Street Trash, Baby!

 

You can grab this and a bunch of other Ten Athlone goodness directly from their site HERE. From the Street Trash E.P. by Ten Athlone.

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Watch:

Ryan Kruger's Street Trash is, indeed, fantastic. In fact, it's jumped the top ten line and landed somewhere in the center. It's goopy, gory, bombastic and a lot of fun. Also, the characters are fantastic!

I really can't say enough good things about this one. It's true to the 80s Exploitation roots, not over-done production-wise, walking a line between bare bones and full-bore, which is great. It leads to fantastic practical FX right in line with the original and a very DIY underbelly that endears the film and its characters to you even more. 

Ryan Kruger's Street Trash is a $4.99 rental on Prime at the moment. If you're a fan of Pschyo Goreman and/or Hobo with a Shotgun, definitely give it a try. If you don't know either of those films but you want to get your weird on, this will do nicely.

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Read:

My reading has been sporadic at best of late, but I've failed to post about it here. After blowing through Laird Barron's new collection, Not A Speck of Light (from Badhand Books HERE), I side-stepped directly back into his previous collection, 2016's Swift to Chase.

Barron's work brings out the obsessive in me, and I'm reading these stories with the Laird Barron Mapping Project never more than a click or swipe away. There are all kinds of weird connections I've felt the edges of previously but not fully grasped. Also, somehow I never really understood the concept that some of the stories take place in what is called Barron's Antiquity Universe, so I'm gearing up to read all of those in a row soon. But first...

As I finish the last few pages of Swift's final story Tomahawk Park Survivors Raffle, I'm also about halfway through Ivy Tholen's new Slasher novel Mother Dear:

Once again taking place in the town of Belldam, Texas, Mother Dear is rife with the kind of under-the-radar social commentary I've come to expect from Ivy's books. The characters - while unlikeable - are so perfectly engineered that they feel like archetypes and actual people I know all at the same time. The opening death is magnificent, and the insidious manner these spoiled, rich folks burrow into my brain via their "first world, 1% problems" reminds me a bit of Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho in approach, if not actual execution. 

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Playlist:

John Carpenter - Lost Themes IV: Noir

Ghostland Observatory - Sad Sad City (single)

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Blood Lust

Sumerlands - Dreamkiller

Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She

Godflesh - A World Lit Only By Fire

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Card:

Today's card is XII: The Hanged Man.

My big take away with this card has always been Four points over one, or reason triumphs over spirituality. Dark ages begin or dreams tripped up by rational thought. This doesn't have to be a bad thing, and I think this card is especially dependent on those around it in a pull. 

In his The Book of Thoth, Crowley writes extensively about this card. A lot of it is the usual impenetrable associations to Elemental forces, initiation, and Astrological forces. One idea that stands out is sacrifice, but not just standard sacrifice. Sacrifice as a form of Baptism or Death. This is, after all, the card of the "Dying God."

Night Riders on the Deadstream

 

I've been leaning heavily into talking and posting about Rein, the first band I caught at Coldwaves 2022 Night One, opening for The Revolting Cocks Corpse, so I wanted to get in at least one about the other, penultimate band that night.

I know nothing about Stromkern going in, but man did they make an impression Excellent stage presence, and the drummer absolutely slams in a kind of Martin Atkins way, Andrew Saga switches back and forth between keys and guitars with ease, sometimes playing both to fantastic effect, all while vocalist/mastermind James "Ned" Kirby uses the entire stage as he blasts through his almost hip-hop-like approach to vocals. 

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Watch:

One of the flicks I'm bummed I won't be able to make at this year's Beyondfest is Joseph and Vanessa Winter's Deadstream.

 I've been hearing a lot about this in the Horror Community, and after seeing the trailer on the big screen last week, prior to both Trick 'r Treat and Dark Glasses, the film looks like it would be a ton of fun in a crowded, like-minded theatre. Alas, I can only manage so many shows while I'm in, and this one fell outside the logistics for my second week in LaLaLand. That said, Deadstream hits Shudder on the 6th, so that means I might be able to sneak in a home viewing while staying with my friends, who are both huge Horror fans.

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Playlist:

Pixies - Doggeral

Rein - Reincarnated

The Afghan Whigs - In Spades

The Flamingos - Best of Playlist

Brian Eno - Here Come the Warm Jets

David Bowie - Diamond Dogs (single)

Dead Milkmen - Beelzebubba

Revco - Linger Fickin' Good

Forhist - Eponymous

Anthrax - Worship Music

Antrax - Persistance of Time

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Card:

I usually read this as a sacrifice, however, this morning I'm inclined to read it as a suggestion to change my perspective to gain new insight. 

2019: July 10th Frank Black Appreciation Week!

Man, you know how after someone whose music we love dies we start posting a bunch of stuff? I mean, of course we do, right? I certainly do. Well, hopefully we are NOWHERE NEAR a planet without Frank Black/Black Francis, but in falling back into a rotation with his music, I thought I'd spend a week posting some of my favorite Frank Black songs.

At least a week.

I mean, there's a lot to choose from. There's Frank Black and the Catholics - my personal favorite of his projects or 'eras'; The Pixies, Grandy Duchy, not to mention albums published under both Frank Black and Black Francis. I'm sure I'm missing something, but the point is that I love this man and I felt it was high time I represent that love on this blog.

We kick this off with a cut from my all-time favorite Frank Black-related album, the 1998, full-band direct-to-two-track-analog-tape Eponymous Frank Black and the Catholics album. I love this entire record SO much, and although I'd probably place I Need Peace and I Gotta Move as my favorite tracks, here's one that has felt especially fresh to me in this current FB jag I'm in.

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NCBD:

Nothing for me, so I guess this is what my end-game goal of lessening my monthly floppy subscriptions is going to feel like: weird and a little unsettling.

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K and I finally watched the Joan Jett documentary Bad Reputation last night. It's streaming on Hulu at the moment. Fantastic film. Jett's music is among the first that I can remember (I Hate Myself for Loving You and I Love Rock and Roll are early examples of Rock especially), and this really broadens my understanding of her place in Rock history. Really great doc, highly recommended.



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Playlist from 7/09:

Frank Black and the Catholics - Pistolero
Frank Black and the Catholics - Eponymous
Motörhead - Ace of Spades
Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance
Ministry - The Land of Rape and Honey
Helmet - Aftertaste
M83 Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts
Spotlights - Love and Decay

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Card of the day:

Holy cow - I haven't see this card in ages. Turning points. Decisions. Needing a better view. All this describes the rut I've found myself in for last week or so. Can't seem to overcome the inertia pushing at me, corroding my work. I've taken the first steps and forced myself to walk to the coffeeshop the last two days, so hopefully I'm building enough momentum to switch back to the good inertia. But my perspective is clouded by indecision on projects, and I need to commit and be done with it.

Thanks Hanged Man!