New music from X as they announce their final album and tour! You can pre-order Smoke & Fiction from X's Bandcamp HERE.
Watch:
GORGAZMA - remember this name because this is a new Horror Production company whose debut short film, Pizza Panic Party, absolutely blew me away.
I love everything about this film, from the lighting, the music (score by Joseph Fucking Bishara!) and of course, the gore and FX. Holy smokes. I'm over the moon at the prospect of getting more from these folks. Talk about coming out of the gates swinging.
NCBD:
Heading out to Rick's Comic City after work today for this week's NCBD. Here's what I'll have waiting for me in my Pull:
"VOID RIVALS finally puts the "energon" in their corner of the Energon Universe!"
I had not even considered that, while all the other books have been about Energon discovery and acquisition, we haven't had any of it to speak of in Void Rivals. That's interesting, and I think the highly sought-after element is going to make quite a splash within the factions of the Sacred Ring.
Playlist:
Pepper Adams - Encounter!
Coleman Hawkins - Wrapped Tight
The Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity
The Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works
The Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us Is the Killer
The Dillinger Escape Plan - Option Paralysis
Trailer Punk Podcast - My Chemical Romance
Tubby Hayes Quintet - Down in the Village (Live at Ronnie Scott's Club, London 1962)
Friday, June 21, 2024
New Music From The Mysterines!
Another fantastic new track from The Mysterines' upcoming Afraid of Tomorrows album, out this Friday, June 21st. You can pre-order the album HERE.
Watch:
On Tuesday night, K and I went to see the one-night-only re-release of Ti West's X at our local Regal. This screening was followed by a "sneak peek" of West's upcoming third film in the trilogy, Maxxxine.
The "sneak peek" was basically the opening scene of the film. The real talking point here is seeing X again on the big screen. This is my third or fourth time doing so, but first since watching Pearl. Talk about a prequel shedding some serious light on the original film!
K said it best when she wished for an article that might point to whether these were all written together. My understanding (based on what I remember from an interview West did on the Colours of the Dark Podcast HERE) is that upon arriving in New Zealand to film X, the cast and crew had to quarantine for three or four weeks, and during that time, West and Goth conceived and wrote Pearl. My guess is from there, they had ideas to continue Maxine's story and A24 greenlit it the moment they realized what a good thing they had going.
As I intimated above, watching X again for the first time since seeing the prequel, I have to say that Pearl's character resonates in a completely different and affecting way than when just experienced in the first film. There was already an element of that, thanks to the moments West steals in X to show the character's fragile longing (the "Landslide" scene). Now, however, Pearl becomes at once more frightening and more sympathetic—not an easy task for a filmmaker to achieve.
I've been a fan of Ti West since I first saw 2005's The Roost, thanks to my good friend Dennis' knowledge and knack for curation at the time. From the first mention of House of the Devil until the film's release, I waited for what felt like years, and I've watched the man grow as a filmmaker, always hoping for success on the level he has now experienced. There's a bit of a cultural fever pitch surrounding Maxxxine's release - one that seems to transcend Horror circles - and I can't wait to sit down and watch the end of the character's story play out surrounded by what I now assume will be a bit more people than I'm used to seeing at Horror screenings in Clarksville.
Hell yeah.
This is exactly what I need at the moment: a scholarly discourse about the nuances and intangible nature of the Cultural Economy of Los Angeles and how it became the mythic location it is in the world's mind. I'm forced to slow down and really "chew" what I'm reading, which is a good thing. I can feel my brain working in ways fiction just does not utilize.
Read:
I finished FantasticLand several days ago and was pretty much left breathless. This one affected me deeply; I'm seeing shades of the worst humanity has to offer echo in my perception of the world around me, and it's a bit disorienting. Based on that, I decided to switch it up and finally dig into my good friend and Horror Vision cohost John Trafton's latest book, Movie Made Los Angeles.
You can order this one anywhere books are sold. You can also check out John's writing on his website, Johntrafton.com. I recommend starting with one of these two articles right HERE or HERE.
Playlist:
Riz Ortolani Feat. Katyna Ranieri - Oh My Love (single)
Molly Nilsson - Excalibur (single)
Mr. Twin Sister - In Heaven
Julie Christmas - Ridiculous and Full of Blood (single)
Jim Williams - Possessor OST
Tim Hecker - Infinity Pool OST
Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies EP
Alice in Chains - What the Hell Have I? (single)
Alice in Chains - A Little Bitter (single)
Megadeth - Angry Again (single)
Megadeth - Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?
Alice in Chains - Dirt
Guns N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction
Black Sabbath - Sabotage
Ozzy Osbourne - Patient Number 9
Pulling out the Thoth Deck for this morning's Pull:
• Prince of Cups
• Ten of Wands: Oppression
• VII: The Chariot
Emotional Intelligence creates the opportunity to emerge from a trying situation Victorious!
Friday, September 16, 2022
Calling Dr. Fucker
A lot of Cramps creeping into the rotation of late. Here's one from their 2003 Fiends of Dope Island.
Watch:
I've definitely figured out the movie theatre situation in Clarksville. Back in LaLaLand, post-COVID, AMC was the only big-box theatre I gave my money to. Not here; the AMC is inside the local mall, and my gut tells me it hasn't been renovated or even really kept up in any acceptable way since the late 90s/early 00s. The Regal, however, is the go-to. It's where I saw Barbarian the other night (this AMC doesn't appear to show anything other than the current big studio blockbusters), and it's where I saw Ti West's Pearl last night.
The sequel to X, Pearl is a completely different movie - of course - but it's also of such craft and substance, I walked out of that theatre bowled over. I had no idea Ti West and Mia Goth were capable of this. Not that I ever sold them short, but Pearl contains an absolutely formidable performance by Goth, who also co-wrote the film with West.
Can't wait for Maxxine.
Playlist:
Revocation - Netherheaven
Idles - Joy As An Act of Resistance
Idles - Crawler
Pailhead - Trait
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - I See Good Spirits, I See Bad Spirits
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - 13 Above the Night
The Cramps - Fiends of Dope Island
Revolting Cocks - Beers, Steers and Queers
Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Without a sharp eye to incoming changes, fortune can suffer.
Tuesday, August 9, 2022
He Will Show You Fear In A Handful of Dust
Like me, you may have been recently introduced to U.S. Girls via Netflix's The Sandman, where episode five featured THIS song. That song is awesome and makes quite the impression, but in checking out the 2015 album it hails from, Half Free, I can tell you that every track is awesome. This one, in particular, made quite an impression on me. Am I hearing traces of Prince-like songwriting and arranging? And Portishead... definitely Portishead. Great vibe and ironic, because I was only just recently waxing philosophical about how I miss the Trip Hop vibes of artists like Portishead and Poe.
We're six episodes into The Sandman, and it is spectacular. I never thought I'd see a proper, nearly panel-for-panel adaptation of this book that had such a huge impact on me as a teenager, but here we are.
The way things are shaking out, it looks as though this first season will contain two of my all-time favorite/most personally influential issues - John Dee's 24 hours in the Diner and the Cereal Convention. Watched the Diner last night, and it delivered, so I'm psyched to get to the Convention.
Being that I like this so much, I can't help but be reminded of last year's Cowboy Bebop adaptation on Netflix, and the fact that they unceremoniously canceled it shortly after the first season dropped.
Watch:
I believe this is the same trailer that ran post-credits at Ti West's X. I still can't believe how far beyond my expectations Ti West's return to cinema has been:Now that I'm somewhat settled in TN, I'm anxiously awaiting this year's Beyondfest announcement so I can ready myself for the nightmare of trying to buy tickets for their tenth anniversary. I've been attending for all but the first year (didn't know about it then), and I'm certain Pearl will screen, most likely with West and Mia Goth in attendance for some form of Q&A. I'm banking on my boss flying me back to work in L.A. that week, so hopefully, this should all go kind of smoothly and not cost me much.
Listen:
One of my favorite moments of my cross-country drive last week was while my co-pilot was sleeping in his seat next to me, middle-of-the-night, with the Weird Studies podcast on my earbuds (I use the ambient sound pass-through so I can hear everything going on around me). This episode, in particular:
Hearing Phil Ford and J.F. Martel discuss anything is an intellectually stimulating pleasure, but hearing them talk Twin Peaks? Priceless. That said, the conversation begins with Twin Peaks: The Return's infamous episode 8, but uses that as a jumping-off point to expound on the physical and physic changes in our reality that the Trinity Detonation ushered in. Their idea - which I will only very briefly summarize here in an effort to get you to head over to your favorite Podcast Platform and listen to the episode, is that using Lynch's Garmonbozia - pain and suffering - as something of a quantifiable metric, a particular 'flavor' of fear, a discussion can be had about how the world has changed since 5:29 a.m. on July 16, 1945.
Playlist:
John Carpenter - Lost Themes
Anthrax - Attack of the Killer B's
Mike Doughty - Live At Ken's House
Alice Donut - Dry Humping the Cash Cow
Genghis Tron - Dream Weapon
Small Black - Cheap Dreams
U.S. Girls - Half Free
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Now that I work from home - a scenario that has been slightly frustrating due to Amazon's delay on nearly everything I've ordered for my home office - the lack of a commute means I can make my daily Tarot pulls considerably more in-depth.
Starting in the Middle, with Past on the Left and Future on the Right, I'm reading this as my tendency to overthink and psychoanalyze everything has bound me. Somewhere inside that circuitous cavern of thought, however, is an epiphany, or at the very least a sublime moment of understanding. Applying a fresh perspective will open that up.
I think this is in relation to my home-from-home situation, which feels completely scattered at the moment. I need to build my space and from there, things will become better defined.
Tuesday, March 22, 2022
Rammstein - Zeit
What a weird coincidence this is. It's not all that often that I listen to Rammstein. They're definitely a band a dig, however, unless it's the two songs on the Lost Highway soundtrack, there's a pretty specific time and place for sure. Late last week I cracked out Rosenrot, and now look - new album Zeit out April 29th! Pre-order the album HERE.
Watch:
This past Saturday, before the return of my annual St. Paddy's celebration, I caught a mid-day showing of Ti West's new film X at the local AMC. I've posted the trailer here before, back when it first dropped, but here it is again:
X is fantastic. Don't read or listen to anything about it, other than me telling you right here to go see this one on the big screen. You won't regret it. In keeping with West's glorious style, this is a very loud quiet film. It's bloody and human and strangely sweet at times.
Dollar Bin:
Back for another Tuesday afternoon digging in the ol' dollar bin:
Despite my allegiance to Vertigo at the time of its release, I had never even looked through an issue of House of Secrets until two weeks ago when I found the first story arc from the 1995 reimagining of DC's House of Secrets. And yet, in spite of that, several of the covers in this arc loom in my comic book knowledge as extremely iconic images. Especially issue #2.
There's definitely an element to this series that makes me see Vertigo's mid-90s style storytelling as very brand specific, however, since nothing I know of looks or reads this way anymore, any problems I had with this first arc - this reinvention's arbitrary relocation of the titular House to Seattle, Washington in an obvious attempt to capitalize on the *ahem* grunge movement, the fact that every character in the book is in a band or fucking someone in a band, the then-current newsworthy societal plot points. Unfortunately, STDs and molestation have always been problems in our society, however, the ignorance and fear that limited allowed them to grow to epidemic proportions became a campaign slogan themselves, and a talking point for societal criticism. Not a bad thing, but also, the approach to a lot of the tv and literature that took a swing at incorporating such a hot button issue often feels trite and misguided. There's a bit of that here, or, I'm just out-of-phase with my residual 90s self.
Regardless of little gripes, this first arc was a good read and I was overjoyed to put all six issues into my short boxes for a mere $6.00.
Also, Teddy Kristiansen's art is most definitely iconic and hits the sweet spot created in my soul by similar artists such as Marc Hempel and Peter Gross. There's something so Grimm's Fairytales about this style, and as I intimated above, it's one we don't really see anywhere anymore (if you know of a place to find it, let me know!)
Playlist:
Chelsea Wolfe - Birth of Violence
The Pogues - If I Should Fall from Grace with God
The Pogues - Rum Sodomy & the Lash
U2 - The Joshua Tree
John Carpenter with Alan Howarth - Big Trouble in Little China OST
Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun
Judas Priest - You Got Another Thing Comin' (single)
Til Tuesday - Voices Carry (single)
Ghost - Impera
Card:
Past = XXI: The Universe
Present = I: The Magus
Future = 7 of Wands: Valour
Holding fast to a protocol - the word I'm using here in place of the more loaded 'belief' - I have established in a previous moment will put me in the position to successfully recreate something that has changed with time, never been completed, but remained a part of me.
Friday, January 14, 2022
RIP Ronnie Spector
Seriously one of the most iconic voices of all time. So iconic, she makes me love an Eddie Money song.
Next up, I started reading The Low Low Woods when it first dropped back in early 2020, but never acquired all the issues. I finally solved that. Here's the bad ass cover I just scored for the fifth issue:
Watch:
The sting of the anniversary of David Bowie's death and now Ronnie Spector's passing was traversed by some really good news (thankfully, that's too many bummers to deal with in one week) - Ti West is returning with a new movie!!!
I am SO happy about this. West has directed a number of TV episodes (his two on Amazon's Them were incredible), but hasn't done a film since 2016's In A Valley of Violence (which is on Netflix and SO worth your time). West is easily one of the best directors working today, in my opinion, and I'm hoping having A24 distribute this new flick will A) put it in theatres for longer than a weekend, and B) herald his return to filmmaking.
NCBD:
Not New Comic Book Day, exactly, but here's what I've picked up over the last few weeks via eBay and back issue bins:I'd read the first issue of Hunger back when it first came out, then never continued. I've always wanted to go back and read the entire thing, though, because I'm something of a Galactus fan, even though I haven't really read many stories with him. Maybe that's the Unicron fanboy in me, I don't know. There's a lot about the Fantastic Four's history and rogues gallery that I retain something of an armchair interest in, but never really do anything about. I'm glad I bought this, even if just for the image of Galactus tearing through a hole in the fabric of the 616 Universe and entering the Ultimate Universe
And I finally replaced the original Dark Horse Aliens Vs Predator that went missing at some point over the last few years. No idea where these went, and even though my Horror Vision cohost gifted me a beautiful hardback collection of this one, I had to put my hands back on the original floppies I bought as they came out monthly (or maybe bi-monthly) back in 1990.
Playlist:
John Coltrane - Blue Train
The Outfield - Play Deep
Alio Die and Lorenzo Montaná - The Threshold of Beauty
Felicia Atkinson and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Un Hiver En Plein Été
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - In Summer EP
Crumb - Ice Melt
Zombi - Liquid Crystal
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Now I Got Worry
Genghis Tron - Dream Weapon
The Ronettes - Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes
Card:
Definite stagnation in creative areas at the moment, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel...
Friday, August 28, 2020
Isolation: Day 167
I have been in such an X mood for the last few weeks! Here's a favorite from their 1980 debut Los Angeles, surely the greatest album to reference my adopted hometown, out of probably a thousand songs that reference it. I need to dig back into Alphabetland soon, this year's all-original line-up X record, their first in some time.
Watch:
I'm working the weekend this week, so today is my day off! Other than writing, I'm hoping to squeeze in Frank Sabatella's The Shed, which just hit Shudder yesterday. I've heard good things about this one, and I feel like Shudder has been on a bit of a roll with new movies, so my hopes are high. Also, it's an RJLE release, and I don't think I've seen them release a bad flick yet. Here's the trailer:
Playlist:
Alice in Chains - Facelift
Low Cut Connie - Hi Honey
Santogold - Eponymous
Cults - Host (pre-release singles)
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine - We Created Putin (pre-release single)
Godflesh - Streetcleaner
Boy Harsher - Careful
Boy Harsher - Country Girl Uncut
Revolting Cocks - Beers, Steers and Queers
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Public Image Limited - This is What You Want... This is What You Get
Oh Baby - The Art of Sleeping
The Clash - London Calling
The Clash - Combat Rock
Windhand - Eternal Return
Jaye Jayle - Prisyn
X - Los Angeles
Black Breath - Heavy Breathing
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
Card:
Friday, May 8, 2020
Isolation: Day 57 - Alphabetland!
Last Friday, seminal LA punk rock group X released their first album with the all-original line-up in, well, I don't really know how long, but a pretty damn long time! Especially good news is the fact that founding guitarist Billy Zoom has conquered his health problems and returned to the fold. I saw X live (with Dwight Yokam!) five or six years ago and Billy was not present. They were great, but it's just not the same without that man.
You can pick this one up on X's Bandcamp HERE.
**
A couple of days ago I finally watched V/H/S/2 and V/H/S: Viral. Part 2 is more or less fantastic, the Indonesian segment being one of the scariest things I've seen in a while. Viral is, as several friends warned me, not all that great. The one segment I absolutely loved though was "Bonestorm," and turned out to have been done by Benson and Moorhead, the guys responsible for Resolution and The Endless, which I talked about recently in these pages.
**
Heaven is an Incubator posted this a few days ago. Awesome. Find it on Bandcamp HERE.
**
I finished Preston Fassel's fantastic novel Our Lady of the Inferno and have moved on to Clive Barker's Damnation Game and Al Jourgensen's autobiography Ministry: The Lost Gospels According to Al Jourgensen, the latter of which Mr. Brown lent me months ago and I've been chomping at the bit to read since.. I'm not huge on reading multiple books at a time, but I'm stumbling through the last three chapters of the novel I'm editing/re-tooling, and when I write, I tend to need to be reading fiction at the same time. I actually consider this part of the writing process. I don't punch-in and out for it, like I do with actual writing writing (I use two apps, ATracker PRO and Focus Keeper), but I recognize that it's most definitely an integral part of my process. That said, Jourgensen's biography is conversational, not prosaic like Juan F. Thompson's Stories I Tell Myself, thus it's not fitting the bill. So I'm splitting my time, treating Uncle Al's book like having a beer, and Barker's like sharpening my craft.
The Damnation Game is actually one I read long ago, back when I first discovered Barker's work in the early 90s. I believe I was a Sophomore or Junior in High School when I checked The Great and Secret Show out of the library. That one blew my mind - still meaning to re-read it and hit the sequel Eversville - and I went straight into The Books of Blood and subsequently The Damnation Game afterward. Funny thing, although I remember quite a bit of Great and Secret and Books of Blood, but I remember next to nothing about Damnation. Which is cool, because already, only a handful of pages in, and Barker's sumptuous prose has already had a massive effect on me.
**
Cocksure - Operation C.O.C.K.S.U.R.E.
X - Alphabetland
X - Under the Big Black Sun
The Neighbourhood - I Love You.
The Neighbourhood - Wiped Out
Blut Aus Nord - The Mystical Beast of Rebellion
Void King - There Is Nothing
**
No card.