Ghost Covers Iron Maiden!!!

 

From the forthcoming Phantomime EP, out this Friday! Pre-order HERE. 

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Watch:

I've been sick AF since Saturday, so I watched a lot of movies over the last few days. I'm not going to post trailers for everything, but there are a few I'd like to mention. First of those is Gary Busey in a Richard C. Sarafian film, Eye of the Tiger! This was probably my favorite viewing experience. I don't know, seeing Gary Busey kick the hell out of a gang of ruthless bikers. Here's a trailer:

   

I'd put this flick up against a lot of similar movies from the same year - 1986 - that feature box office candy like Stallone and Armold; Eye of the Tiger is really well-made, and Busey turns in a solid performance. 

Also of special note from what I watched over the weekend, 1994's The Guyver.

 

I have some vague memory of seeing the imagery from this film somewhere about the time it would have received release press. More recently, when Fangoria interviewed Steven Kostanski about his influences on Psycho Goreman (Fangoria Vol. 2 issue 10) he mentioned The Guyver, so it was in my peripheral. Then, I noticed that Darcy had uploaded the full movie in the old Monstervision presentation to the Lost Drive-In Patreon, and I figured, what better way to watch it, right? Cool flick; not exactly my cuppa, however, as usual watching pretty much anything with Joe Bob amplifies it. I've thought about this a lot, the idea that even a movie you hate can be made enjoyable (to a degree) when you have the proper context for it. That's something Joe Bob excels at providing, and I usually find myself better able to put myself in the movie's headspace. I'm sure there would be conditions under which this theory would break down; I doubt very much that even if Joe Bob hosted The Notebook I would get a kick out of it. Then again, who knows?

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Read:

I continued to make my way through Alan Campbell's final book in the Deepgate Codex series this weekend, but I also had the itch to read some old Spider-Man comics, so I dug out Web of Spider-Man 40-42, the "Cult of Love" storyline, only to realize I'm missing the fourth and final part.

Not really a big deal; I located issue 43 on eBay, so I'll get to read that in a few days. More important than the story was the general tone of the story. 80s comics are very much recognizable, especially Spidey. They reflect the New York of the time, but also the world and society of the time. The art and writing are a certain 'way' - again, a lot of that has to do with topics that haunted Western Society at the time. Vietnam was a big one, but in this case, echoes of the Tate/Labianca murders and the fear of 'cults' that crime inspired. I wasn't there to read through metaphors of societal trauma, though. No, I was there because the 80s was when I started reading comics and Spidey, while not a mainstay, every-week purchase, had three ongoing monthly titles that I cherry-picked from quite often, and it's always super cool to go back and re-experience those books. 

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Playlist:

Blut Aus Nord - The Work Which Transforms God

Nabihah Iqbal - Dreamer

Nirvana - Nevermind

Greg Puciato - Child Soldier: Creator of God

Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

Black Sabbath - Sabotage

Cartoonist Kayfabe - Havok/Wolverine Meltdown

The Beatles - Abbey Road

            

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Card:

Easing back into it with a single card Pull from Missi's Raven Deck:

As usual, this deck just knows. I'm abstaining from drinking any beer while I've been sick and thinking of carrying it on until the weekend, just to further give my body a break. My fever's gone, but I was up most of the night last night coughing, so I'm exhausted at the moment. Ginger Ale remains a close friend.

 

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What Are You Buying for Bandcamp Friday?

 

Here's one of my purchases. It's been a while since I posted anything by these folks, but they're Covers Vol. 5 is for sale on their bandcamp HERE today only and it included this little gem, which is one of my favorites from their ever-growing repertoire. You can also support Two Minutes to Late Night HERE.

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Watch:

Yesterday I woke up with a splitting headache that lasted pretty much all afternoon, so I left work a wee early, had half an Inidca Pro Tab and dozed on the couch. While I flit in and out of sleep, the new, "WWII Haunted Nazi Boat" Shudder exclusive Blood Vessel played. I saw most of it, or at least to recognize its fun attempt at doing for Strigoi what Dog Soldiers is for Werewolves. I wouldn't say that I loved the flick, in fact, I'm not sure I liked all that much about it, but it's well made, if not exactly well written, and I'd definitely be interested to see what the creators do next.

After I'd woke and ridden out the last third or so of Blood Vessel, I hoped around and found a pair of Anthology shows I'd never heard of before and that were pretty good. Here's trailers, and I'll be posting a small piece on them over on TheHorrorVision.com later today.

 

 

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Playlist:

Fen - The Dead Light

The Cure - The Head on the Door

Rollins Band - The End of Silence

Maggot Heart - Mercy Machine

Hall and Oats Greatest Hits

Opeth - Deliverance

Sinioa Caves - Beyond the Black Rainbow OST

For anyone who grew up on the Southside of Chicago in the 80/90s, you undoubtedly remember the more serious of the two Classic Rock stations at that time were 97.9 The LOOP and 105.9 WCKG, 'CKG as everyone called it. I found a lot of lifetime bands that way - Zeppelin, The Stones, etc., but there were also always Classic Rock artists - often ones who had gone solo after aging out of famous bands - that had a few songs amongst their singles that really resonated without turning you into a fan of the artist. My CKG Spotify playlist is kind of an odds 'n sods of such tracks.

A couple of these songs rank among my favorite songs ever, plus, they're fun. Double nostalgia - mine and that I inherited from older folks when I was younger, whose fervor rubbed off on me.

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Card:

The Princess of Cups has the ability to make dreams come true. This is a concept I think most of us in this world have forgotten about, so it's nice to see it here now, when everything seems held hostage by one big question, and so many of my own personal 'plates' from this year are still spinning.

Isolation: Day 12 - Anthrax Lone Justice

I'm not quite through posting about this one yet. Anthrax's 1985 Sophomore album Spreading the Disease has locked into my heart of late, and I'm finding it hard to get my fill of it. Every song is great, and what's really cool is this is Anthrax not fully formed as they will be by 1987's Among the Living. That's the album where I think pretty much everyone agrees the band solidified their sound for the next few albums (only to overthrow that again a few albums later by replacing Joey Belladonna with Stan Bush for the release of 1993's Sound of White Noise). But on Spreading the Disease we still have some of the young band's influences showing through, and both today's track 'Lone Justice' and yesterday's 'The Enemy' really show the Iron Maiden influence on these guys. I mean, listen to either of these songs and imagine Bruce "History Major" Dickinson singing over the top and you'll hear it right away. So cool, to see the primordial ingredients of one of the most iconic bands in Thrash history.

Speaking of history, I'm hearing Mr. Bungle's Raging Wraith of the Easter Bunny album should be out in fall, if, you know, the current crisis ends by then and the world that's left even slightly resembles what we have now. Which, hopefully, it will. More on those efforts in Mindful Habitation, below.

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Mindful Habitation:

Today is my 44th birthday. Holy shit, man! Forty-four. There were times I didn't think I'd get this far; I've always had sort of a prescient block on how to imagine aging (hence my Bowie article HERE), and in light of current events, well, you never know. Could be my last. Not that I'm walking around worried about that. I think we're all probably prone to a certain amount of on-again-off-again existential crisis at the moment, but generally I'm thinking I'll make it through to the other side of whatever this is shaping up to be. And so will all my loved ones, K and our family in both states I divide my consciousness between, but also, all the friends who probably don't know it, but who I carry with me day-to-day as a sort of live-in consensus. This is my world, and as long as they remain consistent, I can adapt. I'm not special; I'm sure most people have these lists and they're tossing dice against the Universe that when the dealer folds, they're holding the better cards. All we can do is sit at the table, employ the our best poker face, and try and beat this. It is going to take a bite out of our population, because it has to. The Planet's needs come first, y'all. However, play it smart and let those too stupid to pay attention or take this seriously be the ones weeded out. And that's the Mindful Habitation for today: I never thought I'd age into the kind of person who thinks the military needs to control things with a police state, but Jesus-Fucking-Christ, all these people still gathering in groups, still playing basketball at the park in large numbers, still not taking this seriously? STOP IT. If you don't? Well, then if Mother Nature has to thin the heard, I'm all for her starting there. The only problem is how many non-morons they might likewise infect. So - and this goes back to a life rule for me - minimize the number of morons in your life.

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I don't normally make much of a to-do out of my bday anyway, so this year won't be that different. I love to throw parties and celebrate my friends' reiteration renewal, but I prefer to let mine squeak by quietly. That said, I have today and tomorrow off, I ordered a growler of my favorite local beer (King Harbor Brewings' Swirly!), and K and I kicked off two days of marathoning stuff that I love last night with The Big Lebowski and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Been at least ten years since I'd seen either, and both hold up. Lebowski remains one of the funniest movies I've ever seen, and Vegas, although darker with each subsequent viewing, always hits my heart with the weight of Thompson's profound insight into the Death of the American Dream. Today? Not entirely sure yet, but I may be starting a marathon re-watch of Twin Peaks: The Return in a little while. I might work up to that with a first viewing of The Conjuring 2, though, simply because I've still never seen it.





UPDATE: We watched the Conjuring 2. It's very well made shit. I didn't hate it, but total disappointment, because I maintain the original is fantastic, even if it does lose a bit of steam once they show us the ghost on top of the armoire. Still Number Two felt like a massive step backwards, despite some very fancy and expensive camera work.

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Playlist:

Anthrax - Spreading the Disease
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
Steve Moore - Frame Dragging EP

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Card:

A reminder, I think, not to let the day go by without some creative time. Think I'll dig back into my current project for a little bit, come up for air in an hour or so. Just to keep the juices flowing.