From SQÜRL's forthcoming album Silver Haze, out May 5th on Sacred Bones Records, you can pre-order the album HERE.
Interesting to note that Randall Dunn produced this record. Man's got quite a track record, working with bands like Sunn O))), Earth, and Zola Jesus. Can't wait to hear this entire record; my recent re-watch of Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive for The Horror Vision Presents: Elements of Horror (episode link HERE and HERE for Apple and Spotify respectively) really pushed me back into Jarmusuch's music for a while, both SQÜRL and his work with Jozef Van Wissem. Hearing this first single, I think Dunn was very much a strategic and fantastic choice for this one. Definite Doom vibes, in the best way possible.
Watch:
I'm not watching this trailer! I'm not watching this trailer! I'm not watching this trailer!
I'll have to keep repeating this to myself until March 24th.
Playlist:
The Sonics - Here Are the Sonics
Caladan Brood - Echoes of Battle
Motörhead - Ace of Spades
Pigs x7 - Viscerals
The Mysterines - Reeling
David Bowie - Diamond Dogs
David Bowie - PinUps
The National - High Violet
Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
THUS LOVE - Memorial
Wayne Shorter - The All Seeing Eye
T. Rex - The Slider
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Ghostland Observatory - Sad Sad City (Single)
Grimes - Shinigami Eyes (Single)
Grimes - Miss Anthropocene
The Bronx - II
The Stooges - Funhouse
Card:
Taken at face value, this definitely sums up the last few days at work. Some changes really need to take place, not sure where to start. But Tens are also a the end of a journey, and sometimes an indication of burdensome elements at work. A reminder then, how glad I am that I'm not in-house and managing anymore.
Wayne Shorter passed away last week. To paraphrase something Mr. Brown commented to me in a text recently, the loss of the original Blue Note generation is almost complete now. When I stop to reflect on that, it makes me feel even further into the future than I'd realized. That might be a bit of an obtuse way to describe it, but it's early my first morning in LaLaLand and I'm listening to The All Seeing Eye and reflecting how this music that once provided a vibrant and, frankly mysterious, underlining to popular culture is all but extinct. And Mr. Shorter... well, there's a kind of Voodoo in his music, whether it's the work he did with Miles Davis or an album like this, it always sounds to me like he's summoning something.
Watch:
Another thing I meant to post about last week - the Dead Ringers remake is on the horizon. Not sure how I feel about this, but I'll definitely give it a try.
Playlist:
Palehorse/Palerider & Lord Buffalo - Legends of the Desert, Vol. 1
Townes Van Zandt - High, Low and in Between
Meg Myers - Motel (single)
Burial - Untrue
The Veils - ... And Out of the Void Came Love
The National - High Violet
Brian Eno - Here Come the Warm Jets
Roxy Music - Eponymous
T. Rex - The Slider
White Hex - Heat EP
Card:
I'll be on my mini, "travel" Thoth deck for a while, and as soon as I picked up the cards, I realized how good it felt to return. I really need to mix in Thoth and Missi's Raven tarot again, as I've become a bit too reliant on The Bound Tarot.
Apparently, I may need some strategy in order to accomplish something I've set out to do. I mean, that a bit of a no-brainer; everything requires some degree of strategy. However, I think this is a reference to one of the reasons I'm in LaLaLand and the things I have to do for work.
My girlfriend's obsession with Nico Vega is really rubbing off on me. I don't know much about them other than they have since broken up, but both the albums K has introduced me to are outstanding! This track is from their self-titled 2009 album, the entirety of which is fantastic.
Watch:
This looks difficult to watch in the best possible way:
I have to say, I've been pretty impressed with Lachlan Watson's acting since being introduced to them via The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and this looks like an even more committed performance than we've seen previously. Also, Director Jeffery A. Brown impressed the hell out of me in 2019 with The Beach House, so I'm definitely game to follow him on a new journey.
Read:
I finished Iron Angel yesterday, the second book in Alan Campbell's Deepgate Codex. Since I'm going to be in LaLaLand for two weeks and don't feel the need to carry a hardcover book with me, I'm going to hold off on Book Three: God of Clocks until I return, opting instead to deep-dive a bunch of books on Elizabethian England for Shadow Play Book Two research. Waiting to read this one is going to be tough, as is waiting to crack into Jeremy Haun's Haunthology, which I received via my Kickstarter pledge a few days ago and did an unboxing video for over the weekend:
Seriously, this book is gorgeous; can't wait to read!
Playlist:
Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments
The Veils - ... And Out of the Void Came Love
The Jeff Healey Band - Full Circle: The Live Anthology
The Teardrop Explodes - Kilimanjaro
Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun
Metallica - Hardwired
Nico Vega - Eponymous
Nothing - Guilty of Everything
Dr. John - Ske Dat De Dat
Leviathan the Feeling Serpent - Corpse Eater: Satanic Misery Live for the Dead
Jammes Luckett - May OST
Dexys Midnight Runners - It Was Like This
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Traveling today. Clarity and Will lead to the completion of an "Earthly" matter, i.e. something to do with our house, I'm pretty sure. A tornado nearly missed us this past Friday, and I've discovered some things that need fixing - not sure if these issues existed before the winds felt like they were going to pull my office from off the top of the garage, but they have to be taken care of. This is not my strong suit, but I'm trying to become someone who can handle issues without hiring out simple 'handyman' work. The skill is definitely in my blood - my Father can fix anything. I just have to double-down when I return from LaLaLand and focus.
New music from Iress! I just broke out 2019's Prey a week or so ago, so they've been on my mind and were actually one of the bands I checked to see if they had a show while I'll be in LaLaLand for the next two weeks. No dice, but at least we have this song. These guys continue to level up. You can purchase Ricochet on Iress's Bandcamp HERE.
Watch:
I watched Andrew Davis's The Final Terror earlier tonight (I'm writing this at 12:53 Saturday, 3/04/23).
A Full Five Fucking Stars! The movie ended two hours ago and I still just cannot stop thinking about it. The absolute pinnacle of the Backwoods Slasher subgenre, in my opinion (and I never thought anything would dethrone Just Before Dawn).
Pre-Order Music:
New Godflesh this June!
PURGE! No new tracks posted yet, but I saw the announcement and pre-ordered the Silver vinyl from Plastic Head Megastore, evidently the only place you can grab this at the current moment. Here's the LINK, and a random, awesome photo of JKB I found searching for that album cover above, courtesy of Brave Worlds:
I Love this damn band and I have none of their stuff - no JKB stuff at all on vinyl. Some bands are just CD bands for me. Some of my favorites, too. But this, well, even with the UK shipping charge - which was much more reasonable than I've ever encountered before - I just couldn't pass this up.
Playlist:
The Jeff Healey Band - Full Circle: The Live Anthology (Live Montreal Jazz Fest 1989)
Frank Black - Teenager of the Year
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Viscerals
Sleaford Mods - Spare Ribs
Church of the Cosmic Skull - There Is No Time
Metallica - Hardwired
Karl Casey - White Bat XVIII EP
Odonis Odonis - Post Plague
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments
Iress - Ricochet (single)
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
New ideas will lead to the completion of a process, but only if they are weighed carefully for merit and applied in the correct fashion. 100% this references a breakthrough I've had over the last two days' writing sessions on Shadow Play Book 2. Major changes but not in a way that requires a major overhaul. Lots of historical research, though, which is what the cards are confirming as the appropriate avenue. Time consuming but worth it.
It's an early Frank Black kinda morning, so I fired up Teenager of the Year. Love this record!
Watch:
Last night I watched Roadhouse for the first time.
This movie is Ridiculous! I would have turned up my nose and made fun of this even ten years ago, but really, I've come to see a lot of these 80s studio action movies as major studios doing exploitation flicks, and that's essentially what this tries to be. Now, I believe there's a DVD out there with Kevin Smith doing the commentary back like 20 years ago. I'd be pretty interested in checking that out.
Playlist:
22-20s - Eponymous
Various - Up Above the Stars Spotify Playlist (culled from Barry Adamson's Biography)
T. Rex - The Slider
David Lynch & John Neff - BLUEBOB
Metallica - 72 Seasons (pre-release singles)
Lamp of Murmur - Saturnian Bloodstorm (pre-release singles)
Lustmord - The Others
Bohren & Der Club of Gore - Sunset Mission
Ozzy Osbourne - Patient No. 9
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Willed transformation will result in an energizing new endeavor/perspective. I know exactly what this is referencing. Time to dig out something I've had on the backburner and give it another once over in between working on Shadow Play Book 2.
Going back to Hardwired, I've become a HUGE fan of this record, and I'm just kind of speechless that this is happening. You know, the idea that Metallica seems to no longer suck. They flirted with this back in '08 with the caricature Rick Rubin produced, but I have my own theories about that one, and it's better left alone. This new era that Hardwired kicked off, however, seems genuine (even if their album covers still blow).
I think the thing that actually convinced me is, on the deluxe Hardwired, there's a live show from Rasputin's in San Francisco (great record store, glad to hear it still exists). During the show, the band play almost exclusively tracks from Kill 'Em All and a few from Ride the Lightning, and there's just this... ease at play. I mean, we all know these guys are tight as hell, that's never been in question. But the way they turned their back on what they helped create in SF in the 80s, and the frankly bizarre attempts at, I don't even know what to call their albums after the self-titled. Were they trying to market themselves? Were they confused by the music industry and how it was changing? Clearly, because Metallica didn't stop at incurring great swathes of ill-will from their former fans with bad music. Then there was that entire Napster thing. Ugh - talk about a bad look.
But let's forget all that embarrassing stuff. To me, the band I loved as a kid disappeared into an alternate dimension after Justice, but maybe that LHC did bring them back to our 616 and it just took another eight years for them to shake off the PTSD that would surely come from interdimensional displacement.
Now if they could just find Pushead and get the album covers straightened out (Don Brautigam passed away in 2008).
Watch:
Two nights ago, we watched Moorhead and Benson's Someting in the Dirt. My second time seeing the film since it's West Coast Premiere at last year's Beyondfest, my first thought upon it ending was, "what an awesome double feature this would make with Darren Aronofsky's PI. I made a mental note to find my DVD, and then promptly forgot. Then, this morning I see this:
I will be in LaLaLand for the screening at TCL Chinese theatre, so I'm pretty sure this was 'meant to be.' Although I haven't watched PI in years, this is always going to be my favorite film by Aronofsky. The B&W is so saturated, it reminds me of James Whale's Frankenstein. PI's release also dovetailed with my then-burgeoning interest in the Occult, so this film imprinted on me hard. Now, I get to see it on the best Imax screen in the world.
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Sidestepping preconceived notions lead to new opportunities that might bring about the culmination of older ideas/projects. Not sure what this is referencing, but that's not unusual of late, because I've been out of tune with the cards. I go through these periods where my id really pushes against anything spiritual, and I'm seeing that right now as excitement and anxiety build up around my two-week trip to LaLaLand. Pack it with as much goodness and friendship as I can, it still feels weird being away from K for that long, especially because this time, I'm in a hotel and without a car the entire time. I'll survive, and I'll thrive, but the expectations are completely frying my mental stability and that's affecting these daily reading, my yoga, my meditation - all of it.
Why not? The oddest and to some, a throwaway track from Alice in Chains' 1992 acoustic EP Sap. I love this one, and have long marveled at just how weird AIC could be when hardly trying.
NCBD:
A damn quiet NCBD, if I say so myself:
I didn't know about this new Jeff Lemire series until I happened to look in my email and see a missive from his newsletter. Sounds pretty badass; from the solicitation on League of Geeks:
"Dom is a long-haul truck driver attempting to stay ahead of his tragic past. When he stops one night to assist Birdie, who has been in a massive car crash, they pull an artifact from the wreckage that throws their lives into fifth gear. Suddenly, a typical midnight run has become a frantic journey through a surreal world where Dom and Birdie find themselves the quarry of strange and impossible monsters.
It's grindhouse horror meeting high-concept supernatural fantasy..."
So yeah, short week, which is fine. I'll be in L.A. for the next two NCBDs and plan to make it out to The Comic Bug at some point, so I'll pick up some of the books I read that I don't have on my pull at Rick's here in Clarksville.
Playlist:
22-20s - Eponymous
Various - Fight!!! Spotify Playlist
The Smiths - Strangeways, Here We Come
Helmet - Size
Alice in Chains - Sap
The Mysterines - Reeling
David Bowie - Reality
Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun
Faetooth - Remnants of the Vessel
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
To affect change, an equal force of Will and Renumeration may be required.
A lot of new music coming up lately, although some of it is only new to me. Case in point: that recent viewing of Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla was my first since the advent of Shazam (or since I started using it, anyway), and it was through that film I found the 22-20s, whose entire 2004 self-titled record rules. This is currently my favorite track on the album.
Watch:
Yellowjackets returns in March!
On March 24 - my birthday, no less! To say K and I are excited would be an understatement of extreme measure.
Read:
I try to severely limit my exposure to social media these days, so I'm late to the game but nonetheless overjoyed to see that Author Laird Barron is home from the hospital and in recovery AND the pre-order is up for the fourth book in his Isaiah Coleridge series.
Wow, what a cover, eh? This is exciting because, with The Wind Began To Howl releasing from Bad Hand Books in late Spring, I have plenty of time to slot in re-reads of the previous three entries in the series. These are PURE PLEASURE for me, and every time a new entry comes up for pre-order, I go back and re-read the previous ones.
Pre-order your copy from Bad Hand Books HERE. Also, if you do it within the first 30 days since the announcement (which I believe was last week), ALL proceeds go directly to the author, who is recovering at home from his recent health scare (Laird is tweeting about it on his account), and thus, still racking up medical expenses.
Pre-ordering the new Laird Barron reminded me I still had not ordered my signed copy of Stephen Graham Jones' sequel to 2021's My Heart is a Chainsaw from Boulder Books.
Don't Fear the Reaper dropped a few weeks ago, the second in a planned trilogy; I can't wait to read this one. Chainsaw rocked my world and I'm looking forward to re-reading that as well.
Playlist:
22-20s - Eponymous
Clouds Taste Satanic - Tales of Demonic Possession
Fvnerals - Let the Earth be Silent
Karl Casey - XX EP
White Hex - Gold Nights
Myrkur - Folkesange
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
It will require a lot of Will to successfully complete a current project.
A couple years ago, Mr. Brown clued me into the greatness of Dr. John when he sent Gris Gris my way for Halloween. Since, every so often, he'll recommend an album. Two weekends ago he introduced me to 2012's Locked Down, where The Black Keys are his band.
This is the same treatment the Keys have done for other aging icons, but combined with Dr. John, Locked Down struck me immediately. A perfect combination, this, and The Getaway is my favorite song (so far). The coda on this one is fantastic; one of the best guitar solos I've heard in some time.
Watch:
Watching this final season of Servant has finally made me dig out my DVD copy of Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla to show K Toby Kebbler's first break-out role (that I was aware of, anyway).
This one does not disappoint. Face-paced and twisty in that way Guy Ritchie's flicks are when he's on, I put this one right under Snatch as my favorite. And Kebbell is awesome- that pencil scene at the Subways gig! Oh man, I feel that every time I watch this.
Read:
I did a full, deep-dive, note-taking re-read of James Tynion IV's Department of Truth this weekend, and I can definitively tell you that no comic has stirred me up like this since first reading Grant Morrison's Invisibles back around the turn of the century.
The ideas in this book are massive; Tynion has found a way to wrap everything from Alt-Right Conspiracy to Big Foot into an insanely compelling package that feels a lot like things we've seen before and loved cut with something brand new. My elevator pitch would be "Grant Morrison writes the X-Files" and there is zero hyperbole in that. Conspiracy Theories are fun, but ultimately I've never been a person who cannot refuse them just on some innate mental survival instinct; yes, I think 911 was probably an inside job, or some facet of our own government pulled the trigger on JFK, but it would do me no good to obsess over it, so I do not. This book is a super-intelligent way of working with a lot of that stuff in a fictional environment.
Also, Martin Simmonds's art is absolutely breathtaking and helps the book feel a lot like the old-school Vertigo titles I love so much.
Playlist:
Dr. John - Locked Down
Pixies - Surfer Rosa
Pixies - Doggerel
Metallica - Hardwired
Faetooth - Remnants of the Vessel
Clouds Taste Satanic - Tales of Demonic Possession
Ghostland Observatory - Paparazzi Lightning
Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues
White Hex - Gold Nights
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Think things through and don't be distracted by splendor.
Was in a New York Dolls mood yesterday. I love the entire 2011 Dancing Backward In High Heels record, but this is one of the two or three best on there.
Watch:
I noticed a movie from 1986 called Nomads dropped on Shudder last week. I also noticed that John McTiernan directed it.
Despite the fact that I believe McTiernan directed the two greatest action movies of the 80s (possibly of all time), I don't know anything about his work other than Die Hard and Predator, so I'll be watching this one sometime soon. Starring Remington Steele and Adam Ant, well, how can this go wrong?
Playlist:
The Police - Outlandos D'Amour
Don Henley - Apple Essentials
New York Dolls - Dancing Backward In High Heels
James Brown - Black Cesar Soundtrack
Mrs. Piss - Self-Surgery
Lustmord - The Others
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Emotional growth ebbs and flows while different aspects of the day-to-day push and pull on me. Pretty vague; that's the kind of reading I'd expect if I paid someone for a reading. However, I slept awful and my head's still a bit spongy, so that's the best I can do at the moment. I guess I'll be watching out for the more reactive side of my personality and be sure to keep it in check.
A few weeks back, I hadn't even realized Iggy Pop had a new record until Mr. Brown messaged me about Every Loser. After a couple listens, I'll say it's a pretty solid album. Then I heard it again this weekend and it really grabbed me.
I haven't been all that receptive to the stuff Mr. Pop has done in the last ten years or so. The album with QOTSA as his band was okay, and although I did dig 2013's Ready To Die and his work with Underworld, neither held my attention for very long. Probably not the music's fault. This record, however, has something different: Producer Andrew Watt, the man that made the two most recent Ozzy Osbourne records. As good as those are to Ozzy, this is to Iggy.
NCBD:
NCBD picks!
Yeah, I know I'm cutting back on what I buy, but I can't pass up a new Tynion book. Especially one titled Blue Book.
I skipped last week's Nightcrawlers, but the first Storm and the Brotherhood entry in Sins of Sinister was good, so I'm definitely picking up Immoral X-Men #1.
Saga brings me great joy.
Phantasmagoria has proven to be a sleeper hit for me, and I've next to no doubt that, once this issue is out and the series is tied up, it will end up on my 'Best Of' list for 2023.
Cutter Vs. Erika?
Playlist:
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Land of Sleeper
Various - Fight! Playlist
Portishead - Third
Beak> - Kosmik Musik
Abby Sage - Smoke Break (single)
Abby Sage - The Florist EP
Ozzy Osbourne - The Ultimate Sin
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Monetary conflicts that affect both K and myself at the moment. We're having issues getting our tax returns - which we did on the 8th - submitted due to some computer issues with the company we go to. I take this to mean hold steady and don't let it create conflict.
I had not heard of the band Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs until Mr. Brown sent me something about their newest record Land of Sleeper, which dropped on Friday. I listened to this one on the way up to Indiana on Friday, and it's a fantastic Doom/Stoner Rock record. Favorite song so far? "The Weatherman." Really unique song that almost reminds me of a Robert Howard entry into the Cthulhu Mythos with its eerie chanting and whining guitar. Check it out, and the Seven Pigs Bandcamp is HERE.
Watch:
I watched three movies yesterday. Here's the list in trailers:
Outstanding film! There are a few little acting hiccups with the kid leads, but not in any way that takes away from what's here. If you ever wanted to see what Reservation Dogs mashed up with The Thing would look like, find Slash/Back on Shudder and hit play.
I had not seen Red Dawn since it first hit VHS, so circa 84/85. This was homework for an upcoming episode of Elements of Horror, with the remake following tonight (remake I have never seen). I can't help wonder how much of the OG Red Dawn is propaganda, or if this was simply a case of, "Hey, these fears run rampant in our culture, let's play with what it would look like if it really happened."
The sad irony, of course, is that if you push this up to today and set it in Ukraine, well, it becomes a f*ckin' documentary.
This movie remains as wonderful and ridiculous as always. Hey Keith David - just put on the damn glasses already!
Playlist:
Portishead - Third
Beak> - Kosmik Musik
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
I keep seeing that Empress coupled with Aces, which makes me feel like I'm flirting with some kind of breakthrough. This time, instead of an emotional nod, we see Will, and adding to that the Five of Cups, which speaks of Emotional conflict, I'm left wondering what am I not seeing? This doesn't appear tied to my writing endeavors, and the last five days have been a bit of a vacation from that, so I'm not sure how to interpret this. In cases like this, I've begun leaving the three-card Pull on my desk all day as I work, so the cards are always right in front of me.
Driving back from Indiana yesterday was a pretty serene experience. After an amazing weekend with my best friends in the world, I hit Route 31 and dug into a deserted drive back to Tennessee, accompanied for the first few hours by a handful of great Rock n' Roll albums. First up - Bowie's Diamond Dogs. I wasn't high, but I swear, I heard things in this listen that I hadn't ever before and really came out the other side with a new appreciation. Of particular mention, 1984, the arranging and production of which inspired a considerably great appreciation than on previous listens. There's a mindset to this album that it takes a very strong concentration to crack; I'm not saying I didn't dig DD before, but I guess I'd never listened to this one in such a concentrated, uninterrupted session before. Aside from Rebel Rebel - which would have originally been the opening track on side two, and thus strategically placed to be the first song heard after the album is stopped and physically flipped over and re-started, there is a sonic and conceptual vein that runs through this record that almost makes it flow like one long song.
I'm re-posting this track from youtube user Mister Sussux's channel, which, if you're a Bowie fan, you might want to check out and subscribe to, as it has some really cool Bowie clips.
Watch:
I missed the trailer on this back a few months ago, but after catching it this morning on accident, I have to say, Slash/Back goes to the top of my Shudder watch list:
One part Stranger Things/Reservation Dogs, one Part The Thing or Slither - I purposely stopped watching the trailer the moment it looked like they might reveal the monster - this looks fantastic. This is the first feature from Slash/Back Director/Co-writer Nyla Innuksuk, who I know nothing about but have a feeling will be getting a spot on my radar after this one.
Playlist:
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Land of Sleeper
Telekinetic Yeti - Primordial
Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues
Cinematic Void Podcast - Episode 62
Trombone Shorty - Lifted
Television - Marquee Moon
Frank Black and the Catholics - Live at Melkweg March 24, 2001
David Bowie Diamond Dogs
The Police - Outlandos D'Amour
Dr. John - Locked Down
Beck - Odelay
David Bowie - PinUps
Various - Rocktober Blood Soundtrack
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Emotional recharge after letting go of the urge to try and control Earthly things we cannot. I'm not entirely sure what this is saying, but I have a feeling it ties into recent work/life stuff.
Mr. Brown recently set me up with a vinyl copy of The Predator Nominate, a newly published "lost" demo from Dayton, Ohio legends Brainiac. If you don't know the Brainiac story, it's one of the saddest in 90s indie rock. A fantastic band cut down right as they began achieving the status they so greatly deserved when their vocalist/guitarist/keyboard/chief songwriter died in an automobile accident. Since the tragedy in 1997, members have gone on to start Enon, Model/Actress, Shesus, and probably about another dozen bands I'm forgetting at the moment. Recently, following the Transmissions after Zero documentary, those surviving members released a small cache of "Basement tapes," which appears to be book-ended by this, the EP that, if I understand it correctly, would have followed their final EP, Electroshock for President. Electroshock has always filled me with a great melancholy - hearing the direction the band was headed excites the mind to what would lie ahead. Now, we get a glimpse, and it's a pleasure to breeze through these nine tracks and think about how they might have heard if the band could have finished.
RIP Tim Taylor, alongside The Jesus Lizard, Brainiac was probably my favorite 90s band from that independent scene.
Watch:
Super bummed to have finally got around to watching Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese's 1899 on Netflix, only to find out the streaming service canceled it.
Perhaps not quite as riveting as the creators' previous Netflix show Dark, which is just about the best time travel narrative I've ever encountered, 1899 had a lot of elements recognizable as having come from the same minds as Dark, but with a pretty grandiose SciFi leverage at its core. Big cliffhanger and we're getting nothing else. Remember when Netflix first started the streaming revolution and they said they'd bring back any popular canceled show from the last few years? Well, now they seem to cancel at the drop of a hat. I'm hoping many Odar and Friese do what Mike Flanagan did after NF canceled his Midnight Club and exit the company in search of a better deal elsewhere.
Playlist:
Brainiac - The Predator Nominate
The Police - Outlandos D'Amour
Talking Heads - Fear of Music
Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues
Iress - Prey
Zeal and Ardor - Eponymous
Carpenter Brut - Leather Terror
Code Orange - Underneath
David Bowie - Diamond Dogs
David Bowie - PinUps
Metallica - Kill 'Em All
Fvnerals - Let The Earth Be Silent
Telekinetic Yeti - Primordial
Kermit Ruffins and the Rebirth Brass Band - Throwback
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
A slightly darker-than-normal shot, so apologies. In a bit of a hurry this morning as I pound black coffee and prepare to drive 6.5 hours up to a cabin in the woods where I will spend a blissfully intoxicated weekend with three of my oldest friends. Now, if one of them can just help me translate passages from this book I found at an old antique shop...
I've been in the mood for The Police lately, and I can't think of a song I like more at the moment than Truth Hits Everybody from their absolutely perfect 1978 debut, Outlandos d'Amour. Talk about a track that will make you start bouncing your leg under the desk.
NCBD:
My picks for this week's NCBD:
Donny Cates is off this book, and Ryan Ottley is continuing what I can only assume is the story they conceived together, but this one only has a few more issues, and then Marvel is ending it and will no doubt begin a new Hulk book. I most likely won't be there for that - losing this one in the middle of what I thought was a pretty unique Hulk story is leaving a sour taste in my mouth. Still, until then, I'm still enjoying Hulk Planet.
Holy sh*t! Do my eyes deceive me? Wow - only a year later. Part of me wants to ignore this just because it's been so long, but oh, what the hell. At this rate, we'll get the conclusion in issue three in 2024, so at least it's not a big financial commitment. Hahaha.
TMNT is kind of creeping back toward the fence for me. 137 issues is a long run; I've had this thought before, though, just after the book's 100th issue, and that lull really only lasted half a year tops and then things got great again, so I'll hang. I probably just have fatigue from this Armageddon Game event taking place that I'm reading this without paying attention to.
Boss is back on main art, so I'm happy and can finally go back and re-read everything preceding this to welcome him back. Again, no offense to the artists that filled in, but Boss's style is just so much of this book that having him take a break directly after a hiatus was not a good thing, in my opinion.
Jeez - there was already an X-Men roster vote that I missed? Has it already been a year? Wow. Well, Havoc's out after Dark Web, and big things are afoot, so we'll see. In the meantime, welcome back to The Brood!
Watch:
After years on the outer regions of my peripheral awareness, I finally watched George Sluzier's Spoorloos, or The Vanishing. Wow.
I loved this. A lot, and I'm happy to be recording an episode of The Horror Vision Presents: Elements of Horror that will cover this next week.
Playlist:
The Police - Outlandos d'Amour
The Police - Zenyatta Mondatta
The Police - Regatta de Blanc
Various - Joe Begos' Bliss Spotify Playlist
Karl Casey - White Bat XVIII EP Deftones - White Pony
The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir
Kermit Ruffins w/ the Rebirth Brass Band - Throwback
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
There's conflict, Change and more emotion than you can shake a stick at. Those two 10s mean I'm way too grounded in Malkuth at the moment - Earthly matters battering the inside of my skull.
