Knocking on the Skeleton Tree

 

I fell back into Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' 2016 album Skeleton Tree album unexpectedly yesterday. I had forgotten how good this record is. Definitely for the quieter moments in life, but exquisite in a way nothing else Cave has done. This is part of the reason I've been unable to get into the 2019 follow-up, Ghosteen - the two albums feel so much alike, Ghosteen strikes me as redundant. I'm certain this is my problem, and that I've just not hit on it at the right moment yet, so I'll keep trying.

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Watch:

Hungry for new on new Horror movies coming out, I found this teaser for Frida Kempff's debut feature Knocking on Bloody Disgusting. This one looks fantastic!

 

This is totally one that would play for free at this year's Beyondfest in the Speilberg theatre space at the Egyptian if that theatre wasn't under construction by new owners Netflix until 2022. As is, because of how I scheduled my first trip back to the Midwest since February 2020, I may not be heading to Beyondfest this year, but if by some miracle the switch of venue to what I'm assuming will be the Los Feliz 3 and Aero Theatres moves the annual fest to a different spot on the calendar, I'll definitely be trying to see Knocking on the big screen. If not, it hits VOD on October 19th.

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Playlist:

Pilot Priest and Electric Youth - Come True OST

Soulsavers - The Light the Dead See

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Skeleton Tree

The Twilight Singers - Powder Burns

Black Sabbath - Paranoid

Tropic of Cancer - The Sorrow of Two Blooms 

Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - May Our Chambers be Full

Zeal and Ardor - Stranger Fruit

Zeal and Ardor - Devil is Fine

Code Orange - Underneath

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Card:

Follow my intuition? It's funny, at this exact moment, that would line up perfectly with the post I did earlier in the week where I mentioned blowing up my life. I'm chomping at the bit to leave L.A., to leave my job, for everything in my professional life to change. I just don't know how to effect that change. 

Unchained Residue

I woke up one day last week and literally, before I could even climb from bed, thought, "Unchained Melody is one of the greatest songs ever recorded." 

Now, I've know this song my entire life, and I've long enjoyed it, however, this was something different. I don't know where this contemplation and pronouncement came from, because I don't know that I've heard Unchained anytime recently. But there it was, and when I got to work and put in my headphones I had to concur that, yes, this song is epic.

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Here's one of my favorite new scenarios: I come home from work tired at least two days a week. I settle onto the couch with my pillow and my cat and throw on a movie. Usually, my go-to's for this situation are either Shudder TV or Prime. I almost always end up falling asleep within the first ten minutes or so, then wake up in the last three-quarters of the flick. In the best-case scenarios, whatever I see when I open my eyes prompts me to rewind all the way back and pick up where I dozed off. This happened yesterday with Rusty Nixon's 2017 Residue. 

I LOVED this flick. I don't know that I've ever seen anything with this tone before, a kind of deft balance between humor, Horror, and Neo-Noir. Everyone nails their parts, the FX crew is cognizant of their limitations and do an outstanding job working within it (LOVE the Puppetry), and the mythology is just vague enough to leave me desperately wanting to talk about the flick and just specific enough to indicate the filmmaker knew what he was doing and stuck to it. All in all, this is one of my favorite finds in a while, as far as flicks that passed me by from recent years. 

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Playlist: 

Zombi - Shape Shift 

Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest

Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance

The Marvelettes - The Hunter Gets Captured By the Game

Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower

Windhand - Levitation Sessions

High On Fire - Blessed Black Wings

Tomahawk - Immobility

Suburban Living - Always Eyes

P.M. Dawn - Set Adrift on Memory Bliss

Various Artists - Valerie and Friends

Canadian Rifle - Peaceful Death

SURVIVE - Mnqo26

Gram Rabbit - Music to Start a Cult To

Just Once in My Life - The Righteous Brothers

16 - Dream Squasher

Etta James - Second Time Around

Steve Moore - VFW OST

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Card:

 

Center your strength, eh? Okay, that seems like good advice right now. 

Mark Lanegan sings Joy Division's Disorder for Charity

Posted on Peter Hook's youtube channel. Here's the verbiage:

"As part of Sweet Relief Musicians Fund's recent 'For The Crew' fundraising event, Hooky's son Jack teamed up with Mark Lanegan (Mark Lanegan Band/Screaming Trees), Smashing Pumpkins guitarist Jeff Schroeder and drummer Shane Graham for a special live version of the Joy Division classic 'Disorder'. All funds raised by this event went towards supporting out of work touring crews who have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Please consider making a donation if you are able to: https://givebutter.com/FORTHECREW​

If you're in the US you can also text FORTHECREW to (202) 858-1233."

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Watch:

I had yesterday off, so Tuesday night K and I had a bit of a marathon. Being that it was my birthday, I wanted to reconnect with what I've come to think of my 'power movies.' There are quite a few, but here's what I went with:

 

Followed by:

 

Rounded out by my second viewing of Ryan Gosling's gorgeous directorial debut in the last two months (with a third already scheduled):

This was a great night for me; it'd been longer than I realized since my last viewing of my favorite Horror film of the 00s. Kill List I'd only seen once before but it left such a huge impression on me I'd been planning a follow-up for years. Luckily, thanks to Anthony (Butcher) from The Horror Vision, I located a B-Region BR for $5 a few months ago, so now I can watch my favorite Ben Wheatley film whenever I want. And Lost River has just become one of my all-times. I seriously think about re-watching it every day. 

Every. Day.

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Playlist:

Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

Cocksure - TVMALSV

Etta James - Eponymous

Tennis System - Technicolour Blind

The Dead Milkmen - Welcome to the End of the World

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Abbatoir Blues

The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes are the Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings

Genghis Tron - Dream Weapon 

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Card:

I felt honored and ecstatic to do my first birthday pull from Missi's Raven Deck. I wasn't disappointed, either:

The presence of Boaz and Joachim are very positively charged images for me, one of the reasons this might be my favorite card from this deck. Plus, I've always considered a strong, mythical female presence as the closest thing to a supreme power in the cosmos of my life. Here, flanked by Soloman's pillars and a weird forest-derived rendition of the Tree of Life, I see nothing but the actualization of the processes I have put into place over the last several years.