Frank Black Teenager of the Year 30th Anniversary Tour

 

Got my tickets to join some of my best friends in the world for Frank Black's Teenager of the Year 30th anniversary tour. Mr. Black even has Lyle Workman back! 

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Watch:

Damian McCarthy first impressed the absolute hell out of me in 2022 with Caveat, a direct-to-Shudder film about a man talked into wearing a harness in an old house on a small island in Ireland. The man is supposedly been hired by a friend to watch his niece, but there are all kinds of WTF surrounding that idea, and the film, for all its slow-burn tendencies, rapidly escalates into a terrifying dirge of haunted guilt and bad decisions that culminate in...

Well, read the book. Or, ah, watch the movie. 

McCarthy's new film Oddity was on my radar but just barely, and I was SHOCKED and delighted to find that it opened at our Clarksville Regal this past Thursday. 

So far, it is neck-and-neck with Robert Morgan's Stopmotion for my favorite film of the year. I would post a trailer, but no. PLEASE, go see this in the theatre (it will most likely be gone after this week due to Deadpool) and DO NOT read, watch, or listen to anything about it. Go in blind, and I think this will smack you in the gob the way it did me—so much so that I have tickets to see it again tonight. 

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Play:

I've had Playdead's Inside for a couple years now, and while I have played and enjoyed it, it wasn't until this past weekend that I really fell in love with this game. Described as 'dream-like' in all the solicitation copy I've come across, I have to say, that's the perfect description. 

 

A week or so ago, my good friend Maddie messaged me about this game, saying that she remembered I had mentioned it and that she had recently become enthralled. This had me pull the game back out and pick at it off and on for a few days. Then, this past Saturday, I sat down in a darkened room with a beer and Adam Egypt Mortimer's The Obelisk on my turntable and the way the game and the music melded... it was just incredible. I left the sound up so I could hear all the atmospheric sound effects - hurried footsteps through standing water, giant industrial cranes and elevators moving and clanking, explosions, and, yes, dream-like wind and breathing - and my consciousness just folded into this world. It was beautiful. 

I don't want this one to end.

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Playlist:

Fear - Live For the Record

Frank Black - Teenager of the Year

Black Francis - Svn Fngrs

Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs

Frank Black - Eponymous

Tomahawk - Mit Gas

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Irony Is A Dead Scene E.P.

Ministry - Rio Grande Blood

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity

Justin Hamline - The House With Dead Leaves

The Replacements - Pleased to Meet Me

The Besnard Lakes... Are the Roaring Night

Adam Egypt Mortimer - The Obelisk

M83 - Before the Dawn Heals Us

Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit

Concrete Blonde - Eponymous

Phil Collins - Face Value

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Card:

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

• Knight of Wands 

• Four of Pentacles

• Six of Pentacles

The firey aspect of fire, pure white hot Intellect, stripped of all other human trappings. Here, it's being applied to Earthly matters, as we can see via the two Pentacles or Disks cards that follow. Four of Disks indicates stability, and the Six support or balance. What this tells me this morning is the balancing act I now maintain Monday - Friday may require an extra dose of reasoning to maintain. Not sure if this means this will be a heavy spreadsheet week (I'm only half joking and all cringe when I reference a spreadsheet in relation to the Tarot), or if I'll just have to side step emotional reactions to things that will require logical consideration instead of capricious emotion.

New Dandy Warhols!!!

New Dandy Warhols, from the forthcoming album Rockmaker, out March 15th. Pre-order HERE.

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NCBD:

Jesus. My box is going to be full when I return to Clarksville and pick up my books from Rick's Comic City. Here's what is being added to it this week:

Ash! Evil Ash! 1990s and the far-future. This one has it all, true believers!

Still one of my favorite books to read each month. 

The Deviant is such a gnarly book. Really happy this is going longer than what I originally thought was a three-issue series. 

What's the Furthest Place From Here goes on hiatus after the next issue, so I'm a bit bummed. That said, I can't wait to see how the current arc ends and where that puts us in Boss and Rosenberg's world.

The High Evolutionary returns! I'm not sure how exactly this ties in with the "Fall of the House of X;" doesn't matter because, again, the High Evolutionary.

Cobra Commander. 'Nuff said. I find it interesting that the main characters of this short, lead-in series are apparently Destro, Zarana, CC himself and Mercer. Man, Kirkman's Energon Universe is really going out of its way to do something different with this long-running property. 

Man, could we get a High Evolutionary/Cobra Commander crossover at some point in the future? Probably not, but it's nice to dream.

Additionally for today, the final issue of Enfield Gang Massacre will be in my Chicago Pull at Amazing Fantasy, and I'll probably grab these other two from the Comic Bug while I'm in the South Bay next weekend:

I had incorrectly assumed issue five of Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips' The Enfield Gang Massacre was the final chapter. Nice to see I was wrong and we get one more. Can't wait to get this from Amazing Fantasy and finally read the series start to finish.

I'm still not putting ARAH on my pull list, but for the time being, I'm enjoying seeing where this series and these characters have been since I last checked in on them circa 1991.

I thought I'd give this new Hellblazer series a chance. 

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Watch:

 

In. Totally in.

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Playlist:

T. Rex - The Slider

Fugazi - Red Medicine

Fugazi - 13 Songs

Fever Ray - Radical Romantics

The Knife - Shaking the Habitual

Marilyn Manson - Antichrist Superstar

Danzig With Myself - Rockmaker (pre-release singles)

Mission of Burma - Signals, Calls and Marches

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Card:

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

• Three of Swords 

• Four of Swords 

• Four of Pentacles

I continue to be fascinated by the frequency with which I draw Swords in this deck. I feel like these, coupled with the Four of Pentacles may point to my not using my intellect in regards to Earthly matters. Money? Possibly. 

Frank Black's Headache

 It's an early Frank Black kinda morning, so I fired up Teenager of the Year. Love this record!

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Watch:

Last night I watched Roadhouse for the first time.

This movie is Ridiculous! I would have turned up my nose and made fun of this even ten years ago, but really, I've come to see a lot of these 80s studio action movies as major studios doing exploitation flicks, and that's essentially what this tries to be. Now, I believe there's a DVD out there with Kevin Smith doing the commentary back like 20 years ago. I'd be pretty interested in checking that out.

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Playlist:

22-20s - Eponymous

Various - Up Above the Stars Spotify Playlist (culled from Barry Adamson's Biography)

T. Rex - The Slider

David Lynch & John Neff - BLUEBOB

Metallica - 72 Seasons (pre-release singles)

Lamp of Murmur - Saturnian Bloodstorm (pre-release singles)

Lustmord - The Others

Bohren & Der Club of Gore - Sunset Mission

Ozzy Osbourne - Patient No. 9

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Card:

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

Willed transformation will result in an energizing new endeavor/perspective. I know exactly what this is referencing. Time to dig out something I've had on the backburner and give it another once over in between working on Shadow Play Book 2.

Sing for Joy

 

Man, I listened to Frank Black's Honeycomb record for the first time in a long time yesterday and was deeply moved. I've always identified more with the other iterations of his solo work that occur under variations of his moniker. Frank Black and the Catholics are my favorite, followed of course by Pixies, Black Francis and, um, whatever other derivations might be currently escaping me. Honeycomb occupies a weird place in my awareness because I always confuse it as being a Catholics album, and my least favorite of the bunch. But in being reminded of its place in Mr. Black's catalog, I was also reminded of a lot of good times listening to this, and it was nice to go back and give it my full attention, even if I might not do so again for some time. 

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Watch:

Last night, K and I made it out to see Martin McDonagh's new film,  The Banshees of Inisherin, which floored me when I saw it landed in our local Regal. 

Like the rest of McDonagh's oeuvre, Banshees is a feast for the eyes, brain and heart. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson turn in outstanding performances that are bolstered by a supporting cast that knows no weakness, especially Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan. The chemistry between all of them is riveting, but of special note for me was seeing Keoghan and Farrell together again; echoes of their performances in Killing of a Sacred Deer still resound in my head.

I know many will be tempted to wait for streaming on this one, being a quiet drama and all. I would, however, advise seeing it on the big screen. Not only will you be supporting films like this continuing to receive wide theatrical release - David O'Russell's Amsterdamn and its epic failure at the BO has greatly corrupted the chances of adult dramas rolling wide from here out - but you'll be able to feel the breathless majesty of the Emerald Isle on the big screen, the way cinematographer Ben Davis intended.

Also of note, Carter Burwell's score is, as always, wonderful; inspiring as it is in its "less is more" aesthetic.

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NCBD:

Here's what I'm pulling off the shelves later today:

Mystique and Destiny in Victorian England? Been waiting for this, as I really want follow-up on that opening sequence in Immortal X-Men #1 that saw the two of them and Sinister  - or perhaps the man who would be Sinister - discussing the future from the vantage point of citizens of Victoriana. 

Speaking of Victoriana, the first two issues of Phantasmagoria blew me away. Possession, secret high society societies, and a bevy of literary allusions have made this one of my most anticipated monthlies at the moment.

Will the finale of this current Shaolin Cowboy series be as insane as the first six issues? I'd bet my talking, smoking lizards on it.

I'm still in awe of what Lemire and Sorrentino have given us so far from the Bone Orchard Mythos, so I've been kind of chomping at the bit to read more. 

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Playlist:

Ifernach - Capitulation of All Life

Grand Duchy - Petite Fours

Frank Black - Honeycomb

Revolting Cocks - Big Sexy Land

Godflesh - Streetcleaner

Barry Adamson - Back to the Cat

Calderum - Mystical Fortress of Iberian Lands

Underworld - Barbara Barbara, We Face A Shining Future

Underworld - RiverRun Project

Darkness Brings the Cold - House of Sin

Darkness Brings the Cold - Eponymous

Darkness Brings the Cold - Human Me

Deafheaven - Sunbather

Fvunerals - For the Horrors Eat the Light (pre-release single, thanks Tommy)

Godflesh - PURE Live

Godflesh - Messiah

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Card:

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

The stability achieved through ritual and routine will be disrupted briefly. Instead of allowing this to cause frustration, I'm pretty sure the message here is to look at it as a pattern interrupt that will help me see things from a different perspective and, thus, gain new insight.

2019: July 6th

Short post today. I Really felt like opening this morning's post with some Frank Black, or Black Francis, in this case. From 2010's NonStopErotik, an EP that, despite rabidly collecting this man's material since the 90s - thank you to Mr. Brown for passing the obsession - I don't know all that well. This record kind of fell into the cracks for me, coming out shortly after Grand Douchy's 2009 Petit Fours, Black's collaboration with his wife, Violet Clarke, an album I was obsessed with and listened to near constantly for years after its release. I pulled NonStopErotik out recently, and have been reacquainting myself with it. Oh My Tidy Sum is probably the stand-out for me.

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Via the might Bloodydisgusting. That scene with the buck is gnarly! I had not heard of this one before, but it looks great, so I'll keep my eyes out for release.

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Playlist for 7/05:

Black Francis - NonStopErotik

Orville Peck - Pony

The Pixies - Bossonova

Preoccupations - Eponymous

Battle Tapes - Sweatshop Boys

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Strong card, strong start to the day. Lots of work for me today, so I need to get one it.

New Pixies song Talent

The announcement for the next Pixies record Head Carrier entered the world via email sometime within the previous month. Being on their mailing list I saw it, however in the constant 75 mph I've been moving I still haven't really had a chance to listen to or read anything about it other than the fact that it drops on 9/30 and you can pre-order it in many different forms HERE.

The initial reunited-era Pixies record Indy Cindy seemed to catch a lot of flak online - not really sure what that was about because to me, as a long-time fan of the band, and one that honestly would have preferred Mr. Black continue his solo career to reuniting the past, I La La LOVED it. Indy Cindy sounded like the next logical step from 1991's Trompe Le Monde, so I am very much looking forward to Head Carrier.

But let's get another Grand Duchy or Black Francis record sometime soon (OR Frank Black and the Catholics for that matter- now we're talking!)

The Pixies @ Echo: 2 New Songs

Friday morning the following email arrived while I was at work. It was about an hour until I saw it, and as such I missed what probably sold out in .0003 seconds. Sender was PIXIES, subject heading LA TONIGHT;

Hello We are playing a special warm up show TONIGHT in LA. Friday, Sept 6 @ ECHO Doors at 7pm / Pixies on stage 7:45pm 18+ $10.00 ticket Tickets are available right now: http://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/368905?utm_medium=bks Access code: BAGBOY La La love you PIXIES

FUUUUUUUUUCCCCCKKKKKKKKK!!!



Doubly so after last week's early surprise with the last minute drop of EP1 (so last minute the press release didn't go out until until the small hours the day of.

Thanks to Gigwise for posting this footage. Still wish I as there - the Echo is SO small. 300 people tops I think.