The Ocean - Milk of My Dreams

Getting back to this new album from The Ocean, Solaris, I was shocked to find the penultimate track is a collaboration with the legendary Tangerine Dream! This album really goes to some deep, far out places, and nowhere is that more apparent than on this track.

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NCBD:

The AI insanity continues. I'm telling you - I LOVE this book, but there are so many disturbing similarities to the dildos that populate "Amerigun" and our own timeline here in this country that every issues scares the shit out of me just as much as it puts a smile on my face. 

I had completely forgotten about Ordained, but here we are with the fourth and final (?) issue!

After taking a break from Fraction and Jimenez's Batman for the duration of the "Bad Seeds" crossover, I'm not 100% certain I am jumping back on board with this new issue. But we'll see. Now that this whole Kingpin... I mean, Vandal Savage storyline is over, hopefully we can get back to some of the awesome storylines Fraction planted in the first year of the book, before editorial no doubt rammed a crossover event down everyone's throat.

Fuck yeah! Hammerfist issue three is here and this cover says it all! HELL PARTY!!!

Still on the fence with M.A.S.K., but I'm hanging on for those Micronauts!

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Watch:

After missing it at not one but two Beyondfests in the last twelve months, I finally saw Tom Stern's The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt documentary on the Butthole Surfers. Man, this one was every bit as wonderful as I had anticipated!

The mix of archival footage, present-day interviews and animation/puppetry made for a deeply original feeling; closest thing I've seen to this was that Shane McGowan doc a couple years ago. 

It was cool to see a lot of the stories confirmed; the tales my friends and I knew from back before internet proliferation, when people passed on stories about bands like this via word-of-mouth. Also interesting to see the Surfers - who I never really knew much about outside their music - as people. Also, some genuinely tear-jerking moments. Fantastic film.

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Playlist:

Nun Gun - Mondo Decay

Algiers - Eponymous

QOTSA - Perfecth

Metallica - Ride the Lightning

Godflesh - Decay

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Shapes of Midnight

My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife

Genital Shame - Wellness Plan

Ministry - Hate To Go: Take Out Or Delivery

Portishead - Third

Opeth - Blackwater Park

The Ocean - Solaris

Anthrax - Cursum Perficio

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Card:

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

• Queen of Cups

• 13: Death

• King of Cups

Subconscious change is required for mastery. 

I'm feeling embers beneath my feet; a change is coming, in how I approach myself. It might be something I don't want to deal with, but chances are, I'm going to have to.

The World Is So Good That Who Made It Doesn't Live Here

I finally had a chance to sit down and watch my copy of last year's Criterion Collection Gummo. Still one of the ugliest yet also most beautiful films I've seen, and the upgrade was just in time. I believe my previous viewing was somewhere circa 2019, at L.A.'s Egyptian Theatre, when Beyondfest brought Writer/Director Harmony Korine in to discuss the film afterward. I wrote about that experience HERE. My old DVD copy was just not going to cut it any longer.

One of Gummo's many joyful characteristics is its soundtrack, and while it led me to several fantastic artists in the early days of my infatuation with the film - I first saw it somewhere around 1999, I think - Mystifier is a band I'd previously not explored. 

Hailing from Brazil, these guys have a pretty interesting history. The song "Give the Human Devil His Due" comes from their 1996 album The World Is So Good That Who Made It Doesn't Live Here. How's that for a title, eh? The entire record is good, but so far this track is still the highlight (although that's very likely due to my identifying it with one of my favorite films).

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Watch:

A Butthole Surfers documentary???? Yes: The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt began select screenings in April!

Director Tom Stern has apparently been documenting the band since 1986, so this should be chock full O' historical moments that help cement this band's ironically insane tenure. I'm not sure where to see it at the moment, but I've subscribed to the film's YouTube channel, so hopefully, there will be some news soon. In the meantime, you can read more about the film on its official website HERE.

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Read:

Finally began tapping into the Weird Walk collection released last year:

This is a beautiful hardback book that compiles essays from the 'zine I've talked about here before. The authors cite everything from Jacques Derrida's writings on Hauntology to Julian Cope's The Modern Antiquarian as they set about discussing pre-history, deep time and their theory that to save the future, we must look back at the past. 

This won't be a 'straight-through' read for me. More likely, I will do an essay or two a week while I read other things on a daily basis.

You can check out more from Weird Walk on their website HERE.

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Playlist:

Pelican - Flickering Resonance

Rollins Band - The End of Silence

Rollins Band - Human (The End of Silence 1991 Demo)

TAD - Inhaler

White Lung - Paradise

Helmet - Meantime

The Ocean - Heliocentric

Young Widows - Old Wounds

Various - Learn to Relax: A Tribute to Jehu

Kamasi Washington - Lazarus OST

King Khan & The Shrines - What Is?!

Federale - No Justice

Idles - Joy As An Act of Rebellion

Anthrax - Among the Living

Mystifier - The World Is So Good That Who Made It Doesn't Live Here

David Bowie - Black Star

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST

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Card:

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

• Five of Pentacles

• Queen of Swords

• Page of Swords

Intellect over Earthly concerns, or perhaps this is better interpreted as Intellect to hone Earthly concerns.