There is Hope! New Music from Arab Strap!!!

 

My favorite track (so far) from Arab Strap's just-released ninth studio album Half-Told Tales. This one snuck up on me, so I haven't really had a chance to give it a proper listen, but this first time through? God DAMN! This could be a contender. 

You can order this from Arab Strap HERE.

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Watch:

Last night I sat down in my local big box theatre and was treated to one of the best theatrical experiences of the year. I'm talking about Na Hong-jin's new film Hope. I'm posting a trailer here, but I'd advise you just forego this and go see Hope on the big screen it is a BANGER!

When I posted about this previously, I mentioned that the "Quiet Place" vibes the trailer gave me were probably specifically achieved for the trailer, i.e. what better way to roll out a Korean monster movie in the theatre than by alluding to something that did well and could be somewhat comparable. I dig the two A Quiet Place films I've seen quite a bit, but this is definitely not that. Hope is its own thing, and I absolutely  loved it. So much fun!  

This entire film is about momentum; once it starts, it really goes hard, with only a few "lulls" in the fast-paced action. There's next to no exposition thrown at you, and the ending comes out of nowhere. This has already made it into my top five of the year, and I'm hoping I can go back and see it one more time before it leaves the big screen.

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Watch:

A double watch today, before I get too far away from last weekend's viewing experiment to properly mention it.

A few months back, I wrote about how many Warner Brothers DVDs from 2008-2010 were manufactured substandard materials and had all largely gone bad. I also wrote about how I'd discovered via online discussion threads about this travesty that there exists and email whereby you can contact the company and they will replace your discs.

That turned out to be bullshit. 

I'm rather attached to the packaging for the Blade Runner five-disc box set that Mr. Brown gave me circa 2011, so I ended up tracking down the set on Blu-Ray from eBay and swapping the BR discs into the DVD packaging. Next up, had to take a test toast, and I figured what better excuse to finally sit down over the course of a couple of days and watch all major versions of the film for comparison's sake. 

I was extremely surprised by the results.

First, the Theatrical Cut: This ended up being an aborted attempt at watching the film the way I saw it first, way back as a little kid. Even back in the 90s when new versions sans voice over were surfacing, I defended (not preferred) this original cut simply out of nostalgia and, in hindsight, because the narration was probably the first time I was introduced to that particular Noir trope which does work well on occasion (of all the dames in all the offices, she walks into mine). 

Watching this now - or perhaps more accurately attempting to watch this - I just couldn’t do it. There are a bunch of hinky moments in Ford’s performance I see now that I was either previously blind to or just didn’t want to admit - this film’s iconic footprint allows it to hold itself up by the bootstraps in A LOT of respects - and the narration, which at times feels forced, tired, half-arsed and downright goofy, only accentuates that. So I turned this off, waited a day and starter back in on the Director’s Cut. Something about this viewing or the Director’s Cut felt off. Part of it was I started it after waking up in the middle of the night, made it to JF’s intro and fell back asleep. Finished later that day, and it felt unfamiliar and a little hokey. Especially some of Ford’s mannerisms. Interruptions are never good for watching film, but the answer would reveal itself upon my subsequent viewing of the Final Cut, which is definitely my preferred version.

Director's Cut: This viewing or the Director’s Cut felt off. Part of it was due to the fact that I started the viewing after waking up in the middle of the night. I made it to about where William Sanderson's JF shows up and welcomes Darryl Hannah's Pris into his apartment* and then fell back asleep. I finished the viewing later that day, but something about staring it in the middle made it feel overall unfamiliar and a little hokey. Especially some of Ford’s mannerisms. Interruptions are never good for watching film, but the answer would reveal itself upon my subsequent viewing of the Final Cut, which is definitely my preferred version. (* Where's his other brother Darryl?).

Final Cut: This has been the version of the film I've watched in the last twenty-five years or so, so maybe it's just deep-rooted familiarity, but THIS feels right. I mean, compared to some folks' fandom with this film, I've probably only seen it six or seven times in my life, and probably four of five of those were either Theatrical or Director's cuts, but this Final Cut feels so cohesive, and one of the big factors I landed on for that in thinking about it is the color grading. It's perfect!

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Playlist:

John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter & Daniel Davies - Cathedral

Sumerlands - Dreamkiller

Windhand - Eternal Return

Boards of Canada - Inferno

Yerusalem - The Sublime

Fear - Live... For the Record

Blut Aus Nord - 777 Sect(s)

Blut Aus Nord - 777 The Desanctification

Blut Aus Nord - 777 Cosmosphy

Arab Strap - Half-Told Tales

The Jesus Lizard - Liar

The Damage Manual - Special Edition

Dance with the Dead - Malombra

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Card:

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

• Page of Wands

• Seven of Pentacles

• Page of Pentacles

Baggage. Frugal.

I have a ghost, or a demon, or a virus. I don't feel like I spend an exorbitant amount of my money on the amazing but admittedly frivolous things that I populate my space with - music, movies, books, comics, plastic, etc. I spend more than I probably should from time to time, but I've looked at the numbers and it just doesn't add up, the fact that I have such a hard time saving money. So, for this pull, I did something I almost never do. I held an exact question in my mind when I shuffled and chose. And I'd say the result is pretty on the nose. In the grimoire, I actually have "A difficult period in material life" as the entry for the Seven of Pentacles. I have "Baggage" among the qualifiers for the Page of Wands, and I have "Frugal" for the Page of Pentacles. Plus, two of the three cards are Pentacles, i.e. disks, i.e. material concerns. 

So what does this tell me, other than this is an uphill climb? 

If This and Yes, Onslaught

From My Bloody Valentine's 2013 album, m b v, which I cracked out yesterday and realized isn't quite as pointless as I'd considered it for the last 13 years or so. 

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Watch:

Adam Wingard earned a place on my watchlist with You're Next. Since, I've not liked or seen most of what he's done, but he's still on that list. That's how much I dig You're Next. His new flick Onslaught hit theaters last night and K and I hit our local Regal for the mayhem.

Fantastic flick. Doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it's got a gnarly score that runs a gamut from 80s Carpenter vibes to Industrial, with a soundtrack that backs that up (Godflesh!). Co-written with Wingard's regular writing partner Simon Barrett, and as with their other flicks, aka The Guest, You're Next, etc, Onslaught makes some very interesting choices insofar as the way it tells its story, and I very much appreciated the fresh beats in a scenario we've definitely seen before. 

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Read:

Prompted by reading the first issue of Sean Murphy's new series, The Last Driver, which is laid out in landscape orientation instead of the typical comic book portrait, I dug out the two issues of JH Williams III and W. Haden Blackman's Echolands that I picked up back in 2021 shortly before I left LA. 

Probably because of the move, I never picked up issues 3-6 of Echolands and just kind of forgot about the series altogether. It's very easy to lose two issues of a comic in all the short boxes I have. Find them I did, however, and very quickly sought out the remaining issues on eBay. They arrived this week, and I had a chance to sit down and read the series to date (there's more coming!) over the course of Wednesday night/Thursday morning. I could not be more pleased I finally hunted these down!

Williams art is, as always, beyond belief. This rivals even Promethea, which still ranks as possibly the greatest visual storytelling I've ever seen. This? If for no other reason than how Williams incorporates the landscape format, might take the crown. The page directly above is an example of an issue where he tells two parallel stories simultaneously. It's just unreal. 

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Playlist:

The Besnard Lakes - Until in Excess, Imperceptible UFO 

Joseph Bishara - Malignant OST

John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter & Daniel Davies - Cathedral

Carlos Rafael Rivera - They Will Kill You OST

My Bloody Valentine - m b v

Roughly Enforcing Nostalgia - Front Door Doxologies

Pigface - Fook

Holy Fawn - Dimensional Bleed

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Card:

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

• Ten of Wands

• Three of Cups

* Ace of Pentacles

Use a new idea to get around blockage and save some time and frustration. Total writing nod. Love it. 

Nothing is Real in the Bulk Brane

From Boards of Canada's 2013 opus Tomorrow's Harvest, which I could listen to for days on end. Over on The Horror Vision, we recently did an episode titled, "Liminal Horror is Not YouTube Horror," wherein we dissected the concepts and origins of "liminal" storytelling for the modern age. Boards of Canada came up as a major sonic influence, and I'd say there may be no greater example of the liminal space the group creates in my own head than this particular song, which is both nostalgic and futuristic, tender and apocalyptic at the same time.

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NCBD:

Short list this week. Say thank'ee:

Jeff Lemire's wonderfully mysterious Minor Arcana continues and we're deep in an otherworldly hotel in an abandoned seaside town. Add in all the Tarot, and this is literally, right up my alley.

Yeah, my words last month for MASK #3 were something to the effect of, "unless something huge happens, this will be my last issue of MASK." Then I read issue three, reached the end and saw Baron Karza from Micronauts and, yeah, I'm sticking around for that. 

Batman 13 - hoping this issue pushes the Vandal Savage stuff out into that Bad Seeds mini-series book spinning out of this and we can focus on other plot points for a while.

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Watch:

My good friend Dan surprised the hell out of me yesterday by sending me a copy of Ben Wheatley's latest film (well, being the prolific dynamo he is, Wheatley directed two films so far this year, the Bob Odenkirk action hit Normal and...) Bulk. This played at Beyond Fest Chicago back in April, and while Dan, his girlfriend Heidi and I made it to Normal (not realizing Wheatley directed it until the credits rolled), we did not score tickets to Bulk. 

Dan ordered this beautiful BR/4K combo from Wheatley's Rook Films, and upon holding it in my hands, my excitement skyrocketed. I thought I'd posted a trailer for this months ago, but maybe not. Regardless, going in, I only knew two things: that Bulk was shot in B&W and that dealt with Brane Theory in some capacity.

I LOVE that Rook Films used a computer program to construct a trailer out of random images from the film. This ensures you see enough to get the juices flowing, but not enough to give anything away. All I'll say other than I wholeheartedly recommend this film (especially for fans of the Director's other work), is that this pays more than a little homage to the classic British television SciFi of Nigel Kneale, and I absolutely adored it.

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Playlist:

Steve Moore - Christmas Bloody Christmas

John Harrison - Day of the Dead OST

Joseph Bishara - Malignant OST

Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun

The Mars Volta - The Bedlam in Goliath

Roughly Enforcing Nostalgia - Front Door Doxologies

Quicksand - Bring on the Psychicx

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Card:

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

• Nine of Cups

• 17: The Star

• Seven of Wands

Everything's coming up Milhouse. 

New Music from Chelsea Wolfe!

 

Dig the track, not 100% sure how I feel about the music video. Usually, when the performer begins writhing suggestively on a bed, the end is nigh. Hopefully that's not the case here. New album The Dark is out Friday, 8/21. Pre-order HERE.

 

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NCBD:

Short stack this week. The wallet says thank'ee!

New ongoing series from Sean Murphy! Here's the solicitation copy from League of Comic Book Geeks:

"As technology in America advanced, cities began creating the GRID — a robotic transportation system that not only made cars obsolete, it made them illegal. But an outlaw named “Clutch” has no choice but to get behind the wheel one more time. What starts out as a race to save his granddaughter's life quickly turns into a rebellion against technology, fascism, and the future of a divided America."

Every issue of If Destruction Be Our Lot moves it higher on my year-end list. 

Not in love with this cover, but the others aren't much better. Still, big issue as far as the story goes, so we'll see. 

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Watch:

I forgot to mention it here, but I finally got around to watching Mark Savage's 12 to Midnight. If you'll remember, this is the werewolf flick with Charles Bronson doppelgánger Robert Bronzi.

 

I'd waited for this after posting about it over two years ago. I waited for this to hit streaming for what felt like forever, then it toggled off my radar. I'm not sure when it hit Prime, but it's included there now, so run out and watch this one if you want to see a man that - goddamn, does he look like Charles Bronson! Call me crazy, but I actually really enjoyed this flick. Even more, I enjoyed recording an Irreverent Deep Dive on it for The Horror Vision recently. That drops at the end of the month, so I'll update here when that happens. In the meantime, give it a whirl.

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Playlist:

The Caretaker - A Stairway to the Stars

The Caretaker - Theoretically pure anterograde amnesia

Justin Hamline - This Machine Kills Music

Brown Whörnet - Stroke the Apechild

The Besnard Lakes - Until in Excess, Imperceptible UFO 

Glitchtrip - Sometimes Silly (single)

Mountain Realm - Beastbane

Empusae & Maris Anguis - Onryōtan

The Cramps - Gravest Gravy

Brainiac - Hissing Prigs in Static Couture

Brainiac - Electro Shock for President EP

Roughly Enforcing Nostalgia - Front Door Doxologies

Frankie and the Witch Fingers - Data Doom

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Card:

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

• Two of Wands

• King of Pentacles

• Six of Pentacles

See, this is nuts. 

I couldn't write anything of an interpretation last night when I finished this entry around 10:40 PM and scheduled it to post at 2:30 AM. I was spent and resorted to one of those crappy fortune-cookie interpretations, which is banal and pointless and not what I'm about in terms of Tarot at all. Gotta stop that.

Anyway, I couldn't muster anything, so I posted the cards and left it. I do this from time to time, intending to come back later to really think about the cards and come up with something. Well, today I woke up at 3:43 AM and have been up since (currently 6:03 AM). That's what I get for having three days in a row of 8+ hours. So here I am, thinking about the cards as the small hours wane, and I come across the "Dawn; sunrise" interpretation for the Six of Pentacles (Disks), and I'm just blown away. Because I was just watching the sunrise before I found that entry. 

This has me cross-referencing with Crowley's The Book of Thoth, where, on page 215, his brief dalliance with the Six of Disks mentions the colors on the Thoth version of the card as "... a suggestion of Tiphareth fully realized on Earth."

Not sure, but I think that's an indication that my health troubles are winding down. Tiphareth is The Yellow House, a place of beauty, where the within and without or microcosm/macrocosm, balance in harmony. No small feat. Yet, guided by the Two of Wands, which is being in control of yourself and the King of Pentacles, which Crowley, in turn, cross-references with the I Ching hexagram Kien (53rd) as "... slow, steady emancipation from repressive conditions," makes me think I'm going to pass this fucking stone soon and then all the other shit will just disappear. 

One can hope. 

New Music from Godflesh!!!

From the forthcoming record Decay, out September 25 on Relapse Records. Pre-order HERE. 

Going back to that health update from Justin K. Broadrick back in early March, this is the penultimate Goflesh record. That gives me chills.

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R.I.P.:

We had an erroneous sneak peek at this post on Wednesday when I pasted in the wrong code, but here's my tribute to Reggie Fucking Banister. R.I.P. 

Back in 2016, I got to briefly say hello to Reggie (from a distance - lots of people and I was extremely concerned with adding to the swarm) on the sidewalk outside L.A.'s Egyptian Theatre. Beyondfest premiered Phantasm: Ravager as part of a double feature with the then-newly restored original Phantasm. I remember reading shortly thereafter that he'd had some health concerns, so maybe ten years on, this was for the best. Either way, sucks to lose such a legend. I always wished we might get a Reggie/Ash crossover at some point when Don Coscarelli began talking about doubling down on Phantasm again in the early 00s. Nothing really came of that, but maybe someday we'll see a comic or something. Either way, I bring it up because Reggie is up there with Campbell for me, as far as 80s Horror Hero Icons.

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Watch:

Last night K and I went to see the 20th-anniversary 4K restoration of Neil Marshall's 2005 film The Descent. Here's the trailer released in anticipation of this new theatrical run:

As a diehard Dog Soldiers fan from shortly after it hit video in 2002, I'd been waiting for a new Marshall film and was overjoyed that his sophomore film received the huge theatrical rollout his first film should have. I don't necessarily have to agree with the consensus that seems to consider this his best film - I dig it, especially after seeing it again on the big screen 20 years later - but it's no Dog Soldiers. It's always bothered me that I've pretty much never cared for any of Mr. Marshall's subsequent films, but he is a definite craftsman and I always (almost) give them a chance.

Watching this for the second time on the big screen, twenty years later, a couple of things occurred to me:

    A) I don't think I've seen this since its theatrical release in 2006, and considering the impact it had on me then via what I've carried with me since, I think I missed A LOT of subtext and nuance that first time around. 

    B) Much like Open Water, The Descent affects me. I have a thing about tight, underground spaces (never been in one, not wanted to be in one) the same way I have a thing about large bodies of water. The film exploits that - to great effect, and the result is a genuinely visceral experience. Everything from the point in the film where Holly takes point, all those claustrophobic shots of the girls wiggling into and through some of the most insanely tight holes - not gonna use the word passages for anything that small - is tantamount to any fear I reserve from a viewing of Friedkin's The Exorcist. But it's a different kind of fear, one that I feel less in my mind's eye and more in my body. This serves the film well, so that when bones start a'breakin' and blood lettin', I'm already there.

One final note - for a 4K restoration, the film looks fantastic, but the sound is abysmal. Maybe the worst sound I've ever heard in the theatre. The dialogue through the first act of the film - i.e., pre-cave - is buried so deep in the mix of the score I gave up trying. The mix gets a bit better once we're inside the cave, but even then, everything feels like it has a thin layer of sonic gauze over it. Shame, because this is otherwise a five-star film. Not sure if that's a problem with the source that couldn't be fixed or if my theatre somehow dropped the ball with their equipment. Either way, it definitely detracted from the overall experience.

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Playlist:

Steve Moore - Jimmy and Stiggs OST

Carlos Rafael Rivera - They Will Kill You OST

Godflesh - Selfless

The Cramps - RockinnReelinInAucklandNewZealandXXX

The Cramps - A Date with Elvis

Godflesh - Purge

The Cramps - Flamejob

Man Or Astroman? - Intravenous Television Continuum

Godflesh - Living/Ending (single)

The Ocean - Fogdiver

Godflesh - Eponymous

Mastodon - Live at the Aragon

Justin Hamline - This Machine Kills Music

L7 - Hungry for Stink

Sewer Mutant Podcast - Sam Keith Tribute

Jarvis Cocker - Further Complications

Blackbraid - Arte Concert Summer Breeze Live Stream

 Spotlights - Seance E.P.

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Card:

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

• Nine of Cups

• Seven of Swords

• Nine of Swords

Be careful what you wish for? The strategic victory you spent so much time finagling may make things worse.

Definitely a work pull. 

Soundgarden - Holy Water

The penultimate track on Soundgarden's 1991 masterpiece, Badmotorfinger, "Holy Water" always ushers in a bittersweet feeling for me. I love the track, but it signals the outro of the record, with "New Damage" following to wrap up what has been one of the most satisfying listens in my lifetime.

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Watch:

Penny Lane is Dead has been on my radar via word-of-mouth from my friend and Horror Vision cohost Anthony (That's King Butcher if you're on the IG), and without knowing anything specific, I've been wondering when it will reach us (and if it will receive a theatrical release). Here's the trailer that just dropped:

 

Honestly, I shut this trailer down by the time the Shudder logo popped up. I don't need to see anything beyond those initial, frenzied flashings - I'm in.

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Playlist:

The Caretaker - Theoretically pure anterograde amnesia

Uniform & The Body - Everything That Dies Someday Comes Back Again

Drain - ... Is Your Friend

Judas Priest - Greatest Hits

The Body - I Have Fought Against It, But I Can't Any Longer

Ministry - The Last Sucker

Ween - Bring Out the Foos: Live 1996

Róisín Murphy - Overpowered

Revocation - New Gods, New Masters

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

Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons

Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger

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Card:

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

• Three of Swords

• Nine of Wands

• Nine of Swords

Pain and closure. 

Julian Winding - Dolce Mio (Her Private Hell OST)

The final track on the soundtrack for Nicolas Winding Refn's Her Private Hell. Most of the score is written and performed by Pino Donaggio, but there are several tracks by Julian Winding, and each one is fantastic. This particular one closes out the album.

Someone release this on vinyl!!!

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Watch:

Nicolas Winding Refn's 28-minute Giallo-infused short film A Touch of Crude, funded by Prada, is more than just a showcase for their fashion line. 

 I only just learned of this via the most recent issue of Fangoria magazine, where Isaac Feldberg’s Monster Invasion column focuses on Her Private Hell. Even after initially reading this a few weeks ago upon receipt, it wasn't until digging back into the issue yesterday morning as I prepped the next episode of The Horror Vision that I realized this might be something I could watch online. Sure enough - see above. 

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Read:

I'm about two hundred and something pages into The Dark Tower Book Five: Wolves of the Calla and, remembering that this is one of the books in the series I've only ever read once, back when it was first published on November 4, 2003, I'm shocked at how perfect this book picks up the transition from Wizard and Glass. 

I mean, it feels like King wrote this in one continuous stream, despite the fact that, between books on June 19, 1999, King was hit and almost killed by a car and went through an arduous recovery. In spite of all that, the story is completely intact, and it feels like no time off occurred between books.

I guess that's Ka for ya.

Reading this one now, it strikes me how deftly King manages to continue the overall story of Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake and Oy on the path of the beam and integrate a pretty thrilling classic Western story at the same time. We spend roughly two hundred pages picking up after the events of Wizard and Glass, continuing the "Path" story, introducing Todash - which I adore - and then segue into the "Defend the town from the reavers" trope that so many classic Westerns employ, only here, executed in King's unique vision. I'm curious if by the end of this one it will outrank Wizard as "the best of the series," and if so, if that trend will continue on through the final two books of the series.

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Playlist:

Her Private Hell - Pino Dinoggio

Carpenter Brut - Leather Temple

Róisín Murphy - Overpowered

Nia Archives - Emotional Junglist

The Caretaker - Theoretically pure anterograde amnesia

Goatsnake - Black Age Blues

The Jesus Lizard - Rack

Melvins - Tarantula Heart

Brand New - The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me

Ministry - The Last Sucker

The Body - I Have Fought Against It, But I Can't Any Longer

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Card:

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

• King of Wands

• Five of Swords

• Two of Wands

Inspiration comes from the inner turmoil of stepping outside your comfort zone. Back to the fortune cookie-esque reading, but it's timely.

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats Cover Ozzy!!!

Man, if there was one song in Ozzy's solo discography you had asked me would be perfect for Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats to cover, it would be this one. So cool...

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Watch:

Thursday night, I attempted to see Nicolas Winding Refn's new film, Her Private Hell. A large, discarded wheel in the middle of the left-hand lane on I-24 took care of that; I saw it too late and ended up blowing both driver's side tires, having to pull some pretty scary driving to make it to the safety of a Waffle House parking lot on Dickerson Pike (like less than 10 miles from the fucking theatre, no less) and waiting for Triple A. The entire ordeal took about three hours, and luckily, despite driving on the tires for probably five miles, nothing on the car was damaged except the rubber, which was still under warranty. Telling you - want a good tire? Yokohamas are well worth the $$$.

Anyway, Saturday I did my reattempt and successfully spent two hours of my afternoon staring at one of the most beautiful motion pictures I've seen in some time. 

Easily my favorite film so far this year. Unlike anything else, but hot damn does this one drive home just what an acolyte of David Lynch NWR is. Too Old To Die Young clearly followed Lynch's template with Twin Peaks: The Return, namely making an almost twenty-hour film and then breaking it up into "episodes" to meet distribution demands. And Her Private Hell definitely has Mulholland Drive/Inland Empire DNA, but it takes it to that beautifully specific NWR space - neon-drenched darkness and impossibly lush sets with perfect symmetry. This film even injects a Science Fiction angle that, delivered in NWR fashion, reminded me of Blade Runner 2049 on two tabs of Ecstasy.

Also, I've never been a huge fan of Pino Donaggio's scores. I dig what he did for Don't Look Now, Tourist Trap and The Howling, but a lot of his other work - especially on those early De Palma films - just don't work for me. He scored this, though, and it's absolutely gorgeous. Sounds like 1940's Hollywood.

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Read:

One final book before I jump back into my re-read of Stephen King's Dark Tower series. Bryan Smith's The Unseen is fantastic!

Here's the solicitation blurb from Goodreads: 

"For Allison Cook, the weekend trip to a horror convention in Virginia is a fun break from work and humdrum reality. Then she meets a guy who shows her a movie that shouldn’t exist, one that upends everything she thinks she knows about reality itself. The movie on the old VHS tape is an unseen and unknown installment of a legendary slasher franchise she’s loved since the dark days of her unhappy adolescence. As soon as she sees it, she knows the movie is the real deal, not a fake or a fan film. She can only come to one impossible conclusion--the movie is from some other alternate reality. It is not of this world. And she knows one other thing. She must have it. At all costs. And by any means necessary. But unknown to Allison, possession of the tape comes at a higher price than she ever could have imagined."

I read this one in a night. I started it at 11:00 PM, read for a while, fell asleep, then woke up in the middle of the night thinking about it and just tore back into it until I finished. Can't say that about many books; only others that come to mind are older Palahniuk, circa Lullaby, Choke and Diary.

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Playlist:

Steve Moore - Jimmy & Stiggs OST

Carlos Rafael Rivera - They Will Kill You OST

Secret Chiefs 3 Traditionalists - La Mani Destre Recise Degli Ultimi Uomimi

Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun

Holy Fawn - Death Spells

Ministry - Burned Out (single)

Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger

Fen - Epoch

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Carpenter Brut - Leather Terror

Carpenter Brut - Leather Temple

Cliff Martinez - Only God Forgives OST

Pino Donaggio - Her Private Hell OST

Ministry - The Last Sucker

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Card:

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

• Ace of Swords

• 03: The Empress

• Two of Wands

Nurture that insight and maybe run it by a third party of their opinion. 

RIP Jennier Finch

 

RIP. I don't give these ladies nearly the spin time they deserve. I'll never forget the first time I heard "Shit List"-a friend's car one afternoon, senior year. Everything about it blew me away. Everything about these ladies always blew me away, from their good nature at being referred to as "the wives of Metallica" back in the 90s while on tour, to their heavy fucking riffs and take-no-shit attitude. 

Finch's bass really made L7's sound. That low end, and how she positioned it so perfectly between Donita Sparks' and Suzi Gardner's guitars and Demetra Plakas' drums, just made them stand out. You can make sonic comparisons to Mudhoney and Melvins, but that's more era than anything else. 

I went back to their second record for this post because Jennifer takes lead vox, it kicks, and I love the good-natured (?) shade she throws at some of their, uh, contemporaries. Hahaha.

 

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Watch:

Ti West's next film is a version of A Christmas Carol? Really? Well, I'm there. And look - Johnny Depp!

I'd love Depp to make a comeback, and can think of no better Director for him to do it with than West. I'll definitely have my arse in a seat for Ebenezer come November 11th. This will also fit in nicely with the newfound proclivity I've exhibited the last few years for British Ghost Stories around Yule.

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Read:

After finishing Wizard and Glass last weekend, I took a short detour from the Dark Tower books to read some Giallo! First up, P.J. Thorndyke's Five Kisses From A Blasphemous Nun - best. Title. EVER!!!

This novel NAILS Giallo! A fantastic mystery that revolves around a series of grisly murders, a possibly reincarnated or possession-happy nun accused of heresy, and the Italian Fotoromanzi business. I really dug this one for its attention to detail, which in turn made it a breezy read (2 days) and completely immersive. 

Next, after reading David Sodergren's Death Spell last year, I'd been wanting to pick up another of his books, and Dead Girl Blues fit perfectly with the theme, although the author admits that while the novel began as a Giallo, it morphed as he wrote. Sodergren ends up coining the term Slasher Noir for it, and I think that's perfect. 

This one is mesmerizing in its violence and depravity. Again, two days to blow through it (both work days). Not for the squeamish, but worth the work. I'm shifting back to the Dark Tower books soon, but there's definitely more Sodergren in my future!

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Playlist:

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Blood Lust

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Night Creeper

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Shapes of Midnight (pre-release singles)

Ozzy Osbourne - The Ultimate Sin

Crystal Spiders - Metanoia

Holy Fawn - Death Spells

Obsession - Methods of Madness

Mountain Realm - Stoneharrow

Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman

L7 - Smell the Magic

L7 - Bricks Are Heavy

L7 - Scatter the Rats

Mastodon - Emperor of Sand

Pat Benatar - Little Too Late (single)

Journey - I'll Be Alright Without You (single)

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Card:

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

• Knight of Wands

• Nine of Cups

• Queen of Wands

Ambition, wishful thinking and creativity. Hmm...

Napalm Death Tiny Desk Concert Fundraiser for NPR!

'Nuff said.

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Watch:

Mourning the loss of Sam Neil, and while there are a ton of genre flicks my mind goes to on reflex, I thought I'd post a trailer from a somewhat recent favorite of his I discovered thanks to Mr. Brown. 

Taika Waititi doesn't always blow me away, but this one definitely does.

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Read:

I finally caught up on Chris Condon, Andrew Ehrich and Charlie Adlard's Of the Earth. Man, this is easily sitting in my top five comics of 2026.

This is sweet Charlie Adlard widescreen comics, and the story by Ehrich and Condon is fantastic. There's a great interview on Fangoria HERE, and we review the first issue on Drinking with Comics HERE. Suffice it to say, major The Thing and Blood Simple vibes, and if you're as big a fan of both of those films as I am and you wonder what the intersection where they meet looks and feels like, look no further.

There's some fantastic prose in each book, as well. Excerpts from a book that gives more context to the Wildcatter myth. This is a monster book, folks, and it is extremely effective thus far.

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Playlist:

Judas Priest - Stained Class

Savages - Silence Yourself

Savages - Paranoid/Prayer (single)

C.na - Eclipse Mechanism (Instrumental) (single)

Anthrax - State of Euphoria

Squarepusher & Z-MACHINES - Music for Robots EP

Chappell Roan - The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess

Chappell Roan - Good Luck Babe (single)

Devil Master - You Worms' Vein Dilusions (single)

Devil Master - Ecstasies of a Never Ending Night

Lard - The Last Temptation of Reid

Thou - Summit

John Cale - Fear

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Card:

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

• Page of Swords

• Nine of Cups

• Nine of Swords

The card that's really sticking out here is the Nine of Swords, known as "Cruelty" in the Thoth deck. I ended up in the ER yesterday morning with what I was told by the attending physician is the worst pain known to humanity, male or female. I didn't know what it was when I went in, but goddamn, was I in bad shape. I do not exaggerate when I tell you I did not possess control of my body for a good three hours. I surrendered that control to the pain. It had me do things I could only observe as if from outside, through a misery-frosted window. I have a fairly high pain threshold, and I tend to handle my pain with obstinate stoicism, but not yesterday. No. A kidney stone brought me down. I was screaming, growling, puking, writhing like a man possessed. In fact, I would not be the least bit surprised to learn that in the Middle Ages, people confused kidney stone symptoms with demonic possession. 

Again, not embellishing here at all.

The Page of Swords and Nine of Cups indicate that all this torment wasn't for naught. I believe I'll have some major insights in the coming days as I continue to convalesce (I haven't passed it yet, but as of writing this at 8:35 PM Thursday night, I have not been in pain since the early afternoon).

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.

Sisters of Black Mountain!!!

 

My friend Justin recently interviewed LA's Sisters of Black Mountain on his Trailer Punk Podcast. The idea of an all-female, Giallo-inspired group hooked me, and I have to say, I'm currently digging on their music quite a bit. You can check out the band on Bandcamp HERE and listen to the interview HERE.

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NCBD:

This week's pull looks like it could have been from my early 80s childhood! Let's get into it!

So now, this is pretty cool. I've never had a chance to read this issue of The Amazing Spider-Man that introduced The Punisher, but I've seen the cover on the wall behind a hundred comic shops. These facsimile copies are really neat for getting your hands on pieces of otherwise prohibitively priced items.

Titlating cover, bringing back Dr. Arkville and all, but all I really want is to see what Megatron is turning into inside that chrysalis!

Second issue of MASK! Not much else to say yet, but I dug the ruined space bridge at the end of issue 1, so let's see where this goes!

I'm digging this Manchurian Candidate storyline with Snake Eyes primarily because it takes us allll the way back to near the very beginning of the original series. 

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Watch:

The Giallo City-Wide Fever recently popped up on my radar, and I've been thinking about it non-stop. Currently streaming on a "channel" I'd never heard of before, Midnight Pulp, I'm planning to grab a subscription this weekend so I can watch. Here's the trailer:

You can read more about this one over on Bloody Disgusting HERE.

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Playlist:

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

Vitriol - I-Vii

Gnarls Barkley - Atlanta

Low Cut Connie - Livin in the USA

Steve Moore - Jimmy & Stiggs OST

Ghost - Skeleta

Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power

Greg Puciato - Mirrorcell

Ian Lynch - All You Need Is Death OST

Mastodon - Blood Mountain

Russian Circles - Gnosis

3Teeth - Eponymous

Sisters of Black Mountain - Singles Playlist

Niro - Porto Venere (Thanks Tommy!)

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Card:

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

• Seven of Cups

• 06: The Lovers

• Nine of Swords

Too many ideas create anxiety, making it hard to relax. Seek the arms of your person to help. This is HUGE. For just over a week, I have had insane sleep anxiety, and it's driving me crazy. 

New Music from Low Cut Connie!!!

 

New Low Cut Connie, out today! Buy HERE.

 

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Watch:

Happy July 3rd, everyone! Also known as Return of the Living Dead day!

I'll be watching this tonight in celebration and jamming the vinyl soundtrack while I type this.

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In other viewing news, I rewatched Gavin Polone and Andrew Kevin Walker's much-maligned Psycho Killer the other night. I love this flick; no, it's no SE7EN, but holding it up against that film is like holding everything Shamalamadingdong does against Sixth Sense.  

I do think I figured out the elements that caused many in the Horror community to lambast this film.

    1) The egregious-as-hell scene with the tank semi that flips onto its side, takes out the fleeing female and then explodes. It's fun, but it's a bit much for a film that otherwise holds itself in a dead serious repose.

    2) The pregnancy subplot. Not needed AT ALL. 

Other than that, man, this one swings so fucking big and, I think, hits it out of the park with such an ambitious third act. Georgina Campbell is always fantastic, and James Preston Rogers is the stuff of nightmares. Oh yeah, Malcolm McDowell is fabulous as a sort of modern Aleister Crowley/Anton Lavey stand-in.

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Read:

I am just now, three months into the publication run, getting to read the unearthed and completed finale to Rick Veitch and Michael Zulli's Swamp Thing run from 1988/1989, published nearly 40 years later as Swamp Thing: 1989.

Original proposed Michael Zulli cover for issue #88

Cover to the recently released issue #88

Full disclosure: while I've been aware of the Veitch/Zulli run since I read the Moore run that Mr. Veitch penciled some of back in the early 00s, I've never sought it out and, in fact, I don't think I knew that Veitch walked away due to censorship by then newly combined Time/Warner entity that owned DC Comics, or that those issues never saw the light of day and, in some cases, went unfinished. This reminds me more than a little of that Warren Ellis Hellblazer issue with the school shooting that finally came out back, oh hell, a long time ago now. 

So why was DC so worried about Swamp Thing meeting a certain historic carpenter in 1989? Five words for you:

The. Last. Temptation. Of. Christ.

Here's Paul Schrader, who wrote the screenplay adapting Nikos Kazantzakis' novel, talking about the blasphemous aspect of the story:

   

The effect the film had on Swamp Thing is the big takeaway I have after reading Stephen Bissette's afterward in  Swamp Thing 1989 issue 88, and it makes a ton of sense, even if it is still deplorable. I was thirteen in 1989, but I remember the nightly news hullabaloo surrounding Martin Scorsese's film featuring Willem Dafoe as Jesus, Harvey Keitel as Judas Iscariot and David Bowie as Pontius Pilate. I wouldn't see the film until the early 00s, but I remember that people did not like the way Christ was portrayed, so while absolutely nothing blasphemous occurs in Veitch/Zulli's comic, no corporation was going to publish a comic with the cover above so soon after Scorsese's film.

So what did DC publish instead of the original Swamp Thing issue 88? Well, it's a bit confusing, but apparently Veitch/Zulli's issues 88-91 were shelved and never finished and instead, Doug Wheeler and John Totleben stepped in and continued the course of events that had played out through the early issues of Veitch's run, where Swampy is lost in time. Wheeler's 88 deviates by omitting the Elemental's meeting with Christ, which, again, really only treated the Christ man with the utmost respect.  

Funny that, as far as we've come to see this finally published, they still did not use that original Zulli cover. 

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Playlist:

Melvins/Helms Alee - Controlling Data for a Better Feeling Future

Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest

Dean Hurley - Anthology Resource Vol. 2: Philosophy of Beyond

sunn O))) - Loser

3Teeth - EndEx

The Dillinger Escape Plan & Mike Patton - Irony is a Dead Scene

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Dissociation

Spotlights - Love & Decay

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Card:

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

• Two of Swords

• Page of Wands

• Queen of Cups