Loving this new project from former Unsane frontman. The album drops March 13th on Ipecac Records; you can pre-order it HERE.
**
Last night, K and I returned to the theatre for a second viewing of Underwater, and this time we brought a couple of the other fiends from The Horror Vision. The second viewing was almost better than the first, and afterward we recorded a short episode - a spoiler heavy discussion. Also, THV is now available on Stitcher, as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Play:
Ah yes, that Breakthrough. A well-timed reminder to get my ass out the door and to my writing spot, instead of starting a movie or continuing to sit here reading.
Last night I had the absolute pleasure of seeing the 1993 movie Freaked at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. Freaked is a film I don't think I had ever even heard of before a few weeks ago, when I caught sight of the screening via Beyondfest's Twitter. Even though I didn't know the film, I saw them tweet that Paul Leary would be present "with his guitar" and bought two tickets immediately.
Turns out, that was a very good thing...
Written by Alex Winter, Tim Burns, and Tom Stern, and directed by Winter and Stern, Freaked is an absolute marvel of practical FX, courtesy of Screaming Mad George, Alterian FX and XFX. The movie is an testament to a Hollywood that no longer exists. Costing Thirteen Million and boasting a cast that includes but is not limited to Winter, Brooke Shields, William Sadler, Gibby Haynes (yes, that Gibby Haynes), John Hawkes, Randy Quaid, an uncredited Keanu Reeves, and so many more, Freaked is absolute madness. And since this was a Beyondfest event, there was, of course, special guests.
The evening began in Peter Seychelle's comfortable study...
No, wait.
The evening began with Burns, Stern, and Winter explaining how Freaked grew out of their MTV show Idiot Box. From there, they played a first pass at a conceptual Rock n Roll Horror Movie they had attempted to spin out of the show, a feature-length film that, well, in their words, "Was basically The Texas Chainsaw Massacre with the Butthole Surfers as the cannibal hillbilly family."
The footage was, of course, as insane as that might lead you to believe. They began with this clip from Idiot Box, to clear up a joke at the beginning of the film:
Then moved to the aforementioned Rock n Roll Horror Film, Entering Texas:
From there Freaked played, with a stop motion "Holo Rollins" Henry Rollins discount "hologram" set in time to sing with Freaked, the Rollins/Blind Idiot God title song that plays over David Daniels' brilliant hand-animated title sequence title sequence. During the film, Paul Leary did indeed take the stage several times to play live guitar over key "freak out" sequences.
By this time, I considered my investment to have already paid off ten-fold.
After the film the special guests took the stage and Burns, Stern, and Winter were joined by Catherine Hardwicke, John Hawkes, composer Kevin Kiner, the real Henry Rollins, Lee Arenberg, Megan Ward, and FX maestros Bill Corso, Tony Gardner, and I think Jim Eustermann, although by the time we got to the three FX gurus, things were a bit of a blur.
Every time I get frustrated with living in LaLa Land, something like this happens and I am reminded why I absolutely love living in this city. Special thanks to Beyondfest, Mondo/DeathWaltz, and @troniks on Twitter, who provided the beautiful 35mm print of the film. A wonderful night all around. Oh, and all that wonderful Idiot Box and early Winter/Burns/Stern footage comes from turdburglar27's wonderful youtube channel where you too, can watch Entering Texas.
Song:
While I was at the Egyptian last night witnessing early 90s Cinematic Magic, the Melvins played a pop up LaLa Land Gallery. Here's Inky Psyops and Printed Schemes, a song I am not familiar with at all, courtesy of Baby Gorilla, whose channel is always chock full o' great live music.
**
Playlist:
Tangerine Dream - Sorcerer OST
Steve Moore - Bliss OST
93MillionMilesFromTheSun - Towards the Light
Mol - Jord
Godflesh - Hymns
Zonal - Wrecked
Butthole Surfers - Psychic... Powerless... Another Man's Sac
Card:
The Air of Water, a reminder to temper emotion with intellect, not always an easy thing to do.
From the album Some Music For Robby Müller, out January 31st on Sacred Bones Records. Pre-Order HERE.
**
I'm nearly finished with David Cronenberg's novel Consumed. It is fantastic. Seriously, so interesting and unnerving. Conceptually, it's another "How did he even think of that?" which is pretty common for Cronenberg. The idea that he's adapting this for a Netflix series makes me super happy, and here's a short I found online that looks like a dry run at the idea for translating this novel to the screen. Starring Evelyne Brochu, from Orphan Black.
Yeah. The story is creepy AF and a return to the body horror genre Cronenberg defined in the 70s/80s.
**
Playlist:
David Bowie - Heathen
David Bowie - Outside
Damage Manual - Limited Edition
Zonal - Wrecked
Zonal - Eponymous Single
Godflesh - Love and Hate in Dub
Zombi - Shape Shift
Preoccupations - Eponymous
King Krule - The OOZ
Carpenter Brut - Trilogy
David Bowie - Low
Tomahawk - Mit Gas
I'll just go on record now as saying, after having another go at Nergal's other band Behemoth, I'm all for him letting that fade and focusing on Me and That Man. This new video is a step up even from their last, and that's not easy to say. You can pre-order the new album, which is out March 27th on Napalm Records, HERE.
**
Suffering from some fairly tumultuous back pain over this past weekend, I ended up seeing quite a few movies. On Saturday, K and I took in an early showing of Underwater. I can't stress enough how pleasantly surprised I was by this flick; in fact, based on where it goes, and how grandiose things get, Underwater will almost certainly be on my Top Ten Favorite Horror Flicks of 2020. I know, I know, I just posted 2019's list, but it's never too soon to start thinking about the next year's totals, and when a movie makes this big of an impression, well, let's just say it's a safe bet my love will only deepen.
I put up a six-and-a-half minute "Why you should go see this" review/reaction on The Horror Vision. The first 5 minutes or so of this quick review are spoiler free, then, in case you need more convincing, I literally sound an alarm and go into HUGE spoilers. This movie is fantastic, and apparently it's bombing, so I really want to try and raise awareness and get some like-minded folks out into the theatre to see it. You won't regret it!
**
Playlist:
David Bowie - Black Star
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley
Ennio Morricone - Vergogna schifosi
Ennio Morricone - Scusi Facciamo L'amore
Cavern of Anti-Matter - Hormone Lemonade
Cherrelle - High Priority
Chris Connelly - Sleeping Partner
Night Shop - In the Beak
David Bowie - Hunky Dory
David Bowie - Heathen
The Rolling Stones - Some Girls
Blood Red Shoes - Get Tragic
The Kills - Midnight Boom
Adam Kesher - Local Girl (Hatchmatix Remix)
Battle Tapes - Sweatshop Boys EP
Battle Tapes - Form EP
Bells Into Machines - Eponymous
Tomahawk - Mit Gas
David Bowie - Low
Damage Manual - Special Edition
Steve Moore - The Mind's Eye OST
Card(s):
Struggling with distraction, frustration, and apathy, there's a breakthrough on the way!
... and we're back! New location. Just two of the guys who started it (for now - although the third original member, who was actually my original partner on this venture, was in town from NY for the show, so that was awesome). Adobe's newest update nearly fucking killed me editing this one; apparently the export to H264 file format now drops audio, which is something you don't find out until after the three hours it takes render a forty-nine minute session with extensive color correction work and numerous other plug-ins. It took me five fucking days, but I found a work around and from here out, it will hopefully be smooth sailing. Because we plan on doing more of these.
A lot more.
**
Song:
My cousin has turned me into a card-carrying Kevin Morby fan, and this is one of the songs on his latest album, Oh My God, that I can't seem to live without these last couple weeks.
**
Reading:
Currently, I'm held spellbound by David Cronenberg's debut novel, Consumed. When I saw Cronenberg speak at Beyondfest in 2018, he talked about originally wanting to be an author. It makes sense that his storytelling skills would translate from film to prose; the book definitely feels cinematic, to say the least. ~106 pages in and Consumed is excellent, and also bordering on the most disturbing thing I've read since Naked Lunch.
The fact that Cronenberg is writing/directing an adaptation of this for Netflix makes me both extremely excited and horribly afraid.
**
Playlist:
David Bowie - Black Star
Lingua Ignota - Caligula
Kevin Morby - Oh My God
The National - High Violet
Angel Olsen - All Mirrors
David Bowie - Hunky Dory
David Bowie - Outside
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - Watchmen Vol. 3
Godflesh - Pure
Card:
A warning to recognize losing oneself in delusion. I actually think this applies to a facet of introspection I've had of late; until last night, it's been almost a good solid two weeks of little to no writing. A lot of that was editing the episode of DwC. Some of it, however, was a combination of fatigue and laziness. I'd come home from work exhausted, lay down and turn on a flick. Fine when that's a one-off, but when that happens several days in a row, I begin to make a habit of it. I come home from work and, tired or not, want to smoke up and watch something. There's filling the well, and there's abandoning the Art for consumption's sake. Escaping my work for the sake of falling into the fantasy of a movie, when reiterated over and over, begins to dissolve the creative inertia I've spent so much time building. This is a good reminder to put the Art first, and the fantasy second.
I knew this was coming, but I never dreamed it would look this good! More excited for this than pretty much anything else at the moment, and it serves as a nice bookend to the fact that I'm finally reading the series - only have Vol. Six and the one-off Vol. Seven left to go and I'll be completely ready for what looks like, at this point, the series of the year.
**
It's time once again for...
Over the last three days I've watched two more episodes, thus rounding out the Season One tier on Mr. Brown's Playlist. First, Season One, Episode thirteen, "Beyond the Sea," which not only featured Brad Dourif as convicted serial killer-turned-helpful-psychic Luther Lee Boggs (aided by another killer named Lucas Henry - see what they did there?), but also had Twin Peaks alum Don "Major Briggs" Davis as Scully's father. Super cool episode; fairly tight script, good character development, and an almost over the top performance from Dourif that was just plain fantastic to watch. Probably my favorite episode so far.
Next up was Season One, Episode Nineteen, "Shapes." Basically a Shapeshifter/Werewolf story set on an Native American Reservation, this episode also featured a Peaks alum, Michael Horse, aka Deputy Hawk. This one was a slosh clunkier than the last insofar as script, but overall, a solid, simple approach to the kind of archetypal folklore that makes this show fun.
Next up - and this I'm very excited for because although the episode resounds in my memory for all its infamy, Season Two, Episode Twenty's "Humbug" is not something I'm one hundred percent certain I've actually seen before.
Can't wait. So far, this little collaborative experiment between Mr. Brown and I has been quite fun, and really, we're just getting started.
**
NCBD yesterday:
This book gets more and more insane every month. I'm a little concerned at this point, it might not be able to stick the landing to whatever godforsaken place it's going, but it's still one hell of a ride getting there.
I am so very glad I started reading this book. Seriously, it's the type of dark, Ancestral Horror that used to populate paperbacks in the late 70s/early 80s, and although I was mostly too young to read that stuff at the time, I definitely picked up on its tone while stalking the shelves of the local libraries I used to frequent as a child. The Plot feels like a book that may end up leaving me with a gasp or two, which would be pretty cool, because with TWD gone, I need something to do that for me.
Whenever a major franchise book flips a landmark number, you have to kind of reassess. After the cataclysmic events of TMNT issue fifty, I felt the book took a few issues to really grab me again. Because of that, I've been a little concerned that for all its grandiosity, issue one hundred might do the same.
Nope.
I LOVE the new direction of this book. I won't go into spoilers, but we're finally done paying homage to all the stories of the past iterations of the characters, and are into completely new ground. And it. Is. Glorious, dark, and a little bit sad. And that's exactly where the characters should be. One thing about TMNT - probably the thing that always set it apart for me - for such a zany concept and highly marketable image, Eastman and, in the old days, Laird both excel at taking the characters and the readers out of their comfort zone. So yeah, I can't wait to read the next issue, and TMNT has pretty much replaced TWD as my new "gottareaditrightfuckingnow" title. Which makes me extremely happy.
**
Playlist:
NIN - Year Zero
Yves Tumor - Safe in the Hands of Love
Sunn O))) - Pyroclasts
The Damage Manual - Limited Edition
The Rolling Stones - Dirty Work
Kevin Morby - Oh My God
Kevin Morby - Singing Saw
Federale - No Justice
Lingua Ignota - Caligula
The National - Trouble Will Find Me
Last month I put the first Tomahawk album in my car and listened to it more than I have in more than a couple years. Today I swapped it out for Mit Gas and realized I had forgotten just how goddamn awesome that record is. Nothing against the first, but here's a case where the Sophomore effort totally one-upped the original. Also, while previously contemplating my favorite song on the album, I would always rotate between Mayday, Capt Midnight, and Aktion 13. Today I'm sticking with When the Stars Begin to Fall, which really just makes me want to drive fast and shake my fist in the air in time to the guitars.
**
It's been a bit, but join me once again for...
Last night I picked Mr. Brown's X-Files playlist back up with Season One, Episode Twenty-One, "Tooms." This is the sequel to the previous episode on Mr. Brown's list, "Squeeze," which I watched back in mid-December,and enjoyed very much. However, with a show like the X-Files, I knew there would be some ups and downs quality-wise. It's network, in the early 90s, and full old school twenty-two episode seasons. While overall I enjoyed this second part in Doug Hutchinson's creepy AF Eugene Victor Tooms, I didn't really feel the writing was up to snuff. You know you're in trouble when the brooding doctor shows up to free the monster from captivity for no fucking reason at all. This is a common trope, especially I'd guess, at the time this aired, before audiences had been exposed to high-end writing on a regular basis and a flurry of meta-narratives that make them ask questions like, "Hey, why on Earth would this doctor want to get this obviously creepy guy out of the institution that protects the general populace from him?" I mean, maybe there wasn't enough time in the episode to set up a reason, like, say, he wanted to get Tooms out in order to prove a point for a research grant. Or - and I'm reminded a lot of Clive Barker's Nightbreed here - he wanted Tooms free so he can somehow figure out and usurp his longevity. But no, the doctor, played more than adequately by Paul Ben-Victor, just wanted to get Tooms free because the episode hinged on that.
Bad reason.
There were other rather inexplicable actions here as well, and a lot of weird, murky misdirection. At one point, we see that Tooms has entered the sewers to get into a new victim's home. Then we see said victim-to-be's wife fighting a backed-up toilet with a handheld toilet snake, and we're thinking, "I know Tooms can make himself squeeze into small spaces, but is he really in the fucking toilet?" But no, he comes in through a window on the second story.
Huh? Yeah, my sentiments exactly.
My critiques may sound bitter but assure you, they most certainly are not. As I said, I ended up enjoying the episode (again with the bile cave! Ah! How's that for an action figure playset, Todd McFarlane? Make it happen!), and my cynicism is merely the product of disappointment. I've already seen that this show can be damn good, so it irks me when it fails to be so. That's alright. Tonight I take a step backward to Season One, Episode thirteen for what I believe was the first appearance by Don "General Briggs" Davis as Scully's father. Can't wait.
**
Fangoia.com launched recently and it is AWESOME! Seriously, how do you augment such a well put together quarterly magazine? With an avalanche of awesome articles. Here's a screencap of what I saw when I logged in for the first time:
And that's before I even looked at the scroll bar.
**
The new episode of The Horror Vision went up yesterday. This time, Anthony and I do a dynamic duo episode after we watched Rob Grant's FANTASTIC new flick Harpoon. Strongly recommended. Also discussed, Daniel Isn't Real, Enemy, Sweetheart, and Anthony's season-by-season trek through American Horror Story.
As I was posting in those links, I realized I referenced but never posted our previous episode, the one where Ray, Anthony, Tori, and I go right from a visit by Santa (no lie) to naming out favorite horror movies of 2019. The others even go so far as to pick a favorite of the decade, but I was not yet prepared to try and make that commitment. Oh yeah, and we watch Jaron Henrie-Mcrea's The Gateway, AKA Curtain. Totally worth your time. Trailer below:
**
Playlist:
Tomahawk - Mit Gas
Etta James - Second Time Around
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
Beth Gibbons/Henry Gorecki - Symphony No. 3
Kevin Morby - Oh My God
V - Budos Band
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Card:
Solid foundation; I needed that reminder. Editing the first episode of the newest iteration for Drinking with Comics has pushed my writing time to zero the last week. I need to finish and jump back into my outlining for Book Three of Shadow Play. Once that's done, my hope is I'll be able to bang the second book out fairly quickly. I still plan to release it this year.
Fantastic! This, this is only part of the reason these guys made my "Favorite Albums of 2019" list last week. I love this with all my heart, and the time and detail spent on crafting a video for one of the best songs on an album with pretty much only best songs is appreciated and enjoyed!
**
I finally watched Adam Egypt Mortimer's latest film Daniel Isn't Real yesterday, and after viewing it once in the afternoon by myself, the moving left me feeling... vulnerable. A harrowing tale of mental illness that goes to places I absolutely did not see coming, this one rattled around in my head for hours after (still is). Later, K and I watched Enemy with Jake Gyllenhaal, a flick I loved when I saw it several years ago. The similarities between the two struck me as anything but a coincidence, and I followed Enemy up with another viewing of Daniel. I can't recommend this one - and Enemy, while I'm at it - enough. I will forever kick myself that I had to bail on it as the second half of the Spectrevision Double Feature at Beyondfest last year, where it played with Color Out of Space.
**
Oh. One day last week I re-watched Apocalypse Now for the first time in over twenty years. My suspicion is confirmed - might be the best film ever made. Hyperbolic statement? Sure, but that doesn't necessarily make it wrong.
I picked up the BR edition that has all three cuts - Theatrical, Redux, and Final. Having only ever seen the Theatrical, I listened to the director's recommendation in the introduction and chose the Final Cut, his favorite. I'd have to say, the French Plantation scenes didn't do much for me, and that makes me think the ideal version of this film for me is the Theatrical. That said, I intend on watching all versions in the coming weeks.
Playlist:
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Boy Harsher - Careful
Boy Harsher - Lesser Man (Extended)
Plague Bringer - Life Songs in a Land of Death
Budos Band - V
Arab Strap - The Red Thread
Arab Strap - Elephant Shoe
Not entirely sure what my impetus was for feeling this song with such gravity on this, the final morning of 2019, but the way the album version is resonating with me at the moment, it felt somehow appropriate. I'm in a very slowed down temp right now, which is unique for me.
One of the reasons I keep this blog, and the reason I started doing the daily playlist log, is to be able to look back from future space and see if I have patterns on a seasonal/yearly/monthly/whatever basis. Because I'm so down-tempo at the moment, I expected to look back at last year and see a lot of slower stuff in those playlist logs, but that's not the case. Perhaps on a larger timeline, some of this will make sense.
One thing I appreciate about being 'turned down' is once I'm vibrating at a slower level, I'm able to ingest slower things in more profound ways. When I'm dialed into speed metal, if I put on Godspeed You! Black Emperor or the Gorecki/Gibbons record, it would disappear in my wake. At the level I'm at right now, I can see more micro-detail, and that's led to some pretty great listens of new and old music alike. I've fallen off over the last month or two in keeping a daily log, primarily because I've really been hunkering down on the outlines for books two and three of ShadowPlay; I've revamped a lot of two based on a new take I've had on three's main arc, and it's taken a lot of work. You'll see a lot of what I've been listening to in a minute, but this slower tempo has both hurt and helped my work of late. I go deeper when I work, but I also feel more tired more often, so there have been more than a few days of my coming home from work exhausted and just crashing. This is the calm before the storm. Or at least I hope that's what it is. Just as man cannot live by Metal alone, Man can also not vibrate too slowly for too long; if you know anything about hummingbirds, when they sleep they can turn down to the point that they slip into what's called torpor, which is a sleep so deep they run the risk of never awakening. Eerie, but prescient, I think.
**
I have a tie for the best book I read this year.
The second book in the Gravedigger Chronicles by Alan Campbell only trumps the first because of the escalation of the narrative and where it goes; both are fantastic beyond words. I was so impressed with these it's really hard to boil it down to a review, the narrative is immersive as hell, and it goes so many weird places. I mean, the imagination on this author is bar none. I really hope the third book, which Campbell says is done but which the publisher of the first two books Tor opted not to put out, eventually sees the light of day, because, you know, The Art of Hunting ends with the mother of all cliffhangers.
In preparation for the second in Laird Barron's Isaiah Coleridge series I re-read 2018's Blood Standard; both are fantastic, but Black Mountain begins to inch us closer to Barron's trademark Weird Fiction stylings, and from what the author has said on social media, the forthcoming third really gets us into a darker, stranger place, so I can't wait for that. Someone option this and make it into a True Detective-Level show NOW please!
Aaaannddd... one more...
.... because Gideon The Ninth was an extremely fun, pleasant surprise.
**
I did my favorite non-horror flicks here a few days ago, and I did my favorite Horror flicks on the latest episode of The Horror Vision. Here's a quick image from my Letterbxd:
Also, the best tv show I watched this year was easily DCU's Doom Patrol. And I watched quite a few fantastic shows. Doom Patrol took the cake, though. And the donkey.
I never thought I'd live to see the day when someone brought Grant Morrison's DP run - complete with Danny the Street - to the small screen. When I get down on the state of the world, I try to remember that.
**
Playlist:
The National - High Violet
Beth Gibbons/Henry Gorecki - Symphony No. 3
The National - Trouble Will Find Me
Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell
Neon Kross - Darkness Falls
Young Widows - Old Wounds
Huey Lewis and the News - Sports
Full of Hell/Merzbow - Full of Hell
The order is, for the most part, negotiable by day. However, Orville Peck's Pony is absolutely the best and my favorite record of 2019.
Beth Gibbons/Henry Gorecki - Symphony No. 3 - Admittedly, I'm a bit of a rube when it comes to orchestral/classical music. I know what I like, but I don't necessarily know how to find it. Imagine my surprise when I saw Beth Gibbons name attached to this one. Gibbons, along with legendary composer/conductor Krzysztof Penderecki and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra deliver a rendition of Henryk Górecki's Symphony No. 3 that makes my heart both swell and sing with all the force of a cinematic thunderhead. Also, fantastic writing music.
Sunn O))) - Life Metal - PERFECT writing music, but beyond that, Sunn O)))'s Life Music, produced by Analog hero Steve Albini, contains a lot of rewarding textures that only reveal themselves after in-depth and multiple - and I mean multiple - listens. Easily my favorite record Sunn O))) has put out since 2009's Monoliths and Dimensions.
Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell - A late entry, this album is as calming as it is strange. Of course, at first glance, the strange is less than apparent, buried behind the subtle, acoustic pop sensibilities on display in the making and arranging of this record. But there's some pretty strange choices here when compared to what you get at first glance, and without having much of a history with Ms. Del Rey's earlier works, this one began as a curiosity for me and quickly grew into a calming obsession.
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen - As much as I love Blut Aus Nord, I've come to terms with the fact that I don't love everything they put out. After a couple years of albums I've tried repeatedly to connect with and failed, Hallucinogen hit me from the opening chord and held me all the way through its runtime. My favorite thing they've released since 2012's 777 Cosmosophy.
The Thirsty Crow - Hangman's Noose - Yes, I am good friends with one of the members of The Thirsty Crows. Yes, I co-host two podcasts with him. Yes, I love his band. Do I love it because he's my friend? Yes, but that's not the only reason I love The Thirsty Crows. I also love them because they are A) Awesome live, and B) the only Rockabilly/Psychobilly band I have identified with since I was head over heels in love with The Reverend Horton Heat back in the mid/late 90s. That scene has broadened considerably, and while I dig a lot of it, I don't love any of it like I love the Crows. Their music is catchy AF, and dusty in a way that feels familiar and pleasing, like leaving the Joshua Tree Saloon at two in the morning hammered out of your skull and meeting people with drugs in the parking lot. "Drinking and drugging 'til six in the morning," yeah, I can't live that life anymore, but I can enjoy wicked ass thrashabilly songs about it.
Federale - No Justice - Another sun-drenched album, this one with enough cinematic flourish as to play like a Robert Altman flick from the 70s. No Justice is up there with my most listened to records this year, and it's been an absolute pleasure learning every nook and cranny of these songs.
Oh Baby - The Art of Sleeping Alone - What do you get when you have a band with a terrible name releasing an album with a fantastic name? Apparently, a hell of an album. Poppier than everything else represented here, this one scratched an itch that had lingered the last few years, a good dance/electro record with pop sensibilities and fantastic arranging, eschewing bubble gum for a kind of Neon Noir Dance Floor feeling.
Spotlights - Love and Decay - Beautiful beyond words from start to finish. Epic, haunted, brash, and polished, I absolutely love this album.
Boy Harsher - Careful - Dark LaLaLand electro that feels like old Revolting Cocks did the music for an alternate version of David Lynch's Lost Highway.
A dream, a lover's return, a haunted highway at night. Orbison, Lynch, Williams. Desert, tavern, danger. Pony is a place that I have always wanted to go to and now cannot stay away from for very long.
Jarvis Cocker released a new version of his 2007 track Cunts Are Still Running the World just in time to "celebrate" the election in the UK. And I thought this song rang true twelve years ago? Meet the new boss, bigger slag than the last boss.
**
Currently immersed in collating all the year-end stuff I want to spread the word about. This coming Saturday, The Horror Vision will be recording our "Favorite Horror of 2019" episode, but what about just a general "Favorite Films" list? Well hell, Chewy, I haven't done one of those in at least five years. I always want to do one, but never really feel like I see everything in the end-of -year Oscar release schedule that I want to, or perhaps that I feel I need to in order to make a well-informed list. This year? Fuck that. Here's my three favorite, non-horror films of 2019. My plan is to see Knives Out on Sunday, and I'm assuming I'll be able to add that to the list.
Also, despite the venomous oath I swore two years ago upon walking out of The Last Jedi to never see another Star Wars film again - actually, it was to never even watch the old ones again - I will be going to see the new Star Wars film in a few weeks, but only for the same reason I vote. So I can feel justified in complaining.
Joker is the only film in years that I have seen twice in a theater upon original release, and seeing it in 70 mm at the Aero Theatre with Director Todd Phillips in-house for a post viewing interview was one of the theatrical highlights of a year with quite a few theatrical highlights.
**
Playlist:
Carpenter Brut - Trilogy
Brittany Howard - Jaime
NIN - Ghosts I-IV
The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir
Boy Harsher - Careful
Revolting Cocks - Beers, Steers and Queers
Federale - No Justice
The Misfits - Static Age
The Misfits - Earth A.D./Die, Die My Darling
Preoccupations - New Material
Balthazar - Fever
Cave In - Final Transmission
Meg Myers - Sorry
Black Pumas - Eponymous
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - Watchmen Vol. 3
Blood Red Shoes - Get Tragic
Blood Red Shoes' 2019 album Get Tragic is one of those albums that just missed being on my Top Ten Favorite Albums of 2019 list. And I mean, just missed it. A solid album that scratches the itch left by The Kills, whose last album I didn't particularly care for.
That list is coming soon, I swear. In the meantime, Heaven is an Incubatorposted his Top Ten Favorite Albums of 2019 HERE. Great stuff, and a lot of it that's new to me. Of particular note is Zetra, whose Bandcamp you can check out HERE.
**
I recently became completely obsessed with HBO's Watchmen show. I've always been hesitant with any addition to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon's seminal graphic masterpiece, completely ignoring After Watchmen and Doomsday Clock and Doctor Manhattan's Super Happy Funtime Show, or whatever other ridiculous way DC is currently involved in trying to fleece the source material for, so I didn't fall in line with HBO's offering until I learned a few things recently that changed my mind.
1) HBO's show is not a sequel to the Movie Adaptation. It is a sequel to the original comic. That means no Dr. Manhattan blamed for Nuclear Strike, but massive phony squid alien destroys New York, brings humanity together, and diverts Nuclear Holocaust. Three episodes in, I'm floored by the quality of the show. I mean, it's HBO, so the production value is always going to be top of the line. But I'm getting some aesthetic vibes reminiscent of True Detective Season One. Also, the story plays with so many peripheral elements of the world created by Watchmen that it's just not the story I would have ever imagined anyone doing. If that's not awesome enough, the way the show introduces people/events and then doles out information made the first episode basically one big gottasee, so I am hooked.
**
Shudder recently added Brian Yuzna's Bride of Reanimator. I'd never seen this one before, despite loving the first Reanimator, and I was shocked to find that I think I actually like Bride better! It's funnier, gorier, and really just completely insane.
**
Playlist:
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - Watchmen OST, Vol. 1
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - Watchmen OST, Vol. 2
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - Social Network
NIN - With Teeth
NIN - The Slip
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Godflesh - Pure
Godflesh - A World Lit Only By Fire
NIN - Not the actual Events
Duende and David J - Oracle of the Horisontal
Blood Red Shoes - Get Tragic
Carpenter Brut - Leather Teeth
Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell
Carpenter Brut - Trilogy
From the album Pony, which is most definitely in my top ten favorite albums of 2019. Where's it rank? I'll be posting my list within the next week or so, and you'll find out.
**
Happy Friday the 13th, folks! I'll be celebrating tonight with a croc pot full of Chili, copious amounts of beer, and Joe Bob Brigg's Red Christmas Special on Shudder. Can't wait!
What three movies is Joe Bob going to play? I'm guessing Black Christmas, Deadly Games, and Silent Night, Deadly Night 2, the first of which I dig, the other two I have never seen.
**
And now, ladies and gentlemen, it's time once again for...
Last night was Season 1, Episode 3, "Squeeze." I'd seen this one before as well, but it's been quite a while. While I can't say there was anything spectacular about the episode - which, of course, wasn't the point at all - the first of two episodes with "Twentieth Century Mutation" Eugene Victor Tooms is a freaky-ass exercise in creature-of-the-week tone. The idea of a human being able to stretch, squash, and elongate on command is a nice, subtle play on the 'body horror' ethos, and makes me wonder what would have happened if David Cronenberg directed an episode or two of this show.
I especially dug the opening kill of this episode, as it really felt like the beginning of a horror movie or, perhaps better equated, an episode of Tales From the Crypt.
Oh yeah. And the Bile Cave. That was pretty gnarly as well. Now that I'm thinking about comparisons and the X-Files influence down through the years, I'm also feeling a kinship to some of the Body Horror/Nightmare Logic of Channel Zero (RIP).
**
Playlist:
Young Widows - Settle Down City
Kaiser Chiefs - Duck
Me and That Man - Songs of Life and Death
Shining - X Varg utan flock
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
The Body - I Have Fought Against It, But I Can't Any Longer
Godflesh - A World Lit Only By Fire
The Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen
Card:
I'd imagine then that I should be careful about befouling my plans for the weekend.
Me and That Man is a band I only recently discovered. Back in early November, I spent a few weeks ingesting their 2017 debut Songs of Love and Death. Now they release this and totally throw me for a loop on their sound - which is huge and amorphous - and I'm in love with this! Tarantino meets Bava's Demons meets The Thirsty Crows! How can this be any better? Well, in writing this post I did some reading and realized Me and That Man is a side project for Nergal from Behemoth, a band I'm not a huge fan of, but have wanted to give another try - 2014's The Satanist was fellated by many an online critic but never really burrowed into me the way I had hoped at the time. Maybe five years and seeing this completely different side of the brain trust will change that?
Here's to hoping there's a new album dropping in 2020.
**
Wow. A pretty stacked NCBD:
Love this cover.
This book is getting even more insane with the newest story arc. There was a point where I thought it lost me; I was wrong.
This kind of NCBD hardly ever happens to me these days, so even though I'm picking up a day late, I'm psyched.
**
K and I wrapped up Season 4 of Veronica Mars last night and... well, wow. Aside from all the tears, I ended up absolutely loving this new tone for the grown-up Veronica world, despite what seemed like a slightly wobbly first two episodes (probably me bringing in baggage as we steam-rolled through season 3, into the movie, right into this, so there was some tonal shock at how the show and, particularly the Veronica character, had changed). Now, it's time for...
K is a complete X-Files virgin, and I was only ever spotty at best watching the show. I've always harbored the tendency to turn my nose up at tv, and that was especially true after Twin Peaks and before The Sopranos, so X-Files just seemed silly to me back when it came out. I never saw any of the first season episodes until waaaay later, and it wasn't until the 'Mythology' episodes hooked me with their eerie continuity before I cared at all. During a recent conversation, Mr. Brown asked if he could curate a 'playlist' of non-Mythology episodes for me, as a kind of overview of the best the series had to offer in its purest form. The idea of seeing the show through my good friend's eyes was something I would never pass up, so here we are. Of course, we have to start at the beginning, even if we deviate sharply from there.
Season 1, Ep. 1 - Pilot.
I'd seen this episode before, at some point, but remembered very little. I've gotta say, I really enjoyed it. There are so many cues The X-Files took straight from Twin Peaks (the episode opens with two Pacific-Northwest lawmen hunched over a dead girl's body found in the middle of the woods. When they turn her over, one of them recognizes her as a classmate of his son's. Does this feel too 'on the nose'?
No. It feels influenced by Peaks, but like the show is trying to do its own thing with the tone, which I appreciate. As the episode continues, I was surprised by the tasteful restraint of the music. Maybe it's later seasons, but I remember catching part of an episode in passing on someone else's tv within the last few years, and the score was so over the top and crescendo-heavy, I couldn't tolerate it for me than a few moments. Not the case here - Mark Snow's score in the non-iconic moments is wonderfully dark and sparse. I never felt like he was trying to manipulate my emotions or the story (when the writing is good, it stands on its own. Nothing worse than an over-indulgent score trying to make up for crappy writing). Also, the chemistry of the situation between Mulder and Scully works from the moment they meet. There's no fat on this one, and even though it has a lot to do in a short time, nothing ever feels rushed.
Overall, a fantastic episode and a great start to Mr. Brown's X-Files Playlist!
**
Playlist:
David Bowie - The Next Day
David Bowie - Black Star
David Bowie - Hunky Dory
Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun
Spotlights - Love and Decay
Orville Peck - Pony
Boy Harsher - Careful
Meg Myers - Sorry
Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell
Deafheaven - Sunbather
Blackwater Holylight - Veils of Winter
Blut Aus Nord - The Work Which Transforms God
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
Moor Mother - Analog Fluids of Sonic Black Holes
Revocation - The Outer Ones
Godflesh - A World Lit Only By Fire
It gives me infinite pleasure to have finished Season Three of Veronica Mars last night - the episode ends with this song - and wake up to find it POURING. Because, like the man sings, it literally never rains in Southern California.
Next: Veronica Mars the movie, then Season 4! WU-HU!
**
Couple movies I watched recently:
Nothing revelatory, but an entertaining watch, to be sure. I really liked the way they used a huge red herring out of the gate and then totally dropped it. Also, the faux choking gag that results from this made me laugh out loud. Letterbxd
I LOVE Brad Anderson's films. Most of them, anyway. Transiberian owns a very special place in my heart, as does Session 9 and The Machinist, though to a lesser degree. IN my opinion, Trans is his masterpiece thus far - although there's a few I didn't see in the last few years and one I didn't care for at all, Vanishing on Seventh Street. Letterbxd.
**
I never thought I'd say it, but after reading Gideon the Ninth on a kindle, then moving on to Warren Ellis' Dead Pig Collector (finished, fantastic), and Autumn Christian's Girl Like A Bomb (in the middle of, also great) on it as well, I am in love with the digital reading format. I bought the Kindle version of the Injection Omnibus by Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey - I have all the issues at home, but wanted to be able to carry the entire thing around with me all the time, as it is a source of endless inspiration at the moment, even though I've been pretty spotty on actually getting any writing done the last few days. Those weekend shifts at work kill me this time of year, and I've generally just been tired and obsessed with finishing V. Mars.
**
Playlist:
Orville Peck - Pony
Allegaeon - Apoptosis
Beth Gibbons and the Polish National Radio Symphony - Henry Górecki - Symphony No. 3
New Radicals - Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too
Canyons - Barrie (single)
Caterina Barbieri - Ecstatic Computation
Blood Red Shoes - Get Tragic
Spotlights - Love and Decay
The Soft Moon - Criminal
The Smiths - Meat is Murder
Meg Myers - Sorry
Blackwater Holylight - Veils of Winter
Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell
Meg Myers - Take Me to the Disco
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
(Sandy) Alex G - House of Sugar
New Grimes track! I reluctantly listened to this - while I'm chomping at the bit for the album and can't help but listen to every new track she drops, I'd really like to preserve the album experience. That said, I'm glad I hit play this one time (abstaining after until release day) because this is a fantastic track.
**
Finished Gideon the Ninth. Fantastic - four solid stars on Goodreads. Next up, Autumn Christian's Girl Like A Bomb, which I'm only a few pages into so far but am totally fascinated by. Sex has never been something I've shied away from in fiction, probably because so many of my favorite formative authors utilize it so well. It is a part of life, after all, and Irvine Welsh, Bret Easton Ellis, and Chuck Palahniuk - to name a few - all write it very well. However, if you look at the common denominator there - all men - you'll probably see what I see, namely the fact that it's pretty one-sided. Christian's book starts off with sex and carries on much the same for the first chapter. It's about a girl's mission to lose her virginity and the strange power she experiences in doing so. Not sure if this power is a metaphor or something extraordinary yet, but then, that's the gotta see of the book, so far, and it's nice to see sex from the female perspective.
Because Girl Like A Bomb is a shorter book, and because I needed some inspiration and Warren Ellis is always raw inspiration, I also bought and downloaded Dead Pig Collector, the novella I picked up a signed copy of earlier in the year but can't bring myself to actually handle in order to read. It was only $.99 on Kindle, so a second, digital copy is hardly extravagant. And of course, within two pages, I'm fascinated and anxious and inspired, all at once.
There are a couple Ellis novels or novellas I've been meaning to read for a few years now, and one I plan to re-read fairly soon, but I figure I'll space them out a bit. The man has a lot of comics I still need to get to as well. The very definition of prolific.
**
My only day off this week due to the on-call schedule, K and I blitzed through a good half-dozen episodes of Veronica Mars season 3 yesterday. Man! I remembered three as being the weakest season, but honestly, just past the half-way mark and I'm thinking it is actually the strongest. The Campus rape storyline is dark AF and I have to wonder if it helped make the show disappear during that original run, but it's the most engrossing storyline to date, and doesn't suffer from being strewn across an entire season, mixed in with the "Scooby-Doo", case of the week stories that pepper throughout. Unlike the Lilly Kane or Exploding Bus storylines, the Campus rape storyline is an omnipotent presence that nips at our casts' heels the entire length of its life, and as such, really creates an ongoing sense of anxiety that works well in a detective, beach-noir show.
We're super close to finishing season three, doing the movie and then finally getting to the new season, so my curiosity is almost at the point of being sated. I purposely know nothing about Hulu's season 4, and cannot wait to dive into it and see where all these familiar characters are in their lives, fifteen or so years later. And after that... the truth is out there. Mr. Brown and my X-Files playlist project begins...
**
Playlist:
Meg Myers - Sorry
Jenny Hval - The Practice of Love
New Radicals - Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too
Badly Drawn Boy - The Hour of the Bewilderbeast
Federale - No Justice
Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure
The Forest Children - Kingdom Animalia
The Forest Children - Darkness Brings the Cold
Oh Baby - The Art of Sleeping Alone
Radiohead - Hail to the Thief
Radiohead - OK Computer
Dungen - Ta det lugnt
Muggs - Dust
Thievery Corporation - The Mirror Conspiracy
Twilight Singers - Twilight
Various Artists - Under Frustration Vol. 2
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
Them Are Us Too - Remain
White Hex - Gold Nights
Sleaford Mods - English Tapas
**
Card:
I had to pull a clarifying card after coming up with the Eight of Swords - so some contrary experience will challenge a pre-established idea or ideal I carry with me? Good. It's always nice to get a fresh perspective.
Five days ago: in the car, a cover of Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill comes on KROQ and mildly annoys me. I erroneously dismiss it as another 'Of Monsters and Men' type band covering a song I adore.
One day ago: I hear the same Kate Bush cover on the radio that is always on at work. Normally tuned exclusively to KXLU, lately, the dial has been set to KROQ. I relive the experience in the car from a few days before, walk out and Shazam the track, realizing as I stand there with my phone in my hand that I actually like the cover.
Fifteen minutes ago: I wake up early, set up to stretch and see that I ear-marked the artist in question, Meg Myers', 2014 Make A Shadow EP on Apple Music. I download the tracks, lay out a yoga mat and hit play. While attempting to stretch out incredibly sore hamstring muscles, the first track starts and I melt.
This is amazing. Full salvo - this hits me hard.
Five minutes ago: I start this post, a newly minted Meg Myers fan.
**
It's time again for...
For the first time in years yesterday, I listened to Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too by the New Radicals. This was a huge album for me in the early 2000s, but perhaps because of that fact, it feels as though it belongs to that era. In this on-going obsession with recontextualizing the 00s, I listened to the album in one straight shot at work and experienced it in a deeply emotional way. Which was very, um, cathartic, I guess. Weird to experience a strong emotional response to music in an office with other people around, but it's kind of a different office aesthetic than most people have, so it worked.
I followed the one album Greg Alexander recorded as New Radicals with a song that often surprises people when it pops up on my iPod in a public forum. I know nothing about Michelle Branch and I'm not the biggest Carlos Santana fan, especially the album I'm about to reference here. However, this song, written by Alexander, sounds like it belongs on that one New Radicals album. I love it. When Ms. Branch hits those "tell my whhhyyyy" parts, it does to my soul exactly what Alexander's voice does on album opener Mother We Just Can't Get Enough, and it feels very, very good.
**
Finished the second season of Veronica Mars, and we're now a quarter of the way through the third. I've seen all these before, but my memory sucks, so while I remember how the main season arcs sweep, I don't completely remember how they get to where they're going. That was certainly the case with the climax of Season Two, where I remembered who had blown up the bus, but not why. I also didn't remember just how damn dark that Season Two finale gets, or how dark Season Three's main story is. Is this why the show ultimately disintegrated in the ratings that propelled it through its initial lifespan and subsequent following?
Chomping at the bit to revisit the movie - which I remember nothing about - and to get to the new Season on Hulu.
**
The new episode of The Horror Visionis up. Movie of the episode is James Gunn's wonderful 2006 gross-out Slither, but the conversation goes all over the place, from Jennifer Kent's Babadook follow-up The Nightengale, to AHS 1984's conclusion (no spoilers), to Clive Barker's Nightbreed. Oh, and our Classic Corner is Stanley Kubrick's The Shining.
Doing the movies-on-silent-in-the-background-while-I-write thing again, and it seems to be working well for inspiration. Recent features:
**
Playlist:
Alice in Chains - Eponymous
Soundgarden - Down On the Upside
St. Germaine - Tourist
New Radicals - Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too
Federale - No Justice
Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta III: Saturian Poetry
Dean Hurley - Anthology Resource Vol. II: Philosophy of Beyond
Telephone Tel Aviv - Immolate Yourself
**
Card:
Which I associate with a very good friend who I spoke to immediately after pulling the card - coincidentally, not by design - who experienced a 6.4 Earthquake in Tirana. Stay safe, brother.
