Vulture Feather - Pleasant Obstacle

I'd never heard of Vulture Feathers before this popped up in my feed, probably because YouTube's spying algorithms observed me mentioning Felte Records recently. Whatever the case, this song is fantastic, so I gave their 2025 album It Will Be Like Now a whirl yesterday and quite liked that, too. 

Grab either on the group's Bandcamp HERE.

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Watch:

Last night K and I took in the local premiere of Osgood Perkins' newest film, Keeper. Here's another brilliant trailer from the fine folks at Neon, who honestly, do the best trailers in the biz at the moment. Watch without fear of spoilage:

Just like their trailers for Perkins' Longlegs, this trailer shows me so many images that get my brain going, "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT???" but in no way tells me anything about the plot of the movie. Brilliant!

So how was the film?

The trailer is better.

I'll elaborate that, like the other, pre-Longlegs Perkins films I've seen, Keeper is extremely well made. So much time is spent on building tension, though, that the tension build up begins to dissolve. When shit finally goes off, it's too little, too late.

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Read:

Yesterday I finished Christopher Buehlman's The Lesser Dead. I'd started this mid-October, but apparently forgot to log it here. Then, once I saw GDT's Frankenstein was coming our way, I set this down about halfway through and re-read Mary Shelley's novel just for comparison's sake. Once I finished that, I hopped right back over to Buehlman's fantastic tale of vampires living in the tunnels below the subways in late 70's New York City. 

I've mentioned here before how I have a thing for stories that take place underground, so when my good friend Chris Saunders mentioned this one to me back in September, I pretty much ordered it on the spot and moved it to the top of the pile. The Lesser Dead does not disappoint. If you've ever read Anne Rice's Vampire novels, you know how lush they are in the description of New Orleans over a span of several centuries. Just thinking the words "Interview with a Vampire" conjures immediate mental imagery of the Architecture and copious bougainvillea. Well, there's a very similar lush extravagance in Buehlman's novel, only it's for the dirt and grime of late 70s NY, both above and below ground. He uses cultural touchstones like the TV show Soap and Studio 54 to really anchor the world above ground, and dark, moldy opulence-gone-by of the New York buried beneath the streets to flesh out the world below ground. The novel is gorgeous, riveting, and the narrator, Peter, is so likable and easy to read, you'll blow through this in a matter of days and want more. 

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Playlist:

Steve Moore - Jimmy and Stiggs OST

Blackbraid - Blackbraid III

Ritual Howls - Ruin

Vulture Feather - Pleasant Obstacle (single)

Vulture Feather - It Will Be Like Now

David Bowie - Reality

The Ocean - Even Deeper (single; NIN cover)

The Ocean - Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic

The Ocean - Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic / Cenozoic

Dance with the Dead - Driven to Madness

White Hex - Gold Nights

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Five of Cups

• King of Swords

• VIII: Strength

Man, didn't I just have this same pull recently? No, so there are apparently a lot of guitars in this deck. Not a complaint, and really, the fact that I interpret every card with a guitar at first glance as an edict to pick up my axe and make music tells me more than the rest of the spread does.

That said, A) it's really cool to see these in their actual B&W. These days, I almost always shoot by colored light, so it's cool to be reminded of the actual deck's vibe, as it is awesome! B), I'd say this is pretty clearly a three-card sequence suggesting I turn my back on some emotional hang-up, dig in my heels and apply my Will to something that feels like it has power over me. That's a little scary, and I'm not going to make any rash decisions, but it's good to be reminded of how we hold ourselves hostage. 

White Hex - Sisters

 

From White Hex's 2014 album Gold Nights, released by the always lovely folks at Felte Records. This is an old favorite, part of the music that helped me rise from the ashes of my old life. Unfortunately, this Australian duo retired in 2015, so we only have the two albums, only one of which I am familiar with, the aforementioned Gold Nights. While I'm thinking about it, time to check out 2012's Heat, which you can listen to on any of the music streamers, or, at the group's Bandcamp, which thankfully is still up. Highly recommended.

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NCBD:

I'm excited to read a couple of the titles in this week's pull. Let's go!

Last month's #25 was Robert Kirkman and Dan Mora's first issue taking the reins on the title from Daniel Warren Johnson and Jorge Corona and they did an outstanding job! Really set the tone for what is to come, while building on all the little threads woven throughout the book so far. I think Mr. Corona's visual style was the perfect accompaniment for DWJ's narrative; Dan Mora's style feels super slick in comparison - not a bad thing! Look at this cover - it looks a bit more like the Transformers titles Dreamwave or IDW used to put out. That said, there's definitely room to bring the 'bots out of the wreckage they've all languished in thus far, and this could be the perfect way to do that. 

We covered this recently on Drinking with Comics, but I'll reiterate here that my favorite thing about reading my first Spider-Man: Noir series is that all the character's dialogue is in Nick Cage's voice in my head!

Event Horizon: Dark Descent is still shaping up, so I'm not entirely certain how I feel about it. That said, last issue's inclusion and specific naming of the Demon Paimon really surprised me, so I'm here for whatever Hell Dimension madness Christian Ward and Tristan Jones are serving up as we go deeper into the events that set up the film Event Horizon!

The final issue of Dan Watters and Hayden Sherman's brilliant Batman: Dark Patterns! I've loved this series, but it's time to let ol' Bats go for a while. going out on a high note with this one, though. 

The solicitation promises, "... a return to the Terror Drome..." and I am all about that. Kind of a bucket list toy I never procured as a child and I'd be hesitant to invest in if Classified did it now - which they won't - the Terror Drome always felt like the coolest thing in Cobra's arsenal when I was a kid. The way Larry Hama's run depicted Cobra mass-manufacturing them as arms to be sold to any country or mercenary that would pay their price - I loved it so much. It's been a minute since I've even thought about this thing, so let's take a moment and check out the old school toy commercial to cap off today's NCBD!

Man! That takes me back something fierce. 

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Watch:

Noirvember continues with Roy William Neil's 1946 Black Angel. 

I knew nothing about this film before K and I stumbled across it on the Criterion Channel a couple of nights ago. Honestly, I don't even really remember the description, just "staring Peter Lorre can often be enough to get me to press play. And this one did not disappoint. 

Pretty conventional to start, there's a drunk on a bender, a couple shady dudes with hats, and a dead woman. Where this one makes its mark is the fact that it incorporates musical elements and then gets really freakin' dark at the end.

If you're looking for a Noir that does a little something different, this one's worth your time. And hey - Peter Lorre, right?

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Playlist:

Steve Moore - Jimmy and Stigg OST

Coleman Hawkins - Wrapped Tight

Pepper Adams - Encounter!

White Hex - Gold Nights

Ritual Howls - Their Body EP

Melvins - Thunderball

Deafheaven - New Bermuda

Young Widows - Power Sucker

Dance with the Dead - Psycho Disco (single)

The Wraith - Gloom Ballet

Odonis Odonis - Eponymous (pre-release singles)

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Two of Pentacles

• Eight of Wands

• Eight of Cups

Successful partnership requires a sublimation of the Will to allow for Emotion. 

That's kind of a surface level, even shit reading, but it actually holds meaning for me at the moment. Really, that's all I'm looking for with these. 

Ritual Howls - Dark Ceiling in Tennessee

 

How did I miss the fact that Ritual Howls released a new record back in May??? I'm not sure, but in a way, this is like finding a $100 bill in my pocket. Every track on this is awesome! Released by the always wonderful Felte Records back on May 12, you can order Virtue Falters from the group's Bandcamp HERE. 

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Watch:

Martin Scorsese, one of the last true auteurs from an age that is coming to an end, is known for high-end films. Killers of the Flower Moon looks to be no exception.

Despite the fact that this is an Apple Production, I'm going to assume Scorsese's name will be enough to put this film in theatres. One of the reasons I never bothered with The Irishman is it went straight to netflix and only played very limited engagements in the cinema. Let that be another reminder that netflix considers 'content' all the same; Scorsese's film was even keel with Marie Condo in their book. 

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Read:

I was overjoyed to score a four-issue set of Mark Verheiden's Aliens: Earth War at Rick's Comic City on Wednesday. Despite my love for Predator: Concrete Jungle and the original Aliens Vs. Predator comics Dark Horse published in the late 80s, I never really read their straight-up Aliens titles. Time for that to change.

What has me very excited about this book is the fact that Sam "The Maxx" Keith is the artist! I'm only one issue in, but so far, this direct sequel to James Cameron's Aliens is fantastic - far better than Alien 3, at any rate. Newt's here, Hicks is set up to come aboard, and Ripley is being dragged back out onto LV-426 again. Yeah, the repetition of the setup has since gotten old, but being that this was published in 1990, I'm very much okay with it here. 

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Playlist:

Agnes Obel - Aventine

Happyween Spotify Playlist

Various - Rocktober Blood OST

Ritual Howls - Virtue Falters

Ritual Howls - Into the Water

The Thirsty Crows - Hangman's Noose

C.O.F.F.I.N - Australia Stops (pre-release singles)

IDLES - Joy as an Act of Rebellion

Lord Huron - Long Lost

Lard - Pure Chewing Satisfaction

La Hell Gang - Thru Me Again

Type O Negative - Life is Killing Me

Baroness - Stone (pre-release singles)

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Card:

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.

• Four of Cups

• King of Cups

• Page of Wands

All right, at a glance, cups by looking at the suits, I think I can read this as an overabundance of emotion that needs to be shaped by a clear-headed application of Will. Let's go deeper, though...

Fours indicate stability, but also, that stability can be a bad thing if it's status quo. 

King of Cups is a card I often read as a harbinger of Emotional Conflict. My grimoire entry for King of Cups has this in it, "emotional depths honed by intellect," and that definitely informs my initial read above.

Page of Wands - or Princess of Wands in Thoth - represents the physical aspects of Will, or the Earthly aspects of Fire. In other words, BAGGAGE. The Thoth card features a woman with a massive tiger wrapped around her - weighing her down. I'm always tempted to read that Thoth version as a fierceness that gets in the way - "Misguided Fire," I sometimes call it. This is the wrong approach - when you just keep at something without stopping to apply the other Aspects. Will without Intellect, Emotion and Resources can be destructive. 

End result: Pick your battles and keep your head about you; something will pop up that seems like the right solution, but it may only be the easy one. Very difficult not to apply this (as usual) to my writing. I've just reached a point where I'm entering the final scene of the book, so this is a reminder not to let the finish line confuse the path, which still must be laid a stone at a time, as opposed to rushed for lust of result.

2019: Ritual Howls - Mother of the Dead

What an awesome mail week! First, yesterday I received Rendered Armor, the new LP from Ritual Howls. Out on Felte Records now, this is a damned fine piece of music; when I pre-ordered the vinyl a few months back, I sunk in the extra couple bucks to receive the hardbound book. A retrospective of the Ritual Howl's existence thus far, the history is told in gorgeous B&W photography and set against a backdrop of all the band's lyrics. Holding the finished product in my hand I can tell you it is very cool. Love these guys so very much.

Second, on Wednesday, I received Shout Factory's Larry Fessenden Collection. I've wanted this for years, finally pulled the trigger on it. Four features - No Telling, Habit, Wendigo, and The Last Winter, as well as the short White Trash. No Telling was the one I'd missed - although I haven't seen Wendigo since the early 2000s, so it will be mostly like seeing it again for the first time - and after watching it last night I absolutely loved it. Maybe my favorite of Mr. Fessenden's (although I'll probably say that about all of them. No Telling is known overseas as The Frankenstein Complex, a title that's a bit too on the nose in my opinion, but me thinks this film serves as a harbinger for Fessenden's much-anticipated new film Depraved, about "...a disillusioned field surgeon who makes a man out of body parts and brings him to life in a Brooklyn loft."

Definite companion pieces.


The package is loaded with extras, many of which Fessenden introduces, and I intend on watching everything and in order of release! Can't wait.

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Playlist from 3/29:

Faith No More - King for a Day
Helms Alee - Sleepwalking Sailors
Nabihah Iqbal - Weighing of the Heart
Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor

No card today.

2019: February 4th - New Chasms

New music from Chasms, whose new album The Mirage comes out February 22nd on the always amazing Felte Records. Pre-order it HERE, and see them live if you can, as they are wonderful.

Subterranean Press has a very limited number of copies of Warren Ellis' novella Dead Pig Collector, something I have been wanting to read for years but forgot about some time back while waiting for a physical copy to emerge. Said copy has emerged, but the door is closing quickly. Order it HERE.

February is Women in Horror month, and to kick things off, K and I hosted 3/4ths of The Horror Vision crew this past Saturday for a viewing of Jen and Sylvia Soska's American Mary. Damn, I love this film. The empowerment that comes through the story and performances is intoxicating, and seeing it again has me even more excited for the Soska's upcoming remake of David Cronenberg's Rabid, about which there is a pair of marvelous articles in the latest issue of Fangoria Vol. 2.

You can listen to the newest episode of The Horror Vision on Apple, (although I think there's a lag in the episode uploading to Apple at the moment) Spotify, Google Play, or our website.

Playlist from 2/03:

Jozef Van Wissem & Jim Jarmusch - Concerning the White Horse (on repeat for like an hour while I finished the new story)
Boy Harsher - Careful

Card of the day (despite the fact that the day's almost over; I'm curious):

Perfect and funny for so very many reasons at the moment.

2019: January 31st: New Ritual Howls - Alone Together

I was super psyched to receive an alert yesterday afternoon that Detroit's Ritual Howls are releasing a new album in March! What's more, there is an awesome, limited edition that includes a splatter vinyl of the record accompanied by a hardbound book that documents all of the band's lyrics through the years, as well as tour photos. I ordered mine as soon as I saw it and if you wish to do the same, or maybe just pre-order one of the other versions of the album from the always wonderful Felte Records, here's the link.

Having tackled the setback with the chapter in Shadow Play, things are going great! Still reading it aloud to K, and meanwhile I unexpectedly began a new short. It's the first time I've ever written "Detective Fiction" and I feel like it's going pretty damn well. Of course, this isn't your ordinary Detective story. You'll see...

Playlist from 1/30:

Melvins - A Senile Animal
Wasted Theory -
Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Ozz
Skid Row - Slave to the Grind
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - Wasteland
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - The Night Creeper
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Ritual Howls - Into The Water

Card of the day:

Keeping it short because, as the card says, Stagnant waters rot.

2018: November 3rd - New Music from Chasms

One of my favorite live shows I saw in 2017 was Ritual Howls at the Echoplex. The show was fantastic, not just because the Howls absolutely killed it live, but because opening band Chasms - who I'd not heard at the time - held me mesmerized for the entirety of their set. The ethereal quality of Sky Madden and Jess Labrador's music stops time, transfixing moments into a fluidic-like substance that bubbles up around you in colors as you stand and stare at a stage that ceases to be a stage and instead becomes a portal.

Highly recommended live.

According to Chasms Bandcamp, this is the final track of their current shoegaze/industrial sound and a closing chapter on their time in the Bay Area. The band has relocated to Los Angeles (yah!), and 2019 will see the release of a new record on Felte. I can't wait.

Thanks to Kristen Renee Gorlitz - whose Kickstarter for her Zombie Romance comic The Empties, and who will be the guest on next Friday's Drinking with Comics, which streams live on the DwC facebook page - I've found an awesome new project on Kickstarter I just backed. The Murder Balloon! Check this out:



Four days left, so if like me, you love the idea of a vengeful clown inventing a Murder Balloon, click HERE and drop some $$$ - the rewards are worth it!

Playlist for 11/02:

Tones on Tail - Everything
The Ocean - Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic
Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats - Wasteland
The Chameleons UK - Strange Times
Queens of the Stone Age - Villains
Alice in Chains - Rainier Fog
Blut Aus Nord - Memorial Vetusta III (Saturnian Poetry)
Chasms - Divine Illusion (Single)
Chasms - On The Legs of Love Purified

Card of the day:

My favorite card, the number 17, a beautiful portrait of the cosmos and the idea of ebb and flow, balance and harmony, and a guiding light. Reminds me that although last night I had appeared to write myself into a nasty little corner, this morning in the shower I thought my way out of it rather easily. Looks like she's bathing, right? I've come to suspect this card surfaces when I do my best problem solving, which is almost always in the morning, in the shower.

New Odonis Odonis Album Next Friday

No Pop is out on the wonderful Felte Records next Friday. Funds have been a bit tight so I haven't ordered it yet but I'm changing that today and you can too if you go HERE. In the meantime, here's the first track. So good.

Gold Class - Twist in the Dark

LOVE this; that guitar - holy smokes! From the forthcoming LP Drum, releasing on the always lovely Felte Records August 18th. Pre-order through the bandcamp here!

Oh Yeah! New Soviet Soviet Is OUT!

December was a crazy month at the old Biorepository where I spend my days, and in the clusterfuck of work, buying gifts and get-togethers I completely overlooked the fact that Italy's Soviet Soviet released a new record on Felte at the beginning of the month. I'll be ordering this one soon enough over on bandcamp, in the meantime, here's something to wet your aural whistle!

Chasms Opened for Ritual Howls the other night...

... and I had a profound experience hearing/seeing their music for the first time. It was a magickal night; rain in Los Angeles - so rare - timed perfectly to coincide with this band's music. I've been high on the vibe ever since.

Tickets just went on sale for Chasms's next LA show went on sale today. Saturday December 10th at the Echo. I will absolutely be there and recommend that if you dig this, you should go here and buy their album and seriously consider going to the show.

Felte Records does it again.

Ritual Howls - No Witnesses

one of my favorite album covers in recent memory

Spurred by seeing them live this past Sunday (review of the show is coming soon) I finally ordered Ritual Howl's 2014 album Turkish Leather. It is fantastic. This right here is one of my favorite tracks and if you follow this link you can read a great interview with Paul Bancell over at Seventh Hex. Mr. Bancell discusses all sorts of interesting ideas pertaining to the group's writing process, including the origin of this particular song.

If you dig the track I'd strongly recommend heading over to the group's bandcamp where you can pick up Turkish Leather and the Howl's newest album Into the Water for a steal.

Odonis Odonis Interview NOW Magazine

Can you tell I'm obsessed with this band? Here's a great interview.



Post Plague has been my 'album of the year' since about five seconds into Needs the first time I heard it back in the spring. Hasn't been topped yet (though label mates Ritual Howls come pretty close) specially after seeing them live at the Echoplex last Thursday, when not only did they do every song I would have asked to hear had I realized they were opening the bill and thus playing a shorter set, but closed with a perfect cover of this old classic:

Ritual Howls - Spirit Murder

best band photo ever?

So this dropped yesterday. The new album by Ritual Howls, Into the Water, is a breathtakingly dark contemplation on - these ears - broken cityscapes, dangerous situations and the endless enigma of frustration that defines modern life.

Song title sooo makes me think of Barry Adamson's Soul Murder. Just saying.

Yeah, it's fucking fantastic. Buy it here.

Ritual Howls - Going Upstate

Continuing my new found love affair with Felte Records and their exemplary roster of talent, early this past week I pre-ordered the forthcoming new album by Ritual Howls. Three tracks were made available to me immediately upon purchasing Into the Water and I've been beating them into my brain ever since in long writing sessions with the iPod on. Without really sounding like them, these guys remind me a little of what I love about early My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult. This is some dark stuff, like music you might hear while descending into the basement of an enemy just as the acid kicks in.

Love the music, love the album cover and again, LOVE Felte Records.



You can check out Ritual Howls here and Felte Records in general here.

Turkish Leather on wax is my next purchase and I'm chomping at the bit to get it. Until then, make mine Felte!

Nite Fields - Depersonalisation

Beginning with my introduction to Odonis Odonis a few weeks ago, I have slowly succumbed to a wonderful, all-encompassing musical abyss named Felte Records. It's been years since I considered myself as having a 'favorite record label' but with Felte I feel I can once again make that claim. Their roster of talent is crazy good and seems styled after my own personal tastes (and probably yours too if you read this blog), their products and business approach are fantastic and, well, talk about friendly - when my vinyl version of Post Plague arrived in the mail the other day the fine folks at Felte had thrown in another record for free.

For Free!!!

I had not had the pleasure of hearing Nite Fields previously but once I saw that cover (pictured above) I immediately made the plastic incision and extracted the beautiful piece of black vinyl within, cued it up on my new record player and within moments the opening strains of lead track 'Depersonalised' pulled my consciousness into a beautiful, black spiral from which I have only reluctantly emerged to switch back to the throb and punch of Post Plague. The two make a great juxtaposition and I highly recommend both. Depersonalisation by Nite Fields can be ordered here and Post Plague by Odonis Odonis here.

Go forth and support an awesome independent label!!!

Odonis Odonis - Needs

Almost every year without fail I stumble across a record that immediately announces itself as my favorite of the year. This certainty usually arises within the first song, which always makes the record feel that much more powerful. Yesterday I sought out Canada's Odonis Odonis and was immediately struck with the certainty that, while I have and will no doubt hear a lot of other amazing new music this year, Post Plague is going to be my #1 come year's end.