Holy cow - new music from Stereolab!!! From the forthcoming album Instant Holograms on Metal Film, out May 23rd on Duophonic UHF Disks and Warp Records . Pre-order HERE.
Watch:
A full trailer for Danny Boyle and Alex Garland's 28 Years Later dropped while I slept, and just seeing the thumbnail, I'm excited. I'm not going to actually watch this trailer, mind you. But just knowing we're that much closer to this brings me joy.
My fear is this will play before every movie I go to the theatre to see until the film's release on June 20th.
Playlist:
OLD - The Musical Dimensions of Sleastak
Type O Negative - Life Is Killing Me
Primus - Pork Soda
Killing Joke - Eponymous
Stereolab - Aerial Troubles (single)
Type O Negative - Dead Again
Tad - Inhaler
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• XI: Justice
• Knight of Cups
• Nine of Swords
Balance creativity or sleeplessness could result.
I actually think this is telling me this so I do the opposite - I've wanted to work on some projects at night the last two weeks, but I'm finding it impossible to stay awake later than 11:00 PM most nights. I think I need to generate a fervor to inspire some 'sleeplessness.' Or at least, some sleep-delay.
Been thinking about this man of late. Damn, 14 years this past January.
NCBD:
Pretty cool Pull this week:
I feel like it's been forever since the previous issue of SIKTC! Can't wait to dig back in.
After re-reading The Nice House By the Lake and going directly into The Nice House By The Sea issue #1, I am psyched for this book! The first series proved to be even more psychologically profound than I'd remembered, and things are certainly ramping up to a new level in this second phase. Can't wait to see where this goes.
I have many of the original Marvel Transformers issues, starting at, I think, issue # 4. I do not have nor have I ever read number 1, so this facsimile edition is kind of a nostalgic must.
Quintessons! Quintessons! Quintessons!!!
I have been waiting for this one for a while now. A Frankenstein series that tells the story of each major body part and where it came from is just too good to pass up, even if this one didn't have the added luster of Michael Walsh being the creator.
Whenever I see Saga show up on my pull, it always feels like an afterthought these days. Then I read the issue and I remember why the book is so great. Not gonna lie - I really think that four-year hiatus hurt this book's momentum. I've loved it from the beginning, and I'm certainly not going anywhere, but it just doesn't feel the same. Maybe a re-read would help? Yeah, well, take a number...
I've been seeing a lot of Etrigan of late, what with re-reading Alan Moore's Swamp Thing, continuing on from that into Neil Gaiman's Sandman, and contemplating a Hit Man re-read somewhere in the not-so-distant future. And then, here he is again.
Watch:
See and read nothing:
Solid thriller, and knowing absolutely nothing made this a fantastic viewing experience. Props to Zoe Kravitz.
Playlist:
The Damned - Night of A Thousand Vampires
The Veils - Total Depravity
Jim Williams - Possessor OST
Ian Lynch - All You Need is Death OST
Herweer - Paracelsus Fiebertraum
Zeal & Ardor - GREIF
Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit
Joe Jackson - Night and Day
David Bowie - Heroes
Sinéad O'Connor - The Lion and the Cobra
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Ace of Wands
• I: The Magician
• Knight of Wands
A breakthrough of Will leads to a successful business transaction and a renewed energy of creative force.
Pretty sure I know exactly what this is referring to.
Chat Pile blows me away. I won't pretend to have clocked a lot of hours on their stuff, but the handful of rotations I've given their first full-length, God's Country, affected me deeply. I've heard comparisons to King Missle, and there's an element of that in lead vocalist Raygun Busch's approach, for sure. Except, as much as I like some King Missle, their music is largely about being clever; there's no soul-searing vitriol mixed in like there is here. Also, the music sounds like The Jesus Lizard and Thrall in a blender with a can of dirt-streaked brown paint. That bass sound!
The new album Cool World is up for pre-order now HERE.
Watch:
Stumbling across the trailer for the Butcher Brothers Consumed this morning, I could have sworn I'd posted about this film at some point in the past. I couldn't find anything, though, so here we go:
This one doesn't exactly look like my cuppa. However, if there's a Wendigo involved, I feel like I have to investigate. I'm not familiar with the Butchers' work, but I believe The Hamiltons is Masters of Horror season one, which I bought on a digital sale a few years back, so I'll have to check that out soon. Meantime, I've added Consumed to the list.
(I have to admit, the title drew my eye because I thought for a second we were finally getting that adaptation of David Cronenberg's BRILLIANT novel of the same name. No dice.)
Read:
After beginning last Spring (I think), I finally jumped in and finished my re-read of IDW's Cobra series from the 2010s. I'd read the series monthly, but not since, and I wasn't quite prepared for the insane level of head-fuckery this book takes on, especially once it gets to the Las Vegas chapter.
The idea of a small unit housing Tomax Paoli as a prisoner in his own Casino, exploring intel he's giving them they know is tainted but have to act on anyway, is a great start, but by the time the series restarts the final time as The Cobra Files, the level of deep psychological control Paoli - whose twin brother Xamot was killed very early on in the series - exerts through his malicious mental influence on several team members is downright frightening.
This book really pulls no punches, and once again, I am utterly floored by what a fresh, dark take on the property IDW allowed Mike Costa and Antonio Fuso to take with this book. I never got into the other IDW Joe titles and still don't really have any interest in doing so. This, however, is one for the ages.
Playlist:
Danzig - Danzig II: Lucifuge
Sam Hain - Unholy Passion
Sam Hain - Final Descent
M83 - Before the Dawn Heals Us
Tomahawk - Oddfellows
Japandroids - Celebration Rock
Idles - Joy As An Act of Rebellion
Card:
Back to my trusty old Thoth deck for a while. I've been missing it:
• XX: The Aeon
• XI: Lust
• 10 of Wands: Oppression
"Taking the pill will open your eyes." The pull of unconnected processes. Oppression (read at face value). This points to a theory I'm developing for a story that is quite important in my understanding of how to navigate this world of corporate dominance.
The only time I'd ever heard of Sleep Token before this past Saturday night was when my friend Josh asked if I'd heard of them, as his algorithm maintained a consistent recommendation. Driving back from a friend's house in Santa Clarita, my friend Bridget played several songs, and I almost instantly became intrigued. When Ray dropped me off at the hotel, I had a head full of smoke and laid down with their first album, Sundowning, on my headphones. I was transported somewhere I had never been before. This is the reaction I am most fond of with music, and based on that, I'm kind of an overnight fan here, despite the fact that some of the textures Sleep Token employs in its genreless music are coopted from styles of music I don't particularly care for. That said, in the context of this band's music and mythology, most of it works.
31 Days of Halloween:
Thanks to Beyondfest, I was able to kick off 31 Days of Halloween yesterday with a triple-feature over at the Aero. Here's what we saw:
Having just rewatched Demián Rugna's 2017 film Terrified, I wasn't entirely certain what I was in for with When Evil Lurks. Turns out, When Evil Lurks won the day. This film is relentlessly dark, it doesn't hold your hand, and it pays back what it demands of the audience with one of the most original and gnarly Horror flicks of the year, if not of the last few.
Next, the latest installment in the V/H/S series:
As I've stated here previously, this series is always a mixed bag for me. When I saw Gigi Saul Guerrero, David Bruckner and Scott Derrickson attached to direct segments in V/H/S/85, I had hope for a really solid anthology film, and I got one.
The one thing about the VHS that still wears on me is how they play with the mechanism of the format. Tracking lines, pops, squiggles, dither and interrupted interstitial elements - these contrived artifacts add little at this point, and I think take up far too much time. I know having these creates the VHS illusion. However, they're just such a given at this point it does nothing for me. I also thought a few of the shorts had some pacing issues, but overall, this is easily my favorite all-around entry into the series since the original. Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill's "Dreamkill" was easily my favorite here, with its bloody set pieces that felt right out of an early 80s Video Nasty.
Finally, the night ended with Emanuele De Santi and Giulio De Santi's 2011 bloodbath, Adam Chaplain:
This movie would make an absolutely perfect double feature with Gabriel Bartalos's Skinned Deep. It's low on budget but a veritable "how to" lesson on shooting and FX when you have more Will than money.
As with last year's 31 Days, I'm aberrating my usual a-movie-a-day format due to the fact that I'll still be in a hotel room until the evening of the ninth. I always bring my firestick with me when I travel, however, working and seeing people come first, so I cannot guarantee I'll have the time every single day to watch something. With that said, Day #1 takes care of the next 3 days (not to say I won't try to watch something every day, it's just doubtful.
Playlist:
Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST
Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh
Baroness - Stone
The Warlocks - Vevey Live
Sleep Token - Sundowning
Sleep Token - Take Me Back to Eden
Voyage - Paradise (single)
Voyage - Second Light
Card:
I'm on the road, so all my Pulls will be from my mini Thoth deck for the next two weeks. Not a bad thing, but wanted to put up a reminder that Grimm's new Tarot Deck, The Hand of Doom Tarot, is both gorgeous and live on Kickstarter until Tuesday, October 3rd. Here's the LINK.
• II: The Priestess
• Three of Cups: Abundance
• IX: The Hermit
Another pretty easy one - an abundance of emotion can lead to isolation. This is, I believe, another tip for dealing with issues at work. It's pretty easy to become overwhelmed and transported right back into the "Manager Mode" that made me successful while I was still living and working here in L.A. That's a mistake, and I appreciate the Universe's constant reminders that is no longer my role.
Man, I was pretty skeptical when I heard High On Fire were having their first album, The Art of Self Defense remastered for a re-release. On the one hand, it's still probably my favorite of their albums (Blessed Black Wings comes a pretty close second, though). Yet, while I still have the original, Man's Ruin CD version of Self Defense I bought at Crow's Nest Records in Down Town Chicago shortly after it came out in 2000, I'd love to have the record on vinyl, so it was with great trepidation I hit play on Apple Music this morning...
It's awesome. My greatest fear was they would raise Pike's voice and over-compress; not that there's a precedent for the latter with the band's subsequent releases, and I love Pike's voice as it's come to more prominence with each release after this one, but there's something so amazing about the way Self Defense sounded the day I brought it home, sparked up and put it in the stereo all those years ago. I was perplexed by the singer's voice being so low (this was my introduction to the new wave of "Stoner Rock" as everyone was calling it at the time, having previously enjoyed St. Vitus and Count Raven more 'flush with the mix" vocals on WXAV, 88.3 FM, St. Xavier's College Radio), but marveled at the way the guitars sparkled like they do for only one other human being I know - Tony Iommi! The rhythm section was so tight, so pummelling; it was all just such a fresh experience compared to whatever else was out there at the time Metal-wise. So The Art of Self Defense looms large in my life, and as with anything we deem to be of that importance, I felt nervous as hell about anyone changing it.
Again, no reason to be nervous. This shit rules!
"Blood From Zion" feels the most changed from the first side of the album ("Master of Fists" sounds like a different guitar take altogether was used for this release). Interestingly, for most of the tracks, Matt Pike's voice remains at just about the exact same level it was at in the original release; it's just clearer. Nice trick! The descending riff that bridges the first and second verses has to be heard on headphones to be believed. IT'S SO FUCKING HEAVY. I mean, it was always so fucking heavy, but it's like they added subsonic bulldozers to the mix or something. SO GOOD.
You can find this pretty much everywhere online, however, High On Fire's Bandcamp has an exclusive, and while I love that original cover, I do still have that CD (remember Grace note database or whatever that function iTunes had where, if you transferred a CD to digital it could find the album information for you? When I digitized my old Self Defense to put on an iPod back in the late 00s, it came back with The Art of Self Defense, by Sleep!).
Yeah, I think I can make room in my soul for this cover, too. You can also order directly from MNRK Heavy HERE, where the non-exclusive still has the same cover and will cost you a few bucks less on shipping.
Watch:
Two nights ago, K and I watched Kurtis David Harder's newest film, Influencer on Shudder. I dug Harder's previous film Spiral quite a bit, but based on the title of this one, I was expecting a story about a completely unlikeable Influencer who gets her comeuppance.
Nope!
I'm not going to post the trailer, because you shouldn't watch it. Yes, in the opening sequence of the film, you meet a really annoying social media influencer. Stick with it! That's not what the film is; this one reminded me A LOT of the experience I had watching Brad Anderson's Transsiberian back in 2008 or 2009, whenever it first hit video. Both films take continuous ninety-degree turns, so without having seen a trailer or read anything about either, I was left wondering from scene to scene, "Oh, is this what the film is about? Is this the landscape the characters are going to have to live in?" And, so beautifully, those assumptions were always squashed as something new gets introduced to change the film's narrative yet again. Really fun watch; not Horror, but a thriller for sure. Save it for a night when you want twists and turns more than blood and guts.
Playlist:
††† - Invisible Hand (pre-release single)
††† - PERMANENT.RADIANT EP
††† - Eponymous
The Bronx - The Bronx (III)
Various - Lost Highway OST
King Woman - Celestial Blues
Deftones - White Pony
Converge - Jane Doe
Blue Karma - The Friction, the Pain
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• XIV - Temperance or "Art" in Thoth speak
• Four of Swords
• Three of Swords
Fight for your Art! Fours show stability and Threes the process of Growth or Change. The Novel's becoming something more than I'd planned, and while it's more work, I can temper myself against that and fight on toward the finish line.
Tarot aside, if you dig Jonathan Grimm's Bound deck, he has a Kickstarter launching on September 5th for his new deck, The Hand of Doom Tarot. This one's all Metal, Monsters, Magick in one beautiful deck. Here's the link; the campaign isn't active yet, but you can hit the Notify Me button and get in on the ground floor September 5th!
