New music from the always crushing Helms Alee! I became a bit obsessed with these guys in the spring of 2019. Work sent me to our branch in Spokane, Washington. It was my first time there, and I kind of fell in love with the place. Different cities have different textures, and Spokane's texture is one of earth, rocky brutishness, so you'll understand when I tell you that every night I walked to The Steamplant for dinner and downed multiple pints of their wonderful Octoberfest - a fluke it was still on tap in April! Afterward, I would walk around the city with my ear pods in, either jamming Alee, Jaye Jayle, or Melvins.
New album Keep This Be the Way drops on Sargent House Records April 29th; you can pre-order a copy HERE.
Watch:
Here's the trailer for what is, in my opinion, an underseen Horror gem, Colm McCarthy's Outcast.
Kind of an Urban decay folk Horror piece, I caught this one a few years ago and loved it. Now that it's finally returned to Shudder, I can't recommend it enough. If McCarthy's name sounds familiar, it's because he went on to direct the film adaptation of M.R. Carey's novel The Girl with All the Gifts, Black Mirror's The Black Museum episode, and a bunch of Peaky Blinders and Ripper Street episodes.
Read:
Tom Johnstone's new novel Song of Salome is out on Omnium Gatherum, and although I've never read his fiction before, I've heard a handful of positive reviews for his debut collection Last Stop: Wellsbourne, also published by Omnium back in 2017. Here's the description; I think you'll see why it sold me:
"Maybe it's better if some movies stay lost. It's 1965, and Herb Fry is reminiscing about the time about twenty years before when a reclusive collector sent him to track down a movie that shouldn't exist. The studio destroyed every copy after its tragic first screening. But we all know lost movies have a habit of being found. Prepare yourself for a trip into the cinema's heart of darkness to discover an early talkie whose soundtrack is a killer."
Available on the Omnium website linked above, or wherever you get your books!
Playlist:
Quicksand - Slip
Bauhaus - Drink the New Wine (single)
Bauhaus - Go Away White
Bauhaus - Boys (single)
Alien Sex Fiend - The Legendary Batcave Tapes
Pike Vs the Automaton - Eponymous
Black Sabbath - Technical Ecstasy
The Smiths - How Soon is Now (single)
Godflesh - Post Self
Carpenter Brut - Leather Terror
Helms Alee - Keep This be the Way pre-release singles
Card:
Everything is fluid as I finally received the answer to a question from a few weeks back. If you'll recall, I kept pulling the Hierophant and shortly thereafter spoke about my daily diet of caffeine and heavy metal and how it appears to be affecting my ability to get good sleep. In trying to help me interpret these pulls, my good friend Missi mentioned the card was probably trying to tell me that I was hung up on something that was ultimately getting in the way.
See where I'm going with this yet?
My morning ritual has always been making a full 30+ ounces of coffee first thing, drinking it over the course of my twenty minute drive to work and the first hour or so of my day, then proceeding to make more.
And more.
I probably drink between 50 and 65 oz of coffee a day, and I think this is the problem (ya think?). Soooo - beginning yesterday, I am now eschewing that first 30 oz, instead waiting to have my first cup when I arrive at work.
I remember when I was a bartender back in the early 2000s. My regulars - mostly middle-ageders - would watch me drink pot after pot of black coffee and remark how one day, that would change. I always thought that sounded insane, however, I think I have arrived at that exact place. I'd never give up black coffee, same as I'd never give up beer, but I definitely need to cut back. My fitbit tells me my heartrate is normally in the 80-90 range throughout the day, which, when I tell people that, usually gives them pause. Yes, I'm forty-six and starting to feel it.
Fuck.
