Napalm Death is Caught in a Dream

 

Big decision to make today. Am I going to jump work 30 minutes early and drive up to Eastside Bowl in Nashville to see Deadguy and Napalm Death at my favorite local venue? I'll report back tomorrow. In the meantime, here's a track from the latter's 1987 album Scum. 

I'll admit I'm fairly new to Napalm Death fandom. Not that I've ever had anything against them, but my exposure over the years has been minimal at best, and it wasn't until their recent collaboration with Melvins became available from Ipecac earlier this year that I became intrigued at what I'd missed. So far, while the albums I was faintly aware of and slightly exposed to back in the day - 1990's Harmony Corruption and 1987's Scum - are about what I've always thought they were and albums I would not have 'got' back in the day but fair much better now that I've grown into a bit over the years and absorbed influences and offshoots Crass and Godflesh, some of their newer stuff really strikes a chord with me. In particular, 2022's Resentment Is Always Seismic (A Final Throw of Throes) has made quite the impression on me in only a handful of listens. 

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NCBD:

Super excited for today's pull. Let's get into it:

The cover says it all: Shockwave is back! Hell yes! Can't wait to see what's been happening on Cybertron since Alita One took over as Prime, leaving Optimus de-primed a few issues back. Kirkman is killing it in this series!

One more issue of Simon Birks and Willi Roberts' adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's The Thing on the Doorstep, and so far, for a story that's received a fair amount of attention in the last few years, this is probably my favorite interpretation. Birks keeps it true to the story but also streamlines things, and Roberts' art is fantastic. Especially his knack for showing us the evil intentions of some of the characters. 

 

With the giant, magic Kaiju running around at the end of last issue, this one can't get into my peepers soon enough. Gene Luen Yang, Fero Peniche and Freddie E. Williams II have really found a way to keep this book evolving, not easy to do after Jason Aaron's run and all its reamapping of the cast. 

Creeping closer and closer to issue 50 and I'm pretty sure some pretty major events for SIKTC. 

From the solicitation blurb on League of Comic Geeks:

"THE SECRET OF SNAKE-EYES REVEALED? As Dawn infiltrates the Terror Drome, she learns a shocking secret about Snake-Eyes from their time in Springfield...one that could doom their future!"

Wait, what now? Holy cow, I didn't realize something like this was even on the horizon! Also, look at that cover art! Wow!

I'll confess, the Dawn Moreno character has never really intrigued me, but this? Based on the fact that the current Snake Eyes is a clone of the original (who died at some point when I was not reading this series), I'd say this could be a pretty huge development. Can't wait to find out more!

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Watch:

K and I saw Mortal Kombat 2 last night, and I am here to tell you this 

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Playlist:

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven 

The Monks - Black Monk Time

Steeve Moore - Jimmy & Stiggs OST

Drug Church - Prude

Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest

Double Life - Indifferent Stars EP

Napalm Death - Scum

Napalm Death - Resentment Is Always Seismic (A Final Throw of Throes)

Melvins & Napalm Death - Savage Imperial Death March

Low Cut Connie - Tough Cookies: The Best of the Quarantine Broadcasts

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Card:

My first pull with Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Ten of Wands

• IV: The Emperor

• Nine of Wands

It takes strength to overcome the rules that thwart our growth.

A lot of what I'm interpreting as work pulls lately. 

Cold Sweats in the Basement, Baby!

 

Jonathan Grimm drove down a few days ago and we had a fantastic extended weekend drinking beer, watching movies and bullshitting. Grimm is definitely a stabilizing force in my life, not to mention a huge influence, and his visit really supercharged my creativity again. We capped the evening yesterday driving to Nashville and seeing Lord Buffalo, Valley of the Sun and Church of the Cosmic Skull at the awesome Basement East. It feels fortuitous indeed that the first show I see in my new state was at this venue, because I loved it. Basement East reminds me a lot of my favorite venue back in LaLaLand, Echo Park's Echoplex. I'll be keeping their calendar firmly in mind from here out, as it's the kind of venue I'll take pretty much any excuse to return to, again and again.

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Watch:

Curious to see this entire film. I love the idea of teenagers playing with a makeshift "Hand of Glory," though I didn't watch enough of the trailer to see if it actually came off a "hanged murderer." Makes me want to dig back into some of my Arcana and see what Eliphas Levi or, perhaps more appropriately, Alan Moore might have to say about how stringent the cocktail that produces that particular Magickal accoutrement is.

 

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Playlist:

Etta James - (Third Album)

The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night

Locrian - Return to Annihilation

Locrian - New Catastrophism

Godflesh - Nero EP

Behemoth - The Satanist

Etta James - The Second Time Around

Me and That Man - New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol. 1

Eldovar - A Story of Darkness and Light

Various Artists - Jonathan Grimm's Stoner/Doom Spotify Playlist

Black Sabbath - Vol. 4

Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower

Goatsnake - Black Age Blues

Holy Serpent - Endless

Bettye LaVatte - Scene of the Crime

Pigs x 7 - Viscreals

            

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Card:

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

Where this might normally make me think some form of unpleasant emotional change is jump up the road, I instantly read it as a lifting of my already generally unpleasant emotional state that dug in during my extended stay in LaLaLand and has left me off-kilter and unusually anxious since.

 

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