New Music from Swans

 

More new music from the upcoming album The Beggar, out June 23rd on Young God Records/Mute. Pre-order HERE.

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Watch:

RIP Tina Turner. Here's a fun little clip of her on Letterman back in the day. The song is one from the era where she kind of followed Bowie and a lot of other aging 70s icons into a brief dalliance with what I'd call new age adult contemporary - not really my thing, but I'm not really posting it for that reason. Stick around to the end and watch Letterman go absolutely Ga-Ga for her before asking her to demonstrate how she taught Mick Jagger to dance.

There's a joy to Lettermen when he's in the presence of performers he really admires, and it shines here. Also, very cool to hear Tina Turner talk about her relationship with the Stones.            

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Read:

Kind of a NCBD addendum picked up a book I'd not expected to this past Wednesday, Damian Connelly's Blood, Love, Ghosts, and a Deadly Spell:

A very cool softcover collection of B&W Horror that puts me in mind of old Vertigo and Negative Burn comics. The first story in this, Helena, was my favorite, and it definitely has me interested in picking up Connelly's other books, You Promised Me Darkness and Follow Me Into Darkness. 

Blood, Love, Ghosts, and a Deadly Spell is published by Fairsquare Comics and Alien Books. If you can't find it in a shop, you can order from Fairsquare HERE. 

          

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Playlist:

Forhist - Eponymous

Yeruselem - The Sublime

The Sword - Warp Riders

The Ocean - Heliocentric

Ganser - Odd Talk

The Ravenonettes - Raven in the Grave

Blackbraid - Blackbraid I

High on Fire - Snakes of the Divine

The Dead Milkmen - The King in Yellow

Beach House - Become EP

Beach House - Thank Your Lucky Stars

CCR - Eponymous

Sleep - The Sciences

Ghost - Phantomime EP

The Hives - Tyrannosaurus Hives

Druids - Shadow Work

Soft Play - Sockets (single)

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Card:

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

• Page of Cups - Princess in Thoth, this is the physical aspect of emotion

• Seven of Swords - Completion of Will, or perhaps more commonly, of conflict

• Six of Swords - Here, I think, Balance of conflict

This is one of the more difficult Pulls to read in quite some time. I definitely think this has to do with my current project, but I'm unclear how, exactly, so I'll do what I always do in situations such as this: leave the cards up on my desk where I can see them all day. Sometimes that's enough to trigger understanding.

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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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Ghost of Vroom!

New music from Mike Doughty's Ghost of Vroom! If you're a Soul Coughing fan like I am, this is the closest thing to that sound Doughty's done since their breakup back in, well, a loooong time ago. The new album, Ghost of Vroom 3 is out later this year, although no hard date has been announced.

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Watch:

Rewatched Kevin Phillips' Super Dark Times on Shudder last night. Man, this one is heavy.

I'm not going to post a trailer because I think it's best to go in cold on this one. Yes, that's my recommendation for every movie, however, we can't always control that. This one is from 2017, so if you haven't seen it you may already have an idea what it's about. If not, just watch it. Damn.

What I will say is A) Kevin Phillips NAILS high school. I mean, he just crushed it - so many little non-sequitur moments that surround the characters and mean nothing other than to reinforce where our minds are at this age. Anger, Angst and Rebellion. "No I don't need your fucking help, lady!" one background character screams at one point, and it's just spot fucking on. B) This deals with a trauma that an event in my life in high school shares some DNA with. Phillips nails the state of mind that followed it. Again, he CRUSHED it.

 

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Play:

Ask and ye shall receive: new Puppet Combo-like game No One Lives Under the Lighthouse by Torture Star and Marevo Collective hits a bunch of platforms - Switch included - this month!

 

Spooky AF! There are some images in this trailer that seared into my brain the moment they appeared on screen (@1:22 - WTF???). What a spectacular setting; an abandoned lighthouse island with rocky crags and descending spiral staircases lends itself so well to this aesthetic. I can't wait to play this game!

NOTE: if you read this post earlier and remembered it being longer, fret not! You are correct - I've expanded my "Lighthouse Horror as a burgeoning subgenre thoughts in a separate post HERE.

No One Lives Under the Lighthouse is out May 18th!

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Playlist:

Sleep - The Sciences

Windhand - Eternal Return

Earth - Live at Third Man Records

Dorthia Cottrell - Death Folk Country

The Sword - Warp Riders

Bongripper - Satan (single)

Crowbar - Planets Collide (single)

Gaupa - Myriad

Witchfinder - Hazy Rites

Witchfinder - Forgotten Mansion

            

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Card:

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

• 20 Judgement is Aeon in Crowley and Harris's Thoth deck. Regardless of which you go with, this is a card of Redemption. It also suggests a pivotal sequence and the holography of cause/effect.

• Seven of Pentacles is a card that denotes Victory/Completion of Earthly matters

• Queen of Pentacles, in this particular case, is offering the advice that I actually stop thinking with my emotions on Earthly matters and begin applying a more staunch lens of discernment.

In other words - I'm spending too much money on vinyl. 

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New Music from The Hives!

 

Yesterday the world got an absolutely KILLER new track from The Hives, whose last proper record, Lex Hives, was eleven years ago!!! What a comeback, though. This track rocks and the video is a glorious homage to Sam Raimi's Evil Dead.

The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons is out August 11th; pre-order HERE.

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Play:

Bloody Disgusting ran a short story about Armor Games Studio's announcement for their new first-person Horror/Mystery game The Tartarus Key. After watching the trailer, I am one hundred percent in on this one:

 

Being that I've only come back to playing video games in the last year with my purchase of a Switch, I don't know that much about what's out there. I'm sure there are more of these - Nun Massacre is my current obsession, and while I wait for more Puppet Combo games to eventually become available on Switch, I've been wanting to find more of these. 

I think my love for this type of game goes back to the original Shadow Gate, which I played on a friend's PC in the 80s, then on the original Nintendo system later in that same decade. That game always gave me such a wonderfully immersive effect, and Nun Massacre gives me the same effect, except amplified by about 1000.

 

The Tartarus Key is out May 31st on a bunch of platforms, and I'm just happy one of those is Switch.
 

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Playlist:

Witchfinder - Forgotten Mansion

The Sword - Age of Winters

Wolfpack - Lycanthro Punk

Karl Casey - XX EP

The Hives - Bogus Operandi

The Hives - Tyrannosaurus Hives

Sleep - The Sciences

Locrian - Return to Annihilation

Windhand - Eternal Return

Blackbraid - Blackbraid I

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Bright New Disease Renders Martyrs Livid

 

Boris and Uniform? Holy F*ck - talk about a shot in the arm first thing in the morning! From the forthcoming album Bright New Disease, out June 16th on the always stellar Sacred Bones Records. Pre-order HERE.

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NCBD:

A short and sweet NCBD this week. Here are my picks:

And we are back to our regular 616, Krakoa timeline. Thank You! I started re-reading Immortal X-Men from the beginning yesterday just to prepare.

My suspicion is I won't be reading Sons of X beyond the first issue,  I'm curious about the overall transition back into the regular, Krakoa continuity from the Sins of Sinister timeline. I will say that I reread Sins of Sinister: Dominion a few days ago and had a slightly better experience with it, and I'm curious how Mother Righteous's role might develop in the reinstated timeline.

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Watch:

Looks like Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury's hard-to-find 2011 Masterpiece Livid is now on Shudder: 

 

I picked a region-free disc of this one up sometime in the last year or two and was completely blown away. There's such a Fairytale quality to this film - visually, Vivid reminds me a lot of the music from long-defunct band Miranda Sex Garden. Gossamer-thin realities that come across more like a fable out of time than a modern movie, except that's there too. 

 

Also, Livid isn't the only renowned but difficult-to-find Masterpiece that popped up on Shudder. It's not often that I dig a movie like Martyrs, but despite its unparalleled cruelty, Pascal Laugier's opus more than earns its place in the "must watch at least once column." Just be prepared - it's not easy.

When I watched Martyrs, it was back when Netflix still 'rented' movies through the mail. I wasn't certain what I was in for, but the film had come feverishly recommended to me by my good friend and Horror Vision Co-host Tori. I smoked up, sat down in the middle of the day, and for the first 45 minutes, felt like I was watching a movie that, well, before long, I realized I was not watching. Maybe that's a convoluted way of saying that from the onset, Martyrs seemed as though it was going to be the first great 'Haunting' film I'd seen in some time. Then something happens to a character and I suddenly had the prescience to see where the film was headed. I remember that feeling because my stomach literally dropped*. From there, my resolve was tested, until in the final moments of the film, Laugier blew my mind.

*****

*Incidentally, Laugier's 2018 Incident in a Ghost Land includes a moment that had a very similar effect on me. 

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Playlist:

Mastodon - One More 'Round the Sun

Beach House - Become EP

James - La Petite Mort

The Sword - Warp Riders

Slayer - Decade of Aggression

King Woman - Doubt EP

Windhand - Eponymous

 

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Card:

Since I utilized both my Thoth and Bound Tarot decks for yesterday's Pull, I specifically wanted to go to Missi's Raven Deck for today's Pull.

Buckle down. 

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New Music from PJ Harvey!!!

 

From the forthcoming album I Inside the Old Year Dying, out July 7th on Partisan Records. Pre-order HERE. 

It's been a minute since we've had new music from Polly Jean. I listened to this multiple times in a row when it popped up in my feed last night, and each time the song opened a little bit more, like some dark, grueling flower. I love her music so much - no one else does to my brain and nervous system what Ms. Harvey does. There feels like a growing history in her work, as though each new record contains the sum total of everything that's come before, and I'm eager to hear this entire album.

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Watch:

Neon dropped the trailer to It Lives Inside yesterday:

 

I only needed to watch the first thirty seconds or so to know I was in. Trailers are beginning to be the bane of my existence. Exaggeration? Yes. Of course, but seriously, I can only imagine how much more I would have enjoyed Lee Cronin's Evil Dead Rise had I not been forced to sit through the trailer before every movie I have seen in the theatre since January. So many moments that might have won me over fell flat, so I'm taking action and abstaining from trailers altogether. I'll still post here, but that's it. 

Caveat: I'll still watch trailers for Marvel stuff because that tends to be all I watch of those anymore. It's with Horror films especially, I'm slamming the door. 

Back to the flick - bringing in Indian folklore is such an awesome thing. I've been thinking a lot about Remi Weekes's 2020 film His House and Pornsak Pichetshote's graphic novel Infidel - both use other cultures as jumping-off points and both rank among the most effective Horror stories I've experienced in years. It Lives Inside looks as though it will further explore bringing Horror from other cultures to viewers, and that's a lot more interesting than, well, just the same old Deadites over and over (sorry Evil Dead Rise - I'm your friend but I'm not sure I'd sleep with you).

 

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NCBD Addendum:

Just have to report back that Sins of Sinister: Dominion completely sh*t the bed. Not impressed; possibly the worst X-Event book wrap-up since the late 90s. 

The logistics of 'solving' the set-up of a timeline gone 1000+ years into the future under the widespread genetic influence of a narcissistic madman like Nathaniel Essex was so jumbled and non-specific, it felt rushed and loose in its storytelling and logistics. I would wager that the story ended up becoming so dense that it would have taken another three issues at least to actually write their way out of this; instead, we fall back on that annoying, "Quick, use your power in conjunction with mine and we can stop this." I'm exaggerating, but not entirely. Also, while I dig Mother Righteous and Rasputin IV, this series ends up feeling as though its sole purpose was to move them into the present-day cast, another annoying X-Trope I've personally had enough of for one lifetime. I know, I know - then stop reading! Well, I enjoyed more of this series and the Immortal/Red than I haven't, so this isn't so much a swearing-off as it is a "WHY?"

There were, however, a few genuinely cool set-ups in this issue, the biggest being the question of who is the Dominion if the 1000+ Sinister isn't? My guess is there's a Sinister who already retrieved his Moira engine and reset the timeline, making his (or her) way into the higher dimensional plane. Also, good to get Moira back into the action, though if she'll stay front and center or tuck back into the shadows is anyone's guess. I'm guessing the line, "This is my story" suggests the former.

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Playlist:

Dorthia Cottrell - Eponymous

Dorthia Cottrell - Death Folk Country

Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

Holy Serpent - Endless

Windhand - Split EP

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Wasteland

Spotlights - Love & Decay

Lustmord - Dark Matter

Sleep - Sleep's Holy Mountain

            

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Card:

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

 

 Going to do this a bit differently today:

• King (AKA Prince in Thoth) of Cups - Sephirothic Association is Tipareth, always my shining star on the Tree of Life. This is the Airy aspect of water or where the Sword and Cup meet. Like sex, a joining of two halves to make a whole. Emotional depths must be honed by intellect

• The Emperor - Rules, albeit not malevolent ones, they're also brutal in their pragmatism. Nature. This infers strength, decisiveness to the point of instinct, and high energy.

• Seven of Swords - In Thoth, Futility. Overwhelming decisions that we see the two cards above prompt for a swift resolution. Difficult or not, to carry on we must make decisions quickly and continue our course.

I actually think this is meant as advice for a friend more than for me. Life is difficult, even the smallest decision can overwhelm, let alone the big, life-changing difficult ones. Employ the swift and brutal energy of nature, roll with the punches. You won't come out unscathed, but you will come out, heal, and carry on, that much stronger. 

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Death Folk Country

 

From Windhand singer Dorthia Cottrell's second solo record, Death Folk Country, released last week on the always fantastic Relapse Records. You can order a copy HERE. 

I'll admit that I don't know Dorthia's first solo record, 2015's self-titled, as much as I should considering I'm such a huge Windhand fan. In fact, I don't think I've listened to that one since it came out. I jammed Death Folk Country last week and it really hit the spot, and now, spending time with both records this morning, I can definitely draw a parallel: Cottrell's solo acoustic records are sort of to Windhand what Alice in Chains' every-other-album, acoustic EPs were to their proper albums. There's a strong vein of Cottrell's aesthetic that informs Windhand's sound and imagery, and those elements are on full display in these stripped-down arrangements of acoustic, peddle steel and the other various atmospherics touches Dorthia peppers these records with. As an artist, there is a bleak beauty to Dorthia's music - both in those aforementioned arrangements and in her vocals/melodies, and all of it ties together nicely into that over-arching aesthetic. 

Also, can I say that I love the album title Death Folk Country because I actually think that's a perfect descriptor for the music she makes in her solo career, and on this new album in particular? I guess I just did.
 

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NCBD:

Being that I was off work the last two days while K and I hung out in Dayton, OH, Wednesday feels a bit like Monday, and I'm starting my week with a pretty awesome NCBD. Here are my picks:

The final issue of the ill-fated Donny Cates, Ryan Ottley Hulk series. Most folks seem to hate this one, but I loved it and am sorry to see it go. Cates and Ottley took some HUGE swings here, and although Cates jumped off a few issues back, I feel like Ottley's done a great job maintaining the tone. Really hoping to snag this Skottie Young cover.

The end of Sins of Sinister. Despite what I perceived as a rough start, the Hobby Store SciFi of the last few issues has endeared SoS to me quite a bit. Up next for the X-Books, "Before the Fall." Not entirely sure what this will consist of, and I doubt I'll read all the titles, but there are a few that look as though they will interest me.

Being that I have not been reading the tie-in "Event" book, The Armageddon Game, I kind of feel like I've lost my compass for the ongoing TMNT series. Hoping that gets alleviated soon. 

LOVE this cover so much - total throwback to the earliest days of TMNT and, in a broader sense, early 80s indie comics in general. 

Halloween in the world of WTFPFH? Sign me up! This one's world is really starting to open up, and I'm curious to see more people and places through the eyes of characters outside the now-defunct Academy.

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Watch:

A few days ago, Bloody Disgusting posted the trailer for a new Slasher flick called The Curse of Wolf Mountain.

 

Some cool imagery here, and I'm definitely curious as to the story. That said, I'm not going to lie: when I see an indie flick - especially if it's a Slasher - that has people like Felicia Rose, Robert Englund, Bill Mosley, or in this case Tobin Bell and Danny Trejo, I become a bit weary. These good folks are genre icons who earn a considerable chunk of their living doing cameos in any movie that can afford them. Their names then bolster the perceived appeal of those flicks. Nothing wrong with any of that, except sometimes it seems like those flicks don't have a hell of a lot going for them besides the cameos. Wolf Moutain's trailer is ambiguous enough that I cannot properly "read" much about it quality-wise, so we'll have to wait for the film's release on May 9th to find out. That said, as I stated at the top, with some of what we're seeing in this trailer, Wolf Mountain has a very real chance of being a solid modern Slasher along the lines of Random Acts of Violence or The Ranger.

 

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Playlist:

Television - Marquee Moon

The Sword - Age of Winters

Snoop Dogg - Doggystyle

Funkdoobiest - Brothers Doobie

Guordan Banks - Keep You in Mind (single)

NIN - The Slip

Ruby the Hatchet - Planetary Space Child

Gang Starr - Hard to Earn

Telekinetic Yeti - Primordial

Windhand - Eponymous (reissue)

 

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Card:

When I travel, I always have my mini Thoth deck that Missi gifted me years back in my bag. However, when I went to do a Pull this past Monday from Dayton, OH, I couldn't find the deck. Now, I knew it was in the bag - this is a multi-compartment backpack, and I've become fairly convinced there's a portal to some small space dimension in the damn thing, so that items disappear, then reappear later. This was the case with the mini Thoth, as I found it yesterday while packing for our return trip. Anyway, this morning I felt like those cards had something to tell me, and when I pulled them from the small cloth pouch they live in, one card was turned over atop all the others.

The Ten of Disks can be a murky card on its own; are we talking about monetary wealth or amassment? Define wealth?  Most likely, as this is the Disks or "Earth" suit, however, there's more to Malkuth than just coins. Bearing this in my, next, I shuffled and pulled two accompanying cards to clarify the reading:

Swift action or, perhaps more appropriately read Conflict,  can be the deciding factor that helps achieve completion. 

Loud and clear - I've had a couple days off from writing, as there was zero time on our trip (that's not usually the case; I normally make time wherever we go), but I need to finish this short story I've had poised for completion today and get it submitted to the short story market it's intended for.

 

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13 Evil Fairy Tales Dead Under 30

 

Greg Puciato has become one of the most interesting artists working in music today. Setting aside Dillinger Escape Plan as the legends since their retirement, Puciato has done dark electronic music with Telefon Tel Aviv's Josh Eustis in The Black Queen, Hardcore/Thrash with Killer Be Killed, toured as part of Jerry Cantrell's band, and all that and everything in between with his two solo records, both of which I adore. Now, he teams with more like-minded souls (from Every Time I Die and Fit For An Autopsy) in Better Lovers. What's it sound like?

It sounds awesome.

The first single dropped the other day and big props to Mr. Brown who sent it my way, as I totally missed it. No word on an album proper, but after seeing tour announcements yesterday, the smart money's on something coming down the pipes in the next few months, so there's one more thing to look forward to.

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Watch:

Last night at 7:00 PM K and I caught Clarksville's first screening of Lee Cronin's Evil Dead Rise. I had exceedingly high hopes - never a good thing going into a movie, let alone a new installment in a series I have loved for a very long time. But Fede Alvarez's entry in 2013 blew me away (still blows me away, in fact), and all I wanted from this was that same feeling of Deep Horror Intoxication 2013 gave me. Did Evil Dead Rise succeed?

Yes and no. First, I really enjoyed the film, and I think Lee Cronin did a helluva job. However, those pesky expectations tapped on my shoulder for the entire runtime. 

MY problem, not the film's. 

Evil Dead Rise is not as intense as 2013; don't get me wrong - this film is f**king intense, but Rise spreads its assault thin and only really explodes in the last act. Common for a Horror film, of course, and not something to traditionally detract points for. That said, I did feel the set-up of the characters - all of whom I loved - affected the film's pacing, so that Rise felt stretched a bit thin when compared to 2013, which sets its tone and story up so quickly and efficiently and jumps into the carnage so eloquently that it's just not fair to compare. 

Everyone in the cast did an excellent job and the FX are fantastic - like REALLY fantastic. The violence and gore felt a skosh subdued compared to Fede's, but I realize all these comparisons between these two films are unfair. I've always retained a staunch "Don't compare 2013 to the original films" stance, so surrendering to this prejudice here is hypocritical. Also, Tapert produced Rise and Campell and Raimi executive produced, so their fingerprints are all over this new entry. Bearing all this in mind, I think once I'm over the initial viewing, I'll see it again (next week), and have a deeper experience.

All in all, SEE IT IN A THEATRE!!!

            

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Read:

Yesterday, I finished Stephen King's latest novel, Fairy Tale. My good friend and A Most Horrible Library Cohost Chris gifted me a copy while we were hanging out in LaLaLand last month, and I tore into it on the plane home. This is the first new King I've read since 2010's Doctor Sleep; I say this not as a point of dismissal or obstinance, but to illustrate that, although I've loved every book by Stephen King I've ever read, I just haven't read enough of his work. I've always thought that eventually would like to read everything, but I rarely actually work on that. There are so many other authors I love as well, most considerably more "independent" than King, and I tend to fall sway to their work one right after the other. "First world problems" disclaimer aside, what a wonderful problem to have: how do I read everything I want to before I die?

Anyway,  all this talk is really just to set up the fact that I had no idea what I was in for with Fairy Tale. I should have guessed, because it's quite fantastic. 

The story remains rooted in its very human, very relatable characters and their lives dealing with grief and aging for nearly the first two hundred pages, and if that sounds like it might be too much set up, it's not. I could have read about Charlie, his father, Radar and Mr. Bowditch for the entire 600 pages. That story sets up the bigger picture, and once it gets going, there are quite a few white-knuckle moments in this one, and that's the kind of reading I really enjoy. The book is Epic, and as I've come to expect with Mr. King, his epics are among the most readable I've ever encountered. 

Add into the mix the fact that the chapters are illustrated by Nicolas Delort and Locke and Key's Gabriel Rodriguez. King mentions in the afterward - which was just as enjoyable to read as the damn book, if considerably shorter - that the illustrations were key in giving the book the feeling of, well, old Fairytale collections, and I tip my hat to him at the wonderful attention to detail here; it just makes the book that much more enjoyable.

In 2010 I read Doctor Sleep and loved it, and now, thirteen years have passed without my even realizing and Fairy Tale blows me away. I've got a pretty intense list of reading planned for the next few months, but when the decks clear, I'm penciling in more King. I always forget just how much I love his writing.

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Playlist:

Cartoonist Kayfabe - TMNT 7 with Eastman and Laird        

Ruby the Hatchet - Fear is a Cruel Master

Better Lovers - 13 Under 30

AAWKS - The Electric Traveller (single)

AAWKS - (Heavy on the Cosmic)

Clutch - Blast Tyrant

Ruby the Hatchet - Planetary Space Chile

Led Zeppelin - Presence

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Card:

Switching it up back to my original Thoth deck for today's Pull:

Creative breakthroughs can arrive at a destructive cost and often must be tempered by keeping one foot in the 'Real World.'

This feels like a nice little indictment of the creative process, or I guess more accurately, an acknowledgment that my work ethic is sound. I learned a long time ago not to mix heightened emotional or perceptive states with writing. Yes, both can be useful for ideas, but actual writing while intoxicated by either substances or emotions never produces sound work. Not sure why I'm being reminded of this now, other than maybe I just needed a nice Jungian pat on the back.

 

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New Music from The Ocean!!!

It's been a minute since The Ocean released something that really blew me away. I think that has more to do with me than them, but it remains a fact. 

These guys have been spearheading new corridors of Metal/Post Metal/Whatever since the early 2000s. I got hip to them kind of on accident, back somewhere around 2008 when I picked up Fluxion on a whim. The frenzied fandom that album birthed reached its zenith with the 2010's twin releases Heliocentric and Anthropocentric. I still consider those records to be the pinnacle of what Robin Straps and crew have achieved, however, that is not to say I didn't love 2011's Pelegial, because I did. 

When the group returned from a five-year hiatus in 2018 with Phanerozoic I, I was in an entirely different headspace, so while I've listened to and liked that record as well as its 2020 companion Phanerozoic II, they haven't quite moved the needle with me the way some of the previous records did. Watching this video, however, I'm blown away by the production and feel like The Ocean has something great in store for us once again.

This video is a HUGE step forward, and I can only guess that, with as ambitious a band as The Ocean has become over its now 23-year history, Straps and Co. may have grown to harbor visual ambitions accompanying their sonic ones. 

What would that look like? 

Well, I'm not entirely certain, but it would probably start with what they have released for the new song "Subatlantic," harbinger of the new record Holocene dropping May 19th on the band's own Pelagic Records. Pre-order HERE.

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Read:

Allow me a small if egregious addendum to my NCBD post yesterday. 

After acquiring and reading Nightcrawlers issue three, I was floored to find not only was the burning skull of Galactus in the issue, but my knee-jerk interpretation of the image was 100% incorrect! What we have in this issue isn't Galactus being destroyed in a swathe of cosmic fire, it's GALACTUS AS A SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE, or in laymen's, Galactus as a Ghost Rider!!!

Wow. Just wow. Hats off to writer Si Spurrier - the same guy who named the Black Knight's goat-headed servant Philip - and artist Alessandro Vitti for bringing this to life. Here's what I think is a preview pick from next week's Sins of Sinister: Dominion one-shot that appears to feature this awesome new version of the planet-eater front and center.

 

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Playlist:

Jackson Browne - Somebody's Baby (single)

Ruby the Hatchet - Fear Is a Cruel Master

The Ocean - Subatlantic (single)

High on Fire - The Art of Self Defense

Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

ZZ Top - Rhythmeen

Young Widows - Old Wounds

High on Fire - Snakes of the Divine

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Card:

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

 

Temperance is Art in the Thoth deck, and since the Bound Deck has become my staple and I've had to adjust back to the classic interpretation of the card, I've come to look at this one as a balance between Temperance and Art, Art being a more Bacchanalian pursuit. So looking at this spread, I'm seeing the balance between logic and heart as the achievement that will transform one of my projects (World often acting as nomenclature for the Worlds I'm creating, or Projects, to put a more definitive linguistic point on the matter).
 

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Dreaming of the Demeter

 

New music from Nabihah Iqbal's upcoming second record, Dreamer, out April 28th on Ninja Tune. You can pre-order HERE.

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Watch:

Though I hated Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark enough that it made me kind of retroactively dislike André Øvredal's previous flicks I'd seen and liked, I recognize my tendency to overreact to things like this. 

 

 

 

My reaction to Scary Stories isn't that different than, say, the reaction I had when I read the first issue of Frank Miller's All-Star Batman and Robin, way back in 2005. Shortly after reading that, I gave half my Sin City issues. I don't really regret that, but it's extreme, I'll admit. In recognizing that, I've been meaning to rewatch The Autopsy of Jane Doe again, and now that the trailer for his The Last Voyage of the Demeter has landed, well, I am cautiously optimistic!

This is apparently an adaptation of a single chapter from Bram Stoker's Dracula - how cool is that? 

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Playlist:

Black Sabbath - Eponymous

Valley of the Sun - The Chariot

Mars Red Sky - Eponymous

The Sword - Age of Winters

The Sword - Gods of the Earth

Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

Steve Earle - J.T.

Lord Buffalo - Tohu Wa Bohu

Black Sabbath - Master of Reality

Telekinetic Yeti - Primordial

Clutch - Blast Tyrant

Intronaut - Habitual Levitations

         

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Card:

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

 

 

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Ghost - Jesus He Knows Me

 

Ghost gave us an Easter surprise by announcing a new five-song, all-covers EP due out May 18th on Loma Vista Records. You can pre-order HERE.

These between album EPs the band releases are generally hit or miss with me; I love 2013's All You Need is Ghost - not so much with 2016's Popestar, which had one of my favorite tracks from the band (Square Hammer) and a bunch of fascinating covers, most of which I just don't ever feel the need to go back to that often (although their "Missionary Man" is admittedly pretty cool). One thing Popestar confirmed for me is that Tobias Forge's ambitions are boundless, and I'm fairly certain at some point in his future, he will craft a Musical that will catapult him into the even further reaches of success.

Juxtaposed against Popestar, Phantomine feels like it may split the difference; while I'm not familiar with "Hanging Around" by The Stranglers, I'm excited as hell to hear them do Television's "See No Evil,"  Iron Maiden's "Phantom of the Opera," not to mention Tina Turner's 80s Thunderdome anthem "We Don't Need Another Hero." I just don't know what to expect that one to sound like.

There's also a video for this track up on youtube, however, it's age-restricted and only viewable HERE.
 

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NCBD:

My haul for NCBD today:

I am SO excited about the return of James Tynion's Nightmare Country. The first arc made it into my Favorite Comics of 2022 list, and I have no doubt this new arc will continue the glory. The closest thing I've seen to having Sandman back again.

My growing fondness for Jeff Lemire's work prompted me to pick up the first issue of this new Phantom Road series and I thought it a great set-up for a Horror story.

Hot on the heels of my Sins of Sinister reread, the final issue of Storm and the Brotherhood will hopefully prove another total mindfuck.

X-Men Vs The Brood. 'Nuff said!

 

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Playlist:

Black Sabbath - Eponymous

Church of the Cosmic Skull - Is Satan Real?

Ghost - Jesus He Knows Me (single)

Kyuss - ...And the Circus Leaves Town

Holy Serpent - Endless

Ruby the Hatchet - Fear is a Cruel Master

            

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Card:

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

I'm having a lot of trouble interpreting this pull. More than I have perhaps ever had on any other. So I'm going to have to dig a bit. First glance, it feels like an acknowledgment that sacrifice can bring you to the threshold of change, but you have to be careful about the changes you make. 

 

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New Godflesh Single!

 

The first single from Godflesh's forthcoming album Purge. LOOOOOVE that sample from Gang Star's "Brainstorm"! I pre-ordered this about a month ago when I first saw the announcement, you can follow suit if you go HERE.

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Watch:

Good news! Holy Spider is coming to Netflix (of all places) tomorrow, April 7th! 

 

I've wanted to see this since last year's Beyondfest, and after missing it there, my friend and colleague-in-casting Professor John Trafton has spoken about it at length, so I'm pretty excited to finally catch this one. 

 

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Read:

Speaking of John Trafton, his new book is up for pre-order from Wayne State University Press:

If you've read any of the essays John has up on his website JohnTrafton.com, you'll understand why I'm pretty excited to read this. Although I left LaLaLand behind, the mystique of that early Twentieth Century City of the Stars remains. Movie-made Los Angeles will no doubt explore and expound on that era in ways I've yet to ascertain.           

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Playlist:

Massive Attack - Mezzanine

Shrinebuilder - Eponymous

Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity

Massive Attack - 100th Window

Spotlights - Seance EP

Godflesh - Hymns 

Godflesh - A World Lit Only By Fire

INXS - Kick        

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Card:

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

Transformation from collaboration leads to an increase Earthly assets.

 

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Nick Fury Vs. SQÜRL

More new music from SQÜRL's upcoming album Silver Haze, out May 5th on Sacred Bones Records. Pre-order HERE.

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Watch:

I've been pretty meh about all things Marvel, but I really want to watch this one:

 

I never read the comic storyline Secret Invasion, however, I like the idea A LOT and remember how Bendis would drop scenes that pointed to it years before it happened (remember Rick Jones showing up yelling about Skrulls being everywhere?). What I did not expect from this, and what totally hooked me with this trailer is how the Secret Invasion series draws inspiration from the 1989 prestige format, six-issue series Nick Fury Vs S.H.I.E.L.D. - one of my favorite Marvel Comics stories EVER. Just by virtue of Fury facing most of this threat essentially alone (insofar as no major hero costars, or at least as we can ascertain from this trailer), it makes sense the creators would draw from that series, and knowing that makes me very excited.

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Playlist:

Hum - Downward is Heaven

David Bowie - Heroes

Clouds Taste Satanic - Tales of Demonic Possession

Shrinebuilder - Eponymous

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Viscerals

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Land of Sleeper

Eagulls - Eponymous

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Card:

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

I intended to do a three-card Pull, however, this one jumped out of the deck at me, and I thought I'd concentrate on that because, in a nutshell, Motivation - a form of Will - has been lacking and this is a nice cue to get my ass back in gear. I have been writing almost daily, however, not in increments of time and attention that would gather me the momentum I need to get back on track. I'll fix that today.

 

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Metallica - 72 Seasons

 

Four for fucking four. Wow. To quote Mr. Brown, "I can't believe I'm looking forward to a new Metallica album." You and me both, brother. You and me both.

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Watch:

Until last night, I'd never watched Anthony DiBlasi's 2014 film Last Shift, but I've suspected for a while that the reasons I avoided this film would turn out to be an unfair dismissal on my part. You can't always judge a flick by its Netflix thumbnail, but that's exactly what I did with Last Shift (and The Taking of Deborah Logan, which I still haven't seen) for the entirety of its stint on the mega streamer. Which I feel like was years. When Last Shift dropped off and started making the rounds on other streamers, people I know started telling me how good it was. I didn't listen. This wasn't a staunch, "Fuck that movie" stance, I just never got around to it, and the few times I almost did,  the image of that stupid thumbnail resurfaced and I went on to something else.

        

Last month, when I read about the imminent release of DiBlasi's update on the film, I became intrigued. How many filmmakers get the chance and perhaps more interestingly use the chance to remake one of their early movies that is as well received by the fans as Last Shift? Also, to have marketing Push behind both iterations? Not many. With this in mind, I finally sat down and watched Last Shift. Halfway through, I paused it and bought a ticket to go see Malum next Monday.

Last Shift is great for what DiBlasi and crew had to work with, which admittedly is a lot more than some independent filmmakers have, but still not a helluva lot. Other than the building - which is no small asset - you can see how DiBlasi's ingenuity kicks in and sustains this one. Well, his ingenuity and a stellar performance by lead Juliana Harkavy. The film begins to feel a skosh tired as the scare tactics continue without manifesting actual physical threats, but when those do come, they're pretty damn good. All in all, a solid three stars and a heart on my Letterbxd, and what's more, watching Last Shift unlocked a thrill at imagining what we might be in store for at Malum. 

Also of note: I had previously thought Ari Aster's Hereditary was the first film to stray from the traditional "devil" nomenclature and move into the Goetia for inspiration concerning its demonic puppet master, specifically Paimon, who my old band Darkness Brings the Cold had at least one song evoking. Obviously not the case after watching Last Shift, and I'll be digging around today looking for any interview with DiBlasi concerning where he drew his inspiration from. I rather like the idea of introducing the entities from Goetia into fiction; not sure anyone will ever do it as well as Alan Moore and JHWIII did in Promethea, but moving outside the tired scope of the Christianity-defined 'devil' can only lead to interesting results.

Then again, maybe not. I remember walking out of 2008's Quarantine, the remake of REC (which I'd not seen at the time) where the filmmakers changed the story from demonic possession as an outbreak to, ah, a terrorist-created super-strain of rabies and telling everyone in earshot, "Damn, I wish Hollywood would just bring Possession movies back." Two or three years later, in the wake of all the Last Exorcism movies, I felt like I'd been Monkey Pawed, as in, be careful what you wish for, you might get it and it might suck.

 

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Playlist:

Danko Jones - We Sweat Blood

Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

Bettye Lavette - The Scene of the Crime

T. Rex - The Slider

High on Fire - Surrounded By Thieves

Metallica - 72 Seasons (pre-release singles)

Lamp of Murmur - Saturnian Bloodstorm

Kx5, deadmau5 & Kaskade - Kx5 at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 12/10/22

Bettye LaVette - Let Me Down Easy: Bettye LaVette in Memphis

        

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Card:

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

A similar Pull to the previous one I did with The Bound Deck; I think the idea that's coming across here is it takes Will and Dedicaton to achieve physical goals, and although I've gotten a bit better after the post-oral surgery manic episode that gripped me for about a week, I've still not re-anchored myself.

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New Music From Bettye Lavette

 

From the forthcoming album Lavette!, out June 16th via Jay Vee Records. Read more about the announcement HERE on Brooklyn Vegan.

Back in 2012, I really did not know who Betty Lavette was. My x and I were in San Francisco for about a week, and caught Ms. Lavette at the old Yoshi's location; she was on tour for her Thankful and Thoughtful record. Amazing show, but it's been quite some time since she has been on my radar. Gotta change that! 

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News:

It's been a while, but a new edition of the Every Day (Is Halloween) Newsletter goes out this morning at 8:30 AM. Included therein is a pretty fantastic playlist, if I do say so myself. I recently bowed out of a friend's Spotify Premium Family account, so I totally understand if you're not hip to the format - I prefer Apple Music for almost everything, however, if there's one thing Spotify does better it's playlists.

If you're interested in signing up, I don't share your info, I don't send often enough to be a nuisance, and I try to add value to my readers' lives by turning them onto as much awesome stuff as possible!

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Here's another thing I don't think I'd ever heard of before: Alan Moore and Alan Davis's Captain Britain comic from 1983? 

Leave it to the Cartoonist Kayfabe guys - that's Ed "Red Room" Piskor and Jim "Street Angel" Rugg, two of the most talented artists working in comics today. I subscribed to their channel (HERE) a while back and have really been getting an education from it; HIGHLY recommend you check Cartoonist Kayfabe out if you're into the art and history of comics!

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Watch:

Not watching this new Dead Ringers trailer, but I'll post it here for posterity's sake.

 

All episodes drop on April 21st, and I'm curious as hell, especially after reading on Bloody Disgusting that Sean Durkin directed the first two episodes. I'm a big fan of his film Martha Marcy May Marlene, so I'm excited to see how his particular aesthetic might meld with Cronenbergian themes/images.

 

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Playlist:

Damone - From the Attic

Nabihah Iqbal - Dreamer (pre-release singles)

Clouds Taste Satanic - Tales of Demonic Possession

Deadguy - Fixation On A Coworker

The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir

Brainiac - The Predator Nominate

Ghost - Prequelle

The Darts - I Like You But Not Like That

High On Fire - Surrounded By Thieves

Massive Attack - 100th Window

Bettye Lavette - The Scene of the Crime

    

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Card:

Back to Missi's Raven Deck for today's Pull:

Change: Just accept it. "Words of wisdom Lloyd. Words. Of. Wisdom."

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