2018: June 30th

I know this track from the OST for a movie called The Devil's Business. This is a soundtrack I love from a film I have never seen (need to change that). Because of this slightly obscure relationship with the material, I forget about this one for long stretches, something triggers my memory (usually an early, gray morning - the somber tone of this track always fits with an early, gray morning) and I pull it out for a few days. I don't think I need to explain that that is exactly what happened this morning as I woke up tired, and dragged myself through the preparatory hygiene required for me to go into work.

While listening in the car, I knew that since my drive would only take me ~20 minutes, I'd want to continue with the album once I got inside, punched in and began the tasks of the day. When I went to Apple Music, however, I was bummed to find the soundtrack was not there. As a work-around I googled the first track and for the first time in memory realized it was not a composer, but a band. After another quick search I found the track I wanted to post (above) AND I found an awesome band I had previously never heard of, Crippled Black Phoenix.

Playlist from 6/29:

Best Coast - Crazy For You
Zeal and Ardor - Stranger Fruit
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Windhand - Soma

I also subscribed to Bret Easton Elli's Podcast on Patreon and listened to two fantastic episodes:

B.E.E. Podcast - 6/15/18 James Van Deer Beek - wherein they discuss a lot of things, including but not limited to the 2001 70mm redux, Roseanne, Me Too and the usual woes of the business.

B.E.E. Podcast - 6/28/18 Ben Fritz - really great discussion about the death of Sony and the state of the movie business.

No card today.

2018: June 29th

New Alice in Chains went up earlier this week. I haven't listened to it yet, not suer that I'm going to until I can hear it in the context of the new album (which I'm not even sure we need), but I figured I've posted everything else recent they've done here so I might as well do this too, if only for posterity's sake:



I was unofficially tagged to do this week's edition of The Joup Friday Album and it's up HERE if you'd care to take a trip with The Atlas Moth to open your weekend.

Playlist from yesterday:

Liars - Eponymous
PLANETS - The Dark Woods
David Bowie - Diamond Dogs
Wire - Pink Flag
Wrong - Feel Great
Slayer - Reign in Blood
Zombi - Spirit Animal
The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir



Card of the day:

Unkindness and a lack of empathy. Hmm... Definitely going to keep my head down today.

2018: June 28th

My friend Anthony recently turned me on to these guys. Powerful stuff.

Final issue of Ed Brubaker and Sean Philips' Kill or Be Killed came out yesterday. Great series. I didn't LOVE the end, would have found it more fitting with the severity of the series if it had ended at the end of issue 19, HOWEVER, I didn't not like having 20 end the series, and I get why they did what they did. Brubaker and Phillips have proven themselves so I don't question their work, I just enjoy it.

Watched a really cool little movie on Shudder last night. Sweet Sweet Lonely Girl is an exercise in both atmosphere and restraint, and it is definitely worth your time if you like retro, slow-burn films bristling with soft dread you know is going to go tits up before the end.

The new Drinking, Fighting, F*&king, and Crying is up HERE.

Playlist from Wednesday, 6/27/18:

The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes are the Dark Horse
PLANETS - The Dark Woods
NIN - Bad Witch
FMLYBND - Letting Go
The Effigies - Remains Nonviewable
Protomartyr - Under Color of Official Right
Wrong - Feel Great
The Atlas Moth - The Ache of Distance
The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir

Card of the day:

Aim for the light and remain optimistic.

Trailer: Dead Center starring Shane Carruth

I am completely unfamiliar with Billy Senese and his 2014 debut Closer to God, but that's about to change. Just found this trailer via Birth.Movies.Death. - caught my eye when I saw Shane Carruth's name attached, as both Primer and especially Upstream Color are among the most thought-provoking films I've seen in years. One look at this trailer and I am sold!

Somehow I think both this and Mandy will be playing Beyond Fest this year. I really don't want to wait that long, but what an awesome environment that will be to see these in.

Panos Cosmatos' Mandy Trailer! Finally!

There is no film I am more excited about seeing in a theatre this year. When Cage is on he is on (granted that isn't very often). And, BILL DUKE!!!

2018: June 27th

Finished Orphan Black last night. Wow. Great ending. Really satisfying. I mean, we're not talking Six Feet Under or Breaking Bad here, but really good. Loved this series. The above track was in the fourth to final episode, at Felix's Gallery show. Good stuff. I'll miss these characters A LOT. That said, coincidentally enough, this comes out today:

Comic adaptations that continue shows we love are hit and miss and even as good as they can be (Dollhouse), they're not the original. That said, I can't pass this up just because of the seemingly crazy synchronicity of K and I finishing the series a few weeks (at least) after SSN 5 hit Prime one day before the first issue comes out.

Playlist from 6/26:

The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes are the Dark Horse
Radiohead - Kid A
Portishead - Third
Chromatics - Night Drive
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley

Card of the day:

From the Grimoire: "Emerging victories from a trying time; big change; think things through."

Pulled this right before a friend at work walked in and expressed concern about a situation taking place. He keeps talking about jumping ship (my metaphor, not his, but the sentiment's there). I told him thought he should hang tight and assess, which this Pull backs up.

2018: June 26th

A lot of Besnard Lakes lately. There's a certain, "Midwest Basement 90s" vibe that I need to tap into for my next big project, code-named HSL, and it requires that tone. So I'm dipping my toes in the sound of Great Lakes Rock, piecing together a short story that utilizes the same tone and generally trying to re-connect with the inner, seventeen-year-old me.

Weird.

Playlist from Monday, 6/25"
The Besnard Lakes Vol. 1
Lebanon-Hanover - Let Them Be Alien
Ice Age - Beyondless
Svvamp - 2
Ministry - Dark Side of the Spoon
NIN - Bad Witch
Faith No More - Angel Dust
Fantomas - Delirium Cordia
Flying Lotus - Los Angeles


Card for today:

From the Grimoire: "How True are you to your inner aspirations and Will? Denotes upon appearance a situation to know yourself, what you want, and throw your self doubt and fear away." I find that rather lovely. Also, as we're now apparently counting up through the Wands suit, coming on the back of Dominion yesterday, I feel as though this is more affirmation for my goals, which I continue to pursue rabidly.

2018: June 25th 5:27 AM

The Veils on my mind again:



Playlist from 6/24:

Deafheaven - New Bermuda
Beachhouse - 7
Barrie - Canyons (Single)

Card of the day:

From the Grimoire: "Indicates you are in charge of the way your life is unfolding. Striking the harmonic resonance that sees events occur as we would like them to. Planning - Thoughtfullness - Mojo." - Spot on, as I've been giddy all morning thinking about the fact that I just finished writing a 75k novel (it's expanding a bit as I edit each chapter once more in Grammarly) in 7 months (6 when you figure I had about 1 month off for our move). I feel like everything is going exactly according to the plan I have set up. And that's a damn good feeling.

2018: June 24th

Heard this in-between songs on my headphones yesterday while writing in my CBTL. How often do you find music you want to immediately download and listen to in a public place? Not very fucking often, that's for sure. But there are exceptions to every rule:






Playlist from 6/23/18:

NIN - Bad Witch
Beach House - 7
Preoccupations - New Material
Barrie - Canyons (Single)
Ice Age - Beyondless
Underworld - Beacoup Fish

2018: June 23rd 12:44 PM

New NIN dropped yesterday. I haven't listened to anything on it other than that God Break Down The Door song, which I quite liked for all its Bowie-ness. Figured I'd post it hear - I'll probably get to it later today, but I'd be curious to see comments about what anyone reading this who listens to it thinks. Trent remains an interest of mine, even if his lyrical persona and the subsequent 'Reznorisms" sometimes - sometimes - leads me to sigh.



BIG week at the Comic shop this week. NCBD is always a joy, but this week I had new Deadly Class, new TMNT, second issue of Garth Ennis's A Walk Through Hell (which was freakin' awesome!), the new Black Science, finally got the second issue of sold out Tinsel Town by David Lucarelli, Calexit #3, and new Gideon Falls and Days of Hate, probably my two favorite books right now (besides TWD, Deadly Class and Stray Bullets, which rule without me having to say so). Both Gideon Falls and Days of Hate are really starting to ratchet up, so it kills me a bit to see Days is on hiatus until August, but what's two months in the grand scheme? Also, a little love should be extended for IDW's TMNT - it is such a fantastic on-going redesign of a property I've loved since it helped kick off the 80s B&W Explosion. Issue 83 was a fantastic tale, juggling multiple storylines and character arcs in as deft a fashion as ever (this book has just gotten better and better at doing that). The Pantheon is a great addition to the cast, especially as it's super clear they are VERY influenced by Neil Gaiman's The Endless, from the Sandman books.

As I believe I mentioned earlier this month, I went in on a monthly Shudder sub and, although I haven't explored it fully yet, it's really a great subscription. Last time I brought this up I believe I mentioned Interior. I'll add Follow Me to the list now, another superb thriller that I thought unfolded beautifully from one of the best 'inciting incidents' I've seen in a while. Girlfriend gives her boyfriend a handgun for Christmas, asks him to put it in his mouth and pull the trigger if he trusts her.

And I'll just leave you with that... and yeah, it's a Christmas movie. In a sense.

Note: I used the Spanish Movie Poster here, because I like this one the best, but the film is not a Spanish-language film. Just in case anyone reading has an aversion to subs. I do not, but I know some people do.
Playlist from 6/22:

Radiohead - Kid A
Servotron - Meet Your Mechanical Masters

Slim day on the music. Crazy work day and a humungous nap afterward.

Card for today:

From the Grimoire (which I suspect by its tone was cribbed from Crowley): "The first step from the perfection of one divides it into two.

2018: June 22nd 7:17 AM

Jesus. Friday, just in the nick O' time, eh? Here's a little Tom Vek to wake us up:



I've been having trouble sleeping, and when I wake up I feel - as I do now - as though my spirit was too far away from my body. Discombobulation. Whatever the case, it's making everything in my AM a chore. Also, waking up stupid has made me repeatedly unable to get my shit together long enough to do a pull with my beloved Thoth deck. That means I've been relying on my pocket-sized back-up deck, The Hanson-Roberts, more heavily than I would like. Nothing inherently wrong with the H-R deck, I just very much prefer the esoteric elegance of Lady Freida Harris' art over the H-R's, which is so 'classic tarot' that it's hard to hate but also a bit trite, if you ask me.

Playlist from 6/21:

David Bowie - Reality
Van Halen - Eponymous (Not the singles)
Tom Vek - Luck
Savages - Silence Yourself
The Rolling Stones - Let it Bleed
Revocation - Teratogenesis EP
Wrong - Feel Great
Perturbator - Dangerous Days

Card of the day:

Wealth, as in a comfortable surplus of Earthly attributes. Also, the implication that we have directed our energies positively in order to get here. Sounds like a good omen to me as I crest into writing the final chapter of the T12 book.

2018: June 21st

There is a melancholic air to this song that absolutely floors me. I love it SO much. Corniglia is a band that I happened across on LA's music treasure, KXLU, one morning on the drive to work, and in the two or three weeks since I just cannot stop listening to them. The album, self-titled, is easily in my top of the year. One of the things I like so much about this is, in some strange way, it reminds me of the vibe I had in my head in the early 2000s - a kind of delicious airiness that translated to a gray hopelessness as I graduated College: the future loomed before me, I buried a friend, and I felt more alone than ever. The new Drinking, Fighting, F*&king, and Crying is up HERE and while it would seem to glorify a somewhat frightening moment in my life, it actually very much illustrates the loneliness I felt at that time. 2001-2002 was dark, and although I had an awesome band (The Yellow House) and awesome friends (particularly at that time Brown, Tim, Sonny, Grez, Dennis and Dave), I was somewhat adrift on a mindset so bleak that it spurred me into frequent drug use and several bouts of totally vapid sex, both very much unlike me. And some how, I hear elements of that hear.

I'm digressing, or maybe I'm not.

My point is that music is the same as all art in that, to modify a famous saying, the beholder gets out of it what they put in. That is to say, there is often baggage you bring with you when hearing a new band, new song, new album, and that baggage - snippets of color or image associations, emotions, whatever form it takes - shapes how you hear that music and, ultimately, what it will mean to you. What's even more interesting is your interpretation could be light years away from what was happening in the artist's head at the time - it doesn't matter. Having also made music and talked to people who got something out of it that I had never anticipated or intended, I can tell you that just the idea that something you made could have such a multi-textural effect on another soul is rewarding beyond description. So, while Corniglia may not have intended the melancholy associations I ascribe to their sound, I'm sure they won't mind if there music drives me to stay awake long past when I should have my head down, trying to capture in words something they have made me feel with their song.

Playlist from Odin's Day, 6/20/18:

Danzig 6: Satan's Child
David Bowie - Hunky Dory
David Bowie - Scary Monsters (and Super Freaks)
David Bowie - Reality
Nothing - Downward Years to Come
Various Artists - Reservoir Dogs OST
Corniglia - Eponymous

Card O' the day:

The Lovers again, and how it currently applies to my life is still escaping me. I need to make time to look further into this. Perhaps I will ask Missi.

2018: June 20th

I've been listening to the Lost Highway OST a lot again lately - it's never far from my ears - and I realized I don't think I've ever posted this track here blog before. Apple of Sodom, as well as Manson's cover of I Put A Spell On You, were the tracks that made me a fan of his. Previous to that, I actually disliked him quite a bit. The problem was, in the mid-90s when he first got huge, depending on what interview you caught with Manson, he might come off like a complete tool. Those were the interviews I saw initially, including one at Woodstock '94, which was right around the time Jeffrey Dahmer was killed in prison. During an interview with Empty-V, Riki Rachtman asked Manson if he felt sadness at Dahmer's passing and Manson went on some asinine diatribe about how a he felt a little piece of him had indeed died with the imprisoned serial killer. Now of course, I realize that Manson was probably fucking with the moronic VJ, while at the same time playing up the stupid image much of his fanbase at the time ascribed to him (the guy singing about worshipping no one but yourself liked to fuck with those who worshipped him). Whatever the motivation, as an early encounter with his persona, I rejected it. It wasn't until the Lost Highway OST that Manson's music music begin to seduce me, and dovetailing with that, a friend lent me his Autobiography, which fully revealed just how smart this guy was. Finally, a rebuttal Manson penned in Rolling Stone magazine post-Columbine, after being blamed as a catalyst for the event, was so well written and thought provoking, I plunged headfirst into his music. I really can only lay the 'genius' tag on two MM records - Antichrist Superstar and Mechanical Animals, but the man is an icon and a really good motivator for self empowerment if you listen to the lyrics. A couple of years ago I recall finding a lot of strength in Superstar while my life was imploding around me and the person I had trusted the most repeatedly stabbed me in the back. I remember her commenting on me listening to Superstar a lot at the time, as if she felt threatened by it. She was right to feel threatened - it helped me stay afloat in one of the most tumultuous times of my life.

Playlist from 6/19:

Danzig 1
Belong - Common Era
Nothing - Zero Day (single)
Nothing - Downward Years to Come
Christopher Young - Hellraiser OST
Marilyn Manson - Antichrist Superstar
Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
Various Artists - Lost Highway OST

2018: June 19th

Gorgeous new Beach House video.

Watched Evil Dead (2013) for about the fifth time last night, as K had never seen it. SO fucking good. Please Mr. Alvarez, make that sequel!!!

Playlist from 6/18:

Chasms - On the Legs of Love Purified
Wrong - Fee Great
Cocksure - TVMALSV
Beach House - 7
Nothing - Zero Day (single)
Them are Us Too -
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley

Card today:

The Emotional Aspect of Air. Wielding the Will with emotional maturity. Knowing when to back off and when to be assertive.

2018: June 18th - New Music from Nothing

Wow! There's a new Nothing record coming soon.



Just realized that Season 5 of Orphan Black hit Prime - finally get to finish one of the best series I've seen.

Playlist from 6/17:
Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
Venue - Desireena
Guns and Roses - Appetite for Destruction
Cocksure - KKEP
Nothing - Guilty of Everything
Secret Chiefs 3 - Traditionalists -Le Mani DestreRecise Degli Ultimi Uomini

Card of the day:

Union. Duality. Harmony within. Uniting opposites or complimentary aspects. I'm not entirely sure how any of this applies to me currently; what I've listed is very surface reading, so I could dig a lot deeper. Not on a Monday, though.

2018: June 16th

I know I'm late to the game on this one, as I think Bad Witch came out over a month ago. I still dig NIN, but I haven't really been in a hurry to hear anything they've put out in a while. This is by far the most interesting track to me since Year Zero. I guess I'll finally be listening to the whole EP today.

Went into Hollywood and had a great creator meeting with Keller on T12 and our next project, which he's been outlining. I realized I've written an entire novel in just over six months. What's more, I actually did two passes on the first half. And this iteration is nearing completion. So in a week or two I had him the full T12 novel, he hands me the outline for HSL and we switch places for a while. I turn out half of HSL, he edits T12, then we swap again. T12 will definitely be finished by at least October if not earlier, and HSL will be halfway done by then. From that point he begins the third of our first batch, and we move into 2019, by the end of which we have three completed novels, the release schedule hopefully looking something like this:

October 2018 - T12 (these are all working titles, as I'd guess you would have assumed)
First quarter 2019 - HSL
Third quarter 2019 - #3

In between, I'm hoping to have a novel and another anthology. But this is all pretty ambitious, I'll admit. Still, if I get half of this done - which I will - I'll be happy.

Playlist from June 15th:

Chris Connelly - Phenobarb Bambalam
Andre Previn & London Symphony Orchestra - Samuel Barber: Adagio, Violin Concerto
David Bowie - Diamond Dogs
Run DMC - Raising Hell
Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique (side 2)
Gang Starr - Code of the Streets (single)
The Atlas Moth - An Ache for the Distance
Dee-Lite- Sampladelic Relics & Dancefloor Oddities
Deafheaven - New Bermuda

Card for the day:

From the Grimoire: "Can indicate missing/failing to achieve a goal." - So, ah, should I take that as a direct comment on the diatribe up top?