Wednesday, November 8, 2023

Twin Tribes - Monolith

 

My A Most Horrible Library cohost Chris has been singing me the praises of Twin Tribes for a couple years now, and while I've given a couple of their records a spin, I haven't completely connected with these guys yet. That said, this new track, "Monolith," is pretty rad, and I actually dig the hell out of the video - a rarity indeed. Taken from forthcoming album Pendulum, out January  26th; you can pre-order the record HERE.

NCBD:

Here's what I'm bringing home this week:


I loved the first issue of the new Daniel Warren Johnson Transformers book for Robert Kirkman's Energon Universe. Not as much as I love Void Rivals, but still, DWJ doing Autobots and Decepticons is as close to a dream come true as we've gotten with this juggernaut IP in a while, so I'm excited to jump into issue 2.


I've seen the covers for the next two books, and the "Road to 150" is on the horizon. That means a major shake-up is coming. Starting in the last few issues, we've seen the Turtles' standard "nuclear" family as we know it begins to grow tributaries and move on, so my prediction is someone will leave this book and head away from NY, thus getting their own series. That will both excite and infuriate me, haha. I'm still on board, regardless, as this is still the best reboot ever. 


Phantom Road is back and I could not be happier! This book is like high-brow Grindhouse Horror, and I am absolutely picking up what Lemire and Walta are putting down!


After Friday I can finally read this one up to date, as I should have all the issues sitting in my secondary pull at Amazing Fantasy in Frankfort. Can't wait to see what all the hype - niche hype, but hype nonetheless - is all about. 


Let's see if issue two continues to deliver on the promise of issue one. There have been mountains of Army of Darkness/Evil Dead comics, and I learned long ago to avoid them. This, however, this is different. Continuing on from both the original and director's cut ending of the film, Army of Darkness Forever posits that Evil Ash ended up back at the S-Mart in 1992. What does that mean for everything we think we know about Ash's life after the films? Will the series take Ash vs. The Evil Dead into account? Like they used to say in those commercials, 'Read the book."


I've been late to the game on David Dastmalchian's Count Crowley, partially because I sat on my AMHL cohost's recommendation when the first series came out, and partially because I was able to find two of the four issues of the previous series. I'll eventually pick all those up, but in the meantime, this guy has earned enough goodwill in the Horror community that I'll be grabbing this one from the beginning.

Playlist:

Sampha - Lahai
Oranssi Pazuzu - Live at Roadburn 2017
Twin Tribes - Monolith (pre-release single)
Twin Tribes - Ceremony
Alien Sex Fiend - Alien Sex Fiend Halloween
Kingsborough - Percy (single)
Oranssi Pazuzu - Kosmonument
Lebanon Hanover - Let Them Be Alien
Anthrax - Among the Living
Telekinetic Yeti - Primordial
The Sister of Mercy - Floodland
††† - Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete
Crystal Castles - II

Card:

I felt like crossing the streams today. Here's what I came away with:


Due to the different sizes of the three decks, this format is difficult to get a decent picture of at the moment because it's new, so bear with me. 

• XVIII: The Moon - influences/ideas/agendas obscured.
• XII: The Hanged Man - Sacrifice/intuition
• Princess (Page) of Wands - The Early Aspect of Will

It's been a minute since I've done an in-depth Pull, so I feel a touch rusty.  Having the intuition to apply the Will to Earthly matters will prevent missing unseen or forgotten facets of the conversation. This is 100% a reminder to pay attention during open enrollment. Boring, maybe, but I've already had a few insurance SNAFUs with my employer since going remote, so it'd be nice to avoid that in the coming year, and this is the kind of Earth-Bound stuff that I always view from the corner of my eye.
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Monday, November 6, 2023

Falling From the House of Usher

 

I'd never heard of British electronic artist Sampha until Mr. Brown messaged me about him a few days ago. Upon checking out his new album Lahai, I'm sold. I'm always looking for the next Burial, and although in no way would I compare this record to Untrue, there's definitely some shared DNA. Spacious, floaty and a beautiful approach to the vocals and backing textures, this record drifts along at a slow speed so you can be sure to catch all the gorgeous sonic scenery that populates each track. Throw in some really tight bass lines and beats to boost the tempo now and again, and this one is a perfect late-night, winding-down record. You can pick this one up at the shop HERE.

Watch:

I watched the first two episodes of Mike Flanagan's The Fall of the House of Usher on Friday and quickly dismissed the show as "not for me." I have issues with the last few Flanagan Netflix projects and am actually looking forward to him shaking up his paradigm with his new deal at Amazon. 

Yet, I kept thinking about it all day Saturday. So I went back and watched two more. I was destined to finish this anyway, as we're recording an episode on it for The Horror Vision this coming Thursday night. Regardless of that, episodes three and four smoothed over some of the rough edges. Then, yesterday K started the show from episode one, and I sat through 1-4 for a second time. Not sure what my problem was on Friday, but I was 100% wrong. This one is fantastic!


One of my initial problems was that the creators seemed hellbent on critiquing the "Hedonism of the Rich," which, to me, is a moot point. We're well over a decade into kardashians and their public sex tapes/church scams/meltdowns. It's old news. The first two episodes of Usher really spend a lot of time making this point, and it feels goofy. Also, since Midnight Mass, Flanagan's characters spend a lot of time making grand soliloquies, and for me, they don't always work. 

These are minor grievances, though. 

One of the things I'd forgotten about Flanagan's style is he plays a long game, dropping bits that seem inconsequential or startling for the sake of being startling at the time and really don't come together until the end. This has been in his work almost from the beginning; I first discovered him by randomly watching Absentia circa 2012. That one put his name at the top of my "Directors to watch" list so that, in 2013, when Oculus hit theatres, I sat alone in a theatre on opening day. Oculus was definitely one I had to adjust to; my first viewing was, a lot like watching these first two Usher episodes, an exercise in frustration for me because I was rushing the story. When I eventually rewatched Oculus on video, I realized it was fantastic and essentially the template for everything the Director would do going forward. 


Also, it seems this "watch the first half and then watch it a second time before you continue" is a sound strategy for Flanagan's work, as in looking back through old posts here, I found THIS about The Haunting of Hill House:


"K and I plowed through the first five episodes of the Netflix/Mike Flanagan epic The Haunting of Hill House. I was a bit uncertain at first, but quickly came around. It has Flanagan's time weaving technique, the one that makes Occulus so unique. I dig it, probably not as much as I'd hoped I would, but for watching five episodes in a binge -something I haven't had the time to do in forever - it was good. We wanted to make it through the first five because an article popped up last week HERE on Bloody Disgusting where Flanagan suggests people watch the first five, then go back and watch them again before continuing on to episodes 6-10. This is based on a revelation in ep. 5 that changes the way you will see things in the first half if you watch them again with that in mind."

The point of all this, then, is to tell you that if you haven't watched this one yet, and if you can find the time, watch episodes 1-4 of Usher once, then restart them and continue through to the end. I'm about halfway through six and extremely invested; none of my previous complaints have even occurred to me since that first failed viewing on Friday.

Read:

In order to fully appreciate Flanagan's adaptation of Poe's work, I also picked up a $1.99 Kindle "Complete Works" for Poe, as my hardcover copy has long ago been lost to the aether, and all I still have is the paperback copy of the 1980 Signet Classic edition I've had since High school:


There are quite a few cheap Kindle editions of the complete works, and all of them will contain the main stories adapted here. So far, I've re-read Usher and The Masque of the Red Death, and it's been quite interesting to see what Flanagan and his writers pulled from each for the show. I'm looking forward to diving into Murders in the Rue Morgue next. 

Playlist:

The Misfits - Collection I
The Cramps - RockinnReelininAucklandNewZealandXXX (Live)
Cocksure - TVMALSV
Anthrax - Among the Living
The Cramps - Smell of Female (Live)
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
The Heartwoods Institue - Unburied Bane (thanks, Tommy!)
Deth Crux - Bloody Christmas (single)
Bryce Miller - City Depths
Seashore Darkcave - Synthtales
Ulver - Teachings In Silence
Ulver - Bergtatt
Silent - Modern Hate
Greg Puciato - Mirrorcell
Loathe - I Let it in and It Took Everything 
Gazelle Twin - Black Dog
Umberto - Prophecy of the Black Widow
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Thursday, November 2, 2023

Your Black Star

 

I haven't listened to Your Black Star in a pretty damn long time, and although I have absolutely no idea what put them back on my radar, yesterday, I'm glad it happened. I love this band's 2006 record Sound from the Ground; this came out the same year I moved from Chicago to L.A. My ex-wife was a music journalist, and back in those days, we'd have CDs arriving in the mail all the time. A lot of stuff from small, completely independent labels. Not all of it was good, but boy did I find some gems that way. Young Widows, These Arms Are Snakes, and Your Black Star were top of the list. 

Listening again, I realized that while I'd always recognized The Cure's influence on these guys, it wasn't until diving back in that I realized how much this opening track is influenced by the title track to Pornography, arguably my favorite Cure record. Listen to those pounding drums, the way the bass comes in and the 'static' guitar. Gorgeous.

31 Days of Halloween:

I didn't get a chance to post the last two days, so here's the end tally for 2023's 31 Days of Halloween:

1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin
2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"
3) VHS
4) All You Need is Death
5) Slashers (2001)
6) The Beyond/Phenomena
7) The Convent
8) Evil Dead 2
9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe
10) Totally Killer
11) Ritual (Joko Anwar)/The Final Terror/Grave Robbers
12) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (w/Joe Bob)
13) Never Hike Alone/Never Hike in the Snow/Never Hike Alone 2
14) Puppetman
15) Creepshow Season 4 Episode 1
16) Return of the Living Dead
17) Don't Look Now
18) When Evil Lurks
19) Barbarian
20) Demons 2/All Hallows Eve
21) May
22) Let's Scare Jessica To Death
23) The Birds/30 Coins Ssn 1 Ep 1
24) 30 Coins Ssn 1 Ep 2/The Church
25) Elvira Mistress of the Dark
26) To Kako (Evil)/To Kako: Stin epohi ton iroon
27) Tourist Trap (w/ Joe Bob)/Totally Killer
28) Amusement
29) The Rocky Horror Picture Show/There's Nothing Out There
30) Planet Terror/Arsenic and Old Lace/George A. Romero's Bruiser/976-Evil
31) Halloween 78 (w/ Joe Bob)/Flatliners 91/Night of the Living Dead

Watch:

How has it been twelve years since I watched Robert Rodriguez's Machete? This might be one of the best action movies ever.


This flick is such a rip-roaring good time, and watching it again last night made me realize I'ver never seen the sequel, Machete Kills. Time to remedy that.

Playlist:

The Misfits - Static Age
Wytch Finger - The Dance EP
Skinny Puppy - Remission
Ministry - The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste
Umberto - Prophecy of the Black Widow
The Misfits - Collection I
The Sisters of Mercy - Floodland
Boy Harsher - Careful
Trust Obey - Fear and Bullets (98 Edition)
Ghost Cop - One Weird Trick
Your Black Star - Sound from the Ground
Deftones - Gore
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Talk About the Weather

Card:

Just one card from my Thoth deck for today. 


Yeah, that's an understatement. The endeavor to move my folks from South Suburban Chicago to Clarksville was almost complete, and then... thwarted at the last minute by an inspection. That's not the change denoted here; this generalized pull is really just reminding me that although my preoccupation with the move has me blinded to it at the moment, there's a lot of change on the horizon. That's a pretty surface-level reading, especially when using the Thoth deck, but that's all I've got. I fried.
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Tuesday, October 31, 2023

Hybrid Halloween Moments!!!

 
Happy Halloween! I've got today and tomorrow off and intend to soak up the atmosphere. First, woke up with The Misfits Hybrid Moments in my head! That has to be a boon that this will be a good day.

31 Days of Halloween:

I had a spectacular October 30th last night. Here's what I watched:


Not for everyone, but Cary Grant and Peter Lorre are enough to make me love this classic Halloween comedy. The word "Madcap" got thrown around a lot back in this era, but this one deserves the description - it juggles so many plates that, even if some don't exactly 'land' for me, it's just a pleasure to watch.


Classic late-period Romero. I love this flick, flaws and all, and would take this any day over Schumacher's Falling Down, which, in the "man at the end of his rope" sub genre, definitely gets more love. 


If I love Romero's Bruiser, well then, I guess I have to marry Robert Englund's directorial debut, 976-Evil. I know this is not a 'good movie.' Couldn't care less. I think 976-Evil is the epitome of how great late 80s Horror could be, and it totally nails the Nightmare on Elm Street tone that none of the NoES movies except the original manage to.


1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin
2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"
3) VHS
4) All You Need is Death
5) Slashers (2001)
6) The Beyond/Phenomena
7) The Convent
8) Evil Dead 2
9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe
10) Totally Killer
11) Ritual (Joko Anwar)/The Final Terror/Grave Robbers
12) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (w/Joe Bob)
13) Never Hike Alone/Never Hike in the Snow/Never Hike Alone 2
14) Puppetman
15) Creepshow Season 4 Episode 1
16) Return of the Living Dead
17) Don't Look Now
18) When Evil Lurks
19) Barbarian
20) Demons 2/All Hallows Eve
21) May
22) Let's Scare Jessica To Death
23) The Birds/30 Coins Ssn 1 Ep 1
24) 30 Coins Ssn 1 Ep 2/The Church
25) Elvira Mistress of the Dark
26) To Kako (Evil)/To Kako: Stin epohi ton iroon
27) Tourist Trap (w/ Joe Bob)/Totally Killer
28) Amusement
29) The Rocky Horror Picture Show/There's Nothing Out There
30) Arsenic and Old Lace/George A. Romero's Bruiser/976-Evil

Read:

In keeping with my annual Halloween traditions, I re-read James O'Barr's The Crow yesterday and began Rick Spears and Rob G's Teenagers From Mars upon waking this morning.


The Crow never fails to affect me; still the greatest love story I've read and the purest contemplation of grief I know. O'Barr's art and words drip with the Post Punk bands that grew to sway my tastes as a metalhead in High School, my obsession with Joy Division's Substance and Still and The Cure's Pornography following fast on the heels of my introduction to this dark, beautiful angel.


I love this book so much. The characters are, at this point, old friends I love to check back in on every year. 

Playlist:

Type O Negative - Paranoid (single)
Claudio Simonetti and Goblin - Phenomena OST
John Carpenter w/ Alan Howarth - Prince of Darkness OST
John Carpenter w/ Alan Howarth - Halloween III: Season of the Witch OST
The Cure - Pornography
Night Verses - Every Sound Has A Color In The Valley of Night: Part 1
Wytch Finger - The Dance EP
The Sisters of Mercy - Floodland
Trust Obey - Fear and Bullets (1998 Edition)

Card:

A single card from Missi's Raven Tarot for this perfect Halloween morning:


When Every Day is Halloween, October 31st just means we're about to begin another journey around the sun toward the next one. 
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Sunday, October 29, 2023

Type O Negative - Paranoid

 
One of the best covers I know and perfect for this rainy lead-up to Halloween.

31 Days of Halloween:

1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin
2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"
3) VHS
4) All You Need is Death
5) Slashers (2001)
6) The Beyond/Phenomena
7) The Convent
8) Evil Dead 2
9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe
10) Totally Killer
11) Ritual (Joko Anwar)/The Final Terror/Grave Robbers
12) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (w/Joe Bob)
13) Never Hike Alone/Never Hike in the Snow/Never Hike Alone 2
14) Puppetman
15) Creepshow Season 4 Episode 1
16) Return of the Living Dead
17) Don't Look Now
18) When Evil Lurks
19) Barbarian
20) Demons 2/All Hallows Eve (w/ Joe Bob)
21) May
22) Let's Scare Jessica To Death
23) The Birds/30 Coins Ssn 1 Ep 1
24) 30 Coins Ssn 1 Ep 2/The Church
25) Elvira Mistress of the Dark
26) To Kako (Evil)/To Kako: Stin Epohi Ton Iroon
27) Tourist Trap (w/ Joe Bob)/Totally Killer
28) Amusement
29) The Rocky Horror Picture Show/There's Nothing Out There

Read:

I finally started reading the collected Mike Baron/Kelley Jones Deadman I picked up a few years ago after Chris and I interviewed Mr. Jones on A Most Horrible Library.


Deadman is one of the DC characters I don't hate, but I also don't really care about all that much. UNLESS Kelley Jones is drawing him. And Mike Baron has been a favorite since his run on the original ongoing Punisher series circa... 1987? Either way, I blew through this in a little over a day and absolutely loved its ghoulish flair.

Playlist:

The Smiths - Louder Than Bombs
Type O Negative - Origin of the Feces
Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (digi pak)
Sisters of Mercy - Floodland
The Knife - Silent Shout
Zombi - Shape Shift
††† - Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete
Crystal Castles - II
NIN - Year Zero
Type O Negative - Life Is Killing Me
The Cure - Pornography

Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.


• King of Cups
• Four of Cups
• Seven of Pentacles

Lots of emotion will threaten Victory in Earthly matters. I know this has to do with the house hunt for my folks, which just makes me not want to go any further in-depth with this. 
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Friday, October 27, 2023

The Cramps - Cornfed Dames Live in Auckland, NZ

 

From the live album RockinnReelininAucklandNewZealandXXX (Live). A stellar example of how awesome and bizarre The Cramps were. 

31 Days of Halloween:

One of the things I'm trying to do for this year's 31 Days of Halloween is watch all the movies I have on DVD that I pull out every year and then never end up getting around to. I nailed one with Michele Soavi's The Church a few nights ago, and I got another yesterday with Yorgos Noussias's 2005 oddity, To Kako, or Evil as it was known here in the States. Here's a trailer:


I refer to this film as an oddity because, despite being a fairly low-budget Rage Virus/Zombie flick, Noussias leans into a tone that is severe yet also often subtly comedic. I'd never go as far as to call Evil a Horror Comedy, but there are moments that make me laugh out loud. The editing is super original on this one, too. Lots of double, triple and even quadruple split-screen stuff, none of it ostentatious enough to detract. In fact, the split screen really enhances the fast-paced narrative and adds a severity that makes this one a keeper. 

In watching this yesterday, it came to my attention there was actually a sequel released in 2009! I had no idea To Kako: Stin epohi ton iroon or Evil: In the Time of Heroes existed, but to my good fortune, this film is actively streaming on Tubi at the moment. While I'm not a super fan of any streaming site that by default includes commercials, in 2023 Tubi seems to be a safe harbor for a lot of films that would otherwise be impossible to find - see The Horror Vision's recent episode on La Horde - so for that, I'm grateful.


Turns out, Evil: In the Time of Heroes is even better than its predecessor! There's a considerably larger budget, so much so, Billy Zane appears in this film! Seeing both of these inside of twenty-four hours, I must say, it's a shame that Noussias did not keep making films. He has such an original voice, I would have loved to see more from him. 

1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin
2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"
3) VHS
4) All You Need is Death
5) Slashers (2001)
6) The Beyond/Phenomena
7) The Convent
8) Evil Dead 2
9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe
10) Totally Killer
11) Ritual (Joko Anwar)/The Final Terror/Grave Robbers
12) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (w/Joe Bob)
13) Never Hike Alone/Never Hike in the Snow/Never Hike Alone 2
14) Puppetman
15) Creepshow Season 4 Episode 1
16) Return of the Living Dead
17) Don't Look Now
18) When Evil Lurks
19) Barbarian
20) Demons 2/All Hallows Eve
21) May
22) Let's Scare Jessica To Death
23) The Birds/30 Coins Ssn 1 Ep 1
24) 30 Coins Ssn 1 Ep 2/The Church
25) Elvira Mistress of the Dark
26) To Kako (Evil)/To Kako: Stin epohi ton iroon

Read:

I finally finished reading Clive Barker's The Scarlet Gospels. Take it from me, if you're a fan of Mr. Barker, skip this one. My current working theory is he actually did not write the book but conceptualized and outlined it before passing it to another writer to build the prose. That's all I'll say on that because Barker remains one of my all-time favorite authors.

I've moved on to the much-recommended Greener Pastures, the first short story collection by Weird Horror writer Michael Wehunt. 


One story in, and I adore this man's writing. I feel a similar "Stark Lushness" to Laird Barron's early short stories, never mind that the two adjectives I've just employed would seem to contradict one another. There is a manner in which prose can offer a staunch worldview that in itself decorates the fiction in an expansive manner, and that's the vibe I picked up from opening story "Beside Me Singing In The Wilderness," which applies a very satisfying Southern Gothic spin to a classic monster module, all in a lush Appalachian or Southern realm that I felt I could "step into" at any moment.

Playlist:

Chelsea Wolfe - Spun
Graham Parsons - The Avalon Tapes (Live Flying Burrito Brothers)
The Cramps - RockinnReelininAucklandNewZealandXXX (Live)
Misfits - Collection 1
Jeff Grace - House of the Devil OST
Ritual Howls - Turkish Leather
Ozzy Osbourne - Ordinary Man
Deftones - Ohms
Snake Eats Boy - Occupado (single)
Perturbator - Nocturne City

Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.


• Five of Cups
• VII: The Chariot
• Knight of Cups

Lots of emotions tied up in the cards again today. This is on the nose, as the reality of my parents' impending move and the forfeiture of my childhood home has begun to sink in and stir up weird mortality anxieties. Of course, I recognize that I've been lucky enough to have my parents and that home in my life for as long as I have, so I'm not complaining. Five of Cups appearing at the center of this pull suggests emotional conflict, and while The Chariot often suggests more upbeat things, I'm reading it as a warning to think things through as we proceed. This also fits, as we are trying to ensure that, in their rush to exit the house by the closing date and find a new one to move into, my folks don't settle on a house just to have one. This then introduces the third phase of the pull, Knight of Cups, where Force of Will is applied to Emtion, hopefully for the benefit of everyone involved. 
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Wednesday, October 25, 2023

Sexores - Mar del Sur E.P.

 
Wow. Taking another page from a recent post by Heaven Is An Incubator, I dove into Sexores, a  Quito, Ecuador two-piece that skews toward Darkwave but always ends up injecting a healthy dose of sheer beauty into its albums. Really great band and their new Mar del Sur EP is a great place to start with them. If you dig, head over to their Bandcamp and throw down some support.

31 Days of Halloween:

1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin
2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"
3) VHS
4) All You Need is Death
5) Slashers (2001)
6) The Beyond/Phenomena
7) The Convent
8) Evil Dead 2
9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe
10) Totally Killer
11) Ritual (Joko Anwar)/The Final Terror/Grave Robbers
12) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (w/Joe Bob)
13) Never Hike Alone/Never Hike in the Snow/Never Hike Alone 2
14) Puppetman
15) Creepshow Season 4 Episode 1
16) Return of the Living Dead
17) Don't Look Now
18) When Evil Lurks
19) Barbarian
20) Demons 2/All Hallows Eve
21) May
22) Let's Scare Jessica To Death
23) The Birds/30 Coins Ssn 1 Ep 1
24) 30 Coins Ssn 1 Ep 2/The Church

NCBD:

Here are my picks for this week's NCBD:


This series has been a mixed bag, but I'm curious where it's going to go. 


Street-level crime at its finest. Newburn puts me in mind of Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder novels, and as each individual storyline plays out, I'm really feeling the first edges of something epic. How long will Newburn's position as a fixer for all the New York crime families, the Yakuza, and the NYPD last? More importantly, who will the inevitable fall take down with him when it happens? These are the questions that keep me anticipating this book. 


Looks like the current New Mexico arc of SIKTC ends with issue #35, so whatever the outcome, it probably starts here. 


I have a Chicago trip coming up early next month, so I'll be stopping by Amazing Fantasy Books and Comics for the books in the pull I set up there. Ribbon Queen issues Three and four will be waiting for me. This book is a very welcome return to the crazy violent Horror Fiction Garth Ennis flexes every couple years, and it's made me want to jump back into a re-read of 


Who's that running around disguised as Captain Krakoa in Uncanny Avengers? Pretty sure issue two answered that with a flashback, but we'll see. Really glad I took a chance on this one.


In just four issues, Robert Kirkman once again has my most anticipated book each month. Last month's Void Rivals #4 raised the bar for the series yet again, with some major revelations that, when all is said and done, I'm pretty sure will constitute the very tip of a proverbial iceberg.


Having just read issue fourteen late last week, I'm pretty pumped for this one. I still think I need a full series re-read to bolster the stakes, however, Boss and Rosenberg's fucked up little world is always a fun romp with or without all the context. 

Playlist:

Wytch Finger - The Dance EP
Fvnerals - Let the Earth Be Silent
Spotlights - Seance EP
Sexores - Mar del Sur EP
Trevor Something - Trevor Something Does Not Exist
Trevor Something - Deep Wave Data Dark Web Daemons
Bauhaus - Burning from the Inside
Joy Division - Substance 1977-1980
Chasms - On The Legs Of Love Purified
Feuerbahn - The Fire Dance EP
Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She (pre-release singles)
Skinny Puppy - Remission
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Tuesday, October 24, 2023

Skinny Birds

 

A few days ago, Heaven Is An Incubator posted some old-school Skinny Puppy. Hearing it put me in the mood to dig out 1984's Remission, and it's kinda been stuck in my headphones since, so let's start the day with "Sleeping Beast."

31 Days of Halloween:

K and I went to see Hitchcock's The Birds on the big screen last night. The film still holds up, although here are a couple of observations I don't know that I made previously about the film:

• I'm guessing Cary Grant must have been Hitch's first choice for Leading Man Mitch Brenner because Rod Taylor feels like a stand-in. Not to say Taylor is bad; on the contrary, I rather think he does a smash-up job. There's just something about his physicality that makes me think Hitch originally had Grant in mind for the role.
• There's almost a full hour of lead-in. This isn't bad, and in fact, I was mostly engrossed; however, the weird practical joke Tippo Hedren's Melanie Daniels plays on Mitch unfolds rather slowly and then gives way to the Brenner family's very odd dynamic, none of which is ever mentioned. Why is one of Lydia's children in his 30s and the other looks to be about 10? I kept thinking I was forgetting some odd revelation, like Cathy is really Mitch's daughter and the mother passed away, or something like that. When that didn't happen, I was left wondering. What I have arrived at after sleeping on the film is I think there are a lot of little things in this one that make the overall tone expectant and slightly off, which adds to the overall tension.
• Not every scene of the titular birds attacking 'works' as well as I remembered they did - and I just rewatched this a couple of years ago - but the final sequence with Melanie and the Brenners barricaded in the house is fabulous and more than a little frightening.
• Suzanne Pleschette worked as a small-town school teacher before recovering from her bird attack and moving to the big city, where she married a successful psychologist.

1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin
2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"
3) VHS
4) All You Need is Death
5) Slashers (2001)
6) The Beyond/Phenomena
7) The Convent
8) Evil Dead 2
9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe
10) Totally Killer
11) Ritual (Joko Anwar)/The Final Terror/Grave Robbers
12) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (w/Joe Bob)
13) Never Hike Alone/Never Hike in the Snow/Never Hike Alone 2
14) Puppetman
15) Creepshow Season 4 Episode 1
16) Return of the Living Dead
17) Don't Look Now
18) When Evil Lurks
19) Barbarian
20) Demons 2/All Hallows Eve
21) May
22) Let's Scare Jessica To Death
23) The Birds/30 Coins Ssn 1 Ep 1

Playlist:

Forhist - Eponymous
Sexores - Salamanca
††† - Good Night, God Bless, I Love U, Delete
Wytch Finger - The Dance EP
Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Smile OST
Skinny Puppy - Remission
New Order - Movement
The Final Cut - Consumed
Skinny Puppy - Bites
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Monday, October 23, 2023

Tonight At the Gates of Hell, Jessica

 
From Dan O'Bannon's classic Return of the Living Dead. SSQ is a band I know nothing about but damned if this song doesn't fit its scene in the movie like a glove. Or lack thereof. Interesting note, singer Stacey Q. is the artist behind the 1986 hit single "Two of Hearts," which was in heavy rotation on popular radio when I was ten years old and subsequently floats to the surface of my brain a couple times a month (at least) ever since. That's the power of radio, ladies and gentlemen.

31 Days of Halloween:

John D. Hancock's 1971 Let's Scare Jessica to Death is a film I've been meaning to watch for years, and I finally got around to it yesterday afternoon. Here's a trailer for the remastered version Scream Factory put out a few years ago:


I didn't love this film the way some of my Letterbxd compatriots do, however, it's a fairly strong entry into the "urban flight" subgenre of the late 60s/early 70s. It's interesting to note that what I'm referring to as "urban flight" really prefigures the 70s error of Folk Horror. This was a direct reaction to a major societal shift in America at that time, where white people who lived in urban areas did what many white people do and overreacted to the influx of minority populations, fleeing "Back to nature" in more rural areas of the country. In the vernacular of the day, this was often referred to as "White Flight," or perhaps more generously, Urban Flight. There's an absolutely killer article by Devin Faraci about this disguised as an analysis of Michael Winner's 1974 film Death Wish in the back of Brubaker and Phillips's Kill or Be Killed, issue number one. Unfortunately, the extras in Brubaker/Phillips's monthlies generally do not get included in the collected editions, so if you're interested, you'd have to hunt this down in a back-issue bin. 

Perhaps as fitting dessert for being racist little shits, 70s Folk Horror often (but not always) arises from transplanting said fleeing urbanites to a rural setting that ultimately has something evil to hide. The evil almost always ties into some kind of Pagan or Naturalism, so I'm not really sure what the message is there other than "be afraid of everything." That said,  this formula worked for a while. More prevalent in novels that were then sometimes adapted to film, the best example of this Urban Flight/Folk Horror that I know of is Tom Tryon's Harvest Home, published in 1973 and was adapted into a 1973 tv miniseries in 1978. I have not yet felt the urge to track down the adaptation, seeing as I felt the novel was so good, to see it reworked for television felt... cheap to me. I might be wrong; maybe it's a banger. But I doubt it.

Let's Scare Jessica to Death definitely uses this same idea, however, I enjoyed the fact that this film is considerably more ambiguous about its rules and even sets up a correlation to a classic monster I did not see coming. Some of the narrative inner monologue we hear grows a bit tiresome, even if there is a question of its veracity, but I'm nitpicking here. The two things about this one I loved the most were A) Orville Stoeber's score, which predates Carl Zittrer's similar score for Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things by ten months and had to have been an influence on it. Children Shouldn't Play's score is one of my all-time favorite scores, so it should be no surprise to hear that the music was what finally roped me into watching this one. B) Speaking of influencing other films I love, Jessica also predates Gary Sherman's Dead and Buried by a decade, and there is no doubt Sherman drew from Jessica in the creation of his Seaside Horror classic. 

Alright, enough of the impromptu history lesson; here's the current tally for my 31 Days of Halloween:

1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin
2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"
3) VHS
4) All You Need is Death
5) Slashers (2001)
6) The Beyond/Phenomena
7) The Convent
8) Evil Dead 2
9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe
10) Totally Killer
11) Ritual (Joko Anwar)/The Final Terror/Grave Robbers
12) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (w/Joe Bob)
13) Never Hike Alone/Never Hike in the Snow/Never Hike Alone 2
14) Puppetman
15) Creepshow Season 4 Episode 1
16) Return of the Living Dead
17) Don't Look Now
18) When Evil Lurks
19) Barbarian
20) Demons 2/All Hallows Eve
21) May
22) Let's Scare Jessica To Death

Play:

Puppet Combo/Torture Star's Night at the Gates of Hell hit Switch a few months back, and other than the initial release, I don't think I've posted anything else because I haven't had a lot of time to play the game. Last night, I dug in for about two hours and really immersed myself in it. Verdict?

This might be my favorite of the 80s Horror-themed games these folks have released so far (nothing's coming close to No One Lives Under the Lighthouse).


The game goes all-in on 80s Horror tropes by even including nudity! I mean, that was not something I'd ever expected to see in a game, but topless women are indeed one of the major ingredients in 80s Horror, so hats off for taking it that far (while it's possible that, since before buying a Switch in 2022 I had not played a video game since the original Nintendo, I am just being naive and nudity filtered into the gaming experience a long time ago, but I doubt it). Also, the violence and gore are cranked to ten, which makes sense - the creators have stated this game is a love letter to the films of Lucio Fulci and Bruno Mattei, so again, to fully expand on the quantifiable criteria of those films, you can't really half-ass the gore. And as usual with Puppet Combo/Torture Star, the sound is exquisite and a major part of the scares in this one. Like Nun Massacre, Night at the Gates of Hell conjures an anxiety that I haven't felt in Horror since I was a kid watching many of the films I love for the first time.

Playlist:

Rein - Reincarnated
Frankie and the Witch Fingers - Data Doom
Twin Temple - God is Dead
Huey Lewis and the News - Sports
Orville Peck - Bronco
Billy Joel - The Stranger
Tear for Fears - Songs From the Big Chair
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis - Lawless OST

Card:

I'm going to Missi's Raven Deck for a single card this morning; just want a big picture at the moment:


Trump XIV is Art in the Crowley/Harris deck, and that's generally how I think of it. However, here I'd have to say the message is clear and has way more to do with the actual act of "Tempering," as in expectations. After a wonderful but exhausting weekend with my sister, her husband and my parents in town looking for houses, I think we're all caught up in the panic of moving on short notice (they have to be out by November 15th) and not seeing things for how they actually are. My parents especially need to temper their expectations of how this is going to change their lives, but also, I also think the rest of us have to work with them on that while adjusting our own sense of how this is going to go. I have no doubt they will find 'the right' house, however, it's going to take more time than they currently have. This means accepting the idea of putting their things in storage and having them move in with us for a bit, so they can actually see houses here without having to drive down for the weekend and then leave again. 
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Saturday, October 21, 2023

New Music from †††!!!


††† dropped the title track from their new album! You can snatch this up directly from the band HERE. I'll admit the way ††† have been releasing songs, I was a bit confused as to what was the EP and now the full-length. Either way, it's good to have Chino's "other" band cranking music out, as their nine year hiatus left me wanting a lot more.

31 Days of Halloween:

1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin
2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"
3) VHS
4) All You Need is Death
5) Slashers (2001)
6) The Beyond/Phenomena
7) The Convent
8) Evil Dead 2
9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe
10) Totally Killer
11) Ritual (Joko Anwar)/The Final Terror/Grave Robbers
12) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (w/Joe Bob)
13) Never Hike Alone/Never Hike in the Snow/Never Hike Alone 2
14) Puppetman
15) Creepshow Season 4 Episode 1
16) Return of the Living Dead
17) Don't Look Now
18) When Evil Lurks
19) Barbarian
20) Demons 2/All Hallows Eve

Read:

While I'm still dabbling away at the last ten percent of Clive Barker's The Scarlet Gospels (I hate to say this, but it's awful beyond what I ever could have imagined), I couldn't help but begin reading Weird Walk's new, collected tome. 


If you are not familiar with Weird Walk, it's a British zine whose contributors walk the countryside in an effort to reconnect with the natural world of their ancestors. The ideology behind this often has to do with a hauntological approach to innoculating the failings of the present with the knowledge of our past. To quote the book's preamble:

"In Britain today we live in thrall to timetabels and technology, our lives increasingly scheduled and surveiled. Much of the population live in towns and cities (83 percent as of 2019), disconnected from the rural lives of our ancestors...The accepted notion in our modern present is that any kind of magical thinking... belongs to an older age...We are conditioned to push back against any sense of innocent bewilderment with nature and it's mysteries... If ubran and suburban surroundings reinforce this desacralised thinking, it follows that a shift to more pastoral realms might be a first step towards opening the door to re-enchantment."

As I said, the initial format of Weird Walk is an almost pamphlet-like paper zine. Seeing the content recreated in this gorgeous hardcover brick feels like a massive accomplishment for intellectual thought; the kind of victory that, in 2023, feels far too scarce.

Playlist:

My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult - I See Good Spirits and I See Bad
Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Smile OST
Bauhaus - Burning From the Inside
Prince - Sign O' the Times
Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh
Rein - Reincarnated
Ulver - Teachings In Silence
††† - Good Night, God Bless, I Love U, Delete

Card:

During my recent travels I had to rely on the Mini-Thoth deck my good friend Missi gave me. It'd been a minute since I'd used this one; I carry it with me daily, however, my daily Pulls usually occur at my desk, and I have my Bound Tarot and full-size Thoth there, so I hardly ever pull the travel deck out of my backpack. Using it again, I realized I have a bit of a disconnect from the cards, so I'm trying to remember to use it at least once a week.



Lots of big themes at play today. We have Change, Will and - in this case at least - I'm reading Trump IV as Exploration. This fits. My parents are in town, and we're looking for a house for them now that theirs is sold. The deadline is coming up fast, so there's definitely a feeling that our shoulder is against the grindstone (moved by Will alone). My Father is expressing doubts they can pull this off, but I have no doubts whatsoever - here's our path forward. Heed the cards.
Picture 

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Thursday, October 19, 2023

New Music from Idles!!!

 

From the forthcoming album TANGK, available February 16th on Partisan Records. Pre-order HERE. 

I really dig both this track and this video, which is a rarity all around. Idles has such a fantastic way of revving up the chaos but somehow keeping it streamlined and a touch poppy. 

31 Days of Halloween:

1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin
2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"
3) VHS
4) All You Need is Death
5) Slashers (2001)
6) The Beyond/Phenomena
7) The Convent
8) Evil Dead 2
9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe
10) Totally Killer
11) Ritual (Joko Anwar)/The Final Terror/Grave Robbers
12) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (w/Joe Bob)
13) Never Hike Alone/Never Hike in the Snow/Never Hike Alone 2
14) Puppetman
15) Creepshow Season 4 Episode 1
16) Return of the Living Dead
17) Don't Look Now
18) When Evil Lurks

Watch:

A trailer finally dropped for William Brent Bell's new film, Lord of Misrule. Check it out:  

I can't say I've seen Mr. Bell's other films - not out of any kind of boycott, more just a lackadaisical oversight - but when I saw this mentioned as a Folk Horror film a few months ago, I made a mental note to be on the lookout for more information. I watched about half the trailer, and I'm in, so the release date of December 8th can't come fast enough.

Playlist:

The Damned - Evil Spirits
The Cramps - RockinnReelinInAucklandNewZealandXXX
The Misfits - Collection II
King Woman - Celestial Blues
My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife
Adam Egypt Mortimer - The Obelisk
Soul Blind - Feel It All Around
Bauhaus - Burning From the Inside

Card:

Back to the old trusty Thoth deck for today's Pull:


Absolutely no time this morning to decipher this, so I'm merely posting for posterity's sake, but from a glance, looks to be another "lust of result will fuck you up" Pull.
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Wednesday, October 18, 2023

Nuthin' But a Gorehound

 
From their 1983 live album, Smell of Female, here are the immortal Cramps with a song I think a lot of Horror fans can relate to.

I'd never heard this live album before, but like most of those I have heard from The Cramps, it's fantastic. There are some hysterical introductions and asides from Lux, and Ivy's guitar seems particularly "trash heap" in its stringing and tuning, which of course, adds to the band's overall sound this particular night in 1983, arguably smack dab in the middle of their prime.

31 Days of Halloween:


1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin
2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"
3) VHS
4) All You Need is Death
5) Slashers (2001)
6) The Beyond/Phenomena
7) The Convent
8) Evil Dead 2
9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe
10) Totally Killer
11) Ritual (Joko Anwar)/The Final Terror/Grave Robbers
12) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (w/Joe Bob)
13) Never Hike Alone/Never Hike in the Snow/Never Hike Alone 2
14) Puppetman
15) Creepshow Season 4 Episode 1
16) Return of the Living Dead
17) Don't Look Now

NCBD:

My picks for NCBD; watch for this week's episode of Drinking with Comics tomorrow where I'll talk a bit more in-depth about each of these:


Coming out of that Wolverine Crossover, I'm not entirely sure where we are in Benjamin Percy's Ghost Rider. That's not the book's fault; I actually think this issue might be the start of a new arc that gives us a little more information on Talia Warroad and her upbringing in the Cult of Mephisto. Could be very cool to explore the MCU's version of a "Satanic Cult," only based around Mephisto. I'd love to see a character like Frank Castle's old nemesis The Reverend pop up here, but that's doubtful. Still, if they could tap into a tone comparable to those old Mike Baron Punisher stories, that'd be fantastic, but I'm basing this on absolutely nothing outside my own agenda.


I'm digging that we get to see so much Corinthian for sure, however, I feel like I need to go back and re-read all of Nightmare Country and Nightmare Country: Glass House in order to move forward. The Thessaly one-shot that carried the story between Part 3 and 4 threw me a bit. Time to recalibrate. Tynion's doing an incredible job of giving us a new story worthy of having "Sandman Presents" on the cover, with a tone that definitely falls right in line with the first two trades of the original Sandman series. 


Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino's Tenement is picking up speed, and every issue gets darker, weirder and, well, better! Can't wait to see where we're going today.

LOVE this cover. I'm an issue or two behind on TMNT, so here's another one that it's time to catch up on.

Playlist:

Joy Division - Closer
My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife
My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult - I See Good Spirits and I See Bad Spirits
Ministry - The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste
The Cramps - Smell of Female (Live)
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Talk About the Weather
Trust Obey - Fear and Bullets (half 1994 Edition and half 1998 Edition)
Bauhaus - Burning From the Inside

Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.



• Queen of Cups - the watery aspect of water - High Emotional Understanding
• Three of Wands - Inner aspirations 
• XII: The Hanged Man - Sacrifice

Sacrifice for your Art. There's really no other way to read this. Seeing this, I'm going to make a point to spend extra time working on the book this weekend. I'm in what is probably the second-to-last pass on Black Gloves and Broken Hearts, and it sounds like it's time to turn up the productivity levels a bit more than I already have.
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Tuesday, October 17, 2023

I'm the White Rabbit

 

From their 1990 MASTERPIECE, Confessions of a Knife. I've probably posted this one half a dozen times here before, and I'll probably do so again. Doesn't matter - classic track from a classic album, and a staple of my October listening.

31 Days of Halloween:


I totally missed the fact that Creepshow was returning to Shudder for a fourth season this October, so when I saw it drop this past Friday, 10/13, though I was busy watching Never Hike Alone 2, I made a note to try to get to at least one episode over the weekend. Sunday night I did, and in typical Creepshow fashion, the first episode was pretty damn great. The opening segment "Twenty Minutes with Cassandra," written by Jamie Flanagan and directed by Greg Nicotero is everything about this show that is great. I loved that they leaned into humorous but not comedic territory, and what I mean by that is the humor comes from the characters in relation to the situation, not simply the characters or the situation. This one stars Samantha Sloyan and Ruth Codd, both of whom I knew from Mike Flanagan's previous work (Writer Jamie is his brother). The second segment "Smile" was also good; however, "Cassandra" really stole the show here. I'm hoping the rest of the season will stand as strong. 

1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin
2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"
3) VHS
4) All You Need is Death
5) Slashers (2001)
6) The Beyond/Phenomena
7) The Convent
8) Evil Dead 2
9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe
10) Totally Killer
11) Ritual (Joko Anwar)/The Final Terror/Grave Robbers
12) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (w/Joe Bob)
13) Never Hike Alone/Never Hike in the Snow/Never Hike Alone 2
14) Puppetman
15) Creepshow Season 4 Episode 1
16) Return of the Living Dead

Playlist:

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Blood Lust
Ennio Morricone - John Carpenter's The Thing OST
Type O Negative - Origin of the Feces
Zeal and Ardor - Eponymous
My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife
Misfits - American Psycho
Type O Negative - Dead Again
Sleep Token - Sundowning
The Damned - Evil Spirits

Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.


• Four of Swords 
• I: The Magician
• IV: The Emperor

Lots of Fours in my vocabulary of late, which tends to indicate Stability first and foremost. I read this one as a reminder to keep one eye on the structure of the life we've built out over the previous year. I harbor a lot of plans, as does K, and often pretty easy to look right past what you have. The Skill and Wisdom of the Magus (Magician) tempered by the structure of linear thinking (my read on The Emperor in this particular instance) is a great structure for moving forward. 
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