"This new song, along with "Cost of Living" and "Westside", will make up the Record Store Day 2025 Exclusive FLUX EP, out April 12th in independent record stores. This will be the only physical release of these three songs, on Black Vinyl with an etched b-side."
It's been so good to have these guys back again, for however long this lasts.
Watch:
An Irish Horror film that takes place during the Great Famine of the 1800s and is entirely in the Irish language? Directed by Irish Filmmaker John Farrelly, this one looks incredible!
SO hoping this rides the Folk Horror wave into theatres. Looks stunning; creepy, dark and remote. Read more HERE on Bloody Disgusting. There doesn't appear to be a release date yet for An Taibhse - which translates to The Ghost - but I'll keep my eyes peeled.
Playlist:
Ghost - Infestissumam
D'Nell - First Magic
Secret Chiefs 2 Traditionalists - La Mani Destre Recise Degli Ultimi Uomimi
Slayer - Decade of Aggression
Ghost - Opus Eponymous
Miranda Sex Garden - Velventine (Single)
Caffeine Mit Cocaine - Supra Summus (Feat. Diamanda Galás)
Another new stand-alone track from The Jesus Lizard? Holy smokes - something's brewing.
Watch:
Yellowjackets season three is right around the corner, and we have a new trailer! One I almost didn't post because of their choice of music - come on folks, do we really want to bring back the 00s trailer trope of using *ahem* drowning pool's let the bodies hit the floor?
Very excited. Apparently, a lot of folks thought the second season dried the show out. I did not. Aside from the heartbreaking death I wish didn't happen (but 100% applaud the creators for having the stones to do so), I haven't a single complaint.
Playlist:
Angelo Badalamenti - Twin Peaks Season Two OST
Spoon - They Want My Soul
Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja
Bohren and der Club of Gore - Sunset Mission
Zeal & Ardor - GREIF
Black Sabbath - Vol. 4
Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Black Sabbath - Sabotage
Nothing - The Great Dismal
The Cactus Blossoms - Every Time I Think About You
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Seven of Cups
• IV: The Emperor
• Page of Swords
Emotional stakes at the hands of perceived oppressors trigger impetuous reactions. Don't give in to the pull of chaos. Breathe.
Very fitting for multiple reasons, some having to do with work, others the point that the main character in Black Gloves & Broken Hearts actually uses a mantra I learned from my good friend Missi.
New music from The Jesus Lizard! This non-album single follows in the wake of this year's Rack, the band's first album in 26 years. Hoping for an E.P.
Watch:
I continued Noirvember last night with my first-time viewing of Jules Dassin's 1948 TheNaked City.
I have to say, this eventually won me over, but I didn't love it. I think the expectation set by notoriety and my previous obsession with the John Zorn album may have led me to believe this would be something more than it is. Darker. Also, it doesn't help that this is essentially the template for all of the Bug Bunny cartoon Noir trope lampoons, from Muldoon down to the narrator. Still, as the story evolves, it grows more endearing. Released four years after Double Indemnity, though, I was expecting sharper teeth.
Playlist:
Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats - The Night Creeper
Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats - Nell' ora blu
The Jesus Lizard - Rack
Antibalas - Where the Gods Are in Peace
Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She
Moon Wizard - Sirens
PJ Harvey - Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
I'm behind everything by a couple of days. Had a friend in town earlier in the week, and between catching up at work after a few days off, digging back into finishing Black Gloves & Broken Hearts after five days away at a crucial point in the novel, and recording podcasts for both MaXXXine and Longlegs, I just haven't had time to do anything else. So here's some awesome new music by one of my all-times. You can pre-order the new album RACK from Ipecac Records HERE, it drops September 13th.
Watch:
In the past week I have seen three movies that I expect will define much of 2024 for me. First, MaXXXine, which I've now seen twice on the big screen and am planning for another round:
I'm in the final stages of editing a HUGE episode The Horror Vision just did on this one. Ti West has been a favorite of mine since I first saw The Roost in 2005, and to see his very distinct filmmaking on the big screen for the first time since I caught The House of the Devil back in 2009 at the old Laemmle's on Sunset (after waiting for it for something like 3 or 4 years), but with a much bigger budget and not in a limited art-house release (I'm in Clarksville for hell's sake; I seriously doubt Hosue of the Devil played in Clarksville, haha) was an awesome experience. MaXXXine has some issues, but none that blind my love for it or the director.
Although I saw Nikhil Nagesh Bhat's Kill last September at opening night of Beyondfest 2023, I am counting my viewing this past Sunday on a big screen in Nashville as the first salvo of what may very well be my favorite film of the year.
This film takes the "Surprise, I'm getting married" trope of Indian Cinema and uses it to propel the best Action-Horror film I've seen since Dog Soldiers, easy. See this on the big screen if you can, and don't worry about the run time. It's a little over two hours, and I won't feel it AT ALL.
Finally, Oz Perkins' Longlegs... I'm not really sure how I feel about this flick after seeing it last night. It's fantastic, no doubt, but something about all of Perkins' films creates a disconnect in me.
You'll read this is the scariest movie of the decade. I think that's a bit much. But it is extremely unnerving, and everyone turns in a fantastic performance, especially Nick Cage, who defies all possible expectation and description with his performance.
The only other really big films I'm still waiting on for the year are Fede Alvarez's Alien: Romulus, Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis, and Robert Eggers' Nosferatu. I know there will be other, unexpected greats that filter in here and there, but for now, those are the horizon line. All in all, so far it's been a pretty great year, with Kill and Stop Motion duking it out for my favorite thus far.
Playlist:
Various Artists - The Void
High on Fire - Cometh the Storm
Dean Hurley - Anthology Resource Vol. 1: △△
Kim Carnes - Bette Davis Eyes (single)
Scorpions - Rock You Like a Hurrican (single)
The Dillinger Escape Plan - Option Paralysis
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• XIV: Temperance
• XX: Judgement
• Page of Wands
XIV is Art in the Thoth deck, a variation that projects a slightly different connotation for me. Having only used Thoth for the first 17 or so years I've been familiar with the cards, this recent switch is something I've not quite worked out yet. Art usually suggests synchronization, often of disparate elements into a pleasurable outcome. Temperance, on the other hand, suggests Balance, which is and is not the same. Seeing this card here and thinking about it, I take this as a definite nod to balance some of the uneven and, frankly, negative emotions/thoughts that have ruled my head of late. Taken with XX - ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES - and the Page (Princess) of Wands, or the Earthly aspect of Fire, I'd say this is a Pull that suggests I really have some work to do on myself in order to regain the mental/emotional balance I've kind of misplaced the last two weeks or so
Wednesday was an incredible day for new album announcements. I'd been expecting David Lynch to drop something because of a video he posted last week, but The Jesus Lizard's Rack from Ipecac was 100% surprise. This is the band's first album since 1998's Blue, and while there is a lot I do like about their two Capitol Records, I can already tell by this first single "Hide & Seek," that I like Paul Allen's production on this one way better (RIP Steve Albini, who produced their iconic albums for Touch & Go back in the 90s).
Also, Mac is back! That's right, original drummer Mac McNeilly is once again behind the skins. The stars have aligned!
Last night, K and I went to see Ishana Shyamalan's The Watchers.
Despite seeing this or a slightly different trailer before pretty much every movie I've attended in the theatre for the last month or two, I went in with a fairly open mind. All I'll say is, if you're an M. Knight fan, you'll probably dig this. It was very well made and had excellent performances, but I did not care for the script, characters or the film overall. I kind of felt a weird parallel to when I saw The Village, back on opening night in 2004. With it in a half-arsed kind of way until the last act, when I kind of just want to get up and walk out.
* My good friend Missi laughs at my growing frustration at pre-show "entertainment." She cooly arrives at just the right time every time she goes to the theatre (about as often as us), but somehow, I just can't time that right.
Playlist:
The Jesus Lizard - Show
Shellac - To All Trains
Big Black - Lungs
Various - The Lounge Ax Defense and Relocation Compact Disc
Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity
Black Pyramid - The Paths of Time are Vast
The Raveonettes - Chain Gang of Love
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Knight of Swords
• Five of Wands
• Queen of Wands
Perhaps cryptically, I have "Motivation as Will" written in the Grimoire for Knight of Swords. This is the Firey aspect of Air, or the Will as applied to Intellect. Five of Wands is Conflict in Earthly matters, and Queen of Wands, or the Emotional aspect of Will.
All any of this tells me at the moment - when it's 12:47 AM and I'm tired as hell - are we're all a big o' mess O' trouble. Contradictions and good intentions, but if you recognize that and we start there, we can move on and perhaps conquer and shape some of what makes us indecisive and try and turn conflict into stability.
We bring Seven Days Celebrating Steve Albini's career with a track from what is, in my opinion, one of the greatest production statements in Independent Rock history. Really, The Jesus Lizard's Goat, Liar and Down are all neck and neck for that honor, all produced by Albini.
NCBD:
Pretty robust week, considering how I've downsized. Here we go:
I could have sworn this book ended with issue five, but here we are at #6, and the end isn't for another month yet.
Love this cover. Feels like this book was on a little hiatus, glad to have it back.
This Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan book is proving to be considerably better than I originally anticipated. LOVING the art by Mateus Santolouco, so I'm here for that, at the very least. But I'm really interested in seeing where this Casey-Jones-with-the-bad-guys subplot goes, and overall, I dig seeing a continuation of The Foot's story without Shredder.
I'll just eat my words and say this now: so far, I love this book. I'm still not hip to ANYTHING Marvel has done with Aliens in comic form, but this? This is a really cool "What If" continuation of Cameron's Aliens.
So checked out on these. Last issue of this series, which means it should just be two issues to go before I can get out of the X-books altogether.
Watch:
The first teaser trailer for Francis Ford Coppola's upcoming Megalopolis dropped earlier in the week.
This is as far as I'll be going with trailers on this one. This film is slowly creeping into the role of one of my most anticipated films of the year. To read some of what FFC has said about this, I think this could be one of his greatest films (after Dracula and Apocalypse Now, of course).
Playlist:
Various - The Void OST
Graveyard - Lights Out
Yerusalem - The Sublime
Lustmord - Much Unseen Is Also Here
Ian Lynch - All You Need Is Death OST
Adam Egypt Mortimer - The Obelisk
Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She
Amigo the Devil - Everything is Fine
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• IV: The Emperor
• Knight of Pentacles
• Ace of Cups
Action; approach Earthly concerns with Intelligence, and an emotional breakthrough will follow. That's a bit fortune cookie vague for a reading, but I'm spent.
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.
Ah, now we're really starting to get into the releases for the new year. The first new album from Tomahawk since 2013's Oddfellows! A bit of a coincidence, as I've had Duane Dennison on the mind and on the spinner, as you'll read below.
I'm excited!
You can pre-order Tonic Immobility, which you can of course order from the always delightful Ipecac Records, HERE. The record drops March 26th!
Vinyl:
I managed to score a complete set of what I now believe to be a 2009, Record Store Day reissue set of all The Jesus Lizard's 7" singles from back in the day. Nine in total, I originally thought I was getting the original pressings, which, you know, considering one would have been a split with Nirvana (Puss and Oh the Guilt, the cassette for which I still have) and which the actual 45 for would be worth more than I paid for all nine of these re-presses, makes sense that this is not that. Either way, it was super cool, after a workday that ended with me having to get a COVID test, to come home, open a Sierra Nevada, and fire up Mouth Breather on vinyl!
Negative, by the way.
Not a great picture, but you get the point.
NCBD
Because of the scare, I did not stop in to pick up my comics. However, here's what's waiting for me today:
One issue left! Look at that cover! The greens that often flood Jerome Opêna's art are definitely what pulled me into this series. There's something so 'Sci Fi pulp paperback novel from the 80s cover art' about them. Not the style, but the settings: Swamps, bogs, mountains, etc.
Love this book, LOVE this cover, too.
Wow, great covers this week.
These "Best of" books have been the most "pure joy" comic books I've read in years. I don't even bag-and-board these, I have them sitting around just so I can pick them up and hold them every once in a while.
After issue 3 of We Live, this is the book I think of the most. What started as pure SciFi, really took on a Girl With All the Gifts vibe in its last chapter, and the mash-up works perfectly. Can't wait to see where this goes!
Playlist:
Ministry - The Last Sucker
Ministry - Rio Grande Blood
Sleaford Mods - Spare Ribs
The Jesus Lizard - Mouth Breather 45
The Jesus Lizard - Gladiator 45
Card:
Today I went for my original, full-size Thoth deck. I don't have very many decks. As much as I love a lot of what I see out there as far as Tarot Deck's, I'm purely a pragmatician with these. Sure, that DC Vertigo deck is amazing, and, well, maybe one day that is one I would grab just to look at, but I started with the Crowley/Harris deck nearly 20 years ago, and it is two of my three decks (Missi also gifted me a pocket-sized Thoth a few years back). So it's Thoth and Raven, that's it.
I can't help but feel this is a direct nod to the COVID scare and the test I took last night. Hearing I might be infected set me on a negative thought tirade - especially when it comes to imagining the beating I would like to issue to the chin-diaper, COVID-denying moron at work who is the 'patient zero' in our building (always gotta be one). That said, I came home, pulled my shit together, found a place to get a rapid test, and just did it.
It's funny how, in moments like those hours where I thought I might have it - which of course the ego immediately translates to I definitely have it - there's such a pull to surrender, to woe is me, to give up.
Fuck that. Science. Or, in the words of the esteemed Mr. Pinkman:
My good friend and increasingly frequent collaborator Jonathan Grimm flies in for a long weekend, so I took today off. With an open morning, I did what I've wanted to do all week - I rented Robert David Mitchell's Under the Silver Lake, altered my perception a bit, and fell into a film I'd ascribed an alarming amount of expectation to in the eight days or so since I first heard about it. With a run time of two hours and nineteen minutes, I knew I'd need a day off to give Mitchell's follow-up to It Follows a proper shake - lately anything with an above-average run time that I watch at night runs the risk of my nodding off. This isn't usually the film's fault; my early schedule and aversion to conservative bedtimes simply runs me ragged. All this aside, I'm happy to report I had a perfect morning, a perfect viewing experience, and I absolutely loved Under the Silver Lake. I don't want to say too much - I didn't even watch the trailer until after I'd seen the movie - so I'll leave you with three words: Approaching. Modern. Hitchcock.
That's big and hyperbolic, I know. Don't care. Visually, we still get some of that soft, pastel style of Mitchell introduced in The Myth of the American Sleepover and perfected in It Follows, though that has been combined with a real love of the medium, and the history of the Hollywood Thriller as a genre. The early scenes of Andrew Garfield's Sam following three girls in a convertible feel like they are pulled right out of Vertigo, as does the deference the story pays to the institutions and living spaces of Los Angeles, the likes of which were directed toward the cities and forests of Northern California in Hitchcock's masterpiece of obsession. Oh, and Disasterpeace knocks the score out of the park; gone are the synths, replaced instead with string-and-brass instrumentation one would also associate with Hitchcock, De Palma and their lineage, both forwards and backwards in time.
Oh yeah, and David Yow from the Jesus Lizard is in it. When is that not a sign of good things?
$5 rental on Amazon. Absolutely worth it, but wait until you have the time to sink slowly into a winding mystery. This films tastes best when allowed to breath.
**
Playlist from 4/25:
Soundgarden - Louder than Love
Totalselfhatred - Eponymous
Queens of the Stone Age - Rated R
Queens of the Stone Age - ... Like Clockwork
Queens of the Stone Age - Villains
Windhand - Eternal Return
Rounded the tunes out last night, driving home from Hollywood with KXLU program The Witching Hours as a sonic companion. GREAT show, and its host, DJ Marina, keeps an excellent website with news, prompt archives of playlists, and a bunch of other great stuff. Check it out HERE.
**
Card of the day:
From the Grimoire: "By adding to an idea's original form, we dilute it. Not inherently bad, just different. Expect ups and downs while fleshing out and developing anything."
I was completely unfamiliar with Daughters before finding this in my youtube feed (which I have gone to GREAT lengths to heavily curate, as a lot of what youtube recommends is complete and total shite). I dig this; there is an obvious Jesus Lizard comparison right off the bat, but also, Thrall, and the tension makes me think of a great, sick, dying beast. Possibly a beached whale.
How's that for your bagel and cream cheese Friday, eh?
Planning on writing and watching this tonight, as it was just added to Shudder:
The sound quality isn't spectacular but it's from 19-freakin'-85 so what could we expect, eh? Mr. Brown sent this to me some time ago and I'm (criminally) just getting around to watching it now. Yow is in good form, although he doesn't seem quite as insane as his Lizard days. I should add I never had the chance to see Scratch Acid live but became a fan after reverse engineering from The Jesus Lizard. This is pure musical archeology here; for the record, as it were.
