New Music from Queens of the Stone Age featuring Nikki Lane!

Holy cow! New QOTSA and it features Nikki Lane! No idea if this heralds a new album on the horizon, but it's been a few years since In Times New Roman, so I'm guessing we'll see something sooner than later.

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NCBD:

Great pull this week, with a couple of last-minute surprises!

Still walking that road to SIKTC 50. Digging this series - LOVE this cover - but as I've mentioned before, I'm in need of a reread all around to really cement some of the finer points of the rather intricate continuity that runs between all these books.

I cannot believe that, after re-reading the entire series last week, it ended up timed to coincide with the release of a new Rachel Rising one-shot!

The climax to our introduction to the energon-fueled Dire Technology of Crystal Ball. Smart money says this issue ends with Destro making a deal with the lord of illusions, but we'll see. 

Tracking to be in my top five of the year. I LOVE If Destruction Be Our Lot. So much!

Crap! A reminder that I completely forgot issue 2 of Chris Condon, Charlie Adlard and Andrew Enrich's Of the Earth! I mean, I walked into Rick's last month expecting it, but apparently their copies were damaged, and I guess they never got more. 

As has become my inadvertent habit, I just read the previous issue of Savage Sword a few days ago, so it was no surprise to find this slated for today. I don't know exactly how that happened, but I have kind of marveled at my unconscious mind's accuracy with this pattern. 

Here's another one I didn't see coming! New Last Ronin one-shot! Interesting, as just before seeing this, I decided to cancel my TMNT pull for this month's number 20, which is actually the 300th "Legacy" issue. I hate all this Legacy counting, but whatever, at this point I'm used to it. I will, however, still be picking up one-offs like this.

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Watch:

I so want this to be good. I was a weekly BEE Podcast listener for years before Ellis surprised everyone during the pandemic by reading his work-in-progress The Shards every week, and I've listened to those broadcasts at least twice since. This is the perfect Ellis novel to adapt, in my opinion. There's just one thing giving me pause.

Ryan Murphy.

I was never a die hard AHS fan; I love the Hotel, Roanoke and 1984. I jumped off Coven after three episodes, was mostly happy with the first two seasons, and had mixed feelings about Double Feature. Whatever the Cruisin' knock-off season was proved the last straw for me, and watching all the low-brow, tabloid series he's pumped out since (with the exception of The Beauty), I just can't help but feel hesitant about this.

We'll see on August 5th, I guess. I'm really hoping it works, though. Ellis is one of my favorite Authors, he's written some of my favorite novels - The Shards is one - and there's not an adaptation out there that I favor. 

Help me Ryan Murphy, you're my only hope.

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Playlist:

Steve Moore - Jimmy & Stiggs OST

Yerusalem - The Sublime

Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower

Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun

Spotlights - Alchemy for the Dead

Ennio Morricone - Black Belly of the Tarantula OST

Boards of Canada - Inferno

Ghost - Skeleta

Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja

Mastodon - Emperor of Sand

Mastodon - Marrow Deep (pre-release singles)

QOTSA - Easy Street (single)

Spotlights - Seance EP

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Card:

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

• Five of Cups

• Knight of Swords

• Four of Swords

Grief. Drive. Rest.

I haven't talked about this yet, but last Friday I was diagnosed with Fatty Liver Disease. It's actually not as severe as it sounds, but I have to stop drinking beer and really change my diet for the next several months to allow my liver to heal. After that, I'm planning to scale the drinking back. I've been doing 2-6 beers a night for over 20 years, so this really isn't a surprise. And it's a lot better of a diagonsis than the scare that led up to this suggested. I can stop when I need to - K and I just did a three-week hiastus in March - but the thing is beer is my nightly ritual. I don't chase intoxication, I just LOVE beer. Good beer, of course. But part of that love now means I have to let it go for a while, so we can be reunited when I'm healthy again.

All my jokes about Keith Richards' liver have come home to roost.

Also of note, found this card face up in the deck after I laid out the cards above, figured that was worth interpreting. 

In light of the reading above, I'm reading this as growing pains, as I have many.

QOTSA on KEXP

 

Been trying to get to this QOTSA KEXP session for what feels like a few weeks now, so I'm putting it here and hoping to listen before this posts. Thanks to my good friends Mr. Brown and Mr. Joshua (Mr. Joshuan? Thank you, Mr. Joshua) for putting this on my radar, as my algorithm did not.

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A trailer dropped for the next Bobby Fingers video. It's been a long time coming, but I can tell you that, as a member of his Patreon, there was a period between the previous two videos where he actually suspended Patreon payments because he wasn't working on anything, so that, plus the fact that he's posted numerous teaser images and updates, suggests that something BIG is coming. 

I'm with you regardless, Mr. Fingers, but The Wait is killing me!!! After the Jeff Bezos boat episode and its cinematic flourish, I'd predicted we might very well be getting a short film from Bobby Fingers within too long. Is this that? K and I went through the trailer twice, trying to interpret the imagery for clues (one of the Patreon subscribers' previous updates, from late last year, teased the next video would involve Mrs. Fingers and Rats. "Lots of rats."), But, thankfully, the trailer provides a lot of seemingly disparate elements, and we did not read into the comments to see any of the guesses that end up there.

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Read:

Last Wednesday, I walked into Rick's Comic City Clarksville to find that they'd pulled all the issues of Marvel's early 80s ROM: Spaceknight comic from their back issue bins to have ready for the inevitable hunts that will come after Robert Kirkman recently announced ROM is joining the Energon Universe in an upcoming issue of Void Rivals (we talk about it on Drinking w/ Comics HERE). Fortunitous for the, as the issues that had magically matched up with several I already possessed, so for a very nice price, I brought home well-loved copies of ROM 35, 49-61.

This is further down the "Hobby Shop Sci Fi" well I prattle on about now and again, and while it's cool that Kirkman is bringing it back around again for a new audience, I'm beholden to the old run. Bill Mantlo plays all the editorial Shooter-era edicts a book like this suffered from and still manages to create a unique, engaging story.

Although I will say, I am not much of a fan of the Starshine character in her original form. I much prefer the bloodthirsty version that takes the stage in issue 51, after her hometown is massacred by Dire Wraiths.

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Playlist:

DJM Trio Project

FILM50 Project

Quicksand - Bring on the Psychics (pre-release singles)

Mastodon - Emperor of Sand

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons

Boards of Canada - Inferno

Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest

Butthole Surfers - Pioughd

The Besnard Lakes - ... Are the Roaring Night

Foxy Shazam - Dark Blue Night

Etta James - Second Time Around

Ghost - Skeleta

Dio - Holy Diver

Savages - Silence Yourself

Bee Gees - How Deep is Your Love? (single)

Blonde Goblin - Worlds to Burn

Russian Circles - Gnosis

Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will

The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Page of Pentacles

• Eight of Wands

• King of Pentacles

Advice to strike while the iron is hot in regards to Earthly concerns. Literally JUST did that before I drew these cards. The master of abundance represented by the King definitely feels appropriate.

Subcutaneous Phat

Recently, I was back in Chicago for my good friend and Horor Vision cohost Professor John Trafton's Moving Histories Panel at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (CSMS) conference hosted at the Freemont Hotel in downtown Chicago. The panel was on Saturday, so I drove in solo on Friday, and my sister Kim and I met John for pizza and beers at Piece Brewery/Pizzaria. Great food, great beer. 

After dinner, Kim and I took John to one of the few Wickerpark legends that remains from back in the day - Estelle's. The 5:00 AM on the weekend lounge still has great ambience, a killer jukebox, and an all-around air of history to it. In service of my second point, QOTSA-project Desert Sessions track Subcutaneous Phat came on. I couldn't place it at first, but as soon as I did, I knew I'd be digging out my CD copy of Desert Sessions Vol. 9 & 10 upon returning home.

Absolutely killer track!!!

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Watch:

How did I miss that Ari Aster's fourth film, a contemporary Western set during the recent pandemic, is on the horizon? Here's the teaser trailer, the only thing I'll be watching in the run-up to this film's eventual release, which has yet to be announced:

Also, check out this poster. This has to be my favorite film poster in years:

Can't wait for this one to hit theatres. I know Aster's third film, Beau's Not Afraid, did not get the kind of love his first two films, Hereditary and Midsommar, did, but I loved it and, while I'd love to have Aster back in the Horror genre, I'm there for anything the man does at this point.

Read more about this on Bloody Disgusting HERE.

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Read:

Somehow, I forgot to post about this back when I received it from K for my birthday and promptly read it the next day. Warren Ellis and JH Williams III blew my mind back in 2005 with their six-issue Desolation Jones book (the series continued for two issues beyond this with a new arc artistically helmed by José Villarrubia, but it only went two issues before Warren Ellis' infamous Hard Drive crash that led to the end of most if not all of the series he was writing at the time (Doktor Sleepless, New Universal, Fell, etc). Recently, however, Williams spearheaded the release of a remastered, oversized hardcover, and K gave me a copy for my birthday. It is fucking GLORIOUS!

I had not read this since it was monthly, and although I remembered it being just as good if not better than most of Ellis' work, I'llbedamned if this isn't one of my favorite arcs the man wrote. Maybe it's Williams' art, but the concept and execution are thrilling, kind of a Hellblazer-meets-the-spy-genre-meets-weird-fiction. 

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Playlist:

Earth - Primitive and Deadly

Desert Sessions Vol. 9/10

PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her

Toast - Clincher

Ghost - Meliora

Type O Negative - Dead Again

Preoccupations - Arrangements

Type O Negative - October Rust

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New Queens of the Stone Age - Carnavoyeur

 

More new music from next month's new Queens of the Stone Age record, Times New Roman, available for pre-order HERE.

My friend Josh alerted me to this one, and I have to say, his "I hear Bowie" observation is spot-on. Not necessarily in how the song sounds (although there's that), but more in the type of experimentation the band's doing. Really cool stuff.

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NCBD:

Nothing in my pull this week, however, issue #3 of Pat O'Malley's Popscars drops, and I'll definitely be picking that up and adding the book to my Pull.

Now published by Sumerian Comics - formerly Behemoth Comics, the fine folks who published Andy Leavy and Hugo Araujo's Osaka Mime, not to mention the Turbo Kid and Spare Parts tie-in books. I met Pat back in 2022 at The Comic Bug when he was in signing issues 1 and 2 of Popscars, then completely independently published. I bought those issues, LOVED them and was supposed to have him on A Most Horrible Library, but then, well, I don't think we've done an episode since. He reached out recently and I need to get back to him and extend an invite to come on my functioning show, The Horror Vision, so he can talk about the book.

Here's the solicitation description:

"Popscars is a gritty Hollywood revenge story about a vigilante badass in a pink ski mask and the famous Hollywood movie producer she is out to kill, who also happens to be her estranged father. In Hollywood revenge is best served in front of an audience. As our pink ski masked killer pushes her way through a Hollywood crowd, prepared to take her shot at her movie producer father, she's quickly swept into a brand new revenge plot orchestrated by her own unsuspecting target."

 

I love the imagery in the book, and the seedy nature of, well, all of it. An exploitation book about exploitation flicks is, by its very nature, a fantastic story.

 

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Read:

I surprised myself by putting off my re-read of Stephen Graham Jones's My Heart is a Chainsaw after I noticed that my copy of Laird Barron's The Wind Began to Howl is due to land any day, and that technically, this book is labeled as "Isaiah Coleridge Novel #3.5." 

Interesting... and also probably a shorter read than clocking through Chainsaw and its follow-up, Don't Fear the Reaper, both of which I'm dying to read. But I've also been chomping at the bit for more Coleridge, and more Laird Barron in general, so I started re-reading Isaiah #3, 2020's Worse Angels.

I've read Coleridge books 1 and 2 twice each, or actually three times on book one, Blood Standard, but Worse Angels just the once, so this is a welcome return to a book that kinda blew me away (like they all do). Also, I'm eager to read it without reading book 2 Black Mountain, in close proximity. I love the entire series, however, Black Mountain was just something else, and because of this, I feel like it warped my only experience with Angels so far. Not this time...

 

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Playlist:

QOTSA - Era Vulgaris

High On Fire - Snakes for the Divine

Decima Victima - Los Que Faltan

The Mysterines - Begin Again (single)

Killing Joke - Fire Dances

Tangerine Dream - Sorceror OST

            

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Card:

Had an inkling to pick the Raven Tarot Deck back up and pull a single card. Here we go:

Temperance, or "Art" in Crowley and Harris's Thoth deck. Another small goad to get my ass back in gear, as my lethargy has crept through the weekend and into the middle of the damn week now. We've had a steady stream of vendors out to the house for various reasons over the last few days, and that continues today. Also, I am once again completely enraptured by Laird Barron's Worse Angels. That said, I need to develop a curriculum. One thing I was pretty taken by in Ivy Tholen's Tastes Like Candy - I mean, besides the awesome Slasher story - was main character Violet's practice routine with her violin. It reminded me of the benefit of commitment to the craft. I've been wanting to work up a schedule that includes not only writing - and of course reading has to be in there - but also guitar, as I've felt a pull back to that after nearly a decade ignoring what used to be my muse. 

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NEW MUSIC FROM QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE!!!

 From the forthcoming album Times New Roman, out June 16th. You can pre-order HERE. 

SUPER cool song - I hear T. Rex a lot in here, always a good thing. I'm also noticing the guitar sound on the verses has that super distorted "junkyard" feeling that I loved so much from Era Vulgaris, pushed back to the front. I've never been sure if that's a soft application of a ring modulator or a pitch shifter or both. Either way, loving it here.

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Watch:

From an article on Bloody Disgusting this morning (HERE), I give you the trailer for God is a Bullet:

 

Satanic Cult? I'm in! Also, Maika Monroe has been in some killer genre flicks over the last few years, and she's been great in all of them. 

  

Is it a bit weird that this film is directed by Nick Cassavetes, director of The Notebook? Not to judge the man - lots of people break in with what they can and then follow their passion (consider the case of Ryan Gosling, star of The Notebook), but there's also a track record of non-Horror folk 'hanging out in Horror' for a paycheck. Hopefully, that's not the case.

This one's getting a wide theatrical release - not sure if it will play by me; at first glance, I thought having the title God is a Bullet would stigmatize it right out of the local theatres here, then I realized having "bullet" in the title might actually push it in any way. After all, if there's one thing people seem to like more than god here, it's bullets.

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Playlist:

The Raveonettes - Raven in the Grave

The Raveonettes - In and Out of Control

The Hives - Tyrannosaurus Hives

Ghost Cop - End Credits

Ghost Cop - One Weird Trick

Screaming Females - Desire Pathway

Danko Jones - We Sweat Blood

Iress - Prey

Type O Negative - Origin of the Feces

Mars Red Sky - Eponymous

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2018: December 12th: New John Garcia and the Band of Gold

New music from John Garcia and the Band of Gold. I'm a big fan of Kyuss, especially ...And the Circus Leaves Town and Blues for the Red Sun. I never really kept up with Mr. Garcia afterward though. This sounds great to me. Looking forward to the record, pre-order it HERE.

It's amazing how much great music came out of the California Deserts in the late 90s/early 00s. Having played a bit there myself, I can attest to the fact that there's a beautifully haunting undercurrent of inspiration that people tap into. Has a bit to do with Gram Parsons and his death, a little bit more to do with the alien landscape. That said, the sound on this track reeks of 'desert', but Nate Klein's gorgeous cinematography play with a mostly urban landscape, so there's almost a disconnect, but one that disappears when we get that shot at about 00:54 of what looks to me like the highway leading into Twenty-Nine Palms - you just don't have those kinds of hills in LA - and then the pedigree becomes visible once again. It's a similar vibe to the first Queens of the Stone Age album, which also played with a low-income urban vibe juxtaposed against the desert. Works well, and it really puts you there. That's the lifeblood of California, not the money and fame. We're an artificial human paradigm forced into a desert. And in the end, Mother Nature always wins, sometimes you just need a longer timeline to see it.

Spent a nice six hours or so working on The Legend of Parish Fenn with Jonathan Grimm last night. Seeing this thing laid out in the flesh blows my mind - John's art has come such a long way, same with my words, and laying out mock word bubbles over the art thrilled me to no end. Here's a sneak peak:

Playlist from 12/12:

Moderat - II
Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit
Ghost -Meliora
Various - Twin Peaks (Music from the Limited Event Series)
Secret Premiere Album for Friend's Band
Type O Negative - Dead Again

Card of the day:

Victory and arrogance. Check. These are two sides of the same coin for some; I myself have never relied on arrogance to get me through the day, I just don't have the self-importance. I know when I do something that sucks, and I know when I do something that's good. The card warns about keeping on the fine line of living with - and more importantly talking about - these. Parish Fenn? Good. The final scene in ShadowPlay, Book 1? So far, not good. It's driving me fucking crazy. Literally. I can feel myself carrying all kinds of neurosis at this point, all voices screaming "Finish the fucking thing." But I can't quite get it where I want it. Seven years I've been working on this (with a year off to do the shorts in Collection of Desires, which in turn led to me having a different outlook on ShadowPlay, which I'd mistakenly thought was finished). End result? It will be awesome when it's done, I just have everything else on hold and a whole lotta self confidence issues until that happens. But seeing Fenn and then this card together now? It helps.

Queens of the Stone Age cover Brian Eno

I didn't know this existed until just now. In the midst of a binge on Eno's Here Come the Warm Jets I set out to find a youtube video for Needles in the Camel's Eye and found this in the search results:



And the original:



No matter who is singing it, this song makes me love life.

QOTSA

This video makes me extremely happy.

Remember in 2013 when Queens of the Stone Age teased the hell out of us for what seemed like -and may very well have been - months before ... Like Clockwork was released? Well, they did it a bit this time too, in the run-up to their forthcoming album Villains. Wait, is that the name? Well, let's take a look at this video and see.

Queens of the Stone Age - Smooth Sailing Video

I am waaay late on this. My friend and fellow QOTSA fanatic Josh FB'd me to ask my opinion on this like a week ago and I've consistently forgotten about it. Until now.

Hard to pick a favorite track on a record as mammoth as ... Like Clockwork but this is in the top tier. It's so Revolting Cocks it's not funny, and Mr. Homme's trademark snake-snark is at full hilt.

Oh, and in answer to your question Josh, I haven't smiled this much while watching a music video for the first time since Grinderman's Heathen Child back in 2010.

Queens of the Stone Age Live in the Studio @ KCRW

Even after recording/releasing the new Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds live album do you still need proof that KCRW is America's greatest NPR station?

Above.

Queens of the Stone Age - The Vampyre of Time and Memory Official Video

Well, apparently it's music video day, although this actually dropped rather quietly yesterday. ...Like Clockwork is a top contender thus far for my album of the year and this track, coming in at number three on the album, was the first one on that first listen that told me the band had really crafted a powerhouse. The video is really quite strange, but the real killer occurs if you go here: http://www.vampyreoftimeandmemory.com/  here and do the full interactive music video experience. of course leave it to Queens to do something like this. So fantastic it borders on inconceivable.

Queens of the Stone Age cover Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines

Also via Pitchfork (and BBC)

Queens of the Stone Age cover Mark Lanegan's 100 Days

YES! Queens covering one of my favorite tracks by Mark Lanegan, 100 Days from the Brilliant record Bubblegum!!!

via Pitchfork and originally Antiquiet!

Queens of the Stone Age on Lettermen

I'm way behind on posting this but it's been a busy couple days catching up on the sleep I need to live.

Queens of the Stone Age ...Like Clockwork

image courtesy of antiquiet.com

This album is incredible and has been one of the best first listens in a year so far packed with pretty fantastic first listens. Read my take on Joup: Queens of the Stone Age ...Like Clockwork

Queens of the Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork Live in LA

This concert was forty minutes away from me (with traffic and parking) last Thursday. I've been checking the QOTSA site off and on for weeks and still managed to miss the mention of it entirely. Of course it sold out right away, and tickets were (again) ridiculously priced compared to their shows in other cities. I'm not sure if it's the bands or the venues - me thinks a bit of both. Sorry, I LOVE Queens, but I'm not paying $75 to see anyone unless it's Joanna Newsom in a private performance. I'm posting this footage - which I believe is the new album start to finish and then some. I won't pay that tix $$ but I'll sure as hell give the boys my money next Tuesday.

image courtesy of dragcity.com

Queens of the Stone Age - My God is the Sun Music Video

I'll admit, at this point I'm barely listening to these Queens tracks, as I sorely want ...Like Clockwork to be an album experience and all of these early released tracks are working against that. Smart in the age of itunes and youtube, but I'm old school and very album-centric, thus I'll post these for others' listening pleasure, but I'm trying (very hard might I add) to abstain from consuming any of this until I hold the record in my hand, can sit down with a good head of smoke and critically listen to this thing from start to finish. A friend messaged me recently saying he'd heard a leak and, to quote, "nothing can prepare you for it." I'm also not one for leaks or torrent sites, so I'm biting my nails and grinding my teeth until June 4th - which really isn't so very far away in normal time.

However while waiting for a new Queens of the Stone Age record, it might as well be A MILLION FUCKING YEARS!!!

New Queens of the Stone Age Video: "If I Had a Tail"

Good lord. There must be video content for almost every track on the album by now.

And Another New Queens of the Stone Age Animated Video for "Kalopsia"

I'm posting these last two out of order, but I was out of order yesterday, so I'm behind.

New Queens of the Stone Age Animated Video for "Keep Your Eyes Peeled"

Cannot wait for this record!!!