Wow, not totally sold on the song yet, but I LOVE the video (how many times can you say those words?) From the forthcoming album Patient Number 9, out September 9th. You can pre-order HERE, which I broke my ban when I saw I could add this to my order:
Yes. I'm a f*&king sucker. I just can't help but picture our cat Sweetie curled up with this on the couch (she has a teddy bear she curls up with now, so not unheard of).
If I've not said it here previously, I find it endlessly fascinating that my own apparent "Mid-Life Crisis" consists of a reversion to obsession with the Action Figures, Super Hero Comics and Metal I loved as a kid.
Pretty good Crisis to have.
Watch:
Rob Zombie's brother Spider One has his first film hitting Shudder courtesy of Shudder and RLJE Films. Here's the trailer that dropped two days ago:
I'm not a Powerman 5000 fan, despite posting a track from their 2020 album The Noble Rot that sounded pretty good back sometime last year. Wasn't enough to inspire me to check out the rest of the record (I'm actually remedying that as I type this by downloading it on Apple Music to check out later). Anyway, this looks like it could be cool, so I'm laying aside any musical prejudices I might or might not have and going to go in with an open mind.
Playlist:
Perturbator, Johannes Persson and Final Light - Final Light
Sleep - Sleep's Holy Mountain
CCR - Bayou Country
Card:
We saw two more houses yesterday and attended an open house for the one we almost put an offer on two days ago. The two new ones didn't hold a candle to the one we re-walked, so we made an offer, just went in at the asking price. They had until 12:00 PM today to respond, and right up to the wire, the seller's agent reached out to ours and asked for an extension. We replied with EOD. I'm still feeling a bit of uncertainty, but I'm trying to just put myself back in my mindset at home in LaLaLand (i.e. - other than my friends and the abundance of culture we'll be leaving behind, I hate L.A.). If someone bids even a dollar over us, we're going to let this one go and reassess. I can't help thinking it's funny that on a day where there was an open house, the seller's agent hasn't talked to their client; seems this is probably a strategy while they maybe wait on some last-minute second offer. The Moon always denotes hidden influence/agenda.
And for day 7 of our 7 Days of Ozzy, I had to go with something a little bit different. Love the first Infectious Grooves album, and especially this track, which benefits enormously from Ozzy's vocals. I'd say this is similar to Sting's contribution to Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing" - you just can't imagine the chorus being sung by anyone else.
Watch:
Saturday night Beyondfest & the American Cinematheque held a free advance screening of Chloe Okuno's new film Watcher at the Aero Theatre. Holy smokes - a fantastic psychological thriller with a gut-punch ending. LOVED it!
The cinematography and direction in this one are fantastic, as are all the performances. The film really gives you a feel for the slow-motion paranoia that upturns Maika Monroe's Julia's life after she moves with her husband to Bucharest - a city she's never been to where most people speak Romanian - a language she doesn't speak. This isolation feeds directly into her paranoia, so you really don't have a sense of what's real and what's imagined in Julia's escalating panic, stoked by the fact that a serial killer stalks the city in the background of their lives.
Afterward, Maika Monroe and Karl Glusman did a Q&A moderated by Heidi Honeycutt. The two stars discussed filming in Romania during the Pandemic, the endless beauty of Bucharest, and how they prepared for the isolation and paranoia of the film.
I can't recommend this one enough.
Distributed by IFC Midnight, Watcher opens wide June 3rd on 500 screens - the company's largest theatrical opening to date.
Then, in keeping with the themes Watcher introduced, K and I took in a matinee of Alex Garland's new film Men.
Bold Horror Statement*: If The Witch and Midsommar kicked off the current zeitgeist resurgance of Folk Horror, Men is it's apex. Not to say it's better than them, but it seems to coelsce so many of the themes and images into an entirely new thing.
While posting yesterday's track, I ended up inadvertently listening to the entire Diary of a Madman album for the first time in, well, in a very long time. And I really enjoyed it, the entire record.
This is one that kinda got beat to death in my late teens. I dated a girl for three years in/after High School who had two older sisters and they were all HUGE Ozzy fans. So much so that the oldest sister had a boyfriend who kind of modeled his life after Ozzy. His Mustang even had vanity plates that read "Im Ozzy 1" if you can believe that. Anyway, Diary was a staple of our lives, and so I guess it just became associated with that version of me and that time in my life. Nearly thirty years later, I've apparently reclaimed it, free from any nostalgia associated with that particular version of me. Which is pretty cool, to kind of hear something again, for the first time when you knew it so well to begin with. And Little Dolls was a track I don't think ever really clicked with me as being all that great, but last night, hearing it again, listening to the words and that glorious chorus, well, it felt a bit like a small, unimportant (in the grand scheme) epiphany. Which was nice.
Watch:
Another new flick hitting Shudder at the end of July. Really looking forward to this one:
As is my growing custom, I watched the first minute or so, got a feel for how good the cinematography and tone are and then clicked off. Trailers are increasingly frustrating pleasures that are better after you see the movie.
NCBD Addendum:
A couple things I picked up that I forgot to list or didn't expect to buy:
I still love the entire physical presence of these TMNT "Best of" Books.
A new Shaolin Cowboy book! I read the second series (I think it was the second one), back circa 2015 (I think) and loved it, so when I saw this new number one, I couldn't resist. Will also fill the void left by Orphan and the Five Beasts returns at some undisclosed time in the future, as I just re-read the first arc again, and really loved that, as well.
Playlist:
Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman
The Mysterines - Reeling
Small Black - Moon Killer (pre-release single)
Card:
Again? Okay, so seeing this, I went to my Thoth deck to pull a clarifier. Here's what I turned:
It's a little on the nose as an interpretation, however, I take this to mean whatever it is I'm supposed to be learning or picking up on is right in front of my face.
Years ago, my good friend Sonny observed that, on the cover of 1982's Bark at the Moon, Ozzy looked like someone shaved a poodle and then glued the shavings to him. That's a pretty funny - and still pretty freakin' accurate - description. But hey, metal album covers ran an interesting gamut back in the day. All things considered, you take the good with the bad. Which is kind of the case with Bark at the Moon, too. It's definitely not Ozzy's best solo record, and this is definitely not even the best song on the long player, but I dig the way the song moves and I dig the production. Ozzy does what he normally did back in the early 80s - Rock n Roll/you can't stop me/don't judge me. But the pre-chorus builds in a nice way and I swear I can hear how some of Jake E. Lee's guitar solos rubbed off on Kim Thayil ten years later.
k
>kl
NCBD:
Despite the wait, I actually dig that Marvel held Immortal X-Men #2 back so it landed the same week as X-Men Red's second issue.
Both these books are off to a great start, and I am still thinking about the closing page shocker of Immortal's first issue.
Madelyne Pryor, aka the Goblin Queen, up against Illyana Rasputin, aka Magik for the reigns of Limbo? No way I'd miss this one.
Speaking of Hulk, if the rest of Banner of War lives up to even half the promise of the Alpha issue, I will be super happy. Donny Cates continues to take huge swings and knock every issue out of the park.
A Misfits-esque Taskmaster? This limited series has already paid for itself in just one issue. Can't wait to dig into #2.
The final chapter in a pretty great adaptation of Joe Hill's novella Rain.
The first issue of Steve Niles and Szymon Kudranski's A Town Called Terror was mostly set-up, but that set-up brought the creep factor up to about an eight, so I'm in. I think the last Niles book I read monthly was Winnebago Graveyard, and that turned out to be a pretty wicked ride. Hoping for something in the same ballpark here, and pretty sure I won't be disappointed.
Watch:
Thanks to Mr. Brown, without who, I probably wouldn't have seen this new trailer for She-Hulk for another day or so:
Despite giving Moon Knight two episodes before jumping off amidst a seething hatred nothing since the DCU live-action Swamp Thing from a few years ago provoked, I remain optimistic about everything Marvel is doing with their shows (Mr. Brown has even talked me into giving Moonie another chance. Eventually).
The tone of this one is obviously going to be considerably less severe and more fun, but I am absolutely cool with that. Especially with appearances by "Professor Hulk."
Now, if we can just get Gray Hulk Joe Fixit.
Playlist:
Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante
Wesley Willis - Rock 'N' Roll Will Never Die
Calexico - El Mirador
The Bronx - The Bronx (II)
La Hell Gang - Thru Me Again
Various Artists - Nativity in Black: A Tribute to Black Sabbath
Joseph Bishara - Malignant OST
Ozzy Osbourne - The Ultimate Sin
Card:
Taking stock, keeping a clear head and above all things, planning. That's how I read this one. There are variables coalescing soon, but for the moment, they are still en route, traveling at an undetermined speed. Get Ready.
If you're a regular reader of this page, you'll know that a couple years ago I began sifting through a lot of the 80s rock that I'd either ignored or abandoned after adolescence. I called the project "Recontextualizing the 80s" and meant it very much in earnest. I was a kid in the 80s but became a young adult in the 90s, and as many of us know, part of that process is breaking from the things you liked as a child. Right, because at 16, 17, 18 or even into your 20s, you're such an adult. More like, fake it 'til you make it.
One thing I've learned as I entered and defeated my thirties is there's really no such thing as 'adults' as they are advertised to children. The only difference between a kid and an adult is if you accept responsibility for your own actions and everything that follows through from that. Of course, I might just be saying that because I'm a nearly 46-year-old dude who still buys transformers and geeks out over Marvel Comics, but you know, I think I'm right. As a bartender, I saw a lot of adults who acted way more like children and thus was born my theory.
But I'm trailing off on a tide of tangents.
Anyway, the 90s served as the crystallization and final stand of the indie rock scenes that began in the 80s, and with their coalescing into the larger arena of pop culture, a complete refusal to acknowledge any music containing artifice. This was great at the time, but if you're even the littlest bit self-aware, you eventually realize that not every band or musician has to have a straight-lipped, white-knuckle chokehold on "TOTAL INTEGRITY OR DIE". Sometimes it's good just to have fun, and yeah, all the cocaine and mascara of the 80s metal scene pretty much tells you at a glance that's all a lot of those bands cared about. Sometimes that sucks, and sometimes it's okay and carries with it a certain kind of integrity in itself. So for the next seven entries of this blog, I'm going to post tracks that I've either rediscovered a fondness for, finally admitted a fondness for, or have discovered a fondness for.
Get ready, and please, don't throw any Pavement keychains at me. That shit hurts and I never really got into them in the first place.
We start with a song and an album by the 80s Prince of Darkness himself that I used to never like, even back when I liked Ozzy. With the exception of "A Shot in the Dark" - which I believe I've posted in these pages on several previous occasions - I never took a liking to The Ultimate Sin. A couple years ago, however, I decided to give it another shot and guess what? I totally dig every damn track on this record.
Watch:
Now, as if to fly in the face of everything in the previous section, I spent part of last weekend doing a mini Danny Boyle marathon. First up, my first (finally) viewing of The Beach.
I'm a big fan of Alex Garland's novel, and although Boyle's adaptation changed quite a bit from the book, I still dug it, especially the always delightful Robert Carlyle as Daffy.
Next, the original Trainspotting, which I've lost track of my number of viewings for and still adore.
Last and perhaps most bafflingly, I had my first-ever viewing of T2 Trainspotting, the sequel.
I really should have seen this one a long time ago, but never got around to it, always kind of bummed I missed its microscopic theatrical run. I suppose some of the blame lay with the fact that, since I've forced myself to stay away from reading Welsh's last few novels - despite the fact that I still count him in my top three authors of all time - I also moved away from all the other areas of his work. I'm pretty sure at the beginning of every year I tell myself and my readers that this is the year I return to reading Welsh, and finally acquire and burn through all those novels I've missed since I read Skag Boys, but the truth is, while I'm still working on writing a genre series, the idea of drifting back into Welsh's prose may alter my own voice in a way that makes these next two books even more impossible than they already sometimes feel.
Whatever.
T2 bears pretty much no resemblance to Welsh's Porno - which wasn't so much a sequel to Trainspotting as it was a sequel to both that and my favorite of his novel, Glue. But Boyle had no time to introduce that other book's key players - Juice Terry, NSIGN Ewart, wee Gally, or Billy Birrell, and as such, opted to make this more of a sequel to his previous film. Which was the smart move, even if it forced this film to hinge around the confrontation between Renton and Begbie, which does not disappoint, even if the rest of the flick - as enjoyable as it is, especially visually - feels a might rudderless at times.
Regardless of any of that, I still really enjoyed this one and will definitely revisit again, especially after I finally do get back on the Welsh Horse (pun intended but not to be read in any capacity other than reading the man's literature).
NCBD:
Marvel is basically stealing my wallet this week:
I've had no interest in the current Death of Doctor Strange storyline until this Black Knight tie-in one-shot. That's because it's Si Spurrier picking up directly from last year's Black Knight: Curse of the Ebony Blade mini-series.
I'd imagine the cover to this one intimates a big reveal. Hell, I hadn't even stopped drooling over the art in this book or the total 70s-Marvel-inspired storyline long enough to wonder who was under the Masked Raider's mask. They have me curious now, though, but just to be clear - and because I almost never say this - I'm here first and foremost for the art. All revelations are just icing on the cake.
So Bruce Banner is essentially exploring the multiverse with the Hulk as a rocket ship? Yeah, it sounds daft, but again, it comes out with a distinctly 70s flavor in Donny Cates and Ryan "Invincible" Ottley's hands, and after picking up the first two issues on a whim, I'm digging Hulk quite a bit.
Let's interrupt the Marvel fanfare with the final issue of Maw, which so far, has been one of the best original concept Horror Minis I've read in years, ranking right up there with Autumnal, Black Stars Above, and The Plot. Great company to keep, and creators Jude Ellison S. Doyle and A.L. Kaplan have totally earned it.
Mr. Brown clued me in to the fact that the Moon Knight trailer dropped a few days ago, and after watching it, I'm pretty excited. The final shot of the costume looks a bit goofy, in the way Daredevil's did when they first introduced it at the end of the first season of the Netflix show from a few years back, but based on how much this one appears to lean into the mental illness aspects of Marc Spector, I'm more than happy to give it a chance.
Speaking of the show's apparent handling of Dissociative Identity Disorder, how many SJWs do you think are going to take to the Twittersphere to cry afoul? Let's hope that doesn't affect anything the show has planned.
I can't wait to sit down and re-read Lemire and Sorrentino's Cold War Psychic Animal WTF series in a tight burst. There's a lot I feel slipping through the cracks month-to-month here, and I'd imagine the big picture these cats are painting will be that much more effective when consumed uninterrupted.
This is where, if you've been paying attention for the last 9 months or so, I say, "I'm just picking up the number one," and then go on to read this new She-Hulk series monthly. Well, maybe that will be the case. I'm not sure I've ever read a comic with She-Hulk in it before. I mean, it seems like, with the number of comics I've read in my life, I would have had to have read something featuring Jen Walters, but if I did, I don't remember it. Still, I've always been aware of the character, and never particularly interested. Or, maybe the advance hype behind writer Rainbow Rowell and Rogê Antônio's new series will surprise me.
Everything about this cover for the new Silver Surfer: Rebirth commands me to buy this book.
I probably will not buy both covers for The Silver Coin #8 - I'll probably go with the Michael Walsh cover below because, hey, body parts in a bloody mop bucket, am I right? Still, the above alt cover by What's The Furthest Place From Here rock god Tyler Boss is pretty f'ing cool, too.
Number 125. Another landmark in the best reboot EVER.
And finally, here's one I really don't want to buy, but might:
It surprises me to no end that in falling back in love with the X-Men, years of oversaturation have left Logan off my radar and in the "Mutants I least want to see in a comic" list. So why even consider this? Fan inertia I suppose, and the hopes that Benjamin Percy might do something that restores my love of the ol' Canucklehead.
Playlist:
PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love
David Bowie - Station to Station
David Bowie - Let's Dance
Ike and Tina Turner - River Deep - Mountain High
Ministry - Moral Hygiene
Beach House - Once Twice Melody
Alio Die and Lorenzo Montaná - The Threshold of Beauty
Jim Jarmusch and Jozef Van Wissem - The Mystery of Heaven
Eddie Money - Take Me Home Tonight (single)
The Ronettes - Presenting the Ronettes
Pat Benatar - In the Heat of the Night
Donny McCaslin - Beyond Now
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Now I Got Worry
Alio Die and Remco Helbers - The Garland of Dissolution
No More Tears turns 30? Shit man, I'm old. That doesn't mean I can't enjoy the hell out of his new, super cool video for one of the best songs on a pretty solid Ozzy album (his best, IMO). The version on the album was co-written by Lemmy - as were several other tracks - but did not feature him on co-vocals, although if memory serves this version with both Ozzy and Lemmy singing surfaced somewhere years later. Either way, I've always really liked this song, and the video is super cool. Reminds me A LOT of Daniel Warren Johnson's Beta Ray Bill series from earlier this year (that I'm still super hung up on).
NCBD:
Another great week at the Comic Shop - NCBD has really come to be something I look forward to with rabid anticipation again and being that I psychoanalyze myself constantly, I'm pretty sure this is a nostalgia blanket, something that I needed to reinstate in midst of 2020's uncertainty. Why else would I revert back to following Spider-Man so rabidly for 6 months, pick up a new Defenders series with a bunch of characters I know nothing about or are not particularly keen on, or fall back into an X-book? Being a Marvel Comics fan is what got me through the uncertainty of adolescence, and as such, I've apparently flipped that switch again in order to navigate middle age. Whatever the case, I start looking at what's hitting the stands as early as possible, assemble my list, and then wait with bated breath for Wednesday to come around.
Speaking of which, this week we begin with the return of a new friend I hardly had a chance to get to know before it up and disappeared back in the spring:
Definitely not something I normally go in for, I ended up really digging the first two issues of James Stokoe's Orphan of the Five Beasts, and I'd begun to fear it was never coming back. Speaking of returning titles...
I love The Silver Coin so much, and am extremely pleased it proved popular enough to continue on after what was originally supposed to only be five issues.
The Me You Love in the Dark - ghost fucking, huh? Based on the cover art, there might be trouble in paradise for our heroine.
Watch:
I've recently been getting into the films of Alex de la Iglesias. My end-of-night movie on Halloween ended up being his 2014 Heist-turned-cannibal-Witches flick Witching and Bitching. Here's the trailer:
This movie is completely fucking insane. I mean, the last twenty minutes is... well, spectacle filmmaking at its finest.
Mr. Brown recently mentioned how much he liked the latest album from Rock Icon Ozzy Osbourne, and it piqued my interest. I haven't really engaged with Ozzy's music in decades, or at least not the music made during those decades. I've always championed No More Tears, and over the last few years, I've grown to have a renewed love of Blizzard of Oz and Diary of a Madman, as well as a new appreciation for two albums I had previously no interest in, 1986's The Ultimate Sin (I've always loved "Shot in the Dark", but the rest of the album fell flat for me in comparison until just a year or two ago) and 1983's Bark at the Moon, even if, yes Sonny, it definitely looks like someone shaved a poodle and then glued the fur to him for the cover shoot. This is the ridiculousness of Cocaine-fueled Hard Rock, and while many of us that grew up loving it as kids reached a point where we simply had to turn a blind eye to the escalating foolishness, there is comfort for some of us in going home again later in life.
My aversion to Ozzy probably also comes from the fact that my high school girlfriend and her two older sisters were SO into the man that one of them had a boyfriend who literally thought he was Ozzy. I mean, he knew he wasn't Ozzy, but he also put it out that he was him, going so far as to have the license plate "I'm Ozzy 1" on his mustang. Perfect for the time, yes, but he was a good guy and I hope he's done well.
Anyway, I guess enough time and distance has come to pass, because in firing up 2020's Ordinary Man, I found I quite liked it. Definitely not going to be a daily jam, but for this morning it's found a place with me, and no song made me smile more than Scary Little Green Men, which seems to encapsulate so much about Ozzy defying ALL expectations - even his own - and making it into his 70s.
Rock on, Mr. Osbourne! I'm glad you're still with us.
31 Days of Halloween:
1) VHS 94 (don't waste your time)
2) The Mutilator
3) Demons
4) Vortex
5) Possession
6) The Black Phone
7) Slumber Party Massacre
8) Antlers
9) No One Gets Out Alive
10) A Nightmare on Elm Street '84
11) A Nightmare on Elm Street 2010
12) A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
13) Satan Hates You
14) Night of the Demons
15) Lamb
16) The Company of Wolves
17) There's Someone in the House
18) A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
19) Titane
20) A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (9, 10, Never watch again)
21) Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (same. Awful)
Playlist:
Ritual Howls - Into the Water
Electric Youth and Pilot Priest - Come True OST
Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
Hank III - Straight to Hell
Vreid - Wild North West
Mastodon - Sickle and Peace (pre-release single)
X - Under the Big Black Sun
Card:
Because this weekend begins the work of preparing to move across the country. Fuck, this is going to take a long time, because we have to help K's Mom prune her belongings, an entire cache of which resides in a storage facility in San Pedro. So guess where I'm spending my Saturday. Considering how fucking exhausted I am from work of late, this is going to Hurt. As good friend Missi would advise - remember to breathe. So simple, but something that we always forget. Or at least I do.
I know I post a lot from these folks, but their covers are always so damn awesome. This one really made me laugh this morning, not because it's funny or they're making fun, but because it just looks like they are having such a good time covering this classic Ozzy song which has kind of slipped into the seat cushions of my life. Thanks for the reminder guys - gonna fire up Diary of a Madman now.
1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)
2) From Beyond/Monsterland: Port Fourchon, Louisiana/Tales of Halloween: The Night Billy Raised Hell/Tales of Halloween: Trick
3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): The Crate
4) Waxwork
5) Synchronic/Bad Hair
6) Dolls
7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: The Weak and the Wicken/Tales of Halloween: The Grim Grinning Ghost
8) 976-Evil
9) Repo! The Genetic Opera
10) Firestarter/George A. Romero's Bruiser
11) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 1 & 2/Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
12) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 3, 4, and 5/House of 1000 Corpses
I'm really trying to mix up the 31 nights of viewing this year, however, there are a few films that are absolute must-watch entries every year. Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses is one of those. Here's the opening scene, which next to the opening scene from Christopher McQuarrie's 2000 Way of the Gun, is my favorite intro to a movie ever:
See? The level of humor and unease mix so well in this scene, and that could not have been easy to do.
The Horror Vision:
Here's the newest episode of The Horror Vision - our 2 year anniversary episode no less. Also available on all streaming platforms.
Two Minutes to Late Night has been around a while, but it's just popped up in my youtube feed. A heavy metal late night talk show? Sign me up. This is the video that filtered into my feed, and from there I'm hooked. Subscribe and sample the metallic hilarity HERE.
**
Taking another small break from Breaking Bad, I had K pick out a show she'd already watched but thought I would like.
I really like this show. Blew through six of the ten episodes of Season One last night, and Two just dropped, so that will serve as a nice pallet cleanser before we enter the last leg of Walter White's saga of blood, money, and meth.
**
Playlist:
Ennio Morricone - Black Belly of the Tarantula OST
Goblin/Giorgio Gaslini - Profondo Rosso OST
Bob Wils and His Texas Playboys - The Tiffany Transcriptions, Vol. 1
The Babies - Eponymous
X - Under the Big Black Sun
Various - A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night OST
**
Card:
I've had this overwhelming urge to start slowly playing music again. After two decades of considering myself a musician, I took a hard, sharp turn against that and have probably only picked a guitar or bass maybe ten times in the last four and a half years. Recently, with some undo work stress piled on top of the stress of COVID living, I pulled out my electric - which needs some TLC from a professional - and my Takamine acoustic and have started to play a bit. At this point, guitar-wise, I pretty much have to re-learn the fucking instrument, so there's frustration a plenty there. But the acoustic has proven a balm for overly stressful days, and strumming here and there have me thinking about, well, playing. So, the question is, does The Fool tell me it's time to undertake this new journey, or that I'd be foolish to do so?
I think I'm going to have to pull a full-on spread for this one. No time for that today, though.
Still riding pretty high off that Windhand/Ruby the Hatchet show the other night. Still recovering a bit from it, too. Here's another Ruby song, straight from the show the other night (I love how at 18:23 the person filming shamelessly zooms in on Jillian Taylor's bum).
Yesterday's playlist:
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction
Ruby the Hatchet - Planetary Space Child
Ozzy Osbourne - Black Rain
That last entry was a weird, off-the-cuff dalliance to see if a newer Ozzy album would be even remotely interesting. I'm not a huge fan of his solo stuff, but I grew up with it. Black Rain is produced well, the music isn't far outside of what you've come to expect from the Ozman, but the vocals are kinda meh. Not really a surprise. Funny how the night after I dine at the Rainbow Room - which was a staple of the 80s LA Sunset Strip Glam/Hair Metal scene, I listen to both Appetite for Destruction (for the first time in yeeeaarrss) and Ozzy.
Card of the day:
I drew this card early this morning to start my day. I don't feel very much in the way of stability or power though.
I'm re-posting this from my favorite music blog, the brilliant Heaven is an Incubator. I had no knowledge previous to this of the band Gonga, but Beth Gibbons + Black Sabbath is just too good to be true.
I was a fan of Ms. Gibbon's band Portishead from back around the time of Dummy, but it wasn't until the release of Portishead's record Third in... ah, 2007 that one of their records became necessary to me. The pagan-like soundscapes of some of the darker corners of Third fell into that category of music that the first time I hear it some part of me feels as though it were made specifically for me. So it's really no surprise that I feel the way I do about this cover because Black Sabbath's Black Sabbath - along with much of their Ozzy-era catalogue - also hits me that way.
I have no illusions that "13" - 3/4ths of the original Black Sabbath's first record since the late 70's - will be good, but hopefully I'm wrong. Sabbath's original "Ozzy" years are among the most cherished albums I've encountered in my lifetime, but you know - you can't go home again. The band released a song sometime in the late 90's, I believe it was called psycho man and it was so terrible I'd prefer not to even look it up to confirm that. I'd prefer you abstain from doing the same.
The reunion is not complete as Bill Ward isn't involved, but I can't say the idea of Iommi, Butler and Ozzy recording a new record doesn't intrigue me at least a little bit, thus the video above. You never know. (yes you do!).
