The Saxophones

A couple of days ago, Heaven Is An Incubator posted a track from the band The Saxophones' new album, No Time For Poetry. 

Blew me away.

An hour later, I was starting on my second go-round with the record. This one is incredible. Not like anything else I've heard in some time. Think Loveage meets Combustible Edison meets... I don't know. Those are just pointers in the general direction, as this group is very much its own thing. Can't thank you enough, Tommy!

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Watch:

Wednesday night, I watched a movie where an unkillable old man kills the F*CK out of a company of nazis in 1944 Finland. Such a satisfying watch! If you know Jalmari Helander's bizarre Christmas film Rare Exports and you haven't seen 2023's Sisu, do yourself a favor - watch it as soon as you can. 

What's the hurry? Well, I say watch it ASAP because I think you'll love it. I mean, who doesn't love dead nazis? Also, if you watch it soon, you can do like I did last night and hit a local theatre for the brand spankin' new sequel, Sisu: Road to Revenge:

The sequel might just be more insane than the first! 

The 'suspension of disbelief' factor is super high with these films, but that's fine. Jalmari Helander knows how to make bloody AF action films FUN! I can't recommend seeing this on the big screen enough. Not only is Jorma Tommila back to kick all the evil arseholes to hell, but Stephan Lang and Richard Brake come along for the ride!

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Playlist:

The Fixx - Phantoms

77s - All Fall Down

The Plimsouls - Everywhere At Once

David Bowie - Hunky Dory

John Cale - Helen of Troy

Garland Jeffreys - Ghost Writer

The Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet

The Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat

The Saxophones - No Time for Poetry

Combustible Edison - I, Swinger

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Card:

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

• Queen of Cups

• XVII: The Star

• Ace of Wands

Deep emotional fulfillment follows your accomplishments; however, we don't always recognize our accomplishments or our fulfillments. It's one of modern humanity's fated flaws that we never appreciate what we have, never stop to appreciate what we have instead of looking forward for 'more.' Remember that and try not to lose sight of what you have to be grateful for. 

Good advice that hits home.

Failure - Heliotropic

 

From their 1996 album Fantastic Planet, which is really pretty new to me here, thirty years after its release. Failure was never really on my radar in 1996. About twelve years ago, I remember reading something Heaven Is An Incubator wrote about them and wondering how I'd missed them. I gave Fantastic Planet a spin back then, but it didn't leave an impression. Also, that would have been before the advent of Apple Music, so I'm unsure how I listened. Regardless, I would not have had the ability to relisten as often as I can now.

I played Fantastic Planet through once this past Friday morning because Mr. Brown and I decided to hit next year's Space Echo concert and see Baroness, Spotlights, and, with Failure headlining, I figured it would be a good time to take another dip in their sound. 

On my first go-through, I instantly understood why/how I had missed these guys. I actually think I was aware of them to some degree in the early to mid-90s, but here's the thing - I was DONE with this sound by 1996. Just done with it. By the time Nirvana's In Utero came out, I was pretty finished with anything that shared DNA with their sound, be it in songwriting, production or both. 

I'm not saying Failure is a copycat band. Not at all. However, the production on this album definitely owes something to the zeitgeist sound of the day, which is all based on Nirvana's sound. "Alternative" radio beat that shit to death in 1994-97, and just that through-line would have been enough for me to turn my nose up at this back then.

Back to the present, by the end of that first listen last Friday, I found I wanted more, so I played FP through a second time. By the end of that, I was hooked (album opener "Saturday Savior" has been in my head all day as I write this on Saturday).  It's nice to go back and find something from that era to look at with fresh eyes, so to speak, because the only bands from the "grunge/alternative" watershed that I followed were Alice in Chains and Soundgarden. The two that, in my opinion, have the most distinct sound. Now that we're thirty years away from this sound, though, I can hear this album for what it is. Pretty fucking great.

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Watch:

We continued the Noirvember celebration this past Friday with a double feature of two Noir classics: one from the original era of the genre and one of the Neo-Noir persuasion. First up, Joan Crawford and Jack Carson in Mildred Pierce. I adore this film, and recently picked up the Criterion Blu-ray as part of the current Criterion sale. 

I love this film even more now that I've realized the actor who plays Monte is also the screenwriting cop in Arsenic and Old Lace. I guess I'd never watched these two films close enough together before to pick up on that. So many classic Noir elements, from the covetous nature of many of the characters to the lighting, which has stayed with me since K first showed me this one when we began dating.

Next up, Rian Johnson's debut, Brick. 

I'd not watched this one in some time, and was thrilled to see how well it holds up. A very clever approach to updating the Neo Noir formula and applying it to the Southern California High School vibe, not unlike Rob Thomas' Veronica Mars, of which I am also a pretty big fan. Here, though, Johnson makes the choice to have his teenage characters talk in a quasi-Mickey Spillane dialogue; this could have gone way wrong, like that one guy's Romeo and Juliet movie from the '90s. Instead, it just really works, principally because the performances are so strong. Joseph Gordon Leavit stopped being the kid from that shitty sitcom about aliens, and Nora Zehetner, Luke Haas, Noah Fleiss, Noah Segan and Matt O'Leary all knock it out of the park. 

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Read:

Last December, I stumbled on Hellbore Magazine. A fantastic Occult/Folklore/Folk Horror magazine with articles on everything from Haunted Sites to Nigel Kneale. My primary contact with Hellbore was twitter, which I denounced earlier this year, and it wasn't until recently I found them on IG. Glad I did. Check out this offering they have up on their site at the moment:

How could I not procure a copy of this for my overfilled bookshelves? You can check this out and order it on Hellebore's site HERE. 

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Playlist:

Orville Peck - Appaloosa

Failure - Fantastic Planet

Failure - Comfort

Odonis Odonis - Eponymous

The Velvet Underground - Sister Ray

The Velvet Underground & Nico - Eponymous

Slow Crush - Thirst

Sylvaine - Nova

Willie Nelson - Oh What A Beautiful World

The Volume Settings Folder - Negotiating Obstacles EP

Mars Red Sky - Eponymous

Dean Hurley - Analog Resource Vol. II: The Philosophy of Beyond

Perturbator - Age of Aquarius

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Card:

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

• Queen of Cups

• Nine of Swords

• Five of Cups

Lots of emotion undercut with anxiety. 

David Bowie - Slow Burn

The apparently unreleased video for "Slow Burn," track four on 2002's Heathen. Such a great song; I'm not the only one to specifically call this one out here in our little music blog community.

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Danzig - Blood and Tears

 

I'm not going to say where I unexpectedly heard this song married to Horrific imagery recently, but man was it effective! Danzig's first four albums stand apart from everything else he's done; as much as I like some of the records that came after Chuck Biscuits, Eerie Von and John Christ left the band and Rick Rubin stopped co-producing, there's just something so perfect about the heavy blues influence on those first four. Of those, Danzig II: Lucifuge will always be my favorite. I'll never forget the first time I saw a friend's older brother wearing a Lucifuge shirt - I didn't know what it was and it kind of scared me in that 80s/early 90s way of, "What the hell is this guy into?" 

That's probably around the time the album came out in 1990 and I would have been sixteen. Before the internet, and not so far removed from all the weird fears being a small child during the Satanic Panic instilled in me for a short time. There was a certain... haunted feeling to that era. Everything from the tv news to paperback books to Inside Edition (remember that pile of sh*t?) told you there were secret societies of Satan Worshippers in every neighborhood, just waiting to sacrifice any unlucky folks they happened to target to their dark lord. I actually pine for that feeling now, but not in the way so many do by rejecting everything known in favor of their opinions, fears and fantasies, and empirical data doesn't mean anything to our society as a whole anymore. Anyway, I cracked Lucifuge out and listened to it over the weekend and it doesn't disappoint.

 

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Watch:

This trailer for the new film Pandemonium popped up in my youtube feed two days ago. I have no pre-existing knowledge of this one, or anyone involved in making it, but I'm definitely intrigued. Here's the trailer I half-watched:

Also, wanted to point out that, thanks to Warren Ellis's newsletter Orbital Operations, I've found the first watchable version of Andrej Żuławski's On the Silver Globe on youtube I've encountered. 

I've seen mention for a few years about this popping up for years, but whenever I go looking for it - an irregular occurrence for sure, but one I do periodically undertake, I find ones with awful pictures. Not this, which you can see HERE. I haven't sit down to watch this yet, but it's in the cards for the next few days. 

Thanks to Heavenisanincubator for putting this one on my radar to begin with.

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Read:

I am about a third of the way through Ivy Tholen's Tastes Like Candy 2: Sugarless and I am here to tell you, it's fantastic!

Full disclosure: We recently invited Ms. Tholen to be a guest on The Horror Vision to discuss her novels, and she not only accepted but also sent us digital advance reader copies. That's a moot point, though, because I'd been waiting for this one regardless. If you read the first, this is a great continuation. If you haven't read the first and you love Slasher Flicks, THIS is for you. 

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Playlist:

Black Sabbath - Master of Reality

Black Sabbath - Technical Ecstasy

Moon Wizard - Sires

The Veils - ...And Out of the Void Came Love

The Damned - Night of the Living Damned (Thank You, Mr. Brown!)

High on Fire - Cometh the Storm

Melvins - Tarantula Heart

Ike Reilly - Poison the Hit Parade

Mike Doughty - Live From Ken's House

Danzig - Danzig II: Lucifuge

Nikki Lane - All or Nothin'

Ministry - Hopiumforthemasses

Witchfinder - Hazy Rites

Man Man - On Oni Pond

Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Oz

Led Zeppelin - In Through the Out Door

Jimmy Buffet - Good Luck

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Card:

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

• Ace of Cups

• X: Wheel of Fortune

• III: The Empress

A bird' s-eye view of this (all I have time for at the moment) is quite soothing to a massive stress bomb that has gone off in my life. Ace of Cups is the card that anchors this to a positive interpretation, something I really needed at the moment. Emotional Breakthrough, "Karma" and Fertility, in an abbreviated three-card reading. 

Flies on Sandstone

 

Heaven Is An Incubator recently posted "Love Fade," from Tamaryn's 2010 album The Waves, long a personal favorite since one of my old-school Inventory team back at Borders Torrance turned me onto it. No other Tamaryn album has ever slipped so perfectly into my personal sonic cosmology, but I've laid beneath the stars in Joshua Tree and soaked this one in. It's special, so I had to break it out and post a track, too.

 
Thanks Tommy!!!

 

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About three months ago, I kind of surprised myself by re-starting Drinking with Comics. This was something that had been on my mind off and on for a while; I LOVE the idea of the show, but it's hard to move beyond the previous iterations. For me, the pinnacle was when Mike, Chris, Jordan and myself were in front of the camera and Kirsten was running tech. Doing the whole thing at Atomic Basement never felt fully 'right,'  and whenever I look on YouTube for someone discussing comics that move me, I'm almost always disappointed. 

Other than Comic Book Herald's channel, pretty much every "discussion" video I've attempted to watch does that annoying YouTube thing of drawing out what you're there for as long as possible to increase their watch time. I fucking hate that! So, I finally decided I'd let the old Drinking with Comics be what they were and start a new iteration. It helped that I get to call it Vol. 4.

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Read:

My good friend Jesus surprised us with some Christmas presents in the post this past Friday. Jesus and I tend to ship books back and forth to one another, and he's introduced me to some incredible novels. Well, he outdid himself this time, because one of the books he sent was C.J. Leede's 2023 debut novel Maeve Fly. 

I read it in just over a day.

I can't recommend this one enough, the only caveat is, I'd say you should definitely read Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho first, as this book is very influenced by it, and even pinions some elements of the seminal volume of transgressive 80s literature. Despite this, however, Maeve Fly is definitely its own thing, and I couldn't be more in love with Leede's prose. Also, this book made me insanely homesick for L.A.

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Playlist:

Various - Learn to Relax: A Tribute to Jehu

Van Halen - 1984

Amigo the Devil - Everything is Fine

Godflesh - Purge

Godflesh - Hymns

Steve Moore - Bliss OST

Fever Ray - Radical Romantics

Deftones - Saturday Night Wrist

Rein - Reincarnated 

Tamaryn - The Waves

Calexico - Seasonal Shift

Christmas Bloody Christmas Spotify Playlist

Rodney Crowell - Christmas Everywhere

Thou - Rhea Sylvia

Frayle - Skin & Sorrow

James Last - Christmas Dancing with James Last

Willie Nelson - Pretty Paper

J. D. McPherson - Socks

Luciano Pavarotti - Christmas with Pavarotti

Iwan Rebroff - singt Weison von Wodka und Wein

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Card:

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

• Queen of Disks

• Knight of Disks

• Two of Swords

Emotional aspects of Earthly matters, honed by Will, collaboration of intent. Not sure if this is telling me I'll find the 'honing' in collaboration or not - seems doubtful - but I'm definitely feeling like Earthly matter could use a shoring up. 

Sexores - Mar del Sur E.P.

 

Wow. Taking another page from a recent post by Heaven Is An Incubator, I dove into Sexores, a  Quito, Ecuador two-piece that skews toward Darkwave but always ends up injecting a healthy dose of sheer beauty into its albums. Really great band and their new Mar del Sur EP is a great place to start with them. If you dig, head over to their Bandcamp and throw down some support.

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31 Days of Halloween:

1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin

2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"

3) VHS

4) All You Need is Death

5) Slashers (2001)

6) The Beyond/Phenomena

7) The Convent

8) Evil Dead 2

9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe

10) Totally Killer

11) Ritual (Joko Anwar)/The Final Terror/Grave Robbers

12) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (w/Joe Bob)

13) Never Hike Alone/Never Hike in the Snow/Never Hike Alone 2

14) Puppetman

15) Creepshow Season 4 Episode 1

16) Return of the Living Dead

17) Don't Look Now

18) When Evil Lurks

19) Barbarian

20) Demons 2/All Hallows Eve

21) May

22) Let's Scare Jessica To Death

23) The Birds/30 Coins Ssn 1 Ep 1

24) 30 Coins Ssn 1 Ep 2/The Church

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NCBD:

Here are my picks for this week's NCBD:

This series has been a mixed bag, but I'm curious where it's going to go. 

Street-level crime at its finest. Newburn puts me in mind of Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder novels, and as each individual storyline plays out, I'm really feeling the first edges of something epic. How long will Newburn's position as a fixer for all the New York crime families, the Yakuza, and the NYPD last? More importantly, who will the inevitable fall take down with him when it happens? These are the questions that keep me anticipating this book. 

Looks like the current New Mexico arc of SIKTC ends with issue #35, so whatever the outcome, it probably starts here. 

I have a Chicago trip coming up early next month, so I'll be stopping by Amazing Fantasy Books and Comics for the books in the pull I set up there. Ribbon Queen issues Three and four will be waiting for me. This book is a very welcome return to the crazy violent Horror Fiction Garth Ennis flexes every couple years, and it's made me want to jump back into a re-read of 

Who's that running around disguised as Captain Krakoa in Uncanny Avengers? Pretty sure issue two answered that with a flashback, but we'll see. Really glad I took a chance on this one.

In just four issues, Robert Kirkman once again has my most anticipated book each month. Last month's Void Rivals #4 raised the bar for the series yet again, with some major revelations that, when all is said and done, I'm pretty sure will constitute the very tip of a proverbial iceberg.

Having just read issue fourteen late last week, I'm pretty pumped for this one. I still think I need a full series re-read to bolster the stakes, however, Boss and Rosenberg's fucked up little world is always a fun romp with or without all the context. 

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Playlist:

Wytch Finger - The Dance EP

Fvnerals - Let the Earth Be Silent

Spotlights - Seance EP

Sexores - Mar del Sur EP

Trevor Something - Trevor Something Does Not Exist

Trevor Something - Deep Wave Data Dark Web Daemons

Bauhaus - Burning from the Inside

Joy Division - Substance 1977-1980

Chasms - On The Legs Of Love Purified

Feuerbahn - The Fire Dance EP

Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She (pre-release singles)

Skinny Puppy - Remission

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Skinny Birds

 

A few days ago, Heaven Is An Incubator posted some old-school Skinny Puppy. Hearing it put me in the mood to dig out 1984's Remission, and it's kinda been stuck in my headphones since, so let's start the day with "Sleeping Beast."

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31 Days of Halloween:

K and I went to see Hitchcock's The Birds on the big screen last night. The film still holds up, although here are a couple of observations I don't know that I made previously about the film:

• I'm guessing Cary Grant must have been Hitch's first choice for Leading Man Mitch Brenner because Rod Taylor feels like a stand-in. Not to say Taylor is bad; on the contrary, I rather think he does a smash-up job. There's just something about his physicality that makes me think Hitch originally had Grant in mind for the role.

• There's almost a full hour of lead-in. This isn't bad, and in fact, I was mostly engrossed; however, the weird practical joke Tippo Hedren's Melanie Daniels plays on Mitch unfolds rather slowly and then gives way to the Brenner family's very odd dynamic, none of which is ever mentioned. Why is one of Lydia's children in his 30s and the other looks to be about 10? I kept thinking I was forgetting some odd revelation, like Cathy is really Mitch's daughter and the mother passed away, or something like that. When that didn't happen, I was left wondering. What I have arrived at after sleeping on the film is I think there are a lot of little things in this one that make the overall tone expectant and slightly off, which adds to the overall tension.

• Not every scene of the titular birds attacking 'works' as well as I remembered they did - and I just rewatched this a couple of years ago - but the final sequence with Melanie and the Brenners barricaded in the house is fabulous and more than a little frightening.

• Suzanne Pleschette worked as a small-town school teacher before recovering from her bird attack and moving to the big city, where she married a successful psychologist.

1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin

2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"

3) VHS

4) All You Need is Death

5) Slashers (2001)

6) The Beyond/Phenomena

7) The Convent

8) Evil Dead 2

9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe

10) Totally Killer

11) Ritual (Joko Anwar)/The Final Terror/Grave Robbers

12) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (w/Joe Bob)

13) Never Hike Alone/Never Hike in the Snow/Never Hike Alone 2

14) Puppetman

15) Creepshow Season 4 Episode 1

16) Return of the Living Dead

17) Don't Look Now

18) When Evil Lurks

19) Barbarian

20) Demons 2/All Hallows Eve

21) May

22) Let's Scare Jessica To Death

23) The Birds/30 Coins Ssn 1 Ep 1

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Playlist:

Forhist - Eponymous

Sexores - Salamanca

††† - Good Night, God Bless, I Love U, Delete

Wytch Finger - The Dance EP

Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Smile OST

Skinny Puppy - Remission

New Order - Movement

The Final Cut - Consumed

Skinny Puppy - Bites

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Seven Days of Bowie: Day 3 - Sex and The Church

 

From the criminally under-referenced The Buddha of Suburbia album Bowie released as, in his words, "a quasi soundtrack" to Roger Michell's series adaptation of Hanif Kureishi's novel, neither of which I am familiar with. I LOVE the Saxophone on this album, especially this track. Little considered fact: Bowie plays all the Sax on this record. Granted, there are some Bell Biv Devoe-style beats on this one (South Horizon, I'm looking at you!) but they work! Overall, it's a marvelous record.

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Watch:

Many thanks to Heavenisanincubator for reminding me Nicolas Winding Refn's Copenhagen Cowboy recently dropped. 

 

 I blew through the entire six episodes this past Tuesday. If Refn's previous foray into sequential streaming Too Old To Die Young left you a bit cold, fear not, I found Copenhagen Cowboy a considerably easier ride (that said, applying the adjective "easy" to Refn's work is a bit misleading. You still have to work for it here, too, only this time, the contents don't make your skin crawl so much).

My Letterbxd entry on this one lives HERE.

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Playlist:

Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues

Death - ... For All the World To See

Jucifer - I Name You Destroyer

David Bowie - Scary Monsters

David Bowie - Station to Station

Tin Machine - Live at La Cigale, Paris, 25th June 1989

Bigg Doggett and His Combo - All His Hits

Lorn - Rarities

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Card:

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

Completion of Will requires a partnership or collaboration that will ultimately balance my somewhat topsy-turvy confidence. Could be good news, I have a couple of possible collaborations in the near future.

Christmas Bloody Christmas!

 

I think I'm going to need a heaping dose of sonic autopsy from Electric Wizard to wake my ass up today. K and I went and got our Boosters yesterday, and in line with all the other iterations of this, it knocked me on my ass, so I didn't sleep all that well, and I'm struggling to get through work today.

Any band that names a song (or part of a song) after Weird Tales are gods in my book. 

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Watch:

That which I have been waiting for has finally arrived:

 

Since Heavenisanincubator turned me on to Joe Begos' ultra-violent SciFi mind-fuck Almost Human many years ago, I've been a fan. I corralled a bunch of friends to go see Begos' follow-up Mind's Eye at Beyondfest in 2015 and repeated that in 2019 for the Bliss/VFW double-header. Knowing Christmas Bloody Christmas would land this year, it reigned as my #1 "Gotta get tickets" film for this year's Beyondfest, but Murphy's Law dictated that the viewing occurred on the same night I'd bought tickets to see Zeal and Ardor. I don't regret the choice, however, it's been ribbing me ever since. Now that the trailer is here, I'm even more excited to see Begos' latest film. He just delivers the kind of violent trash (I mean that as a compliment, of course) that puts me back to the world of my childhood, and his visual and musical aesthetic aligns very much with my own. 

With the line "in theatres everywhere" attached to the film and the fact that I just saw Damien Leone's Terrifier 2 at the Regal in town, I'm hoping CBC lands here, too. If not, I've been plotting where I might have to drive to see it. Because oh yes, I will drive to see this.

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Read:

Here's another NCBD addendum. On a lark, I picked up the first issue of Specs, published by BOOM studios, created by David M. Booher and Chris Shehan.

Very solid first issue. Obviously, the cover gives off They Live vibes, but that's not really the case. The set-up is the two main characters get a hold of wish-granting Specs that turn their life upside down and by the looks of it, there will be fallout. I dug this issue enough that I'll definitely be coming back for more.

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Playlist:

Opeth - Watershed

Electric Wizard - Dopethrone

The Neverly Boys - The Dark Side of Everything

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Card:

From the Grimoire: "Let things develop before making another move." Loud and clear. 

Preoccupations - Ricochet

 

Really digging this new track from Preoccupations that not only did Heaven is an Incubator post about recently, but both my good friends Jacob and Mr. Brown sent me last week (or the week before, we are now officially in a blur, ladies and gentlemen). It's been some time since we had new music from these guys, and I'd forgotten just how much I love their Eponymous and New Material Records (not to mention the Viet Cong stuff). 

The new album Arrangements is out September 9th, and you can pre-order it now HERE. I'm currently on a ban from anything pending our move, but that shouldn't hold you back.

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Watch:

I feel like someone sent me something about this one a few months back, as the title rings familiar. After watching this trailer, however, I don't know. The first feature from Writer/Director Zach Cregger, this is new to me:

 

Holy smokes. SOLD. What a fantastic trailer - it gives us so much of the aesthetic but gives NOTHING away (I'm assuming). Bill Skarsgård is beginning to be enough to make me stop and consider anything he's in, so there's that, and the 'tunnels under suburbia' angle is right in my sweet spot, so my arse will be in a seat come 8/31.

 

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Playlist:

Black Sabbath - Eponymous

The Mars Volta - Blacklight Shine (pre-release single)

The Soft Moon - Him (pre-release single)

Preoccupations - Ricochet (pre-release single)

Smokey Robinson and the Miracles - 1957-1972 (Live)

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Card:

Fortify your position. Definitely apt. I'm having massive "is this the right thing?" thoughts as we look at houses. 

Blood Dawn

I had completely forgotten the Chelsea Wolfe/Converge collab album Bloodmoon: I dropped a few weeks back. Thankfully, Heaven is an Incubator just released his Top Twenty-Five records of 2021 and this was on it, reminding me to strap on the ear goggles and disappear into a place both wonderful and strange.

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Watch:

After five episodes, I can absolutely assure you that Showtime's new series Yellowjackets is on the shortlist for my favorite shows of the year. It's not going to beat out Brand New Cherry Flavor, but I almost feel like I should remove that one from the running - it's unbeatable.

 

Yellowjackets seems to be on track to come pretty close, though. This show has me chomping at the bit for each successive episode, which drop weekly on Sundays.

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Playlist:

Van Halen - 1984

White Lung - Paradise

White Zombie - Astro-Creep 2000

Deftones - Ohms 

Calexico - Seasonal Shift

Godflesh - Streetcleaner

Blut Aus Nord - Codex Obscura Nomina

Godflesh - A World Lit Only By Fire

Blut Aus Nord - The Mystical Beast of Rebellion

Blut Aus Nord - The Work Which Transforms God

Møl - Diorama

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Card:

The Airy aspect of Earth - note the bull and its rider, often interpreted as an 'energetic young man.' I have to wonder if there's a message there, or if the cards are mocking me this morning. I'm still struggling with a total lack of energy and the subsequent feelings that, at nearly 46, I'm just getting tired and old. Part of me reads that and immediately says, "Fuck you," to the part of myself that thinks that, and part of me wonders. 

Recently, I've traced the start of this constant feeling of exhaustion to two things: 1) the loss of most of my staff at work, which means all my managerial duties take a backseat to near-constant physical work. None of this is super demanding work, but it's continuous over the course of several sustained hours. Add this to my penchant for only sleeping a little over five hours a night (most nights, with after-work naps increasing in frequency), and there's a definite factor. However, 2) I also can't ignore that the start of this exhaustion appears to match up with my relatively newfound love of fasting. I do 13-16 hour fasts almost every day, and while this almost completely alleviates the stomach issues I've had for most of my life, I also can't help but wonder if it's a contributing factor. 

The good news is we're on a hiring kick at work, so hopefully, this will soon put me back in a place where I don't burn all my energy for the day by noon. I'm not the kind of manager who likes sitting at a desk for my entire day, but eight or nine hours of near-continuous physical strain sure as hell isn't doing me any good.

We'll see. 

Zetra - From Within

 

Heaven is an Incubator recently posted about the upcoming From Without EP that drops in January (pre-order HERE). I'd never heard of the band, and when I clicked over and heard the 1-2 of Life Melts Away that opens From Within, well, I was totally sold. 

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Watch:

So I made it through Mike Flanagan's Midnight Mass. Not an easy task until the last three episodes, which ended up really coming through and making the rest of the show worthwhile. Not that it's terrible, but a lot of the 'aging' make-up used is pretty bad, and the lead character is just pointless and annoying. I mean, really. He ultimately serves no purpose that could not have been collapsed into another character. Ah well, in the end, I really dug the juxtaposition of religion and the supernatural, so it's a recommendation, although I can pretty safely say I'll never watch this one again.

Next? Castle Rock! I've been meaning to watch this for, well, years now, and I'm finally doing it. Three episodes into Season One and I'm digging it. Fantastic cast. Here's the trailer:

I've read a pretty fair amount of Stephen King, but not enough to deftly spot every reference in this one, so I'm gingerly taking mental notes and will look up all the references afterward. The obvious one here is Shawshank Prison, which I didn't realize played such a big part in this first season's story. Very cool. 

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Playlist:

Anthrax - Among the Living

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Bnny - Everything

Hotel Decor - Could It Take Me Any Longer EP

The Fixx - Reach the Beach

Slayer - Decade of Aggression

Boz Scaggs - Silk Degrees

Zetra - From Within

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Card:

A reminder that methodical approaches to projects and problems are the way to go. Timely, as I have one big, open-loop issue in my life right now - the eventual move - and on any given day, it feels over-fucking-whelming.

Halloween Kills Pink Milk

Heaven is an Incubator recently posted a new track by Pink Milk, a band I'd never heard of before, but which knocked me out upon first listen. The new album - Ultraviolet - spun about six or seven times this past Saturday afternoon. I literally could not turn it off.

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31 Days of Halloween:

K and I finally saw Halloween Kills. In my world, the only truly necessary Halloween flicks are the original and then Part III: Season of the Witch. But in this world, where there will no doubt always be new Halloween movies, this was a fairly good entry. I'm not sure why so many people dislike it - I actually liked it better than Halloween 2018. The lynch mob stuff strikes me as exactly how that situation would go down in real life. I could have done without the last ten minutes or so, otherwise, solid entertainment. 

1) VHS 94 (don't waste your time)

2) The Mutilator

3) Demons 

4) Vortex

5) Possession

6) The Black Phone

7) Slumber Party Massacre

8) Antlers

9) No One Gets Out Alive

10) A Nightmare on Elm Street '84

11) A Nightmare on Elm Street 2010

12) A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

13) Satan Hates You

14) Night of the Demons

15) Lamb

16) The Company of Wolves

17) There's Someone in the House

18) A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master

19) Titane

20) A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (9, 10, Never watch again)

21) Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (same. Awful)

22) The Innkeepers

23) Muppets Haunted Mansion/Freaky

24) Halloween Kills

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Playlist:

Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears

Pink Milk - Ultraviolet

Type O Negative - Life is Killing Me

Ozzy Osbourne - Ordinary Man

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Card:

I'm not seeing the entire scope of something that's concerning me.  Something is off. Not sure what that is.

Abby Sage - Residing in the Sky

 

This Abby Sage is something else. I can't say I'm as crazy about "Residing in the Sky" as I am "Smoke Break," but then of late, I'm not crazy about any song the way I am about "Smoke Break." Still, Ms. Sage makes some very cool, interesting music. I don't know that I'd define it as Pop, but I don't know that I wouldn't, either. Whatever her sound, it's unique, that's for sure.

 

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NCBD:

Because of my situation at the moment (see "Watch" below), I won't be making it into the shop today. Luckily, my shop delivers to nearby Pull Customers, so this is what I'm asking them to drop off later this afternoon:

The final issue of this mostly pointless series that I still wouldn't have missed due to its part in the countdown to Nick Spencer's final issue. I've decided in the interest of saving space and $$$, I will not be going forward with the next regular, essentially weekly AMS title. When I get the craving, I can always re-read the Spencer run (I started with issue 48, I think) or any of the 80s Spidey comics I've added to my collection from back-issue bins of late.

I read the first trade of Jeremy Haun's Beauty when it first hit shelves, however, I fell off. The trade later got damaged when I moved and is long gone. Since meeting Jeremy, I've become rather fond of the bloke - he is a true Horror fan, a gentleman and most definitely a scholar. That has bumped up re-starting Beauty on the list. I think I'll start by buying the one-shot series finale this week, just to have it in the collection, then finally read it when I can grab the series in trade and catch up.

I'm not 100% I'm going to buy this title, but I'm intrigued to say the least.

I just caught up with the last two issues of Geiger a week or two ago and I'm already hungry for more. This is shaping up to be one of my favorite books of the year.

This book is F*&king INSANE. Like a modern version of early 80s exploitation cinema, but gorier!

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Watch:

Well, after a year-and-a-half of caution and close calls, I'm sick at home since Tuesday morning, waiting on the results of a COVID test. It's funny how, even if you don't let your guard down, the world can get you. One of my employees has an eleven-and-a-half-year-old sister who started school two weeks ago, was tested and found to have COVID, and thus, the virus may have made its way to me by way of the office we share. We observe all the proper protocols, and both the employee in question and myself are vaxxed, so the symptoms are mild at best, but still. While my employee is a confirmed positive - luckily with next to no symptoms - and two rapid tests in the last few days came back negative for me, we're playing it extra safe and I'm waiting on the PCR results at home. I'd just finished 9 days in a row and have been feeling like crap anyway, so I ordered a bottle of Breez Royal Mint Spray (the ease of the cannabis delivery world is one thing I will miss when I move from LaLaLand), and spent yesterday doing a full recharge. Besides beginning Stephen Graham Jones's new novel My Heart is a Chainsaw - which, a quarter of the way through I f*&king LOVE, and which totally put me in the headspace for 80s Horror - here's what I watched as recharge comfort food:

 

 

And how can you watch the original and not follow it with one of the all-time greatest movies in history? The answer, you can't.

 

So, that was the comfort food portion of my sabbatical. Next up, a film I had not seen, but my friend/colleague Heaven is an Incubator logged on his Letterbxd a few months back and looked interesting, 1989's The Dead Pit:

Turns out I LOVE this flick! It's not good by any stretch of the imagination, but its heavy-handed Nightmare on Elm Street influence immediately endeared it to me, as well as the fact that the weird, dream-like tone and often half-completed set design makes it the perfect pairing for a double feature with another schlock flick I adore, 976-EVIL, which I may watch today.

Next, one I had not seen in ages, and thus did not readily remember very well.  Stan Winston's 1988 directorial debut, Pumpkinhead:

There is not a shot in this film that I don't adore. The lighting and set design are heavenly... well, hellenly? You know what I mean. The Blackwood Cemetery sequence and Pumpkinhead's grave especially stay with me, as does the fact that, when Ed Harley first digs up Pumpkinhead and Haggis sets about resurrecting it, the young version looks almost exactly like Sam from Trick r' Treat without his mask on!

Pretty cool, huh? So, when Sam grows up, will he be a demon of vengeance? 

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Playlist:

St. Vincent - Daddy's Home

Jerry Cantrell - Atone (single)

Ultra Bann - Big Trouble in Little Haiti

The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers

The Smiths - The Queen is Dead

Abby Sage - Smoke Break

The Bangels - All Over the Place

Adam Egypt Mortimer - The Obelisk

Deafheaven - Infinite Granite

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Card:

I'm assuming this is a nod that I will 'fail' my COVID test, ie be negative. This means I'm just suffering from a cold - something that didn't use to garner nearly this much anxiety.

Looking at the image for this card makes me want to go a bit deeper, though. I'm seeing it for the Abyss it represents visually. I may choose to use this as a starting point for something I may attempt to write today (can't spend every day recharging).

Small Black - Tampa

I had never heard Small Black before Heaven Is An Incubator posted about their upcoming album Cheap Dreams one day last week. Seeing the album cover, I KNEW this would be awesome, and it is. You can pre-order Cheap Dreams from Small Black's Bandcamp HERE; looks like there are a few copies of the 'Red Rain' variant left for the vinyl. "Tampa" is the B-side from lead single "Duplex", and both are killer tracks. And this album cover is haunting! 

I just want to walk into that scene and disappear.

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Watch:

We finished the first season of CBS's Evil on Netflix and here I am, thinking I can just subscribe to CBS All Access and see the second season, and WHOAH! Not out yet! 

WTF?!?

For a procedural, this show is NUTS, and it has some genuinely scary AF moments and Michael Emerson gives Paul Reiser's Burke from Aliens a run for his money in the slimy scumf&ck department.

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Playlist:

Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss

Genghis Tron - Dream Weapon (pre-release single)

Sleaford Mods - Spare Ribs

Small Black - Duplex Single

The Bangles - Different Light

Credence Clearwater Revival - Eponymous

Drab Majesty - Careless

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Card:

Sudden change. I feel a touch hesitant about this. 

The War For Reality

Thanks to Heaven is an Incubator for retweeting this and bringing such an eloquent, albeit chilling, crystallization of current events to light. My prediction: with all the Reality bending already in place, it will not matter whether trump is reelected (although let's not let that stop us from tossing him out the door); we're going to see an increasing escalation in violence from both sides and within the next ten years the 50 states as we know them will change. I'm not sure what that's going to look like exactly, but I (once again) point to Greg Rucka and Michael Lark's Lazarus or the USIDENT of Richard Kelley's Southland Tales as possible examples. "Oh, but that's just silly. Those are science fiction," you say? Friend, we're already living in Sci Fi land. When someone can stand up and say "Day" when it's clearly "Night" and a large part of the population will believe him despite the empirical evidence of their senses, I say all bets are off.

Sunday Bandcamp: Dead Swords

Holy shit, where has this been my whole life? I stumbled across New Jersey's Dead Swords while tripping off this awesome record that Heaven is an Incubator posted a few days ago. Talk about an algorithm!

This album goes deep, so strap on some ear goggles and disappear to another dimension.

Isolation: Day 57 - Alphabetland!

Last Friday, seminal LA punk rock group X released their first album with the all-original line-up in, well, I don't really know how long, but a pretty damn long time! Especially good news is the fact that founding guitarist Billy Zoom has conquered his health problems and returned to the fold. I saw X live (with Dwight Yokam!) five or six years ago and Billy was not present. They were great, but it's just not the same without that man.

You can pick this one up on X's Bandcamp HERE.

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A couple of days ago I finally watched V/H/S/2 and V/H/S: Viral. Part 2 is more or less fantastic, the Indonesian segment being one of the scariest things I've seen in a while. Viral is, as several friends warned me, not all that great. The one segment I absolutely loved though was "Bonestorm," and turned out to have been done by Benson and Moorhead, the guys responsible for Resolution and The Endless, which I talked about recently in these pages.

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Heaven is an Incubator posted this a few days ago. Awesome. Find it on Bandcamp HERE.

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I finished Preston Fassel's fantastic novel Our Lady of the Inferno and have moved on to Clive Barker's Damnation Game and Al Jourgensen's autobiography Ministry: The Lost Gospels According to Al Jourgensen, the latter of which Mr. Brown lent me months ago and I've been chomping at the bit to read since.. I'm not huge on reading multiple books at a time, but I'm stumbling through the last three chapters of the novel I'm editing/re-tooling, and when I write, I tend to need to be reading fiction at the same time. I actually consider this part of the writing process. I don't punch-in and out for it, like I do with actual writing writing (I use two apps, ATracker PRO and Focus Keeper), but I recognize that it's most definitely an integral part of my process. That said, Jourgensen's biography is conversational, not prosaic like Juan F. Thompson's Stories I Tell Myself, thus it's not fitting the bill. So I'm splitting my time, treating Uncle Al's book like having a beer, and Barker's like sharpening my craft.

The Damnation Game is actually one I read long ago, back when I first discovered Barker's work in the early 90s. I believe I was a Sophomore or Junior in High School when I checked The Great and Secret Show out of the library. That one blew my mind - still meaning to re-read it and hit the sequel Eversville - and I went straight into The Books of Blood and subsequently The Damnation Game afterward. Funny thing, although I remember quite a bit of Great and Secret and Books of Blood, but I remember next to nothing about Damnation. Which is cool, because already, only a handful of pages in, and Barker's sumptuous prose has already had a massive effect on me.


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Cocksure - Operation C.O.C.K.S.U.R.E.
X - Alphabetland
X - Under the Big Black Sun
The Neighbourhood - I Love You.
The Neighbourhood - Wiped Out
Blut Aus Nord - The Mystical Beast of Rebellion
Void King - There Is Nothing

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No card.

Blood Red Shoes - Mexican Dress

Blood Red Shoes' 2019 album Get Tragic is one of those albums that just missed being on my Top Ten Favorite Albums of 2019 list. And I mean, just missed it. A solid album that scratches the itch left by The Kills, whose last album I didn't particularly care for.

That list is coming soon, I swear. In the meantime, Heaven is an Incubator posted his Top Ten Favorite Albums of 2019 HERE. Great stuff, and a lot of it that's new to me. Of particular note is Zetra, whose Bandcamp you can check out HERE.

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I recently became completely obsessed with HBO's Watchmen show. I've always been hesitant with any addition to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon's seminal graphic masterpiece, completely ignoring After Watchmen and Doomsday Clock and Doctor Manhattan's Super Happy Funtime Show, or whatever other ridiculous way DC is currently involved in trying to fleece the source material for, so I didn't fall in line with HBO's offering until I learned a few things recently that changed my mind.

1) HBO's show is not a sequel to the Movie Adaptation. It is a sequel to the original comic. That means no Dr. Manhattan blamed for Nuclear Strike, but massive phony squid alien destroys New York, brings humanity together, and diverts Nuclear Holocaust. Three episodes in, I'm floored by the quality of the show. I mean, it's HBO, so the production value is always going to be top of the line. But I'm getting some aesthetic vibes reminiscent of True Detective Season One. Also, the story plays with so many peripheral elements of the world created by Watchmen that it's just not the story I would have ever imagined anyone doing. If that's not awesome enough, the way the show introduces people/events and then doles out information made the first episode basically one big gottasee, so I am hooked.

Oh yeah, and 2) Mr. Brown sent me THIS.

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Shudder recently added Brian Yuzna's Bride of Reanimator. I'd never seen this one before, despite loving the first Reanimator, and I was shocked to find that I think I actually like Bride better! It's funnier, gorier, and really just completely insane.




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Playlist:

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - Watchmen OST, Vol. 1
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - Watchmen OST, Vol. 2
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - Social Network
NIN - With Teeth
NIN - The Slip
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Godflesh - Pure
Godflesh - A World Lit Only By Fire
NIN - Not the actual Events
Duende and David J - Oracle of the Horisontal
Blood Red Shoes - Get Tragic
Carpenter Brut - Leather Teeth
Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell
Carpenter Brut - Trilogy

2019: May 7th - New Tool Song (Live)

I'll admit that I am skeptical as all hell about new music from Tool. I love the band, or perhaps that feeling is better expressed in the past tense; the idea that it's been 13 years since 10,000 Days makes me wonder. Then again, I understand how life runs away with your time. I would have preferred to hear this as an actual album track, instead of a live one with a lot of close-talking crowd noise, but at this point, curiosity got the better of me.

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Tommy from Heaven is an Incubator has a fantastic article up on Entropymag. In it, he juxtaposes his long-time love affair with the SXSW festival from his life before having children to his life with children. It is one of my favorite things I've read so far this year. Read it HERE.

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NCBD tomorrow and here are my picks for the week:

Lodger has perplexed me. I've enjoyed it, but I'm confused and feel as though I'm missing something. My plan is to sit down and reread the entire five-issue run later this week and see how it pans out.

LOVE this John McCrea alt cover. Good to have Deadly Class back; if you haven't watched the SyFy show yet, it's all up streaming on the network's app and it is fantastic.

This book just gets better and better.

The return of the sleeper hit from 2018. Can't wait.

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Playlist from 5/06:

Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Chasms - The Mirage
Chasms - On the Legs of Love Purified
White Zombie - Astro Creep 2000
Marilyn Manson - The Pale Emperor
King Buffalo - Longing to be the Mountain
Tomahawk - Anonymous
Nachtmystium - Black Meddle II: Addicts
The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir
Atrium Carceri - Cellblock

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Card of the day

Emotional purity that can cloud the head, alter the perception of self, in both good and bad ways. This feels like a direct reference to incidents with peripheral people in my life that have affected my own. And this interference, as I'll refer to it, has pissed me off enough that it has clouded my own emotional stability, and thus, my headspace. I had an extremely unproductive day writing yesterday. I 'punched in' and put in the time, but felt utterly useless. That's okay, that happens sometimes, and from my experience you just have to deal with it. You suck up the bad, knowing the good always follows and outweighs it. But that doesn't make it any less frustrating and, eventually, hellishly introspective to sit and peck at the keys for two hours with nothing that feels like a result following from it.

Incidentally, I also suspect these periods follow rabid involvement in slightly frivolous music. I'm not connecting with much sonically right now, as I come off my Rob Zombie binge, and it bugs me. This Atrium Carceri is the new thing in a while that feels like it is moving and inspiring me.