2019: April 26th - Under the Silver Lake is Fantastic!

My good friend and increasingly frequent collaborator Jonathan Grimm flies in for a long weekend, so I took today off. With an open morning, I did what I've wanted to do all week - I rented Robert David Mitchell's Under the Silver Lake, altered my perception a bit, and fell into a film I'd ascribed an alarming amount of expectation to in the eight days or so since I first heard about it. With a run time of two hours and nineteen minutes, I knew I'd need a day off to give Mitchell's follow-up to It Follows a proper shake - lately anything with an above-average run time that I watch at night runs the risk of my nodding off. This isn't usually the film's fault; my early schedule and aversion to conservative bedtimes simply runs me ragged. All this aside, I'm happy to report I had a perfect morning, a perfect viewing experience, and I absolutely loved Under the Silver Lake. I don't want to say too much - I didn't even watch the trailer until after I'd seen the movie - so I'll leave you with three words: Approaching. Modern. Hitchcock.

That's big and hyperbolic, I know. Don't care. Visually, we still get some of that soft, pastel style of Mitchell introduced in The Myth of the American Sleepover and perfected in It Follows, though that has been combined with a real love of the medium, and the history of the Hollywood Thriller as a genre. The early scenes of Andrew Garfield's Sam following three girls in a convertible feel like they are pulled right out of Vertigo, as does the deference the story pays to the institutions and living spaces of Los Angeles, the likes of which were directed toward the cities and forests of Northern California in Hitchcock's masterpiece of obsession. Oh, and Disasterpeace knocks the score out of the park; gone are the synths, replaced instead with string-and-brass instrumentation one would also associate with Hitchcock, De Palma and their lineage, both forwards and backwards in time.

Oh yeah, and David Yow from the Jesus Lizard is in it. When is that not a sign of good things?

$5 rental on Amazon. Absolutely worth it, but wait until you have the time to sink slowly into a winding mystery. This films tastes best when allowed to breath.

**

Playlist from 4/25:

Soundgarden - Louder than Love
Totalselfhatred - Eponymous
Queens of the Stone Age - Rated R
Queens of the Stone Age - ... Like Clockwork
Queens of the Stone Age - Villains
Windhand - Eternal Return

Rounded the tunes out last night, driving home from Hollywood with KXLU program The Witching Hours as a sonic companion. GREAT show, and its host, DJ Marina, keeps an excellent website with news, prompt archives of playlists, and a bunch of other great stuff. Check it out HERE.

**

Card of the day:

From the Grimoire: "By adding to an idea's original form, we dilute it. Not inherently bad, just different. Expect ups and downs while fleshing out and developing anything."

Swamp Thing Trailer

So fucking in.

I guess I'll be subscribing to DCU after all.

2019: April 24th - New Mark Lanegan Band!

From the forthcoming record Somebody's Knocking, out October 18th on Heavenly Recordings, who have a wealth of information about the making of the album and some great quotes from Lanegan HERE. You can pre-order Somebody's Knocking HERE, though at this point it's only for digital. Hopefully when we get another track, there will be a vinyl link for pre-order as well.

Coincidentally, I dug Bubblegum out recently and played the hell out of it for a day or two. Such a great album. I didn't realize there was a new Lanegan Band record in the pipes. Excited.

**

The new Fangoria hits the shelves today. I have a copy on reserve at the Comic Bug, but after today I'm going to subscribe. There's a fantastic episode of the Shockwaves podcast from the last week or so with Fango editor-in-chief Phil Noble, where besides discussing all kinds of horror goodness, Noble talks about how, at this point, the revamped Fangoria is an expensive labor of love, and honestly, just spending the last few months with issue #2 I can see it. I make no bones about falling out of love with the previous incarnation of the magazine, which I thought Rue Morgue surpassed as the only 'need to read' horror zine on the stands some time in the early 00s. That said, Rue Morgue is still pretty damn cool, but Fangoria is back in a big way. Plus, between Fango and Ruck and Lark's Lazarus, I am LOVING the return of the prestige, quarterly format. So subscribing and supporting the mag at the source seems like the best thing to do if I want it to continue, which I do. You can subscribe too, if you click THIS link.

**

Playlist from 4/23:

Boy Harsher - Careful
Bauhaus - Vol. 1
Melvins - Houdini
Soundgarden - Super Unknown
Cocksure - K.K.E.P.
Cocksure - T.V.M.A.L.S.V.
Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor
John Carpenter & Alan Howarth - Prince of Darkness OST

No card today.

2019: April 23rd: Boy Harsher Audiotree Performance

Interesting this pops up in my youtube feed this morning, as I spent a good deal of time yesterday listening to Boy Harsher's Careful, reflecting on how much I love this damn record. Having seen them live last year as my introduction, I could watch these two for hours. Something about them is completely enthralling. It doesn't really come out here, I think, because there's just one song, and not enough for them to warm up.

Also, maybe it's because K and I finally finished Bates Motel - awesome through and through, by the way, although none of season seasons 4 or 5 can match the pacing of three - but Augustus Muller looks a bit like Norman Bates in this video.

**

NCBD tomorrow! I'm caught up and back in the flow, so here's my picks for the week:

Finally! Still one of the most intriguing books I read.

Having just caught up and read #3, it's no surprise Brubaker and Phillips' ongoing is one of my favorite books on the stands at the moment. I was way late to the Criminal Empire, many thanks to my good friend Joe Baxter for turning me onto the regular book. I'm hooked.

Shit. I missed issue 2, which means when the original Punk's Not Dead ended, I forgot to re-up the pull service on this second volume.

Big things ahead for this book and I can't wait.

**

Playlist from 4/22:

Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
Melvins - Houdini
Melvins - Stoner Witch
Boy Harsher - Careful
Revolting Cocks - Beers, Steers, and Queers
Misfits - Earth A.D.
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Sunn O))) - Kannon
Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor

No card today.

2019: April 22nd - New Helms Alee Track!

From the forthcoming album Noctiluca, which drops on Sargent House this Friday! Can't f&*king wait! Pre-order physical HERE or digital HERE.

**

The new film by It Follows director David Robert Mitchell drops on Amazon tomorrow (it was originally slated for today, but apparently got pushed back a day). I'm unclear if this will be available to rent or just buy. It's also playing a limited theatrical run in some city Monday through Wednesday this week. I've only known about this for about five days, and I've avoided all trailers or media, though I'm posting it here. It Follows is one of those films that immediately blew me away; I've never understood all the negativity thrown at that film. Also, The Myth of the American Sleepover was a great first film, so in my opinion, David Robert Mitchell is definitely someone I'm interested in keeping up with.



**

Playlist from 4/20:

Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger
Faith No More - King for a Day
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
Windhand - Eternal Return
Zombi - Shape Shift
Paramore - Riot
The Rolling Stones - Tide High and Green Grass
Michael Parks - The Best of Michael Parks

Playlist from 4/21:

Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Windhand - Soma

**

Card of the day:

This feels good, because I have two major things waiting to land, and I've been on shaky ground with both.

2019: April 20th - Swamp Thing Teaser

This dropped a few days ago, but I haven't had time to post here. There's an article on Bloody Disgusting - I think - that mentions this show is going to be pulling a lot from Alan Moore's seminal run on the book, the one that not only redefined Wrightson and Wein's character, but arguably the comics industry in general. If I hadn't witnessed that insane Doom Patrol sequence I posted a few weeks ago, I'd probably be a lot more skeptical of this. As it stands, that's two shows on the DC Universe app that I want to give a shot. That said, I don't know that I intend on subscribing to a DC streaming app regardless of whether or not they bring up a show with Jesus handing out free passes, so I guess I'll wait and see. Still, kudos to DC on finally getting something going, because I happened to see about ten minutes of that JLA movie on cable in a hotel recently, and all I can say is, no thanks.

**

My trip to the comic shop did NOT decimate my wallet, and now I've had a morning's worth of new books to read. My favorite this month? The return of Rucka and Lark's Lazarus, but in a quarterly, prestige format, with a shit ton of back matter:

Also, there's two big conflicts - probably wars, actually, coming in two of my favorite titles, and while  I'm pretty excited, I'm also a little afraid of the body count that may follow as a result:

I'm especially concerned about what's coming in TWD. With issue 200 on the horizon, my prediction remains that Rick Grimes will die, probably before the anniversary issue, just because Kirkman likes to defy expectation.

**

Didn't get to watch The Last Drive-In last night, so K and I will be watching Joe Bob this evening. Can't wait! And I've never seen either of the films he played this week.





**

Playlist from 4/18:

Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Deftones - Koi No Yokan
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
Drab Majesty - Careless
Drab Majesty - Ellipses (Pre-release Single)

Playlist from 4/19:

Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Grand Duchy - Petite Fours
The National - Trouble Will Find Me
Odonis Odonis - Reaction EP
The Thirsty Crows - Hangman's Noose
Canadian Rifle - Peaceful Death
Ghost - Opus Eponymous
Faith No More - King for a Day
Thought Gang - Modern Music

Card for the day:

I really need to do a deep dive on this card. I'll not waste time with another abbreviated interpretation right now. Needless to say, I suppose I'm supposed to control my emotions, but that just doesn't seem to fit right now.

2019: April 18th -New Track from Cold Showers!

You know, just between Felte Records, Sargent House, and Dais Records I would be in musical heaven. Case in point today, here's a new track from Cold Showers' upcoming album Motionless, out May 24th on Dais Records! You can pre-order the album HERE.

Speaking of pre-ordering from Dais Records, the link to pre-order Drab Majesty's upcoming Modern Mirror landed in my inbox earlier today. Really excited for both these records. I already snagged my copy of the clear red vinyl, but there's plenty of vinyl, CD, whatever left if you go HERE.

**

I can't remember if I've posted about the band Skating Polly here before or not, but the deeper my dive goes into this group, the more I think they may single-handedly usher in a return of the early 90s music sound. A good friend of mine has been chronicling their live shows with his camera for a while now; I saw the photos yesterday and they are awesome. And the band really looks like they sound, that is to say, even while they're paying homage to old Breeders, Nirvana, Pixies, whatever, they breathe a new life into it. Can't wait to see where their career takes them. Here's their website.

**

Playlist from 4-17:

Joe Mason - Music for Unrealized Cartoons

Secret Boyfriend - Furnishing the Void

Sleep - The Sciences

Joseph Lo Duca - Evil Dead 2 OST

No card today.

2019: April 17th - New Earth Track!

From the forthcoming album Full Upon Her Burning Lips, out May 24th on the frankly at-this-point unbelievable Sargent House. Pre-order physical HERE and digital HERE.

**

First day back in LALALand was a doozy. All the cliches: traffic, meetings, yuppies, hipsters, douche bags. I suppose this all seems exacerbated by the fact that I want to live in North Bend! All in due time. Talk about life goals.

**

NCBD today, and I'm so behind I don't even want to know what comes out today. I haven't been able to get into the shop in at least a month - yeah, I blog about what's coming out but my schedule has prevented me from stopping in so all that great stuff is just accruing into a massive bomb that is going to explode in my wallet, creating a black hole that will empty it.

**

Playlist from 4/16:

Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Brand New - God and the Devil are Raging Inside Me
Skating Polly - Queen for a Day (Audiotree Live)
Algiers - Underside of Power
Alice in Chains - Rainier Fog
Helms Alee - Sleepwalking Sailors

Card of the day:

This is telling me to continue to focus, as I did yesterday, on honing one of two stories to send into an open submission I've been waiting to see for a while. Information flowing quickly, which definitely means not to stall or overthink it, even if I am overhauling one of the two stories completely. Then I can dip back into Ciazarn.

New Drab Majesty!

I knew this was coming sometime soon, but wasn't sure when. And here's another case where I can't figure out how to pre-order vinyl! Well, for the time being, just double tap the embedded bandcamp player or click HERE and you can pre-order the digital.

2019: April 16th - New Music From Pelican!

From the forthcoming album Nightmare Stories - great title - available from Southern Lord on June 7th. You can pre-order the digital album HERE, not sure about physical copies yet, I couldn't find a link on the bandcamp or Southern Lord's site.

And that reminds me: Sunn O)))'s Steve Albini-produced Life Metal dropped on Record Store Day, but is apparently unavailable anywhere else at the moment. I totally forgot about this one - it would have definitely motivated me to find a record store while I was in Seattle. Anyone have any deets about further release schedules? I've checked both the band and Southern Lord's bandcamps, the Southern Lord Twitter, and a few other places and found nothing.

**

Flew into LAX yesterday and today, it's back to reality.

**

Playlist from 4/15:

Tricky - Maxinquaye
Sharon Van Etten - Remind Me Tomorrow
Zombi - Shape Shift
Stereolab - Margerine Eclipse
Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest
Calexico - The Black Light

Card of the day:

Looking for Illumination today.

2019: April 14th Nick Cave's Distant Sky Streaming Free

"The full-length concert film Distant Sky - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds live in Copenhagen will be available to stream for free between 19 and 22 April 2019. To access sign up at www.nickcave.com/distantsky."

K and I saw this last year during the limited theatrical engagement and it's fantastic. Definitely worth your time if you're a Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds fan.

**
Had breakfast at Twede's Cafe yesterday, better known to Peaks fans as The Double R. Would it surprise you to find out that it is indeed where pies go when they die? (Yes, pie for desert at breakfast).

Now I am glad K made me wait to eat this until she could take a picture.

The trek to Seattle was easy from North Bend, but honestly, I wish we'd just stayed the duration in North Bend. Nothing against Seattle, but it's a different thing. Also, there's so much development here it kind of makes my head spin. When Mr. Brown, Two, and I were here in July 2017 I thought there was a lot, but it continues unabated. It's now Amazon: The City.

We did the Bill Speidel Underground tour, which was super cool; anything that puts me in tunnels beneath the Earth is something I'm automatically going to love. All those decayed and forgotten passages - well, not really forgotten in the context of dozens of tours going through them everyday, but forgotten in the sense that there's a whole city down there! Marvelous.

The tour combined with our last exploring of North Bend/Snoqualmie and the drive, and we were done. Ate dinner at the pub in our hotel, The Merchant Cafe, drank a few of these (below), and retired to our room where we attempted to watch the first leg of Week 3 of Joe Bob Briggs The Last Drive-In on Shudder, but I was probably out by 10:00 PM.

Playlist from 4/13:

Blut Aus Nord - Memorial Vista II: Dialogue with the Stars
Sharon Van Etten - Remind Me Tomorrow

No card today.

2019: North Bend & Dinner @ The Roadhouse

First, I had to set the tone with some music. Last night, K and I rolled into North Bend. I love this town. Seriously. With Mount Rainier looming beautifully in the mist, we checked into our amazing Airbnb and set out for the Salish Lodge. In the cool, wet spring evening, the falls were more amazing than I've ever seen them. To say K had a religious experience is something of an understatement.

Afterward, we ate at Fall City Roadhouse, the exterior for the infamous Twin Peaks Roadhouse. Second time I've dined here and the food is just ridiculous! I had the Meatloaf Dinner, and, well, this must be where meatloaves go when they die. Washed it down with two of these, Nitro, on tap:

Breakfast this morning will be at Twede's, which my fellow Peaks People will know as Norma's Double R Diner. From there will probably cruise a few filming spots so she can see them (Hap's old location, Ronette's bridge, maybe the Mill/Sheriff Station), then on to Seattle, where we'll leave the Peaks nostalgia behind and dig into an Underground tour and some museum tours. Special thanks to Mr. Brown who is way more familiar with Seattle than I, and his offering to serve as my 'Alex,' by phone if I have any questions.

Playlist:

True Widow - AVVOLGERE
Melvins - Houdini
Slayer - Reign in Blood
Dum Dum Girls - Too True
Twin Peaks Limited Event Series Soundtrack

Card of the day:

Having a hard time squaring this with my present state. 7s traditionally represent the unbalance that leaving the harmony of the 6s behind causes. I don't feel unbalanced, but I suppose we often don't. I'll take this as a reminder to keep my wits about me and stay emotionally even.

2019: April 12th: American Horror Story - 1984

You know there's more to this than there seems. But even if season 9 is only a simple 80s slasher story, I'd be 100% happy with that. Now, I just have to watch Cult and Apocalypse...

**

I'm posting this late/early. Haven't been to bed yet. K's plane was delayed and it's almost 1:00 AM. I'm groggy, just opened another beer, and am watching the credits to Robert Rodriguez's The Faculty scroll across my screen. Ray has been telling for years to watch this, and it's currently in Shudder's Last Chance bin (see a pattern?), so I figured I'd go for it. Not blown away - didn't expect to be - but I dug it. I especially dug realizing how goddamn hot Frazier's ex-wife is. WOW BOB WOW.

**

This past Tuesday, Nathan Ballingrud's Wounds: Six Stories From the Border of Hell dropped. If you don't remember, I've posted about Mr. Ballingrud's The Visible Filth a few times since I first discovered it a couple years ago. The original version of that novella, published by the marvelous This is Horror imprint, went out of print recently, to make way for this collection, which contains Visible Filth, as well as five other stories. Wounds is also the name of the movie adaptation of Visible Filth that I can NOT wait to see, directed by Babak Anvari, and starring Armie Hammer and Dakota Johnson. I can't say how happy I am for Mr. Ballingrud. There are super positive reviews rolling in for both the book and the movie, and I really think this is the launch of a massive presence in horror fiction. You can order the book HERE from Amazon, or, if you are lucky enough to have a brick-and-mortar bookstore in your area, I'm sure they will have it. I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

**

Playlist from 4/11:

Zombi- Shape Shift
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Helms Alee - Sleepwalking Sailors
Melvins - Houdini
Young Widows - Old Wounds

Card of the day:

Two days in a row. What are you trying to tell me, sir?

2019: April 11th: New Baroness

Gold & Grey out June 14th. Pre-order HERE. Really interesting video. I like seeing behind the scenes with bands of this caliber. I'm increasingly interested in work spaces.

**

Last night I ate at a local place called Steam Plant for the second night in a row. The building used to be Spokane's power plant, and the restaurant owners designed their environment utilizing a lot of the textures of the previous facility as decor. They also do not shy away from using all the space, which means the place is cavernous; I caught a buzz and went exploring, found little rooms all over the place. Here's some pictures; the timing is not great on my .giff, but you get the idea.

I've kind of made the lower level, pub area of Steam Plant my Nighttime office; I sequester myself in a booth with my laptop, a few beers and, so far, something off their incredible sandwich menu and work on this new short story that Spokane has inspired. Beer wise, to my surprise, Steam Plant still had their Octoberfest on draft, and friends, it is glorious! Also, their Steam Bock is no slouch either. K comes in tonight and after what will hopefully be an abbreviated work day tomorrow, we head out for North Bend. Can't wait to eat at Twede's (The Double R) with her!

Playlist from 4/10:

Mevlins - Houdini
Helms Alee - Night Terrors
Jozef Van Wissem & Jim Jarmusch - An Attempt to Draw Aside the Veil
Young Widows - Settle Down City
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Wasteland

Card of the day:

Stiving to improve. Always.

2019: April 10th - Night Goat

It was only a matter of time until I sunk into my favorite Melvins album while walking around Spokane. There's an insane aural/visual connection I make exploring the various textures of this city - a lot of brick, stone and Earth - with heavy slabs grinding in my ears. It just works. I'm probably waiting until the last day to take pictures - the streets are a bit sketch in a lot of parts, overrun with homeless, many of whom I've seen bother random folks walking around on the street. This makes a lot of people nervous, I know, but I do my best to avoid standing out, and part of that is not pulling out my iPhone every few minutes and snapping pictures. Also, with my worn combat boots, fingerless glove, dark clothing, and fully engaged hoodie, I blend in with the homeless. Which works well for me.

Last night I took a deviation from Ciazarn and followed inspiration for a new short story. The inspiration came from a simple, everyday office scenario that my mind twisted into what is becoming a really fun direction. I wrote for hours yesterday, causally pecking away at an online that, at some point shifted to a full-on narrative. No working title, no nothing yet. Just 15K words and an escalating desire to see where this one goes.

**

Later, back in my hotel room, I watched GhostWatch, currently on Shudder's "Last Chance" list. I'd heard the Shockwaves crew speak on this one a few weeks back, and earmarked it based on whatever that discussion entailed. I have to tell you, it had me all the way through. And genuinely scary, which you all know I consider rare. What's crazy is apparently, many of the British BBC ONE news folks in the movie are indeed real television news folks, and GhostWatch originally aired in Britain on Halloween, 1992 under the auspices of being an actual news program, Orson Welles style. Man! I wish I could have seen it in that capacity. Still, really cool flick. Here's a video that explains the occurrence in more detail than I can:



**

Playlist from 4/09:

Young Widows - Old Wounds
Helms Alee - Night Terror
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Wasteland
Melvins - Houdini

Card of the day:

This resonates. My writing yesterday feels like it's put my power levels through the freakin' roof. More today.

2019: April 9th - Some Helms Alee to Start this Rainy Day

More rain - yes!

I walked 5 miles around Spokane yesterday, partially in the rain. It was fucking glorious. This city feels to me like the image of Seattle told through Everybody Loves Our Town, and all stories my mind made from the images put there by Nevermind and Houdini and Superfuzz BigMuff, back when listening to music was my only means of exploring a larger world (i.e. High School). Gentrification encroaches, slowly pushes out the artists and the addled, so that you see people in suits checking into hotels next door to which are convenience stores overrun by homeless criminals with backpacks full of poison for sale. The rain looks like it's falling even when it doesn't, and the damp is almost a caress. Stone and brick buildings everywhere, shuttered shops a genuine lack of strip malls and plazas (god I hate that word), and the city seems besieged by either trees or mountains, depending on which direction you look. All in all, it is an amazing place to fall in love with a new album, and this Sleepwalking Sailors record by Helms Alee is just doing it for me right now.

**

Apparently, Young Widows are at Roadburn Festival this year, performing Old Wounds in its entirety. Wow. There are no festivals I would like to attend on Earth except Roadburn. Check out this year's art. Love it like I do? Maarten Donders is your man! I can't wait until Jonathan Grimm does one of these. It's so going to happen.

Playlist from 4/08:

Young Widows - Old Wounds
Helm Alee - Sleepwalking Sailors

Card of the day:

Two big changes taking place at the moment - handing the book of to Missi and starting on Ciazarn, and spending a week working in Spokane, so I'll read this at a general, face value.