Frank Black Appreciation Week continues here with probably my second favorite all-time Frank Black-related track, from the first Grand Duchy album, Petite Fours. With its men in black, government UFO cover-up vibe, this track always reminds me of a sequel to Space (I Believe In), from The Pixies Trompe Le Monde. Listen to Black's voice on those refrains - soul searing. I love everything about this and the album it's on.
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After Stranger Things 3, K and I slipped back into episode two of Nicolas Winding Refn's bleak-as-all-holy-fuck Neo LA Noir, Too Old To Die Young. This show! It seems to me the second episode will be the firewall - anyone not in NWR will give up halfway through. Others will revel in the slow, contemplative nature of this hour-and-thirty-seven-minutes of a film maker drinking his setting and characters for tone and nuance. It's a fantastic piece of filmmaking and actually built up enough momentum that I had to force myself not to drift straight into the next episode, primarily because it was already past my bedtime.
Here's an interview with Refn; I'm leaving this here but not watching it until after we finish the series, just in case there are spoilers.
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Ghost added a lyric video for Faith, my favorite track from last year's Prequelle record. I'm not usually into lyric videos, but this is pretty cool. Also, if the band's previous protocols are still in place, by my calculation we should be getting an EP from these guys any time now.
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Playlist from 7/10:
Low - Trust
Tennis System - Shelf Life (Pre-release Single)
Tennis System - Pain EP
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts - Up Your Alley
Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance
David Bowie - Heroes
Drab Majesty - Careless
Judas Priest - Firepower
Johhny Marr - Call the Comet
Balthazar - Fever
Zonal - Eponymous (Pre-release Single)
Ned's Atomic Dustbin - Godfodder
Frank Black and the Catholics - Pistolero
Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor
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Card of the day:
Paradigm shift. Not 100% on how this fits into my life at the moment; as usual, my inherent reaction is to read it as regarding my writing. Currently unable to mop up two things because of a hanging third. Does this say leave that third behind? Switch gears? Maybe, but an open loop is an open loop, especially when it comes to 'solving' something you've invested a lot of time and creative energy into.
Sing it brother! Talk about hitting the f*&kin' nail on the head. Bob Mould has always had a knack for hooky, endearing, emotionally charged melodies, especially on his choruses. This is no different, but Lost Faith is also bleaker than anything he's done in a while. Love the accordion on the end of the track, and as far as videos go, I'm not usually a fan of videos with the artist standing in the camera, aping playing their instrument, but here the aping is intentional, and, what's more, powerful. Because Bob wears his age on his sleeve and it helps. It helps someone like me, who lost his aging reference just over three years ago and is looking for someone to help him navigate the onset of the back-end of his system's course.
Mr. Mould's new record, Sunshine Rock, is out on Friday from Merge Records. Order it HERE.
The name of the game today is one step back, anticipation for two steps forward. Let's see if that pans out in today's card when I get to it below.
I've been on a bit of a Ghost kick lately, and I was surprised to find I've come back around to Prequelle with a considerably kinder regard. In fact, it's actually working its way up to ranking in with the rest of the Ghost records. Still my least favorite, but I'd imagine I'm finally looking at it as an album in its own right. Also, all the Ozzy solo stuff is probably curbing my expectations mixing them with reality.
My current favorite track.
Watched Velvet Buzzsaw two nights ago. Really dug it. Dan Gilroy pairs with Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo again, adding Toni Collette, Natalia Dryer, Zawe Ashton, John Malkovich, and a bunch of other great talent to turn in a funny little romp through the world of high class/high cost Art and turn it into... a slasher flick. I mean, it took a while for that to happen, but there's a point where I became lucid in the midst of a classic slasher trope and realized, "Holy cow, this is a slasher flick with Art as the killer!"
That idea alone should be enough to get you to watch it. For me, there's also the fact that I adore the way Gilroy shoots nighttime Los Angeles. He has an eye for catching its beauty, as previously seen in the fantastic Nightcrawler. The trick, I believe, is to shoot LA at night, because at night it is beautiful. During the day LA is, for the most part, gross.
Playlist from 2/04:
Joy Divison - Closer
Skid Row - Slave to the Grind
The Devil and the Almighty Blues - II
Ritual Howls - Turkish Leather
Playlist from 2/05:
Ghost - Infestissumam
Ghost - Prequelle
Boy Harsher - Careful
King Buffalo - Longing to be the Mountain
Battle Tapes - Form EP
Ghost - Opus Eponymous
Card of the day:
While there was nothing lazy about my night last night - I spent it hardcore cleaning/rearranging stuff in the apartment that had gotten out of hand - I did not write. This is a reference to that. Also, in reading around online to expand my interpretation, I'm reminding this is an 8 so it corresponds to Hod, which is all about structure and logic, which had a lot to do with my impromptu organizing jag yesterday. Today? Write!
The video for Ghost's Dance Macabre dropped almost a month ago and, for the first time, I didn't immediately post it here. Truth is, I didn't even watch Dance Macabre until this morning. Why?
Prequelle was released on June first, and at the time I spent maybe two weeks rotating it through my playlist before I abandoned it. So this is also the first time a Ghost record dropped and didn't take up months of my sonic real estate. I like Prequelle, I think it's a great pop rock album, but for my own personal tastes, it's a bit of a step in a direction I'm less interested in actually listening to than observing.
What the hell does that mean?
Ever since I heard Ghost's cover of Imperiet's Bible, the closing track on 2016's EP Popestar, my theory has been Ghost is moving toward becoming mass appeal entertainment, rather than simply being 'a rock band'. My money is on the band - or rather Papa/Cardinal's - next phase being a high-level musical. And I've felt since the first go-through on Prequelle that as an album, it is a step in that exact direction. And that's awesome. To reach that level and still be singing about Satan makes me very happy. That said, musically there are a lot of other groups that do for me what Ghost used to. Prequelle doesn't have a Year Zero or Circe, i.e. a track that hits me hard, and instead eschews that for an infinitely more pop/polished sound. Which is also fine, for the most part. But Dance Macabre? For my money, the worst lyrics I've heard in a while. Definitely the worst on a Ghost album.
Ghost's first record, Opus Eponymous, is, lyrically speaking, full of metal tropes, so that record is also not my favorite. But Infestissumam and Meliora have extremely strong lyrics, and those are the records that made me a rabid fan of the band. So to go from Year Zero's, "Crestfallen kings and queens cavorting in their faith," to, Dance Macabre's "I just want to bewitch you in the moon light/Want to bewitch you all night," hurts my heart a little. That one element of that one song seriously affected my entire relationship with Prequelle, and sadly I haven't listened to the record since the month it came out.
Then...
Last night, thanks to my friend and fellow Horror Vision co-host Anthony, I had the pleasure of seeing Ghost live again. As I suspected, seeing a lot of this new material, even Dance Macabre, endeared it to me a little more. This morning then, I finally surrendered to a new-found curiosity and fired up the video. And what do you know? I found the video to be an awesome visual accompaniment - nay enhancement - for the song, and beyond that, a fantastic entry to the band's mythos. Because that's what Ghost is building - and by that I mean the man behind it, who I still would rather remain nameless even if his identity has been revealed at this point - a mythos. And that's what I think the imminent musical will be about: their Heaven and Hell, Black Magick mythos.
Enough Ghost, let's talk comics.
Still feeling poorly. This isn't flu, but it does seem to have the tenacity of a flu bug. Attending an arena concert last night probably wasn't a great idea, but those tickets were purchased months ago and the sickness came on fast, so I didn't want to leave my friend high and dry. Also, it was good to get out of the house for a few hours. Today will consist of more convalescing, so that means I'll be finishing Robert Payne Cabeen's Cold Cuts (so good), and then delving into a few comics. I mean to keep on with a few issues for my Chris Claremont's Uncanny X-Men re-read, and then pick up with issue #2 of Menton3's insanity conundrum, Monocyte.
I've had this one since it came out, four issues from IDW back in 2012, I've never been able to successfully read this series. Monocyte requires so much set-up and backstory that the actual story kind of gets lost. I tried with an issue or two back as they were being released and then bagged-and-boarded it, waiting for a day when I might feel up to the task of trying again.
That day has apparently come. I read issue #1 a week or so ago and, although I still feel the book is a bit too stout for its own good, I enjoyed it. The art is ridiculous, as all Menton3's stuff is.
Playlist from 11/16:
Chelsea Wolf - Hiss Spun
Chasm - Divine Illusion
Various Artists - The Fantastic Mr. Fox
Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
Card of the day:
'
There's an obvious pattern of late with all these orange cards, so let's talk about what this color might have to tell me about these recent draws.
Orange is an amalgam of yellow and red, yellow representing Air and red Fire. So that's intellect and anger, or strength/drive if we're inclined to interpret it in a non-hostile way, which I am. Add to this the Three, which corresponds to Binah, or the Great Mother and Understanding. I'm tempted then, to interpret these deluge of Orange in my pulls this week as a cue to use my brain to better understand where I'm going with this novel, and have the strength to re-wire the things I already know still need re-wiring. Which isn't much, but it's a touch daunting.
Tuesday, June 5, 2018
The Bonus track from Prequelle. I didn't love this record the first time I spun it, now it's seriously grown on me. The throw was that Ghost has moved from a guitar-hook laden outfit to concentrating on vocal melodies. Also, bringing in the piano for basic song structure and composition. After Bible, the final track on 2016's Popestar E.P., I began to speculate that Ghost is working toward composing and presenting a Broadway musical. I am even more convinced of that now. As far as "It's a Sin," I've always dug Ghost's choice of covers, and this is no different. Fits perfect.
Playlist from 6/04:
Massive Attack - Protection
Ghost - Prequelle
Mastodon - Remission
The Soft Moon - Zeroes
The Smiths - Meat is Murder
Electric Citizen - Sateen
Viet Cong - Eponymous
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - 13 Above the Night
Underworld - Barbara Barbara, we have a shining future
Underworld - Barking
Burzum - Filosfem
Card for the day:
Wands can be seen as the creative spark, the Will of the Magus, the Living Spark or Essence. It's Will is tantamount, and you cannot hold it back. This sentiment perfectly describes my recent 'Oppression' at my own hands. I've a creative spark with this project I'm working on, bearing down on a deadline, but I've begun to feel restrained by it. I need to shirk that by taking some extra writing time and outlining this short story in my head, instead of oppressing that spark by blinding trudging along on T12, which I'll still work on daily, but perhaps just rope it back a bit; enough to sneak in some time on this new spark.
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:
