A new Human Impact EP dropped last Friday and I totally missed it. Last year's eponymous album from these guys was kind of the soundtrack to the apocalypse, so this comes with mixed feelings. Either way, if shit goes pear-shaped again, at least it'll have another great OST.
Watch:
April 16th can't get here fast enough. Why?
I'll see anything even remotely associated with Larry Fessenden regardless, but it's always great when he spends more time on screen. Here, he's leading man opposite Barbara Crampton? In what looks like a fantastic modern vampire movie, no less. Count me in.
Playlist:
Pilotpriest - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Godflesh - Pure
Arab Strap - As Days Get Dark
Suburban Living - How to be Human
Pigface - Live 2019 (vinyl, 231 of 1000)
Huey Lewis and the News - Weather
Card:
I read this as "letting go," which is especially pertinent to my day job at the moment. Being made salary means I'm taking a pay cut if I continue to work the extra hours I am essentially taking a pay cut, so I have to learn to let certain things go. I have a good team that works for me, and what this ultimately means is I will have a lot more time to write. Win Win, as long as I can let go.
Somehow, I either missed or forgot that Human Impact released a single in September of last year. "Genetic" is a terse little fist to the throat, wrapped up tight in Human Impact's trademark, snarling severity. Hopefully, this is a sign of more new music to come.
READ:
I did a lot of catching up on current comics over my brief sabbatical from work earlier in the week. Here's what I read and my take:
I didn't realize The Boys: Dear Becky was ending with issue #8 until I read issue #7. Now that the whole thing is out, I re-read it all from the beginning and enjoyed it quite a bit. The Boys is a really uneven epic in my eyes, with moments of emotional brilliance surrounded by what I've come to think of as Garth Ennis just being Garth Ennis. It worked the best in Preacher, but as with the regular Boys series, Dear Becky tends to step back up into the sublime just as you start to feel jaded about the ridiculousness. Overall, if you only know the show, you probably don't need to go back to the source material - The Boys is possibly the best example of an adaptation-for-screen that has completely trumped its source material - however, if you know and dig the original comic series, Dear Becky will scratch the itch.
Having only just read Laura Marks and Kelley Jones's Daphne Byrne a few months ago, our Deep Dive into Hill House Comics on a recent episode of A Most Horrible Library made me want to revisit this stunning Gaslamp-era New York. It's soooo good. Kelley Jones really just brings the creep factor up to eleven here, and it makes for a really fun, pleasing story with all the fixings - widows betrothed to the Devil, ghastly visions, malevolent visitations, and surly, Hackney con artists using peoples' grief and the rise of spiritualism to take advantage of them.
This one came out in October, but I just read it, then kept it hanging around in the stack so I could read the short story and other backmatter stuff that rounds out every enormous issue of Greg Rucka and Michael Lark's Lazarus, an economy based dystopian world that I have become more and more convinced maybe the closest thing to what the world is going to look like by the end of my lifetime. Equal parts thrilling and intriguing, there's espionage, military strategy, human drama, and action.
I'm using the image for the upcoming HC collection of Hellblazer: Rise and Fall, but if you can find the single issues, that's the way to read this one. The Black Label, Magazine format is perfect for this story, possibly the first new Hellblazer story in years I've actually really liked. This is the 'softer' JC we've seen in recent years, without that trademark Vertigo edge, however, there's still edge to be had, there's homage to previous creators all over the place, and maybe I just really wanted to like A) a new JC story and B) really wanted to like one of these Black Label books, because I dug this one. Three issues, doesn't overstay its welcome, is pretty humorous at times, and still captures some of the Black Magick Heart of the character.
Loving this new project from former Unsane frontman. The album drops March 13th on Ipecac Records; you can pre-order it HERE.
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Last night, K and I returned to the theatre for a second viewing of Underwater, and this time we brought a couple of the other fiends from The Horror Vision. The second viewing was almost better than the first, and afterward we recorded a short episode - a spoiler heavy discussion. Also, THV is now available on Stitcher, as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Play:
Ah yes, that Breakthrough. A well-timed reminder to get my ass out the door and to my writing spot, instead of starting a movie or continuing to sit here reading.
