Three Songs Why I LOVE The Misfits w/ Michael Graves Prt. 3

And thus, finishing the holy trinity of Graves-era Misfits.

Three Songs Why I LOVE The Misfits w/ Michael Graves Prt. 2

As if that wasn't enough...

Three Songs Why I LOVE The Misfits w/ Michael Graves Prt. 1

This usually surprises people, hell it surprised me back in the day, but as big a fan I am of Danzig and Danzig-era Misfits, it does not interfere with my absolute LOVE of Michael Graves-era Misfits. Oh, I know, I know. Calm down. I know it's sacrilege, but seriously? Aren't Danzig and the Misfits all about Sacrilege and obliterating all that you hold holy? Then why oh why elevate them to that same position? Reminds me of the Golden Dawn talking shite about Christianity when they themselves adhered to a suspiciously Christian-like hierarchy. Further proof that any good idea put into practice by this mostly dumb animal called humanity ultimately corrupts itself and becomes what it sets out to fight.

None of that baggage muddies up the Misfits though. Graves-era is obviously waaaay more polished and a bit of a caricature but it is awesome nonetheless and if you doubt me then the this post as well as the two to follow are my not-so-subtle attempts at convincing you.

Happy Fookin' Irish Day Ye Basterds!

Want a good St. Patty's Day? Drink some Guinness, some Bushmills and listen to this album. It'll make you feel like a little, drunken, Irish GOD!

Drinking with Comics Issue #3

...is up! Inside Mike and I display our ignorance on the topic of historical figures before tastefully segueing into talk about Larime Taylor's A Voice in the Dark, the return of David Lapham's Stray Bullets, IDW's reissuing of Sam Keith's The Maxx (as well as reissues we'd like to see down the line) and Sam Adams' Winter Lager and a host of other things. Oh, and Joe.Baxter continues to scheme behind the scenes...

Stray Bullets!!!

image courtesy of comicsalliance.com

The return of David Lapham's Stray Bullets is what's on tap in this week's issue of Thee Comic Column over on Joup.

David Lynch - Twin Peaks 25 Years Later...

So I'm not entirely sure how I missed this. Obviously, if you drop by here at least once in a while you'll see my output is waaay down. So busy. It's work, and it's reaching 412 usable pages in my novel and still going strong (probably about double that when you add exploratory/what's getting tossed or re-worked). Then there's Drinking with Comics. Then there's comics. Today was the return - after 8 years - of David Lapham's Stray Bullets. I woke up at 4:30 AM, got to work by 5:41 AM, left work at about 2:45 PM, drove to The Comic Bug, picked up my pull list, which included the looooooong awaited Stray Bullets #41, which finally gave closure to an 8 year cliffhanger and wrapped up the Hi-Jinks and Derring-Doo phase of the book and saw, also today, the launch of Stray Bullets: Killers #1. Lapham promises it gets better from here. I believe him. I'm really sorry to say good bye to Virginia Applejack though, even if only for an issue. Anyway, more about SB in Thee Comic Column this week on Saturday. For now I brought it up to say I gave myself a day off, came home from the shop, smoked and read my comics. It was nice, oh so nice.

In the interim my friend Chester from Joup sent me this link and I was just blown away. I'm very close to a re-watching of Twin Peaks and this might just be the thing that puts me over the edge.

Larime Taylor's A Voice in the Dark...

image courtesy of tvtropes.com

...is on tap in this week's edition of Thee Comic Column on Joup. Check it out.

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For - Trailer (FINALLY)

I know everyone has already seen this but I like to post this stuff here anyway, as a sort of collection of things I dig. And even though it seems as though FM has basically become a complete right-wing lunatic, I am still very much looking forward to this. The first Sin City was quite possibly the first comic book adaptation I ever liked up until that point. This looks as though it should follow suit.

Blue Meanies - Smash the Magnavox

I don't know about you but I could sure use some high octane music to help my coffee out this morning. The Blue Meanies always do nicely. Musical Meth.

Infliction Trailer

I'm not going to lie - despite being a fairly rabid horror fan, over the last year and a half I've developed a sensitivity to violent content. It's not the actual violence but the way in which it is framed.

Kind of weird for a "rabid horror fan", right?

Serial/spree killer topics have always gotten too deep under my skin - it's why I've staunchly avoided Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer, why I've only seen Silence of the Lambs - which I consider just an expertly made film - once, and why despite my sheer LOVE of the script, camera work, set design, acting and pretty much every thing else about David Fincher's Se7en I've only seen it twice. It's why I've never seen Michael Haneke's Funny Games and have actually had to stop reading reviews/critical responses to several of his other films. Within the last two years person-on-person violence has been amped up - hell, even the How to Destroy Angels video for How Long was too much for me. However I'm also the kind of person that does not confuse my prejudices/peccadilloes with judgement. Just because something is not for me or falls into this category of stories/images I do not think it wise for me myself to consume, that doesn't mean I think its bad. On the contrary, there is a lot of very well made, poignant stuff out there that I just - at the moment - choose to stay away from. Case in point - Infliction. The trailer and website launched yesterday, and despite the fact that I can already tell this is probably something I won't see (at least in the immediate future) the film looks well made, fiercely independent and I'm digging the campaign behind it. Watch the trailer and if you're down, check it out. Independent cinema is now as important as independent music, so we have to support what we like (even if we're "afraid" to watch it).

The Effigies - Below the Drop

Continuing the "Old School" theme. This is such a fucking classic that it instantly pulls me back in time to 1992. Back then this was just incidental music at the house where my degenerate friends and I hung out, a backdrop to suburban debauchery. However, it came to mean so much more to me as I grew and learned to place it in the proper historical context.

New Pixies Video - Greens and Blues

With both this song and the video, I kind of feel like it's 1992 and I'm watching 120 Minutes. The new Pixies stuff is getting some hate but I just don't see it - everything I've heard thus far sounds exactly like its picking up where the band left off - and I'm the guy that didn't want Frank Black to deviate from his constant succession of amazing solo records to go back to this band.

Youth Code

I posted something about this band early last year and never really followed up. My journey's tonight have led me back around again. There is an obvious comparison to old Skinny Puppy, but there's enough of a new perspective that it feels of this moment, not a re-hash. Which is cool, because I didn't really know if people still made music in this vein.

Skinny Puppy Live Footage 1986

Currently going through a Skinny Puppy thing, so yeah, it's been a bit dark of late. Bearing this in mind I sat down to hammer a newer chapter of the book into shape with Too Dark Park as the soundtrack and Last Rites close at hand. This particular part of the book is pretty dark, the darkest segment I've written for the project thus far. SP seemed like the right vehicle to help inspire the tone.

Chapter finished I rewarded myself by scouting around online for this home video I remember from high school. It was a live concert, late 80's/early 90's. Ogre was tearing apart a stuffed dog in front of the microphone. I spent some time looking for this video tonight but have absolutely NO idea what it was named, or if it was maybe even a bootleg. In the absence of that which I sought, this does quite nicely.

Trailer: Nick Cave's 20,000 Days on Earth

Recently my wife worked the Berlin film fest for the old Industry magazine she used to be employed by - no, she did not have the benefit of going to Berlin. A lot of the trades apparently stopped actually sending anyone but their critics to the actual fests about a year after she was lucky enough to go to Cannes. But she went in everyday at 5 AM to assemble the thing. Anyway, one of the still she sent me was from Nick Cave's forthcoming 20,000 Days on Earth. To say I am excited for this film is an understatement.

Nothing - Guilty of Everything

Can I get a Hell Yes! Brothers and Sisters, the new album by Nothing is out today on Relapse Records! Go to your local record store - if you're lucky to have one - or over to their bandcamp and buy Guilty of Everything.

This band really grabbed me with their 2013 E.P. Downward Years to Come and I've been waiting for this record since it was announced several months ago.

Chester Whelks and the Sunday Song Poem

image courtesy of bostonphoenix.com

Okay, for my money this is the strangest, most interesting and actually kind of downright frightening column I've been reading lately. Over on Joup Chester delves into the art and history of the Song Poem. If you - like I - don't know what that is then go here to the inaugural edition of the column and read Mr. Whelks' description, then go through the other four posts (thus far) and acquaint yourselves with... well, madness.

Column 2 Non Violent Taekwondo Troopers

Column 3 Octopus Woman Please Let Me Go

Column 4 The Crime Shows

Magazine - The Light Pours Out of Me

From their 2009 reunion circuit, live on Jools Holland. Barry Adamson back on bass! Awesome. For good measure, here's the cover version Ministry did of this song, from 2003's Animositisomina:



For the record, I love both versions, and the Magazine record this song originally appeared on, 1978's Real Life, is just a fantastic example of Post Punk.

Garth Ennis & Phil Winslade's Goddess...

image courtesy of trav73.wordpress.com

...is the topic on tap in this week's Thee Comic Column over on Joup. Read it HERE.

Bret Easton Ellis & Rob Zombie Designing Manson Murder Series

image courtesy of untitledbooks.com

image courtesy of Halloweenmovie.wiki

A good friend just rocked my world on Twitter when she through this article at me. Holy smokes!

Now, I'm a fan of Zombie's first two flicks for sure. Halloween I'd have to see again - it's no original and definitely overdid the 'cause and effect' of Michael Myers, which really was better left unexplained, but seeing it in the theatre I have to admit that both visually and sonically I was blown away with the film. The sequel however, despite being a beautifully shot film, really only works with the sound turned off, as every line of dialogue and plot point just frustrates the hell out of me.

Then came Lords of Salem, which I really wanted to like and just plain could not make it through. Again and even more so, visually the film was fantastic, but I could not get through it.

Ellis on the other hand has never let me down and the idea of Zombie visualizing his script fills me with absolute joy! Especially if the subject they are helming is based on Charles Manson. I'm not one of those Manson aficionados like Zombie is, but its an area of American history that very much interests me - the shadow cousin of the Peace and Love 60's that left its initials tattooed across the decade - and I think both auteurs will turn out an amazing project, especially as it is apparently NOT an adapted work but an original take.

Guardians of the Galaxy Trailer

It's been just under 24 hours and I know everyone has already seen this, however I like it so much I felt I had to post it.

YES! New Afghan Whigs Single - Algiers

A little hot under the collar after dealing with american airlines - don't fly them folks, trust me, just don't - but this is helping smooth out those rough edges. A few weeks ago Bob Odenkirk of all people let slip that his good friend Greg Dulli informed me the Whigs have an album coming out on April 15th. We all knew there had to be a new record on the horizon after the Whigs' come back tour last year and the two free-download singles on their website, we just didn't know when. Well, since news of the record left good ol' Saul Goodman's mouth I've had to keep myself busy as the almost infinite stretch of time between life in the moment and 4/15/14 has, on more than one occasion thus far, nearly driven me mad. Of course when news like this comes down the wire I run straight to my CD's and pull out all my Whigs, along with anything I have by the Twilight Singers and The Gutter Twins, but all that really does is further add to the frustration - frustration that makes waiting for the fabled date is more akin to watching a kettle boil that is on a burner that continually goes out. And now today the band, as if sensing its fans' madness ("Sixteen bloody years and NO I can't wait another two months") has released the first single/video from the forthcoming Do To the Beast.

Thank you Greg Dulli and fellow Whigs. You've helped sooth an otherwise frustrating day.

Penny Dreadful Trailer

via Bloody Disgusting, and there's a lot more info on this new Showtime series (cast, creators, etc.) if you read their article here. This looks to be Showtime's answer to American Horror Story so hopefully the quality is on par. I don't know much about this other than what I read tonight but based on this trailer I'm excited. Now as long as this doesn't pull a Hemlock Grove and end up being... less than what I'd expected (though a good friend has told me to give HG another chance, as all I watched was the pilot).

Thee Comic Column #72 - Wicker

I had a fantastic interview with Darker Sho today via email. You may remember Mr. Sho as one of the creators of the forthcoming comic RUIN, which I interviewed him about back a few months ago (read it here). Today's topic of discussion was the next project his company Darker and June Entertainment has coming up, another comic of his creation called Wicker. This one looks absolutely amazing and right up my alley: HORROR. Read all about it in this week's edition of Thee Comic Column.

POLIÇA - "I Need $" // "So Leave"

Via Brooklyn Vegan. This is an interesting video in that I don't necessarily love the "story" but I quite like the way it is shot and assembled. The song is good too - as is most Polica - kind of stoic and removed. The "So Leave" part, while the shorter segment, is a nice outro a la older Massive Attack, in concept if not entirely in sound.

Ransom Riggs - Scar Beneath My Sleeve

Wow.

Death (70's Detroit) Releasing New "Lost" Record

Via Brooklyn Vegan. How many lost records can they have? Hopefully a LOT.