I won't be able to celebrate appropriately until Saturday. Even then, this is the second year in a row I can't gather my movie night squad and feed them Corned Beef, Whiskey, and Phil Joanou's Irish Mafia epic State of Grace, which I watch every year. Still, they're in me heart, eh?
NCBD:
Well, this week is a pretty small haul, but it's an issue I've been looking forward to:
Also, this one came out last week, and I've had it on-hold with Atomic Basement:
I'm not entirely certain why I'm buying this one, so let's hope I'm not severely disappointed. I've always said I can't tolerate a monthly dose of the Caped Crusader, and in the past I have been pleasantly surprised by one-off buys like this over-sized anthology of short stories, so I guess we'll see.
Playlist:
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Let Love IN
The Neverly Boys - Dark Side of Everything
Electric Youth - Come True OST
The Birthday Party - Junkyard
Genghis Tron - Pyrocene (pre-release single)
Genghis Tron - Dream Weapon (pre-release single)
Tomahawk - Business Casual (pre-release single)
Tomahawk - Dog Eat Dog (pre-release single)
Card:
Mixing disparate ingredients to bring something new to the table. Committing to follow it through. I'm not quite sure how to interpret that at the moment, however, it may have to do with podcasting and my continued inertia/anxiety about attempting to bring DwC back to life. Plenty of ideas, and maybe the ones that I should be looking at stretch the pre-existing format as far afield as possible.
I received a surprise early birthday package from my good friend Mr. Brown yesterday. Not only was Huey Lewis' newest record inside, but also Dave Svitek of TVOTR's new band, The Neverly Boys, which I had completely forgotten about. The album Dark Side of Everything is FANTASTIC, and I can't stop listening to it!
Thanks, J.B.!
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Bloody Disgusting ran an article about Director Patrick Rea's new film I Am Lisa HERE.
You had me at "Werewolf Revenge Movie."
Playlist:
Electric Youth - Come True OST
Blut Aus Nord - 777 Cosmosophy
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta III: Saturnian Poetry
Zonal - Wrecked
Blanck Mass - Animated Violence Mild
Maldita Vecindad y Los Hijos del Quinto Patio - Lo Essential
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part
Radiohead - OK Computer
The Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed
The Neverly Boys - Dark Side of Everything
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Victory, which tells me that, yes, I've finally finished a short story I've been struggling with since 2018! That feels good - a nice palate cleanser before switching back to Shadow Play.
I'll admit, I love the song, but don't plan on watching the video. As she gets more clout behind her, and Still, any new music from Meg Myers is a welcome, joyous thing these days. Her aesthetic, instrumentation, production, and of course, songwriting, are top-notch and always hit me super hard, reminds me a bit of how Garbage hit me the first time I snagged my kid really listened to them.
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After renting Come True on Prime last night, Anthony Scott Burns just became one of my favorite directors. I can't recommend this one enough - imagine Dreamscape married with Beyond the Black Rainbow and that will get you in the ballpark, but Burns' style is all his own, and it's fucking glorious. I just posted the trailer a day or so ago, so here's what will no doubt live on as an ICONIC track from the soundtrack by Electric Youth and Pilot Priest:
Upon finishing the film, I immediately shot over to Waxwork Records and pre-ordered on gorgeous Cyan Blue with Red and Yellow Splatter vinyl:
I will be 100% shocked if Come True doesn't end up in my top five movies of 2021. I cannot wait to buy this film on Blu Ray.
Playlist:
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Push the Sky Away
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Skeleton Tree
Radiohead - OK Computer
Meg Myers - Sorry
Mastodon - Once More 'Round The Sun
Ministry - Psalm 69
QOTSA - Villains
Sam Cooke - One Night Stand! Live At the Harlem Square Club, 1963
The Pogues - Rum Sodomy and the Lash
The Replacements - Tim
The Raveonettes - In and Out of Control
SOD - Speak English or Die
Soul Coughing - Irresistible Bliss
Cake - Fashion Nugget
Electric Youth - Breathing OST (For a lost film)
Electric Youth - Come True OST
Dream Division - Beyond the Mirror's Image
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Three of Disks - Too much work of late, it's left me unable to function in my non-work life, so I'll take this as a nod that the hard times are over and things will even back out.
As I mentioned the other day, that algorithm on Apple Music has sent me into a spiral with a band I love but haven't listened to in a while. I feel a full-on Godflesh bender on the horizon, and I welcome it with open arms.
Watch:
The trailer for Anthony Scott Burns' new flick Come True dropped recently, and it looks creepy as all hell.
Ah, you had me at "A Neon-Soaked Cinematic Nightmare." Burns' name is one I marked after his segment in the Horror Anthology Holidays, which seems to be perpetually available on Netflix if you haven't seen it. His "Father's Day" is great, as are most of the others (Kevin Smith's marked the first Smith project in a loooong time that I enjoyed.)
Playlist:
The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre
Ghost of Vroom - Ghost of Vroom 2 (single)
Helmet - Meantime
Godflesh - Pure
Drab Majesty - Unarian Dances
Drab Majesty - Careless
Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh
Nothing - The Great Dismal
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Definitive rulings aren't easy, but they're better for everyone. I tend to want to take on a lot of work for other people, but that's not always good for them and usually not good for me. A friend asked me to edit the manuscript for her first novel, and what I found as I worked through the first chapter - roughly 4K words - was a simple edit wasn't possible without getting into re-writing. I dove in and then checked myself: that's not going to do either of us any good, especially her. She needs this experience because as tired of the novel as she probably is at the moment, reworking it will only make her better. This isn't something that easy to tell someone, however, after assuring her I'm in to help for the long haul, in any way I can, I think it's for the best.
I bought a new phone this past weekend. It was time. One of the new features on Apple Music that is cribbed from Spotify is when an album you're listening to ends, they throw a bunch of songs at you that the almighty algorithm finds based on what you just listened to. This is a little cool and a little lame. Lame, because Nick Cave dredged up a bunch of really bad stuff the other day, cool because after I spun through Soul Coughing's Irresistible Bliss this morning, Apple went into Cake's "Frank Sinatra". One taste of that track and there was no way I wasn't going all the way through Fashion Nugget, one of my favorite records from the 90s. Here's the thing though. I count myself a Cake fan because of how much I love this record, but I'm not really familiar with their other stuff. So when this particular version of Nugget ended with a live version of "Jolene", I was floored.
This track is amazing.
Anyway, I'll finally be digging into some more of Cake's discography after this, so I'm pretty excited. It's not every day I get to have a band from my past feel so new to me (I think that's why I play so coy with some bands in the first place).
NCBD:
Only a few titles this week on NCBD, but that's fine. Last week was a killer.
The Autumnal has been a great Horror title so far, and I'm definitely anxious to see where it's going. Kind of a mash-up of Folk and Ancestral Horror, but with a decidedly more modern feel.
I picked up issue one of Night Hunters a few months back on a whim when I noticed the unmistakable art of Alexis Ziritt. You may know Ziritt's work from Black Mask's 2015 limited series Space Raiders. Hard to say what's going on in Night Hunters after only one issue, but whatever it is, I dig it. From Floating World comics, who are super indie, so give them the benefit of the doubt and pick this one up if you see it at your local comic shop.
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I caught David Keating's Cherry Tree on Shudder yesterday after work and enjoyed it quite a bit. Pretty cool little flick, but then these smaller, English/Irish films tend to be my jam.
The make-up at the climax has a definite Nightbreed-era Barker feel, which was cool and added to an already very cool atmosphere.
From the hallucinatory reverberations of the sax that opens this track, to the seething keyboards that close it, here's an entry from the original Twin Peaks series first OST that often gets taken for granted. Plus, the Bookhouse Boys!
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A few nights back, K and I finally got around to watching the copy of Criterion's 40th Anniversary, 4K restoration of David Lynch's The Elephant Man. This proved to be a deeply emotional experience, not just because of the movie itself, which is an emotional juggernaut, but also because of Criterion's loving restoration of the film and DP Freddie Francis' realization of Lynch's glorious Black and White vision.
This is one of Lynch's films I had only seen twice before: once just after High School, a few years after I got into Twin Peaks' original airing, and once when I bought the DVD released in the early 00s. Neither viewing proved super memorable to me at the time, and now, I can't imagine why that would be.
Playlist:
ACDC - Highway to Hell
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis - Carnage
Alan Vega - Saturn Strip
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Push the Sky Away
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Skeleton Tree
David Lynch and Marek Zebrowski - Polish Night Music
Aphex Twin - Syro
John Carpenter - Lost Themes III: Alive After Death
Ilsa - Preyer
Angelo Badalamenti - Twin Peaks OST
Card:
As the Firey aspect of Fire, we're doubling down on activity, aka actually getting some shit done. The pre-sale for Murder Virus is underway (I officially announced it on social media last night), and I'm taking a bit of a breather by editing a friend's first novel. Meanwhile, I'm reading up on Hassan I Sabbah and the Assassins, as well as the Tetragrammaton, both subjects that will inform the next two books of the Shadow Play series.
As a side note, if you're reading this and you pre-ordered Murder Virus back when I originally announced it here, please allow me to ask a favor of you. Go back in, cancel that order, and then re-order the book. Due to a printing error with the proofs I was sent, the early pre-orders will be getting an inferior edit of the book, thus I'm trying to catch the few that may have gotten through and get those folks squared away with the definitive version.
Because it was the first song I heard after waking today. It's been a while since I sat down with some ACDC, so I threw on Highway to Hell and ripped through the first three tracks while getting ready for work. Now that's a fortifying breakfast!
Watch:
I watched several flicks over the weekend. One of them was Martin Scorsese's criminally under-rated 1985 comedy After Hours. Damn, I love this flick.
Playlist:
Perturbator - Death of the Soul (pre-release single) Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley
Alan Vega - Nike Soldier (pre-release single)
Sleaford Mods - Spare Ribs
Robots in Disguise - We're in the Music Biz
Grimes - Art Angels
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - The Night Creeper
Underworld - Barbara Barbara, we face a shining future
Deadmau5 - Random Album Title
Various Artists - The Best of Northern Soul
The Raveonettes - In and Out of Control
The Raveonettes - Lust Lust Lust
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Damn the Torpedoes
Etta James - Second
The Raveonettes - Raven in the Grave
Ween - Quebec
Ween - Shinola, Vol. 1
The Used - Ocean of the Sky
Card:
Fours are even keel, balance, things get done and we settle into roles/situations/projects. I'm not there yet, but I'm close, so this is encouraging at the moment.
It's hard to believe it's been five years since 2016's The Uncanny Valley, the last album from Perturbator. It seems a lot longer. Sure, there's been an EP and two B-sides/remix discs, but to me, James Kent's Perturbator lives and breathes in the album format. Now, here's the first track of forth-coming Lustful Sacraments, out May 28th on CD and digital, June 25th on Vinyl. You can pre-order those from Blood Music HERE; I was lucky enough to catch one of only 125 of the picture discs!
Let's talk about the new track. I'm reminded of old Nitzer Ebb a bit, early 00s Miss Kitten and the Hacker, and of course, that danger-soaked, percolating blood percussion we all know and love from Kent's previous Perturbator releases, although here there's an underlying wash of 80s dark sparkle and seething industrial menace. In other words, as he promised, this record sounds like it most definitely will be unlike the others.
Good. Let's push things forward...
Watch:
I caught Natasha Kermani and Brea Grant's new film on Shudder yesterday afternoon. Very good. Would make a good double-feature with Amy Seimetz's She Dies Tomorrow.
I won't lie, there's a part of this new wave of existential Horror that makes me a little suspicious. The musings of films like She Dies and now Lucky reminds me a bit of those Existential comedies of the late 90s/early 00s. You know, that loose sub-genre or movement that began with Being John Malkovich - a film I can't say a bad word about - and continuing on into Michel Gondry's films and the wake of films that tried for the same tone. That particular movement reminds me a lot of new-age spiritualism, as it's more about the packaging than the actual philosophy. In other words, it's fun to look like we're contemplating philosophical conundrums and the like, but we're not really going through the work of actually contemplating them. I'd wager I'm probably wrong about Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind because, despite the fact that I did not explicitly mention that film by name here, it springs to mind as the actual start of this Cosmetic Existential Genre, so to speak (I always give anything with Jim Carey a bad rap, just because I don't like Jim Carey).
But I've really shifted from my original point, haven't I?
Lucky is a unique take on a Slasher flick, and I dig the mechanics of what Grant (writer/star) and Kermani (director) have set up for the film. It's a skosh reminiscent of the first Happy Death Day, but not in any way that feels uncouth. However, it's this how the filmmakers dress these mechanics and where it actually goes in the end that felt a little 'huh?' to me. Perhaps I am primarily preoccupied with trying to discern if the point of the film was all men are rapists/abusers. I hate that my mind went there immediately upon completion of the viewing, and it may not even be the film's fault, but that's definitely something that's still in the air, and it troubles me because, you know, I'm neither of those things. Nor are my male friends.
Anyway, you can see by my train of thought that Lucky did exactly what a good film should do, and that's make you think. So hats off to Lucky, and really, between this and 12 Hour Shift, Brea Grant is definitely becoming one of my favorite new filmmakers.
Playlist:
David Bowie - Heroes
David Bowie - Hunky Dory
Opeth - Blackwater Park
PM Dawn - Set Adrift on Memory Bliss (single)
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bayou Country
The Cure - Pornography
Blanck Mass - In Ferneaux
Card:
Listen to what those who know more about things are trying to tell you, a reminder we can all use from time to time.
A little Bowie to start things off today, because I'm missing his presence in the world a great deal at the moment.
Watch:
Here's a great little interview with Nick Cave from last year. Really digging the new Nick Cave/Warren Ellis "solo" record, Carnage, which is great, because I didn't care for Ghosteen at all, as it felt too similar to Skeleton Tree.
Playlist:
Jackie Wilson - Higher and Higher
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles - Going to a Go-Go (single)
Run the Jewels - RTJ4
Death Grips - Gmail and the Restraining Orders (single)
Death Grips - The Money Store
The Replacements - Tim
Sleaford Mods - Spare Ribs
Dream Division - Beyond the Mirror's Image
The Raveonettes - Lust Lust Lust
The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are the Last of the
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A recent imbalance definitely caused a miscommunication between myself and one of my fellow podcasters. This has postponed the long-planned Drinking with Comics reunion. I'll probably do a deeper pull later this week to try and figure out how to approach solving this issue.
One of my favorite albums from my Relapse Records 30th Anniversary Golden Ticket is Valkyrie's Fear. Some call this Proto-Metal, and that fits pretty good for me, although straight-up Hard Rock probably also works, as long as that moniker doesn't diminish the band in any way. Because Valkyrie feels like a very tight four-piece making metal that doesn't slot into the modern broth a lot of the bands I dig sip from. There's a definite 'back-to-basics' with instrumentation, arranging, and vocals, so in that regard they remind me a bit of The Devil's Blood or Baroness. But these guys are their own thing, and I dig it.
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I don't remember hearing about Director Chad Crawford Kinkle's new film Dementer before seeing this post on Bloody Disgusting recently, however, with Larry Fessenden's name on top of the video drew me in, so that as I was about to post this trailer last night, I realized Dementer released this very day, so I hit amazon and rented it for a paltry $4.99 - SO very worth it.
The trailer doesn't give anything away, so my elevator pitch would be, "Gummo meets Hereditary." If that sounds as intriguing to you as it does to me, rest assured that although Dementer takes a little bit of a laborious journey to achieve its destination, the destination is 100% worth it, the atmosphere alone inciting a pleasurable Horror movie anxiety the likes of which I haven't had in a while
As an aside, it's been a difficult couple weeks at work - the unprecedented weather in the south basically destroyed FedEx's operations out of their Memphis hub for a fortnight, and with it, made my life a living hell. One of the things that always helps me through a rough day at the office - other than the copious amount of music I listen to on my headphones - is browsing Bloody Disgusting for new movie news. But almost a year after the first major changes due to the COVID-19 virus, the film industry's shut down is finally hitting us in the form of what feels like a MAJOR drought. People just haven't been able to film, and we've run through a lot of what was already in the pipes pre-pandemic, so there's not a lot coming out. First-world problems, I know, but it doesn't change the world from feeling even bleaker at the moment. In contrast to this was my stumbling across Dementer last night and being able to click over and jump right in.
Playlist:
Jackie Wilson - Higher and Higher
Melvins - Working with God
The Raveonettes - In and Out of Control
Lynch Mob - Wicked Sensation
The Misfits - Earth A.D.
The Plimsouls - Everywhere at Once
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis - Carnage
Blanck Mass - Animated Violence Mild
The Foundations - Build Me Up Buttercup (single)
The Foundations - Baby, Now That I Found You (single)
Various Artists - That Philly Sound Presents The Best of Northern Soul
Wolves in the Throne Room - Two Hunters
Run the Jewels - RTJ4
Queensrÿche - Empire
Keiichi Okabe - NieR:Automata OST
Valkyrie - Fear
Card:
The Elevatred (or Macro) view is always the clearest when it comes to details on the horizon.
Another new track from the forthcoming Dies Occidendum, out March 12th on Sacred Bones. Pre-order HERE.
Watch:
K and I finally watched Ben Wheatley's remake of Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca over the weekend. Loved it; K only showed me the Hitch a few weeks ago, and I have to say, perhaps because I'd been wanting to see it for so long and had high hopes, I didn't love it. The third act is great, but it's a rough climb to get there. The Wheatley version, however, moves at a better pace. It's not faster, it just doesn't waste as much time with A) Miss Van Hopper (ugh), and B) meandering in the relationships it sets up. It also stages the mechanics of its denouement with a better sense of grace, without sacrificing the gorgeous ambience that often trips up Hitchcock's film.
Playlist:
Melvins - Working with God
Lard - Pure Chewing Satisfaction
The Replacements - Tim
The Raveonettes - In and Out of Control
PJ Harvey - Stories From the City Stories From the Sea
K's 70s Gold Playlist
Card:
I feel like I wasted a lot of time resting yesterday, but after working a pretty rough week and a Saturday to boot, this card confirms I needed it. Now? Time to finish up this last (I swear) edit on Murder Virus, then, onto Shadow Play again.
New Tomahawk track gets a music video! Can't wait for this record.
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Last night, K and I watched the original Black Narcissus film from 1947. Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, I'd never heard of this one before seeing the trailer for last year's remake.
The original is beautiful. Shot in Technicolor, the film earned cinematographer Jack Cardiff an Academy Award that was well warranted. Also on display are the extensive matte paintings. It's a gorgeous film, although acting-wise, it's a bit over-the-top drama for my tastes. Also, I am going to assume the plot will far much better in the newer version (if it doesn't get carried away).
We finished the film and went directly into the first episode of the three-episode FX mini-series remake. Also visually stunning, where the matte paintings are replaced by aerial drone shots of no small ambition.
I think together, these will make perfect counter-points to one another.
Playlist:
Tomahawk - Tonic Immobility (pre-release singles)
Tomahawk - Mit Gas
Queensrÿche - Jet City Woman (single)
Blanck Mass - Animated Violence Mild
Odonis Odonis - Post Plague
PJ Harvey - Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea
Nothing - The Great Dismal
Realize - Machine Violence
Card:
Always a favorite card. That Boaz and Jacin behind her, the pillars from King Solomon's temple. I did a lot of research on these about 17 years ago (!?), but most of it's a fog now. Interesting though, this might run parallel to some of the content in Shadow Play, so I'll take this as a nod to dig up my notes.
It's strange to me that, for all the time I spend listening to the artists on Sacred Bones, I somehow never heard Blanck Mass before yesterday. I'd seen the name, but somehow I just never clicked a link or happened upon anything organically. That changed yesterday when I somehow realized that Blanck Mass is the solo project/primary focus of Benjamin John Power, or as I knew him, one half of Fuck Buttons. I'd lost track of Fuck Buttons these last few years, and it's hard to believe it was a decade ago that I saw them at LA's Troubadour, where they blew my mind and ears in a volatile set of insane noise/techno/edm/soundscapery. Upon learning of Blanck Mass's pedigree, I started with this, the first single from In Ferneaux, out tomorrow on Sacred Bones. I then went to 2019's Animated Violence Mild and proceeded to absolutely fall in love with it. I mean, I listened to this fucker at least five times in a row over the course of my workday.
Order In Ferneaux or any of the other Blanck Mass records - all of which I plan on getting around to sooner rather than later - from Sacred Bones HERE of the Blanck Mass Bandcamp HERE.
Watch:
I haven't been in much of a Horror mood of late, however, yesterday I came home and took my near-customary Thursday nap on the couch with Shudder TV's Slashics channel on. When I woke up, I did so in time to catch Preston DeFrancis' 2018 Slasher-esque Ruin Me. I quite liked this one and; Ruin Me definitely plays with tropes we've seen before - maybe too much of late, hence why it took this long and happenstance to get me to watch it - but it's really good at what it does, and it has enough of a fresh spin on the Slasher/Extreme Haunted House set-up to make it unique and interesting. And no, it's not actually a 'haunted house,' but you'll see what I mean when you watch it. Which I'm recommending you do.
Playlist:
Blanck Mass - Starstuff (Single)
Blanck Mass - Animated Violence Mild
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis - Carnage
Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
How to Destroy Angels - Welcome Oblivion
Jim Williams - Possessor OST
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Perseverance in the face of frustration and or routine. This final final final edit on Murder Virus is killing me, but it will pay off HUGE in the end, making the book that much tighter, and thus I hope, compelling and enjoyable, with a healthy dose of "WTF?!?" thrown in for good measure come the fourth part. Still, reading the same book four times in as many months can be pretty fucking difficult, even if it is something you consider quite possibly your best work to date.
The wonderful folks at Sacred Bones Records are bringing us new old music from NY legend Alan Vega! According to the Sacred Bones site, "...Vega was constantly creating. That process naturally led to a wealth of material that didn’t see the light of day immediately when it was recorded, which came to be known as the Vega Vault. Mutator is the first in a series of archival releases from the Vault that will come out on Sacred Bones Records."
The first of these releases, Mutator, was recorded in 1995-1996, and it drops on April 23. Pre-order HERE.
I can't wait to see what else Sacred Bones brings out of the "Vega Vault" (LOVE that such a thing exists).
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I'm not super impressed with what I've heard from the new album, however, it slots nicely into the Rob Zombie wheelhouse and there will definitely be a time/place for it in my routine. That said, I love this animated promotional short:
Playlist:
SRSQ - Unreality
Tassilo Hagström - Berlin (single)
Alan Vega - Nike Soldier (pre-release single)
A.R.E. Weapons - S/T
Alan Vega - Saturn Strip
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
Queensrÿche - Empire
Lard - Pure Chewing Satisfaction
Jim Williams - Possessor OST
Angelo Badalament- Twin Peaks OST
Card:
Emotional Jackpot. Power derived from Feeling. An oversaturation of emotion that while experiential, can cloud judgment and affect process.
