Slashing/Back to 1984

 

Driving back from Indiana yesterday was a pretty serene experience. After an amazing weekend with my best friends in the world, I hit Route 31 and dug into a deserted drive back to Tennessee, accompanied for the first few hours by a handful of great Rock n' Roll albums. First up - Bowie's Diamond Dogs. I wasn't high, but I swear, I heard things in this listen that I hadn't ever before and really came out the other side with a new appreciation. Of particular mention, 1984, the arranging and production of which inspired a considerably great appreciation than on previous listens. There's a mindset to this album that it takes a very strong concentration to crack; I'm not saying I didn't dig DD before, but I guess I'd never listened to this one in such a concentrated, uninterrupted session before.  Aside from Rebel Rebel - which would have originally been the opening track on side two, and thus strategically placed to be the first song heard after the album is stopped and physically flipped over and re-started, there is a sonic and conceptual vein that runs through this record that almost makes it flow like one long song. 

I'm re-posting this track from youtube user Mister Sussux's channel, which, if you're a Bowie fan, you might want to check out and subscribe to, as it has some really cool Bowie clips.

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Watch:

I missed the trailer on this back a few months ago, but after catching it this morning on accident, I have to say, Slash/Back goes to the top of my Shudder watch list:

One part Stranger Things/Reservation Dogs, one Part The Thing or Slither - I purposely stopped watching the trailer the moment it looked like they might reveal the monster - this looks fantastic. This is the first feature from Slash/Back Director/Co-writer Nyla Innuksuk, who I know nothing about but have a feeling will be getting a spot on my radar after this one. 

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Playlist:

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Land of Sleeper

Telekinetic Yeti - Primordial

Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues

Cinematic Void Podcast - Episode 62

Trombone Shorty - Lifted

Television - Marquee Moon

Frank Black and the Catholics - Live at Melkweg March 24, 2001

David Bowie Diamond Dogs

The Police - Outlandos D'Amour

Dr. John - Locked Down

Beck - Odelay

David Bowie - PinUps

Various - Rocktober Blood Soundtrack

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Card:

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

Emotional recharge after letting go of the urge to try and control Earthly things we cannot. I'm not entirely sure what this is saying, but I have a feeling it ties into recent work/life stuff. 

Brainiac - Smothered Inside

 

Mr. Brown recently set me up with a vinyl copy of The Predator Nominate, a newly published "lost" demo from Dayton, Ohio legends Brainiac. If you don't know the Brainiac story, it's one of the saddest in 90s indie rock. A fantastic band cut down right as they began achieving the status they so greatly deserved when their vocalist/guitarist/keyboard/chief songwriter died in an automobile accident. Since the tragedy in 1997, members have gone on to start Enon, Model/Actress, Shesus, and probably about another dozen bands I'm forgetting at the moment. Recently, following the Transmissions after Zero documentary, those surviving members released a small cache of "Basement tapes," which appears to be book-ended by this, the EP that, if I understand it correctly, would have followed their final EP, Electroshock for President. Electroshock has always filled me with a great melancholy - hearing the direction the band was headed excites the mind to what would lie ahead. Now, we get a glimpse, and it's a pleasure to breeze through these nine tracks and think about how they might have heard if the band could have finished. 

 RIP Tim Taylor, alongside The Jesus Lizard, Brainiac was probably my favorite 90s band from that independent scene. 

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Watch:

Super bummed to have finally got around to watching Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese's 1899 on Netflix, only to find out the streaming service canceled it.

Perhaps not quite as riveting as the creators' previous Netflix show Dark, which is just about the best time travel narrative I've ever encountered, 1899 had a lot of elements recognizable as having come from the same minds as Dark, but with a pretty grandiose SciFi leverage at its core. Big cliffhanger and we're getting nothing else. Remember when Netflix first started the streaming revolution and they said they'd bring back any popular canceled show from the last few years? Well, now they seem to cancel at the drop of a hat. I'm hoping many Odar and Friese do what Mike Flanagan did after NF canceled his Midnight Club and exit the company in search of a better deal elsewhere. 

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Playlist:

Brainiac - The Predator Nominate

The Police - Outlandos D'Amour

Talking Heads - Fear of Music

Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues

Iress - Prey

Zeal and Ardor - Eponymous

Carpenter Brut - Leather Terror

Code Orange - Underneath

David Bowie - Diamond Dogs

David Bowie - PinUps

Metallica - Kill 'Em All

Fvnerals - Let The Earth Be Silent

Telekinetic Yeti - Primordial

Kermit Ruffins and the Rebirth Brass Band - Throwback

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Card:

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

A slightly darker-than-normal shot, so apologies. In a bit of a hurry this morning as I pound black coffee and prepare to drive 6.5 hours up to a cabin in the woods where I will spend a blissfully intoxicated weekend with three of my oldest friends. Now, if one of them can just help me translate passages from this book I found at an old antique shop...