New Alice in Chains went up earlier this week. I haven't listened to it yet, not suer that I'm going to until I can hear it in the context of the new album (which I'm not even sure we need), but I figured I've posted everything else recent they've done here so I might as well do this too, if only for posterity's sake:
I was unofficially tagged to do this week's edition of The Joup Friday Album and it's up HERE if you'd care to take a trip with The Atlas Moth to open your weekend.
Playlist from yesterday:
Liars - Eponymous
PLANETS - The Dark Woods
David Bowie - Diamond Dogs
Wire - Pink Flag
Wrong - Feel Great
Slayer - Reign in Blood
Zombi - Spirit Animal
The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir
Card of the day:
Unkindness and a lack of empathy. Hmm... Definitely going to keep my head down today.
New NIN dropped yesterday. I haven't listened to anything on it other than that God Break Down The Door song, which I quite liked for all its Bowie-ness. Figured I'd post it hear - I'll probably get to it later today, but I'd be curious to see comments about what anyone reading this who listens to it thinks. Trent remains an interest of mine, even if his lyrical persona and the subsequent 'Reznorisms" sometimes - sometimes - leads me to sigh.
BIG week at the Comic shop this week. NCBD is always a joy, but this week I had new Deadly Class, new TMNT, second issue of Garth Ennis's A Walk Through Hell (which was freakin' awesome!), the new Black Science, finally got the second issue of sold out Tinsel Town by David Lucarelli, Calexit #3, and new Gideon Falls and Days of Hate, probably my two favorite books right now (besides TWD, Deadly Class and Stray Bullets, which rule without me having to say so). Both Gideon Falls and Days of Hate are really starting to ratchet up, so it kills me a bit to see Days is on hiatus until August, but what's two months in the grand scheme? Also, a little love should be extended for IDW's TMNT - it is such a fantastic on-going redesign of a property I've loved since it helped kick off the 80s B&W Explosion. Issue 83 was a fantastic tale, juggling multiple storylines and character arcs in as deft a fashion as ever (this book has just gotten better and better at doing that). The Pantheon is a great addition to the cast, especially as it's super clear they are VERY influenced by Neil Gaiman's The Endless, from the Sandman books.
As I believe I mentioned earlier this month, I went in on a monthly Shudder sub and, although I haven't explored it fully yet, it's really a great subscription. Last time I brought this up I believe I mentioned Interior. I'll add Follow Me to the list now, another superb thriller that I thought unfolded beautifully from one of the best 'inciting incidents' I've seen in a while. Girlfriend gives her boyfriend a handgun for Christmas, asks him to put it in his mouth and pull the trigger if he trusts her.
And I'll just leave you with that... and yeah, it's a Christmas movie. In a sense.
Note: I used the Spanish Movie Poster here, because I like this one the best, but the film is not a Spanish-language film. Just in case anyone reading has an aversion to subs. I do not, but I know some people do.
Playlist from 6/22:
Radiohead - Kid A
Servotron - Meet Your Mechanical Masters
Slim day on the music. Crazy work day and a humungous nap afterward.
Card for today:
From the Grimoire (which I suspect by its tone was cribbed from Crowley): "The first step from the perfection of one divides it into two.
Watched Evil Dead (2013) for about the fifth time last night, as K had never seen it. SO fucking good. Please Mr. Alvarez, make that sequel!!!
Playlist from 6/18:
Chasms - On the Legs of Love Purified
Wrong - Fee Great
Cocksure - TVMALSV
Beach House - 7
Nothing - Zero Day (single)
Them are Us Too -
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley
Card today:
The Emotional Aspect of Air. Wielding the Will with emotional maturity. Knowing when to back off and when to be assertive.
Just realized that Season 5 of Orphan Black hit Prime - finally get to finish one of the best series I've seen.
Playlist from 6/17:
Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
Venue - Desireena
Guns and Roses - Appetite for Destruction
Cocksure - KKEP
Nothing - Guilty of Everything
Secret Chiefs 3 - Traditionalists -Le Mani DestreRecise Degli Ultimi Uomini
Card of the day:
Union. Duality. Harmony within. Uniting opposites or complimentary aspects. I'm not entirely sure how any of this applies to me currently; what I've listed is very surface reading, so I could dig a lot deeper. Not on a Monday, though.
After having our new bed delivered and waiting all night to sleep on something my feet don't hang off the end of, I knocked out for a paltry 3 hours and 57 minutes, only to lay awake until finally calling a fail and getting up for the day at just before 2:00 AM.
Sucks, right?
Well, I've been rewarded by a nice morning writing, some strong coffee (much more of that to come today) and... new Deafheaven!
I haven't listened to this one yet - the album is out in just 1 month on Anti- so I'm debating on whether or not to save Canary Yellow for within the context of the entirety of the new album, Ordinary Corrupt Human Love. Gonna be really hard to wait, though...
New issue of Garth Ennis and Goran Sudzuka's A Walk Through Hell today:
Finally finished Ash Vs. Evil Dead season 2 yesterday (I know, I know. What took me so long? I bought the fucker on Blu Ray the day it came out last year, watched a few episodes and then I don't know what happened. Anyway, started a rewatch last week, loved every second of it).
I'm plowing through Laird Barron's first Crime Novel, Blood Standard. I love all of this man's work - he's become my favorite working author. And Blood Standard is no exception - it is a fantastic romp through the fringes of the detective genre. Mr. Barron has all the nuts and bolts of what's expected down, so it's not that he's reinventing the wheel. But he maneuvers the tropes in a way that lays a solid claim to them. I'm not the most versed in the genre - my friend Joe knows a hell of a lot more than I do, but in our conversations, and in being a fairly wide-read person in other regards, I know the Ps and Qs of the detective story. Mr. Barron gobbles them up and spits them back out in such a surefire, staccato fashion that the book is an absolute joy to read, especially with such an interesting setting (Upstate NY by-way-of Alaska) and such a joyously violent protagonist (Isaiah Coleridge), who while a man well-versed in destructive forces, generally avoids them by being an unbelievably well-rounded and, thus real character. When Isaiah does snap though, wow.
Playlist from 6/12/18:
Sys Exe - Downride
Lebanon Hanover - Let Them Be Alien
Chris Connelly - The Tide Stripped Bare
Junior Jr. - Obligatory Demo
Rammstein - Herzeleid
Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes are the Roaring Night
Deftones - Koi No Yokan
Zombi - Shape Shift
Card for the day:
The completion of potential. The last card in the deck, so to speak, so a form of completion. Also, it'd be nice if the same literal interpretation that happened with Luxury yesterday happened with this one today.
New Zeal & Ardor today (I think; the album has not become fully available on Apple Music yet):
Playlist from 6/7:
Underworld - Pearl's Girl Single
Underworld - 1992 to 2002, disc two
David Bowie - Black Star
Venue - Desireena E.P.
Algiers - The Underside of Power
Card of the day:
Ahh, my absolute favorite card in the deck. This always connects me to a higher ideal, separates out the micro from the macro. And I definitely think I needed that this morning!
The album is out now, and you can click HERE to go to Brooklyn Vegan and hear the entire album.
Playlist from yesterday:
Darkness Brings the Cold - Human Me
Arctic Monkeys - Suck it and See
Dead Cross - E.P.
Windhand/ Satan's Satyrs - Split E.P.
Darkness Brings the Cold - House of Sin, albums one and two
Teenage Wrist - Dazed E.P.
Card of the day:
The duality of the One. Two sides of the same coin. A marriage of alchemical elements. I'll choose to interpret this as I need to spend some time with my Baby, who I feel like I haven't seen ages due to work, my writing schedule and her having been sick for a week. Will remedy that this weekend. Happily.
How weird that the first time I dig out 2013's The Devil Put Dinosaurs here in a couple years and then write about it, is the same day that Alice in Chains drop a teaser of their newest song, presumably off an album not yet announced. And it's pretty good, too, this new track. Looking forward to seeing an album later in the year.
The new Drinking, Fighting, F*&king, and Crying went up yesterday, you can read it HERE.
Playlist from yesterday:
Alice in Chains - The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here
Blut Aus Nord - What Once Was... Liber III E.P.
Brand New - Daisy
Brand New - Science Fiction
Deftones - Saturday Night Wrist
Thou - The House Primordial
Deafheaven - Honeycomb
Deafheaven - Sunbather
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
Card for the day:
Ah! My favorite card. Probably because I made serious progress in re-formating my writing ritual yesterday and thus, was able to accomplish quite a bit.
While this one is considerably more Black Metal, there's something about the atmospherics behind the main music that reminds me of Zen Guerrilla's Positronic Raygun - a little bit, but its there.
Most anticipated read coming up? My friend Anthony just leant me these and I am stoked to dig in:
Playlist yesterday:
Arctic Monkeys - AM
Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction
Afghan Whigs - Black Love
Soul Coughing - El Oso
Mr. Bungle - California
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Iwan Rebroff - Singt Weisen von Wodka und Wein
Swans - Glowing Man (Disc 2)
Card for the day:
Good. It's going to take ALL of my Will to make it through moving K's Mom this weekend. I take this card as a very good sign.
That new Deafheaven yesterday made my week! Also, the fact that tix go on sale Friday to see them in August - and Drab Majesty is opening!!! Couldn't be more ecstatic. Now I need to look into the other opener, Uniform, who I am totally unfamiliar with.
With the release of Honeycomb, I've finally got a good number of one-off tracks by the band to make a nice playlist from their split 7" material and E.P.'s. Looks like this:
From the Kettle Onto the Coil
Honeycomb
Punk Rock/Cody
And come to think of it, I may add their Demo E.P. from 2010 to that as well.
Playlist from yesterday:
Aphex Twin - I Care Because You Do
Windhand - Soma
Boy Harsher - Country Girl
Deafheaven - HoneyComb
Blur - Eponymous
Deafheaven - Playlist (see above)
Card for the day:
Again with this guy! Interesting. I'm heading into Hollywood tonight for a business meeting, let's see what kind of journey that takes me on (I know there are other interpretations, the journey just seems to always fit where I'm at - always moving).
Almost forgot - Ghost dropped this earlier today or yesterday. I haven't watched/heard it yet, so I'm gonna post it and watch for the first time right along any one discovering it here. Album is in pre-order HERE. It's title is Prequelle and the cover art is fantastic:
The Ocean - Heliocentric
The Red Chord - Clients
Myrkur - M
Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta I: Fathers of the Icy Age
Card of the day:
Change because something big has changed with my approach to Parish Fenn, and something bigger with our lead character. And now, I finally feel like I get her.
Currently listening to, my favorite track - thus far - off Preoccupations new album, appropriately titled, New Material. It dropped last Friday and I've been jamming it since Saturday. Really enjoying how this band's sound is carving its own niche. They sound like no one.
Rounding the corner on the Thomas Ligotti. Still not loving it, although the current story I'm on, Nethescurial, will probably bring me back into focus if I can stop my mind from ping-ponging around my new pad, trying to solve everything that needs solving all at once. You can actually read this story on Ligotti.net. Anyone who follows the link and reads it, let me know what you think in my comments; at this point it's really hard to know if my lack of bonding with the bulk of this book is the writer, me (when it's one of those, it's the other as well) or all this upheaval in my life.
Playlist from yesterday:
Preoccupations - New Material
Frank Sinatra - In the Wee Small Hours
Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin I
Black Sabbath - Sabotage
Fire Walk With Me - OST
The Antlers - Familiars
Card of the day:
Now I need to look into why this one keeps coming up.
On repeat, in my head, all night long. Awesome song, and more than a little weird when you arrive at Eric Burdon doing that creepy falsetto thing:
Playlist from yesterday:
Godflesh - In All Languages (disc #2)
The Smiths - Strangeways, Here We Come
The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
Cream - Disraeli Gears
The Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet
Faith No More - Angel Dust
Budos Band - Burnt Offerings
Somnium Nox - Apocrypha
Seedna - Forlorn
I was interested to receive a notification from Apple Music yesterday that the new Teenage Wrist, Chrome Neon Jesus (damn, isn't that just a fantastic title?) dropped yesterday. I like that they did it on Tuesday, the day music used to drop. Now, I'm not certain if that's an industry-wide thing, as in the digital still utilizes Tuesdays as the release date and the physical media uses Friday, but ever since albums began to be released on Fridays I became a little sad. I always liked having Tuesdays as a free-floating island for new album releases, just to give an otherwise deadlocked day in the midst of the five-day quagmire something to shine for. Then again, how often is it possible I go out on any day to pick up new music these days, what with so few record stores left? (Mental note - I really need to get back down to Fingerprints in Long Beach soon).
Card of the day:
From the Grimoire: "Indicates you are in charge of the way your life is unfolding. Striking the harmonic resonance that sees events occur as we would like them to. Planning; thoughtfulness; mojo."
At this point I'm finding it hard to make anything useful; there's one big question on my mind, "Will we get the new place," and as the delay in the answer seems to drag on it causes these daily correspondences to seem pointless. That said, it occurs to me now they have all been positive, except for last Friday, March 2nd's Five of Swords: Defeat, which seen in the current context was probably my portent that I would be suffering through this delay. In keeping with the otherwise positive string of cards, they're actually comforting to me now, as I work this out while I write this and realize the cards have all been breadcrumbs leading to good news we will hopefully receive early today.
Criminal, the new album from The Soft Moon was released earlier this month and so far, this is my favorite track on an outstanding album. Seeing these guys for the first time in April and I can't wait!
Tommy posted the pre-release Choke a few weeks back, check that out HERE.
