July 15th - Frank Black/Teenage Fanclub

Day 6 of Frank Black Appreciation Week, and I'm trying to dig deep. Like I said previously, I could easily just post 7 days of The Catholics, or Pixies, but this man's catalogue winds deep, and I really wanted to try and represent that, so here's a track off Frank's 1994 John Peel Session, where Glasgow band Teenage Fanclub acted as his band.

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I finished my re-read of Grant Morrison and Richard Case's six-volume Doom Patrol series from late 80s/early 90s DC Vertigo. SO good, and reading the source material just confirms my belief that the DCU television adaptation of Doom Patrol is the best comic adaptation I have ever seen.

The final volume, Planet Love, has such a harrowing example of an Apocalypse scenario, I dare say I read it in a quick, edge-of-my-seat burst. The Candlemaker is an example of a comic book foe who gestates quickly and thrives on being somewhat two-dimensional.

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I was so very wrong about Drab Majesty's Modern Mirror the other day when I said it would drop July 26th. I came home later the same day to find the vinyl I'd ordered months ago on my doorstep, and I spent Friday night and several hours over the subsequent weekend listening to it. Really good, if a bit short. The vinyl is a little bit annoying, in that it's a double LP, so there are literally two songs on each side. That's a lot of superfluous flipping, and a very start/stop listening experience, if you ask me.

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Friday's episode of The Horror Vision, wherein we discuss Possum, as well as Luca Guadagnino's 2018 Suspiria, which we've talked about before, but here go into at length and a host of other films, will be up in a few days. In the interim, my co-host Anthony Guerra caught the Aja/Raimi flick Crawl the other night and did a quick reaction piece. Check it out:

The Horror Vision on Apple

The Horror Vision on Spotify

The Horror Vision on Google Play

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Playlist from the last couple of days:

Frank Black and the Catholics - Pistolero
Boy Harsher - Careful
Black Polygons - Lobélia
Motörhead - Ace of Spades
Motörhead - 1916
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts - Up Your Alley
The Monkees - Eponymous
Drab Majesty - Modern Mirror
Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor

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Card of the day:

Gonna need it. Two potentially stressful weeks coming up at work, and I'm still slogging through this final read of Shadow Play - which, by the way, is turning out very good. It's just difficult to re-read this for a third time in a row now. It's affecting all my other reading as well.

2019: June 12th New Drab Majesty!

The Youtube description for this track calls it the fourth single released so far from Drab Majesty's forthcoming Modern Mirror album. Really? I hadn't realized we were up to four already, I guess primarily because other than the first single, I'm not listening to anything until my actual physical copy of the record arrives. Modern Mirror drops in two Fridays - can't wait.

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Frank Black Appreciation Week continues in these pages with my favorite cut from 2007's Bluefinger, which marked a return to Frank's Black Francis persona. Well, not really a persona in the way, say, Bowie had personas, but Bluefinger definitely marked a change from the post-Catholics Americana vibe Black had been doing. Compared to Fast Man Raider Man, Bluefinger goes back to what I consider a more Pixies-ish approach to songwriting. Several of the tracks on Bluefinger - including this one - veer into similar territory as some of The Pixies' more unstable songs; Threshold Apprehension is nuts in the way Broken Face or Rock Music are nuts.



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So, Slayer is on their "Final Tour." I've lived through this with so many bands, so many times - I was in High School and fairly new to concerts when I attended Ozzy's No More Tours tour, thinking, "Oh my god, I'm going to see Ozzy Osbourne's final tour!"

Hahah.

And so it goes. Fool me once, yada yada. The point being, I doubt this is Slayer's final tour. And in my opinion, the band should have been over when Jeff Hanneman died. But here they are, dry humping a dead and bloated cash cow. I'm not going to say that Slayer doesn't still rule, because despite the fact that I haven't cared about almost any record they've released since Seasons in the Abyss - though Christ Illusion was a pretty nice return to form - I'd wager they still tear shit up live. And so it was that fact and the idea of the possibility the Forum show in Los Angeles - billed as their final show ever - might actually be Slayer's final show - that I tentatively went to the band's website to sign up for their newsletter and get the pre-sale passcode. You know, just to see what tickets are going to cost. And you know what I found? Slayer is charging $20 to join and get the passcode. $30 if you want some stupid poster with the code.

How completely un-fucking-metal.

Retire now guys, before you end up fucking up your legacy. PLEASE.

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Last night I happened to turn on one of Shudder's tv stations just as Ana Asensio's Most Beautiful Island began, so I dug in and followed it with absolutely no expectations. I do not believe I had ever even heard of this film before.

First good sign was Glass Eye Pics put this out. Always a good thing. So I let the story take me for its ride, and I absolutely loved it. Highly recommended. Here's the trailer, which I've vetted to make sure it doesn't show too much. Not that there's a twist, but the film didn't go anywhere I expected it to go, and I loved it for that.



Also, Larry Fessenden has a small part, so that always wins me over.

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Playlist from 7/11:

Mazy Star - So Tonight That I Might See
Balthazar - Fever
Ministry - The Land of Rape and Honey
Slayer - Seasons in the Abyss
Slipknot - Iowa
Zonal - Eponymous (Pre-release Single)
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley

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Card of the day:

Normally, I don't have a particular question in mind when I do these daily pulls. Instead, I just kind of clear my thoughts for a second and let the card that comes up serve as a portent for the day itself. Today, I wanted to go specific, so as I pulled I thought about a current struggle I've had, namely doing this last read-through with the physical, paperback copy of Shadow Play.

My impetus for doing one last read-through, after just doing another, was the hunch (which proved correct) that reading a novel in physical book form rather than digital would be a drastically different experience, and thus, I would see or catch things I had not in that last digital pass over. And of course, I was correct. Nothing major, but I've already fixed a few minor grammatical errors, as well as at least two spelling errors, on this read. That said, I'm sick to fucking death of reading this book; between this and the short story I began in Spokane, love, but cannot seem to finish, I feel very much held hostage at the moment. Which is zapping my creativity. Ideas are floating to the forefront of my brain daily, and some of them seem so appealing. Plus, it's always invigorating to start something new. So, what do I do? Well, one interpretation of this card is a warning against succumbing to daydreaming, getting lost in flights of fancy, which I definitely take to mean - as my gut tells me - stay on course and do NOT get distracted.

2019: June 20th New Drab Majesty!

Still catching up on all the stuff that dropped while I was radio silent, finishing Shadow Play Book One: Kim & Jessie. If you come here often, you'll probably get sick of hearing the name of my new book, but I'm excited and relieved like you would not believe. The first book of Shadow Play - conceived as a non-traditional trilogy with ample room for spin-offs - took me seven years to complete. Sure, there was about eight months off at two separate intervals during that time, but during that time, I was kind of working on it, too. Letting something you've written sit in a proverbial 'drawer' for the better part of a year and then going back to it, doesn't necessarily mean you're not working on it. Is "Indirect Writing" a phrase? You know, letting the story stew in its own juices?

Anyway...

Drab Majesty's new record Modern Mirror is out July 12, just over three weeks from now, and I am very excited to get my copy of the vinyl in the mail. You can still pre-order this one from the wonderful Dais Records HERE.

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Yesterday was NCBD, and it proved a fantastic leveler for me. I wrote earlier in the month about a sudden existential crisis pertaining to collecting monthly comics - part of it's space, part of it's longevity, part of it's douchey first-world anxiety - anyway you call it, the accumulation of such a large collection has begun to wear on me in a way I never would have anticipated (and I've downsized majorly on several occasions in my life). But to look at my pull list yesterday and know that I was leaving several titles behind and several others were close to finishing made me feel pretty good.

Garth Ennis' A Walk Through Hell is coming to a close next month, The Empty Man ended with this week's issue 8, and Black Science closes its doors in July. With the elimination of all the mini series, or the series on this list, as well as those most likely not coming back (*ahem* Southern Bastards, I'm looking at you), well, I'm edging my way out of collecting.

That's HUGE.

I'm probably going to end TMNT in seven months at issue 100, switching to digital trades instead, and I may do the same for Seven to Eternity as well. That doesn't leave much. Of course, I'll still buy anything Warren Ellis does, but I'll probably just wait for the trades, like I've been doing with The Wildstorm (still need to read that third volume!). The goal is to have the only periodical-format books I buy be The Walking Dead, Stray Bullets, Criminal, and Gunning for Hits, the last two because they have such a wealth of extra material in their monthly format, the first two because they're grandfathered in and I love them. Even Gideon Falls may fall off, as with this week's issue the story opens up considerably wider and I feel like it might be losing me. I'm getting a Lost vibe, and as much as I enjoyed watching that series as it aired, it's something I never need or want to be reminded of again.

We'll see.

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Playlist from 6/19:

Blur - Eponymous
Blur - The Best Of
Arctic Monkeys - Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino
Arab Strap - The Red Thread
Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun
Blur - 13
Zen Guerilla - Positronic Raygun
Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables

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Card of the day:

From the Grimoire: "A positive result dependent on the actions of the Querent." I'm taking this and yesterday's Breakthrough as directly referencing the completion of the book. Next, I have a small 'marketing' plan I intend to follow through on, so hoping the good tidings will flow directly into that.

2019: April 18th -New Track from Cold Showers!

You know, just between Felte Records, Sargent House, and Dais Records I would be in musical heaven. Case in point today, here's a new track from Cold Showers' upcoming album Motionless, out May 24th on Dais Records! You can pre-order the album HERE.

Speaking of pre-ordering from Dais Records, the link to pre-order Drab Majesty's upcoming Modern Mirror landed in my inbox earlier today. Really excited for both these records. I already snagged my copy of the clear red vinyl, but there's plenty of vinyl, CD, whatever left if you go HERE.

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I can't remember if I've posted about the band Skating Polly here before or not, but the deeper my dive goes into this group, the more I think they may single-handedly usher in a return of the early 90s music sound. A good friend of mine has been chronicling their live shows with his camera for a while now; I saw the photos yesterday and they are awesome. And the band really looks like they sound, that is to say, even while they're paying homage to old Breeders, Nirvana, Pixies, whatever, they breathe a new life into it. Can't wait to see where their career takes them. Here's their website.

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Playlist from 4-17:

Joe Mason - Music for Unrealized Cartoons

Secret Boyfriend - Furnishing the Void

Sleep - The Sciences

Joseph Lo Duca - Evil Dead 2 OST

No card today.