Happy Monday, October 17th! Here's some Dance with the Dead to wake all our asses up! From the B-Sides: Vol. 1 collection, which is available on the group's Bandcamp HERE.
31 Days of Halloween:
10/1 - Trick 'r Treat
10/2 - Barbarian
10/3 - Hellraiser ('84)
10/4 - Phenomena
10/5 - Hellraiser (2022)
10/6 - The Dark Backward
10/7 - Sick/The Beyond
10/8 - Werewolf By Night
10/9 - Something in the Dirt
10/10 - Let the Right One in Episode 1/Lux Aeterna
10/16 - Spider Baby/101 Scariest Horror Movie Moments/Night's End/Behemoth
Jennifer Reeder's Night's End hit Shudder a few months back as a Shudder original and kind of got pushed right past my radar by all the other titles that came in hot on its heels. Luckily, while browsing back through the "All Movies" heading, I stumbled on it. Fantastic film. a tight 81 minutes, this one really pulls you into the protagonist's inner world with visual cues, then kind of explodes all over the place in the final act. Loved it.
Also, we have the first episode of AHS NYC dropping this coming Wednesday, and I'm pretty excited. I don't think it's any coincidence that this season lands just after David Bruckner's Hellraiser and appears to focus on a lot of the same imagery and even, possibly, an extension of the scene that inspired Barker to write the original The Hellbound Heart.
Will this be American Horror Story's version of Hellraiser? Probably not exactly, but it looks like it will scratch a similar itch.
Playlist:
Boy Harsher - Burn It Down EP
Boy Harsher - Careful
Miranda Sex Garden - Fairytales of Slavery
Type O Negative - Dead Again
Public Memory - Veil of Counsel EP
G.I.S.M. - Detestation
Jammes Luckett - May OST
Goblin - 2013 Tour EP
Claudio Simonetti - Phenomena OST
Jim Williams - Possessor OST
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Say no more. This is one of those "loud and clear" readings: I haven't gotten shit down with writing in weeks. The second week in LA, when I stayed with friends, fine. That's an excuse. Working, commuting, seeing almost a flick a night and a concert? But I've been back a week tonight (technically a week tomorrow morning) and I've only written once. That has to change. I need to focus my energies on that time, and apply my Will.
I've been leaning heavily into talking and posting about Rein, the first band I caught at Coldwaves 2022 Night One, opening for The Revolting Cocks Corpse, so I wanted to get in at least one about the other, penultimate band that night.
I know nothing about Stromkern going in, but man did they make an impression Excellent stage presence, and the drummer absolutely slams in a kind of Martin Atkins way, Andrew Saga switches back and forth between keys and guitars with ease, sometimes playing both to fantastic effect, all while vocalist/mastermind James "Ned" Kirby uses the entire stage as he blasts through his almost hip-hop-like approach to vocals.
Watch:
One of the flicks I'm bummed I won't be able to make at this year's Beyondfest is Joseph and Vanessa Winter's Deadstream.
I've been hearing a lot about this in the Horror Community, and after seeing the trailer on the big screen last week, prior to both Trick 'r Treat and Dark Glasses, the film looks like it would be a ton of fun in a crowded, like-minded theatre. Alas, I can only manage so many shows while I'm in, and this one fell outside the logistics for my second week in LaLaLand. That said, Deadstream hits Shudder on the 6th, so that means I might be able to sneak in a home viewing while staying with my friends, who are both huge Horror fans.
Playlist:
Pixies - Doggeral
Rein - Reincarnated
The Afghan Whigs - In Spades
The Flamingos - Best of Playlist
Brian Eno - Here Come the Warm Jets
David Bowie - Diamond Dogs (single)
Dead Milkmen - Beelzebubba
Revco - Linger Fickin' Good
Forhist - Eponymous
Anthrax - Worship Music
Antrax - Persistance of Time
Card:
I usually read this as a sacrifice, however, this morning I'm inclined to read it as a suggestion to change my perspective to gain new insight.
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.
I had no idea Julee Cruise did an album with Kid Congo Powers. Holy cow - what a fantastic pairing of musicians.
Watch:
Whoah:
Kudos to Shudder for putting this one out there. I've never been a rabid Gwar fan, as some of my friends, but I love them, and the one time I saw them live - Halloween (I think) circa 1999 (again, I think), they were awesome. Dave Brockie's death was a sucker punch from out of nowhere, but I've admired the band's perseverance and can't wait to see the band's history from start to present, as I have a lot of gaps in my knowledge of them.
NCBD:
Here's the haul; I've got a lot of reading to do before I head to the airport this afternoon:
The first issue of Moon Knight's turn at the Black, White & Blood series was fantastic, so I've really been looking forward to this second issue.
Love that cover; turns out it's more disturbing seeing The Corinthian's eye-mouths eat meat than the human eyes we're used to seeing them gorge on.
Really hoping this issue quells my reservations about where this one is going, because I like A Town Called Terror quite a bit so far.
I dig West of Sundown A LOT. There's a lot of Penny Dreadful influence, but not in a bad way.
I'm just loving the idea of setting this book primarily on Arrako, the former planet Mars. Also, I love both these damn covers, but that second one - I so want to see Storm and Brand go head-to-head.
And finally, the book I've been anticipating for months hits shelves this week:
With the success of Brubaker and Phillips' Reckless hardcover graphic novel series, I'm excited to see more creators go that route. And after the absolute creep-out of last month's Bone Orchard preview, I have super high expectations.
My friend Eddie over at The Comic Bug attended the Cruel World fest a few weeks ago and it was on a video he shot that I first saw Peter Murphy's new look. Oh my god! These guys were already one of my favorite bands, but seeing Murphy here, I'm blown away. I mean, for a second I was like, "Why is Rob Halford singing for Bauhaus." Then I realized, no, I just hadn't seen a photo of Murphy since... well, probably some time around 2006 when Go Away White was released (an album I still defend vehemently).
Anyway, in looking around on youtube, I found alleyc8Cat's channel with this full set. So cool they posted, and in looking at the other videos on the channel, I subscribed immediately. If you dig, give them a like and a follow HERE.
NCBD:
I'd been wanting to see Jacob Gentry's Broadcast Signal Intrusion for some time now, so when it landed on Shudder recently, I moved it up the queue.
The film takes place in Chicago in 1999, so major props for doing a great job taking me back to that particular time and place. Also, Gentry is very good at lovingly incorporating his cinematic loves in a way that is pleasurable to those who share the same feelings (Videodrome!), and overall, the story and concept are really cool. That said, this film has its share of problems, and despite liking it quite a bit, I have to admit that BSI feels like it ultimately falls flat on knocking down a lot of what it sets up.
I’m not one who needs explanations - if you read these pages, you know that. However, there’s a certain pact a filmmaker enters with their audience when they introduce certain tropes/concepts into their film. By using certain known plot devices as red herrings, this film feels like it cheats a bit. Tone over substance, and while I’ll always err on the side of tone, elements of this film rub me a bit wrong. Ambiguity is fine unless it's substituted for story, and that's definitely the case here when it comes to anything other than the awesome setup:
"In the late 90s, a video archivist unearths a series of sinister pirate broadcasts and becomes obsessed with discovering the dark conspiracy behind them."
I will say, there are three points in this film where it makes like it’s going to do something so tropey it knows the audience will roll their eyes, then it intentionally doesn’t do that. Those three instances helped BSI gain a lot of ground in my good book, but also made me wonder if the film is that self-aware, couldn’t it have been refined a bit more?
NCBD:
Playlist:
Cyndi Lauper - She's So Unusual
Joe Doe - Fables in a Foreign Land
Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium
Peter Gabriel - Melt
Mastodon - Hushed & Grim
Zombi and Friends - Vol. 1
Zombi -Shape Shift
Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman
Card:
Too tired to interpret this now, so just recording the Pull for posterity's sake.
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.
No, you didn't miss a headline. Against all odds, Ozzy Osbourne is still alive. I know usually it's after someone has died that I do a "So-and-so week." But I'm always wanting to change that, and here's my chance.
The motivation here is really simple: I'm finding that after not paying any attention to Ozzy's music since No More Tears - an album I'll stand by until my dying day - I've become somewhat enraptured by his 2020 record Ordinary Man. What's more, for the past few years I've kind of rediscovered albums like Bark at the Moon and The Ultimate Sin - the latter of which I used to hate every track on except Shot in the Dark, which will no doubt turn up over the next six days, even though I'm certain I've posted it here before.
Anyway, for the next 7 or so posts, I'll be celebrating the Ozman, so light a doob and frog leap off your front porch - we're biting heads (off bats)!
Watch:
Holy Fuck!
Also, since I worked last Sunday, I had a half-day today. I drove home at a leisurely pace, made a turkey sandwich and fired up The Sadness on Shudder.
Holy. Fuck. X. Two.
Easily the most violent, gory and depraved movie I've seen in a long time. I'm not saying there aren't tougher flicks out there; I know there are. I just don't normally traffic in them. This, however, comes in right over the line in favor of my tastes. There were a few moments I thought we were going to dip into territory that I don't tread, but thankfully, that never happened. An unexpected result of this line-dancing is The Sadness clocks in as the first film I've seen since The Void that feels truly transgressive, or maybe even dangerous.
Not for the faint of heart.
NCBD Addendum:
I picked up my books for NCBD yesterday and had a few extra surprises. First, I'd forgotten Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino dropped a single-issue prequel to their new ongoing Horror Universe The Bone Orchard Mythos on FCBD. "Shadow Eater" arrives about a month before the first HC graphic novel, The Passageway.
This book is freakin' awesome, and if it's any indication - and I know it is - the Bone Orchard is going to be something I won't be able to shut up about for the next few years. Mapped out through 2023 "and beyond" according to Lemire, looks like we're in for some sleepless nights. Thanks guys! (really)
Next, and talk about couldn't be more different, I picked up the FCBD prequel for Judgement Day, the new X-Men/Avengers/Eternals crossover event.
Yeah, I hate crossover events, and I completely realize that I'm setting myself up to be pissed off, but I can't help it - I love this X-Men revamp, and my post-Hickman fears have been thus far trounced by Immortal X-Men, X-Men: Red, and now issue 11 of X-Men (holy cow Dr. Stasis!).
Also, the final story in this Judgement Day lead-in has one of the most chilling moments ever in X-history (and Spider-Man history, to boot!).
Next on the "I didn't anticipate buying this in the comic shop today," I'd seen a little of the Professor Dario Bava books in a post on The Comic Bug's social media back a year or two ago for a signing, but ultimately forgot all about it. Luckily, there was a new book that dropped this week and I grabbed that and the previous. The new one is the first of an ongoing story (I think) that is actually a two-sided magazine-sized behemoth.
The second is the first GN they kickstarted (again, I'm not 100% on the timeline here - this is very new to me).
Both are gorgeous, creepy and filled with Cult Cinema goodness. You can check the Dario Bava stuff out on their website HERE.
Playlist:
Perturbator, Johannes Persson & Final Light - In the Void (pre-release single)
Calexico - El Mirador
Calexico - Even My Sure Things Fall Through
16 Horsepower - Low Estate
Atrium Carceri - Kapnobatai
Blood Red Shoes - Ghosts on Tape
(Lone) Wolf & Cub - May You Only See Sky
David Bowie - The Next Day
Journey - Escape
Stian Carstensen & Mike Patton - Hydrocephalus Epilogue (single)
I've been listening to the live double album David Bowie released from the Reality tour. Not only is Reality my favorite Bowie album, I think A Reality Tour is my favorite Bowie live album, as well. Such a great, career-spanning selection of songs, and some especially insightful new versions of old favorites and deep cuts, the best of which might just be this re-working of "Rebel Rebel", the studio version of which was included on a later edition of Reality as a bonus track.
Watch:
I can't wait for Friday. Seeing Joe Bob and Darcy kick off a new season will be like old friends having a party after time away, and my Last Drive-In text threads - Tommy, Ray and Missy - are always a welcome respite.
My bet is we finally get Halloween III: Season of the Witch, which hit Shudder for the first time since I've been subscribed (2018) and leaves the service on the first of next month.
Playlist:
Calexico - El Mirador
Concrete Blonde - Bloodletting
Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses
David Lynch - The Big Dream
Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch - Censor OST
Testament - The New Order
Download - The Eyes of Stanley Pain
Puppy Gristle - Eponymous (Thanks, Klint!)
Card:
The mass of all my possessions occasionally weighs on me. Yesterday was one of those days.
Goddamn if I don't still love every track on Deftones' 2012 (ten years!!!) Koi No Yokan.
Watch:
Tobe Hooper's 1981 carnival-themed slasher flick Funhouse just came back to Shudder, and I had forgotten how insane this flick is. The third act climax alone is enough to leave me going, "Jesus, this is totally f*%king coo-coo. If you haven't seen this one - or if like me it'd been a while - it's definitely a good time to revisit.
Read:
I spent the latter half of this week completely enraptured by and re-reading the first issue of Kieron Gillen's Immortal X-Men.
One of the things I liked least about this new, Krakoan era of the X-books is the change in the portrayal of Mr. Sinister. I have always been a HUGE fan of the old-school Sinister introduced in the Claremont-era of Uncanny, with his limited appearances enhancing his, well, sinister aspect. He reeked of dark schemes and unparalleled violence. Now, however, Sinister almost feels like comedic relief at times, and I experienced a considerable degree of cognitive dissonance at this new persona during HoX/PoX. However, Gillen has changed that with this issue, which is entirely from Sinister's perspective and drops the Godfather of all reveals in the book's final page. I literally exclaimed out loud when I reached the end, and have been picking at the ramifications ever since.
I've been so into this, I did something I never do - I took to youtube to try and find people talking about this. (I'll be honest, I'm so tempted to try and restart Drinking with Comics, call it the Immortal Drinking with Comics, and only talk about this, however, there's a host of reasons I can think of not to do that, so I'm staying on the sidelines and listening to others talk. So far, this is the best video I've found.
Playlist:
The Mysterines - Reeling
The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
King Woman - Doubt EP
Cypress Hill - Back in Black
Perturbator - I Am the Night
U2 - The Joshua Tree
U2 - War
Mark Lanegan Band - Blues Funeral
Entropy - Liminal
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Deafheaven - Infinite Granite
Jim Williams - Titane OST
Ministry - Moral Hygiene
David Bowie - Scary Monsters
Ghost - Impera
The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre
Ghost - Infestissumam
The Besnard Lakes - ... Are the Roaring Night
Boy Harsher - Careful
Jackie Wilson - Higher and Higher
Tears for Fears - The Tipping Point
Quicksand - Slip
Deftones - Koi No Yokan
Card:
Past: Making ideas actionable
Present: Continue to work at what I've put in motion
Future: The work isn't enough. This will require an inner guidance, known to most as intuition.
Pretty spot-on with what I'm working on, which I believe is soon to reach its conclusion.
And thanks to my good friend Seth for the link to this one. What a beautiful way to end Mark Lanegan week.
Watch:
I know it's waaaay early, but I'm going on record: So far, Hellbender - or stylized as H6llb6nd6r - is the movie to beat for my favorite movie of the year:
This is another film by the Adams family - Tobey Poser, her husband John Adams and their two daughters Lulu and Zelda - who released The Deeper You Dig in 2019 and have been gaining an increasing amount of notoriety as a family of ridiculously talented individuals. Even the music they did for the movie is fantastic and begs for a proper release.
Playlist:
The Afghan Whigs - In Spades
The Cure - Faith
The Cure - Carnage Visors
QOTSA - Lullabies to Paralyze
Mark Lanegan Band - Blues Funeral
Walking Papers - The Light Below
Black Road - Witch of the Future
Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
Silent - Modern Hate
Ritual Howls - Into the Water
Card:
Again? I need some time to process this. Or maybe that's the point. While I keep trying to figure certain things out, the Wheel keeps spinning, and the situation changes.
The Gutter Twins - Mark Lanegan and Greg Dulli - performing "Idle Hands" on David Letterman. Easily my favorite song by the Twins, not because their other material is lacking, but because Lanegan channels a fucking demon with the low end on his voice in this one. The album version is sonically preferable, but how good is it to see these two icons playing side by side?
Listen:
Thanks to Mr. Brown for messaging me about this one dropping - I'd missed it completely.
I am SO hoping this means there's a new Whigs full-length on the way. Also, wondering if Dulli released this earlier than expected as a statement on Lanegan's passing. Super awesome track, can't wait for more.
Watch:
Tomorrow on Shudder:
The trailer Hellbender one played a few weeks ago during the halfway point of the Joe Bob Brigg's Valentine's Day Special. I've been looking forward to it since, and it finally hits tomorrow on Shudder.
Playlist:
Boy Harsher - The Runner OST
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
The Gutter Twins - Saturnalia
The Gutter Twins - Adorata
Metallica - Kill 'Em All
Zeal and Ardor - Eponymous
The Jim Carroll Band - Catholic Boy
The Afghan Whigs - I'll Make You See God (single)
Mark Lanegan Band - Here Comes That Weird Chill
QOTSA - Songs for the Deaf
Chrome Canyon - Director
Cult Leader - A Patient Man
Card:
The watery aspect of water. From the grimoire: "Deep, Emotional Realms of Personality." I'm plumbing ideas of Deep Personality in a new writing project I'm using to bridge the huge gap I've suffered in working on the second Shadow Play book. This is a short, probably a serialized piece for No Sleep, since the other was so well received, and it's keeping me writing while so many interruptions have made it impossible to hit any kind of a continuous stride while working on the novel.
A friend of mine posted about Bnny's new album Everything a few days ago. I'd never heard of this artist, so I took a little stroll into her music and wow. Blown away. I spend a lot of my time pretty keyed up on various incarnations of Metal these days - it's just what gets me through the days. But it's always good to counterbalance the chaos with some downtempo stuff, especially when it's this good and desert-flavored.
As a strange aside, I messaged my cousin Charles last night to see if he'd heard this album and it turns out this was his upstairs neighbor at one point. I love those kinds of synchronicities.
Watch:
I don't know if this movie looks good or bad, hard to tell from this trailer. However, it's got one hell of an awesome-looking monster, so I'm in and will remain cautiously optimistic. Honestly, it's the guys in the movie that look like they might take it down a notch or two for me. Why is it that, in the 80s and even into the 90s, action actors could pull off military or tough-as-nails roles without coming off like douche bros, but now, that's almost always the case? What we need to be asking ourselves as a society is, how do we fix that?
Playlist:
Mastodon - Hushed and Grim
Jerry Cantrell - Brighten
White Zombie - La Sexorcisto - Devil Music, Vol. 1
Slayer - Live Undead/Haunting the Chapel
Motörhead - Bastards
The Damage Manual - Limited Edition
Crystal Castles - (III)
Bnny - Everything
Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch - Censor OST
Card:
A reminder that movement and change are the antidote for stagnation.
A little MadLove to start the week. My Favorite track from an album that's pretty much all favorite tracks.
Watch:
This show blew me away. I haven't taken to anything like this in a while.
First: Brand New Cherry Flavor is, I think, pretty much Season 5 of Channel Zero, Nick Antosca's former anthology series on SyFy. If you haven't seen that, all four seasons are currently on Shudder and are 100% worth your time. They are fantastic. Basically, SyFy canceled it, and Netflix gave him to do something similar. Channel Zero's seasons are all stand-alone and all adapted from Creepy Pastas. BNCF is an adaptation of a novel of the same name by Todd Grimson. The book is way out of print, but don't worry - someone is bound to remedy that with a new edition any minute now.
Second: Mr. Antosca is unapologetically a huge David Lynch fan, and there's a ton of that 'flavor' that he brings to his work. It's especially here. It's in exactly the most respectful, awesome way, too. Not imitation, but influence. I expand on this idea a bit in the new episode of The Horror Vision that drops tomorrow. At the time, I'd only seen the first episode of BNCF. K and I watched that Friday night. Yesterday, we did the remaining seven episodes because we just couldn't stop.
Playlist:
MadLove - White With Foam
David Bowie - Young Americans
Barry Adamson - Oedipus Schmoedipus
The Veils - Total Depravity
Grinderman - Eponymous
The Replacements - Tim
Bjork - Post
The Hillbilly Moon Explosion - My Love for Evermore
I'm not a fan of the Black album. In fact, everything that came after that album makes me not want to be a fan of this band at all. However, I could never turn my back on those first four records by Metallica, especially Master of Puppets.
However...
The almighty algorithm saw fit to send 'Sad But True' my way Monday when an Alice in Chains record I was listening to on Apple Music ended and I didn't choose another one quick enough. I heard those opening chords and lingered. Then, before I knew it, I was into my second go-round with the song, actually physically restarting it after its conclusion.
Dare I say it, but this is a good song.
Nothing about 'Sad But True' is what I like about the music from this band that I like, but divorcing the song from its creators for a moment, I found there is almost a Doom vibe to this one. Also, there are some haunting elements in the choruses - not sure if those are keyboards or a guitar effect. Either way, I doubt I'll be jamming the whole record any time soon, but I've already added it to a playlist.
Watch:
I finally got around to watching Ivan Kavanagh's Son on Monday night. Jesus, this one is a rough watch. A very good film, freaky as all hell, but also there's some pretty disturbing stuff just below the surface.
This won't be for everyone. There's an undercurrent of abuse - it's not front and center or showcased, but it's discussed as the motive for certain events in the film, and that lingers. That said, I'm pretty squeamish with anything like that, and although this stayed with me, I can't say it did so in an overtly, or in any kind of discomforting way. What the film did do right was be well made and quickly paced, as well as take those unpleasant ideas and weave them into a pretty compelling and effective Horror film.
NCBD:
I feel like this cover says it all: This series is BIG.
Maybe it was binging the recent MOTU sequel series that primed for this, but I LOVE this cover. Total Skeletor.
This is the 1:15 variant for Ed Piskor's Red Room #3. I'll most likely not be able to get my hands on this particular variant, but it's awesome as all hell.
The end to an amazing series. Can't wait to reread the entire run, start to finish in a nice, tight burst. Talk about great characters!
Casey Jones! These "Best of" TMNT books have been among my favorite comics in years, and I kind of expect this one to go right up alongside the Raphael one from a few months back as the best of the bunch.
I'm not actually certain I will buy this one, but I just love the fact that these two bizarre ass characters have their own book. Five-year-old me would be ecstatic!
The throwaway panel of the High Evolutionary and the promise his presence brings is what has me coming back for issue 2, although I will say, rereading Grant Morrison's New X-Men has me feeling some major love for the corner of the Marvel Universe I wrote off due to 'strip mining' the characters a few years ago. Let's see where this book goes.
Playlist:
Jerry Cantrell - Atone (pre-release single)
Alice in Chains - Eponymous
Alice in Chains - Rainier Fog
Not a lot of full album rotation today as I leaned into a new playlist for the upcoming second episode of the new Metal Podcast I'm doing with Anthony and Tori from The Horror Vision. We're recording the new episode this coming Saturday morning, so it should be up this coming Tuesday. The topic? Well, if the playlist doesn't make it obvious, it's Thrash Metal.
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Reminding me to leave the old paradigms (and projects) behind in the face of reconciliation with previous collaborators.
One of my favorite tracks from what is - in my not-so-humble opinion - one of the finest records of the 1990s. I've had the Rev on my mind lately, and have been digging back through the records I played endlessly during my 20s. Primarily, that would be 1996's It's Martini Time, 93's Full-Custom Gospel Sounds, 94's Liquor in the Front, and 1998's Space Heater. Nothing against any of the records that followed those, but that's just kinda where I check out with the Rev.
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I love all the super weird body horror this new decade seems to be bringing us. Mosquito State looks like another mind-bending high concept film inspired by the long line of Body Horror that David Cronenberg's work inspired, and his son Brandon redefined for the modern age (Not that DC isn't modern. He's ultra-modern, and all signs point to his next film reminding us about that the same way his novel Consumed did a few years back). Either way, kudos once again for Shudder bringing us all this awesome body horror.
Playlist:
Cloud Cruiser - I: Capacity
Peter Gabriel - So
Jethro Tull - Benefit
Cindy Lauper - She's So Unusual
ZZ Top - Rhythmeen
Reverend Horton Heat - Liquor in the Front
Reverend Horton Heat - It's Martini Time
Droids Attack - Sci-Fi or Die
AC/DC - The Razors Edge
Alice in Chains - Rainier Fog
Beautiful Brutality Playlist for the week of August 2nd, 2021
Black Sabbath - 13
Space Burial - Mudtrout
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Compromise and the uniting of disparate elements. Not sure what this is pointing to, exactly, but it's pretty good, general day-to-day life advice.
Fell back into Chicago's super underrated industrial grindcore masters Plague Bringer yesterday. This band should be so much more well-known in the metal/industrial community than they are. There's literally nothing I can think of that batters me like this album does. From the drawing of breath that opens the first track, I smile and prepare to be undone.
While looking around on their Bandcamp for any sign of recent activity (none), I discovered that in 2017 they released this "Lara Flynn Bringer' shirt and now I am extremely sad that it's sold out, there are none I could find on ebay or etsy, and I'm shit out of luck acquiring one.
Maybe Plague Bringer will resurface and do another run of it. Maybe. In the meantime, if you dig this kind of sonic madness, PB's Bandcamp is HERE.
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After hearing about Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz's 1973 underrated Horror film Messiah of Evil for the first time back on the old Shockwaves podcast a couple years ago, I started to look around for where to watch the film. The title alone had me, along with the fact that I couldn't remember ever hearing of it before. Back when I was cutting my teeth and really getting into the genre twenty years ago, the two friends who indoctrinated my interest and made it an obsession both had extensive film collections, so the fact that, between the two of them, I don't think either ever mentioned it surprised me. Turns out that's because the film wasn't released on DVD until 2009. That brief mention on Shockwaves sent me into a tizzy trying to track down a streaming service that featured the film. No dice, until two years ago I found it on Prime.
Score, I thought. Only no, no score at all. I started the film and turned it off after only a few minutes because, whatever source the streaming giant culled the film from, the picture quality was unwatchable. Maybe my relatively recent conversion to the Cult of Blu Ray at the time - something I swore for years I would never do - had spoiled me. I've become a bit of a stickler for clean picture transfers, and this one wasn't even what I'd call weak. It was awful. This prejudice is not a bad thing at all, I realize now, except that, for Messiah of Evil, it meant I would have to wait.
Fast forward to last week when I fired up Shudder and found that not only had they added Messiah of Evil, but the picture quality is gorgeous! So after a few false starts over the last five days or so, I finally watched the film last night. I was not disappointed.
First, I don't know if it's just the similarities between Phillan Bishops's electronic score for the film and Carl Zittrer's for another under-seen film from the 70s I adore, Bob Clark's inimitable Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things, but Messiah of Evil's score made me warm to the film immediately. Add to that the fantastic settings - most especially our heroine Arletty's missing father's home on the beach, the design behind which was created by artists Jack Fisk and Joan Mocine, the former of which would go on to work with David Lynch on Mulholland Drive and Paul Thomas Anderson on There Will Be Blood and The Master, and I could not take my eyes off the screen. If you read this blog, you'll know how important both Lynch and PTA are to me, so you can imagine what a harmonic charge I felt realizing there was precedent here that fit with my own personal film aesthetic.
There is not a lot of information about Messiah of Evil out there on the internet. However, in regard to the design and look of the film, I found what I feel is the holy grail over on Dr. John Trafton's website. His article Messiah of Evil: Film and the Influence of L.A. Pop Art absolutely blew me away. Mr. Trafton's wealth of knowledge on not only Los Angeles' history, but Film, Pop Art and the overall social fabric of the City of Angeles post-1940 makes for fantastic reading. I can't recommend this enough, whether you want a deep-dive into Messiah of Evil, or just an interesting read that focuses on Art can influence Cinema; you can find the article HERE.
Messiah of Evil has a real work-with-what we have vibe; Katz and Huyck smartly use a lot of California's most attractive and, when shot right, surreal asset: the beach. The sound of the waves is nearly omnipresent here, and if you've ever stayed in a town where that is indeed the major sonic background, you'll know it makes for a heightened, slightly surreal experience. The constant sound of the ocean seems to work in contrast to the everyday world we humans have made for ourselves, especially here in LaLaLand where commerce is god. This makes sense when you think about it; the ocean has always been a transcendent experience for me because to sit on the beach and quietly listen to the waves, you're literally sitting on the edge of humanity's world, listening to the planet breathe. In other words, this is one of the few experiences available to us where humanity is dwarfed by the larger organism that birthed us: the Earth.
It's worth mentioning that this oceanic setting firmly establishes Messiah of Evil in a sub-genre I have recently become quite enamored with, the aptly named Seaside Horror. I guess I've always been mildly aware of the feel of this genre-within-a-genre, however, it wasn't until Joe Bob Briggs showed both Dead and Buried and Humanoids from the Deep on his Last Drive-In double feature this past season that I fell in love with both and gained an understanding of the Seaside Horror aesthetic as a style for which many filmmakers have contributed entries. The idea of a double or triple feature with Messiah and either or both of these films, or John Carpenter's The Fog or even Dan Gildark's Cthulhu makes me nearly giddy with excitement. Hell, perhaps I should look into organizing a Seaside Horror Marathon?
Finally, another aspect of this film I found fit its tone perfectly was the Night of the Living Dead references in regard to its ghouls. Messiah seems to split the difference between zombies and vampires, which is cool because I don't know how much of either creature I need to see again at the moment. Mr. Trafton talks at length about this in the piece I linked to above, so I'll just implore you to go read what he has to say, while I wrap up this rather lengthy post and get on with working on the sequel to Shadow Play.
Plague Bringer - As the Ghosts Collect, the Corpses Rest
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In some respects, I have been listening to my own personal dogma and not to my intuition. This is a nice reminder to be aware of that. We all need help thinking outside the paradigms we draw up for ourselves.
This song will never get old. One of the first Zeppelin songs I heard, back in high school when I discovered them, and still a favorite.
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I finally saw Kurtis David Harder's 2019 film Spiral yesterday on Shudder:
Really dug this one. Great flow; this film really makes you feel a mounting expectation for evil, and then delivers with a totally nihilistic ending.
Playlist:
Pixies - Trompe le Monde
The Kills - Midnight Boom
The Black Keys - Magic Potion
Prince and the Revolution - Purple Rain
The Fixx - Reach the Beach
Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin I
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Continuing a return to my original Thoth Deck:
With my Reddit Nosleep series starting today and a meet-up with an old friend wherein I may pitch a collaborative project just because I love working with the person and haven't in a looong time, I'm definitely starting some journeys.
