I've been pretty excited for the new Shudder Creepshow series, and if this first trailer is any indication, it's going to be better than my expectations even. Not easy to do, when reviving something so iconic, but based on everything I've seen from the streaming service so far, they are 100% up to the task.
**
New episode of The Horror Vision went up yesterday. This is a special 'Double-sized' edition, where Ray, Anthony, Tori, and myself tell our listeners a little bit about ourselves. After that, topics of discussion ended up revolving around Luca Guadagnino's 2018 Suspiria remake and the merit/non-merit of remakes in general. Finally, our movie of the episode reaction bit is on Matthew Holness' film Possum.
Continuing on into the heart of Robert S. Wilson's Ashes and Entropy anthology, I read John Langan's short, Breakwater earlier today. Fantastic short fiction; kind of a mash-up of the Crime and Horror genres, I blew through Breakwater at a pretty quick clip, and caught my breath when it ended. After a complicated relationship with Langan's novel The Fisherman, I'd been wanting to read something else by the man, and this story definitely pointed me in the direction of his newest collection, Sefira and Other Betrayals:
Look at that cover art - unnerving is an understatement for artist Santiago Caruso's image, more of which you can find on his website HERE. Mr. Langan's website is HERE and you can order a beautiful limited cloth edition of Sefira directly from Hippocampus Press HERE.
**
Playlist from the last two days:
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Iggy Pop - The Idiot
High On Fire - Snakes of the Divine
Godflesh - Post Self
Crystal Castles - II
The Soft Moon - Criminal
The Soft Moon - Deeper
The Raveonettes - 2016 Atomized
Dean Hurley - Anthology Resource Vol. II Philosophy of Beyond
Blur - 13
The Blues Brothers - Briefcase Full of Blues
Bavaria Buam - Live
**
Card of the day:
Balance. I need this right now. Trying to balance my interests has put things out of whack, creatively.
I've been avoiding a lot of trailers of late, as I find they usually give too much of the movie away. I find the best viewing experiences are the most uninformed ones. That said, I'm glad I watched this IT Chapter Two final trailer, simply because after the disappointment of Pet Sematary, I needed something to remind me how good this IT adaptation has been. This looks fantastic, plus I don't really feel like the trailer gives too much away. September 6th is not that far away...
**
As soon as I finished my re-read of Grant Morrison and Richard Case's Doom Patrol run, I jumped back into the Robert S. Wilson edited anthology Ashes and Entropy and read Autumn Christian's The Shadowmachine. Awesome story. Probably my favorite in the collection so far. There's an almost Neil Gaiman-esque approach to reality here, without the more baroque or 'flowery' aspects of Gaiman's writing (not a shot - I love Gaiman. I'm merely making distinctions). The story itself doesn't tread Gaiman territory, though; Christian spins a pretty terrifying tale of technological seduction and it's eerie as all hell. Based on this I've added her newest novel, Girl Like A Bomb, to my must-read list; it's available HERE.
Ashes and Entropy is turning out to be my favorite anthology in ages, and I can't recommend it enough. Available directly from Nightscape Press HERE.
Also, Nightscape Press has started an emergency GoFundMe anthology titled Horror For the Raices, where a $10 donation or more will get you an advance, uncorrected book copy of the anthology as soon as it's ready. The book is edited by Robert S. Wilson and Jennifer Wilson. Donate HERE.
**
Playlist from 7/17:
Frank Black - Teenager of the Year
Jenny Hval - Blood Bitch
Adam Kesher - Local Girl (Hatchmatik Remix)
Beak> - L.A. Playback
M83 Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Track Back The Radiance
Although I've been waiting for this, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about Rob Zombie returning to the Firefly Clan characters. Why? Well, A) they pretty clearly died at the end of The Devil's Rejects, and B) it's weird when filmmakers put you in a position of rooting for such ultimately disgusting characters. Also, this looks like Zombie has added Natural Born Killers into his blender, so that may run the risk of feeling overly borrowed from. We'll see. Normally, Zombie can more or less mix in the stuff he 'samples' from his influences in a way that feels like homage instead of theft. Hopefully, that will be true here as well.
As for the 'how did they survive?' question, I noticed a quick flash at 0:20 in the trailer of a newspaper headline that reads, "Satanic Recovery," and I'm wondering (Read: Hoping) the recovery is pulled off via some weird call-back to Dr. Satan and all the strange, quasi-supernatural stuff that happened in the final segment of House of 1000 Corpses, all of which was completely ignored for The Devil's Rejects. That absence was disappointing at the time Rejects was released, however, over the years I have grown to understand and applaud the decision as a matter of tone - Dr. Satan and all related characters would never have fit into Rejects; the one deleted scene with the Doctor was definitely best left out. Now, however, this might be a great way to bring him back.
**
Frank Black Appreciation Week concludes today with another of my favorite songs from The Catholics-era Black. Released on the album Dog in the Sand, this was, I believe, the first time Black had recorded with Pixies guitarist Joey Santiago since the break-up of the band. The resulting material - especially this particular track - is a doozy. I remember hearing around the time of this album's release that the lyrics were about how, after Black's father passed away, when it came to the task of going through his home, dozens of guns were found, all loaded with only a single bullet.
Creeeeeepy, but awesome.
**
Playlist from 7/16:
Frank Black - The Cult of Ray
Preoccupations - Eponymous
Jim Jarmusch and Jozef Va Wissen - The Mystery of Heaven
The Jesus Lizard - Liar
White Lung - Eponymous
Uniform and The Body - Penance (Pre-release single)
Uniform and The Body - Mental Wounds Not Healing*
Sunn O))) - Life Metal
*I totally just figured out that this album is named after a lyric in Ozzy's Crazy Train. It made me love both these bands even more than I already do.
**
Card of the day:
Feeling like this is a good sign that I cross a finish line today.
New Chelsea Wolfe Video, from the forthcoming album Birth of Violence, out September 13th on Sargent House. Pre-order HERE.
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Frank Black Appreciation Week continues today with a live rendition of my favorite track off the third Frank Black solo record, The Cult of Ray. Filmed in 1996, this footage isn't great, but the performance sure is. Great to see Lyle Workman in his prime here.
**
Playlist from 7/15:
Aerosmith - Pump
Motörhead - 1916
Frank Black and the Catholics - Eponymous
Pixies - Bossonova
Pixies - Come On Pilgrim
Pixies - Head Carrier
Drab Majesty - Modern Mirror
Shellac - The End of Radio
The Misfits - Static Age
Minsk - The Crash and the Draw
Spotlights - Love and Decay
The Bangles - In Your Room
David Bowie - Hunky Dory
Day 6 of Frank Black Appreciation Week, and I'm trying to dig deep. Like I said previously, I could easily just post 7 days of The Catholics, or Pixies, but this man's catalogue winds deep, and I really wanted to try and represent that, so here's a track off Frank's 1994 John Peel Session, where Glasgow band Teenage Fanclub acted as his band.
**
I finished my re-read of Grant Morrison and Richard Case's six-volume Doom Patrol series from late 80s/early 90s DC Vertigo. SO good, and reading the source material just confirms my belief that the DCU television adaptation of Doom Patrol is the best comic adaptation I have ever seen.
The final volume, Planet Love, has such a harrowing example of an Apocalypse scenario, I dare say I read it in a quick, edge-of-my-seat burst. The Candlemaker is an example of a comic book foe who gestates quickly and thrives on being somewhat two-dimensional.
**
I was so very wrong about Drab Majesty's Modern Mirror the other day when I said it would drop July 26th. I came home later the same day to find the vinyl I'd ordered months ago on my doorstep, and I spent Friday night and several hours over the subsequent weekend listening to it. Really good, if a bit short. The vinyl is a little bit annoying, in that it's a double LP, so there are literally two songs on each side. That's a lot of superfluous flipping, and a very start/stop listening experience, if you ask me.
**
Friday's episode of The Horror Vision, wherein we discuss Possum, as well as Luca Guadagnino's 2018 Suspiria, which we've talked about before, but here go into at length and a host of other films, will be up in a few days. In the interim, my co-host Anthony Guerra caught the Aja/Raimi flick Crawl the other night and did a quick reaction piece. Check it out:
Frank Black and the Catholics - Pistolero
Boy Harsher - Careful
Black Polygons - Lobélia
Motörhead - Ace of Spades
Motörhead - 1916
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts - Up Your Alley
The Monkees - Eponymous
Drab Majesty - Modern Mirror
Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor
**
Card of the day:
Gonna need it. Two potentially stressful weeks coming up at work, and I'm still slogging through this final read of Shadow Play - which, by the way, is turning out very good. It's just difficult to re-read this for a third time in a row now. It's affecting all my other reading as well.
I may have made you wait longer than other folks would have to get to a track by The Pixies, here during my Frank Black Appreciation Week, but you knew I'd get there, right?
I won't lie, I thought about not posting any. I could fill a couple months posting beloved Black Francis songs and completely eschew his first major band, but then, well, I'd be lying to myself. It's weird; for some reason I have a bit of a grudge against the Pixies. I'm not sure when that happened, or why exactly. I think it's a combination of a few factors. Bear with me while I dig around in my mind and see if I can explain this, really more to myself than to you, but thanks for being here for me to bounce this stuff off, sometimes that just works better, talking out loud to someone else.
I'll never forget when Mr. Brown turned me onto The Pixies back in the mid-90s - he lent me Bossonova and it completely bowled me over. The first few tracks are epic, packed with that wonderful madness that Joey Santiago and Frank Black bring out in one another when things really get going. Then you get to Digging for Fire and Down to the Well, and they're so sweet and sugary, I was in love instantly.
I should specify that my introduction came well after the Pixies were over, and so at the same time Brown lent me Bossonova, he also lent me Frank Black's third solo album, The Cult of Ray. I loved that too, but it paled in comparison to how Bossonova made me feel. As I began to consume the other Pixies records, they became my band. Not just my band, but one of our bands - the music I shared with Brown and Sonny, my two best friends. Mr. Black and company were part of what seemed to us, a secret handshake. I didn't know anyone else who was into The Pixies, or Soul Coughing, to name two, and those bands became ours. This was while we were building our first band, Wink Lombardi and the Constellations, and it was an amazing time in my life. I'd just gotten out of a three-year, high school relationship, and I had amazing friends I saw every day. We'd play music, go to obscure diners for coffee and pie, stay up to all hours getting stoned and recording bizarre acoustic tracks, or noise sessions on my Tascam 4 Track. It was amazing. And The Pixies were one of the major soundtracks to that, so I'm protective of it, now, many years later.
I suppose that's another thing about The Pixies that I'm protective of - it can be hard for me to go back and really immerse myself in listening to these albums that I absolutely love because they trigger massive nostalgia pulses in me. And I guess I want that kept in its place. Couple with that the fact that directly after Cult of Ray, Frank Black formed The Catholics and began releasing albums that I actually got to see him play live, and that helped shape the next chapter of my life. Those Catholics records are HUGE to me.
So, I guess it's actually kind of obvious why I prefer Frank Black to the Pixies, and why, as much as I LOVE Indy Cindy, the first Pixies reunion album, I would rather Black keep moving forward than trying to go home again.
Anyway, every song on every Pixies album rules, but this is one today rules a little bit more than most.
**
Had The Horror Vision folks over last night and recorded a new episode that will hopefully be up later today or tomorrow. Our movie reaction for the episode? Possum. Here's the trailer:
**
Playlist from 7/12:
M83 - Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts
Motörhead - Ace of Spades
Motörhead - March or Die
Motörhead - Eponymous
Black Polygons - Lobélia
Boy Harsher - Careful
Drab Majesty - Modern Mirror
Frank Black and the Catholics - Pistolero
The Youtube description for this track calls it the fourth single released so far from Drab Majesty's forthcoming Modern Mirror album. Really? I hadn't realized we were up to four already, I guess primarily because other than the first single, I'm not listening to anything until my actual physical copy of the record arrives. ModernMirror drops in two Fridays - can't wait.
**
Frank Black Appreciation Week continues in these pages with my favorite cut from 2007's Bluefinger, which marked a return to Frank's Black Francis persona. Well, not really a persona in the way, say, Bowie had personas, but Bluefinger definitely marked a change from the post-Catholics Americana vibe Black had been doing. Compared to Fast Man Raider Man, Bluefinger goes back to what I consider a more Pixies-ish approach to songwriting. Several of the tracks on Bluefinger - including this one - veer into similar territory as some of The Pixies' more unstable songs; Threshold Apprehension is nuts in the way Broken Face or Rock Music are nuts.
**
So, Slayer is on their "Final Tour." I've lived through this with so many bands, so many times - I was in High School and fairly new to concerts when I attended Ozzy's No More Tours tour, thinking, "Oh my god, I'm going to see Ozzy Osbourne's final tour!"
Hahah.
And so it goes. Fool me once, yada yada. The point being, I doubt this is Slayer's final tour. And in my opinion, the band should have been over when Jeff Hanneman died. But here they are, dry humping a dead and bloated cash cow. I'm not going to say that Slayer doesn't still rule, because despite the fact that I haven't cared about almost any record they've released since Seasons in the Abyss - though Christ Illusion was a pretty nice return to form - I'd wager they still tear shit up live. And so it was that fact and the idea of the possibility the Forum show in Los Angeles - billed as their final show ever - might actually be Slayer's final show - that I tentatively went to the band's website to sign up for their newsletter and get the pre-sale passcode. You know, just to see what tickets are going to cost. And you know what I found? Slayer is charging $20 to join and get the passcode. $30 if you want some stupid poster with the code.
How completely un-fucking-metal.
Retire now guys, before you end up fucking up your legacy. PLEASE.
**
Last night I happened to turn on one of Shudder's tv stations just as Ana Asensio's Most Beautiful Island began, so I dug in and followed it with absolutely no expectations. I do not believe I had ever even heard of this film before.
First good sign was Glass Eye Pics put this out. Always a good thing. So I let the story take me for its ride, and I absolutely loved it. Highly recommended. Here's the trailer, which I've vetted to make sure it doesn't show too much. Not that there's a twist, but the film didn't go anywhere I expected it to go, and I loved it for that.
Also, Larry Fessenden has a small part, so that always wins me over.
**
Playlist from 7/11:
Mazy Star - So Tonight That I Might See
Balthazar - Fever
Ministry - The Land of Rape and Honey
Slayer - Seasons in the Abyss
Slipknot - Iowa
Zonal - Eponymous (Pre-release Single)
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley
**
Card of the day:
Normally, I don't have a particular question in mind when I do these daily pulls. Instead, I just kind of clear my thoughts for a second and let the card that comes up serve as a portent for the day itself. Today, I wanted to go specific, so as I pulled I thought about a current struggle I've had, namely doing this last read-through with the physical, paperback copy of Shadow Play.
My impetus for doing one last read-through, after just doing another, was the hunch (which proved correct) that reading a novel in physical book form rather than digital would be a drastically different experience, and thus, I would see or catch things I had not in that last digital pass over. And of course, I was correct. Nothing major, but I've already fixed a few minor grammatical errors, as well as at least two spelling errors, on this read. That said, I'm sick to fucking death of reading this book; between this and the short story I began in Spokane, love, but cannot seem to finish, I feel very much held hostage at the moment. Which is zapping my creativity. Ideas are floating to the forefront of my brain daily, and some of them seem so appealing. Plus, it's always invigorating to start something new. So, what do I do? Well, one interpretation of this card is a warning against succumbing to daydreaming, getting lost in flights of fancy, which I definitely take to mean - as my gut tells me - stay on course and do NOT get distracted.
Frank Black Appreciation Week continues here with probably my second favorite all-time Frank Black-related track, from the first Grand Duchy album, Petite Fours. With its men in black, government UFO cover-up vibe, this track always reminds me of a sequel to Space (I Believe In), from The Pixies Trompe Le Monde. Listen to Black's voice on those refrains - soul searing. I love everything about this and the album it's on.
**
After Stranger Things 3, K and I slipped back into episode two of Nicolas Winding Refn's bleak-as-all-holy-fuck Neo LA Noir, Too Old To Die Young. This show! It seems to me the second episode will be the firewall - anyone not in NWR will give up halfway through. Others will revel in the slow, contemplative nature of this hour-and-thirty-seven-minutes of a film maker drinking his setting and characters for tone and nuance. It's a fantastic piece of filmmaking and actually built up enough momentum that I had to force myself not to drift straight into the next episode, primarily because it was already past my bedtime.
Here's an interview with Refn; I'm leaving this here but not watching it until after we finish the series, just in case there are spoilers.
**
Ghost added a lyric video for Faith, my favorite track from last year's Prequelle record. I'm not usually into lyric videos, but this is pretty cool. Also, if the band's previous protocols are still in place, by my calculation we should be getting an EP from these guys any time now.
**
Playlist from 7/10:
Low - Trust
Tennis System - Shelf Life (Pre-release Single)
Tennis System - Pain EP
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts - Up Your Alley
Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance
David Bowie - Heroes
Drab Majesty - Careless
Judas Priest - Firepower
Johhny Marr - Call the Comet
Balthazar - Fever
Zonal - Eponymous (Pre-release Single)
Ned's Atomic Dustbin - Godfodder
Frank Black and the Catholics - Pistolero
Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor
**
Card of the day:
Paradigm shift. Not 100% on how this fits into my life at the moment; as usual, my inherent reaction is to read it as regarding my writing. Currently unable to mop up two things because of a hanging third. Does this say leave that third behind? Switch gears? Maybe, but an open loop is an open loop, especially when it comes to 'solving' something you've invested a lot of time and creative energy into.
Man, you know how after someone whose music we love dies we start posting a bunch of stuff? I mean, of course we do, right? I certainly do. Well, hopefully we are NOWHERE NEAR a planet without Frank Black/Black Francis, but in falling back into a rotation with his music, I thought I'd spend a week posting some of my favorite Frank Black songs.
At least a week.
I mean, there's a lot to choose from. There's Frank Black and the Catholics - my personal favorite of his projects or 'eras'; The Pixies, Grandy Duchy, not to mention albums published under both Frank Black and Black Francis. I'm sure I'm missing something, but the point is that I love this man and I felt it was high time I represent that love on this blog.
We kick this off with a cut from my all-time favorite Frank Black-related album, the 1998, full-band direct-to-two-track-analog-tape Eponymous Frank Black and the Catholics album. I love this entire record SO much, and although I'd probably place I Need Peace and I Gotta Move as my favorite tracks, here's one that has felt especially fresh to me in this current FB jag I'm in.
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NCBD:
Nothing for me, so I guess this is what my end-game goal of lessening my monthly floppy subscriptions is going to feel like: weird and a little unsettling.
**
K and I finally watched the Joan Jett documentary Bad Reputation last night. It's streaming on Hulu at the moment. Fantastic film. Jett's music is among the first that I can remember (I Hate Myself for Loving You and I Love Rock and Roll are early examples of Rock especially), and this really broadens my understanding of her place in Rock history. Really great doc, highly recommended.
**
Playlist from 7/09:
Frank Black and the Catholics - Pistolero
Frank Black and the Catholics - Eponymous
Motörhead - Ace of Spades
Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance
Ministry - The Land of Rape and Honey
Helmet - Aftertaste
M83 Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts
Spotlights - Love and Decay
**
Card of the day:
Holy cow - I haven't see this card in ages. Turning points. Decisions. Needing a better view. All this describes the rut I've found myself in for last week or so. Can't seem to overcome the inertia pushing at me, corroding my work. I've taken the first steps and forced myself to walk to the coffeeshop the last two days, so hopefully I'm building enough momentum to switch back to the good inertia. But my perspective is clouded by indecision on projects, and I need to commit and be done with it.
Holy cow! New Tennis System out August 2nd. You can pre-order the LP from Graveface Records and CuriositiesHERE!
**
Another short one today. Where the fuck is the time going?
Playlist from 7/08:
Alice Donut - The Untidy Suicides of Your Degenerate Children
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - In Summer EP
M83 - Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Zombi - Shape Shift
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley
Benny Goodman - Hits
A couple of years ago at Beyondfest, my good friend Missi and I went to a free screening of Jaron Henrie-McCrea's wonderful film The Gateway (previously titled Curtains), we were treated to not only the main feature - which I've just discovered is included with Prime and is definitely worth your time - but also a short feature titled El Gigante by Luchagore Productions. I believe I've posted about El Gigante here before, but I wanted to again because in their latest email update, Shudder announced El Gigante is coming to their platform this month!
Also, the latest in the Hulu/Blumhouse Into the Dark series, Culture Shock, is a Luchagore release, so congratulations to them for scoring so high profile a gig. Here's the trailer:
**
Finished Stranger Things 3 and it is by far my favorite season of the series. Loved the ending, loved the new additions to the cast, and absolutely loved the monster - probably my favorite monster ever. Well done, Duffer Brothers and crew, can't wait for Season 4!
**
Playlist from yesterday:
John Carpenter - Lost Themes II
**
Card of the day:
Lots of sixes, which implies stability. Which feels accurate. Lots of work ahead of me though, so now I have to kick it into hyperdrive.
Mike Wellman and I were joined by writer/director Adam Marcus this past Friday for a Drinking with Comics Memorial to Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard's 15 year comic book epic, The Walking Dead. Losing my tentpole title after the thirteen years it's been my favorite comic comes at a strange time in my relationship with the medium, and although we won't really touch on that, Adam, Mike, and I look at the industry ramifications as well as our personal reactions. I had a lot of fun doing this one, so if you're a fan of The Walking Dead, check it out.
**
Despite or perhaps because of lofty expectations, I had a hard time with the first two episodes of Stranger Things 3. Then, halfway through episode three, the story really got going and things clicked for me. Currently about to start episode six, I think this is definitely the best season of the show so far. I'm perhaps a bit biased because something about underground tunnels always wins me over, but here there's so much more. Without going into spoilers, the plot is great, the editing and pacing punchy and engrossing, and the way the Duffer Brothers continue to weave homages to the works they love into new and, frankly, inspiring genre idea off-shoots blows me away. And I love the way they add to the cast of characters on this show. Might be spending the rest of my day finishing this, although that's a huge hit to my timeframe. We'll see.
**
Playlist from 7/06:
Blur - 13
Paramore - All We Know is Falling
Nothing - Guilty of Everything
The Smiths - The Queen is Dead
Frank Black and the Catholics - Pistolero
**
Card of the day:
Seems to be a nod toward sitting in and binging Stranger Things. I don't really see how that's a plus though, other than it's obviously what I want to do. Which means I shouldn't do it. The body and the mind can err on the side of inactivity because, as we know, a body at rest tends to stay at rest. Let's fuck with some science and climb right up and over that inertia.
Short post today. I Really felt like opening this morning's post with some Frank Black, or Black Francis, in this case. From 2010's NonStopErotik, an EP that, despite rabidly collecting this man's material since the 90s - thank you to Mr. Brown for passing the obsession - I don't know all that well. This record kind of fell into the cracks for me, coming out shortly after Grand Douchy's 2009 Petit Fours, Black's collaboration with his wife, Violet Clarke, an album I was obsessed with and listened to near constantly for years after its release. I pulled NonStopErotik out recently, and have been reacquainting myself with it. Oh My Tidy Sum is probably the stand-out for me.
**
Via the might Bloodydisgusting. That scene with the buck is gnarly! I had not heard of this one before, but it looks great, so I'll keep my eyes out for release.
**
Playlist for 7/05:
Black Francis - NonStopErotik
Orville Peck - Pony
The Pixies - Bossonova
Preoccupations - Eponymous
Battle Tapes - Sweatshop Boys
**
Strong card, strong start to the day. Lots of work for me today, so I need to get one it.
Big awesome surprise to wake up yesterday and see the Soska Sisters had released the trailer for their upcoming remake of David Cronenberg's Rabid. I'm a fan of the Cronenberg film, but definitely feel there's room to remake it. And who better than the body horror twins who gave us American Mary? Can NOT wait!
**
Wednesday night we saw Midsommar, Ari Aster's brilliant and crippling follow-up to last year's Hereditary. I loved it, probably consider it a modern masterpiece, a film in the ranks of an Apocalypse Now or The Shining. Aster is a visionary.
Before the show, the newest issue of Fangoria arrived on my doorstep. I took one look at the cover and knew I'd be waiting until after seeing Midsommar to crack this 40th Anniversary issue open.
When I did open the issue, I found a stunning article that consists of Jordan Peele interviewing Aster about Midsommar. Jesus, what the hell more could a horror fan ask for? Totally worth the price of subscribing, which you can do HERE.
Immediately after our Midsommar viewing, my co-host Anthony Guerra from The Horror Vision and I did a reaction episode. We split it into a non-spoiler and spoiler section, very clearly delineating it for anyone that wants to listen but hasn't seen the film yet. My advice is go in as blind as possible, then listen, but either way, here are those links:
By now, hopefully everyone reading this who cares about the spoiler will have heard that Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard's The Walking Dead came to a surprise end with this week's issue #193. For the price of a regular issue, 193 delivered a triple-sized issue that was everything I could have wanted from the series finale for one of my all-time favorite comics, plus there's a long letter in the back of the book from Kirkman, talking about the reasons for ending the series here, the emotional tribulations of doing so, and a bit of a peek behind the curtain on his writing process over the years.
I can't even begin to describe the void losing this series creates in my life, but I will attempt to tonight at 9:00 PM Pacific Standard Time, when Mike Wellman and I do a surprise Drinking with Comics Memorial to The Walking Dead. We'll be streaming live on the Drinking with Comics Facebook Page, so stop by - you might just see me cry.
Funny thing, that this happened just after my existential crisis a few weeks back, the one about collecting comics and a life's worth of accumulated stuff. By my calculation, with all the books I read that are either definitively ending or are on indefinite hiatus, I'm going to be down to about six or seven monthlies by the fall, and that suits me just fine at the moment.
**
Playlist from the last two days:
Uniform and The Body - Mental Wounds Not Healing
The Body - No One Deserved Happiness
Black Polygons - Lobélia
Willie Nelson - My Way
The Go Gos - Beauty and the Beat
Calexico - The Black Light
The Beatles - Abbey Road
Yesterday's drop of a new Uniform and The Body track, a track that heralds a new collaborative album by the bands, sent me scurrying back to 2018's Mental Wounds Not Healing. It'd been a minute since I listened to this one, and in the course of several rotations in my headphones, I definitely gravitated toward track 5, In My Skin, as my favorite on the album. I spent the morning listening to this, and a sizable portion of my evening listening to that new track Penance, which I absolutely love.
**
BIG spoiler news in the world of comics hit me pretty hard yesterday. I won't go into it here, but suffice it to say this Friday night, Mike Wellman and I are planning, "A very special episode" of Drinking with Comics as a kind of memorial to something I love very much.
**
NCBD:
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Playlist from 7/02:
Uniform and The Body - Mental Wounds Not Healing
The Body - I Have Fought Against It, But I Can't Any Longer
Bob Mould - Sunshine Rock
Black Polygons - Lobélia
Motorhead - Ace of Spades
Minsk - The Crash and the Draw
Uniform and The Body - Penance (Pre-release Single)
Uniform - Wake in Fright
The Body is clearly the Brian Michael Bendis of bands, as they are more prolific than anyone I've encountered maybe ever. The new album - which is another collaboration with Uniform (see last year's Mental Wounds Not Healing) - is titled Everything That Dies Someday Comes Back and is available for pre-order from Sacred Bones HERE.
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New episode of The Horror Vision is up! Topics of discussion include but are not limited to Godzilla: King of Monsters, The Perfection, The Dark Backward, and our movie of the week, Josh Lobo's I Trapped the Devil! Check it out:
K and I watched the first episode of Nicolas Winding Refn's Too Old To Die Young last night. Wow. I've been excited for this for a while, not only because it's Refn doing long form, but Criminal scribe Ed Brubaker is involved with the writing! What a collaboration, eh? Anyway, the first episode is eerie as hell in a completely down to Earth, Neo Noir way, which was exactly what I'd hoped for this series. Can't wait to dive back in!
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Playlist from 7/01:
Godflesh - Songs of Love and Hate
Black Polygons - Lobélia
The Flying Burrito Brothers - The Gilded Palace of Sin
Thom Yorke - Anima
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Card of the day:
Balance in a time of crisis. Unexpected Symmetry. Hmm... I'm reading this more about the little swords at the top and bottom, the small details you can overlook when focused on the major plot points.
This song got me through some shit a few years back, and it came up in my mind last night. I hadn't realized it's actually a Waylon Jennings cover, so here's that version, too:
Gram Parsons and the Burrito Bros. have been drifting back into my thoughts, so I think I'm easing into a bit of a country jag. Been a while, and I'll welcome it. Also, my first pilgrimage to Joshua Tree National Park in about five years is coming up in August, so that's probably what's pushing me back to this music. Might even dust off the acoustic.
Might.
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Playlist from 6/30:
Godflesh - Love and Hate in Dub
Godflesh - Songs of Love and Hate
Thom Yorke - Anima
Black Polygons - Lobélia
Orville Peck - Pony
The Flying Burrito Brothers - The Gilded Palace of Sin
Roy Orbison - Sings Lonely and Blue
For anyone doubting this man is the real deal. I get chills listening to this song, either studio or here, live in the WFUV studios. At this point, Pony is cresting Spotlights' Love and Decay for my album of the year spot. It's a tight race, and I'm bludgeoning my brain with both albums mercilessly, but Peck's sound holds infinite potential, and his spotlight falls on poetic obscurities the likes of which resonate with me in ways I do not even understand. I'm sure I can say the same about most of my favorite albums, but right now this feels infinitely more than that, if the sentiment makes any sense.
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Currently reading a story in Robert S. Wilson's Ashes and Entropy anthology entitled Red Stars/White Snow/Black Metal by Fiona Maeve Geist. I can't quite tell if it's the most brilliant story in the collection yet - it might be - but it's got me. A disgraced and discarded journalist receives a second chance in the form of an assignment that quickly becomes a bloody immersion into pocket European Black Metal-inspired death cults - or at least that's what I think is happening. Geist's prose is as delicious as it is pretension, which is not necessarily a bad thing, if it lands. It's one of the longer stories in the book, and my reading keeps getting hammered into bite-sized chunks due to my schedule, but so far, Geist goes on my 'Watch' list as someone I would very much like to read more from.
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K and I finished Dark Season 2 this morning. Brilliant. So complex, but not needlessly so, this season turned the Donnie Darko-meets-Twin Peaks analogy I've been using for the show on its ear. We're in an entirely new landscape by the end of the final episode, and knowing the next season is the last is a good feeling. I have no doubt that unlike previous shows with staggeringly complex storylines and character dynamics, Dark will stick this landing, because the creators already know how the story ends.
Very fucking important.
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K and I bought our tickets to see Midsomar this coming Wednesday night. We'll be accompanying my Horror Vision co-host Anthony and his girlfriend, so the plan is to record a brief, spoiler-free reaction to the movie for the podcast and put it up that night. So along with last night's episode - which should go up tomorrow - that'll be three episodes of The Horror Vision in just over a week! Wow. I haven't watched anything but the initial teaser for Ari Aster's follow-up to last year's magnificent Hereditary, but I'll leave the latest trailer here, just in case someone reading this hasn't heard about the film, which I expect to be fantastic:
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Playlist from 6/29:
Soul Coughing - Irresistible Bliss
Grimes - Visions
Thom Yorke - Anima
M83 - Saturdays = Youth
Beach House - 7
Curtis Harding - Fave Your Fear
The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre
Lovett - The Wind OST
L7 - Scatter the Rats.
I was not expecting to come across this in my youtube feed this morning. How utterly fantastic.
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Yesterday I watched Josh Lobo's film I Trapped the Devil. LOVED IT!!! Fantastic concept, fantastic execution, with outstanding performances by everyone involved. The film is available to rent on Amazon right now for $6.99. Absolutely worth it. Here's the trailer:
We're going to do another Horror Vision this evening and I've already slated this as the movie we'll be watching/reviewing, so that'll be up early next week. In the meantime, I will definitely be adding Mr. Lobo to my list of directors who I keep a close eye on. Also on the list, for reference, are Ti West, Joe Begos, Larry Fessenden, Paul Thomas Anderson, and, of course, David Lynch.
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Playlist from 6/28:
Secret Chiefs 3 Traditionalists - Le mani destre recise degli ultimi uomini
Cocksure - Corporate_Sting
Windhand - Eternal Return
Various - A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
Lovett - The Wind OST
Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper
The Birthday Party - Mutiny/The Bad Seed
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Card of the day:
Card of the day: Beware delusions. I think this is a warning on my part to sift back through the insanely complicated story I outlined yesterday. It might be too complicated to actually pull off. But it might not be...
Very much in a Visions headspace this morning. I'm starting this post at... almost 2:00 AM, but probably won't post it until I wake up in the daylight. Running on fumes, as I've been up since 5AM, but I just returned from a night of catching up with a friend in Hollywood and now I want to get a rough idea for a story I had while driving home listening to Secret Chiefs 3 down on paper. I'm off today (Friday), so I'm having a few late night Sierra Nevadas, trying to suss out the skeleton to this thing I probably won't actually work on for some time. But I like to have a bunch of gestating concepts, so at some lull in the future (lull? When?), I can scroll through a list and pick something to hash out.
There's something magnificent about driving La Cienga between Stockard and Centinela late at night. It's as close to a secluded spot as you can get in LA proper, which is to say it's not very secluded at all, but it has a certain Between quality to it. Always inspires me.
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Next day now. Woke up and read another story in the Robert S. Wilson-edited Ashes and Entropy Anthology, this time Nate Southard's Ain't Much Pride. Wow. My favorite story so far, and that's saying something. This is turning out to be a fantastic collection. If you're interested, you can order it directly from Nightscape Press HERE.
I enjoyed Southard's Ain't Much Pride so much that I looked into his other work, and I'm really interested in his 2018 novel Porcelain:
"Comedian Jason Hawkes carries with him a mountain of emotional issues and an impressive drug habit. When he learns his high school sweetheart went on a shooting spree before turning the gun on herself, he returns home to confront a past that includes a drunken orgy in an abandoned factory and six close friends who never spoke to each other again. Something more sinister is at work than teenage hormones, however, and what Jason learns as he reconnects with his past will either fix him or shatter him further. And it could send an entire city into an abyss of lust-fueled horror.
SOLD! You can buy this one directly from Lethe Press HERE. I intend to.
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Playlist from 6/27:
Swans - To Be Kind
High on Fire - Electric Messiah
The Jesus Lizard - Lash EP
The Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us is the Killer
Dean Hurley - Anthology Resource Vol. I: △△
Dean Hurley - Anthology Resource Vol. 2: Philosophy of Beyond pre-release singles
Primus - Frizzle Fry
Secret Chiefs 3 Traditionalists - Le mani destre recise degli ultimi uomini
John Carpenter and Alan Howarth - Prince of Darkness OST
Grimes - Visions
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Card of the day:
Fives are always unstable. It's not really a bad thing, just a phase to move beyond. Fours are stable, but to avoid stagnation, you have to add something. This is good, but affects the balance of things. The goal is to keep adding, and that's kind of my thing right now. After a discussion with a friend, I'm thinking about postponing the release of Shadow Play until the first week in September. This is tough, because it's done, however, there's a lot of really good reasons to consider this. I just have to research them. So yeah, the stability of being finished and releasing it into the world - if you can call that stable - is thwarted by adding a new facet, which is essentially a very small, grassroots marketing initiative. Something I'm terrible at. But we're terrible at things until we do them enough to become good, or at least proficient at them. So yeah, I guess there's some instability/worry right now. It will pass.
Frequent collaborator with David Lynch, Dean Hurley's 2017 Anthology Resource Vol. 1 △△ is an eerie walk into another world, and I realize in talking about it now that I do not listen to it nearly enough. And now, Sacred Bones Records will release Hurley's Anthology Resource Vol. II: Philosphy of Beyond on July 12th. You can pre-order the record HERE. I absolutely LOVE this track, and am looking forward to sitting down and listening to the entire album as a whole.
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NCBD yesterday was sleight, but that's the way things are moving for me. Which is good; it's all by design. So what did I grab?
The final issue (?) of Punks Not Dead: London Calling. Haven't read it yet, but looks like this is the end of the story for the time being. Overall, really enjoyed this one.
I feel like I waited forever for this third and final issue of Damned. Gotta say, love the art in this book, but the story... not so much. Kinda feels a bit like Todd McFarlane's fourth Spiderman title waay back in the day - pretty to look at, but a story that really only supports the images. If it wasn't for my love of comics in Magazine Format, this would be going on eBay tonight. As it stands, it still might, somewhere down the road.
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Playlist from the previous few days:
Swans - To Be Kind
Shellac - The End of Radio
Grinderman - Eponymous
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Joy (Tracing Back the Radiance pre-release single)
Felicia Atkinson and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Limpid As the Solitudes
Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
Zen Guerilla - Positronic Raygun
Zen Guerilla - Shadows on the Sun
Spotlights - Love and Decay
Bloody Hammers - Under Satan's Sun
Sunn O))) - Life Metal
Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
M83 - Knife + Heart OST
Malaria - Compiled 1981-1984
Dean Hurley - Anthology Resource II: Philosophy of Beyond Pre-release Singles
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Card of the day:
This one is beyond me at the moment, but I still wanted to record it here, for posterity and future analysis.
Possibly my favorite track by this band yet! There's the 90s thing, but there's something more. I really think Skating Polly will be a force to reckon with out in the larger world at large in six months to a year. In the meantime, I'm glad I'm able to watch it happen for them.
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New episode of The Horror Vision went up last night. If you saw it drop and had trouble downloading or streaming it, our apologies. I experienced a hard drive hiccup while mixing the track down in Premiere, which resulted in a track initially empty of audio save for the first few opening bars of the theme. I was able to troubleshoot and fix the problem inside of an hour, so all the horror goodness is now available.
You can find the episode on Apple, Spotify, and Google Play. Topics of discussion are Yann Gonzalez's gorgeous Knife + Heart, Vincente DiSanti's Studio-worthy F13 Fan Film Never Hike Alone, David Lynch's Twin Peaks: The Return, Robert S. Wilson's new horror anthology Ashes and Entropy 2. Oh yeah, and our movie reaction is to Greg McLean's Rogue, a gnarly giant crocodile flick from 2007.
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Playlist from 6/24:
Swans - To be Kind
Motörhead - Ace of Spades
Ministry - The Land of Rape and Honey
Cold Cave - Cherish the Light Years
Trentmøller - In the Garden (Pre-release Single)
Shellac - The End of Radio
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Card of the day:
In the zone. I made little progress on reading my copy of the Shadow Play proof yesterday, but I expect today will go much better.
Finished Doom Patrol yesterday: absolutely outstanding! I really can't recommend this one enough. And last night, we began the long awaited second season of Netflix's Dark. This show is insanely complex, in a very good way. K and I just finished re-watching Season One a month or two ago in preparation for this season (I actually mistakenly thought it dropped in April, so we were well ahead of the curve), and I'm instantly feeling as though I need a brush-up on the cast. Luckily, there's a ton of character maps available online. I'm still saying there's just too many old, white guys with beards on this show, but that's a small criticism. Overall, I find the mental workout refreshing, and I'm so bitten by the mystery of it all, I'll gladly suffer some confusion.
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Playlist from 6/23:
Ministry - The Land of Rape and Honey
Lovett - The Wind OST
Various - A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night OST
Perturbator - New Model
Ella Fitzgerald - The Best of Ella, Vol. 2
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Card of the day:
Water in Air. The emotional aspect of Intellect. This comes in handy with my current approach to my writing.
Here's a video I've been meaning to post since Mr. Brown alerted me to its release late last week. Orville Peck's album Pony is neck and neck with Spotlights' Love and Decay for my favorite album of the year, and I have a feeling it will be that way all the way up until I post my annual year-end list at the end of December. Two amazing 2019 albums I found on the same day, that I have had to split my obsession with since. SUCH a great problem to have!
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Speaking of 'year's favorites,' I watched Yann Gonzalez's Knife + Heart on Shudder again Friday night. I'm really at a loss. This film is amazing in so many ways. The final scene, set to Jefre Cantu-Ledesma's Love's Refrain, is possibly the most beautiful juxtaposition of visual and aural imagery I've ever experienced; I've been haunted by it for days. Here's the track, which can be found on Cantu-Ledesma's EP In Summer, available on Apple Music or HERE:
I've slowly begun making my way through more of Cantu-Ledesma's work, and it is incredible, running in a range from eerie field recordings to hazy, ethereal synth drone like Love's Refrain.
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Playlist from the previous few days:
Motorhead - Eponymous
Motorhead - Ace of Spades
Public Image, Ltd - This is What You Want...
Felicia Atkinson and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Limpid As the Solitudes
Alexis Georgopoulos and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Fragments of a Season
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Alone Together #6: Faceless Kiss/Blut Mood
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Love is a Stream
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Visiting This World
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - In Summer EP
M83 - Knife + Heart OST
Spotlights - Love and Decay
Canadian Rifle - Peaceful Death
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Card of the day:
Always nice to see this multiple times in one week. And it fits: I received the Proofs for Shadow Play Book One yesterday (their gorgeous but need a wee bit of tweaking), and when I sat down to work on Ciazarn yesterday for an admittedly abbreviated session, I absolutely experienced a breakthrough. I expect today will be HUGE for that story.
Thanks to Jonathan Grimm for the heads up on this one - I'd not even heard of Lightning Born until I woke up at 4:00 AM this morning, rolled over and saw a text from Grimm:
... and that about says it all. The band's self-titled debut is out today on Ripple Music, so it's available everywhere music is can be acquired. Or, order the record from the band themselves HERE.
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I watched two fantastic movies yesterday. First, Knife + Heart just dropped on Shudder and I stumbled into it without knowing much. LOVED it. A kind of software, gay Argento-homage, the flick stalls a bit at times as it goes to incredible lengths to soak the viewer in atmosphere and aesthetic of 1979 Paris' underground gay culture. It does an excellent job with this, but imagine those overly descriptive paragraphs that plague genre books at times? There's a correlation to that here. Still, the movie is gorgeous, and what I did not realize it until this morning is M83 scored it. Basically a gallo that follows an underground porn studio's actors as they are picked off one-by-one at the hands of a masked killer, Knift + Heart doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it's a great watch. Here's the trailer:
Next, 1990's Hardware. I'd never seen this until yesterday and I absolutely LOVED it. Kind of a third rate Terminator knock-off, I'll take this over Cameron's epic any day. I loved the colors, the sets, the tech - everything. And a very cool soundtrack that juxtaposed Simon Boswell's neo-futuristic, Vangelis-light score with tracks like Stigmata from Ministry and this epic from PIL:
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Playlist from 6/20:
The Verve - Northern Soul
Zen Guerilla - Positronic Saygun
Spotlights - Love and Decay
Various - A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
David J and Federale - The Day David Bowie Died
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - In Summer EP
Public Image Ltd - This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get
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Card of the day:
From the Grimoire: "The beginning of a new project or job." Well, that could not be more appropriate. I took a few days off writing after finishing Shadow Play Book One, tonight I plan on walking to my coffee spot and digging into Ciazarn!
Still catching up on all the stuff that dropped while I was radio silent, finishing Shadow Play Book One: Kim & Jessie. If you come here often, you'll probably get sick of hearing the name of my new book, but I'm excited and relieved like you would not believe. The first book of Shadow Play - conceived as a non-traditional trilogy with ample room for spin-offs - took me seven years to complete. Sure, there was about eight months off at two separate intervals during that time, but during that time, I was kind of working on it, too. Letting something you've written sit in a proverbial 'drawer' for the better part of a year and then going back to it, doesn't necessarily mean you're not working on it. Is "Indirect Writing" a phrase? You know, letting the story stew in its own juices?
Anyway...
Drab Majesty's new record Modern Mirror is out July 12, just over three weeks from now, and I am very excited to get my copy of the vinyl in the mail. You can still pre-order this one from the wonderful Dais Records HERE.
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Yesterday was NCBD, and it proved a fantastic leveler for me. I wrote earlier in the month about a sudden existential crisis pertaining to collecting monthly comics - part of it's space, part of it's longevity, part of it's douchey first-world anxiety - anyway you call it, the accumulation of such a large collection has begun to wear on me in a way I never would have anticipated (and I've downsized majorly on several occasions in my life). But to look at my pull list yesterday and know that I was leaving several titles behind and several others were close to finishing made me feel pretty good.
Garth Ennis' A Walk Through Hell is coming to a close next month, TheEmpty Man ended with this week's issue 8, and Black Science closes its doors in July. With the elimination of all the mini series, or the series on this list, as well as those most likely not coming back (*ahem* Southern Bastards, I'm looking at you), well, I'm edging my way out of collecting.
That's HUGE.
I'm probably going to end TMNT in seven months at issue 100, switching to digital trades instead, and I may do the same for Seven to Eternity as well. That doesn't leave much. Of course, I'll still buy anything Warren Ellis does, but I'll probably just wait for the trades, like I've been doing with The Wildstorm (still need to read that third volume!). The goal is to have the only periodical-format books I buy be The Walking Dead, Stray Bullets, Criminal, and Gunning for Hits, the last two because they have such a wealth of extra material in their monthly format, the first two because they're grandfathered in and I love them. Even Gideon Falls may fall off, as with this week's issue the story opens up considerably wider and I feel like it might be losing me. I'm getting a Lost vibe, and as much as I enjoyed watching that series as it aired, it's something I never need or want to be reminded of again.
We'll see.
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Playlist from 6/19:
Blur - Eponymous
Blur - The Best Of
Arctic Monkeys - Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino
Arab Strap - The Red Thread
Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun
Blur - 13
Zen Guerilla - Positronic Raygun
Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables
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Card of the day:
From the Grimoire: "A positive result dependent on the actions of the Querent." I'm taking this and yesterday's Breakthrough as directly referencing the completion of the book. Next, I have a small 'marketing' plan I intend to follow through on, so hoping the good tidings will flow directly into that.
