This track popped up in Rose Glass's Saint Maud - which we review and discuss on the newest episode of The Horror Vision Horror Podcast, and it made me immediately pull out Down and pop it into rotation. Of the classic Lizard triptych of essential records - Goat, Down and Liar - Down usually comes in third for me. That said, it's still among the greatest albums of the 90s in my opinion, and it's always a good feeling to reconnect with their music, especially after encountering it in a modern movie.
NCBD:
I'm LOVING that Marvel is taking so much of my money every month for Amazing Spider-Man. Nick Spencer's run has me hooked, and as of this issue, it looks like Bagley is back on the art!
The Autumnal is one of those rare, truly unnerving stories that feels like it could very easily be picked up and turned into an A24-ish movie. Let's hope that happens eventually, but in the meantime, issue 6 left us in a place that suggests this week's #7 will be crazy!
This series is riding at about a 65% approval rating with me at the moment, but I've apparently locked back into Marvel fan-boy gear for the first time since the MCU's Civil War broke it, so I'm enjoying the hell out of that 65%. Also, Dane's anthropomorphic black goat-headed butler is named Phillip. I can't love that enough.
This series. Whoah. Timely; a much-needed window into what other people go through to get into this country.
I HAVE to have this cover. Love Stray Dogs, and issue #3's cliffhanger has had me on edge at the mere mention of the series since last month.
Another book I also wanted to mention is Osaka Mime. I was lucky enough to have Behemoth Comics reach out to my podcast A Most Horrible Library a while back and send us an advance of Andy Leavy and Hugo Araujo's Osaka Mime graphic novel. I really dug this book and seeing its release slated for this week, suggest people pick it up.
A black and white Urban Horror story set in Japan, here's the solicitation:
"When a couple are found brutally murdered in the Dotonbori District in Osaka, Japan, two detectives from the Supernatural Unit of the Osaka PD must hunt down and apprehend a dangerous and murderous Mime, a shadowy shape-shifter which can take the form of the last person it ate. How do you catch something so dangerous, that can hide in plain sight?"
Watch:
This one snuck in under my radar, but looks fabulous! Featuring Raised by Wolves' Niamh Algar, the idea of setting a Horror story in the video nasty area already has me hooked, however, toss in the missing sister seen-in-a-movie bit that Ed Brubaker just played with in Friend of the Devil, and I'm super psyched for this one to drop on VOD June 18th!
Playlist:
The Jesus Lizard - Down
Soundgarden - Down On The Upside
Neverly Brothers - Dark Side of Everything
Ghost - Meliora
Type O Negative - Life is Killing Me
The Doors - LA Woman
Card:
A good omen considering we have officially begun to settle back into a genuine sense of normalcy. K's birthday Dinner at Lazy Dog Cafe on the patio last night was the first time we'd eaten a meal in a restaurant in over a year. It felt nice to celebrate my Empress with such a marked occasion that signifies a return to life as we knew it B.C.
After discovering Death Valley Girls late last year via (I think) the Henry Rollins radio show on LA NPR WKRC and having a brief moment with their then-new album Under the Spell of Joy, I kinda forgot about them again. However, the album popped back up on my radar last week during my black-out period here (BUSY!), and I've been listening to it ever since. Excellent album, which you can pick up from Suicide Squeeze Records HERE.
Watch:
I watched quite a few movies over the last five days or so since the last time I posted, however, Donald Cammell's White of the Eye may have left the biggest impression on me from those films I didn't already know. My co-host Tori talked about this one on the most recent episode of The Horror Vision, and our fellow cohost Anthony hit it square on the head when he described the film as a "Southwestern American Giallo."
You're going to have to be in the mood for 80s tropes, i.e. gratuitous guitar over sweaty sex scenes, and mullets like you may have never seen before, but if you can put you're head there and imagine you're watching this one late at night on a local affiliate at around 1:00 AM on a Saturday, you'll do just fine. Stand out performance by David Keith, who kind of transcends his "poor-mans Kurt Russell" thing and really does something cool with his role.
Playlist:
I'm not even going to try and log everything I've listened to, because I on a good day I usually mess that up. Here's what I remember:
Death Valley Girls - Under the Spell of Joy
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine - White People and the Damage Done
Black Sabbath - Vol. 4
Mrs. Piss - Self-Surgery
Prince - Sign O' The Times
Gram Rabbit - Music to Start a Cult To
Voyag3r - Doom Fortress
Tomahawk - Tonic Immobility
CCR - Bayou Country
Deftones - Ohms
Lustmord - Hobart
Card:
My second shot of the Pfizer Vaccine is coming up this Thursday, so let's see if it knocks me out as hard as the first one did.
I'm back on this reassessing the 80s kick, wherein I dig back into a lot of the music I dismissed or, in some cases, openly mocked in my 20s.
The Scorpions were a staple of pre-Grunge radio and a band whose singles I had a particular affinity in my pre-teen years. It would have been around the age of six or seven that I first heard their stadium-packing single "Rock You Like A Hurricane," a song that, at the time, sounded like the heaviest thing imaginable to my young ears, and helped steer me into metal. By '91 however, all these operatic-style vocalist-driven guitar-heavy bands had worn out their welcome, and I never bothered to look any further.
Fast forward to last week when, while unable to stop listening to 80s-era Judas Priest, I went scrolling down the neon corridors of Apple Music looking for another comparable band to unearth.
Scorpions are where I landed.
Covered by Testament on 1997's Signs of Chaos comp, it was my good friend and Horror Vision cohost Tori who pointed me toward Scorpions' 1977 album Taken By Force, specifically mentioning this song. I was not disappointed in the track, and in fact, despite some of the Scorp's other 70s-era albums not striking a chord with me, this one 100% did the trick. More proto-metal than butt rock, even the ballad "Born to Touch Your Your Feelings" has a dark, ominous allure that reminds me a bit more of some baroque Opeth song at times than Winger (in music only, as I can't rightly compare the vocals). This makes sense; as far as I know, what put the Scorpions to bed in the early 90s wasn't a predilection for mascara and cheese, but endless rotation and what sounds to me now, looking back, like an over-reliance on Producers who grouped them in with everything else 'happening' in generic hard rock at the time. I.E. everything Smells Like Teen Spirit would obliterate in 1991. I'd still rather jam Teen Spirit on most days, however, there's definitely a place for some Scorpions in my world.
Watch:
After catching up on Falcon and the Winter Solider this weekend (Mardripoor!!!), wee watched two flicks this weekend, both of which I enjoyed more than I initially thought I would:
First, Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday. This stands as probably my favorite movie K has introduced me to. I loved it, and I especially appreciated that they 'stuck' the landing.
Next, the recently released Wrong Turn reboot, which I cover pretty extensively on the new episode of The Horror Vision that went up this morning.
My motivation for watching this one, as I've not seen any other entries into the series (except maybe the first way back when it came out on video) was simply as an act of balance.
On THV's previous episode, my cohost Butcher gave the film a bad review, and as an attempt to provide the benefit of a second perspective I decided to install a 'Second Chance' policy on the show. This is where when one of us gives a new film a bad review - which is totally acceptable and not something the second chance is meant to overturn - someone else will watch and review it as well. In some cases, this will add a possible positive review, and in some, I suspect it will only strengthen the argument against. However, the internet is awash with negativity, especially in regards to movie criticism, and I want our show to be held apart from that rampant, often collegiate negativity. Bad reviews are inevitable in film critique, however, I want our criticism to be better than just name-calling and rampant negativity.
Playlist:
Judas Priest - Firepower
Judas Priest - Hell Bent for Leather
Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance
Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction
Alice in Chains - Facelift
Pilotpriest - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Zombi - Cosmos
Blanck Mass - No Dice (single)
Scorpions - Black Out
Anthrax - Persistence of Time
Deftones - Saturday Night Wrist
Foster the People - Torches
White Lung - Paradise
Razor - Live! Osaka Saikou
The Rods - Live
Steve Moore - VFW OST
Card:
Balance is exactly what I am striving for this week. Last week was a manic roller coaster wherein I accomplished absolutely nothing and tied my stomach into a knot that finally untangled yesterday after nearly 9 hours of sleep and a cleaning frenzy.
New instrumental album from Depeche Mode's Martin Gore dropped last Friday on Mute. This is the first I'm hearing about it, but I am digging it! Order HERE.
INTERVIEW:
As I mentioned last week, Chris Saunders and I recently had the chance to sit down with comics scribe and artist Jeremy Haun on The Horror Vision's A Most Horrible Library podcast. Available on all streaming platforms, our site, and youtube, it turned out to be a really interesting discussion:
Watch:
I've been off work since Saturday afternoon. K and I took a "mental health week," which I for one needed very badly. We've watched a lot of stuff in that time, which is all logged on my letterboxd. Two of the highlights were:
Much thanks to Mr. Brown on that one. Such a delightful film.
Terminal is a bit of a mess story-wise (although not enough to take away from the experience), but is absolutely gorgeous to look at. That usually isn't enough to get me on a film's side, but Simon Pegg goes a long way, and the obvious Guy Ritchie love helps more than it hurts. Ms. Robbie is pretty great in this one, too (as she usually is).
Playlist:
Let's do something different. Let me take you back to last February when I wrote in these pages how I'd received a Golden Ticket from Relapse Records. This was a random win, based on my pre-ordering of Steve Moore's OST for the 2019 Joe Begos film Bliss. The contest was held to commemorate Relapse Records' 30th Anniversary, so needless to say, there's been a ton of Relapse bands in my playlist of late, as I slowly work my way through all this glorious vinyl.
Razor - Armed and Dangerous
Genghis Tron - Board Up the House
Portishead - Dummy
Valkeyrie - Fear
Zombi - 2020
Boris and Merzbow - 2R0I2P0
Bangles - Different Light
16 - Dream Squasher
Nothing - The Great Dismal
Helmet - Meantime
Human Impact - Eponymous
Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full
Lard - Pure Chewing Satisfaction
Dream Division - The Devil Rides Out
Dream Division - Beyond the Mirror's Image
The Blueflowers - Relapse EP
The Blueflowers - Circus on Fire
Raspberry Bulbs - Before the Age of Mirrors
Card:
Such an appropriate card, as I will be returning to work this morning after five days off and, as management, need to deal with two employees in a considerably more severe disciplinary fashion than I am used to. Enforcing common sense makes me salty, so I will have to keep my more... robust approach to the language in check.
Moments after finishing my first listen to Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou's entire new EP The Helm of Sorrow (I was holding out for my vinyl to arrive, but gave in), I log onto youtube and see the two Doom Goddess's have joined forces! Is Anhedonia a harbinger of a full-length to come?
I certainly hope so! In the meantime, I'll play the hell out of this track, because it rules.
A Most Horrible Library is the newest podcast under The Horror Vision umbrella, and my co-host Chris Saunders and I spent a good two hours last night on Zoom talking with comics writer/artist Jeremy Haun. Jeremy's recent book, The Red Mother, wrapped up with its twelfth issue, and I can tell you, it's fantastic. Especially if you're a Clive Barker or Dario Argento fan.
Jeremy is an extremely personable, and very interesting guy. He's a HUGE Horror fan - which endeared him to Chris and I immediately, and he has a bit of a mythology brewing that appears in a lot of what he writes. That mythology - the Four and Seven - also shows up in the short comic stories he publishes via his Patreon, which I subscribed to. Jeremy writes, draws, letters and inks these Haunthology books, and I'm super excited to read them because I'm a sucker for mythologies, and The Red Mother really made an impression on me.
Playlist:
Credence Clearwater Revival - Eponymous
Small Black - Best Blues
Tomahawk - Tonic Immobility (Pre-release single)
Tomahawk - Eponymous
Tomahawk - M.E.A.T. Single
The Jesus Lizard - Lash
The Jesus Lizard - Liar
The Soft Moon - Black Sabbath (Single)
The Soft Moon - Criminal
Dream Division - Beyond the Mirror's Image
Boy Harsher - Country Girl Uncut
Cocksure - K.K.E.P. EP
exhalants - Atonement
Gwar - Scumdogs of the Universe
The Replacements - Tim
Small Black - Duplex (Single)
Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - The Helm of Sorrow
The Bangles - A Different Light
Drab Majesty - Careless
Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh
Card:
I'm writing this Thursday night and it's raining in LaLaLand. As you've no doubt heard me say before, that's pretty rare. I'm on New Retro New Wave tonight, splitting the decades between the 80s and the previous, jumping from The Bangles to Drab Majesty, to Deth Crux, all on vinyl. It's glorious, and I stop to have K try and take a photo of me standing in the rain with my Israeli Military issue gas mask, really just as an excuse to stand out in the rain for a while. When I come in, I draw this card.
I'm burned out from several insanely close COVID scares at work and all the stress that goes with them and the stupid fucking humans responsible. Luckily, by the time most of you read this, I'll be well into my Friday. Then I'll have a quick and painless (I hope) four hours on Saturday, and I'm off until Thursday. Five year anniversary with K on Monday, and three days to be even more of a Hermit than I already am. It will be glorious.
I have a very push/pull with this video. Two days ago my good friend Jacob sent me a link to Jehnny Beth's debut record, To Love is to Live. You may remember her from Savages, whose 2013 debut Silence Yourself still resounds as one of my favorite records of the previous decade. Savages' follow-up Adore Life came out in 2016 and just kind of left me flat. I go back to it every now and again, but the 'a-ha' moment has never come. Still, I hold out hope that one day it might.
So too, my first couple of attempts at listening to To Love is to Live were completely unsuccessful. I put the record away, went about my business, and came back to it later for a fresh perspective. This time, I perused the track listing before jumping in from the beginning, as I am most often wont to do, and decided to start with the fifth track on the record, "A Place Above", simply because the listing said featuring Cillian Murphy, and I was curious what that would sound like. You can actually hear that track in the video above for track six, "I'm The Man", as it serves as something of a prologue to the song. I'm happy to report, from this track on, the album opened to me in a way that very much made me appreciate Ms. Beth in a way I don't think I have before. The video above, directed by Anthony Byrne, is gorgeously shot and lit, even if the theatrics themselves that comprise the narrative of the video's run time leave me a little harumphed.
Watch:
If you've listened to any of the recent episodes of The Horror Vision - we've been weekly for a month or two now - you'll have heard me talk about Eibon Press's four-issue comics expansion/adaptation of Lucio Fulci's The Beyond. I loved the book, and immediately ordered the trade paperback collection The Gates of Hell, which does for Fulci's City of the Living Dead what the aforementioned comic did for The Beyond. There's a big picture here, and it excites the F*CK out of me. One of the things that converted me to such a huge fan of Fulci's Gates of Hell Trilogy is the mythos, the larger picture that can be glimpsed beneath the films. It reminds me of HP Lovecraft's mythos, and I think Eibon Press is breaking serious ground by going in and fleshing it out.
After talking about this on our show, Eibon Press founder Sean Lewis hit me up online. There will be an interview coming up down the road, but before that, some more reviews, as he sent review copies of a lot of other Eibon books with my Gates of Hell trade.
First up was House By the Cemetery, three issues that further my favorite Fulci film in ways that directly connect it to the other two movies in the series. Next, that Gates of Hell trade is calling my name, so first, K and I re-watched City of the Living Dead last night.
Easily the poorest of the three films in this cycle, the comic will only be able to improve the story, for which there is only the barest hint of in the film. Don't get me wrong, I still dig it, but even that clipped, nightmare logic that makes The Beyond work so well kind of fails here, as we move from scene to scene with a pretty transparent disregard for anything but the gore and atmosphere.
Interestingly, while this is the weakest of the three Gates of Hell flicks as far as story is concerned, City contains the best FX in any of these: Bob's drill-through-the-head death scene doesn't suffer from the usual tail-end let down present in most of these movies, where you can see how the actor is replaced by a close-up of the model. Below, compare Bob's death with the infamous 'gut-spewing' scene from this same movie, where you can clearly see the actress replaced by a dummy (again, not badmouthing here, just saying).
I should add, these are some especially gross-out clips (okay, really just the second one), so press play at your own risk:
Anyway, as I said, Eibon press's Gates of Hell comic can only improve on this one, so I can't wait to dig in later today.
Playlist:
Michael Kiwanuka - KIWANUKA
Me and That Man - Songs of Love and Death
Queens of the Stone Age - ... Like Clockwork
Curtis Harding - Face Your Fear
Venue - One Without a Second
Deafheaven - 10 Years Gone
Card:
Twos are often an indication of balance, I can't help feeling that is a spot-on assessment of the morning so far.
Two's also indicate cycles, shorter cycles, and I feel a few loops closing in the near future. This is good, as I seem to constantly be opening more of them.
New Order dropped an EP last Friday. Here's the first 'single.' Awesome tune, not at all where my head is at right now, but I have a feeling this will come in handy in a few days or so.
Watch:
My Co-Host on The Horror Vision Chris Saunders and I have decided to try and do a week-by-week podcast exploration of CBS' The Stand series starting on December 17th. I'm a King fan for sure, but I've never been a rabid one, and I've never undertaken the commitment to read The Stand. Usually, in undertaking a project like this, I'd set aside what I'm reading and try and 'bang it out' before the launch of the show, however, there's just no way. The original cut of the novel is 823 pages, but the expanded is lost 1500. Add to that the fact that I started 2020 reading a very long novel about a pandemic (Chuck Wendig's Wanderers, which despite it's eerie parallels to our reality while I read it - or perhaps because of it - still occupies my mind on an almost daily basis and lingers with a strong A+ rating in my book) and, well, for obvious reasons don't want to finish it out doing the same. So I'm doing the audiobook. Which, at ten chapters in, frankly isn't great.
Still, having read the Dark Tower books since shortly after The Drawing of the Three, I've wanted to read The Stand since early High School. In the Dark Tower books, Roland and his compatriots travel across worlds and, at one point, end up in the world of The Stand, a world decimated by a flu-like virus called Captain Tripps. Weird timing for the show to be coming out, but I'm excited to cover it, as it's been a while since I've done something like this, and it's not so often I get to work with Chris these days. So win win.
The Horror Vision:
The New episode of The Horror Vision Horror Podcast went up yesterday. We talk about the Barbara Crampton-produced Castle Freak remake, which I LOVED, along with Freaky, Max Brooks's Devolution, and a bunch of the Mario Bava that just landed on Shudder recently. And as usual, that's really only the tip of the iceberg. Also, I'm doing anything with the video side of this show yet, but I've started posting the episodes on youtube as of late.
Playlist:
Behemoth - The Satanist
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
Selim Lemouchi and His Enemies - Earth Air Spirit Water Fire
James Last - Christmas Dancing
Bing Crosby - Merry Christmas
Orville Peck - Pony
The Seatbelts - Cowboy Bebop OST
Daniel Pemberton - Motherless Brooklyn OST
Jehnny Beth - To Love is to Live
Opeth - Deliverance
Mr. Bungle - The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny
New Order - Be a Rebel
Barry Adamson - As Above So Below
David Bowie - Black Star
Card:
Ah, the wonderful Knight of Disks, the Fire in the Element of Earth.
Interpreted here as a pragmatic focus on and progression with ongoing projects. Industrious perseverance. Bread winner and objective provider.
From the new Crippled Black Phoenix record, Ellengæst, which dropped October 9th on Seasons of Mist. You can order the record HERE. Full disclosure: I haven't even heard this record yet. I have a bit of an interested/not interested relationship with this band, and I completely forgot this was coming out.
Watch:
I had the absolute joy of watching Josh Boone's New Mutants on Friday, and I have to say, I LOVED it. I talk about it on the latest episode of The Horror Vision, which will be on all streaming platforms, youtube, IGTV, and the little widget in the top righthand corner of this blog by the time you read this. In a nutshell - see it.
Playlist:
Zeal and Ardor - Wake of a Nation
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
White Lung - Eponymous
Young Widows - Old Wounds
Yob - Clearing the Path to Ascend
Fleetwood Mac - Greatest Hits
Anna Von Hausswolff - All Thoughts Fly
Trust Obey - Fear and Bullets
Windhand - Eternal Return
Corrosion of Conformity - Deliverance
System of a Down - Eponymous
The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes are the Roaring Night
Etta James - Third Album
Card:
Completion. Full power. I realized on Saturday that, despite my mental lapses and sagging work ethic, I am very nearly complete with nearly half of the second book in the Shadow Play trilogy. The image from this card is a perfect representation of how I feel when I reflect upon that.
My follow Horror Vision host Tori recently turned me on to Bölzer. This album is fantastic! A Black/Extreme Metal band, I was floored to discover Bölzer is a two-piece! This record is fantastic, and mixing/mastering/recording engineers Victor Santura, Michael Zech, and the enigmatic D.G. really knew how to steer the band into a sonic space that more than makes up for any 'missing' instrumentation. I'd say the sound of this album, which really knows how to use an ample but still tasteful amount of reverb, is one of the fullest metal band sounds I've heard in a while. There's a definite 'space' to this recording, and it's big and dark and bold.
Podcast
A new episode of The Horror Vision went up last week. I've recently moved beyond just the audio component of the show, and started making extremely rudimentary 'videos' for each episode. The plan is to eventually make a more involved video, or - gasp - do something similar to DwC, but with that show slowly creeping back toward reappearance, where I'll find the time remains to be seen. Until then, enjoy us talking about the genre we love, and if you dig it, leave a comment and let's talk Horror!
Watch:
Tuesday after work I rented Jeremy Gardner's new film After Midnight. Produced by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead - Benson has a small supporting role in the film - Gardner wrote and co-directed this one, as well as starring in it. As it stands now, After Midnight will almost definitely finish 2020 as my favorite film of the year.
Playlist:
Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full
I'm not really a Beck fan. I mean, I harbor no ill will, and I say this in spite of the fact that I still stand by his 1996 collaboration with the Dust Brothers - Odelay - is in my mind one of the greatest records of the 90s. But other than that? Well, there's the odd track here or there that I'll catch somewhere and that makes me say, 'You know, let me give that guy's other albums another chance,' but it's always for naught.
But Odelay. FUUUAAAAHHHHCKKK. It's still brilliant. I'm generally not in the headspace for it, but when I am, well, once 'Devil's Haircut' kicks in, it always seems like I'll be listening to it for days. But that doesn't ever happen. I guess that's kind of the bane of albums you know so well and love so much - they become such a part of you that it almost feels redundant to physically go back to them too often. Yesterday was one of those 'Odelay' days, but this time, I decided to give the 2008 Deluxe Edition a whirl. The track listing is more than double the number of tracks on the original album, and although that sometimes annoys me, yesterday I fell into a beautiful abyss of some of the weirdest shit I have ever heard on what will always, in my opinion, be a pop record. Tracks like 'Electric Music and the Summer People', 'American Wastland', and the ominous Aphex Twin remix 'Richard's Haircut' left me slack-jawed. That said, no track made me marvel more than Inferno. It's just... junkyard broken computer funk perfection.
I might be listening to this one for a while...
Watch:
I've really been into Horror Short film lately. I started a new column on The Horror Vision where I'm posting some of what I'm finding, and metnioned a few here. Last night I found this one, and I thought it was extremely effective:
Playlist:
Low Cut Connie - Private Lives
David Bowie - Blackstar
Beck - Delay (Deluxe Edition)
Zeal and Ardor - Wake of a Nation
Mrs. Piss - Self-Surgery
Molasses - Mourning Haze/Drops of Sunlight (single)
Selim Lemouchi and His Enemies - Earth Air Spirit Water Fire
Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor
Opeth - My Arms, Your Hearse
Card:
There's hidden assets here somewhere, but I'm not entirely sure how to find them. Lots of disks lately, and money has been on my mind. Really feeling the need to leave LA, to buy a home, to try and remove myself from the shit show. It's in my best interests to begin paying attention to things I normally ignore - might lead to a Cha-Ching.
An absolute stunner! This new All The Witches video released yesterday does that rare thing, it takes a strong emotional song and marries equally strong emotional imagery to it. These guys are truly a level above.
"Rats in Ruin" is taken from the album Nothing is Ideal, which is available for purchase HERE.
31 Days of Halloween:
Thursday Shudder dropped the new film The Mortuary Collection by Ryan Spindell. I wasn't expecting this one to be what it was at all. The Mortuary Collection is very much cut from the same cloth as Trick r' Treat, with a healthy dose of classic Spielberg. The music is swelling, majestic, and sometimes hammy, but only in the right places. Same with the story and acting, all around a knock out. If you're a Tim Burton fan, a Michael Dougherty fan, or a Neil Gaiman fan, this is for you:
1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)
2) From Beyond/Monsterland: Port Fourchon, Louisiana/Tales of Halloween: The Night Billy Raised Hell/Tales of Halloween: Trick
3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): The Crate
4) Waxwork
5) Synchronic/Bad Hair
6) Dolls
7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: The Weak and the Wicken/Tales of Halloween: The Grim Grinning Ghost
8) 976-Evil
9) Repo! The Genetic Opera
10) Firestarter/George A. Romero's Bruiser
11) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 1 & 2/Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
12) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 3, 4, and 5/House of 1000 Corpses
13) Masque of the Red Death/Creepshow (2019) Episode 7/Creepshow (1982)
14) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 6 and 7
15) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 8 and 9/Roseanne (88) season 2 and 3 Halloween Episodes
16) The Mortuary Collection/Roseanne (88) season 4 Halloween Episode
Also, yes, I am most definitely aware Roseanne is not a Horror film, however, their classic Halloween episodes from my youth fit perfectly into my 31 Days of Halloween, another reason I'm glad I modified the name and nature of this annual section. That season two Halloween special - the first the show did - is still a damn knock out, and I had not seen in since it aired in syndication way back in those original few years of the original show.
Playlist:
Type O Negative - October Rust
Mastodon - Once More 'Round The Sun
Trust Obey - Fear and Bullets
The Misfits - Static Age
The Misfits - Earth A.D.
Mastodon - Medium Rarities
Card:
Reminding me to take care of the trademark proceedings I began recently for The Horror Vision after finding out someone else started a podcast of the same name a year after we did.
I know I post a lot from these folks, but their covers are always so damn awesome. This one really made me laugh this morning, not because it's funny or they're making fun, but because it just looks like they are having such a good time covering this classic Ozzy song which has kind of slipped into the seat cushions of my life. Thanks for the reminder guys - gonna fire up Diary of a Madman now.
1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)
2) From Beyond/Monsterland: Port Fourchon, Louisiana/Tales of Halloween: The Night Billy Raised Hell/Tales of Halloween: Trick
3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): The Crate
4) Waxwork
5) Synchronic/Bad Hair
6) Dolls
7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: The Weak and the Wicken/Tales of Halloween: The Grim Grinning Ghost
8) 976-Evil
9) Repo! The Genetic Opera
10) Firestarter/George A. Romero's Bruiser
11) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 1 & 2/Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
12) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 3, 4, and 5/House of 1000 Corpses
I'm really trying to mix up the 31 nights of viewing this year, however, there are a few films that are absolute must-watch entries every year. Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses is one of those. Here's the opening scene, which next to the opening scene from Christopher McQuarrie's 2000 Way of the Gun, is my favorite intro to a movie ever:
See? The level of humor and unease mix so well in this scene, and that could not have been easy to do.
The Horror Vision:
Here's the newest episode of The Horror Vision - our 2 year anniversary episode no less. Also available on all streaming platforms.
It's 3:33 AM and I'm exhausted. I've been up since 5:18 AM - woke up late on purpose knowing full well I'd be up well beyond what I am normally capable of on a work night, regardless of the fact that I am off tomorrow. After work, my good friend Ray and I went to the opening night of Beyondfest 2020. Not really opening night, as the rest of the fest doesn't start until 10/02, but still, the crazy MF's that run the fest brought out the big guns for the West Coast Premiere of Brandon Cronenberg's new film Possessor. This was one of if not my most anticipated film this year, and it did not disappoint. This is also only the second time I have hung out in person with a friend since March (last weekend K and I went out to finally see our other Horror Vision host Anthony, his girlfriend, and their new baby), so it was very much a 'win-win.'
Beyondfest is calling this year's festival the "Fuck COVID Edition" and in keeping with that, they obviously were not going to be able to have it at the Egyptian as usual and observe social distancing, so instead, the fest this year is being held at the Mission Tiki Drive-In Theatre. What a great place! Granted, it's 50+ miles from our home, but Ray drove and we made the trip in roughly an hour and twenty (considerably less on the way back), and a fantastic time was had by all. Above is our ten-minute, spoiler-free review on youtube. You can also hear it - and all our other episodes - on any Podcast Platform, including Spotify which, if you look in the upper right-hand corner of this blog, you will see a widget for that will take you directly to the review.
What we don't discuss on this quick-take episode, but Ray and I both plan to bring up on the next full-length Horror Vision is that tonight's show was a double feature, and the second movie was an old John Frankenheimer film starring Rock Hudson from 1966 called Seconds. This was also fantastic, so here's the trailer:
Okay, I've still got a new Deftones record to try and get through before I go to bed... Nope. I'll save that for tomorrow.
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine have a new record out this fall on Biafra's Alternative Tentacles label, and if We Created Putin is any indication, Tea Party Revenge Porn will be the musical reaction of the trump years I have been waiting for.
NCBD: It is a very good thing I went in and picked up the three weeks worth of books in my Pull last week, because this week's NCBD has the biggest haul in a while. Let's start with the return of one of my all-time favorite books:
It's been a minute since Stray Bullets: Sunshine and Roses #41, but I do not begrudge David Lapham the time off. On the contrary, this is one of the hardest working men in comics, so I'm one hundred percent behind the occasional hiatuses he takes. That said, it's good to have Beth, Orson, and the crew back!
New Locke and Key, you say? Yes, I only just read the entire original series at the end of last year/beginning of this one, but I'm definitely in on this two-issue series, especially because it leads to a Locke and Key/Sandman crossover later this year. Can't wait for that!
I'm still a bit on the fence with That Texas Blood, however, I plan on going back and re-reading issue one before plowing into two and now three.
Bliss number one made a pretty big splash with me, and I'm anxious as hell to see how the story continues.
The Plot returns with issue six this week. I love this return to the Ancestral Horror genre, so much so that I penned the first installment of my new "A Most Horrible Library" column on TheHorrorVision.com. Read it HERE, and watch for future installments to go back to a video format similar to my 2017 Evolution of the Arm series. I don't really have the time to write a regular column at the moment, but with a Video Column, I get to work with K again - she shoots and helps design the look of the show - so that'll alleviate me putting another project solely on myself.
The best thing about picking up all your books after they've been out for a few weeks is that, such as is the case with TMNT, I literally just read last month's issue a few days ago, so the story is still fresh in my mind. This series has been a consistent succession of awesome evolutionary moments for a lot of the characters in the TMNT universe that might have gone stagnant in a lesser series. Case in point, last month we got this:
I don't know if that makes anyone else out there as happy it does me, but I'm excited as hell to see more of "Leatherkrang!"
See what I mean? That's A LOT of books for one Wednesday! Feels good.
Playlist:
Thou - Heathen
A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head
Santogold - Eponymous
Drab Majesty - The Demonstration
Card:
This one keeps coming up of late, and as I surmised on 8/20 when the Princess of Disks came up last, a signpost on the logic/emotion tug of war it's been reentering the Shadow Play world. Big breakthrough two days ago, not much since. But I've been a bit lost in my head, and reluctant to dig into the dirt and really start laying the foundation in prose. Time to pony up.
Last week, Metal Blade Records announced the new album from Germany's reigning Post-Metal champs The Ocean. Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic drops on September 25th. Pre-order HERE.
I've followed The Ocean since I stumbled across 2007's reissue of Fluxion in the metal section of a local record store. The group is hot and cold for me, in that I have and love all their albums in theory, but not all of those records are practical listens for me. 2005's Aeolian and 2007's Precambrian have their 'I have to hear that song right now' tracks, but overall are so academically 'post-metal' that, although I appreciate their sonic integrity, I find listening to them for any extended length of time often cumbersome. That said, Fluxion and 2010's pair of albums Heliocentric and Anthropocentric are year-round go-to's, and 2013's Pelegial also easily fits into regular rotation. I'm not quite sure where last year's Phanerozoic I fits into my listening routine yet, primarily because the record kind of got lost amidst a ton of other albums that held my attention for most of the year.
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A new episode of The Horror Vision Horror Podcast went up yesterday. I've added the handy little widget in the upper right-hand corner of this page where you can listen or follow over to our page on Spotify, since this is the service most of our listens seems to filter through. In this episode, Ray and I go Dynamic Duo and talk about Natalie Erika James' Relic, Jeffrey A. Brown's The Beach House, as well as a bunch of other cool stuff. Also available on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, and Google Play.
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NCBD - I messed up and posted this week's books here last week, so I'll be picking up those today.
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Currently reading:
Last week I finished Mark Frost's The List of 7 - very good Victorian mystery novel. Thoroughly enjoyed, and although I was tempted to start the sequel, 6 Messiahs, instead I started Matt Ruff's Lovecraft Country in anticipation of the upcoming HBO adaptation. At a third of the way in, the novel is as fantastic as the trailer looks, so I'm doubly excited now:
The book is very much not what I expected, and that's good. Reading it is a cathartic, as being a long-time Lovecraft fan - we're talking since '92 - I had built up a pretty big head of fandom steam before I ever realized HPL was a completely racist xenophobe. Through the mid-to-late 90s, as his personal correspondences were published, I made it a point to avoid them, as that's when the depth of his ignorance really became apparent (it's in the writing, but not exactly overt, especially not when you're younger and not as skilled at reading into things). Still, as more has come out, it remains more difficult to balance being a fan of his fiction with abhorring his personal philosophies. The first book I read that really played with this was Seamus Cooper's The Mall of Cthulhu, where the protagonists are accosted by a skinhead group who have adopted worship of Lovecraft's entities (great book and only $2.99 on Kindle at the moment). That was a comedy though. Lovecraft Country is not. A taut exploration of this country's racists underpinnings (that just won't seem to go the fuck away), the story is less about Shoggoths and more about human monsters.
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Playlist:
The Birthday Party - Mutiny/The Bad Seed
Mannequin Pussy - Patience
United Future Organization: 3rd Perspective
Henry Mancini - Charade OST
Charles Mingus - Blues and Roots
Cypress Hill - IV
Raury - Indigo Child EP
The Chameleons - Script of the Bridge
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucingen
Palesketcher - Jesu: Pale Sketches
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Card:
"A temporary culmination of events or labors. A well-deserved breath." I'll take it.
I first heard Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima in the mid-to-late 90s. I was dating a classically trained violin player, and she was involved in a college performance of the piece. She talked about how different the piece was from a player's perspective. This is anecdotal, as I've only ever heard it from her, but apparently when Penderecki wrote the music for the piece, he had to devise an entirely new way to notate the passage where the players hit the bodies of their instruments. When she played me the piece, I was floored - I knew this! Of course, I didn't know it as a whole, but I'd heard passages of it for years as they were used in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, a film I have been obsessed with for most of my life (less now, much more at that time). I had her make me a copy of the piece, and although it never led me to seek out more of Penderecki's compositions, I've loved Threnody ever since. Sunday morning, Mr. Penderecki passed away. Interesting that, only a few hours before his death, I rewatched Twin Peaks: The Return episode 8, which also utilizes this piece - to great effect, might I add. I wanted to post something here, as a memorial, and because composition is often best expressed in the moment, I went with a performance of the piece instead of the standard, studio recording.
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Three of us at The Horror Vision did our first remote podcast session on Zoom this past Saturday, and it turned out pretty damn good, so there will be more episodes more often. That goes for Drinking with Comics as well, which I've decided to spin-off an audio-only version called Drinking w/ Comics: The Conversations. First episode of that will be up by the end of the week. In the meantime, check out The Horror Vision's first installment of Quarantine Guide:
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Five episodes into Season Three of Ozark and it is glorious. Between this and Outsider, I am now a card-carrying fan of Jason Bateman and his work.
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Playlist:
Slayer - Live Undead/Haunting the Chapel
NIN - Ghosts V: Together
Pale Sketcher - Jesu: Pale Sketches Demixed
Pearl Jam - Gigaton
Steve Moore - Frame Dragging
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Card:
Failure to achieve a goal. That feels like what I'm up against at the moment, as my new schedule and the overall aesthetic of Shelter-in-Place combine to make me a lazy bastard. I'm still writing, but it's been difficult to drag myself up into my chair and actually put in the time to write. You'd think I'd be all over this, and I was at first, but currently, everything is a chore.
Mindful Habitation:
Build a new routine out of the bones of your old routine. It can be done, it just takes an initial investment of energy to build-up the inertia that will keep the thing moving once you get it shambling along on its own two feet, so to speak.
I'm not a huge fan or anything, but there's no denying the man is a legend. I know this is the obvious choice for people of my 'demo' to post as a tribute due to its presence in the Cohen Brothers' cult-favorite film The Big Lebowski. Regardless, I love this tune.
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Based on my fellow Horror Vision Host King Butcher's recommendation, I picked up a Blu Ray copy of 2011's Fright Night Remake two weeks ago, and finally watched it Friday night. I saw Craig Gillespie's remake of the classic Tom Holland 80s Vampire flick back when it was released theatrically and liked it, although I don't have a ton of history with the original, which I know I've seen in its entirety but not until way later in life - about time I revisit that already. I liked it even more second time through. The cast is top notch, and late-00s CG doesn't bother me so much, as most of the scenes that require them are awesome regardless.
And then there's David Tennant. Goddamn, that man is awesome.
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Playlist:
Anthrax - Spreading the Disease
Chris Isaak - Heart Shaped World
Beach House - Thank Your Lucky Stars
Beach House - 7
David Bowie - Aladdin Sane
Beastmilk - Climax
Calexico - Even My Sure Things Fall Through
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Card:
It's a Swords kind of moment, that we find ourselves in, eh? But the Ten of Swords isn't a signpost as to where we're going, it's more a warning in my eyes, a warning that our negativity feeds itself and multiplies (10 is the initial multiple of 5, which is Swords is Defeat). Our ruinous thoughts and negative attitudes do nothing but perpetuate themselves and our misery. So...
Mindful Habitation:
As stupid as it sounds, smile when you're tempted to freak out. I've done this for years - when I can have the presence of mind to do it. Smiling releases chemicals that make you feel better. Sounds awful new age, but it works. Even if it doesn't work and this is a case of "if you've convinced yourself, that's great," I've always been okay with the so called Placebo Effect. As long as I get the end results I set out for, who cares if I tricked my brain into getting there?
This one's been out there for some time, so I'm late to the game. During a back-and-forth listening session with a good friend on Wednesday, I discovered the Kacey Musgraves/Willie Nelson duet "Are You Sure."
Wow.
I know next to nothing about Ms. Musgraves, but when I saw Willie Nelson with her, I became instantly curious; while far from my bread and butter, Willie definitely fit a certain state of mind with me. I saw him live back in 2015 and he blew me away. As for this song, it's incredible. As Mr. Brown pointed out recently, she has a definite Patsy Cline/Loretta Lynn quality.
The video too, is shot in a throwback way that made me half expect to see a muppet sitting next to her when the camera began to pan to the left. It looks like 80s "live" television. Totally appropriate for the inner of the bar and feel of the song, which also harken back to a different era.
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A new episode of The Horror Vision went up this past Monday. This is our spoiler-free review/reaction piece to The Lodge (loved it - hear why), as well as a discussion that includes AHS Hotel, Netflix's Castlevania and October Faction, Joe Begos' Bliss, and 2011's Fright Night remake, as well as a handful of other titles we've viewed recently. Oh yeah, and this episode's Classic Corner is none other than Tibor Takacs' 1987 The Gate! We love this movie so much, we even sneak in some thoughts on the sequel.
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After finishing Chuck Wendig's frightening and timely Wanderers last week, a conversation with Ray from The Horror Vision prompted me to dig out a large part of Chris Claremont's run on Uncanny X-Men and begin plowing though it. I started just before the Mutant Massacre - which was about when I started reading X-Men back in the day - and plan on going up through Inferno. I might go past that, not sure yet. But I am SO looking forward to Inferno. It's been too long.
Also, the Sequart Documentary Chris Claremont's X-Men is now on Prime for free, so if you're a fan and haven't seen it, totally worth a watch.
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Playlist:
The Vines - Total Depravity
Talking Heads - Fear of Music
16 Horsepower - Low Estate
Zombi - Shape Shift
Worm is Green - Automagic
Greg Puciato - Fire for Water (single)
Greg Dulli - Random Desire
Mazzy Star - So Tonite That I Might See
Grimes - Art Angels
Led Zeppelin - I
Led Zeppelin - IV
The Jesus Lizard - Lash
The Jesus Lizard - Head
The Jesus Lizard - Pure EP
Chris Connelly - Sleeping Partner
Alice in Chains - Eponymous
Lustmord - The Dark Places of the Earth
Anthrax - Attack of the Killer B's
Anthrax - Spreading the Disease
Various - The History of Northwest Rock Vol. 2 (The Garage Years)
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Ghosteen
Grimes - Visions
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Card:
Hacking off pieces in order to gain the time/vantage to reflect. I pulled a 'mental health day' yesterday, not from my day job, but from writing. The current global situation has got me down, and I've realized despite all my declarations that I will not vote for either of the two parties in hogging the US political system, I am indeed going to be casting a vote for one asshole in November simply to keep the bigger (biggest?) asshole out of office. I also realize that this won't work and we most likely have four more years of... this. Unless of course, Captain Trips wins the day and purges the planet of a large enough amount of the human population as to inspire a total societal change in this country.
I won't hold my breath. Fuck jetpacks, where's our Common Sense?
The new episode of The Horror Vision is up! As I mentioned yesterday, we start out with a Spoiler-Free review of The Lodge!
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Speaking of Horror, here's a couple of upcoming horror trailers that caught my attention last week. The first, Saint Maud, looks promising, but also kind of looks like A24 fishing for another Hereditary. Either way, I'll give it a chance, because we all know trailers can make movies look more like other movies even if the film doesn't (nothing against Hereditary, I'm merely suspicious of derivative material):
Scare Package looks like it will, like a lot of anthologies, be hit or miss. Based on this trailer, I'll definitely give it a shot:
Also, look at the poster art for this one. Love it!
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Playlist:
Hall and Oats - Greatest Hits
Odonis Odonis - No Pop
Greg Dulli - Random Desire
Deftones - Koi No Yokan
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
Talking Heads - Fear of Music
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Card:
Might represent good news on the salary front. Which would be helpful in longer-termish plans I am making in my head.
I love the way, between this and the AHS 10 Cast announcement video published last week, Peck has swung back around and recaptured my imagination of late. Not that I ever leave the record very far behind - it's a staple and feels like it will be for the rest of my life - but it feels strangely timely again.
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Saturday night K and I, along with 3/4 of the rest of The Horror Vision crew went to the theatre and supported the big-box roll out for Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala's The Lodge. Fantastic film! I've jokingly been referring to it as the, "Feel good hit of the summer," simply to help me process just how damn dark it is, but overall, I really liked this one. Afterward, we recorded an episode of the podcast, so that'll be up in a couple of days or so.
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Playlist:
The Mars Volta - The Bedlam in Goliath
Odonis Odonis - No Pop
The Smiths - Meat is Murder
Myrkur - M
Mazzy Star - So Tonight That I Might See
Bohren and Der Club of Gore - Patchouli Blue
The Mars Volta - Frances the Mute
Odonis Odonis - Post Plague
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
Boy Harsher - Careful
Anthrax - Among the Living
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Card:
A relaxing weekend, if a chilly one (I know, I know. I can hear my family and friends in the Frigid Midwest. Fuck me, California boy). Stability achieved after a stressful week on-call for Jury Duty. I got a lot of work done on Friday and Saturday, saw a great movie, and now it's time to use that clear head and march right back to work. Turning in a packet of docs to a collaborator today, hopefully we'll see some movement with that (eventually; long submission process), and it's back to my outlines for Shadow Play books Two and Three, which are more finished than not.
