: Haunt/Hack-O-Lantern

24) Eight Legged Freaks/What We Do in the Shadows season 1 episode 1/Night of the Demons

25) 10/31 - "The Old Hag"/Absentia

26) Prince of Darkness/Tales of Halloween (remainder)

27) Joe Bob's Haunted Drive-In - Nine short films

28) Halloween III: Season of the Witch

29) Lords of Salem/The Connors 2020 Halloween episode

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NCBD

I totally forgot to post my picks for NCBD this week. Some great stuff, but one above all else I've been chomping at the bit for:

One Turtle left in the not-so-distant future and he carries all of his brothers' (and sister's) weapons, so that we don't know which one it is? Wow. Haven't read it yet, but it's here by my side and I can't wait!

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Playlist:

Meg Myers - Sorry

Danzig - Danzig II: Lucifuge

Joy Division - Still

The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground and Nico

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Card:

Fairness and mindfulness can eliminate unnecessary restrictions and problems down the road.

Isolation: Day 189

Musick:

One week until the new Deftones Ohms drops! This video premiered last night - I'm putting it here for posterity's sake, and to pass along my excitement at having a new Deftones record on the immediate horizon, however, I won't be watching or listening to the track until I have sat and absorbed the full album. I'm planning on doing a full release event next week, which sounds bigger than it will be. Just me, a bowl of green, and the new record for at least one full spin, my attention undivided. Can't wait!

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Watch:

I can hardly believe it's already time for me to re-subscribe to Disney+ for the new season of The Mandalorian. Looking forward to seeing where this goes.

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Playlist:

Cibo Matto - Stereotype A

Cibo Matto - Viva! La Woman

Angel Olsen - All Mirrors

Zola Jesus - The Spoils

Zola Jesus - Stridulum

Ghost - Meliora

Ghost - Prequelle

Repugnant - Epitome of Darkness

Mastodon - Medium Rarities

Mastodon - Leviathan

X - Under the Big Black Sun

Firewater - The Ponzi Scheme

Angelo Badalamenti/Various - Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series OST

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Card:

Self-control and balance, two things I'm sorely lacking at the moment. Things keep coming apart, and my attention span has been f*&ked! I'm going to try and remedy that this weekend. There's so much not getting done!

2018: February 28th 9:13 AM

Woke up to Sade in my head, so I popped the Deftones version in on my morning drive:



I suspect I will get around to the original version later tonight.

Playlist from yesterday:

Grotus - Mass
Broadcast and the Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age
Windhand - Soma
Windhand/Satan's Satyrs - Split

Card of the day:

From the Grimoire (which really does need expanding, I just haven't had the time during these morning posts):

Enlightenment. Joy, Revelation; Dance.
The Triumph of the Spirit (which seems especially pertinent in a block of stressful days)
Entry portal to XX Aeon. "Taking the Pill will open your eyes."

Actually, that last bit seems very pertinent, as today I will be seeing my Pulmonologist and beginning my treatment regiment - most likely in pill form - for the Sarcoisdosis that I learned last year has been occupying more and more of the cells in my lungs for, oh, the better part of at least ten years now. No idea where it came from, but it's advancing rapidly now, or at least more rapidly than it has yet. It's known to affect the eyes and yep, definitely feeling that. Also, upon my last visit to the Pumonologist, he asked if I experienced random rashes, which I did not. Now, starting a few weeks ago, I have a nasty little bugger on my right foot. It's time to kick this out before it begins affecting my heart and/or liver. The treatment, Prednisone, will possibly lower my immune system, so I'm kind of expecting to get sick once or twice, but we'll see. So if the day's pull is telling me the pill might open my eyes, is it possible the steroid might have an expected mental effect?

We shall see. Wish me luck.

Deftones Drop New Single Prayers/Triangles

I JUST found out that the new Deftones album, Gore, drops April 8th.

Fuck yes!!!

Also found out they released the first single today. Went to look for it and it had been taken down almost everywhere I looked. But here it is and it is, as usual, awesome!

Deftones - Entombed

I come back to this album so much that it has done that thing where, despite the fact that I love almost all of their other albums beginning with White Pony (not the re-issue with the 'rap' version of Pink Maggot) I just always go to Koi No Yokan. It's like a warm blanket of awesomeness and creative inspiration, and every time I listen to it - still!- it blows me away.

Deftones Release a Track From Eros

Another one I'm a few days late on. This was written up heavy circa early last week but then got yanked down due to copyright issues. By posting this I certainly do not wish to step on one of my favorite band's toes - I'm just glad this stuff is finally going to see the light of day. And with the Deftones also reportedly working on a follow-up album to their absolutely breath-taking Koi No Yokan, this could be a very good year for fans of the band, of which I am most definitely one.

Eros is the final album featuring original Deftones bassist Chi, who was in an automobile accident in 2008 and passed away after a long struggle in 2013. You can read more about the love and support that made Chi's struggles easier at One Love for Chi.

✝✝✝ (Crosses) - Bitches Brew

Chino from the Deftone's other, other band. I learned of this via Bloody Disgusting this morning and was faced with a conundrum when I went to repost. The video is 'Unlisted' on youtube. When this is the case as soon as you go to the embed area a nice little msg. pops up reminding you to be polite, i.e. the original poster - here the band's label Sumerian Records - may not want it reposted. However, with BD already helping circulate the video, and the my entire perceived understanding of music videos as - in this case - artistically sound mini films that essentially function as promotional material for the music, well, I can't see why the band/label wouldn't want it reposted for more people to see.

That said, great video. The record is out 2/11/14 on Sumerian (pre-order here)and if it's half as good as the previous EP it will be great.

Deftones - Romantic Dreams

YES! Anything new for any song off Koi No Yokan is a very good thing.

Stream Palms' Debut Album

image courtesy of consequenceofsound.net

BIG TIME thank you sirs go out to the always awesome Metal Sucks for cluing me in on this. Spin has the entire debut album by Palms, the band that is Deftones' singer Chino Moreno + most of the band Isis. Go here and listen. The record comes out June 25th on Ipecac.

I've been a Deftones fan since White Pony, and I love Chino's other side project Team Sleep, but after this years Koi No Yokan I'll buy anything Chino touches.

Deftones - Swerve City Video

Awesome. I'd say that I'd like to see a video for Rosemary next, but I do not think anyone could do justice to the images that song puts in my head. How about Graphic Nature instead?

Chino Moreno's Side Project Palms Album Trailer

Deftones - Sextape

I don't think I ever posted this here before. I found this video, from the Deftones' 2010 album Diamond Eyes, about the time Koi No Yokan came out (which was my album of the year last year).

This video is fantastic.

Lineup for Metallica's Orion Fest is a lot of Great bands...

... and Metallica, rise against and RHCP to balance out the good with some blah. But hey, it's their fest, right? Congrats to FIDLAR - really cool that they're on it.