New Music from Ganser!

From Ganser's new album, Animal Hospital, out August 29th on the always wonderful Felte Records. Pre-order HERE.

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NCBD:

I've kind of unofficially switched to a M-W-F posting schedule here for the time being, and I'm still getting used to that. I'll use this as the reason I somehow forgot to feature my NCBD pulls in Wednesday's post - when I'm working on these a day or two out, it's easy to forget what day you're aiming for. Anyway, This week's pull ended up being considerable, so in this case, hindsight helps condense what otherwise would have been two consecutive posts.

Turns out, Batman: Dark Patterns is going even longer than I originally thought. This is the most consecutive months I've read a Batman book since Grant Morrison's run ended!

Already read this one - dark times for the Autobots, man. And more Bruticus! In fact, we have an all-out combiner battle with Bruticus and Devastator versus Superion! I can't even believe how this book taps into all my childhood play fantasies about the Transformers. 

More dark times for heroes. It's definitely in the air - I mean, art reflects life and looks at the world we live in. Some really interesting developments in this issue, and the bi-monthly release schedule is still really working for me, partly as a respite for the old wallet and partly as a suspense builder. 

This issue of SIKTC features some of the best trademark James Tyion IV dialogue. From the two clerks talking about mustache-shaving daydreams to the Jaws discussion, this one's all set, but holy cow - things are going to go off next issue!

The first issue was so-so for me, but I'm looking forward to sticking around and seeing where this pretty deft send-up of Black Metal culture goes. 

Once again - Oni for the win! A new Horror Anthology featuring Andrea Sorrentino? You don't need to say another word. 

But wait - there's MORE!!!

Earlier in the week, my good friend and frequent collaborator Grimm pointed me to the fact that Titan Books has been publishing a new Savage Sword of Conan magazine-sized book for eight issues now. I'm not a card-carrying Conan fan, per se, but back shortly after I discovered H.P. Lovecraft, I picked up a mass-market paperback copy of Howard's Tales from the Cthulhu Mythos and have long thought it one of the best I cut my Robert E. Howard 

Looks more like "Savage Sword of Danzig" to me!

This issue of The Savage Sword of Conan features six tales that all revolve around Howard's The Black Stone. THIS is my REH wheelhouse - The Black Stone is probably the short story that left the deepest impression on me from that Mythos paperback, and I think it's fantastic that writer Jim Zub is using it as a jumping-off point to weave the Black Stone through a myriad of Howard's characters - from the Cimmerian to El Borak to Soloman Kane. Granted, these stories just made me spring for a set of the spin-off Black Stone series on eBay, but that's fine. Just like so many other power-mad sorcerers, I'm willing to pay for more exposure to the titular monument. 

Issue eight was really what sparked my interest, as Grimm sent his joyous accolades for this series along with a picture from issue 8's The Wuthering:

'Nuff said! Seriously though, this entire book is gorgeous, and it was a real treat to discover the first story herein was drawn by Jason "Nameless" Burnham!

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Playlist:

Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre

Marilyn Manson - One Assassination Under God - Chapter 1

Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power

Melvins - (A) Senile Animal

Thou - Summit

Deee-Lite - Dewdrops in the Garden

Black Sabbath - Paranoid

Big Black - The Rich Man's Eight Track Tape

Rapeman - Two Nuns and a Pack Mule/Budd E.P.

Killdozer - God Hears the Pleas of the Innocent

The High Confessions - Turning Lead Into Gold with the High Confessions

Metallica - Ride the Lightning

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Card:

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

• Page of Wands

• Two of Pentacles

• Three of Pentacles

Decisions about Earthly matters should be made from a place of strong support. What the hell does that mean, exactly? I'm far too tired to figure this out at the time of typing this, so I'll be staring at these cards all day on my desk. 

I hate when the pull interpretation comes out sounding like an exaggerated fortune cookie!!!

The Boogeyman

A few weeks ago, Mr. Brown asked me if I'd ever heard the Chicago band Ganser. I had not. I added a few records in Apple Music but didn't actually hit play on one until last week.

Instant adoration.

The album I'm currently obsessed with is 2018's Odd Talk, and the song on that album that gets the most play is also the first song on this live Audiotree session the band did in 2020, "Satsuma." Watching them play live is literally thrilling, especially guitarist Charlie Landsman. I love everything about this band, but I love Charlie's guitar the most, as it conjures White Lung, US Maple, Assembly Line People Program, and Erase Errata, to name a few bands I've carried on love affairs with in the past. 

Ganser is on the always fantastic Felte Records, and you can check them out on the label's site HERE or the band's Bandcamp HERE.

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Watch:

Last night K and I caught the first screening of Rob Savage's new film The Boogeyman. This is based on an adaptation of Stephen King's short story, "The Boogeyman," from his Night Shift collection. I've read the story, although I had no memory of it at the time of the screening, so I was free to judge the film simply as the film. In that context, and ultimately in any other, The Boogeyman is a damn solid monster movie. Here's the trailer:

          

What goes right with this flick? Pretty much everything. In many respects, this is a by-the-numbers Horror flick, but Savage - whose breakthrough was 2020's Host (the Zoom movie, which I love) - is showing himself to be an auteur at heart, so there are enough personal touches and 'aberrations' from the formula that while The Boogeyman feels familiar, it also feels different enough that you won't be bored. The third act really sealed the deal - it's fantastic.

Also, and this is the smallest of spoilers, if at all, but I found it very cool that actress Seylan Baxter, who played the Medium in Host appears in this film in a youtube video on Seances one of the characters watches. It's little touches like that I always appreciate in a filmmaker's work.

  

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Read:

After seeing the film The Boogeyman, I woke up this morning and re-read the story in Stephen King's Night Shift.

The story strictly follows Billings's visit to Dr. Harper's office, where he avails himself of his guilt. That's it. So the film is an adaptation and expansion of the story, and in that, it's pretty fantastic in what it accomplishes, using King's story as the seed for a larger world that's really only hinted at between the lines of the story.

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Playlist:

Radiohead - The Bends

Ganser - Odd Talk

Lustmord - Berlin

Boy Harsher - Burn it Down (single)

Boy Harsher - Careful

Code Orange - Grooming My Replacement/The Game (single)

Code Orange - Underneath

            

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Card:

From Aleister Crowley and Lady Frieda Harris's Thoth deck:

• Prince of Swords - The "Air" of Air, or doubling down on conflict

• 2 Change - The Ebb and Flow.

• Princess of Wands - Physical act or manifestation of Will

Cut and dry, once again. Of course, that's because it's all in the interpretation, and the interpretation is steeped in what's on your mind. I know exactly what's on my mind, and it's writing. Hence, why all of this week's Pulls have concerned my Art. 

I've had two decent days getting back in the saddle; nothing stellar, but that's the ebb and flow mentioned above - I have to take the good with the bad, especially when overcoming the inertia of having not written in a bit. It's easy to get discouraged, but you just have to apply your Will and fight that part of yourself that wants to be lazy, or is looking to be discouraged. Frustrations be damned, a breakthrough will come!!!

 

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