2018: August 6th

How have I never posted this song before? SO good.

I watched Horsehead last night on Prime. I was really looking forward to this "Art House Horror" flick that keeps popping up in my periphery. I dug it visually, but I don't know that I loved the movie overall. Definitely worth watching - there's some gorgeous set design and costumes. But it seemed a bit style over substance.




Playlist from Sunday, 8/05:

Emma Ruth Rundle - Medusa (single)
Suburban Living - Video Love (single)
Windhand - Grey Garden (pre-release single)
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Christine - Sam Was Here OST

Card of the day:

You know, I pulled a card this morning, but I have no idea what the hell it was.

2018: August 5th

Time for some Shudder curation. I watched two movies last night. Well, one and a half. The first I LOVED. Above is the very Carpenter-esque theme from Sam Was Here, a really cool, very understated psyche-out in the California desert. Having spent a pretty good amount of time out there, I related. That wasn't the only reason I dug the film though. But to go into that, with this movie, would be venturing into spoiler territory. I'll leave it at, "Definitely recommended" and move on.

The second film I attempted to watch and gave up on was 1979's The Visitor, which is one of the 'evil child' movies that came in the wake of The Exorcist's success. This one was painstaking, despite the cast being STACKED with a young Lance Henrikson, Shelley Winters, Sam Peckinpah (yep), and John Huston. Yes, JOHN HUSTON. I have no idea if intermittent internet outages and a recent predilection for sleep at an early hour on Saturdays had anything to do with my impatience, but I could not make it through this one. I may try again at some point. Cool poster, though:

Finished The Deer Park by Norman Mailer. I ended up giving it a three-star rating based on what I interpreted was a failure of the narrative device the author uses. I've got a short review on Goodreads HERE. From there, I've moved back into a book I started earlier in July but put aside to press through the Mailer. Exploring Short Dark Fiction is a series published by Dark Moon Books, each one of the two currently available a contemplation on a highly regarded writer, with three's Primer to Nisi Shawl due out later this month and a fourth on the way before year's end. Number two is A Primer to Kaaron Warren, a highly regarded Australian author I would recommend to fans of Neil Gaimen, John Crowley and even Tim Burton. I'm a little over halfway through the stories and love them, and am looking forward to the wealth of supplemental material in the back of the book!

Playlist from Saturday, 8/03:

Justin Furstenfeld - Songs from Open Book
Windhand - Grey Garden (pre-release single)
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
The Body - I Have Fought Against It, But I Can't Any Longer
True Widow - AVVOLGERE
Windhand/Satan's Satyrs - Split

And the playlist from 8/04 was all vinyl!

Black Sabbath Vol. 4
The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes are the Roaring Night
Nothing - Guilty of Everything
Joy Division - Closer

Card of the day:

From the Grimoire: "All troubles and disruptions have been necessary to grow. The growth is a Victory, as not everyone makes it out of the Strife and Chaos of the fives."

Very relevant, and the cards continue to illustrate that, as this is the second time in just over two weeks I've pulled this one. The last time was HERE, and you'll see I tie Victory's appearance into the strife of working on my latest short, Please Believe Me, which still is not finished, primarily because I've unfortunately only written twice in the last week. Never a good thing, the exhaustion inertia I've carried since last week's on-call shift has turned into regular old 'out-of-the-habit' inertia. I spent the day yesterday cleaning and reading instead of writing. NOT acceptable. The appearance of this card again creates a bit of a loop, so that I will use it to signal my return to beast mode, and today I will finish Please Believe Me, re-script the first half of the first issue of The Legend of Parish Fenn (I may post sample art soon - it's f*&king incredible!), and get a bit more done on the new idea artist extraordinaire John Grimm and I had recently.

Now that would be a Victory.

2018: August 3rd - NEW WINDHAND!!!

This absolutely made my day! I've had a feeling for a while that a follow-up to one of my favorite records of the last ten years, Grief's Infernal Flower, was due, especially after that split 7" with Satan's Satyrs earlier in the year.

Listening to Grey Garden for the first time, my initial observations are:

1. The bass sounds like a fucking motor tucked into just the right spot beneath those twin guitars; reminds me a bit of the bass on my favorite tracks from Soundgarden's Superunknown.
2. Producer Jack Endino really brought Dorthia's vocals up in the mix here, and that's fantastic news.
3. The artwork, by Arik Roper, is beautiful beyond words, and somehow reminds me of the writing of Clarke Ashton Smith.

Eternal Return is slated to release on October 5th; pre-order it on Relapse Record's website HERE.

Playlist from yesterday:

Shockwaves Podcast 101 - Tubular Bells

Shockwaves Podcast 099 - Graham Skipper 

Tennis System - Pain EP

I'm sure I'm forgetting something I listened to, because I find it hard to believe that other than that Tennis System it was all Shockwaves, but work was nuts, so it took me a while to chew through most of two whole hour-plus podcasts.

I took K to see one of her favorite musicians last night, again at the Hotel Cafe. This time it was Justin Furstenfeld of the band Blue October. Justin does this "Open Book" show that's him on a small stage, telling stories from his life and accenting them with acoustic songs. I can't confess to being much a fan of the band, but as a low-key performer he was endearing and has a pretty great voice. This stories run the gamut from funny to hard-life-lessons-wrought, and in discussing being put on Paxil at 15, he solidified a theory I've had for a while now: the reason I can't directly relate to a lot of the music from the 00s is because that was the first generation of 'rock stars' - take Justin as an example of what that means today - raised on pharmaceuticals (ie anti-depressants) and, having never had that experience, it creates a palpable rift between them, their music, and me. 

Card of the day:

From the Grimoire: "Big Change; think things through."Not certain what this is referring to, but I have a feeling I will know by the end of the day. Always good to have a forewarning against acting impulsively. 

2018: August 2nd

In just two days of sporadic listening, and after an initial and unfair dismissal upon its release earlier this year, The Body's I Have Fought Against It, But I Can't Any Longer is shaping up to be in my top ten if not top five of 2018. This is a POWERHOUSE of an album, and

The new and final of my Drinking, Fighting, F*&king, and Crying installments is up HERE - I'm hoping my fellow writers at Joup jump on this column and make it their own. It probably will no longer be a regular publication, but irregular's just as good.

Playlist from Wednesday, 8/01:

Shockwaves Podcast 104 - Paul Tremblay
Tennis System - Pain
Cold Cave - Cherish the Light Years
Johnny Marr - Call the Comet
The Body - I Have Fought Against It, But I Can't Any Longer
Ministry - Dark Side of the Spoon
Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue
The Veils - Total Depravity

Card of the day:

This was apparently my friend Missi's pull today too. I don't have time to decode right now, but it's interesting we both received it.

2018: August 1st

Another fantastic Airiel song that the boys played Sunday at the Echoplex. Yes, I'm still living off the energy from the show - I'm waking up with Tennis System as I type this.


NCBD: The return of Rick Remender and Jerome Opena's Seven to Eternity!!!

Playlist from yesterday:

Algiers - The Underside of Power
Airiel - Winks & Kisses: Melted EP
Airiel - Molten Young Lovers
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Ministry - Dark Side of the Spoon
The Go Go's - Vacation

Also, broke back into the Shockwaves Horror Podcast and I am certifiably sold on it now. Episode 104 has an interview with Paul Tremblay, whose 2015 novel A Head Full of Ghosts should be on every Horror Hound's reading list. Best take on a possession story in ages. And... in discussing his literary peers, Mr. Tremblay mentions that one of my favorite recent novellas, Nathan Ballingrud's The Visible Filth, just wrapped filming with Babak Anvari at the helm, the release date slated for March, 2019. I could not be more excited for that!

Card of the Day:

Can indicate Occult Study. Interesting, as I've just begun a re-read on Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham's Nameless, and long-time readers here will remember I got into a little bit of trouble doing occult research/annotations for that series back when it came out.

2018: July 31st

Sunday night Tennis System killed it at the Echoplex! We missed the opener Topographies, walking in and only hearing their final song, which was great. Tennis System came up next and swift, which was nice. I'm not one to hold up a phone for video or photos at shows, but Such A Drag is important to K and I, so I knew I was going to catch that for sure (she stayed home due to work in the morning; I had already arranged a late start). When they went straight into one of my favorite songs from the new EP afterward, I figured I'd finish what I started.

The real surprise was the headliner, Airiel. This was a Part Time Punks show, as most if not every Sunday night is at the Echoplex, and Airiel's front man Jeremy Wrenn commended PTP founder Michael Stock on bringing them out to the West Coast after a ten year hiatus. These guys were humble, and they were fantastic. If you dig old albums by The Cure, The Smiths and especially the Cocteau Twins, check them out. Here's a great place to start:



Playlist from the last two days, more or less:

Ministry - Dark Side of the Spoon
Badfinger -
Tennis System - Pain EP
The Veils - Total Depravity

Write Dark Things playlist
Airiel - Winks & Kisses: Melted EP
Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue
Tennis System - Technicolor Blind

Card of the day:

Breakthrough! (let's hope)

2018: July 29th

About a month ago I put Ministry's Dark Side of the Spoon in my car with the intention of finally getting to know it as an album. I've been a Ministry fan since just after Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs came out in 1992. The Mind is a Terrible Thing To Taste will probably always remain my favorite release, line-up, and era for the band, but I stuck with them fiercely through all the changes over the years. Where some folks I knew turned away from them after Psalm, I loved Filth Pig from day one, and although I fell off briefly with Spoon, when Animositisomina hit as the follow-up, I was right back in the fold and remained there until recently. I still dig what Uncle Al does musically, I've just become less interested in following it.

At some point in the last five or six years I found a used copy of Spoon at Amoeba and figured, what the hell? But still, that grand discovery never followed. Recently that changed, and Eureka Pile is, to my ears, one of the stand-out tracks. Above is a video I found while looking for the song on youtube; I'd never come across Chemical Traces' work before, but I'm intrigued. With its labored lope and lackadaisical drawl, this is a hard song to do a video to and keep it interesting, and CT pulls it off. Also, the work is deeply personal, and that makes it doubly effective. I'm interested to see more of their work. Looking at their artist's page on Youtube I see a lot of what I'm interested in here, so I'll probably be posting some more of Chemical Traces' work here in the future.

Into the last third of Norman Mailer's The Deer Park. If you're a fan of literary prose, specifically very Fitzgerald-esque literary prose, this novel should go on your list. It drifts a bit in the middle, but I'm enjoying this walk through 1950's McCarthyism Hollywood debauchery, set in a fictional oasis in the California desert.

Tennis System tonight at my beloved Echoplex. Haven't been there in a while, and I realized it's almost two-and-a-half years since I discovered this awesome Los Angeles band opening for Eagulls at the Teragram. Here's a Flock of Seagulls cover I had never heard them do before:




Playlist from yesterday:

The Veils - Total Depravity
True Widow - AVVOLGERE
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Cold Cave - Cherish the Light Years
Ministry - Dark Side of the Spoon

Card of the day:

From the Grimoire: "When this card comes, go for your dreams - better than average chance something will pan out on a day ruled by this card."

2018: July 28th

I listened to True Widow's AVVOLGERE all the way through several times yesterday while in the midst of an outstanding writing session. Many props to Keller, who I met with on Thursday and who gave me invaluable notes on T12, which he is currently editing. Super charged by that, I sat in my writing nook for a straight two hours in the late morning/early afternoon yesterday and really made progress on Please Believe Me. I know it was two hours because one of the things Keller recommended to help me was a time tracker app that I downloaded and used for the first time. ATracker Pro should be good for me, as previously I've tended to either write for a nebulous two-three hours, or, as was the case during the T12 sprint, by word count; Scrivener has a Project Target feature that allows you to input a due-by date and a desired end word count, and then calculates a daily word goal based on that. I dig this function, as it inspires me to write everyday (thought I don't really need external incentive any more) so the daily targets stay relatively low, however it can create scenarios where you end up consciously or unconsciously word-stuffing, just to make the daily requirement. This is then felt during the editing process. I don't know that I ever consciously word stuffed on T12, however, on days when I would write and edit at the same time, I'd build up a daily count and then anything I would remove would be subtracted from that. Thus, there were a few occasions where I would write, let's say 2K words, edit out a large swathe of material further on, and be back to near zero again. THAT can be a morale killer.

Playlist yesterday:

True Widow - AVVOLGERE
The Veils - Total Depravity
The Misfits - Collection Two
Ministry - Dark Side of the Spoon
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Drab Majesty - The Demonstration

Card of the day:

From the Grimoire: "Attainment/Success through Effort. Result from hard work. Solid foundation. Balance." - Fitting, based on the topic of today's entry, eh?

2018: July 26th

I am kind of becoming excited for the Sandman Universe comic line, despite absolutely hating the most recent Neil Gaimen Sandman series Overture. I have to give it another try, if for no other reason than JH Williams III's absolutely mind bending art.

The penultimate edition of my Drinking, Fighting, F*&king, and Crying is up HERE. Like last week, I didn't think I'd have one for today, as I've been so busy at work and have been nearing the completion of my short "Please Believe Me", however in the midst of my strange, heat-inspired sleep deprivation, I lay down for a nap yesterday after work and found myself once again unable to drift off. After about thirty rather frustrating minutes of this, I picked up the book I'm currently reading, Norman Mailer's The Deer Park, and read for a while. Prose like this always inspires me, and it wasn't long before I was up and seated at the desk in my writing nook. I put in my headphones, cued up Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross's brilliant OST for The Social Network, and disappeared into my story for two hours. And this was the first session where I really nailed it. I mean, I'd been fretting over this story, because after several weeks of immersive work on it, I just wasn't nailing the tone I wanted. I didn't feel it coming together the way I'd felt all of the stories in A Collection of Desires come together, and as writing is a blind walk in a dark room - complete with a lot of bumping into things that smart - I was unsure if this one would ever get 'there.'

It's there.

I'm not all the way through it yet, but I'm halfway through a mostly polished piece, and hope to have it wrapped within the next few days.

Playlist from yesterday:

Kate Bush - The Dreaming
Rollins Band - The End of Silence
Jimmy Scott - Greatest Hits
Miranda Sex Garden - Fairytales of Slavery
Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - The Social Network OST

Card of the day:

Ready for some financial breakthroughs, that's for sure.

2018: July 25th - New Video from Nothing

New Nothing! The album drops on August 24th and you can pre-order it from Relapse Records HERE and on their bandcamp.


Playlist from 8/24:

Killing Joke - Nighttime
Grimes - Visions
!!! - As If
NIN - Ghosts I-IV

No card again today. I' buttonholed at work with extensive logistics for the importation/exportation of live cells from South Africa into the U.S. and I have barely had time to do anything. Couple with this a pervading exhaustion, and a somewhat frustrating preoccupation with getting >60 seconds DwC clips on youtube to try and drum up views (of which we get no where near as many as I feel we should based on the amount of work I put in on editing), and I'm running on mental empty, so I can't even remember to pull from the Thoth Deck before I leave for work, and it takes all the free time I can muster in-between tasks at the office to even type this much out, let alone pull a card and attempt to interpret it.

2018: July 24th - Deadly Class Trailer!!!

Holy cow. One of my favorite comics turned into a show that looks this good? Count me in! And kudos for using my favorite Killing Joke song - perfect match.


Playlist from Monday, 7/23:

James - Wah Wah
Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss
Sqürl - EP #1 - EP
Marilyn Manson - AntiChrist Superstar
Andre Previn & The London Symphony Orchestra - Samuel Barber: Adagio for Strings, Op. 11
David Lynch - Crazy Clown Time
Underworld - Barbara Barbara, We Face A Shining Future
NIN - Ghosts I-IV


No card today.

2018: July 23rd

Joup's Amy Riley reached out to me with a link to her nephew's band, and pretty much from the moment I hit 'PLAY' I was hooked. Waste Man is fast and frenetic, reminds me of Blue Meanies, Mr. Bungle, Dyslexic Apaches and one of my own former bands, Universal Product. Good stuff. Their band camp can be found HERE, click on over and support a great indie band.


Playlist from Sunday, 7/22:

Beak> - L.A. Playback
Johnny Marr - Call the Comet
True Widow - AVVOLGERE
Boy Harsher - Country Girl E.P.
Boy Harsher - Yr Body is Nothing
Deafheaven - Sunbather
John Carpenter - Lost Themes

Card for the day:

New journey, new story.

Drinking w/ Comics #42

With special guest all the way from the Philippines, Karen Kunawicz! We talk Robert Kirkman, Scott Gimple and Chris Fucking Burnham's new book Die! Die! Die! and opinions are divided - I LOVED the first issue of this unannounced series, Chris and Karen... not so much. Other topics of discussion include but are not limited to Imaginary Fiends, which has some fantastic creature designs (see below), Her Infernal Descent and Holly Interlandi and Sally Cantirino's Last Song.

2018: July 21st

I just realized Tennis System has a new E.P. out the other day, and not long after Keller messaged me to ask if I was down to see them at a Part Time Punks show at the Echoplex next Sunday.

My response? Fuck. Yes.

Per my previous blog, we watched Triangle on Friday night. Fantastic film. I was a little worried that the thumbnail image on Shudder - which was the widespread poster image for the film - had ruined the twist of the film for me (I was so concerned about this that I doctored the thumbnail I posted here the other day, so as not to ruin it for anyone else), but the good news is that particular twist is inevitable right from the start and not at all the point of the film. So definitely worth a watch.

Oh! And speaking of Shudder, one more reason to love these folks - they surprised me with a free 30 days! How great is that? So, let's check the boxes on why Shudder is awesome (and, btw, not an affiliate):

1) They Sponsor Beyond Fest every year.
2) Great selection that grows every week
3) Hosting the Joe Bob Briggs Last Drive-in and leaving it up in perpetuity
4) Their live-streaming Shudder.TV channels are awesome and remind me of how I discovered horror back in the day (John Carpenter on WGN channel 9's nightly movie).

Playlist from Friday, 7/20

Emma Ruth Rundle - Marked for Death
Daughters - Satan in Wait (Pre-release single)
Beak> - L.A. Playback
Lake Trout - Another One Lost
Ministry - Dark Side of the Spoon
Converge - The Dusk in Us
Emma Ruth Rundle - Fever Dreams (Pre-release single)
True Widow - AVVOLGERE
Uniform - The Walk (Pre-release single)
Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit
Johnny Marr - Call the Comet

I spent about twelve hours yesterday editing, uploading and post the new episode of DwC. Possibly the fastest turn-around I've done on my own, but it cost me my Saturday. I mean, I didn't do anything else, as reflected by my playlist, which was what we listened to while we made and ate dinner.

Playlist from Saturday, 7/22:

Footloose - OST
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

I watched Slither last night for the first time since my initial viewing, many years ago. Great little horror flick. Between that and Super - which I loved - I'm pretty sure James Gunn will have no trouble re-acclimating to making movies again. I'm sorry for the loss of such a huge contract and opportunity at the hands of adolescent-like immaturity, and I'm even more sorry for those MCU fans that will be subjected to GoG without Gunn at the helm, but I'm excited Mr. Gunn will once again be making movies that I will actually see.



Card of the day:

From the Grimoire: "All troubles and disruptions have been necessary to grow. That growth is a Victory, as not everyone makes it out of the strife and chaos of the fives."

The story I've been working on, "Please Believe Me" is so far outside of what I've done before, as far as character and overall tone, that my writing sessions have been strife and chaos. It can't be underreported, the feeling of sitting down during my daily ritual space for writing and coming away two or three hours later with nothing useable, or merely sketches of the tone and ideas that I want. Please Believe Me is meant to be a contemplation of Dread, which is far and away a different tone and emotion than horror, and finding the parameters of that tone inside of how I would normally write, how I would move a character or set a scene to progress, it's just not easy.

But it's rewarding, I'll tell you that.

Is today the day I finish it? Maybe.

2018: July 20th

I was completely unfamiliar with Daughters before finding this in my youtube feed (which I have gone to GREAT lengths to heavily curate, as a lot of what youtube recommends is complete and total shite). I dig this; there is an obvious Jesus Lizard comparison right off the bat, but also, Thrall, and the tension makes me think of a great, sick, dying beast. Possibly a beached whale.

How's that for your bagel and cream cheese Friday, eh?

Planning on writing and watching this tonight, as it was just added to Shudder:

Playlist from yesterday:

Lake Trout - Another One Lost

Cold Cave - Confetti

King Woman - Doubt E.P.

King Woman - Created in the Image of Suffering

Deafheaven - New Bermuda

Oathbreaker - Rheia

Write Dark Things Playlist

Drab Majesty - Careless

Card of the day:

2018: July 19th

I completely forgot how much I love this record! Lake Trout is 100% worth your time, especially this record, Another One Lost.

No Drinking, Fighting, F*&king, and Crying today. Taking a break before the last two editions emerge.

Playlist from 7/18:

Lake Trout - Another One Lost
Emma Ruth Rundle - Marked for Death
Cold Cave - Cherish the Light Years
King Woman - Doubt E.P.
Echo & the Bunnymen - Ocean Rain
Blut Aus Nord - 777 Cosmosophy
Boy Harsher - Country Girl E.P.

Card for the day:

I'm no astrologer, in fact I haven't really ever even read about astrology. However, because I've had such a rocky week, and because a lot of people I know are also having trouble sleeping, staying in good mental balance, and just feeling fucking normal, a friend of mine mentioned planets in retrograde being a common cause of disruption. Interesting then, that I pull the 5 of Swords - a card I'm not all that familiar with except as the classic "5" disruption of the Truce initiated in the "4" cards and a child of Geburah.  From corax.com:

"The deep crisis the Swords are going through in here also  result in the influence of Venus, the planet of emotion, harmony and sensitivity."

So the airy logic of the Sword is undermined by sensitivity and emotion. In myself, where logic is a goal but often undermined by a more off-the-cuff emotional leaning, that's like bulls butting heads.