Jesus Lizard LIVE!!!

Live from Birmingham, Alabama, courtesy of the Live from Birmingham YouTube channel. I have been meaning to head down to Birmingham since moving just over three hours from it. This would have been perfect! Drat! Oh well, 

Seeing a bearded Yow brings a smile to my face. Weird to have that opening drum hit on Seasick hit and not see him throw himself into the crowd. NOT a criticism - I stopped crowdsurfing a long time before he did. 

Live from Birmingham's mission statement (from their YouTube page):

"LIVE FROM BIRMINGHAM is the home of Subcarrier, an Alabama Public Television production filmed and recorded at SATURN in Birmingham, AL, featuring performers from across the musical spectrum. Subcarrier is the continuation of WE HAVE SIGNAL, a project active from 2008 until 2015 when the world-famous venue BottleTree closed."

I've added Saturn to my venues to watch list. 

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Watch:

I've been sick and largely offline, so I completely forgot that GDT's Frankenstein received a trailer the other day. My good friend Chris Saunders messaged me a reminder, though, and after watching it, well, I am speechless:

 

I will be shocked if this doesn't claim my best-of-the-year spot. That said, is this going straight to Netflix? Because that would be a goddamn shame. This needs to be seen in a theatre!

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Read:

I've been sick all weekend, and in that time I blew Preston Fassel's Beasts of 42nd Street.

After my recent re-read of Our Lady of the Inferno and now this, Fassel is easily in my top five favorite authors at the moment. These are so insanely compelling, even if dark A.F. Our Lady is dark, but not in the same way Beasts is. Man, this really took me some place not very nice, but it was a hell of a ride, and I'll definitely make the trip again. Here's the solicitation blurb from publisher Cemetary Dance's website. Important to note that while this is readily available to order from the bezos corp, Cemetary Dance lists it as Out of Print. So grab it now:

"In the kingdom of the damned that is 42nd Street, there’s no lowlier subject than Andy Lew. An unrepentant junkie, voyeur, and degenerate, he’s only tolerated by the more dangerous men around him because he keeps the projectors at the Colossus theater running on time, entertaining them with the most extreme horror cinema money can buy. 

"There’s something unique about Andy, though. He owns a movie. It’s the only one of its kind. No one knows who made it. Only he knows where it came from. The woman it stars is beautiful beyond imagination—and the images it depicts are more nightmarish than the darkest depths of Hell. The beasts of 42nd Street will do anything to possess it, but there’s something they don’t understand. Andy loves the woman in the movie—and he’ll go to any lengths to protect her… A savage love letter to 70s exploitation cinema and a biting satire of toxic fan culture, Beasts of 42nd Street makes horror dangerous again as it ventures into the mind of a psychopath like no other— one that will have readers recoiling even as they keep coming back for more."

I LOVED this novel. It plays with so many ideas from the 42nd street mythos - snuff, projection reel theft, Satanic Panic, Police conspiracy - bundles them all together in a brilliant, engaging story that takes you into the alleyways of late 70s Manhattan and plays with your sense of the world as we know it. Or think we know it. 

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Playlist:

Calderum - Mystical Fortress of Iberian Lands 

White Rune - The Spell of Eternal Fire

Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta I: Fathers Of The Icy Ages

Federale - Reverb & Seduction

Genghis Tron - Dead Mountain Mouth

Emilie Leviensaise-Farrouch - Censor OST

Blut Aus Nord - Ultima Thulée

Ruin - Plague Transmissions, Vol. 1

Tangerine Dream - In Search of Hades: The Virgin Recordings 1973 - 1979

Pink Floyd - Ummagumma

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Ace of Swords

• IV: The Emperor

• Eight of Pentacles

A breakthrough of Will that successfully affects the "rules" of whatever the objective is will require intense concentration and dedication.

Another reminder for me to get back up on my horse and stop resting on my laurels. 

New Music from Year of No Light

 

After falling pretty hard for Year of No Light's 2021 album Consolamentum, these guys have been off my radar for a while. Last week I went deep-diving my Apple Music stores on my phone and ran into that album, spun it a couple times in one day, then this week realized they released a single-track E.P. recently. And let me say - Les Maîtres Fous does not disappoint. At just under 30 minutes, this track goes all over the place in the best possible way, building from literally nothing to some epic, bombastic heights. Out on The Ocean's Pelagic Records, you can order yourself a copy from the group's Bandcamp or the Pelagic webstore that suits you best.

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The trailer for Joe Begos' Jimmy and Stiggs finally came out and HOLY F**KING SH*T!!!

My most eagerly anticipated film of the year. I will drive to see this on the big screen in August if I have to, no problem. The great thing about seeing the "Eli Roth Presents" tag is that, about an hour after I saw this at home, I went to the theatre and saw a slightly shorter version of this trailer play before the Philippou Brothers' new film, Bring Her Back.

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And let's talk about the Philippou Brothers' new film. While their first film, Talk to Me, is a banger in every sense of the term as I define it. Bring Her Back is not. 

This is drab, dour and dark in a way that will seep under your skin and play with your anxiety. This one burrows deep and really picks at some taboo terror. I have several friends who have compared it to Ari Aster's Midsommar, and I can't argue that. Difference between my comparison and theirs is part of theirs hinges on the "I don't think I will ever watch that again." 

I would see Bring Her Back again tomorrow if the opportunity of fancy arose. 

This is going to be in my top ten for sure, possibly top five. I'm further in awe of the Philippou Brothers and cannot wait to see what they do next. 

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Playlist:

John Carpenter w/ Alan Howarth - Big Trouble in Little China OST

Greg Puciato - Mirrorcell

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Deftones - Koi No Yokan

Comic Tropes - How Marvel Comics' Editors Ruined Hobgoblin

America - Sister Golden Hair (single)

Slow Crush - Aurora

Calderum - Mystical Fortress of Iberian Lands 

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Page of Cups

• XIV: Temperance (ART)

• Nine of Swords

First, I love Grimm's portrayal of XIV, because even though I always associate this card with Thoth's Art instead of the classic Temperance, I can see how Crowley got to the change, and Grimm's illustration here embodies it. The Dark Arts - You must temper them. 

While my entry in the grimoire for Princess or Page of Cups leads off with "Dreams can become reality," it's really all about focus. This is Malkuth, and to transcend it, focus is important. Certainly the dark arts are a form of focus and an expression of Will, and with them, the climax of the Nine of Swords can be achieved.

All of this is really a fancy, Yungian way to say focus and work hard - hard enough for the work to be mistaken/categorized as Magick, and you can accomplish your Earthly goals.

I'm sure it will come as a surprise to no one who reads these pages that I immediately equate this with my writing, as with BG&BH finished, I find myself wondering if I should proceed with publishing it through my Horror Vision imprint, or possibly shop it to agents/publishers. 

All Waves Lead to NCBD

 

From Greg Puciato's 2022 solo album Mirrorcell, which I've been revisiting of late. I'm not sure this final track on the album made as big an impression on me with previous listens, but yesterday it really hit. I love a good outro track, and this one is fantastic; it builds and then explodes and ebbs out. 

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NCBD:

A considerably more robust week than last, here's what I'm bringing home for NCBD:

I can't say enough good things about Tyler Boss and Adriano Turtulici's Giallo-flavored You'll Do Bad Things. Issue three puts us at the halfway mark, and things are bound to get even more f*ked up as the story progresses. 

I never realized how much Skuxxoid kind of looks like Star Wars bounty hunter Bossk, but the resemblance is definitely there in close-up. I thought this guy died an issue or two back, but he's apparently the featured character this issue, so we'll see if that means ol' Skuxx is actually harder to kill than we thought, or if we're going back in time for context on something in the currently storyline. Either way, count me in. Oh! Also, spoiler, but the solicitation for this one mentions the introduction of some other characters I can't wait to see the Energon Universe's take on:

The breakout fan-favorite of the Energon Universe takes center stage. Who is Skuxxoid? What is Skuxxoid? This issue answers all your burning questions and more! Plus, the FIRST APPEARANCE of Wreck-Gar and the Junkions!

 

I'm excited for this one, as the book is breaking up the story from the last few issues with something new, and the introduction of one of my favorite Joes (Beachhead) has me rife with anticipation as well.

Jeff Lemire's Minor Arcana has me pretty jazzed right now as well. This man is such an incredible Writer/Artist, and this book has his trademark brand of mystery just dripping from nearly every page.

I originally saw solicitations for the finale of the McKendrys' Dark Horse series Barstow last month, so I'm not sure if I was off or the distributor was. Either way, I can't wait to sit down and read this entire series start to finish. Such an odd and horrifying story.

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Watch:

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was due, and I finally got around to a re-watch of John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China this past Monday night. 

The only thing, this time, I watched it on Joe Bob Briggs' The Lost Drive-In Patreon, an old episode of TNT's Monstervision with an original air date of 10/19/97. The picture was pretty much atrocious, however, this version had extra scenes I did not recognize from the movie! Of course, there's another Carpenter film with extra footage that was added for television - Halloween - so this isn't that big of a surprise. Caught me a bit off guard, though, and helped make the experience better. 

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Playlist:

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST

Greg Puciato - Mirrorcell

Year of No Light - Les Maîtres Fous E.P.

Greg Puciato - Fc5n E.P.

Airiel - Winks & Kisses: Melted E.P.

Sorry... - Your Smile Is Killing Me (Alt. Version single)*

Sorry... - Drowned in Misery*

Genghis Tron - Board Up the House

John Carpenter w/ Alan Howarth - Big Trouble in Little China OST

Rick Derringer - All American Boy

Godflesh - Post Self

Lard - Pure Chewing Satisfaction

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* Thanks, Tommy!

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Queen of Cups

• Three of Pentacles

• V: The Hierophant

Emotions run high with the formation of an Earthly routine. 

The World Is So Good That Who Made It Doesn't Live Here

I finally had a chance to sit down and watch my copy of last year's Criterion Collection Gummo. Still one of the ugliest yet also most beautiful films I've seen, and the upgrade was just in time. I believe my previous viewing was somewhere circa 2019, at L.A.'s Egyptian Theatre, when Beyondfest brought Writer/Director Harmony Korine in to discuss the film afterward. I wrote about that experience HERE. My old DVD copy was just not going to cut it any longer.

One of Gummo's many joyful characteristics is its soundtrack, and while it led me to several fantastic artists in the early days of my infatuation with the film - I first saw it somewhere around 1999, I think - Mystifier is a band I'd previously not explored. 

Hailing from Brazil, these guys have a pretty interesting history. The song "Give the Human Devil His Due" comes from their 1996 album The World Is So Good That Who Made It Doesn't Live Here. How's that for a title, eh? The entire record is good, but so far this track is still the highlight (although that's very likely due to my identifying it with one of my favorite films).

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A Butthole Surfers documentary???? Yes: The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt began select screenings in April!

Director Tom Stern has apparently been documenting the band since 1986, so this should be chock full O' historical moments that help cement this band's ironically insane tenure. I'm not sure where to see it at the moment, but I've subscribed to the film's YouTube channel, so hopefully, there will be some news soon. In the meantime, you can read more about the film on its official website HERE.

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Read:

Finally began tapping into the Weird Walk collection released last year:

This is a beautiful hardback book that compiles essays from the 'zine I've talked about here before. The authors cite everything from Jacques Derrida's writings on Hauntology to Julian Cope's The Modern Antiquarian as they set about discussing pre-history, deep time and their theory that to save the future, we must look back at the past. 

This won't be a 'straight-through' read for me. More likely, I will do an essay or two a week while I read other things on a daily basis.

You can check out more from Weird Walk on their website HERE.

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Playlist:

Pelican - Flickering Resonance

Rollins Band - The End of Silence

Rollins Band - Human (The End of Silence 1991 Demo)

TAD - Inhaler

White Lung - Paradise

Helmet - Meantime

The Ocean - Heliocentric

Young Widows - Old Wounds

Various - Learn to Relax: A Tribute to Jehu

Kamasi Washington - Lazarus OST

King Khan & The Shrines - What Is?!

Federale - No Justice

Idles - Joy As An Act of Rebellion

Anthrax - Among the Living

Mystifier - The World Is So Good That Who Made It Doesn't Live Here

David Bowie - Black Star

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Five of Pentacles

• Queen of Swords

• Page of Swords

Intellect over Earthly concerns, or perhaps this is better interpreted as Intellect to hone Earthly concerns.

New Pelican Album out Today!

 

Post-Metal - remember when that term was everywhere? Hydra Head Records (RIP) introduced me to a lot of great bands in the late '00s, and one of those was Chicago's instrumental tour de force Pelican. They've been off my radar for some time, but it feels good to rediscover them through a new release this morning!

You can order Flickering Resonance directly from Pelican's Bandcamp HERE.

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I've become increasingly into Asian Horror over the last few years, and one of my recent explorations therein is the Netflix adaptation of Haro Aso's Alice in Borderland Manga. 

I'm completely unfamiliar with the source material, but more than a few friends have recommended this to me, so I finally gave it a go and might be hooked. 

Ostensibly another entry into the Battle Royale subgenre, this one also has major Cube vibes right from the jump. I'm a big fan of deserted major cities on film, partly because it must be so hard to pull off, partly because the imagery is often gorgeous and prophetic, and this one opens with a fantastic example. I'm not attached to any of the characters yet, but the opening episode's "Rooms Countdown" sequence is very well done and insanely engaging. Did I actually bite my nails? I might have.

There are currently two seasons of Alice in Borderland on Netflix, with a third on the horizon. Apparently that's a bit of a concern for fans of the book, as Aso's work is completely covered in the first two seasons, but we'll burn that bridge when we get to it.

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Cast:

At some point I fell out of the habit of posting the new episodes of Drinking with Comics here, and I realized recently that's just dumb. Mike Shin and I did a new episode this week and it was a lot of fun, so here you go!

We talk this year's Energon Universe FCBD special, Daredevil: Born Again, and finish off our reading and discussion of Grant Morrison's Multiversity, which I still don't like, but at least found a way to stop hating. 

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Playlist:

Swans - The Glowing Man

PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her

Cartoonist Kayefabe - Jim Lee's Love Letter to Frank Miller

Cartoonist Kayefabe - First Appearance of Deadpool

Eitrin - Eponymous

Turnstile - GLOW ON

Black Flag - Everything Went Black

Black Flag - My War

Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium: Undreamable Abysses

Blut Aus Nord - The Work Which Transforms God

The Untold Story of Transformers The Movie

Various - Learn to Relax: A Tribute to Jesu

The Damage Manual - Limited Edition

The Coffinshakers - We Are the Undead

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Four of Wands

• Queen of Pentacles

• V: The Hierophant

Completion can, in and of itself, be a weakness. That's exactly where I'm at. After finishing Black Gloves & Broken Hearts, I was quick to jump back into Shadow Play Book Two and really made some progress for about a week, but now I'm just kind of living off the high of finishing a novel and having a super positive response from my first beta reader. I'm just so fucking happy with how this one turned out; I'm actually considering shopping it to Agents and Publishers. We'll see. In the meantime, The Hierophant completes the consideration by reminding that tapping back into something bigger than myself might help with the creative output. Or, it could be reminding me of the importance of the dogma of ritual, i.e. GO FUCKING WRITE!!!

Stand Back, Derry!

I heard this at some point last weekend, and it struck me that I've never posted it here. I have loved this song as far back as I can remember. A lot of 80s 'hits' became essentially ubiquitous decades ago, however, this one never fails to grab my attention for its duration.

From Stevie Nick's second solo album, The Wild Heart, released in 1983. That would have been when I first heard this, too. I didn't have MTV, but a friend did, and this one was all over 80s radio. 

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NCB:

Short week this week. Wheww! After last week, I'm definitely up for a short pull:

A new Image book I thought I'd give a try. Sounds cool. Here's the solicitation blurb, straight from League of Comic Geeks:

"When Jonathan Reason falls asleep, he becomes... something else. Every night, it stalks his quiet town, killing (seemingly) indiscriminately. When he wakes, covered in blood, our story begins. This new horror mystery from ZANDER CANNON (Heck, Top 10, Kaijumax) shows us the horrifying waking hours of an unwilling part-time killer."

I'm unfamiliar with Cannon's work, however, I really dig books where the creator writes and draws, and sleep has always fascinated me, so I'm looking forward to where this may take me.

The second volume of Zac Thompson's Body Fantasy/Horror Into the Unbeing comes to a close. Will there be a third? Can't wait to find out!

One more after this one. I have loved this book, loved every cover, but none more than this one. Majestic, 

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Watch:

While I am not the biggest fan of Andy Muschietti's IT movies - they're good, for sure, but also definitely have their issues - I am very excited to get out from under the time constraints of a theatrical release run-time and revisit Derry in a premium television format.

If HBO's Welcome to Derry can even be half what Castle Rock was, I will be happy. There's a full article over on Bloody Disgusting for more information. No release date yet.

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Playlist:

Swans - Glowing Man

Godflesh - Decline and Fall E.P.

Windhand - Eponymous

Hot Ones w/ Henry Rollins

The Coffineshakers - Eponymous

Horse the Band - A Natural Death

Saigon Blue Rain - Oko

Year of No Light - Consolamentum

Telekinetic Yeti - Primordial

John Carpenter - Lost Themes IV: Noir

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - East Hastings

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Two of Swords

• VIII: Strength (Adjustment)

• XVII: The Star

Peace is won through routine and commitment. These form the path to Enlightenment.

More about ritual, which I have been sorely lacking the last week or so. Time to hunker down and reestablish my routines/rituals.

The Weird Tale of Helmet Live on KEXP!!!

 

Helmet on KEXP! Thank you to Mr. Brown for sending this my way. Fantastic seeing Hamilton and his current band slice through a nice, tight set.

 

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Yesterday was K's birthday, so I planned for us to stay a night at the historic Belle Air Mansion, which was originally built in 1790 as a private residence and eventually opened to the public in its current restored state in 2019. Since moving to Tennessee in August of 2022, we haven't made it out to Nashville more than a dozen times. It's a city thriving with the wrong kind of consumerism, and other than pockets we've found here and there, not a place either one of us is very eager to frequent. One of those pockets is the area around Dashwood Vintage Market, a BOHO Vintage and Flora shop that captured her heart immediately upon entering. Nearby are several other Vintage shops, one that has a great Vinyl area (Jimbo's) and one (Rivival) that serves as the closest thing to an independent bookstore I've seen since moving here. There were places all over Nashville like this when I was first here in 2005, but in the long corridor between then and now, "Nash Vegas" became the call of the city, and strip malls, franchises and country-star-owned multiplex drinking venues have replaced a lot of the charm. Think of it as kind of a Microcosm/Macrocosm of our society - vulgarity replaced intellectualism long ago, and our current fearless leader seems intent on ensuring that is the only way forward for the States.

Anyway...

Belle Air Mansion is gorgeous. Pricey but located close to the aforementioned Vintage markets, we arrived at 3:00 PM and relaxed into our room, the rustic 1790 Hideaway. After a brief respite, we headed out to Dashwood, only to realize we missed its operating hours by about ten minutes. 

Drat! 

Upon entering Revival, I quickly located the Sci-Fi/Horror section and nearly keeled over when I saw original copies of Weird Tales 291 - 302, with a few missing in there. This is from the late 80s/early 90s period revival of the magazine, and while I only grabbed two of them that first night, we returned the next morning so I could correct that mistake and procure the rest. 

As a Lovecraft and Derleth fan from my early teenage years, I of course know what Weird Tales was, but while I inherently assumed there had been some revival iterations of the literary periodical, I had never seen any edition of the magazine in the wild. Seeing these, holding them in my hands and eventually reading through several stories and columns ("The Eyrie" - essentially the letters column; "The Den" - the review column), I was instantly strengthened by finding an item so intrinsically in tune with my nature, yet also completely crestfallen. Just typing the words 'literary periodical' above thrills me that such a thing ever could have existed. I have a mental and tactile record in my history of a world where a magazine like this could exist, where inside its pages you find multiple ads for other, completely independently run literary magazines available by subscription - the addresses listed for contact clearly the progenitor's home address - but we are so far past this in 2025, anyone who doesn't have the experiential knowledge of this era would surely never know or perhaps even believe it ever existed.

Issue 291 (Summer 1988) was the first I dove into. Featuring a spotlight on Tannith Lee (2 whole Novellas, or "Novelettes" as the editors refer to them) alongside stories by Ronald Anthony Cross, Morgan Llyewelyn, Nancy Springer, Brian Lumley, Harry Turtledove and Ken Wisman, this magazine is a veritable Feast of genre literature. Illustrated entirely by Stephen Fabian with verse by a wide range of authors, I'm absolutely in love with Weird Tales. 

Looking into the history of this revival, it seems the magazine continued unchanged until 1994 when it lost the use of the Weird Tales moniker and became Worlds of Fantasy & Horror - a fantastic name in its own right, but one that was ultimately lacking the, ugh, 'brand recognition' to continue forward with any real momentum. There have been subsequent iterations as well, but I'm limiting my focus - for the time being at least - to what I have, perfect when you consider the years of operation for this revival match up perfectly to when I would have read my first Lovecraft-related work, August Derleth's The Lurker on the Threshold.*

Something I never knew but discovered on the Weird Tales Wikipedia page is that in 1995, HBO licensed the name with the intention of producing a Tales From the Crypt-style anthology show that unfortunately never happened. With Directors like Tim Burton, Francis Ford Coppola and Oliver Stone attached, it really is a shame this did not line up with the revival because that might have sealed the deal insofar as cementing an audience.

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* Motivated by Metallica and Iron Maiden's references to HPL, I found a copy of this in the old Record Swap that used to rule the Southwestern corner of Harlem and 159th in Tinley Park, IL. This was at a time before Borders had moved into Chicago's south suburbs, before the stand-alone mega structure B&N, when mall-based bookshops like Kroch's and Brentano's were really all I knew, and HPL was not carried there or in my local library. The edition, Carroll & Graff's 1988 mass market paperback, features HPL's name in text almost as large as the title, but nowhere on the cover does it mention the actual author, August Derleth, so for years I went on thinking this was Lovecraft's work. 

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Playlist:

Butthole Surfers - Live at the Leather Fly

Henry Rollins and Mother Superior - Get Some Go Again Sessions

The Obsessed - Lunar Womb

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST

The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza - Danza III: The Alpha - The Omega

Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh

Soft Kill - An Open Door

Battle Tapes - Sweatshop Boys EP

SOD - Speak Spanish or Die

The Jeff Healey Band - Road House (The Lost Soundtrack)

Tangerine Dream - In Seach of Hades: The Virgin Recordings 1973 - 1979

Interpol - Antics

Helmet - Betty

The Thirsty Crows - Hangman's Noose

The Bengals - All Over the Place

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Queen of Wands

• Page of Cups

• Ace of Wands

Female-inspired energy - "she can help you"- massive outpouring of power.

Spending K's birthday weekend with her, a lot of unfettered time that we don't normally get, and I'm feeling recharged. Also: "Dreams can become reality," as a notation in the grimoire, as well as, "Pay attention to your dreams." K and I both had a very early night last night and super strong dreams after our second sleep interval. Let's see what I dream tonight. Perhaps I can go back to writing them down. Always a power boost, that.