Gwar - Stalin's Organs

 

One week ago on the 23rd of March was the tenth anniversary of Dave Brockie's death. A decade. That's nearly a third of how old 1995's Ragnarok is. I wanted to do something to commemorate Oderus Urungus's exile from our slovenly realm, but I was in the middle of Man Man week, and posting this past week has been tenuous at best. Anyway, we miss you, Oderus. Earth hasn't been salaminized since you went away, and I'm sure a lot of the folks who read this page would agree that we could really use it right about now.

 

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Watch:

I was on the fence about this one, but seeing a post by Beyondfest earlier today, I bought tickets for tomorrow afternoon:

 

I think I have a phobia of Catholic Horror - weird because I wasn't raised Catholic, although I did attend the odd service as a kid. But there's just something icky about all the pageantry and regalia. This is getting a lot of word of mouth, and a lot of that is making Sydney Sweeney look like a philanthropist for getting a film that has apparently been languishing unmade for over twenty years. I have no idea who she is, but I'm definitely intrigued. Perfect weekend, too. 

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DwC:

Mike Shinabargar and I started a new show! Drinking with Comics Presents: DRUNK on ENERGON!

Once again, I had a lot of fun with this one. I'm absolutely in love with Kirkman's take on these properties, and it gives me great joy to sit around and discuss them with my oldest friend from the Realm of  Comic Shops!

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Playlist:

Grand Ducy - Petite Fours

Brand New - Daisy

Zombi - Direct Inject

Rollins Band - End of Silence

Money Mark - Mark's Keyboard Repair

Ministry - Houses of the Molé

Suicide - Eponymous

Miranda Sex Garden - Carnival of Souls

NIN - The Fragile

Fantomas - Suspended Animation

Gwar - Ragnarok

Metallica - Hardwired... To Self Destruct

Oranssi Pazuzu - Muukalainen Puhuu

Justin Hamline - The House With Dead Leaves

Allegaeon - Iridescent (single)

Allegaeon - Apoptosis

Various - Satan's Proto Discoteque (mix CD circa 2000)

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE. Also, Grimm recently launched a Kickstarter for his new deck, The FaeBound Tarot, which you can marvel at and acquire HERE.

• Page of Swords

• Kind of Swords

• Two of Swords

This makes PERFECT sense. I have felt like fighting EVERYONE for the last few days, and I'm not entirely sure why. 

Silent Trese

Whenever my good friend Jacob sends me a band to listen to, I know it's going to rule. Silent, however, even tops the best of his previous recommendations. I cannot express how much I LOVE this album; it embodies everything I love about a modern post-punk aesthetic and reminds me A LOT of how much I loved that first Savages album back in what feels like one hundred years ago.

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Watch:

I don't really know much about Trese yet, except my DwC cohost Mike Wellman sent me the trailer last week and it's being made by/with people who our friend Karen Kunawicz knows. Mike has a copy of the book it's based on hold for me, so I should be picking that up and reading it soon, so I will leave you with the trailer for now and report back on the book later this week.

Really cool stuff, from the looks of it. 

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Playlist:

Led Zeppelin - Coda

Silent - Modern Hate

Mudvayne - Choices (single)

Exhalants - Atonement

Windhand - Split

Deftones - Ohms

Violet Cold - Empire of Love

ZZ Top - Rhythmeen

White Zombie - Astro-Creep 2000

QOTSA - Villains

Goatsnake - Black Age Blues

Lustmord - Heresy

Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower

Leviathan the Fleeing Serpent - Corpse Eater: Satanic Misery Love for the Dead

Various - Lords of Salem OST

 

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Card:

 

I can't really go into it here - or more like I don't want to at the moment - but I take this as a direct commentary on a BIG question that has been on both K and my own mind these last few days. 

Happy St. Paddy's

I won't be able to celebrate appropriately until Saturday. Even then, this is the second year in a row I can't gather my movie night squad and feed them Corned Beef, Whiskey, and Phil Joanou's Irish Mafia epic State of Grace, which I watch every year. Still, they're in me heart, eh?

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NCBD:

Well, this week is a pretty small haul, but it's an issue I've been looking forward to:

Also, this one came out last week, and I've had it on-hold with Atomic Basement:

I'm not entirely certain why I'm buying this one, so let's hope I'm not severely disappointed. I've always said I can't tolerate a monthly dose of the Caped Crusader, and in the past I have been pleasantly surprised by one-off buys like this over-sized anthology of short stories, so I guess we'll see.

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Playlist:

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Let Love IN

The Neverly Boys - Dark Side of Everything

Electric Youth - Come True OST

The Birthday Party - Junkyard

Genghis Tron - Pyrocene (pre-release single)

Genghis Tron - Dream Weapon (pre-release single) 

Tomahawk - Business Casual (pre-release single)

Tomahawk - Dog Eat Dog (pre-release single)

 

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Card:

 

Mixing disparate ingredients to bring something new to the table. Committing to follow it through. I'm not quite sure how to interpret that at the moment, however, it may have to do with podcasting and my continued inertia/anxiety about attempting to bring DwC back to life. Plenty of ideas, and maybe the ones that I should be looking at stretch the pre-existing format as far afield as possible.

2018: December 9th

Let's start the day with some Sabbath, shall we?

When I first moved to LaLaLand in 2006, I'd come home every October with a small cache of CDs. Eventually, of course, technology prevailed and my travel bag got lighter with the iPod; I bought one of those handy cassette to 1/8th jacks and music could follow me even in my Dad's truck, which only had CD and cassette capabilities. So far this trip I can't find that damned device, and in a search for something to listen to yesterday on my way to see Jonathan Grimm hock his wares at the Miskatonic Brewery's most recent art show, I found this in my dad's glove box, no doubt left by me several years before:

The find dovetailed nicely with waking up this morning and finding Mr. Brown had texted me that Pitchfork's Sunday Album this week is Sabbath's Paranoid, written by Grayson Haver Currin. I pretty much hate pitchfork except for this weekly column, and if you're a Sabbath fan, this is a great read. You can find the article HERE.

All this fits, because I can't come home and not become immersed in Sabbath, so the cassette was more a spiritual omen or reminder than it was a coincidence. My parent's place breathes Sabbath to me; some of my favorite and most vivid memories of the heavily wooded property where I grew up are of my friend Jake and I getting stoned and listening to Sabbath. Not just listening; this was clinical. We reveled in it, picking lyrics apart and building the exo-skeletons of our own philosophy around some of the words in the songs - especially the ones on Sabotage - the riffs and rhythms serving as mnemonic anchors, activation triggers for me later in life (sadly, Jake did not make it to 'later in life'; that's shit I work through in my writing, if you know where to look), so that the simple act of sitting in a car behind the house at 42 years of age and hearing the opening riff of Wheels of Confusion reactivates the assuredness Jake and I had at twenty-years old that the overall pull of the Universe was a positive, loving one, and no matter what I was struggling with it was transitory because that is the nature of our reality, transition.

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Drinking with Comics tapes and (hopefully) streams live tonight on the DwC Facebook page, somewhere around 6:00 PM CST (that's 4:00 PM on the West Coast) at the Amazing Fantasy Books and Comics Frankfort store.

Playlist from 12/08:

Black Sabbath - Children of the Grave (Import version of Vol. 4)
Perturbator - B-Sides and Remixes, Vol. 1

No card today because I'm running out of time. Heading out to see this on the big screen:

2018: November 21st

Just realized I never posted the latest Drinking with Comics video last week when it dropped. The goal from here out is to shoot these and get them up on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, and the DwC website as audio-only podcasts, then get the video up the following week. The video always takes a lot longer, and the show has more patrons as a pure podcast anyway, so I figured this was the optimum way to do it.

Hoping to do a 28 Days/28 Weeks Later double feature this weekend. I actually work both Friday and Saturday, so that limits what I can watch, and I'm still working through Sabrina (on Episode 5), which I need to get through for a forthcoming episode of The Horror Vision. Also, regarding THV, we're scheduled to do our Suspiria 2018 episode this Saturday, so hopefully I'll have it up later that day or Sunday. A little late to the game, but it's been hard to align schedules; as it is only three of the four of us have seen the film, so we're already down a man for this particular one. But there's A LOT to talk about with this film, on its own and juxtaposed with the original.

Playlist from 11/20:

Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
Iggy Pop - The Idiot
Ghost Cop - One Weird Trick
Tom Waits - Swordfish Trombone
Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Boy Harsher - Face the Fire (single pre-release)
Boy Harsher - Country Girl
The Fixx - Shuttered Room
Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper

No card again today.

2018: November 8th - New Boy Harsher!

The new album Careful drops February 1st, 2019 on Nude Club Records. 

Had a really nice night just reading in bed for an hour or so last night. The next DwC is tomorrow, and I've a gaggle of stuff to catch up on. First and foremost, as I've already talked yesterday about Blackbird, let me tell you the other new book I'm really hot for right now is Dead Rabbit:

Gerry Duggan and John McCrea. A retired criminal/vigilante thief finds he has to reinstate his life of crime to pay his wife's medical bills. Shit goes wrong. It's great.

Playlist from 11/07:

Algiers - The Underside of Power

Metallica - ... And Justice For All

Deafheaven - From the Kettle Onto the Coil

Briqueville - II
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love



Card of the day:

This card always speaks of things gone out of control to me. It also reminds me a bit of Ash being taken down by the three mini-Ashes in Army of Darkness. And believe it or not, that seems a pretty good place to start, because a lot of times I understand things better if I run them through a familiar lens, and film is a very familiar lens to me. So, in Army of Darkness, Ash fucks up, tries to play it off and ignore his mistake, and it ends up coming back to haunt him as these three mini-doppelgangers that bite and chew at him. Nothing important. But it's his lack of taking these little nuisances seriously that ends up leading to full-on Evil Ash, who is a Huge threat to him. So, what's the card saying? Take care of the little stuff - don't let it build up, or it will come back three times the size and way more serious. I think that's a health cue for me, specifically pointing to the two problems that persist - my sarcoidosis and my still-not-right left hamstring. I've made serious inroads to finally get back to taking care of both of these, but it's going to take a serious chunk of my already limited time. That's okay. This is a reminder that it's worth it.

2018: September 29th - Hold The Dark

Hold the Dark is exceptional; in my mind this is Saulnier's first masterpiece. Nothing against his other films, but this is just... a level beyond. I've written the inaugural installment of my new column on Joup, The Horror Vision, about the film. Read it HERE.

But wait, The Horror Vision is not only a column on Joup. In fact, the column is just a tributary to a much greater endeavor! In just one day (if all goes well with backend website design) my friends Ray, Anthony, Chris and I will be unveiling the newest podcast in the DwC catalogue: The Horror Vision. Here's a promo clip we threw together:



That beautiful logo is courtesy of Chris Saunders and the theme music is by me!

Tonight! More Beyondfest 2018 as K and I head into Hollywood to see Dead Ringers on the big screen, with director David Cronenberg in attendance to discuss the film. Can. Not. Wait.

Playlist from Friday, 9/28:

Mayhem - Deathcrush EP
Broadcast - Tender Buttons
The Ocean - Anthropocentric
Waveshaper - Station Nova
Mad Love - White With Foam

Card of the day:

From the Grimoire: "If we struggle against the seasons, the ebb and flow of life, we will fall. However, when you turn (Change) with that flow, you will reach a stationary peace from which your actions can harmonize with the power of Life's turning wheel."

How does that apply to me today? That's kind of the greatness of the card, isn't it? A broad stroke reminder to 'roll with the punches.' I'll be keeping that under advisement.

Drinking w/ Comics #43 - Special Guest Dusty Grave

Co-owner of Batcave Records, Singer for Stellar Corpses, secret member of Bat! whose debut album is forthcoming on Cleopatra Records (when they're not fighting the forces of darkness!) - Dusty Grave joins us to talk Dylan Dog, Cemetery Man, The Sandman Universe, Unholy Grail and much, much more!

2018: August 24rd

Psyched to have Dusty Grave from Stellar Corpses and BAT on Drinking with Comics later tonight. Tune in around 9:30 PM PST for the show, which will be streaming live on our FB page. This little tune's been knocking around in my head for a few days, so I thought I'd throw it up here to pave the way for this evening.

Playlist from 8/22:

Fugazi - Steady Diet of Nothing
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
My Bloody Valentine - MBV
Various Artists - Twin Peaks Season 3 OST
Second Still - Equals EP
Chris Connelly - Artificial Madness
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
John Carpenter/Alan Howarth - Big Trouble in Little China OST

Playlist from 8/23:

Tennis System - Technicolour Blind
Radiohead - Kid A
Fear - Live... For the Record
Fugazi - Steady Diet of Nothing
Glenn Gould - Bach: Goldberg Variations
Second Still - Equals EP
John Carpenter/Alan Howarth - Big Trouble in Little China OST
Carl King - Guns A' Blazin' Suite
Cocksure - TVMALSV
The Carpenters - Greatest Hits

Card of the day:

Five breaks stability and causes at worst strife, at best competition. There's some strife in my life right now, but it's background radiation, throbbing in the distance, lighting up my brain for a moment or two here and there, and inspiring competition for sure. Which is good - DRIVING FORCE.

Drinking w/ Comics 41: Special Guest David Lucarelli!!!

New issue went up today after a lot of hard editing work. It's worth it, even though I totally blanked on adding a theme song for the new, apparently monthly segment titled, "What Stupid Thing Did Chris Buy This Time?"

Also, check out who gives us a bumper at the start of the episode! None other than Garth Fucking Ennis!

Next time.



And just because I dig Mr. Lucarelli and his work so much, here's the previous episode we had him on, back when his awesome new book from Alterna Comics, Tinsel Town, had just begun formulating for him: