The Irresistible Bliss of Jolene's Cake

I bought a new phone this past weekend. It was time. One of the new features on Apple Music that is cribbed from Spotify is when an album you're listening to ends, they throw a bunch of songs at you that the almighty algorithm finds based on what you just listened to. This is a little cool and a little lame. Lame, because Nick Cave dredged up a bunch of really bad stuff the other day, cool because after I spun through Soul Coughing's Irresistible Bliss this morning, Apple went into Cake's "Frank Sinatra". One taste of that track and there was no way I wasn't going all the way through Fashion Nugget, one of my favorite records from the 90s. Here's the thing though. I count myself a Cake fan because of how much I love this record, but I'm not really familiar with their other stuff. So when this particular version of Nugget ended with a live version of "Jolene", I was floored. This track is amazing. Anyway, I'll finally be digging into some more of Cake's discography after this, so I'm pretty excited. It's not every day I get to have a band from my past feel so new to me (I think that's why I play so coy with some bands in the first place).

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NCBD:

Only a few titles this week on NCBD, but that's fine. Last week was a killer.

The Autumnal has been a great Horror title so far, and I'm definitely anxious to see where it's going. Kind of a mash-up of Folk and Ancestral Horror, but with a decidedly more modern feel.

I picked up issue one of Night Hunters a few months back on a whim when I noticed the unmistakable art of Alexis Ziritt. You may know Ziritt's work from Black Mask's 2015 limited series Space Raiders. Hard to say what's going on in Night Hunters after only one issue, but whatever it is, I dig it. From Floating World comics, who are super indie, so give them the benefit of the doubt and pick this one up if you see it at your local comic shop.

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Watch:

I caught David Keating's Cherry Tree on Shudder yesterday after work and enjoyed it quite a bit. Pretty cool little flick, but then these smaller, English/Irish films tend to be my jam.

 

The make-up at the climax has a definite Nightbreed-era Barker feel, which was cool and added to an already very cool atmosphere.

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Playlist:

Soul Coughing - Irresistible Bliss

Cake - Fashion Nugget

Der Butterwegge - Super Optimiert

Blut Aus Nord - 777 Cosmosophy

Blut Aus Nord - 777 The Desanctification

Godflesh - Pure

The Bangles - All Over the Place

Butthole Surfers - Rembrandt Pussyhorse

 

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Card:

 Rewards for creativity and perseverence.

I Hear the Axe Swinging

I emerged from a mid-afternoon nap yesterday to a text from Mr. Brown alerting me to the fact that Mike Doughty and Andrew "Scrap" Livingston's Ghost of Vroom dropped a new track. "I Hear the Axe Swinging is from the forthcoming album Ghost of Vroom 1, out March 1st. Pre-order the album HERE.

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Watch:

K and I started Penny Dreadful this weekend. Wow! I always suspected I would dig this show, and I don't know if my relationship with it is so good because our timing meant it dovetailed with my finishing Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, but this one is fantastic. There's an obvious debt to Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but Penny Dreadful is dark, disturbing, and often quite gruesome, and the show's ambitions to bring together so many iconic Horror personalities is really served well by in-depth research. 

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Playlist:

White Lung - Paradise

Melvins - Working with God

Sleaford Mods - Nudge It (single)

Lard - Pure Chewing Satisfaction

The Blueflowers - Relapse EP

Gwar - Scumdogs of the Universe

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Wasteland

Type O Negative - Origin of the Feces

Small Black - Duplex (single)

PM Dawn - Set Adrift on Memory Bliss (single)

The Bangles - Different Light

Van Halen - 1984

Def Leppard - Pyromania

Chuck Berry - Berry is on Top

The Raveonettes - In and Out of Control

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Card:

 "Look unto yourselves for answers, as it is in your partnership you will find that which you seek."

Isolation: Day 171 - Mike Doughty returns with Ghost of Vroom

 Not sure anything could have made me happier than finding out that Mike Doughty has a new project named Ghost of Vroom. Doughty's solo career is great, but I've kind of always had trouble getting past the dissolution of Soul Coughing, a band I would count as one of the most influential bands of my young adult era. Being that Ghost of Vroom feels more like it's in that particular wheelhouse, I bonded with Rona Pollona pretty much immediately. Also, what a great concept for a music video!

The EP, Ghost of Vroom 2, drops on mod y vi records this month, and was produced by Mario Caldato, Jr., better known as former Beastie Boys DJ/Producer Mario C.!

You can pre-order Ghost of Vroom HERE.

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Watch: 

Finally got to watch Frank Sabatella's The Shed. I really dug this one. It seemed like a love letter to Fright Night, without directly taking anything from it. Can't wait to see what Mr. Sabatella does next!

I just posted the trailer for this one a few days back, so instead, here's an awesome poster! The Shed is steaming on Shudder right now, go check it out!

Have to say, recently, there's been more than a few stories - movies, comics, books - that have made serious inroads in updating the zombie mythos, which is exactly what The Shed does for vampires, simply by going full-in on the classic Vamp lore. Nothing new here, except a new approach to handling the old bloodsucker tropes. Maybe others will follow suit?

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Playlist: 

Anioma - Necropolis

Faith No More - Angel Dust

The Clash - Combat Rock

Ghost of Vroom - Rona Pollona (pre-release single)

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Card: 

A bold infusion of creativity today. Hopefully.